Flying Bean Salad

A few weeks ago, I cooked some cannelini beans because I was going to make a salad, but then I didn't make a salad, so I put them in the freezer.  Clarabelle has been giving me a really hard time about those beans, so last weekend, I defrosted them and cleaned out my fridge and made a salad.  It was last week so I don't remember for sure what was in there.  Probably grape tomatoes, olives, chopped peppers, and cucumber, and there was probably also some lettuce involved.


Big whoop, hm?  What makes it a flying salad, you might ask?


Well, I consumed it out on the deck in the beautiful weather, and I have some insistent lunch time companions:

This one thinks he can't jump up onto my chair, so as long as I don't make eye contact, I'm OK.


However, this one can jump:


Try and ignore that why dontcha.  It's breathing on you, remember, and after a while, it will start drooling and once that happens, it's only a matter of time before the drool starts dripping onto your leg.  Try and ignore THAT why dontcha.

So what makes it a flying bean salad?  In order to get some peace while I eat, I pick out a bean or a chunk of veg (Tiki loves vegetables) and toss it on out there so Tiki will get off me and go chase it down.  If I throw it far enough, he'll be occupied for a good thirty seconds before he comes back.  If I throw it too far, he won't go for it at all and I'll have ten seconds at most.

More than just fat-filled sugar bombs

That's right.  Regular visitors to the food channel on the Dirtbunny network have probably noticed that DB has a penchant for bragging about her special food, stuff like tiramisu, pasta bolognese, buche de noel, cinnamon rolls, etc.  And then there was a recent mention of a coconut layer cake.  Do not be misled.  We do not eat like that all the time at Chez Nous.  We eat a lot of crap too, mostly when DB has retired to her boudoir (literally or figuratively, cos she goes both ways) and can't be assed to act like an adult and sends The Man out for takeout--or worse--a bag of Ruffles and a tub of

Not your Olive Garden's tiramisu

So listen.  I don't even really know what tiramisu is exactly.  I have boycotted restaurant tiramisu because of the ubiquitousness.  Dirtbunnies hate hype.  But I saw a recipe for pannetone tiramisu and I thought it might be an interesting way to make use of at least some of the gigantic chocolate pannetone I got at Christmas time, and I actually made it around then and ended up ditching the recipe because Clarabelle told me I could never eat sugar again.  It was OK.  Kinda soggy.

But, I still had A LOT of pannetone.  So's I decided to make another one (sans recipe, because this is when I remembered throwing it away).  So here we have a non-gross tiramisu-like dessert that I improvised from a recipe I made once about four months ago.

No More Handmade Bread

What's Cooking Chez Dirtbunny?  A lot less than there should be.  The reason for this is that she broke the stove again.  PSYC!  Not really.  The reason for this is that Mr. Kitchen Aid Mixer has gone to the big small appliance junkyard in the sky.  He died this morning at about 11:20, while mixing flour into creamed butter and sugar for his last ever batch of cookies.  Needless to say, this makes Dirtbunny seethe with rage very sad.  Dirtbunny needs Mr. Kitchen Aid Mixer to bake bread, knead pasta dough,  and make stiff cookie doughs like biscotti.  Dirtbunny needs Mr. Kitchen Aid Mixer to make a proper cake batter.  Dirtbunny can use the crappy underpowered hand-held mixer to whip egg whites, and she can make whipped cream by hand with her biggest bowl and her biggest whisk.  Dirtbunny can still make pastry dough in her Cuisinart.  But cookies, cake, and bread are oh you tee out.

How I loved his power and his 5 quart mixing bowl!  Alas!

Now here's the surprising part.  Dirtbunny has decided not to replace him just yet, even though that means no biscotti, no cake, and crappy store-bought bread for The Man's sandwiches.  Bunny can temporarily do without these things.  *sigh*  Maybe come springtime, Dirtbunny will replace him as a reward for her own good behavior.  *sigh*  Not just replace him, but go for the upgrade.  I hope all my attachments, accessories, and pieces parts will still fit.  Grrr!  Bunny likes the powerful big boys after all.

In which Dirtbunny admits she was wrong

Remember Dirtbunny's advice about Pannetone?  OK so that only applies to the mini-pannetoni that come in a package the size of a coffee can (remember those?) and contain a product the size of a cupcake.  Also, it only applies to the pannetoni that feature those execrable little atrocities called citron that are made from allegedly-candied lemon peel.  If you know where to look, you can find a quite tasty pannetone featuring chocolate.  A nice kilo of pannetone al cioccolato goes for about seventeen clams at the Italian Store, which is about five bucks more than the horrid little 200g bitter lemon muffins go for at the Glutton Place.  Here's the kicker:  you have to be willing to brave the pizza and subs crowds to get to the pannetoni, some of which are stacked near the wine, but others of which are tucked in the displays under the deli counter.  Also, there are different kinds and some of them are, as we have documented, TERRIBLE, so you have to look carefully, and you have to read the labels, which might be in English, but might not be, and it's all in small print so if you're old like Dirtbunny, you have to peer over the tops of your spectacles and squint, all while trying not to be trampled by the horde that must have its sandwiches.   Another drawback is that you might get sidetracked by the sandwich offerings yourself, or you might get distracted by the wine, or the gelato that no one else carries, or the handmade ravioli that really taste like ricotta cheese just like they're supposed to, or the fabulous selection of DeCecco pasta because linguine fini is your favorite and no one else carries linguine fini any more plus they NEVER run out of rigatoni so you might as well pick up a coupla boxes, and then there are the marvelous marinated artichokes.

So you bought your seventeen dollar pannetone al cioccolato (although you ended up spending way more than that--Oops!).  What now?  You make a tiramisu!  Or french toast.  Or regular toast and spread it with mascarpone.  Or you sprinkle on a garnish of cocoa or powdered sugar and you eat it like cake.  And when you're sick of it, you make the scraps and leftovers into bread pudding.  And then you wait until next December, because that's when pannetoni are back in stock.