Trentino-Alto Adige

I have always enjoyed cooking with my sister, and she was home for spring break on my mom's birthday, so we decided to cook together. Cooking this meal went very smoothly, because my sister is really good and being patient with me and at cooking in general.

Making the panzanella went very smoothly.  I didn't mess anything up in this recipe (maybe the first time ever) and it turned out great! My cousin was watching me make it and was a little weirded out when I poured vinegar and olive oil onto stale bread, but even she loved it.

Making the country salad was a bit of a challenge. I burned the walnuts completely while toasting them, and had to start that process over. I also took the potatoes out of the boiling water well before they were done cooking. After cutting into the first one I realized how completely uncooked they were, but couldn't just put them back into the water because I had already peeled them. I decided to dice them like the recipe said, and then bake them. I think they actually tasted better baked than boiled. The dish turned out really tasty despite the struggles along the way.

My sister helped out with the fish a lot, because I don't really like dealing with meat or fish. We added cheese, garlic, thyme, oil and asparagus and baked the whole thing. There was some debate on whether the asparagus was cooked right or not, but I didn't try it so I couldn't tell you.

It turns out that for the ricotta dumplings you need to strain the ricotta overnight, which it doesn't say in the recipe but I soon figured out. I will most likely make them at some point, but for my mom's birthday we just went out and bought a big chocolate cake.

This was my first time cooking for people beyond my immediate family, and it was a big success!