This edition of Sunday Suppers comes a bit late, and it’s a bit different from the previous wine & amazzzzing food pairings I usually do. There’s still amazing food, but it’s more about the different lifestyle I’m experiencing here in London.

The grocery shopping scene has been more of a shock than I thought it would be. Gone are my behemoth grocery stores that I take the car to, pushing the cart back out and filling up the trunk with whatever my heart desired. In its place are small groceries, for the most part stocked with the bare bones basics, and I get to lug the groceries back to my flat, walking or catching the train if I’ve gone very far. I’m slowly understanding why the concept of online ordering and grocery delivery exists, but I haven’t quite given in and tried it yet. You see, grocery shopping is one of my favorite activities. Wandering about, figuring out what looks good, what’s freshest, what new products are in store – that’s my happy time.

However, grocery shopping woes aside, one of the bright sides of this city living is having a plethora of restaurants at my doorstep, including the public houses. And one thing these public houses have in common? The concept of a Sunday roast. (more…)

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World traveller by Courtney

Last week I made an amazingly tasty salad from arugula, butternut squash, and roquefort cheese. While the meal was missing just a little bit of crunch, there was no denying that the flavors were a great combination of sweet, pungent, peppery, and creamy. Since I had only used half the butternut squash and a little of the roquefort and arugula, I set out to make something else from this medley of flavors. Given the cold weather, I was really craving something warm and comforting. I was debating between a polenta dish or a pizza dish. Since the grocery store I stopped by on my way home didn’t have polenta or pizza crust, I was forced to improvise. (more…)

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Dinner, Pizza, Quick and Easy by Courtney

Continuing to build on the list of cool weather foods I intended to make this winter, I finally decided to tackle lasagne verdi, made with fresh spinach pasta and Bolognese and bechamel sauces. For many years I’ve drooled over the recipe in my Food of Italy cookbook, but it was an article in an issue of La Cucina Italiana magazine that propelled me to figure out the perfect recipe for this dish.

If I had a recipe, why the quest, you ask? Well, funny thing about the recipe in the Food of cookbook. While you could obviously see that the pasta was a spinach pasta, there was no recipe for spinach pasta in the book! A slight oversight. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dinner, Gourmet, Italian, Sunday Suppers, Wine pairings by Courtney

For the next few months, my husband and I are lucky enough to have the chance to live in London. While there’s a great many restaurants and pubs to eat at, coming off of a 3 week vacation has me hankering for a bit of my own cooking. So one of the first nights here, I decided to whip up a simple pasta meal. Simple, because the place we are staying in had tea, sugar, and a bit of iodized salt, and I needn’t go broke procuring the staples I would need to make a meal. No longer did I have my 80+ spices at hand or condiments galore.

On my first pass through the grocery stores, I had noticed the brussels sprouts looked amazingly good, so I decided to make a simple saute of those with some pancetta and toss it with pasta. I was really craving a homemade pasta, and since the store didn’t have any, I decided just to pick up the flour and eggs and make it myself (plus, bonus, I could have scrambled eggs for breakfast).

All was well until I arrived back at our apartment and discovered there were absolutely no measuring utensils whatsoever. (more…)

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Dinner, Italian, Wine pairings by Courtney

Back when the weather started to turn cool, I made a list of the various cool-weather foods I couldn’t wait to make, my comfort foods for winter 2012-2013. I promised to post a few new recipes this season, and finally, I’ve gotten around to making a few of my favorites and documenting them. The first is this terribly simple chicken cacciatore served over a creamy, parmesan-cheese-laced polenta that screams comfort food.

Cacciatore is Italian for hunter, thus this is the hunter’s chicken. The preparation is simple, with just a few items that need chopping and sauteing before you let the chicken braise in a tomato-wine sauce. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dinner, Gluten free, Italian by Courtney