Could We Be More Italian Right Now?

 

Homemade pasta, ricotta, alfredo sauce, pork chops, and cardamon cookies had us feeling more Italian than ever. Who knew that making all of these things from scratch could be so easy? The pasta attachment to the stand mixer is amazing and leads to a great sense of accomplishment. Hard to believe, but the only thing out of the ordinary that ricotta and alfredo sauce require are a bit of whole milk and some patience.   

Crepes

 

Crepes are an excellent way to impress friends with your cooking skills, mostly because they are so incredibly easy to make! They are also perfect with fresh fruit and Nutella (but there are few things that aren't perfect with Nutella...). These crepes require just flour, milk and eggs and then can be topped with anything you like. The biggest thing to remember is to keep your pan well oiled so they don't stick and to work quickly - don't forget to practice your flipping skills!

Streusel Coffee Cake

Stacie's mom has used this as a go to coffee cake for years - probably because it cooks in the microwave in five minutes. No, that's not a typo, five minutes, that's it! The hard part is finding a bundt pan that can be microwaved, but we bet that cooking it in the oven would have the same delicious result. Made with sour cream, this cake is as delectably sticky. A brown sugar, walnut and butter streusel goes between all the layers of cake and gives an appealing look to the finished product.

 

Here's the recipe: 

1 box of yellow cake mix (no pudding in the mix)

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup walnuts, chopped

4 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 eggs

1.5 cups sour cream (ours had a little less)

Mix 1/3 of the dry cake mix with the sugar and butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts and set aside.

Beat egg slightly with fork; blend in sour cream. Mix in remaining cake mix.

In bottom of 6 cup ring mold, sprinkle 1/3 of the streusel topping. Pour half the cake batter in, sprinkle 1/3 streusel topping, remainder of cake batter and top with last 1/3 of streusel topping. 

Microwave 5 to 6 minutes. 

 

 

Peach Hand Pies

Smitten Kitchen proves to be spectacular once again with these peach hand pies. Fresh peaches combined with a flaky pastry dough turn into an adorable single serving that tastes as old fashioned as any peach pie from your grandmother in Georgia. 

The dough is a bit finicky - it's so moist that it becomes hard to work with so unless you refrigerate it in between every single step it becomes a giant sticky mess but it is worth all the hassle. Fresh peaches mixed with sugar and vanilla make up the filling and a delicious egg wash gives the pies their golden brown color. If you're looking for the full recipe, search for bourbon peach hand pies (your choice on whether to include said bourbon...).