January

Fernando traveled a lot the rest of January, so here is my personal January, in mobile phone pictures (sadly, I hardly touched my camera the rest of the month).

January 12.  Riding home from Dad's and Mom's house in Danny's car, I felt a sniffle and realized--bloody nose!  It was a spectacular gusher, and I managed to get blood everywhere except not on my clothes!

January 13.  I was missing Fernando, so took a selfie to text to him.

And then I made some popcorn, using a smaller bowl that I thought would work.  It didn't.

January 17.  We walked--yes, walked--to Chick-Fil-A for a free lunch!

January 21.  Thomas' car had died this past week, so this Saturday, we decided to get it towed to Laurel BMW (yes, he bought a BMW!) so that he could get it repaired under warranty (his used car got a 60-day warranty!).  I took a photo of me lounging on the stoop to our back yard patio.  What a beautiful afternoon!

We ended up calling Westmont Towing, and got Charlie on the phone...

Charlie:  I'm streaking toward you as we speak!

Me:  (In my head)  Is he naked??

Thomas:  Hey, the flatbed tow truck is here!

Me:  Is the driver naked?

We shared this back-and-forth with Charlie, who was extremely extroverted and friendly, showed Thomas around his car, and got everything set.  When he asked if someone was going to accompany him in his truck to the dealership, Thomas jumped right on it, and into his truck.  The two of them had a blast!

After we got everything taken care of at the dealership, we were walking back to the Suburban, which I drove (and Dad rode in), when my mobile phone rang.

I answered, and a voice:  Hi, this is Charlie the Streaker!

What a riot!

January 24.  I met sweet Sarah for breakfast at Honey Jam Cafe, and we spent the morning talking, drinking coffee, eating, drinking coffee, and talking.  I was w-i-r-e-d the rest of the day!

January 27.  I took a mobile phone photo of a scrapbook page of little Jake, whose birthday was today.  Isn't he just the cutest, sweetest baby you ever saw?

January 28.  I actually cooked!  I made berry banana baked oatmeal for breakfast.

That was my January in photos.  Nothing special, mostly without Fernando, just my ordinary life this month.


Back to life,
Christine

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Garlic Scape Pesto

That stuff above is Garlic Scape Pesto.  It's a yummy, garlicky pesto, made with the scapes of the garlic.  Did I say it's garlicky?  Very, very garlicky.  If you like just a mild flavor of garlic, this recipe is not for you.  You should try the regular--and equally delicious--pesto.

See those white tops of my garlic plants there?  Those are the scapes--basically, the tops of the garlic plants that produce the seed head.  Before the seeds burst out, and while the heads are still small, the scapes can be picked and used in many different recipes.

The scapes were a little larger than I wanted them to be, but I went through the garlic beds and snipped off all the ones I felt were still usable.  Many had the seeds starting to push through, so I left those to bloom; I'll harvest those later for next year's seeds.

For this garlic plant, the seeds have already burst through.  They start off a deep purply red, and actually flower!  This particular one is a large head with large seeds, so I'll definitely be using it next year.  (I save only the largest seeds for the best crop the following year.)

I snipped off the scapes with my kitchen shears.

TIME OUT for a random photo of a woodpecker in the dead pine tree on the church side of our back yard fence!

I had heard the tap-tap-tap of his beak, and figured I'd try to find him in the tree.  Success!!

Okay, on to the recipe...

Garlic Scape Pesto

2 cups garlic scapes
4 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup almonds (or pine nuts, or walnuts)
1 teaspoon (or so) salt
1 cup evoo (extra-virgin olive oil)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano (or a blend) cheese (nothing like freshly grated!)

Cut off any tough stem parts on either side of each garlic scape bulb.  Put scapes and basil leaves in a blender and pulse briefly, then scrape.  Do this a few times, then add nuts and pulse-scrape again a few more times.  Add the salt.

Now, while setting blender on a lower blend setting (you choose--I have a Bosch Universal Mixer and set it on 2), slowly pour the evoo into the blender.  You may have to stop and scrape down sides (I do), but eventually it'll blend really nicely.  Keep blending until all ingredients are the consistency you desire--some like a thicker pesto and some like it more smooth.  You can see mine below.

At this point, I scrape the pesto out of the blender and into a bowl, then hand-stir in the fresh Parmesan.  That way, it doesn't get obliterated in the blender and keeps its consistency.  If you're using store-bought (aka Kraft), the Parmesan is basically powdered and it doesn't matter when you add it in.  (But please, use fresh!)

Use and Storage

Serve this on crackers, on top of baked/grilled chicken, on pizza or pasta.  Or eat it by the spoonful.  You'll need breath mints for the rest of the day, though.

Store in the fridge for a week or two, if it lasts that long.

Long-term storage--I freeze my pesto in portions using ice cube trays.  After a day or two (or when I remember!), I pop the cubes out and wrap them in individual squares of plastic wrap, then pop into a freezer bag and label with the date.  They freeze beautifully!  We're actually still eating up pesto from last year's harvest (late summer), and it still tastes fresh and awesome.


Back to life,
Christine

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When One Good Thing Ends and Another Comes Along

Very end of June.

The regular strawberries in my first strawberry bed (for they've taken over the entire bed, those hogs) go wild for about two weeks at the end of May and beginning of June.  They're not huge, not like in the store, but they're a good size and I've got two four-pound bags in the freezer waitin' on me to turn them into preserves some day soon.  Plus, there are two more smaller bags in the freezer waitin' on muffins, or oatmeal, or...  You get the picture.

Well, strawberry season ended for those strawberries, but lo and behold, there's another strawberry season about a month later.  That's when my Alpine strawberries really come in--they had been producing mostly handfuls every several days, enough to put in my oatmeal yum yum--and now they were coming in like gangbusters.  Woot woot!

Alpine strawberries look like tiny Christmas tree lights, and are fairly delicate.  I finesse them off by pulling them to the side, not straight off, and let them tumble into my little white colander.

Aren't they cute?

These little beauties get frozen in one layer on a tray (or baking pan), then dumped into canning jars which stay in the freezer.  They added up quickly, and I have at least three quarts that I remember putting in (maybe there's more!!).  They're so small that no cutting is needed, and they can be measured frozen right out of the jar and into whatever recipe needs them.

Recipes like Berry Banana Baked Oatmeal!

This gets gobbled up at our house--I barely got a photo with my phone!

Back to life,
Christine

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Honey Cinnamon Butter

Yum.  Just yum.  That's all I have to say about this delicious butter.  I modified this from the original recipe and it is amazing.  A sweet young lady friend (one of my borrowed daughters) paired this with Irish soda bread, and that was a perfect combination.  I took it a step further and toasted some slices of the soda bread, and that was even more amazing.

Honey-cinnamon butter on toasted Irish soda bread.

The only downside of this recipe is that you'll have the urge to slather it on.  As in, Have a little bread with your honey-cinnamon butter!  Yeah, that happens.  Just look at this, below.  I actually ate this.  And I may have added some more butter as I was eating it.

Honey-Cinnamon Butter
Makes a little over a cup.

2 sticks butter, brought to room temperature
1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon pie spice!)

Using your mixer of choice--I use a hand-held mixer since this is a small batch and easily whippable--whip all ingredients together until fluffy.  Spread on bread or tortillas.  Make sure you lick the beaters.  Yeah, it's butter, but oh well.  Waste not, want not!


Back to life,
Christine

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Tartar Sauce

I have never bought tartar sauce.  I've never eaten it on fish when I've had fish at home.  Take me out to a restaurant, though, and I go all bug-eyed with the tartar sauce on my fish.  Until--I ate out recently with Fernando at a new-to-me restaurant, and the tartar sauce was, well, meh.  Not real tartar sauce by any stretch of the imagination.  That's when my brain kicked into recipe mode and I decided I would make it better, and healthier, at home.

I used this recipe as a guide, fiddling with the onion and eventually cutting the entire thing in half, because this is best used fairly quickly, and I'd rather not let it sit in the fridge for several weeks waiting on the next fish-for-dinner night.  (It's expensive to feed five men fish, since I don't have multiplying powers or anything.)

I also used my home-fermented pickles in this recipe, and it about killed me to use a whole cup of them.  I felt so much better using half a cup of my pickles, though, which is the other part of the reason I halved the recipe.  I guess I'll be fermenting more pickles more often!

Here is the recipe.

Tartar Sauce
Makes about a cup.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely chopped dill pickles
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion (or about 1/8 teaspoon onion powder)
1 1/2 teaspoons dill (I used dried, but fresh would be amazing!)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cane juice crystals (or sugar)
freshly ground black pepper to taste (4-5 cranks of your pepper mill)

Mix everything up in a small bowl.  Bam!

Store leftovers in a glass jar in the fridge.  Use within a couple of weeks, but should last several if needed; stir before using.

NOTE:  I like to blend it for a few seconds with my stick/immersion blender.  It helps blend in the pickles a little more and distribute the flavor.  It's still a little chunky, and oh so good on whatever you put tartar sauce on.  Betcha it'd be good on potatoes--french fries, baked wedges...!!

Back to life,
Christine

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Pucker-Up Lemon Crumb Bars

I scrolled through my dessert board on Pinterest, reading the names of desserts aloud to Jake, who was the chooser of the dessert for Easter Sunday.  No was his continuous response until this one.

Pucker-Up Lemon Crumb Bars.

I love lemony things--lemonade, lemon cheesecake, lemon in water, lemon drop martinis; then there's lemon body wash, lemon shampoo...  The smell is amazing and makes me feel clean and spring-y, and the taste of lemons--whoa.  These lemon bars fit my palate to a tee!

I modified the original recipe, adapting it to the way I like it. I cut the amount of flour and oats because I found the topping to be dry--much of it fell all over our plates when I cut and served the bars.  I also used a combination of freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour and high quality white flour, as I usually do when baking (using all whole wheat tends to result in a more dense product).

Since I didn't take any other pictures (we were all too eager to dig in!), here's the recipe.  I will be adding more pictures soon, since I'll be making this dessert tomorrow for Danny's and Dad's birthday party in a few days!

Pucker-Up Lemon Crumb Bars

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup high quality white flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup cane juice crystals (or regular sugar)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 sticks cold butter, sliced up

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
2 cans sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I did this!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter/grease a 9x13 pan. Line with parchment paper, and butter the paper. This is for easier removal, but isn't necessary.

In a stand mixer, add oats, flours, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix briefly until combined. Add butter and mix until crumbly. Press half of this crumb mixture into the bottom of prepared pan. Set the other half aside.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or with a hand-held mixer in a medium/large bowl), beat cream cheese on medium/high speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Scrape sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla and lemon zest, mix until combined.

While mixing on medium speed, slowly pour in sweetened condensed milk. Beat for three minutes. Turn mixer to low and add lemon juice. Mix until well combined, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Pour filling into crust and top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until topping is a light golden color.

Remove from oven and let pan cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold. Cut into bars and serve with strawberries and freshly whipped cream (my favorites!) or serve plain, since they are amazing.



Back to life,
Christine

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Irish Soda Bread

A young lady friend introduced me to this simple and delicious bread, a great accompaniment to any meal, or even toasted by itself and slathered with honey-cinnamon butter for a yummy and quick breakfast.

I began with a recipe I found through Pinterest, and then I made some modifications.  For the white flour called for, I substituted some freshly ground whole wheat flour, which is what I typically use in my recipes.  The bread turned out darker, more golden, than the all-white variety, but it's just as delicious.

Also, I decided right off the bat that instead of baking it in a 9" round baking pan (with another inverted 9" round pan on top), I'd try baking it in my 12" cast iron skillet.  I tented a piece of aluminum foil over the top, then removed the foil during the last 10 minutes or so to brown the top of my bread.

I also reduced the baking temperature to 400 degrees F, which helped keep the bottom crust from getting burned, or too hard and crusty.  I then shortened the baking time a bit to keep the bread moist.  Everything turned out dee-lish, which is why I'm sharing the recipe with you today!

Irish Soda Bread
Makes one round loaf in a 12" cast iron skillet.

two cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (I used pastry flour--from soft wheat berries)
two cups high quality white flour
two teaspoons baking soda
one teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (I love the Kalona brand!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-inch cast iron skillet, then sprinkle a slight dusting of flour over the bottom.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together in a slightly sticky ball. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead gently a few times. Form the dough into a flat ball, gradually shaping it into a flat disk.  Press into the skillet so that the dough reaches the edges of the skillet (it may spring back slightly).

Cut an X into the dough with a sharp knife, about 1/4 of an inch deep. Cover the pan of dough with a round cake pan turned upside down, or a piece of aluminum foil tented a bit. Bake for 25 minutes, covered, then remove the top pan and bake uncovered for about 10 minutes more or until the crust is dark golden brown.

I cut this into slices right in the skillet, but you could turn it out onto a cutting board for slicing.  It's great with honey-cinnamon butter.  For leftovers, slice and toast.  And serve with honey-cinnamon butter, because it's amazing.  Really, the bread is great with anything--plain butter, jam...

Simple and delicious accompaniment to any meal; wonderful on its own!

Oh, why not, let's have one more photo!!

Back to life,
Christine

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Bay Seasoned Brown Rice Pilaf

This is one of my favorite side dishes!  It's simple to make, tastes amazing, accompanies pretty much any main dish I make, and every one of my guys loves it.  Bam!

I'm a big fan of pre-assembly.  I mix my rices (brown and wild), salt, and bay leaves in one prep bowl, then chicken broth (or water/chicken bouillon) in another.  Then all I have to do is sauté the onion, add the rice, and add the water/stock.  Bring it all to a boil and let it simmer for 45 minutes.  Easy.

One note:  Don't substitute white rice.  Since it cooks faster, the wild rice won't have a chance to cook and will end up crunchy.  Brown rice is healthier, anyway, so use it!

Ingredients waiting on the onion to be sauteed.

Heating up.

Bring to boil, then simmer.

For church meals, I put this in my slow cooker and keep on warm.

Bay-Seasoned Brown Rice Pilaf
Serves 6-8 (guys!)
Halve the recipe for a smaller amount.  Keeps in fridge nicely.

1 tablespoon butter (I just use a small glob)
1/4 cup chopped onion (I finely dice it to "hide" it from the onion-haters)

2 cups brown rice
6 tablespoons wild rice
1 teaspoon sea salt (less if you're using strong stock or bouillon)
4-6 bay leaves (depends on size of leaves and how strong a bay flavor you like)

4 1/2 cups water (add chicken bouillon) or chicken/beef stock

In a three-quart saucepan, sauté the onion in the butter just until it starts to brown.  Add the rice, wild rice, sea salt, and bay leaves; stir.  Add the water/stock.  Bring to boil, cover and reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.  Don't lift the lid during cooking time!

Fluff with fork; put lid back on and wait five minutes or so before serving.

Back to life,
Christine

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Homemade Pasta

There is no comparison.  None whatsoever.  Fresh pasta is amazing.

Fresh homemade ravioli.

It's not that hard to make, either, if you have an hour or so.  Once you make it a time or two, an hour is all you need for fresh spaghetti, linguine, or other noodle.  I find that if I halve the recipe, I've got enough pasta for fettuccine (my preferred cut for my hand-crank pasta machine) for our weekly Pasta Day, which happens to be on Friday.

Ravioli, filled with ricotta/mozzarella mixture.

My photos are of our New Year's ravioli dinner, which my mom and I slaved over--mostly because I added too much water to the recipe, and we ended up with a ton of pasta dough!  We worked all afternoon making these, and ended up freezing some plus cranking out some plain fettuccine as well.

The quickest recipe is for plain pasta noodles, whatever cut you desire.  I favor fettuccine, since my hand-crank pasta machine's setting for spaghetti usually produces a mess, and the fettuccine width is the only other width available.  I'm going to try a special rolling pin with grooves for some other cuts; I'll update this when that happens.

For now, here is my recipe.

Homemade Pasta

2 cups semolina flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
~1 cup cold water

Make in a Bosch Universal Mixer or other stand mixer (instructions are for the Bosch).

Mix the two flours and the salt together in mixer bowl.  Insert the bread dough hook and turn on speed 1.  Add in the eggs and evoo, and--while continuing to mix--pour in the cold water in a stream.  As the mixer works harder to mix, turn it up to speed 3 and continue to mix until a ball of dough forms.  Add cold water or flour as needed 3-5 minutes.  You should have a soft, smooth ball of dough.

Turn out dough onto floured surface and cover with a towel.  Let rest five minutes.  Break off a piece of dough, about the size of a half-cup measure and dust with flour.  It's now ready to be shaped using your pasta machine; follow your pasta machine instructions for shaping into lasagna noodles, spaghetti/fettuccine, etc.


Storing and Cooking Fresh Pasta
I've done all of these with wonderful success!

For immediate use.

Bring a pot of water to a boil; add your pasta noodles with a teaspoon or so of salt (this enhances the flavor, do not omit it!!).  Boil 3-7 minutes or so, depending on the width and thickness of your pasta, and how al dente you like it.  Test it early and add boiling time as needed.  Drain in a colander; drizzle with evoo and toss to prevent sticking.

Drying.

Use a pasta drying rack to dry your noodles; simply drape them over the rods and let dry 24 hours or so.  Store in a cool, dry place in airtight bags or containers.

Freezing.

Lay your noodles out, curling/folding them back and forth so they'll fit in a freezer bag.  Or you can coil them, too.  The idea is to not have them in a messy, congealed pile that will cook into a gooey mass.  It is key that you quickly dredge each pasta sheet in flour before you cut it into noodles; this will prevent sticking even if you end up with a pile of pasta in your freezer bag.  Put your freshly cut noodles into a freezer bag, then simply freeze.  These can go straight from the freezer into boiling water, or you can let them sit in your fridge to thaw first.

Whole-wheat spaghetti.

Back to life,
Christine

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PB Cup Delight

In the mood for chocolate and peanut butter?  Look no further.  I experimented a few times with this recipe, even though for the life of me I couldn't cut the cake in beautiful wedge-shaped slices as the original blogger did (and her photos are beautiful!).

Honestly, though, you won't want a wedge-shaped slice.  One little piece is all you'll want, possibly with a cup of black coffee.  This is a rich, decadent beast of a cake, meant to be savored in small portions.  Keep this in mind when making it, since you will be able to feed a lot of people with this triple-layer cake from heaven.  Or just maybe, you won't get tired of eating small pieces every day for a couple of weeks, while hiding the cake container from your family.

This recipe has three components:

• Three layers of flourless chocolate cake (hey, it's gluten free!)
• Peanut butter buttercream frosting
• Chocolate ganache

Once each component is prepared, you have to assemble this triple-layer monster.  After trial and error, I think I've come up with a successful assembly method.  The first time I made this, I had to deal with trying to spread the buttercream frosting over soft ganache--yeah, that was a mess.  So make sure you read the assembly instructions before you just dive in, and consider these words your fair warning.  :)

One small piece of decadent chocolatey heaven.

Peanut Butter Cup Delight
Serves 30, if you cut really small pieces.  Or hey, just overindulge--I'm not your judge.

The Cake
1 cup (two sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chopped from a bar)
6 eggs
1 cup cane juice crystals (or sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Dutch process)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease three eight-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper.  Melt the butter and chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over low heat (can use microwave).

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar together for 3-5 minutes (I use a super powerful Bosch Universal Mixer on Speed 3 or 4 so it doesn't take that long) on high speed until pale and more than doubled in volume.  Add the vanilla to the eggs and beat until combined.  Sift in the cocoa and salt and mix again until combined.  Stream in the melted chocolate and butter, and beat until combined.

Divide into the prepared cake pans and bake for--start with 15 minutes, and add time up to 25 minutes--until an inserted toothpick comes out with some crumbs attached but no longer wet.  (The first time I baked the cakes at 20 minutes, they came out dry, and my oven usually bakes more slowly.)  Remove from oven, carefully invert onto cooling racks and cool thoroughly.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
If you like, you can prepare this once you've spread the ganache on the cake layers.

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I use natural pb)
1 1/2 cups (three sticks) butter
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
6 cups powdered sugar
8-10 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cream together the peanut butter and butter.  Add the salt and vanilla.  Alternately add the powdered sugar and cream.  If too thin, add more cane juice crystals; if too thick add more cream.  Beat until fluffy.

Chocolate Ganache
3 cups chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) -- can use combo of semi-sweet and milk chocolate
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

Prepare the ganache once you're ready for assembly, since you'll want to spread it on the cake layers right after making it. Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan on low heat (or use a double boiler, or the microwave), stirring pretty much constantly until it is melted and smooth.

Assembly Instructions

Once cakes have cooled, make sure each cake is un-stuck from its respective cooling rack! Also, when spreading the chocolate ganache, make sure you divide it evenly enough for each of three layers plus the top of the completely frosted cake.

Spread a layer of ganache on top of each cake layer, then carefully set each layer--still on its cooling rack--into the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. This helps the ganache to harden, making it sooo much easier to spread the frosting on the layers. You'll have to trust me on this. If you haven't done it yet, prepare the buttercream frosting while the cakes are in the freezer. The cakes can stay in the freezer for a while if you need--though if you let them stay there overnight you should carefully cover them in plastic after the ganache initially hardens.

Once the ganache is hardened, remove the cake layers from the freezer one at a time to frost them. Frost the top of the first layer, then add the second, frost that, then add the third and frost that. Finish frosting the sides, then spread the remaining ganache on the top of the cake, letting the ganache drip down the sides.

And, since I had some Trader Joe's dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups in my pantry (because who wouldn't make sure her pantry is stocked with those?), I used them for decorating--whole ones for the top, and cut-in-half ones pushed gently into the frosting all around the base of the cake..

Cutting Instructions

You didn't think the cutting part of this recipe would be easy, did you? *wink* The only easy part of it all is actually eating it. Because this cake can really soften into a mess, I initially store it in the fridge. But, although this keeps the ganache cold, it also keeps it hard. So, for cutting and serving, I keep the cake on the counter or table anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour before serving. You can cut it right out of the fridge, though--just be careful and go easy and slow. If you don't care how messy this gets, get a really sharp knife (I use a long serrated one) and start cutting. Otherwise, run the knife under hot water to warm it up, then cut. When the knife gets too gooey and full of yumminess, scrape it off (because you'll want to eat that part), run it under hot water again, and continue the process.

To get the maximum number of servings--instead of watching people eat a quarter of their pieces then throwing the rest out (it's that rich)--make your first slice straight across the cake about a third of the way in. Then cut slices perpendicular to that initial cut. Once that section is served, make another long cut across the remainder of the cake, cutting it in half, then cut more perpendicular slices from there. You can easily serve 30 people cutting any cake this way!

Whew, that's a ton of work.  But this beast of a cake is so worth it!

Back to life,
Christine

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