September Zipped By

Some months seem to drag...like August does for me. Some just fly by. September did that this year. Between being careful of the arm, doing the InDesign class and homework,  and having a couple of weeks at the end which were full of social occasions, it just blew through, with not enough time to blog much. I noticed that there was nothing posted this month in the way of sweets, so let's end with an update on an old cookie.

Saucepan Fruit Bars has been a family favorite for many, many years. It is easy, mixed in a saucepan, uses buttermilk, has dried fruit, a dense crumb, and a zingy lemon glaze to wake up the fairly plain cookie.

Spicy Updated Saucepan Fruit Bars keeps all of the above but subs out some all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour, adds finely chopped walnuts and a dose of chocolate chips and increases the spice a bit. The texture is still dense and a bit dry and it still needs the lemon glaze but it is much more complex in flavor and quite delicious with a cup of tea or coffee.

Remember this one when you need a quick pan of bar cookies, need to ship cookies to servicemen or students or your favorite friend who lives far away. These cookies are speedy to put together and travel well, too. I think they are really yummy, too, so you just might want to invite a neaby friend or neighbor over for an afternoon cuppa and these cookies.

Spicy Updated Saucepan Fruit Bars

1 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon each nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves
¼ cup buttermilk
½ cup golden or brown raisins
½ cup dried currants
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
½ cup chocolate chips

Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugars and stir to combine. Cool mixture, then add the eggs; beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients, spices, and buttermilk and mix well. Stir in fruit, walnuts and chocolate chips. Spread in greased 15” x 1O” x 1” pan. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 25 minutes. Brush with glaze (see below) while hot; cool in pan. Cut into 2” x 1” bars. Makes 45 cookies.

Glaze: Mix 1 cup confectioners sugar and 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice.

Late Rye Bread Worth the Wait

This lovely Rye Bread that has nostalgic meaning for Kitchen of the Month Elizabeth requires kneading and this month when the Bread Baking Babes...and many Buddies...posted their versions, I was still letting the old arm heal, so no kneading allowed.

Now we are into the 6th week post-injury and I'm supposed to start using it more, so I HAD to make the Fennel Molasses Rye Bread as part of my rehab :)

I'm not a huge fan of fennel or even caraway, so I added some pulverized dried orange peel instead. The molasses gives the bread a fantastic flavor. I used mild, not blackstrap, but it worked just fine. For the raisins I used golden raisins because thats what I had on hand. The dough is lovely and easy to work with. I decided to make rolls and they are extremely delicious!

This recipe is a keeper for sure. Thank you Elizabeth! I know I'm late to the BBB party, but it was worth the wait.

Molasses Fennel Rye Bread

based on Jack Francis' recipe for Molasses-Fennel Bread served at "Clark's by the Bay" restaurant in Collins Bay, Ontario (near Kingston) - now sadly closed
makes two round loaves (or 8 large rolls)

¼ c (63gm) lukewarm water
1½ tsp ( 6 5gm) active dry yeast
4 tsp (17gm) sugar
4 Tbsp (85gm) blackstrap molasses
1¾ c (438gm) water, room temperature
1 Tbsp (6gm) fennel seeds
½ tsp (1gm) ground dried ginger
1 c (103gm) rye flour
1 c (122 gm) whole wheat flour
½ c (59gm) wheat germ
2 c (254gm) unbleached all purpose flour
1 Tbsp (18gm) salt
¼ c (36gm) Thompson raisins
up to ½ c (64gm) unbleached all purpose flour for kneading

Mixing In a smallish bowl, whisk yeast with the lukewarm water (do the baby's bottle test on your wrist) until it resembles cream. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl large enough for the dough to double, pour the rest of the water. Stir in sugar and molasses. (If the molasses is stiff because of a chilly kitchen, use warm water instead of room temperature.) Add fennel seeds and ground ginger. Dump in flours, wheat germ and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour is mostly absorbed.

Add the yeast mixture (it should be quite foamy - if it is not after a period of 20 minutes have passed, either the yeast is dead or the water was too hot or far too cold. Check the due date on your yeast container. If the date hasn't passed, try again.) stir to form a rough dough. Cover the bowl with a plate and let sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.

Kneading Scatter a little of the flour for kneading onto a wooden board. Turn the dough out onto the board.

Wash and dry the mixing bowl. (Please do not be tempted to skip this step.)

Hand knead the dough 10 to 15 minutes, adding the smallest amounts of additional flour if dough is sticky. You don't have to use up all the flour. When the dough is springy and silky to the touch, knead in raisins.

Proofing Form the dough into a ball and put it in the clean bowl; cover it with a plate (there is no need to oil the bowl!) Let the dough rise in a no-draught place at room temperature (or in the oven with only the light turned on if you want) for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. Gently deflate dough. Recover with the plate and allow to rise until doubled again.

Gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board; cut it in half with a dough scraper if you have one, with a knife if you don't.

Shape into two round balls and place them (not touching) on a parchment papered pan or a cornmeal dusted peel. Dust the tops with flour. Cover with a clean tea towel followed by a large plastic bag overtop let rise until double in size. (about an hour if the temperature is around 20C)

Baking Place a breadstone, if you have one, on the middle to second from the top rack and preheat the oven to 400F.

If you want, slash the top of the rounds with a very sharp knife. Liberally spray the tops with water. Put bread in oven and immediately turn the oven down to 350F. Bake the bread on the middle to second from the top rack for 35-40 (I bake it for 45 50- 30-35) minutes until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 205-210F or until it is hollow sounding on the bottom. It's a good idea to turn the bread after about 20 minutes of half way through baking to allow for uneven heat in the oven (remove parchment paper at the same time).

Remove to cool on racks. Please wait until the bread is cool before cutting it. It's still baking inside! If you like to eat warm bread, reheat the bread after it has cooled.

 

We enjoyed these rolls with some butter, barely cooled from baking, then again this morning for breakfast. Awesome!

Beans Redux

Seems to take forever to actually get a post up these days. This bean dish was enjoyed last Thursday for my dinner before my InDesign class. It's starting to get exciting as I see new ways to do the book I'm working on, especially now that I have colors picked out and have collected a lot of the photos I'll be using. I tried out at least 6 cover ideas and I'm still not sure I have the right one, but at least I'm in the neighborhood, so to speak.

Anyhoo, the beans used in this recipe are the rest of the beans I cooked up for the Baked Beans. There is something very satisfying about a combination of beans and greens. It was a time saver that I could walk out the door and harvest four varieties of Swiss chard for the greens part and you can't get much fresher than that. I used the stems, too, which is what look a bit like red pepper in the photos. I would usually add garlic to this dish, cooking some minced garlic with the onions after the onions had cooked about half way, but since I was going to class I decided to just go with the onions. I still used some breath mints right before class. Onions are a bit smelly, too!

Feel free to add additional herbs, sausage or seitan, a can or helping of another kind of bean to make these even more interesting. Then dig in and have a nice, filling meal. Some whole grain bread would be great with this dish, too.

Beans and Greens

2 cups cooked beans...I used the Vallarta beans from the recipe in THIS post
1-2 tablespoons olive or grapeseed oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 large bunch greens, rinsed, large ribs removed, and washed well (I used chard but you could use kale, spinach, young collards, etc. instead)
1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Balsamic vinegar to taste

Reheat the beans in the microwave or in a pot on the stove.

While beans are reheating heat the oil in a medium sized pot, then sautee' the onion, stirring often, until the onion is transluscent are lightly brown, about 5-8 minutes. Add the prepared greens and stir to coat with the onions. Cover, reduce the heat to medium, and let cook for 2 minutes. Uncover, stir, and continue stirring until greens are limp. Add the heated beans and any bean liquid, parsley, salt and pepper. I also like a splash of balsamic vinegar with these.

Serve at once. If desired, sprinkle with more chopped parsley.
Serves 1-2

Awesome Baked Beans

Last May my older sister came to visit and at one of the stores in town we visited they were selling one pound sacks of unusual, heirloom dry beans from Rancho Gordo. I chose to try Vallarta They are described in the book from Rancho Gordo, Heirloom Beans, as a, "dense, soft yellow bean" and as being very rich and often paired with other ingredients, including greens like spinach, kale and chard.

I wish I could say that I tried them immediately and have since become someone who eats heirloom beans once a week or something, but the truth is that it took me until this week to cook them up and try them. Since they sounded like a bean that would taste good baked, I used two cups of the cooked beans to make some baked beans to go with fresh, roasted beets,

capresi salad with heirloom tomatoes, basil and fresh mozarella, plus some leftover meatballs from Costco and a plate of sliced cucumbers. everything except the cheese, meatballs and beans came from the garden and it was a satisfying meal. The beans were so rich that I ended up only eating one meatball and one slice of the cheese in the salad. Next time I'll serve the beans as a main course and forget about any meat. They really don't need it.

This is a pretty simple baked bean dish. If you don't have any freshly cooked beans on hand, you could substitute white beans or pinto beans from a can and still have a nice dish. Adjust the amount of molasses to suit your own taste. Some kinds are more potent than others and some people are fonder of molasses, too. Sweetie loves molasses and really like these beans. I didn't look at any recipes, just threw together things that seemed like they would make a nice pot of baked beans.

Baked Beans

2 cups cooked beans (I used Vallarta beans from Rancho Gordo). Recipe for cooking beans below.
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Combine beans and next four ingredients in an oven proof bowl or casserole. Taste for seasonings and add salt, pepper, and more molasses to taste.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes. Beans will be cooked through and crusty on top like the phot at the beginning of this post. Serve at once. Serves 2-4.

Cooking Dry Beans
I used a pound bag of beans and have enough left over after using 2 cups, cooked, for the baked beans that I can make another recipe. The instructions work for larger or smaller quantities of beans, but as long as you are taking the time to cook the dry beans, why not do at least a pound?

Pour the dry beans into a collander and rinse, making sure to check for any debris, small pebbles, etc. I didn't find any in my packet of beans, but have found some before when cooking lentils, so I always look. Place the rinsed beans in a large bowl and cover with cold or room temperature water. Let beans soak at least 3 hour, up to overnight. When ready to cook the beans, I poured out the soaking water and rinsed them again and set them aside. Some folks just put the beans, soaking water and all into the pot after they have cooked the mirepoix.

In the pot you will be cooking the beans, saute' a mixture of finely chopped onion, carrots and celery in a bit of bacon grease or olive oil or grapeseed oil. For the pound of beans I used 1/2 and onion, about 1/2 cup carrots and 2 stalks celery. This is the mirepoix.

To the mirepoix, once it is cooked long enough to color the carrots and so the onion is translucent, add the beans and stir to combine. Cover with water and enough extra water to be one inch over the beans. Bring to a boil, uncovered, and boil 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring often, let beans simmer until tender, somewhere between 1 and 4 hours, depending on the age of the bean and how it has been stored. When the beans are almost ready they really have a nice, beany smell which you will notice more than the onion-celery-carrot smell. Keep an eye on the liquid and add more room temperature water as needed. When the beans were almost tender I let some of the liquid cook down, so by the time they were done there was about 1/4 inch of beans above the bean cooking liquid. I also stirred the beans a lot to make sure that they cooked evenly.

Your beans are now ready to use in any recipe calling for cooked beans. Think of all the stews, chilies, soups, salads and so on that you can make. The Vallarta beans have even been used as ravioli stuffing, according to Steve Sando, one of the authors of Heirloom Beans. You can find Rancho Gordo beans and the book on the web, too.

Harvest

It begins in the chill of winter when I start the seeds germinating in the sunspace, continues with the planting of the sprouted seeds in the cell packs of soil, brings joy as the seedlings appear and grow even though it is still early spring and chilly outside. Eventually the seedlings get re-planted into bigger peat pots filled with more potting soil, are set out to harden off. The big day comes and the seedlings get planted in the garden, both in the soil, protected by gopher baskets, and in pots and half barrels of potting soil. Drip irrigation gets set up and tested and fixed where there are problems. Plants outside the irrigation system area get watered daily. In time fertilizer is applied, seedlings thinned where needed, plants caged or tied up as they grow taller.

 Flowering happens and in time 'fruit' is set and the beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash veggies get bigger day by day. The beets underground do, too. The chard and lettuce get leafier and leafier. The harvest for beans, peas, chard and lettuce is pretty quick and the zucchini also is ready to pick mere days after the blossom is set, but the beets and cucumbers take a while and the tomatoes take a long, long time. It really feels like harvest time when the tomatoes are ripe!

That time has come and we are really enjoying it. Fresh Black Krim, sliced, lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, it doesn't get much better than that. Fresh tomatoes have been going into salads, sandwiches, crostini spreads, chili, soups and more. The latest is a pasta 'sauce' of roasted Yellow Brandywine tomatoes and a few Russian Plums. They were drizzled with some olive oil before roasting and later tossed with some ground turkey that I had browned with a bit of onion. Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil was tossed in with the hot pasta. Sooo good! No recipe needed, right?

BTW the elbow wasn't broken, ligaments weren't torn, but muscle was, so left arm is getting lots of rest and right arm is getting a workout. PT coming up soon, too. Sweetie has been a champ through it all and continues to do things that are difficult, like fastening my seatbelt.

Time has also been taken up of late with a new InDesign class. We are doing a book for the class. If you look at the top right of this blog you'll see that I've done that...a cookbook in fact...but now I'm going to learn how to do even more. Expect another book to show up around Christmas. It is a lot of work, but tons of fun, too! Almost as much fun as harvest.

Roasted Veg Focaccia and Bum Arm

It's been quiet here at FME lately. one reason has been the delightful visit of Captain Jack and the Birthday Girl, but there is also the unfortunate matter of the bum arm. Have gotten moderately good at typing with only my right hand because a combination of accidents (apparently now insurance companies no longer call them injuries...they are accidents) starting with too tight a grip on an unfamiliar golf club, followed two weeks later with lifting a box which was much heavier than I knew. Had an x-ray yesterday at the hospital. With the Labor Day weekend, it will probably be Tues. before I hear back from the doc. This was a week after the doctor asked me to do a wait and see while resting the arm, which was 4 days after the box related injury, so it will be over two weeks after that I find out if anything is fractured! Guess I should have gone to the ER the day of the injury. Live and learn. Send chocolate!

On a lighter note, before all the serious stuff, I baked King Arthur Flour's Roasted Vegetable Focaccia using squash and grape tomatoes and basil from the garden. It has a lovely crust, a nice light & chewy texture and the veggies were a great topping.

When I make it next time I'm going to add fresh rosemary to the dough and sprinkle Parmesan on top of the veggies to bake on...will probably put the tomatoes on the dough at the same time as the squash, too. Putting them on later meant the slid off the crusted dough instead of sinking in.

Roasted Veg Focacciafrom King Arthur Flour

Starter

1/2 cup cool water
1/16 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Dough
all of the starter (above)
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water*
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
*Use 1 tablespoon less water in summer (or in a humid environment), 1 tablespoon more in winter (or in a dry climate).

Topping
3 pounds zucchini, about 6 medium zucchini*
olive oil
Pizza Seasoning, optional
2 bunches scallions, root ends trimmed*
1 pound cherry tomatoes*
shaved Parmesan cheese, optional
*Don't stress over exact amounts here; more or less of any of these ingredients is fine.

1) To make the starter: Mix the water and 1/16 teaspoon yeast, then add the flour, stirring until the flour is incorporated. The starter will be paste-like; it won't form a ball.

2) Cover and let rest at room temperature for about 14 hours; the starter will be bubbly. If you make this in the late afternoon, it'll be ready to go by the next morning.

3) Combine the risen starter with the remaining dough ingredients, and mix and knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine set on the dough cycle — to make a soft, smooth dough. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take about 7 minutes at second speed.

4) Place the dough in a lightly greased container, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour.

5) Gently deflate the dough, and allow it to rise for another hour; it should have doubled in bulk from its original volume.

6) Sometime during the dough's rise, prepare the vegetables. Trim the zucchini, and slice about 3/4" thick. Toss with olive oil; sprinkle with Pizza Seasoning (or other dried herbs), if desired. Spread the zucchini, in a single layer, on a lightly greased baking sheet.

7) Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Toss them with olive oil and Pizza Seasoning or dried herbs. Place them, cut-side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut the scallions into 2" to 3" pieces. Toss in oil, sprinkle with herbs, and place on the baking sheet along with the tomatoes.

8) Place the vegetables in a preheated 400°F oven. Bake the zucchini, turning it over once, until it's golden brown. This will take about 60 minutes. Bake the scallions and tomatoes until they're starting to brown and soften, about 25 to 30 minutes.

9) Remove the vegetables from the oven, use a spatula to gently loosen them from the pan, and set them aside.

10) Lightly grease an 18" x 13" rimmed baking sheet (half-sheet pan) with non-stick vegetable oil spray. Drizzle olive oil atop the spray; the spray keeps the bread from sticking, while the olive oil gives the bottom crust great crunch and flavor.

11) Gently deflate the dough. Pull and shape it into a rough rectangle, and pat it into the pan. As soon as it begins to fight you and shrink back, stop patting. Wait 15 minutes; pat the dough farther towards the edges of the pan. Repeat once more, if necessary, until the dough is close to covering the bottom of the pan.

12) Place the zucchini atop the dough. Cover the pan, and allow the dough to rise until it's very puffy, almost billowy. This will take about 2 to 3 hours. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

13) Place the pan on a lower rack in your oven, and bake the focaccia for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, top with the scallions and tomatoes, return to the oven, and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until the crust around the edges (and showing between the vegetables) is golden brown.

14) Remove the focaccia from the oven, and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Yield: one focaccia, 8 to 10 servings.

Notes: I used my sourdough starter instead of the starter in the recipe. I forgot the Parmesan shards.
I didn't have any scallions, so used yellow onion, minced, instead. Still yummy!

Who Knew? A Quinoa Dish I Enjoy

Quinoa, that ancient grain that is supposed to be so good for us, has been on my radar screen for a while. I've tried it a couple of times but found it bland and weird looking.

Who knew that Big Sis would have a recipe (not so great photo below) using Trader Joe's frozen Quinoa Duo with Vegetable Melange... a product of France!...that I just love. It starts with portobello mushrooms, those big, lucious, 'meaty' brown mushrooms that had super dark gills that need to be removed before using. The de-gilled and de-stemmed portobellos are then marinated in a balsamic mixture, then grilled, then stuffed with the quinoa mixture (which has been microwaved) for a super easy, delicious, slightly spicy and perfectly satisfying meatless meal. I served fresh-from-the-garden Black Krim heirloom tomatoes (photo at top), sliced and given nothing more than a grinding of black pepper. They were heavenly! Some seeded sourdough bread filled out the menu.

So what is in this quinoa mixture? Both red and white quinoa, zucchini, sweet potato, olive oil, tomato sauce, onions, galangal, spices, soy sauce, hot pepper, carrots, leeks, garlic, herbs, lemon juice and some salt and sugar. I could probably make my own, especially at this time of year, but it sure is handy to have it ready to go once microwaved.

The marinade for the mushrooms included olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine and both fresh oregano and fresh thyme.

We have been busy getting ready for a visit from Captain Jack and his sweetie. The airobed sprung a leak while we were setting it up which slowed things down. I tracked down some night lights to help with the trek up the stairs to the bedroom, plus brought up some flowers from the garden for R. It will be something like 3 am their time by the time we get home from the airport tonight, so I want them to feel welcome and be able to just fall into bed.

I probably won't be posting too much for a few days while we do some visiting and sight seeing with them. Au revoir. In the meantime do try this dish!

Mushrooms Stuffed with Quinoa and Vegetables

1. Remove the gills from 3-4 portobello mushrooms and put them in a ziplock bag with the marinade (either balsamic vinegar alone or a balsamic vinaigrette:
2 - 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
Mix all ingredients in the zip lock bag. Add the mushrooms. Zip bag closed. Lay flat, turn now and then so that the marinade soaks both sides of the mushrooms).


2. Leave mushrooms to marinate at room temperature for an hour or so (or as long as you have time for).

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or preheat the grill ;-)

4. Cook frozen quinoa mix in microwave according to directions. (In my frugal style, I usually dice up the mushroom stems and add them to the quinoa before cooking it.)

5. Line a baking pan with foil and remove mushrooms from marinade and put open side up on foil.

6. Fill mushrooms with quinoa and bake until heated through (20 minutes or so). Or for the grill option I used,  grill the mushrooms for about 10 minutes per side, fill with hot quinoa mixture and serve! The taste of the grilled version is superior by far. The quinoa mixture fills 3-4 portobello mushrooms.

Serve at once.

Happy Centennial Julia!

A hundred years ago today Julia Child was born. Even though it took her half a lifetime to get her iconic cookbook published, she is an American institution and expert on French cooking. Although she died a few years ago in 2004, she spent many years encouraging Americans to take food seriously, as the French do, and she did a lot to bring professionalism to American restaurants and chefs and particularly encouraged women to be food professionals.

Her enthusiasm was legend and so was her energy! In researching recipes, first for Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but later for other cookbooks and TV programs, she repeated and repeated them until she not only had great recipes, but she understood why and how they were great.

I most admire her work ethic. For example, Mastering the Art of French Cooking took years of hard work, researching the classic way of making iconic French foods, cooking them over and over with slight variations, typing them up, sharing them with Simca, more revisions, and then finding her way through the whole cookbook publishing process...hundreds and hundred of hours!

One recipe that sometimes scares off potential bakers is her recipe for Pain Français, French Bread. The ingredients are really simple...flour, water, yeast and salt. Technique is the name of the game and she spells out every bit of it, so it takes something like 15 pages. I think that our hostess, Susan of Wild Yeast, the Bread Baking Babes Kitchen of the Month, has included a summary of the recipe in her post, so I won't. The full 15 or so pages can be found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The really wonderful thing is that if you follow the recipe, you, too, will have some batards (short baguettes) of excellent, delicious French bread! It might take a lifetime to learn how to slash the tops for the perfect looking loaf, but even less elegant renditions are soooo good. Just give it a try.

This month, to celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday, the Bread Baking Babes are posting a day early so that the posts can be ON her birthday. We are also baking, just this once, WITH our Buddies...they will be posting their breads today, too! As Julia would say, "Hooray!" Visit the Babes blogs and Susan might have links for the Buddies.

Since I like sourdough style French Bread, I used my sourdough starter to make the bread, but the dough was still soft, the dough rose triple high where it was supposed to, I shaped it carefully as directed by Julia and let it rest in floured linen troughs as required.

The only thing that didn't work out too well was that my slashes didn't seem to be deep enough, so the expansion happened at the sides, toward the bottom of the loaves. Otherwise these were excellent examples of French Bread and were consumed with delight. I did manage to hide the last third of the second loaf so that I could make bruchetta with the last slices.

Sending this over to Susan, our dear Babe of the month, at Wild Yeast for her awesome Yeastspotting weekly event of all things yeasted. Check it out!

Bon Appetit!

P.S. Jama R is doing a whole week of posts of Queen Julia. She is also giving away some books related to Julia Child. Go to her blog Jama's Alphabet Soup to check it out!

Blackberry Friendship

Years and years ago I remember meeting up with a family member about this time of year. We had both come a ways...maybe an hour or two. I had a cardboard box and we were sitting at a picnic table. I opened the box and there was a layer of newspaper. I took that out of the box and there was a layer of scrunched up newspapers. I took those out too, to reveal the top of a casserole, covered in foil. Around the casserole, filling the box at the sides, were more scrunched up newspapers. This was obviously something special nestled in that box.

Once the casserole came out of the box and the foil was removed it all became clear. This was an iconic summer dessert to share...peach blackberry crisp, still warm from the oven, thanks to all that packing material.

I scooped out portions into the paper bowls I had brought along, gave them a splash of cream from the thermos and we feasted! Blackberries are ripe at the same time as peaches and they have a long standing friendship as far as I can tell. They are both juicy and sweet with a bit of tang. I think that heating them up brings out the best of both peaches and blackberries, but somehow the combination of the two together, all sweet and warm and syrupy is sublime.

 Add the crunch of the crisp made with butter, flour, brown sugar, oats, spices and chopped nuts and life is good indeed. Top it with some cool cream and you hit the jackpot of desserts. At home we sometimes substitute vanilla frozen yogurt for the cream.

I wish that our new dog Pi and our longtime favorite cat Merlin got along as well as the peaches and blackberries. Pi has stopped chasing things for weeks now and is settling in. Merlin hangs out under the blackberries, allows Sweetie to feed him, with Merlin complaining all the while, and then Merlin walks a short distance away, and turns his back on Sweetie as he sits down. Not a forgiving cat so far. I go down and pet him and pull the foxtails and weeds out of his fur but he won't come to the house. Now the fragrance of blackberries reminds me of his unhappiness as well as of many other, happy memories. I'll bet as it gets chilly and the rains come that we will again see Merlin up at the house. Hope so.

Peach and Blackberry Crisp

3-4 peaches
1 pint blackberries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon, freshly grated if possible, nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Peel and pit and slice the peaches. Rinse the blackberries and pick out any leaves or similar debris. Place the sliced peaches and the blackberries in an oven-proof bowl or casserole, stir in the brown sugar and nutmeg, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes. The fruit should be bubbly hot.

While the fruit is cooking, melt the butter in a small pan.  In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in the nuts. Mixture will be crumbly.

Remove cooked fruit from the oven, remove the foil and spread the crumb mixture evenly over the hot fruit. Return the fruit to the oven and bake another 15 minutes, or until crisp is golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes.

Serve in bowls. Great topped with cream, half and half, or ice cream. Serves 4-6.

Cheese

Nope, I'm not going to take your picture. I just want to rave about one of my favorite foods, cheese.

When I was pregnant with my son, who was born 30 years ago this coming Sunday, I found out that I was lactose intolerant. Any kind of dairy would leave me with bloating and gas and feeling very uncomfortable. It became a sort of game to find the dairy products in foods...you would be amazed where one finds things like whey and casein. As it turned out, Max was the one with the lactose intolerance, not me, so I kept off of dairy products until I finished nursing him.

The dairy product I missed most was cheese. I love the bite of a good sharp cheddar, the creamy texture of a ripe brie, the savory tang of good blue cheese, how Parmesan seems to make anything better, and how the mellow nuttiness of Swiss is good at enhancing all sorts of ingredients. Feta cheese is wonderful in salads and by itself for a snack. I love all of them and many more.

Today I splurged a little and had a toasted cheddar cheese (Dubliner) sandwich with fresh from the garden tomatoes and basil. The cheese melted, the tomatoes heated up which intensified their wonderful summery flavor and the basil added its unique fragrance and flavor. This kind of sandwich is one of the pleasures of summer time. The bread was a nice 7-grain loaf with some crunch once grilled a bit. With a handful of ripe Bing cherries and a cup of Irish Breakfast tea I was a happy woman.

Do you have a favorite cheese or favorite recipe using cheese? If you send me a photo (to plachman at sonic dot net) I'll post it here.

In the meantime I'll share a photo I took of a white lily that is sending its heady fragrance into the kitchen from the windowsill. I still have a few lilies that haven't opened. Lilies are one of the pleasures of the season, too.

Perhaps Its Silly

Usually I avoid posting recipes that seem too simple to be called a recipe but I recently saw a recipe in a newspaper or magazine for broccoli steamed with some fresh thyme added. That person got paid to include a recipe that basically said to add thyme sprigs to the broccoli you were steaming. So maybe I'm being silly when I decide to not post something really simple or perhaps it still is silly to post it. Who knows? Since I'm working on posting many of the things we eat and like enough to eat again, our almost-daily fruit bowl is next up.

Having a bowl of fruit with our breakfast has become a habit, one that Sweetie started years ago when he retired. Even though the melon during part of the year is not terribly flavorful, we still seem to like that kind of fruit in the breakfast bowl. Now that it is August, the local melons are here and they are fragrant, sweet, juicy and full of flavor.

My favorite is the cantaloupe with its pale gold netting and firm but juicy orange flesh. You can tell if a cantaloupe is ripe by putting it close to your nose and taking a good sniff. A ripe melon has a deep melon fragrance. The stem end also is usually soft, but if you don't get at least some melon fragrance, don't waste your money.

You can obviously add or subtract any favorite fruit here, as well as adjust the amounts depending on what you like and how much you have on hand. We prep the melons when we bring them home from the store, so there is usually a storage container or bowl full of cut up chunks of melon. Being somewhat lazy in the morning before I've had my coffee, I tend to keep the additions to fruits that don't require much prep. Blackberries (picked in advance), blueberries and banana all fit that requirement. Cherries and stone fruits like peaches, nectarines and apricots that need peeling and slicing and having the pits removed are wonderful in a fruit bowl if you have the patience to do that prep in the morning. In general those fruits are less successful if they are prepared the night before. They tend to get mushy or to have brown edges...same with apples.


Breakfast Fruit Bowl

Chunks of:
cantaloupe
watermelon
honey dew melon

Handfuls of:
blackberries
strawberries
grapes
blueberries

On top slice:
half a banana per bowl

Vary the combination of fruits depending on the season and what you have on hand. The half of a banana seems to be the one fruit we never skip including.

Return to Golf

A couple of years ago Sweetie and I played golf together on a local 9 hole course once a week. We both enjoyed it but after a time the rains seemed to come the day before of the day of our game and this local place doesn't have the best drainage. In time Sweetie fell from the roof of the shed and his shoulder wasn't up for golf. This spring we were hoping to start playing again but things kept coming up that got in the way. Finally we have started to play again. Today was the second time.

It's beginning to look like we will be lucky to play twice a month. That's a shame because golf seems to be one of those sports that depends on regular practice if you want to improve. Still, some time out there in the green is better than none. The time I've been spending at the gym with the weights also seems to have helped my golf game. I can hit a lot further without too much effort. Now I have to pay attention and use the right club for the conditions, along with 20,000 other things to think about as you hit the ball or line up to hit. Never boring! As long as it keeps on being fun we will make sure to get out and play.

We came home just in time to have lunch and watch some Women's Soccer in the Olympic games. The USA women were playing against the Canadian women and it was far from a shoe-in for either team. They were well matched and played their hearts out. I just wish they could pass the ball as precisely as the men do.

 I made some bruchetta to snack on and then a nice bowl of salad with three kinds of lettuce, avocado, tomato, yellow zucchini, cucumber (the last three from our garden), some feta cheese and kidney beans. Yummy! (Forgot to take a photo, but the tomatoes in the photo at the top of the post are just like the ones in the salad...does that help?)

 I was still hungry, so I ate a handful of mini carrots and drank some water. It was a tense game right up to the amazing header at the end. Munching carrots seemed to help me keep from yelling too much. I remember when Max used to play that I had a tendency to stand behind Sweetie or our daughter and pound on their shoulders when the game became intense. I guess it doesn't have to be the Olympics for me to feel for those athletes giving their all. Well done Canada and USA women!

Summer Lunch Salad
(although it works for dinner, too, if you have enough of it)

1 head romaine lettuce, washed, dried and torn or cut into bite size pieces
1 head butter lettuce, washed, dried and torn or cut into bite size pieces
1 small head iceberg lettuce, washed, dried and torn or cut into bite size pieces
1 large or two medium ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks or wedges
1 avocado, peeled, seed discarded, cut into chunks or wedges
1 cucumber, cut into chunks or wedges. If it is a waxed cucumber, peel it before cutting up
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/2 - 1 cup kidney beans, drained and rinsed
salad dressing of your choice...I used ranch dressing

Place all salad greens in a large salad bowl. Add the tomato, avocado, cucumber. Toss. Sprinkle with the feta cheese and top with the kidney beans, distributing the beans evenly over the salad in the bowl.

Serve with salad tongs, being sure to get some of all the ingredients. Top with salad dressing of your choice.

Blackberry Syrup

When I was talking, in recent post, about the harvest starting to be ready to pick I completely forgot to mention the blackberries. We must have gotten just the right combination of rain and sun and fog because the blackberries this year are gorgeous and plentiful.

Sweet and juicy, we usually just eat them out of hand or put some in with the morning fruit or with our cereal. Every now and then I take some of the berry baskets I save from year to year and I spend some time picking enough blackberries to have some fun with.

This time I used a recipe I saw in the August issue of Sunset magazine to make a blackberry syrup. One of the nice side effects of the effort is that, as the syrup simmers, the whole house smells like ripe blackberries. I did such a great job of simmering that I ended up with something closer to a jam than a syrup, but when I was ready to use it I just mixed in a little water and heated it up in the microwave. I also made a third of the amount in the recipe because it was too hot that day to pick 3 pounds of blackberries!  I started with 3/4 pound of berries, weighed on my scale, then adjusted the amount of sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice proportionally.

A stash of already cooked sourdough waffles waiting the freezer meant that a luxurious breakfast of sourdough waffles with fresh strawberries topped with blackberry syrup was quick and easy. I heated the waffles in the toaster oven so that they were hot and crisp, dropped a large handful of sliced strawberries on top, then enhanced that with a generous helping of warm, sweet, fragrant blackberry syrup. The perfect summer breakfast and you don't even need butter on the waffles! Don't forget, National Waffle Day for Americans is August 24th. Can you wait that long?

Since these waffles had been made with half whole wheat flour and some flax seed meal they were even healthy. You can find the basic sourdough waffle recipe here. It is a good one because you start the batter the night before, so the batter is ready to bake right away, sometimes even before the waffle iron has heated up.

With the addition of a little more flour in the batter you could make these up as sourdough pancakes and cook them in a frying pan. The strawberries and blackberry syrup will still taste great. No strawberries? Fresh sliced nectarines or peaches would be delightful with this syrup.

Blackberry Syrup
Makes 6 half-pint jars

3 pounds fresh blackberries
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice

Prepare 6 half-pint canning jars and lids. One of the reasons I made a smaller amount was that I didn't have time to do the canning part. If you have the time and know how to can, and have enough berries, by all means do the full recipe.

Put berries, sugar, lemon zest and juice and 3/4 cup water into a wide pot. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit releases juices, about 30 minutes.

Smash berries with a potato masher. Cook until juices have thickened, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes more.

Strain syrup into a 2 quart glass measuring cup. Press fruit with a ladle or spatula to push remaining juice into the cup. Discard seeds and pulp.

Pour strained syrup into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Can, processing 10 minutes. If you want to learn about canning, go to sunset.com/canning.

Use the syrup drizzled over pancakes, yogurt, ice cream or, as I did, waffles.

Sweet Success

Last February I started my first independent graphic artist job with some trepidation. I've been a graphic artist for years but am new to the book publishing part of it. I knew that I had the skills and the savvy and the eye for the job but I'd never even though about a children's book and that is what the client wanted as the end product. It helped that I love to read to children, so I had a feel for the flow that you want when your read to youngsters, but this book is meant for children at about the third grade level and they are often reading to themselves.

It is a charming story but also has a good dose of science included. One of the challenges was to make it more eye catching and colorful so that the science sort of sneaks in while the story carries you along. The result is called Saving Walter.

Saturday I was presented with a copy of the just-delivered book, fresh from the printers. It really is a beauty, reads well, has lots of color and a beautiful look and feel, and was worth the many hours spent making it as perfect as anything can be in this world, which is to say just a bit imperfect, but nothing that anyone but the author and myself would notice. Sweet success!

To celebrate the arrival of the book I made a Party Cookie shaped like the book and iced in white and blue, just like the background of the book cover. I even added blue and white sparkling sugar. Then I printed the logo on best-quality photo paper and cut it out and sort of glued it to the top of the cookie with more of the white icing. It was a big hit with Paula and her hubby...and delicious, too.

Congratulations to Paula Cumming Pearce on the completion and publishing of Saving Walter, Every Drop Counts, a book about the water cycle and water conservation. Walter is a fresh raindrop and, after learning about the water cycle,  he evaporates with his Dad, ending up in a cloud where he meets other water drops. He hears how they have been wasted and how people can change their ways to prevent future waste of water. The water drops all have their own personalities and problems, plus solutions. It's a fun book!

If you would like to purchase a copy of Saving Walter, e-mail Paula: glenoaks at sonic dot net.

Giant Party Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar, light or dark, packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
½ cup quick rolled oats
2 cups (12-oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped nuts
For book shaped cookie:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons hot milk
blue food coloring, or whatever color(s) you need
more confectioners' sugar as needed

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape bowl and beaters. Gradually beat in flour and beat until mixed. Beat in oatmeal. Mixture will be stiff. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Line a 12” pizza pan with foil. Spray with cooking spray. Put 2 cups of the dough on the foil. Using floured fingers, shape dough into desired shape. Make shape about 10” in diameter. Exaggerate the shape since cookie will spread. Square or rectangular shapes can be made on foil lined rectangular cookie sheet (although I used a silicon mate lined one).

Bake one sheet at a time in middle of oven for 15 - 18 minutes until golden brown. Let sit on sheet for 10 minutes, then slide shape on foil onto a cooling rack. Continue to bake the rest of the dough. You can make regular drop cookies with the remainder of the batter if desired.

Once the shaped party cookie has cooled, decorate for a party! Mix the confectioners' sugar and milk and drizzle over the cookie in a random pattern. While it is still wet, sprinkle cake decorations over as desired. Extra confectioners' sugar can be added to make a thicker icing if desired.

For the book shaped cookie, I took a teaspoon of the icing and put it in a zip top bag. I added a drop of blue food color and zipped it closed, then kneaded in the color. A small snip off the corner allowed me to squeeze streaks of blue over the white icing. I took a small spatula and pulled it along the blue lines to mix them in a bit, then sprinkled blue sparkle sugar on the blue parts and white sparkle sugar on the white parts. The logo finished it off.

What to Do with the Rest of the Beans

Only one cup of cooked cranberry beans were left after making the awesome Cranberry Bean Salad. I cleaned out the fridge today and there they were...poor, unloved beans. I also found that the crisper had ample amounts of fresh spinach, half a yellow onion, some red bell pepper that needed using up, lots of celery and some carrots that were starting to dry out. There was no doubt in my mind that the answer was...SOUP. With the fog scheduled to roll in by dinnertime I knew it would be cool enough to enjoy some soup. The fridge clean out also inspired me to make some salmon egg rolls, but that's for another post.


I often don't post soups that I make because it seems so simple to me to make soup. This time it turned out so well that I want the recipe just as I made it for future reference. It is still pretty simple, but these days I forget what I had for dinner last night, so it is likely I won't remember the exact proportions and that might just be the secret for why this soup was so savory and delicious.

I started, as I usually do, with chopped onion, sauteed in a little olive oil. Garlic goes in after the onion has had some time to soften. Chopped celery and red pepper went in next, followed closely by chopped carrot. That all cooked for about 3 minutes before I added some yellow zucchini, covered the pot, turned the heat way down, and sweated the mixture for a while...about 10 minutes.

Then I gave it a good stir and turned the heat up to high...that allowed the excess liquid to steam off and also some of the veggies had some nice browned spots on them. Before brown could turn to black I added chopped tomato including juice. That deglazed the pan nicely! Fresh spinach was stirred in until it wilted. The beans were added, along with thyme, sage, dried orange peel, paprika, and pepper. Again the the pot was covered and the heat turned low. Another 10 minutes allowed all those wonderful flavors to combine. After uncovering again I added some broth and gave it all a stir. Covered again the mixture simmered another 20 minutes.

The soup smelled sooo good and tasted even better. Often I try a new recipe and make notes right away on what to do differently next time. This time I wouldn't change a thing. Quite unusual, but now you know why I want to save this recipe...and why I want to share it with you.

Cranberry Bean and Veggie Soup
serves 2-4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 medium zucchini (any color) sliced lengthwise in quarters and then sliced in 1/4 inch slices
1-2 medium tomatoes, cored and chopped...keep the juice for the pot
3-4 cups fresh spinach, rinsed
1 cup cooked cranberry beans (see THIS recipe for cooking the beans)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon dried orange peel
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
pepper to taste
1 can (1 3/4 cups) vegetable or chicken broth

In a soup pot heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, stir and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, stir and cook another minute. Add the celery, bell pepper, and carrot and stir. Cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the zucchini and stir. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover and turn heat to high. Cook another 3 minutes, stirring about every 30 seconds. Vegetables will brown a little bit.

Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot and stir. Lower the heat to medium. Use a wooden or nylon spoon to scrap any dark brown or black bits from the bottom and sides of the pan. Add the fresh spinach and stir. Let cook another minute to wilt the spinach. Add the cooked beans, dried thyme, dried orange peel, paprika, sage and pepper to taste. Cover and cook 10 minutes over low heat.

Uncover, add the broth, recover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve. If desired, sprinkle a little grated Parmesan cheese over the soup in the bowl before serving.

Fresh Tomato Bruchetta

Summer is in full swing. The garden plants get larger and larger. One of the squash plants has sprawled so far onto the sidewalk that it's hard to get by without stepping on leaves.

The wild flowers have joined up with the rose bush on the other side of the garden path...meaning the path is impossible to see. I waded in there today and discovered a hidden zucchini that wins the prize for this season's baseball bat squash. Today I was also able to take Grandma L a fresh Mule Team tomato, a nice cucumber, and three zucchini; one green and two yellow. The folks at the gym will probably soon tire of our thrice weekly gift of more of that same squash and we are eating it at least three times a week ourselves. Good thing we like squash!

The tomatoes are finally ripening so expect to see recipes using them for a while. Bruchetta is one of the things I only make when the tomatoes come in. This is truly a seasonal treat. Fresh, vine ripened tomatoes and good quality olive oil can make this sublime. If you must make these out of season, use the best quality, ripest tomatoes you can find, even if you have to spend a little more for them. You can also use other toppings than tomato. Cannelli beans (warmed) mixed with some sage and lemon zest and maybe a little more garlic is delicious. Bitter greens can be wilted and seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil and piled on the toasts.

The base for these beauties should be a flavorful, firm bread. Baguettes work well if sliced at an angle so there is more real estate for the toppings. Sweetie brought an Acme baguette back when he went to Berkeley, so I used some of that, sliced in half lengthwise and then into pieces. Country breads work well as long as there are no large holes (unless you don't mind drippy bruchettas). Traditionally the bread is grilled, but I did mine in the toaster oven and that worked fine. Usually olive oil goes on the bread, sometimes only brushed on one side, but I just mixed some oil into my tomato topping, along with the garlic. Not traditional, but the flavors are still there and the tomatoes just sparkle with their light coat of shiny oil.

Although the toasts can be made in advance, the topping should only be added right before you serve these. That way you keep the crisp texture of the toasts, which contrast so well with the juicy, soft, aromatic tomato bits, the pungent garlic and olive oil and the fragrance of fresh basil which is a harbinger of good summer eating. Make more than you think you will need...these are always a hit!

Bruchetta for Two

4-6 thin slices flavorful, firm bread
1 medium to large fresh, ripe tomato
1 tablespoon best quality olive oil
1 clove garlic
3-4 leaves fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste

Toast the bread slices to a golden brown color. If possible, use a grill to toast them.

Chop the tomato into very small dice and place in a medium bowl, keeping as much tomato juice as possible with the tomatoes. Add the olive oil, mince the garlic and add, finely chop the basil and add it to the bowl.

Stir the tomato, oil, garlic and basil together. When you are ready to serve the bruchetta, warm the toasts, place them on the serving platter and top with 1/4 of the tomato mixture. If you have a few tiny basil leaves you can garnish the bruchetta with them. Add salt and pepper to taste...although you may not need any. Serve at once.