Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Lemon Loaf

Last Sunday was Easter. Last Saturday our local bar was giving away opening day Phillies tickets.....

I hosted a nice little Easter brunch for our two close friends, Melissa and Jack. I prepared as much as I could on Saturday so it would be easy breezy on Sunday morning. The lemon loaf from this week's Tuesday with Dorie made it to my Easter menu. I thought it was a perfect complement to the overall meal. It was really easy to put together. The hardest part was probably zesting the lemons and of course waiting for the loaf to bake. Waiting wasn't hard for me...but it was hard for somebody else (somebody who thought they were going to win Phillies tickets)! That certain someone (cough, cough, Nadya) pulled the loaf out of the oven about 8 minutes too soon. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until Easter morning when the center of the loaf looked rather moist. I tried to save it by heating it back up but that didn't help. I'll have to make the lemon loaf again. The pictures from all the other bloggers look amazing! If I had more lemons on my hand Easter morning I would have started all over. I'll be sure to blog about my lemon loaf success. Until then, check out my fellow Tuesday with Dorie Bloggers and their lemon loaves. 

Lemon loaf failure, topped with glaze

For those of you wondering, we did NOT win the opening day Phillies tickets but we did have a fun time. 


Thanks so much to Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life for hosting this week! I'll be sure to make again soon! You can find the recipe here

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Pizza Rustica

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. This is one of those recipes that makes me so happy to be included in the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. If it wasn't for this group, I would think pizza rustica was just something that was ordered at the corner pizza shop and ready for pick up in about 20 minutes. Do you know what pizza rustica is? Did you imagine it to be bake in a pie dish? Did you know it's the perfect combination of sweet and savory?


Pizza rustica is an Italian savory pie with ricotta base that is traditionally filled with meat. Since I'm not a huge meat eater I replaced the prosciutto, that the recipe called for, with roasted red peppers. This takes the name "pizza pie" to a whole new level! 

A lot of the bloggers thought the crust was too sweet. I didn't find that to be a  problem. I honestly thought the sweet, savory combination was perfect! The dough was really easy to work with and didn't shrink up at all.


If you're hosting Easter and don't have your menu planned out, add this! It's perfect for a crowd (or just a few). It could be served as a first course (yes, something sweet for the first course) or it can be served as the main course with a nice salad. 


The recipe can be found on our host's blogs. Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. Thanks Emily and Raelynn for hosting this week.