A while back I shared a delicious recipe and story called “Hand Me Ups” which refers to things I get passed up to me from my daughter. Well for this week’s edition of Woman Crush Wednesday I am in the U.S.A. with my daughter and family. And she kindly pointed me in the direction for this week’s honoree.

The lovely Marina Delio of the Yummy Mummy Kitchen is a wife and mommy, famous foodie blogger, self taught chef and cookery book writer. I remembered seeing the cookbook at my daughter’s house when they used to live in Santa Barbara.  She even has mutual friends with Marina though they never met while my daughter lived there. But the fabulous  Marina’s sumptuous and healthy recipes are perfect for this wonderful day. It is a chance to celebrate what some gorgeous gourmet gals are cooking up in the kitchen. Marina is the queen of beautiful everything and her food is only one of the fantastic inspirations you’ll find on her social media platforms.

Today I am going to recreate one of her recent delights, Protein Nice Cream Pies.  Since my granddaughter is dairy intolerant, this is a treat she can enjoy too.  Marina is the mummy of two little girls, like my daughter. And they love to help in the kitchen. Which is a great way to teach kids about food from its source. Though my granddaughter isn’t here while I make these for my live cooking tutorial on Snapchat (username blissbakery) I am sure she will help me devour these when she gets home from school. And they will keep in the freezer for days (if they last that long).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup (143 g)  almonds
• 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup (226 g) pitted medjool dates
• pinch of Himalayan or sea salt
• 6 cups frozen banana slices, thawed for about 5 minutes (about 6 bananas)
• 6 scoops chocolate protein powder, OLLY recommended
• 1/4 cup (60 ml)  almond milk
• 1/3 cup (85 g) smooth peanut butter, plus more for garnish
• 1/3 cup (40 g) raspberries, halved
• 2 tablespoons cacao nibs (optional)

• To make the crusts, place almonds, coconut, and dates into the bowl of a food processor. Blend until nuts are coarsely ground and mixture just holds together. Not too long, or it will turn into nut butter! Taste and add a pinch of salt if desired. Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray. Scoop tablespoons of crust into each muffin tin well and press firmly into the bottom. Place in the freezer and rinse the food processor.
• To make the nice cream, you want frozen but not rock hard bananas. I let mine sit on the counter while I make the crust. Place the bananas and protein powder into food processor. Blend until smooth. This takes a few minutes. Add milk if needed (NOTE: I didn’t need to use any almond milk when I made it) to turn the food processor or wait a few minutes while the bananas thaw a bit more. Taste and add more protein powder if desired. Add the peanut butter and blend or swirl in.
• Smooth the banana mixture into the muffin tin over the crusts. To make peanut butter swirls, place small drops of peanut butter over the nice cream mixture and swirl with a toothpick. Garnish with raspberries and/or cacao nibs if desired. Freeze until firm, at least an hour. Store in the freezer.

Wow these were super easy to make and are absolutely delicious. I know I am a self professed peanut butter addict, but even if you weren’t I think these would win you over. They are light and refreshing for a warm day and filling enough so you don’t miss all the “baddies”. No dairy, no wheat, no refined sugar and totally vegan, but filled with so much flavor and texture, this is a winning recipe for sure!  I made six with the raspberries and cacao nibs on top as Marina suggested. But I also made six without either and just a little drizzle of dark chocolate on top. Both looked great and tasted amazing, even my granddaughter was impressed!

With one successful cookbook under her belt I get the feeling another is on the way. She makes her food simple so that the precious ingredients do the talking.  Her photos seem effortless yet her amazing eye and skill as a photographer serve her in good stead.  And Marina’s Instagram is so stunning you’ll have to refrain yourself from licking the screen on your mobile device when you see her daily posts. But what impresses me most about the Yummy Mummy is her devotion to her family.  She is a wonderful role model about healthy living and life style balance.

Thanks Marina for your fantastic contribution to the ever evolving culinary conversation. Not only for other chefs like myself, but for budding kitchen queens like your daughters and my granddaughters. For children to grow up knowing they can create food that is not only good, but good for you, is a wonderful philosophy. You’re a yummy mummy and a wonder woman in the foodie world!

With love and admiration,

YDP

It is hard to believe that there have been twenty three gorgeous gourmet gals since I have done a proper recap of our Women Crush Wednesday Chefs.  And there have been 42 since I began dedicating this day of the week to honor their contribution to the culinary world and to make one of their fab recipes.  To be honest, it is always a bit of a sad day when I don’t get a chance to do my “thang” of bad singing, bad dancing and gushing over these wonderful women!  I’ve done three different recaps (which you can read here, here and here) on other Wednesdays when I haven’t been able to get cooking in the kitchen.  Since today I am without internet AND a kitchen (thank God for free wifi at Starbucks lol) I’ll do a recap of sorts.  Twenty three is a large number of ladies!  So I’ll recap some of them and save the others to boast about next time.

I love chef Gizzie Erskine.  She is a no nonsense forward thinking woman with a throw back vibe!  She loves to eat healthy and naughty too.  My kind of girl!  So for my first #WCW after being in America in January and February, I wanted to get on the straight and narrow.  And British born Gizzie’s Superfood Salad was just what I needed.  It is so delish and really easy to make too. Click here to give it a go and learn more about this stunning lady’s interesting food journey.

Many people watching my Woman Crush Wednesday series on Snapchat (my username is blissbakery) wondered why I waited to make Darina Allen my 21st honoree. After all she was my teacher at the Ballymaloe Cookery School (which she started over 30 years ago in County Cork, Ireland) and continues to be my mentor.  Well, many reasons actually. First of all each #WCW I take on a new recipe to demonstrate live on Snapchat. Since I have made nearly all of Darina’s recipes that made it tough. Until I found this one for Rhubarb Pie in an Irish newspaper article. Second, because of my deep emotions for her, I thought I might cry through the whole thing, not a good look. But of course I made it through.  And though I say the WCW are the honorees, Darina has honored me by being in my life. Click here if you want to read the story and make the delicious pie

American chef and writer Imen McDonnell has the most romantic and idyllic story imaginable.  Married to an Irish farmer with a son and all sorts of farm animals, she is a fantastic cook and her writing is food for the soul. Perfect poetry!  Her recipe for Guinness bread, which I baked, is beyond delicious. I feel blessed I was able to meet her at her book signing in London. She is one to watch and my feeling is there are more cookery books left in her busting to come out.  I’ll surely be back in line at the next signing! Click here to fall in love with her too and see how her bread recipe fared in my humble hands.

Mimi Thorisson’s food is as beautiful as she is.  A French chef living in the Medoc countryside, she was born in Hong Kong.  Mimi and her Icelandic photographer husband have a farm house that is perfect for all their children and dogs.  I baked her Zucchini Flans which were absolutely delicious. Click here to drool over the food, and Mimi too!

American born but making London her home, Claire Ptak is one incredible baker.  I was lucky enough to not only meet her, but also taste her delicious baked treats at her cafe called Violet.  Since this year I have been on a major coconut craze, I decided to bake her coconut macaroons.  They have been in heavy rotation in my house every since.  Wowzer!  I just love Claire’s whole essence, her brick and mortar baby and her wee one born this year that I also met in person. Click here to read more about this fabulous chef and also to get the recipe as I think you too will want to make these treats.  Then you might become coconut crazy like me!

British chef Thomasina Miers is such a rock star!  She was the first female winner of Master Chef!  She’s gone on to create the Wahaca chain of Mexican restaurants in the U.K.  I’ve eaten at several and I can say the food is fantastic!  But what bonds me with her is the fact that she also attended Ballymaloe Cookery School, my alma mater.  I recreated her Broad Bean Rice Pilaf dish and it was super easy and very tasty.  An all in one meal as it has minced chicken in it.  I must say it was a big hit in our house!  So click here if you’d like to admire her achievements and make this delicious dish!

After a quick trip to the States to see my son, I flew back to London through my birthplace Chicago.  While my trip there was only one night, I wanted to make sure to visit The Girl and the Goat restaurant.  The owner and head chef Stephanie Izard is a local girl done good!  Not only the proprietor of this restaurant, but now several other variations, it is no wonder she won Top Chef.  This lady gets things done!  And with great pizazz and flavor.  I made her Fish in Curry Sauce and wow it was FAB!!!  Click here to get the recipe and see how this #WCW is making waves on The Chicago River and beyond.

Irish chef Domini Kemp is such an inspiration.  Not just in the kitchen, where she has certainly achieved great success and acclaim.  But she has shown how to be utterly graceful in life and for that I am grateful to have spent one of my Wednesdays honoring her!  I could have done a month long #WCW for her, but on this one day occasion I made her unctuous yet simple Roasted Chicken.  It was quite literally the gift that kept giving.  Like Domini herself. We had food for days and it is a reminder that a basic recipe like this can serve a household in good stead. Click here if you need inspiration or just a good roasted chicken recipe!

So there you have it!  Eight glorious ladies of the gastronomic world that will rock yours!   It was my utter and complete pleasure to learn more about them and share it all with you.  Including their delightful recipes.  I do hope you give them a gander and let me know how you get on if you too try out their creations.  If I can do it live on snapchat one handed (the other hand is holding the phone while I make the video of the whole thing) then anyone can do it!  I’ll recap the other 15 another time.  This was just enough to wet your whistle and remind you and me what a wonderful day Woman Crush Wednesday is.  It also explains why I am so bummed not to be in the kitchen today.  But this trip down memory lane has perked me up!  We are really blessed to have such wonderful chefs in our midst.  Indeed they are even more wonderful as people with which to spend our time!

With LOVE and admiration,

YDP

With this being the first Woman Crush Wednesday of the second year in the life of Yankee Doodle Paddy, I knew we had to honor someone special.  A chef that has made a difference in the lives of others and has charted new food territory.  For us foodies who are in awe at the legacy she has created, we just can’t get enough of the beautiful way she puts together top quality ingredients to create a perfect symphony of flavors.

Ruth Rodgers opened The River Cafe back in 1987 with her late business partner Rose Grey. They ventured into new territory for female bosses in a male dominated profession. But they let their food do the talking.  Italian inspired and beyond delicious, their London restaurant eventually won a Michelin Star.  And so many chefs have gone through the kitchens, that Ruth can proudly say she has created something beyond the River Cafe.  Names such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsdale and April Bloomfield are just a few who were lucky enough to cook the incredibly creative yet unfussy dishes.

With six award winning books, it was hard to choose a recipe to make.  I always do a recipe on WCW I’ve never done before but the inventory of dishes in Ruth’s arsenal is thick!  But since one of her specialties is the clever yet simple ways she makes pasta come alive, I decided to try the Tagliatelli. When Hubby and I went to The River Cafe for our anniversary back in 2012, I could have eaten every pasta dish on the menu.  But for today, we’ll give this one a go.  And I”ll be doing the tutorial live on my Snapchat account (username:  blissbkakery).

Tagliarini al Bosco (Tagliarini with Asparagus and Herbs)

Ingredients:

675 g (1 1/2 lb) thin asparagus stalks, tough ends trimmed

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

250 ml (8 fl oz) double cream (called heavy cream in U.S.)

4 garlic cloves (peeled 3 whole, 1 chopped)

2 Tbsp olive oil

50 g (2 oz) butter

4 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mixed herbs (basil, mint parsley, oregano)

250 g (9 oz) tagliarini or tagliatelle (I used penne pasta)

120 g (4 1/2 oz) Parmesan, freshly grated

Method:

Cut the asparagus stalks into 2 cm (3/4 in) slices at an angle.  Blanch the stalks in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Blanc the tips for seconds only.  Drain well.

Bring the cream to the boil in a large saucepan with the whole garlic cloves and simmer until the cloves are soft. Remove from heat, and discard the garlic.

Heat the oil and butter in a separate saucepan and fry the remaining garlic until light and brown.  Add the herbs and stalks, and cook briefly just to coat them in the butter and oil, then pour in the flavored cream.  Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the cream behind to thicken, about 6 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta in a generous amount of boiling salted water, then drain thoroughly.  Add to the sauce along with about half of the Parmesan and the asparagus tips.  Serve with the remaining Parmesan.

 

This pasta was a big hit tonight.  Hubby loved it and even though it is cream based, it actually tasted quite light. The ratio of asparagus to pasta was just right too.  And it was an easy to follow recipe that could be put together even after a long days work.  Since there’s only two of us in the house we will look forward to left overs for lunch tomorrow.  The recipe says it serves 6 people, but we sure made a good dent in it because of the fresh and flavorful taste.  I used a combination of herbs but if one only had basil that would suffice.

While I have been calling Ruth by her given name, she is actually now know as Lady Rogers. She received the MBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2010. Pretty amazing considering she was born in New York and lived in America through her college days.  After a move to London where she met her husband, she spent time in France and Italy were she honed her culinary palate for the unctuous Italian food. That was the cuisine on which she and partner Rose Grey chose to base their restaurant when it opened. With an amazing wood fired pizza oven, minimalist interior design, and open kitchen plan, The River Cafe was a step ahead of any other dining establishment at the time.

Even nearly 30 years later there is still a wait to book a table as the legacy has continued to flourish. And Lady Rogers has carried on without her beloved pal and partner Rose.  But likely her spirit is forever there with the whole of The River Cafe team. Truly a remarkable food experience infused with the love of two gorgeous gourmet gals!  And lucky for us they paved the way for other ladies to carve their way into the culinary world.

Thank you sweet Lady Rogers (and indeed posthumously Lady Grey) for your contributions to the gastronomic world. We are forever in your debt!

River of LOVE,

YDP

Even though I am a foodie, I am a drinkie too.  If that is even a word.  I was late to the game of drinking alcohol of any description. Of course for obvious reasons because I spent my early years pregnant or nursing babies.  Which was fine, I never felt like I missed out on the partying I saw going on around me.  I was a happy designated driver.  That continued on even after the kids weren’t so little anymore as I never really had a taste for alcohol.  Then my dear friend Quincy Jones changed that. When I was going through my divorce there were some very dark days indeed which I’ve shared on here. Quincy was a great support and on one occasion in particular surprised me.

I was about to get into a bubble bath with the candles lit and my favorite Tony Bennett CD playing.  Quincy called on the phone to check on me.  When I set the scene of my night he said, “Sounds like something is missing”.  The next thing I knew, the doorbell rang.  It was Quincy’s driver who handed me a bottle of red wine.  But not any red wine.  This was a super fancy bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild.  Even though I didn’t drink at the time I said, well if Quincy went through the trouble of having this hand delivered, I guess I’ll pop it open.  Ever since then I tease him that he is a corrupter.  I don’t drink red wine everyday but I have learned to appreciate it.  And I have even ventured onto trying other spirits.

I haven’t done many drinks recipes on here, but today I am sharing a lovely recipe for a Slushy G&T that I made for this week’s Snapchat Takeover of CookReel’s account.  I actually made a few things for a culinary creation “picnic”.  First off I baked some healthy flapjacks, a version of the Megawatt Breakfast Bars with a few tweaks.  Then I put together a tasty and simple, Salad on a Stick.  But it was the Liquid Libations that made the theme of the day so fun.

Since I mentioned on my last post that CookReel have asked me to do a weekly spot in their line up, my unique Yankee Doodle Paddy offering each episode will be a culinary creation and a gastronomic expedition. I put together a little healthy sweet and savory picnic and Hubby and our doggie Stella and I headed over to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.  At the top of the hill in Greenwich Park this historic treasure was commissioned by King Charles II in 1675.  British astronomers worked tirelessly to move time keeping beyond sun dials to what we now use as modern time keeping.  Hence, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is where most of our clocks are set. What does GMT have to do with food?  Well, as a chef, ingredients are most important.  But timing is also key.  And how lucky are we that we live so close to the very spot where time starts!  Only a boat ride away along the River Thames. So we had our G&T at GMT!

Slushy G&T

Ingredients:

1 cup gin (chilled)
2 cups ice
3 cups tonic water (chilled)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Place everything in a blender. When it’s nice and slushy pour into a glass and garnish with a lime or lemon.

Salad on a Stick

Ingredients:

12 oz Cooked Italian Style Poultry Sausages, cut into 1 in pieces (or you can substitute mini mozz cheese balls for vegetarians)

½ cup lightly packed basil leaves

1 jar of sundried tomatoes, cut into 1 in pieces

1 jar of roasted peppers, drained and cut into 1 in pieces

1 jar artichoke hearts, drained and quartered

24 skewers or cocktail toothpicks

1 cup Balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1. Heat a nonstick skillet and cook the sausages until done.

2. Thread 1 small or a ½ of a large basil leaf onto a wooden skewer. Add a piece of roasted pepper, sundried tomato, artichoke, and ending with the sausage. The skewer will stand up on the sausage end. Continue to finish all the skewers using remaining ingredients. Serve with the balsamic reduction sauce.

3. To make the balsamic reduction: Combine 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and 2 Tbsps brown sugar in a small pan over medium high heat and bring up to a bubbling boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the liquid has reduced by half and is thick and syrupy, about 10 minutes.

The Salad on a stick is very adaptable and one could substitute mini mozzarella cheese balls for the sausages if wanting to stay all veggie. As well, a lovely pesto sauce would be nice drizzled on them as an alternative to the balsamic reduction.  And the flapjacks are so easy to tweak depending on what ingredients are available. Since we were going to be spending dinner with Quincy Jones who happens to be in London, I wanted to bring him a sugar free treat. So the flapjacks were perfect!  The last time I saw him in Los Angeles a few months back I brought him my famous poppy seed cake, his fav, along with a bottle of red wine.  Little did I know he had given up sweets and alcohol!  So he called me a corrupter when I walked in the door!  He got me back!  We’re even. So tonight no corruption just LOVE!

Whether you are a corrupter or not, there is something in this simple picnic menu for you to enjoy.  You can go whole hog and have it all, or if you are a vegan non alcohol drinking health nut, you can just enjoy the flapjacks!  And you can do it in whatever time zone you happen to live.

Uncorruptable LOVE,

YDP