Happy Easter!

I have to give Tony props for my breakfast yesterday.  Don’t get me wrong, I love when Tony cooks for me.  The only thing is that he is a bit heavy handed with the olive oil and cheese.

However, yesterday he brought me my breakfast and said “I only used Pam, no oil, two eggs, half a baked potato and a tiny sprinkle of cheese.”  Thanks honey – it was delicious!

We ate such a late breakfast that neither one of us had lunch.  I did nibble on some things I am making for dinner today – a few tastes of my Italian Wedding Soup, and nibbled on cheese and crackers.  And I tasted a couple meatballs for the soup, you know, for quality control.

For dinner I decided to smoke a pork roast.  I need to practice with the smoker because the temp was a bit high – around 250 and I would have rather had it around 200, so it cooked faster than I would have liked, but it was delicious.  Although my spice rub was a tad too spicy for Tony.

• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1.5 teaspoons onion powder (left out because we hate onions!)
• 1.5 teaspoons celery salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

I cooked the fat side up first, then flipped it.  This was a really lean pork roast and ended up only taking an hour to cook.

Since I don’t make dessert too often, I am always worried when I try out a new recipe.  I wanted to make an apple tartlet, the only problem was that most of the recipes I found for the dough called for two sticks of butter!  So I made up a dough recipe until it looked like the right consistency.

Tartlet Dough

• 1.25 cups of flour
• 7 tablespoons cold butter
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons cold ice water

I put everything but the water in my food processor, and processed just until the butter was incorporated in the flour.  Then with the machine on, I poured in the water and stopped once it all came together.

I weighed out 1.8 ounces for each tartlet – each one got half an apple that had been sauteed in 1/2 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

I brushed each one with a bit of egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon water) and sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on top.

I made a simple peanut brittle for a garnish.  And when I actually plate it, I am putting a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the tartlet, then stick the peanut brittle on top.  The brittle is just one cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water, pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil without stirring.  Once it comes to a boil, stir occasionally until you get the desired color – mine took just 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in peanuts then pour into a pan lined with parchment paper.  Once cooled, break into pieces.

Doesn’t that look pretty?  Not bad for someone who doesn’t bake very often, and Tony gave my crust two thumbs way up!

Alright, I gotta scoot – need to do a clean sweep and finish cooking.  Just about to put rosemary sea salt rolls in the oven – yum!

Enjoy your Easter!