Feature Friday—Ruthie, my Baby Sister

Ruth Pondrom is my featured guest. She’s also my baby sister that I refer to as Ruthie in my other blog, Present Letters.

Ruth made a birthday dinner for me last Friday night and so it seemed appropriate to have her as my featured favorite. This isn’t necessarily her favorite recipe, but it is the one she made me for my birthday. We three sisters do this for each other and you can read about the last dinner if you want. Don’t worry, you all didn’t miss my birthday—it’s in December. We just have these dinners whenever the three of us can work our schedules.

Ruth hates having her picture taken. Must run in the family. Ruth's photo is far better than any of mine—just look at that smile.

So on to the dinner…

We started off with an appetizer: Rosemary and Onion Foccacia bread. We almost gobbled it down before I could snap a picture of it. Homemade of course. I think I mentioned that Ruth is the bread maker in our family.

After we devoured that, we had a simple salad. But it wasn’t in a simple bowl—this was a Parmesan bowl—edible! We gobbled that up too!

Then she placed the Fontina cheese and crusty bread on the table. Oh my, so scrumptious.

Unooked fontina:

Crusty bread:

Cooked fontina:

Imagine scooping that cheese up with the crusty bread. Mmmmm.

After I gorged, Ruth said, “So you ready for soup?”

“What? Soup? I thought you said it was bread and cheese and dessert!”

“I have corn bisque too!”

“Bring it on.” Even though I was full, I wasn’t going to pass up anything that Ruth made for me. She’s almost as good of a cook as me. Wink wink.

The corn bisque had a bite to it and it was delicious. By now, we rubbed our tummies like the three little pigs only we weren’t worried about our houses blowing down. We were worried about our bellies exploding.

Ruth informed us that she made not just one dessert, but three. Good grief. First she brought out the bowl of homemade Fleur de Sel caramels made with Fleur de Sel salt. I’m definitely going to get some of this high and mighty expensive salt as it sure made an impression on me. The caramels were too hard to bite into without losing your teeth—and I’m talking permanent teeth—so you had to let them soften in your mouth for a while.

Ruth presented Black Forest Chocolate Mousse and it didn’t matter how full you were, you continued to spoon the smooth chocolaty goodness into your mouth.

Her grand finale was made just for me—maltballs. Only they weren’t balls, but discs. She couldn’t get them to stay round. Some of you know I’m a maltball snob. A maltball connoisseur. I’m on the prowl for the best maltball. Everywhere I go that has candy, you’ll find me purchasing a few maltballs, if they have them. I always ask first, “Are your maltballs double-dipped?" If they say yes, I pass. All you chocolate fiends quit scratching your heads—maltballs should have a thin coat of chocolate. But we’ll talk more about maltballs another time.

Too bad us three little pigs didn’t let any crumbs escape because Ruth's Dachshund, Obie is a regular Hoover. He was begging for something to fall.

Ruth’s cooking would impress any food critic. The next morning as I woke from my Fleur de Sel caramel coma, I was hungry for more.

Thanks Ruth, you outdid yourself and thanks for being a sport as my first featured favorite! I love you!