Lauren's Kitchen

One Michelin Star, Two Hungry Sardinian Tourists, a Private Sailboat, and 11ty Courses . . .

on Sep 19 in Featured Post, Vacations tagged All, Italy, Mediterranean, Michelin Star, Restaurants, Vacation by Lauren

I tend to go on and on about how much I love Europe, and how Italy (specifically, Positano) has stolen my heart, but I’m here to tell you,  I think I have a new love in my life.  I know.  Surprising, right?

It’s been quite some time since, but W and I jetted off to Sardinia in May ahead of what was a very generous (and timely) vacation to the island of Capri provided by Small Luxury Hotels.

Well, *provided* after I spent weeks and weeks voting and asking many of you to spend some time voting for me, so for that, I thank you.  I intend to do some justice to Capri at a later date, but this post is intended to focus on our lovely experience at a hidden gem of a restaurant in Palau on the northeast tip of Sardinia, La Gritta. Oh, yeah.  And something, something . . . on a boat.

Coincidentally, the Rally d’Italia Sardegna (knocking things off of W’s bucket list left and right) was located on Sardinia just barely adjacent to our booked week at JK Place Capri, so we decided, why not!?!?  It must be meant to be!  So, we set off in search of the perfect hotel to complement a vacation we were setting off for in Capri (aka, we were looking for something cheap, but nice).  Finally, we found a really lovely resort outside of Cannigione on the Costa Smerelda in Sardinia, Hotel Villa del Golfo.

I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that this place was Heaven perched on a hill over the sea.  In Sardinia.  Did I mention our next door neighbour parked a 458 Italia within the walls of his villa?  I know, there’s some irony in there somewhere .  . .  We all essentially had our own villas, with enormous terraces and comfy patio furniture.

And are you ready for the kicker?  This place was under $300 a night.  That’s right, I said dollars and not euros.  I know, I was floored when we checked in and it wasn’t a 10′ x 10′ single room with linoleum and a “shower room” complete with toilet.  Not to mention, we had a separate bedroom with a 4 poster bed swagged in filmy white curtains and the largest terrace I think I have ever seen.  It felt like home!

So, once we got all checked in and settled, we immediately took pictures because this place is just lovely.

So much texture and colour, and you’ll see in upcoming pictures, the *water*; it was the most indescribably beautiful green-blue.  Clear as could be, but not nearly as warm as it looked like it should be.

Each villa was completely stucco with the most rustic looking clay tile roofs.  I was so fascinated with the multi-colour tiles, I took a picture of just the roof.  I mean, it was pretty spectacular, and being a Las Vegas native, I’m somehow drawn to stucco + terracotta tile.

Our view was a bit interrupted by some of the other villas, but with water like that, I was pretty well ok with that.  Perusing the hotel’s offerings for that week, and knowing we had little (if nothing) planned to do the next day, we thought we would sign up with other hotel guests to enjoy a day of sailing to and eating/exploring through the Maddalena Archipelago,  a plan that we felt deserved a celebration.

First bottle of wine sought.

So, once we had an hour or two to acclimate ourselves and a plan in motion for the next day, we decided it was high time we found the nearest grocery store and acquired ourselves some wine.

Rumour had it that Cannonau, Italy’s version of the Grenache varietal, was worth the attempt, and boy-oh-boy did we end up loving us some Cannonau.  I’ve tried many different vineyards/vintages since, but this bottle was one of our favourites.

Also, remember I was mentioning the comfy furniture? Well, this table was a shin-killer, but it didn’t matter all that much to me because it was just so pretty! Many an evening while sipping wine I was plotting ways in which I could sneak it into our luggage to bring back to Dallas.

That being said, I cleverly decided to avoid posting the rest of the spread we ate that night (mortadella, salame, pecorino, and olives, anyone. . .?) because the pictures were just . . . well, they were an abomination.  We were starving after 18+ hours of travel just to get there, so plating/presentation was the absolute last thing on my mind! So, my apologies there, but the pics get better.  I promise.

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Chocolate Chip Biscotti

on Sep 06 in Desserts & Sweets, Featured Post tagged All, Chocolate, Cookies, Dessert by Lauren

I’m not really one for baking, as I feel I’m more improvisational in the kitchen as opposed to a scientist.  Measurements (exact ones, anyhow) tend to scare me a bit.  And, if I’m being honest, I’ve had my share of baking experiments gone awry in the past, so I’m not really interested in repeating those mistakes any time soon.

However, I’ve made some Lemon Almond Biscotti without a whole lot of drama in the past, so I thought I’d take a stab at some that included one of my favourite things; Chocolate!  These were pretty great, and didn’t last long in our household, as both W and I are coffee drinkers (him, way more than me!) every morning, and we have friends who accept our generosity at exactly face value; please remove these delicious treats from our household so our waists don’t expand *that* much.

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Roasted Brussel Sprouts Topped with a Baked Egg

on Sep 04 in Breakfast, Featured Post, Vegetables tagged All, Bacon, Breakfast, Eggs, Vegetables by Lauren

I have been a vegetable roasting fiend as of late.  Pretty much any combination of vegetables, I’ll roast.  Lately, I’ve rediscovered the magnificence of simple roasted brussel sprouts, and at the risk of over kill, it’s been a two-three time a week meal since we’re trying to watch our figures and make sure our upcoming trip to Las Vegas allows us to be gluttonous fools for a weekend.  DB Brasserie and Burger Bar await, as does Bouchon for brunch.

Well, that’s where this post runs off the tracks.  I had every intention of just using minimal oil, salt, pepper, and garlic to season these things, but then the idea of bacon and topping it all with a couple of eggs crept into my mind, and all hell broke loose in the form of these breakfast-inspired roasted brussel sprouts.

Gotta love the versatility of them, but they can get exceedingly addicting.  Just fair warning.

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Braised Pork Shoulder Breakfast Tacos

on Aug 23 in Breakfast, Featured Post, Pork tagged All, Bacon, Eggs, Latin American, Pork, Tortillas by Lauren

Though I’ve done so in the past (I know; bad, bad Lauren!), I just can’t bring myself to call these braised pork shoulder breakfast tacos “carnitas”.   I didn’t slow cook them in lard, and sort of cheated, if I’m being honest.  Because really, that’s just what braising is; joyous, minimal prep, and then shoving the meat in a dutch oven with some liquid, and just let. it. go.

I watched nearly the entire web series The Guild (highly recommended if you’re an internet nerd, and well, you’re reading this blog, so I strongly suspect that you might be) while I was waiting for dinner to be ready.

On Sunday, all I knew is that I had 1.5 lbs. of pork shoulder to use, and scrambled eggs + sweet, spicy, porky goodness sounded like total win to me.  The great thing about braising pork shoulder is ultimately it’s versatility; stuff it in a taco, make a casserole with it, serve it over rice or just eat it out of the Tupperware the next day.

I wrote the recipe for a larger amount of pork (because most people will have a 4-6 lb. pork shoulder to work with), but what I like to do since we recently invested in our KA meat grinder (on another note, grinding meat has become somewhat relaxing in a way), is to buy a 10-12 lb hunk of shoulder from our favourite meat shop and break it down into 1-2 lb. freezable portions, so that I’m never rarely overcooking and thus, boring ourselves with the same leftovers for days. This amount (1.5 lb.) of shoulder easily made 8-10 breakfast tacos, which was perfect for 2 nights of dinner for 2 people.

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Porcini Crusted Ribeye with Gorgonzola Butter

on Jun 12 in Beef & Veal, Featured Post tagged Add new tag, All, Beef, Cheese, Sweet Potatoes, Vegetables by Lauren

W and I have had an incredibly eventful few weeks.  Having just returned from nearly 2 weeks in Sardinia and Capri, for some reason, I haven’t felt much like cooking, and quite truthfully, we weren’t in the mood to eat so much of the rich food we gobbled up in Italy.

I will make an attempt to cover Sardinia and Capri in another post, but a stroke of inspiration came last night and I wanted to share this unbelievably delicious meal that we grilled in an attempt to create a dinner to live up to our favourite bottle of wine;  Alexander Valley Silver Oak Cabernet.  Those of you who know me, know that I hoarde this stuff.  But, last night felt like a cause for celebration, so we cracked that bad boy open and enjoyed the heck out of it.

As for the ribeye, our butcher found an unbelievably well-marbled boneless slab of meat that I instantly fell for.  The porcini dust made for an amazingly unctuous flavour that just melted in our mouths, and with our first 2 ears of corn from our garden (which were still a bit too young, but tasted FAB anyhow), I do believe we created a dish worthy of a little Silver Oak.

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