It has been a minute since I posted, but sometimes life happens. Since my last post, I’ve been trying to develop some healthy eating habits to lower my cholesterol. One of the changes I’ve made is making this Golden Granola recipe so that I can…
I love New Orleans: the food, the music, the people, the history. There is no place like it. We had planned to go in 2020 to go there in 2020 to celebrate my nephew’s graduation, but the pandemic happened. Thus it had been way too…
Hiking Cinque Terre was a bucket list item for me. That is why I was so excited when this trip to Cinque Terre came together. The vision of hiking the cliffs between the picturesque towns enchanted me. During the height of the pandemic as we all dreamed of traveling again, my friends and I took a leap of faith and started planning a trip to the Alps. As pandemic circumstances changed our plans had to evolve. It seemed like fate when plans evolved to include a few days in Cinque Terre.
Vernazza was our home base and we loved it. It’s location made it easy to determine our plan for hiking the Cinque Terre: The first day we hiked east to Corniglia and Manarola and the second day we hiked west to Monterosso al Mare. In hindsight, we should have stayed three days so that we could visit Riomaggiore, too. I guess I’ll just have to go back to hike that section.
When you visit, I recommend you do the following 7 things on your visit. Town-specific recommendations are summarized at the end of this post for Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, and Manarola.
1. Hike between the towns. You can take the train between towns, but you really should do the hikes. Yes, there are a lot of stairs, but the views alone are well worth it. You also get to walk through terraced vineyards and olive groves with a beautiful view of the Ligurian Sea. The path between Vernazza and Corniglia was my favorite. (You might be treated to accordion music along the way.) As you get close to Manarola coming from Corniglia, take the Panoramic path to get the best views. It is easy to take the train either to the city you want to start from or home after your hike. The hikes take a couple of hours, so consider getting a guide with details on the hikes* so that you know what to expect. 
2. Have a good meal after a a long hike. When we hiked from Vernazza to Corniglia, we timed it so that we got to Corniglia just in time for lunch. The lunch we had at A Cantina de Mananan was one of my favorites of the trip. It is a tiny place with the menu written on a chalkboard. The ravioli with walnut sauce was fantastic as was the poached tuna. It was the perfect break before we set off for the rest of the hike to Manarola. The dinner we had at Da Arsitide at the end of our hike to Manarola was equally delicious. If your timing is off for a meal, just have a gelato. 
3. Have a spritz by the sea. Immediately upon arriving in Vernazza, we stopped at one of the harbor-side restaurants for a spritz and foccacia. It was a perfect way to start our trip. A spritz is refreshing after a long, hot day. And there are SO many varieties to try. If you find yourself in Monterosso al Mare, go to the Beach Bar at Stella Marina. There you can sit on the beach under one of their orange & green striped umbrellas for a spritz (and lunch). Note: if you want a beach chair, you should reserve one in advance since they tend to fill up early. 
4. Eat trofie with pesto. You can’t come to this part of Italy without eating pesto. This region is where the classic Italian sauce originated. Every restaurant has it on the menu, so you don’t have to look far to try it. My favorite pesto of the trip was from da Aristide in Manarola. The pesto pasta from Pippo in Vernazza came in second, but was also yummy. I’m in the process of trying to recreate it. Now that I’m home, I aspire to learn how to make trofie pasta at home. 
3. Eat the street food. The options are plentiful. Since the Ligurian region is where focaccia originated, I was expecting the focaccia to be excellent, which is was. Being by the sea, I was also excited about the fritto misto di mare – assorted deep fried seafood yum-yums. (When you are there, say ‘si, per favore’ to fried calamari and fish balls – you won’t be disappointed.) The surprise for me was the anchovies. I am not an anchovy person, but when I stepped into il Gattaccio, an acciugheria, I overcame my fear of anchovies and tired several of their anchovy-based treats (as well as oysters on the half shell and amazing tuna crudo). They also set us up with a bottle of local wine to complete our street food picnic.
6. Have dinner on the roof. You can get a reservation at a restaurant with roof top patio to enjoy dinner with a view, but we went a different route. Our apartment in Vernazza had a roof top patio. For our last night we got take out and took it to the roof for a delicious dinner and unbeatable view of the sunset. We started with anchovy-goodies from Il Gattaccio and fried calamari. This was followed by a trio of pastas and fish from Pippo and assorted cannoli from il Parata for dessert.
7. Eat cannoli for breakfast. Clearly with all the hiking, you need a good breakfast. il Parata claims to have the best breakfast in Vernazza and they lived up to their reputation. (It is at the top of the hill away from the tourist crowds and filled with the aroma of fresh baked bread in the morning.) While the bacon and eggs were great, the real find here was the cannoli. We got one of each flavor for our dinner on the rooftop. They were so good we went back the next morning and had cannoli with pastry cream and strawberries for breakfast. It was my favorite breakfast of the trip.
Food recommendations by city
Beach Bar at Stella Marina – bar, lunch, beach club (chairs, changing rooms)
Gelateria Vernazza – gelato
il Gattaccio – acciugheria & street food
il Parata – restaurant, bar, patisserie
A Cantina de Mananan – restaurant (lunch and dinner)
Da Arsitide – restaurant (lunch and dinner)
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Every year at the lake our family, friends, and neighbors get together for a Fourth of July breakfast. The menu has been the same for as long as I can remember, but this year we are adding a new dish: red, white, and blueberry french…
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but who has time to make a healthy, tasty breakfast during the week? Since I don’t, this egg cup recipe has become my go-to weekday breakfast. I make them on the weekend and store them in…
It is a holiday tradition in my family to bake goodies to give to friend. For me, it just isn’t Christmas until the house is filled with the smell of cookies and cakes being baked for friends. Of all the holiday treats I give at Christmas, my favorite is this apple cake. My mom makes it for all of her friends, so I think it is her favorite, too. Filled with cinnamon, nutmeg, and apples, it is addictive. I like to use nice crisp apples like Granny Smith or Fuji. They stand up well during the baking so you have nice chunks of apple when you take a bite of cake.
The original apple cake recipe came from Prescriptions for Good Eating, a cookbook published by the Whitfield-Murray County Medical Auxiliary as a fund raiser in 1964. My uncle gave a copy to my mother when she got married to make sure she knew how to cook some of his favorite dishes. It has been one of my mom’s go-to cookbooks ever since. I love this cookbook because it predates computers – all of the recipes are handwritten copies signed by the contributor. Every Christmas when I bake apple cakes for friends I am thankful for Cora Rogers and her delicious apple cake recipe.
Skip to equipment notes and detailed instructions below.
Step 1. Preheat oven to 325°. For this recipe, use either a 10″ cast iron skillet or 2 medium loaf pans. Prepare the pan(s) by lightly greasing with shortening and then dusting lightly with flour. If you are using loaf pans, you can line the pans with parchment paper instead.
Step 2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl and set aside.
Step 3. Peel apples and dice into small (about 1/3 inch) pieces. You should have 3 – 3 ½ cups of apples. Do not cut up the apples too far in advance or they will turn brown. To avoid the dreaded brown apples, my mom puts the diced apples in water until she is ready to add them. If you do this, be sure to drain the apples well before adding them to the batter.
Step 4. Cream together sugar and shortening until well blended. Add eggs one at a time then vanilla, blending well after each.
Step 5. Next add flour and mix in on low to medium speed until just starting to get incorporated. (Do not over mix!) Add the apples and mix just until they are incorporated evenly through the dough. (Did I mention – do not over mix!)
Step 6. Pour into cast iron skillet OR 2 medium cake pans. Bake for about 1 hour – until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and cake starts to pull away from the side of the pan. Let cool for 10 min before removing from the pan to serve. See these tips for getting the cake out of the pan.
Step 7. If you are giving cakes as gifts, put in a clear gift bag and tie with a bow OR wrap in aluminum foil and top tie with a bow.
An important rule of travel is: when you invite yourself to visit someone, don’t show up empty handed. That is why when I went to visit my aunt and uncle in North Carolina, I brought this blueberry coffee cake. It is versatile – it can…
You would never know it from all of my posts about peaches this summer, but my blueberry bushes have been prolific. So I’ve spent the summer looking for the perfect blueberry cake recipe. What I have learned: there are a lot of good ones out…
Like the good southern girl that I am, one of the first things I learned to make was buttermilk biscuits. For almost every Sunday dinner of my childhood my grandmother, Big Quin, made biscuits and I was right there at her elbow helping out. Every time I make biscuits, I feel like I’m right back there in Big Quin’s kitchen. She learned to make biscuits from Alberta, my great-grandmother’s cook, who taught Big Quin all of my grandfather’s favorite dishes after they were married. This is one of those recipes that was passed down by word of mouth. For your convenience, I have written it down and converted the ‘handful’ of shortening into a more specific unit of measure.
Skip to substitutions, serving suggestions or detailed instructions with pictures.
Step 1-2. Prep ingredients and work station. Sift dry ingredients together. If you don’t have a sifter then use a wire whisk to whisk the dry ingredients together until they are well blended and don’t have any lumps.
Step 3. Mix in the shortening with your hand. Keep mushing it up until it resembles ‘a course meal’, which in old southern cookbook talk means all the shortening is incorporated evenly into the dry ingredients and there are no large lumps.
Step 4. This is the tricky part: how much buttermilk you actually need varies so you have to add the buttermilk gradually. I start by adding 3/4 c. and mix it in by hand. If you see dry flour, add more buttermilk. Once it is all moist and sticky, you’ve added enough. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. If you do, your biscuits will be tough. Do the minimum amount of mixing to get the dough to come together.
Step 5. Roll dough on to floured surface and pat to form a disk. Again – do not overwork the dough. No kneading is necessary. For small (2″) biscuits, make the a disk about 1/2″ thick. If you are cutting large biscuits you may want to make them a little thicker.
Step 6. Cut biscuits using 2″ cutter for small biscuits or 2 3/4″ cutter for larger biscuits. Flour the bottom of the cutter to prevent the biscuits sticking to it. Place biscuits on cookie sheet. After you cut the first round of biscuits, reshape the remaining dough into a small disk and cut the rest of the dough into biscuits and place them on the cookie sheet.
<Step 7. Bake the biscuits at 350˚ until golden brown on the bottom. Size matters. If you use a bigger biscuit cutter and/or make your biscuits fatter, they will take longer to cook. 2″ biscuits will be done in 14-16 min, 2 1/2″ – 2 3/4″ biscuits will take 15-18 min – longer if they are really fat.
Step 8. Serve warm. See serving suggestions.
