Of all the strange things I like (broccoli, rainy days, Ayn Rand, John Mayer) throwing dinner parties has to be the least objectionable. I love having people over for dinner. I agonize for days over the menu, making sure it’s well within a theme, work on a grocery list, find a suitable drink pairing and have a timeline that counts back from the D-Day – which is strange considering I have trouble staying organized. I firmly belong to the effortless hostess category, thank you very much. I’d rather be losing at a game of 21 versus tossing up a salad in the kitchen. Planning helps.
The guest list is no mean feat either. I’ve been wanting to have Riddhi of Cookbybook over for ages. The only hiccup is – different cities. Ingenious that we are, we decided ain’t no mountain high enough. We had *so* much fun participating in the The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap last month that we needed to rehash and host a little swap of our own. She made dinner and I bought dessert. Now thats how you know you made a friend for life. Riddhi, super talented that she is, made PIZZA (that didn’t come out of a box – it’s the real deal). We decided that the theme for the first of our monthly swaps would be ‘Light & Healthy’. The sidebar included DELICIOUS but we obviously understood that. See! Keeper. Hop on to her blog for a look see for homemade, whole wheat pizza dough. P.S – she also made killer Banana Berry muffins last week. Anyway, we plan to keep this up for a while and we intend to explore more themes every month. If you have suggestions or talented blogger friends, do tell. The bigger the table, the more there is to go around!
Zabaglione is the skinny sister of strawberries and cream. Berry season is meant to be taken advantage of and zabaglione is the perfect accomplice. It’s indulgent without being too rich, calorie wise and if you serve it in these cute cups, nobody will look away. It takes no more than 8 – 10 minutes to put all of it together and you can skip out on the wine if you promise to use good vanilla extract. I’m tempted to try this with some dark rum or champagne on the next go. Pair with your favorite tart but sweet berries!
Zabaglione
Serves: 6 – 8
Source: Mario Batali
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
4 tsp caster sugar
4 tbs sweet white wine, champagne or dark rum
Strawberries, to serve
1. Boil some water in a saucepan. Meanwhile, add yolks, sugar and wine in a large non-reactive bowl and place over the saucepan with simmering water. The base of the bowl shouldn’t touch the water. Use a large whisk or a hand-held electric whisk and whisk till the mixture has tripled in volume and pale in color. Take off the heat, whisk in vanilla extract and set aside to cool. Wrap tightly and transfer to a refrigerator once the zabaglione is room temperature.
2. In small glasses, add sliced strawberries and pour large spoonfuls of zabaglione on top. Serve immediately!
The Vanilla Bean 
Pingback: ‘Light & Healthy’ ~ Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough | Cook By Book·
Looks absolutely gorgeous Rosh! Need to make this pronto! 🙂