I Found My Thrill...

I love warm fruit desserts, and wanted to make one with my giant supply of blueberries.  I was tempted by this slump recipe, but opted for a more simple Williams Sonoma blueberry crisp that got good reviews on line.

It was really really good, and I will definitely make it again because it was so quick and easy.  Daphne had a great time helping me make it (and helping me and Kev eat it!).

Next time, I'll try the slump, though. 

Here's the crisp recipe...I almost want to go get more blueberries so I can make more.  I melted a little extra butter and poured it over the oats mixture to get a crispier crust.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for maximum enjoyment.

Williams Sonoma Blueberry Crisp

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter or margarine,
   at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup rolled oats

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish with butter or margarine, or spray with vegetable cooking spray.

Spread the blueberries evenly over the bottom of the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the lemon juice.

In a bowl, using a pastry blender or fork, mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter and rolled oats until well combined. Sprinkle evenly over the blueberries.

Bake until the top is golden and the blueberries are bubbling, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Serve hot or warm.

Serves 6.

Summer is for Grilling

So, we - or actually Kev - grilled some salmon on cedar planks, which makes it taste extra good.  You should be able to find cedar planks at the grocery store with the charcoal and other grilling things.  Read the directions.  You have to soak them first or they will catch on fire.

The recipe we used is just one I found on line, here.  I followed it exactly,  except I left off the chopped green onions.  Daphne loves salmon, so it's something we should try to make more often.  It's so easy to just cook it in the oven if it isn't grilling season.  You may remember this one...so good.

Anyway, here's what we did on the grill.  Healthy and delicious.

Cedar Plank Salmon

Ingredients

• 3 (12 inch) untreated cedar planks
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 (2 pound) salmon fillets, skin removed

Directions

1. Soak the cedar planks for at least 1 hour in warm water. Soak longer if you have time.
2. In a shallow dish, stir together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, ginger, and garlic. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for at least 15 minutes, or up to one hour.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat. Place the planks on the grate. The boards are ready when they start to smoke and crackle just a little.
4. Place the salmon fillets onto the planks and discard the marinade. Cover, and grill for about 20 minutes. Fish is done when you can flake it with a fork. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the grill.

Summer Ain't Bad, Part 2

My favorite summer activity is blueberry picking at Eagle Tree Farm.   It is so relaxing.  You just sort of get in a rhythm and go.

We made it home with 8.5 pounds of blueberries.  I have big plans for them.  But since I had some buttermilk, I decided the first thing to do was make blueberry pancakes.  For dinner.  Summer ain't bad.

 I used this recipe from Williams Sonoma for the buttermilk pancakes, and  dropped a few blueberries on each of them as they cooked on the first side.  It was like having dessert. For dinner.

Here is the recipe.  You can just ignore tha part about the molds.  Unless you want to use molds.  And don't forget to add blueberries if you have 'em!

Williams Sonoma Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 Tbs. vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray
• Maple syrup for serving

Directions:

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until frothy. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla. Stir just until the batter is smooth and no lumps of flour remain; do not overbeat.

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat until a few drops of water flicked onto the surface skitter across it. Lightly grease the griddle and the inside surface of the pancake molds with vegetable oil, or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set the molds on the griddle and heat until hot.

Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into each mold. Cook until bubbles form on top and the batter is set, about 2 minutes. Remove the molds and, using a spatula, flip the pancakes. Cook until golden brown on the other side, about 2 minutes more. Keep warm until all the pancakes are cooked.

Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil to the griddle as needed. Serve with maple syrup.

Makes 12 pancakes; serves 4.

Williams-Sonoma Kitchen.

Summer Ain't Bad - Part 1

Most people who know me probably know that summer is my least favorite season.  I shall spare you the (long) list of all the things that create significant drag for me in the summertime, because this blog is a happy place.  Instead, I am going to try to embrace summer this year by celebrating the things about it that are good.

For example, corn.  Corn is good.  It's really hard to beat fresh local sweet summer corn.  It's so good, you don't even need to do anything to it.  Just eat it right off the cob.  It's like candy.

That being said, there are ways to kick up corn, and my favorite way is Chili Lime Butter.  Oh my goodness.

Here is what you do.  Mash up about 1/2 a stick of room temperature butter with about a teaspoon (heaping) of chili powder and the zest of a lime until it's combined.  Cook some corn.  It really should be fresh summer corn, but you could do this with frozen stuff if it's the middle of winter and you're desperate.   Put some of the chili lime butter on the corn when it's nice and hot so it melts through.  Then, squeeze some lime juice over it.  Don't be shy with the lime juice.  You can add salt and pepper if you want, but you won't really need it.  Taste it first, and then decide. So good.  I swear.  Thank you, summer, for corn.

One of my Favorites

On Tuesday, I spent the afternoon volunteering at Daphne's school and knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to cook, so I decided to make one of my favorite easy meals, Pappardelle with Pork Ragu.  I found this recipe last year on one of my favorite food blogs, Dinner A Love Story (link on sidebar).  I usually make this in the oven, but this time I tried doing it in the slow cooker.  It was still good, but not quite as good as if it had been braised in the oven.  This recipe makes a LOT of food, so it's great for guests, or for weeks when you need leftovers.  The only things I change are swapping the tomatoes for tomato sauce, and adding some garlic.  It's better with garlic. I served it with this salad made with lettuce from our garden!  Yay! 

Here is the original recipe...all credit goes to DALS.  Check out their blog...really good stuff.  And a cookbook from them is coming soon!

Pappardelle with Pork Ragu

2 to 2 1/2-pound boneless pork shoulder roast
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small pat butter
1 large can whole tomatoes, with juice
1 cup red wine
5 sprigs fresh thyme
5 sprigs fresh oregano
Small handful of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon hot sauce, for smokiness (I used Trader Joe’s Hot Chili Sauce)
Pappardelle
Freshly grated Parmesean

Preheat oven to 325°F. Liberally salt and pepper the pork roast. Add olive oil and butter to large Dutch oven and heat over medium-high until butter melts, but does not burn. Add pork roast to pan and brown on all sides, about 8-10 minutes in all. Add tomatoes, wine, thyme, oregano, and hot sauce and bring to a boil. Cover, and put in oven. Braise for 3-4 hours, turning every hour or so. Add more liquid (water, wine, or tomato sauce) if needed. (The liquid should come to about 1/3 of the way up the pork.) Meat is done when it’s practically falling apart. Put on a cutting board and pull it apart with two forks, then add back to pot and stir. Cook 1 to 2 pounds pasta according to package directions. When it’s is ready, put into individual bowls and top with ragu and lots of Parm.

Birthday Pie

Over the weekend, we hosted Daphne's sixth birthday party.  She decided on a Texas/Cowgirl theme, and I was struggling with what to put on the cupcakes I usually make for birthday parties.  (I always opt for cupcakes instead of one big cake because of the potential germs and/or spit generated from little kids blowing out the candles.  Yuck.  You may feel free to make fun of me now for being germophobic.  It's just how I am.  Don't even get me started on library books...). Anyway, as a little side treat to go along with the theme,  I was planning to make these s'mores pops that I saw on pinterest:

                                                                           Source: prettyfoods.tumblr.com via Tara on Pinterest

And then I got an idea.  Why not just make the s'mores into little pies, and have S'mores Birthday Pie instead of cupcakes!  Clever, huh?  Perhaps I should go on Sweet Genius!  Cupcake problem solved.

So, I searched my cookbooks and the internet for a good chocolate pie filling, and ended up choosing a NY Times recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta.  Because it is mostly Nutella.  I made the filling, put it in mini graham cracker shells, and later topped it with mini marshmallows, which I toasted with my kitchen torch.  The recipe made 15 mini pies and two small ramekins of panna cotta for Kev and I to enjoy later.  Which we did.  This stuff was GOOD.  Not overly sweet, very creamy.  Yum.

I bought Daphne a sparkler candle shaped into a six because I thought it would be fun.  It wouldn't stand up in the pie filling, so I anchored it in a jumbo marshmallow:

Then, I forgot to warn her that it was going to explode into sparkly flames, so when it lit, she ran away in fear and I couldn't get a photo of her with her pie.  (The table did not catch on fire, by the way).  It was a pretty exciting birthday moment.

Anyway, I highly recommend this panna cotta recipe.  It really is good, and it's easy because you don't have to bother with eggs.  It does take a while to set, though.  It never really firmed up...it was the consistency of jell-o pudding.  Only it was better.  Because it was made out of Nutella.  NUTELLA!  Recipe here and  below:

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta

Adapted from “The Craft of Baking,” by Karen DeMasco (Clarkson Potter, 2009)

Time: 20 minutes, plus at least 6 hours’ chilling

1 1/8 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup Nutella
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts, for serving (optional).

1. In a medium bowl, whisk gelatin with 3 tablespoons cold water. Place chopped chocolate in another medium bowl. In a large bowl, combine Nutella and salt.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a boil. Pour half the cream over gelatin mixture and whisk gently to combine; stir in vanilla. Pour remaining cream over chopped chocolate; whisk until smooth. Combine two mixtures; whisk well.
3. Pour one-third of the gelatin-chocolate mixture over Nutella; beat using an electric mixer on low speed until a smooth paste forms. Pour in remaining mixture and milk; beat until fully combined.
4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into six ramekins. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until set, about six hours or overnight. Serve sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts, if desired.
Yield: 6 servings.