Apologies for the 3 week hiatus! I’ve been itching to write, and everyday that went by without an entry was really getting to me. So we’re back!! and I’m really going to try my best to keep this forum up to date. Well somewhat up to date. But the good news is that while we were away from our blog, we were not away from the kitchen. Joe and I have come up with some really awesome dishes in the last month. Joey’s soft egg yolk ravioli was ridiculous. Fresh ricotta, pecorino, lemon and an egg yolk encased in homemade pasta dough, cooked just for a couple of minutes so that the yolk is still soft and becomes a part of the buttery sauce when broken into. To me it was comfort food redefined. I have been making lots of sweet treats with jersey blueberries, including a lemon polenta blueberry cake, blueberry crostata, but my favorite was the blueberry ricotta zeppole. I fried up the little berry studded donuts then coated them in granulated sugar with a touch of cinnamon and served with over a scoop of vanilla bean semifreddo. Yum.

I can’t forget to tell you guys about the nifty little trick I picked up this week. While cutting butter into tiny uniform pieces for a tart crust, I was thinking there has got to be an easier way. I looked through my pantry hunting for some sort of tool that would be able to cut, dice or slice butter fast. The first thing I picked up worked like a charm. A box grater. I used the side with the larger holes to grate my cold butter. I was done in about 15 seconds and the pieces were perfectly small and uniform. The baked crust was super flaky and crisp, I definitely attribute it to the grated butter technique. I’m not saying I invented this method, but it is something that I have never read about or seen before. But I must say, I am very excited I discovered it. Try it next time you’re making pie.