As you may or may not know, I am mildly obsessed with Ina Garten (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa). I own all of her cookbooks and continually find myself engrossed by the fabulosity that is her life. Ina's show on Food Network chronicles her experiences at her home in the Hamptons where she is visited by her fabulous friends and they enjoy amazing meals, floral arrangements, table settings, wines, desserts, etc... In fact, I secretly dream that I will someday find my dream job as Ina's assistant, but until then, I'll just satisfy myself by watching her show and making her food.
Ina's most recent cookbook, Back To Basics was gifted to me at Christmas time by my Nana (with a little help from my observant cousin and aunt!) and I have been slowly attempting to try some of the recipes. Ina is NOTORIOUS for her use of butter, so I have to pace myself as my weight gain is definitely creeping up there. For this weekend, I decided to satisfy my sweet tooth by attempting Ina's Pumpkin Roulade with Ginger Buttercream (I've been on a bit of a pumpkin kick lately).
Allen tends to prefer that I handle the cooking, or if left to his own devices, he also tends to prefer foods that he can throw in the oven, heat in the microwave or simply eat directly from the fridge. Yesterday, however, he decided that we should make some homemade sushi as I think he was having a craving. Little did we know what a production this would end up to be!
We realized that we needed a rice cooker (I had my mom's from 1982 but managed to lose the lid in one of our 7000 moves) and then after visiting 3 grocery stores, we were able to gather the other assorted ingredients (seaweed, crab, tempura batter, shrimp, cucumbers & avocados). I think it was after 7:00 when we started assembling everything for dinner, so needless to say, Al was rolling sushi until at least 9:00.
Here is a picture of Allen rolling the sushi
And finally, the finished product
And of course, my pumpkin roulade...It definitely doesn't look as good as Ina's, but I'll keep practicing.
If we can't agree on a name for the baby, maybe we should consider naming her after my culinary hero! :)
All of the food you prepared looks delicious! How was the pumpkin dessert??? Yummy!
ReplyDeleteWhat it lacked in presentation, it made up for in flavor! I'll make one for you and Baby G after you get home from the hospital :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I think that the presentation gets a 10 out of 10!
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