EpiCurious Generations

Inspiration:  It's apple season!   After spotting these beautiful little pies on Pinterest a few years ago, I have been wanting to try my hand at making them for quite a while.   Turns out, this was a fun project that I imagine kids would love.  The effect is really quite stunning. The pies are not too sweet and I decided to add a little cinnamon caramel to flavour them.   I used green apples because it is what I had on hand.   You can also use a red apple for colour but just make sure your apples are very hard.  They will need to stand up to being cooked twice as they initially need to be softened to a bendable state to roll and then baked in the oven. Shower them with some powdered sugar and serve with some rich vanilla ice cream and extra caramel sauce.  Guaranteed oohs and aahs.  Enjoy.

Inspiration :  Fresh figs given to me by some of my Italian friends Don't really have a story for this recipe but I really do love fresh figs.  I thought combining them with a ricotta filling would create a really wonderful, Italian inspired desert.  This combination turned out to be really good and the pie was beautiful.  I will definitely make this again and think it would make a great desert served alongside a beautiful cheese platter. 

Inspiration:  Cottage food There was a recent wonderful article and recipe selection in the current issue of Fine Cooking  magazine (August - September 2016) on sweet and savoury galettes otherwise known as rustic pies.  The pictures were beautiful and I was inspired to create some of my own galettes with ingredients I love to combine together.  

Inspiration:  Homemade pasta I have made mac & cheese before but, I have to admit, making your own noodles is quite a chore - fun to do -  but a process nonetheless.   No more!!!  I have met and fell in love with the Phillips Pasta Maker .  This tool in incredible.  It took me 10 minutes to make 300g of fresh rigatoni pasta for this homemade mac and cheese.  Still can't get over it (my husband also stood there in awe, watching).  Oh yes, and it's so quiet!

Inspiration:  I love the beautiful paellas served in food markets in Europe and have always wanted to make my own.  The making of this paella was a group effort with the guys on the barbecue and the ladies prepping and cooking the seafood in the kitchen.  It turned out amazing and was a true labor of love!  Good friends + good food + love = best memories. In preparation for a class this weekend, I had to develop and test a recipe for paella.  Given a beautiful authentic cast iron 15 inch paella pan  by Williams Sonoma (Dix 30 in Brossard), I began to study and learn what I could about this wonderful Spanish dish.