A Whole Lotta Baking

This weekend was one for doing laundry, fixing the radiator (success - you may no longer boil in our apartment in the winter!), paying a trip to target, visiting with friends from out of town, and baking. Lots of baking. Saturday, I made our favorite scones recipe - very similar to my mom's biscuit recipe from The Joy of Cooking but a bit less labor involved. And then I noticed that the bananas on our counter were starting to get a bit too ripe (i.e. we skipped to many swim practices last week), so I decided to make banana bread. And I just pulled a new batch of granola out of the oven.

Last week, we even did a bit of baking during the week, with Sam whipping up a batch of pizza dough, using Deb's favorite recipe, and we made our first attempt at replicating Amorina's delicious fig and prosciutto pizza. I couldn't stretch out the pizza dough very well so the pizza was a bit thick in a few places, but otherwise, it was a pretty good start. No real recipe - brushed the pizza dough with some olive oil and chopped rosemary, then covered with mozzarella cheese (1/4 lb?), quartered figs, and prosciutto until it looked covered. Love that combo.

On the non-baking front, last week I picked up some fresh ricotta at the farmers market at Grand Army Plaza, so when we were feeling lazy Friday night, I whipped up some Pasta w. Asparagus and Ricotta, a super easy dish that can all be put together while the water is boiling. I use a shortcut of throwing in the asparagus in the last few minutes of the pasta, so that you can cook everything at once.

On the dining out front, we had a good meal last night at Spitzer's Corner down on the Lower East Side. We stumbled upon it because 'inoteca had a two hour wait for a table for 5, and Spitzer's was across the street, but it was great for our group - very lively, not too pricy, a great beer list, and lots of good food.