Warm Buttermilk Cake with Strawberries

We have gotten to berry and stone fruit time. A great thing to have on hand to go with those fruits is a single layer, moist, easy cake. Add some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fruit and it's impressive, too.

 This is a great cake for making strawberry shortcake, too. The recipe is HERE. It's pretty easy but quite delicious.

 You can also make a chocolate version like I did HERE. I served it with cherries and cream for a quick Black Forest style cake. As you can see, Sweetie really like whipped cream. Hard to see the cake, but I can tell you, it's great.

If you like you can also change it by adding a couple teaspoons of lemon zest (rubbed into the sugar before mixing with the eggs) for a Lemon Cake.

Yay for late spring! Summer will be here before you know it!

Landon's Wedding

Memorial Day Weekend is a great time for visiting family and for events. Sweetie and I spent some time in Phoenix at the wedding of Landon and Natalie.

Since I'm a step-grandmother, I've only know my grandson Landon since he was in high school. He's always been an extrovert, by all accounts, and he brings a lot of light and joy into people's lives at the same time. Sweetie and I have bedrooms in the farmhouse for family.  Landon and girlfriend Natalie stopped here for a night in each direction last fall when they were traveling from Phoenix to Oregon and then back. They were going there for Thanksgiving with his mother and brother and step-father. At that time Landon told us that they were almost engaged. Soon after, they announced their engagement and asked us to save the date for their wedding. They are a wonderful couple and seem to be well suited as well as very much in love.

The wedding was a few days ago, held at the church in Phoenix where Natalie's dad is pastor and Landon is in charge of Youth Ministry and at least some of the music. Dozens of their fellow church members transformed the church gym into a beautiful reception venue. The wedding itself was held in the inspiring church. Natalie's father both walked her down the aisle and conducted the ceremony. First grandson River was best man and youngest grandson Raine was a groomsman.

Because the groom's side of the family included a number of step-parents and half siblings as modern families often do, it was an interesting mix. Lots of group photos in the hot sun in the church garden, including one we were part of where we really didn't know half the people...all related to my daughter's husband's family. He was in the picture, too, plus his three sons and his wife and us. Not too happy with his oldest son because he probably spent a total of five minutes with us during the two days we were there, despite the fact that we were seated a few feet away for hours during the evening of the wedding. My guess is that he was just following the lead of the pastor.

I would love to say that the weekend was delightful, but the reality is that except for window dressing moments like the photos, we were shunned. Turns out that we were perceived to be 'unbelievers' and that, apparently, trumps manners in this conservative church. We never did meet the father of the bride/pastor.

Still, we are happy for our grandson and his bride. He was raised in a conservative religion and is immersed in this one. I doubt that he even knew that virtually no one spoke to any of us. Our son-in-law did go over and interact with his family members (also very conservative churchgoers), and when we left there were some hugs, mostly outside and away from most of the guests, but otherwise we were observers in a crowd of over 300 church goers who studiously ignored us. At one point when our son-in-law's family left because his Mom was worn out, I mentioned to one of the women standing by their table that they weren't returning, so the table and chairs were free to sit at (people were standing along the wall at this point because there weren't enough seats) and she looked startled that I had spoken to her, uncomfortable that I had, and she did thank me...but no smile and she didn't sit down right away but looked around with a bit of an anxious look on her face. I guess I broke through the shunning and she wasn't sure that it was OK to listen to me.

Highlights include a really wonderful song that Landon composed and sang to his bride, a beautiful choreographed dance the bride and groom did, followed by a dance Landon did with his mom that was lively and fun to music that included 'she's my Mom!' The Mexican food dinner was delicious. An interesting experience but one I hope to not repeat.

Early Peaches in a Pie

I've heard about the Dry Creek Peach stand for years, but it's up by Geyserville and I don't travel to that part of the county often, so I never visited. A few days ago I read that they already had peaches...about two weeks earlier than usual. I love peaches, but the ones that I get in the market are uninspiring. They tend to be hard and with little flavor. You can ripen them in a brown paper bag, but then they are ripe and still flavorless, plus they are often bruised with large dark areas from rough handling when they were hard.

So Sweetie and I found that we had the time, so we drove up the the Dry Creek Peach stand and purchased a flat of the first peaches of the season. The Dry Creek Peach folks were delightful and since they grow 30 varieties, we will likely be visiting them again and again. 

The peaches! They are heavenly! Because they were picked ripe, the skins come off easily...no need to dip them in boiling water to loosen the skins. They are also wonderfully juicy and full of peach flavor.

Of course we started eating them plain. Sweetie even ate his with the peel still on. I prefer them without the peel. Then I combined them with some other fresh fruit we had on hand...raspberries, pineapple and banana. Delicious!

The next day I made a peach pie with them and it is a really great pie. It took about 6 peaches to make the filling. I used a ready made pie dough crust for the bottom, made a filling with those slices peaches, freshly ground nutmeg, some flour and cornstarch mixed and a tablespoon of lemon juice. They were sweet enough that I didn't add any sugar. On top I put a streusel of brown sugar, flour, butter and chopped pecans. I'm afraid that the streusel  burned a bit during the first part of the baking, but I covered the whole top with foil for the 350 degree F part and it didn't burn any more. Next time I'll cover it sooner.

This is an exceptional pie, especially if you use tree ripened fruit. True peach season in most of the U.S is in June and July, so see if you can find some good peaches...and have some pie!

Peach Pie with Streusel Topping

5 cups peeled, sliced peaches, pits discarded

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

few grains of salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

8 oz. (1/2 cup, 1 stick) soft butter

one egg white

one 9” unbaked pie shell ( put into freezer until ready to fill the pie)

Mix peach slices with flour mixture,  lemon juice, nutmeg and salt. Pile into chilled pie shell that has been brushed with slightly beaten egg white. 

Make the streusel: In a medium bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour and pecans. Add the soft butter, cut into pieces, and use clean fingers to smoosh the butter into the flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be barely crumbly.

Break apart the streusel mixture into small-ish lumps and scatter evenly over the peach filling.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Place foil over edges of pie shell if they start to become too brown or if the top becomes too brown. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake about 45 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least five minutes before serving. I served mine at room temperature.

My Mom's NOTES: The filling (without the streusel topping) can be frozen: Line 9” pie pan with heavy foil and put in peach mixture. Fold over and seal the foil. Put into a zip lock bag (gallon size) and freeze. When ready to bake, continue as above, putting frozen pie filling into an unbaked pie shell brushed with egg white as above. You can do the same thing with the apple pie filling. You may have to bake either pie with frozen filling 10 minutes or so longer.

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been an interesting fortnight (fourteen nights) for the Sebastopol Lachmans. We celebrate today, Mother's Day, that I'm finally sleeping in my own bed. Two weeks ago today Charlie and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. The next day I noticed that I got a couple of bug bites when I sat in the chair near the fireplace. A day or two later that happened when I sat in my easy chair and also I seemed to have bites when I got up in the morning. By the 29th my sleep was poor and on the 30th I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room. Turns out that a friend had visited with her dog, as she often does, a week or so before and the dog was carrying fleas which decided that I was a tasty person. Since my friend, Charlie, and the dog are not tasty, they had no idea. Neither did I, apparently, until I couldn't sleep much.

Long story short (well except for the stuff above) we spent most of this week doing damage control and eliminating the pests. Finally slept in my own bed last night and it was great! I now know what to do and not do (including things I can do to prevent being the vector that spreads the fleas!) and am ready to have a great Mother's Day with Charlie.

Katherine sent beautiful flowers. She and Aaron sent an even more beautiful card, especially because of what they wrote inside. We plan on talking on the phone today. I'm hoping that I can visit virtually with my siblings and other family this afternoon.

Soon I'll have time to return to the kitchen and garden and will share that with you here.

Hope that each of you celebrate Mother's day in your own way, including those who celebrate the memories of your mothers who have passed. My Mom, Nancy is the person in the photo at the top of the post. Love 'ya Mom! 

Zoe's Lemon Drizzle Cake and Memories of Ireland

I discovered Substack newsletters about a year ago and found some interesting reads. One of the authors is Zoe Francois of Zoe Bakes. She is an engaging writer and has a ton of wonderful recipes, especially if you are a paid subscriber as I am.

Recently she wrote about an Irish version of the popular English treat, the lemon drizzle cake. This cake is simple, with one layer, and very lemon flavored. It has a drizzle of lemon juice and granulated sugar that you drizzle over the top of the cake while it is still warm, soon after you take it out of the oven. This gives the top a bit of sweetness and some crunch...not a lot, but just enough.

I made the cake Sunday and enjoyed it with Sweetie to help celebrate our anniversary. We enhanced it with sliced strawberries from the Hwy 12 farm stand that has the absolute best strawberries. We've been waiting for the fresh local spring strawberries and this cake went soooo well with them.

Part of Zoe's newsletter talked about an upcoming trip to Ireland that she will be taking. She has invited her readers to sign up to go with her and has arranged an extensive tour for food lovers that sounds awesome. Too bad the price is way above my travel budget.

Still, it is of interest to me because the group will be staying at Glin Castle in Glin, Co. Limerick, the town where my maternal grandfather grew up! Sweetie and I have visited the cousins there twice and it would have been fun to see the inside of Glin Castle where the Knight of Glin and his family have resided for hundreds of years. When we were there it was closed to the public.

If you're interested in my first Ireland journey, the first installment can be found HERE, with the post about Glin being HERE. There are a number of interesting posts in between and following if you want to know more about that part of Ireland in western Co. Limerick and some in Co. Clare.

If you want to make the Lemon Drizzle Cake, here is the recipe (with my comments in italics). The only true change that I made was that I took half the granulated sugar and mixed it in a small bowl with all the lemon zest until the sugar was like damp sand. The other half of the sugar was beaten with the butter, then I added the zested sugar and beat it some more. Probably not necessary, but I know that mixing the zest with the sugar helps separate the zest some and the sugar absorbs the lemon oil in the zest. Otherwise the zest tends to clump because of all the inherent lemon oil. Do it that way or just follow the recipe as written and you will have a delicious, moist lemon cake, perfect with a cup of tea. You can pretend you are in Ireland looking at the Shannon River and enjoying all the shades of green.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

The sharp acidity of citrus is the star of this cake. When it is taken out of the oven, a generous drizzle of granulated sugar and lemon juice is poured over and absorbed into the warm cake. The granulated sugar provides a crystallized crunch while still permeating the soft sponge. Slice this and serve whenever the mood takes. It keeps well for up to three days in an airtight container and freezes well, too.
Servings: 10

 Author: Cherie Denham

Ingredients

• 200 g / 7 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
• 200 g / 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
• Zest of three lemons
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 200 g / 1 2/3 cups self-raising (self-rising) flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the Lemon Drizzle

• Juice of 2 lemons
• 85 g / 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  
  

Instructions

1.                  Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 160℃ / Gas 4. Line an 8-inch (20 cm) deep cake pan (what I used) or 900g / 2 lb loaf tin with baking parchment*.

2.                  Cream together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a food processor until light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can use a freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (what I used) or handheld mixer. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the yogurt and milk, and blend until creamy.

3.                  Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add into the wet ingredients.

4.                  Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Lemon Drizzle

1.                  Meanwhile, during the last few minutes of baking, mix together the lemon juice and sugar in a bowl.

Assembly

1.                  Once the cake is baked, remove it from the oven and prick it all over with a skewer, about every 1/2-inch. Spoon over the drizzle while the cake is still warm. Leave to cool completely in the pan.

Serve at room temperature. Will last for a few days on the counter.

Notes

*If you are using a regular cake pan, you will want to create a parchment sling that comes up and over the sides of the pan to make it easy to lift the cake out of the pan. I used a parchment circle on the bottom. By letting the cake cool completely before I removed it from the pan, it was firm enough to just turn out onto a plate, I removed the parchment, and turned it over so it was right side up.

Another Kringle

One of our favorite Christmas day treats is a Raspberry Almond Kringle pastry. I usually make the pastry part the night before and then add the jam and almonds and drizzle on Christmas morning.

This past week I had a work day in town with fellow P.E.O. scholarship nonprofit members as we prepared for an upcoming state convention. Our Sebastopol chapter is a hostess chapter this year.

It was also the birthday of our chapter AJ delegate to convention, so we had a surprise birthday party for her. Since it was a morning gathering, with coffee, I decided to bake and bring the Christmas morning pastry, but without the almond paste. Now that I've had it both ways, I do like it better with the almond paste, but it's still very tasty...and easier, plus less expensive...without the almond paste.

You can easily tailor this to your own taste buds by using a different flavor of jam, adding another kind  of nut or even a different nut paste instead of almond paste...a pistachio paste and strawberry jam sounds yum!...or adding a citrus zest to the dough or the drizzle...you get the idea.

If you need to have it ready early as I did, bake the bottom pastry, top it with the cream puff pastry and bake it, then wrap well and leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning unwrap, add jam, nuts and the confectioners sugar drizzle and you're ready to serve. If you cut small pieces this can serve quite a few people, but it's hard to eat a small piece and to not want another one! Plan accordingly, right? 

Almond Raspberry Kringle
Based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour

BASE

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, cut into pats
• 1 cup  all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold water

PASTRY TOPPING

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
•  3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

FILLING

• about 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 2-3 tablespoons sliced almonds

GLAZE

• 1 cup confectioners'  sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk, enough to make a thick but pourable glaze
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a baking sheet that's at least 18" x 13"; or a 14" round pizza pan.
 

2.    To make the base: Combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt, mixing until crumbly. I used a pastry blender to cut the fat into the flour mixture. Add the water, and stir to make a soft, sticky dough. I used a fork and added the water slowly as I do for pie crust.

3.    Wet your hands, pick up the dough, and shape it into a 12" x 8" oval ring on the sheet pan; or a 10" ring in the pizza pan. This will be messy going, but just keep wetting your fingers and pushing it into a ring. An easy way to approach this is to first divide the dough into four pieces; roll each piece into a 9" rope, then connect the ropes and shape them into a ring.

4.    Once you've made the ring, flatten the dough so it's about 1 1/2" wide; basically, it'll look like a train or NASCAR track. 

5.    To make the pastry topping: Place the water, butter, and salt in a saucepan, and heat over medium heat until the margarine is melted and the mixture is boiling.

6.    Immediately add the flour, stirring with a spatula until the mixture is cohesive and starts to form a ball.

7.    Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the almond extract at the end.

8.    Spread the pastry along the ring, covering it completely; you'll now have a much wider ring, though it won't be completely closed in the center; it should still look like a ring.

9.    Bake the kringle for 50 to 60 minutes, until it's a deep golden brown. When the kringle is done, remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool completely on the pan.

10. To add the filling: First, have the sliced almonds all ready beside the pan of kringle; you'll be sprinkling them atop the jam as soon as you put it on.

11.    Stir the jam with a fork to break it up and then spread it over the kringle in a thin, even layer, mostly in the middle. Sprinkle sliced almonds atop the raspberry jam, pressing them in gently. Allow the kringle to cool completely.

12.    To make the glaze: Stir together the confectioners' sugar, salt, almond extract and enough milk to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle it over the kringle.

13.    To serve, cut the kringle in 2" slices.

If you prefer, you can bake the base, and cooked dough topping the day before serving, then wrap well and let sit on the counter overnight. In the morning add the jam, almonds and glaze. 

As long as I'm posting, I want to show you Sweetie's fishermen's hat I repaired yesterday. He has had this hat for a long time and it's his favorite. It also look really good on him, so it was worth repairing when the liner shredded from too many years of wear...and then the crown started to have a slit.

First I used an iron-on mending patch to fix the crown. This is a wool cap, but I used a sturdy twill patch in the same color. Well. similar color. The hat is showing a lot of fading in various places, so it's more charcoal than black. Then I cut out a tissue pattern for the liner and used some heavy weight black silk charmeuse that I had from a previous project to cut an oval to replace the old liner. A couple sessions of hand sewing and he had his cap back. It still looks kinda beat up, but he likes it that way. The hat will probably fall apart before that new liner shreds, so it's good to go for another 10 years or so.

Another piece of my week is the garden. Despite it being only mid-April, many of the iris are finished blooming and we even have a daylily in bloom. They usually bloom in July! Everything seems fast-forwarded this year, but we are still getting rain this coming week and nights have returned to being chilly. The Black Krim tomato starts that I bought today at the hardware store will have to stay in the sunspace for a week or so until the nights warm up a bit. I might plant one to see if the fast-forward effect works on container plants, too. Anyway, I'll finsih off with a photo of a daisy in the garden. It's almost as big as my hand!

Ways With Chicken To A Pot Pie

 I don't know about you, but my family eats a lot of chicken. Sweetie likes boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I'm a fan of a whole roast chicken. It's been years since I've had them, but I enjoy fried chicken breasts and drumsticks. And then there are all the things you can make with already cooked chicken. Chicken Pot Pie is one of my favorites and what we had for dinner.

A few days ago our market had a special on whole chickens...$2.99 a pound. These were plump organic chickens and looked so good that I bought one...for just under $10. Once home I roasted it with some onions and Yukon potatoes and some lemons and one mandarin orange, plus herbs. Delicious! Yesterday I took the rest of the cooked chicken off the bones and then added water to the pot...and simmered it all, including the bones, into a rich broth.

Today I made pot pie, using the leftover chicken, the broth, some sautéed onions, garlic, carrot and mushrooms, more herbs, some boiled potatoes, some microwaved frozen mixed veggies and a bit of this and that. Heated together, topped with a pie dough round and baked in a hot oven just until the pie dough was golden, it made a wonderful Chicken Pot Pie for a rainy evening.

We shared it with Rainbow Girl, my great friend from Oregon, who visited for a couple of days. Good times!

Chicken Pot Pie with Pastry Topper

3-4 yellow Finn potatoes (or Yukon gold), washed and cubed

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2-3 carrots, sliced into half-coins

5-6 large mushrooms, halved, then sliced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup milk

2  - 2 1/2 cups cooked, cubed chicken (I used chicken from a roasted full chicken)

1 - 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

1 round (half package) pre-rolled pie dough, like ReadyCrust

 In a large pot with a lid, add the cubed potatoes to enough water to cover. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with the point of a sharp knife.

When potatoes are cooked, drain them, but keep them warm.

 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

 Meanwhile, prepare the onion, carrots, mushrooms and garlic:

 Melt the butter in the pot the potatoes were cooked in. Add the onion and carrots. Over medium heat, cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until onion is beginning to be translucent. Add mushrooms and cover. Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for another 3-5 minutes, until mushrooms have released their liquid and liquid has cooked off. Add garlic and stir. Cook another 30 second.

 Add the flour, poultry seasoning, dried thyme and salt and pepper to taste to the cooked veggies. Stir for 1 minutes to allow the flour to cook a bit.

 In a large measuring cup, measure the chicken broth. Add the milk. Stir this mixture, all at once, into the veggie/flour mixture and continue stirring over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly. It's OK if mixture bubbles a bit once it has thickened.

 Add the cubed chicken and stir to combine.

In a microwave safe container, cook the frozen mixed vegetables for 1-2 minutes to warm. Add warmed mixed vegetables to the pot with the chicken and sautéed veggies. Add the warm, cooked and drained, potatoes. Stir to combine everything, then spoon mixture into a greased round casserole. Top with pie crust and cut vents. Bake in preheated oven, in center, until the crust is golden brown and pot pie mixture is bubbling. Remove from oven.  Serve at once, including some of the crust in each serving.

 Makes 6-8 servings.

Oldie and Goodie with Fresh Spinach

One of the posts that are most often accessed on this blog is the one for Spinach Rice Casserole, a wonderful recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook...a throwback to 1977!

In the past I've always made it with thawed frozen spinach, because it's easy and works well. Yesterday I made it with fresh baby spinach because Sweetie brought home fresh spinach instead of fresh mixed greens. It's an easy mistake because the local greens...both kinds... are packaged in plastic bags with no labels. Unless you look closely, they all look the same.

So why do I need greens instead of baby spinach? You can make a great salad with baby spinach. The reason is that the oxalic acid in spinach doesn't get along with my kidneys and causes stones. So, I don't usually eat much spinach, even though I love it. 

Since I had the fresh spinach I knew that this casserole was a great place to use some of it up. There isn't enough in the casserole to cause a problem unless I eat a huge amount of it, which I won't. I cut the recipe in half and baked it in an 8-inch by 8-inch glass baking dish.

So you get to see this great recipe again, AND learn how to make it with fresh spinach! I did make two changes... I used soy sauce instead of tamari and I increased the sunflower seeds so that they pretty much covered the top of the casserole. You will still have a great dish is you just use the amount given in the recipe.

Spinach-Rice Casserole
based on a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977

2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (More, to taste)
3 tablespoons butter (I used 2 tablespoons olive oil)
2 lbs. raw, chopped spinach
4 cups cooked brown rice
4 beaten eggs (I used the equivalent amount of egg substitute)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons tamari (optional)
a few dashes each - nutmeg, cayenne
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
paprika

Saute' onions and garlic with the salt in butter (or oil). When onions are soft, add spinach (I sort of stacked the spinach and cut in one direction about 1/2 inch apart, then turned the cutting board and cut crosswise. It took some time to cut all that spinach!). Cook 2 minutes. (Alternately, thaw and drain a 10 oz box frozen chopped spinach. Add to onion mixture, but don't cook any further.)
Combine the onion mixture with the brown rice, eggs, milk, cheese, parsley, tamari, nutmeg, cayenne. Spread into buttered casserole and sprinkle sunflower seeds, paprika on top.
Bake, covered, 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes.

Serves 4 - 6

Happy Easter - Happy Spring!

 Doing egg dying the old fashioned way with boiling water, vinegar and food coloring, I made these yesterday. A few went to a friend, Paula, in a sort of Easter basket, and the rest will decorate the table today for lunch with old and cherished friends from Healdsburg. Thought of Dad and how he would decorate eggs long after the 'kids' had left home. Those coming for Easter would often find an egg with their name on it...a resist process using either crayons or wax.

Have a Happy Day!

Soup and Soda Bread

We had a lovely spring day yesterday. It wasn't chilly but by lunch time I wanted soup, so I made a nice veggie soup. This isn't a vegetarian or vegan soup because I used chicken broth as the liquid part, but the rest is plant based. If you substituted vegetable broth or water it's vegan.

Since I was having soup I decided that a nice small loaf of soda bread would be a great thing to go with it. I made a loaf with half the usual amount in my favorite recipe, plus I added both dried cranberries and chopped walnuts. Because I had just over 1/4 cup of the flour and seed mix I used in THIS bread, it was just a touch seedy. I won't have any of that available next time, so for the recipe below I'll just list all-purpose flour for all of it. This is totally not vegan, but it is delicious. Had some more this morning, with mixed fruit and coffee, for breakfast. Warmed it up in the toaster oven...still moist and yum.

Neither of these recipes are difficult, but the techniques are good ones. For the soup I started by 'sweating' the chopped onions in the olive oil. This means that I stirred the onions to coat them with the hot oil, then turned the heat to low and covered the pot. After a couple of minutes I stirred the onions and put the lid back on, still on low heat. I repeated that twice more, then added the garlic and did the same thing another two minutes. By the end I had translucent onions but none were browned and the garlic wasn't in the least burnt.

Another technique was cooking the zucchini. I steamed them for two minutes in the microwave before adding to the soup. That allowed them to release some liquid, which allowed them to soften a bit. Once added to the soup that softened squash was better able to soak up the flavors in the soup than raw squash would have been, so the soup was ready to enjoy sooner, but with full flavor.

For the soda bread a technique you may want to try is rubbing the butter into the flour. I did use a pastry blender to begin the process and to break most of the butter into roughly pea sized pieces. Rubbing those small pieces into the flour mixture meant that the batter absorbed the buttermilk mixture more easily, but there were still large enough pieces of butter for a good texture and crust, and a bit of crumble. I also stirred the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with spread fingers of a clean hand because that's a technique used in an Irish cooking school and also because you can quickly mix the dough without overbeating it. 

Because there is a lot of butter in the dough, you don't really need to butter the finished bread, but it's also OK to 'gild the lily' and delicious, too!

Veggie Soup
Serves 4

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes in juice 

32 oz canned chicken broth...or use homemade chicken broth

freshly ground black pepper...about 1/4 teaspoon, to taste

1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon  dried thyme
1 can cannelini or other white beans, drained but not rinsed

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1 small zucchini, quartered and sliced

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat, then stir the onions in the olive oil, then cover and turn to low and cook about two minutes. Repeat the stirring, covering, and 'sweating' over low heat for two minutes another two times, then add the garlic, stir well and sweat, covered, over low heat another two minutes.  Add the tomatoes and stir to loosen any veggies sticking to the pan. Add the chicken broth, white beans, including any sludge at the bottom of the can, and the seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the frozen vegetables, cover and heat on low while cooking the zucchini. Put the zucchini in a microwavable steamer, cover, and steam two minutes. Add to the soup, heat for another minute. Serve.

Maple Walnut Cranberry Soda Bread
Makes one small-ish loaf

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz. (1 stick) cold butter, cut in thin slices
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup moist dried cranberries (Craisins)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup buttermilk

Sift the dry ingredients over the butter and cut in well with a fork or pastry blender. Add nuts and cranberries; mix in gently but well. Add the maple syrup to the buttermilk and make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the buttermilk mixture, then mix just until moist - don’t over handle.

Some dry stuff is OK but the dough should be sticky.

Pat into a round on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cut a cross on top. Bake 30 minutes at 350 F. until crust has deep golden brown parts. Cool a bit before slicing.

Spring Is In The Air

You can tell that spring has come because I'm not posting as often. As usual the garden calls, with lots of weeds to pull and pots to get ready for planting. The snails this year are very active and invasive but there are too many to pull off leaves or pick up under plants and give 'flying lessons' to, so I may have to resort to chemicals, at least for the ornamentals. Watering in the morning has also been important since we just finished a week of record heat...into the low 90s!...and this week is only slightly cooler. We're getting apple blossoms now, which is nuts since they usually bloom in mid-April. The lilacs are only about a week early, but they sure are pretty!

Another call on my time is P.E.O, the womens' scholarships group that I've written about in the past. I've been a member for 22 years and this month I begin a year as chapter President again...I do it about once a decade; the first time 20 years ago, then 10 years ago. I enjoy it, mostly, but it takes a lot of time to do it right. This year our chapter alone is awarding over $26,000 in local scholarships, with hundreds of thousands being awarded at the state and international levels, so it's worth the time spent. Because a big part of the enjoyment is due to the friendships and fun I've found with the local members, there is that element of community and sisterhood that's worthwhile, too. Last, but not least, I learn a lot each time I take on this job. I enjoy learning new things, plus it helps keep the brain sharp, so that, too, is worth it.

I hope to post some new recipes soon, so don't give up on me, OK?

Happy Spring! 

Over Three Million and Bon Appetit and Lemon Sugar Cookies

Life is full of surprises. Didn't visit my blog yesterday, but it seems that sometime yesterday over 3 million views had happened during Feeding My Enthusiasms history. I knew it was getting close, but thought it would take a little longer.

Another surprise happened today when I typed my blog name into Google. It gave me a pictorial view of various links to the blog, including one from 2013 that I had no idea had occurred.  Bon Appetit online, I guess their blog (URL was bonappetit.com) in December of 2013 did a piece on bloggers who were inspired by their December magazine cover to decorate cookies in a similar way. That year my daughter had, for some reason, bought ninja cookie cutters and also metallic food safe powder (luster dust), so my cookies that year were different. They had flow icing and metallic decorations...and ninjas! 

Anyway I never knew that Feeding My Enthusiasms was featured, along with half a dozen other blogs. 

Speaking of cookies, I made another kind to go with the oatmeal chocolate chip ones. Old fashioned sugar cookies, where you dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and smoosh the dough flat so that it gets a sugar coating on the top of the cookie, are so retro, but delicious, especially if you add some lemon oil (or a larger amount of extract as shown in the recipe) to the dough. I also added the zest from a lemon and put some golden sanding sugar in with the regular granulated kind, so they were a bit more fun than plain old sugar cookies.

Smooshed Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons milk at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour

Beat together the butter or margarine and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. Mix well. Drop cookies from a teaspoon or tablespoons (depending on what size cookie you like), 1-inch apart on a lightly buttered cookies sheet. For smooshed cookies, flour or grease and sugar (may use cinnamon-sugar or colored sugar) bottom of a water glass and use bottom to smoosh the dough to about 1/4 inch thick discs of cookie dough. 

Bake in a preheated 375 degree F. oven for about 8 minutes. Makes 8-10 dozen small cookies or about half that large cookies.

Variation: Lemon cookies (what I made): Omit the vanilla, add 1 teaspoon lemon extract and 4 teaspoons grated lemon zest from the rind of a lemon. Once baked and cooled, you can also coat half of each cookie with melted chocolate for a two toned cookie, but just the lemon is delicious (I just did the lemon, no chocolate).