Thank you, thank you to all of you who visited Kate and myself and leaving wonderful birthday wishes. Wow! You do know how to party!! For your comments, the dancing and singing ecards to the thoughtful emails: thank you.
We ended up gathering the usual troops, a.k.a the neighbors and the kids and grilled, drank had a fire and s’mores…and of course cake, which the twins had to adorn with those not so great never ending magical candles…argh!!! To say that my head was heavy this morning at work was an understatement but I could not get out of those appointments. However, I had planned on taking the afternoon off and take a nap, go to the beach, be productive…You know….While resting my head on the couch pillows I started to remember a conversation with our neighbor C. about pana cottas. Was there that much vodka involved that I can’t remember if I did or did not volunteer to teach her pana cottas? Ouch! That was going to be a long day… I felt a pinch and a tuck on a my brain "Hello Tartelette Smackelette! Remember! What exactly did you say? What time? How many? What flavor?" C. called and asked if I needed something from the store since she was going that way:
Me: "Painkillers?"…
C: "Oh you don’t remember do you, that’s ok we can reschedule"
{I hate rescheduling…do it now while the spirit of the moment is there. Problem.}
Me: "You know what? Whatever I said we’d do, let’s do it….it was legal right?"
{Cross fingers, take a deep breath, pray you did not volunteer yourself for another impromptu dinner for 20}
C: "Ok, now you are scaring me…You said Pana Cottas were easy and now I am freaking out!"
{My blood pressure just got back to normal, hers is now through the roof. Well done Helen!}
Me: "no no no…easy peasy….promise. Here’s the list of stuff to get. I’ll go behind the house and get blackberries."
That was just part one of the adventures. I did try to get the blackberries, I did, I promise….but looking and bending down trying to pick out the ripe ones proved to be a rather painful adventures, my head, my stomach and the vodka from the night before all colliding at the same moment. That’s when my best guys arrived and saved the day! Indeed, C’s twins came armed with baskets and in 20 minutes had blue hands, blue tongues, blue shirts and about 2 cups worth of blackberries. In the meantime I played with the computer a little, as I am trying to put a page up and a map to keep you abreast of the Traveling Eggs adventures, but bear with me on that one, time is not on my side (as if we all did not have that issue, right?!). Allright enough about our little village whereabouts and on with the pana cottas….I am not always that talkative (shshh mom), it must be old age!!
Pana Cotta is probably one of my favorite desserts. It is rich and yet seemingly light to the palate, versatile so you can flavor or top it anyway you like. Refreshing with fruits or comforting with caramel, the possibilities are endless. Since the mint is growing like crazy (does getting old give one a greener thumb?), I infused the cream and the milk with a good handful of it and cooked down the blackberries to a puree with some sugar and lemon. We did not have quite enough for 4 glasses so I used some leftover curd from the birthday cake for one of them. Guess who got that one 🙂
Mint Pana Cotta With Blackberry Coulis:
Serves 4
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin bloomed in 2 Tb water (means to pour the water over the gelatin and let it sit while you prepare the pana cotta)
Combine all the ingredients, except the gelatin, in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let the cream to steep for 20 minutes. Pass the mixture through a sieve or a chinois, heat the gelatin in the microwave for 8 seconds and quickly stir it in the cream mixture. Divide it evenly among small dishes, glasses, etc…Let set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
Blackberry Coulis:
2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tb lemon zest
Bring all the ingredients to a simmer on medium high heat and cook until the blackberries are soft. Process to a puree with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and strain the seeds out, discard those. Let cool completely before you divide the coulis on top of the pana cottas. Refrigerate until ready to eat.
Because its calcium rich components like cream, milk, blackberries and lemons, I am sending these to a favorite blogger of mine, Susan from Food Blogga , who is hosting a great event to raise awareness about osteoporosis entitled Beautiful Bones. Thank you for opening up to us and organizing this Susan!
