New Site

Hi!

Just a reminder ... we have moved to new diggs!  

Be sure to head over to Chez Us for new and exciting recipes.  

Thanksgiving

You definitely do not want to miss out on all the delicious we have cooking for Thanksgiving.  Be sure to head over to our newish site - Chez Us.

Chez Us Favorites of 2009

Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la. This is the season for sharing and we want to share with you a few of our favorite things from 2009. Last year we gave a subscription to our favorite cooking magazine, Gourmet; cannot possibly do that again! This year we are going to give one lucky reader a few of our favorite things. Click the present to be directed to the Chez Us posting!

Chez Us

We have been getting a few emails asking "where is Chez Denise et Laudalino"? In case you have not heard, we have new digs and a new name - Chez Us. You will want to come over to visit us as we have new and tasty recipes, fun give aways and we are working on new cooking videos! Just a little taste of what you have been missing - We wanted to give thanks for your kind readership and in doing so, we are sharing our family pumpkin pie recipe as well we are giving away two cookbooks all about Thanksgiving. Hurry on over, you all all week to enter but you do need to do so over at Chez Us!

We've Moved!

We are very excited to share with you our continued dining experiences in the same small kitchen, just a different look and feel.

Come dine with us at ... Chez Us!

French Cab Franc

We have been wanting to par-take in a WBW event for sometime, but never have had the chance. Not only is this our first one; but, it is also about an area we love - French Wines. Gary, from the Wine Library is our host for this event - thanks for picking a great region! We are not sure how to really write about a wine as we usually just drink a lot of it and write about food, so we decided to break it up with each of our comments!

We chose a 2005 Cuvee de la Chevalaerie Bourgueil at the price of $16.00

We opened the bottle and let it sit for about 15 minutes, to "breath". I did take a sip after opening, mind you, only a baby sip. It was hard on the palette - lots of rough tannins and a strong alcohol scent.

15 minutes of breathing ....... I thought the color was a rich ruby and the first smell was earthy almost that of wet dirt. The Tannins were still pretty strong and the alcohol scent was still there. L. (who loves to drink all wine, but really does not know much about them) also thought it was a bit tannic and rather light. He did taste some berries and thought the bouquet was wonderful and well as the powerful color.

30 minutes of breathing ....... I thought the smell was not as intense but still somewhat earthy/mossy. I was getting a bit of a plum scent as well, rather jammy actually as well as a bit of spice, maybe pepper. L. still tasted the tannins and felt the smell was not as pungent and he did taste some earth at this point.

1 hour of breathing and time for dinner..... I thought the wine had really softened up and you could really taste the fruit (berries/plums) as well as a bit of spice that was somewhat green, maybe a bit of a bell pepper. L. thought we should just eat dinner and enjoy the wine!

Overall, we both loved the wine, it really softened up and had lots of flavor, a rather complex wine by changing so much during the evening. We gave it a 3 wine glass rating (out of five)and would definitely drink it again. I feel that it would be a good wine to cellar and try in one year and again in two years - I see it really developing even more.

Fried Dough .... again

at least the recipe! With reference to my post about fried dough; otherwise, known as Malassadas or Filhoses, I have received many requests for the recipe. I have to apologize as I was waiting for approval to leak the secret recipe. Drum Roll please ........ Malasadas!

March Click Event

Here is our entry for the March Click Event!

Great Grandmother's Silver for everyday because everyday is special for us.

The Perfect Party Cake

Moven over at Food Art and Random Thoughts is the hostess for this month's Daring Baker Challenge. I was going to sit out it out as it has been a challenging month for me in so many other ways .... did I really need another challenge this month? As well, I was scared to have a big beautiful cake sitting around the house for L and I to devour. When I woke up yesterday morning I told L how I was going to use this months challenge as one of my two, to not do. Even though I felt it would be the easiest one I have done as of yet. Well ...... he convinced me that I should not give up and I should do it.

So, yesterday at 5pm, I was making Dorrie's Party Cake, to take over to an impromptu dinner party at our friend's J and A's home. Was I crazy to try to make a cake at 5pm for a 730pm dinner party!?!?! Kind of.......

The recipe is so simple to follow, everything just started falling into place, so easy. The house smelled of sugar, buttermilk and sweet Meyer Lemons - was delicious! Then came the time to whip up the buttercream .... I could not keep my fingers nor my sweet little god-daughters out of the shiny meringue and buttery goodness - we were being pretty naughty over the kitchen aid!

I used tart raspberry preserves for the filling as the recipe calls for. I was worried I may run out of buttercream to frost the cake so I did skimp on the buttercream between the layers - now I know better. I opted out of the coconut part of the challenge only because I am not a big fan of flaked coconut.

I was finished with the challenge by 645pm, just enough time to wipe off the flour from my hands and pretty up for a dinner party. The cake turned beautiful and what a wonderful combination of flavors. The tartness of the buttermilk, the sweetness of the raspberry preserves and the freshness of spring that came from the Meyer Lemons was really nice. The cake was light and not to dense and the buttercream was amazing light and fluffy. We served the cake with a chilled glass of Lemoncello - everyone loved it!

Thank you L for convincing me not to give up on this challenge and Thank You Dorrie for creating a beautiful recipe - we will be using this more often!