Amish Loaf MADNESS!

As I shared awhile back, I recently converted some of my regular sourdough starter into that sweet and perennial favorite, Amish friendship starter. And now, of course, I am trying to find new and interesting things to make with it. First, I made a decadent chocolate zucchini cake and then some streusel-topped chocolate chip muffins. So this past weekend, I decided to veer away from chocolate (just temporarily!) and go a citrusy route.

The basic recipe for Amish Friendship Bread (CAKE really!) is as follows:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup Amish friendship starter
1 cup oil (swap out applesauce for half or all of the oil as a lower-fat option)
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup nuts

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl (or large glass measuring cup), mix the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, add the wet mixture, and blend just until you don't see anymore dry flour. Stir in the nuts, pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

This is the most basic version of this recipe, but of course you could add chocolate chips or dried or fresh fruits. You can include the nuts or omit them or substitute all manner of seeds. You can swap out different flavors of pudding mix such as cheesecake or pistachio, then you could add complementary extract flavors (like a little almond extract with the pistachio). You can substitute other spices for the cinnamon, like cardamom or ground ginger, etc. You could use orange juice in place of the milk and add cranberries for a lovely holiday loaf! In short, the recipe is highly adaptable, and could yield an infinite number of variations.

The one I tried this weekend was a lemon poppyseed version. I made it (almost) as written, except that I added a little lemon oil to up the citrus impact. It turned out really, really good--so very moist and very flavorful! In the future, though, I would perhaps make two changes. I would double the amount of poppyseeds, and I would only use one box of pudding mix. I'm not sure how or why, but some recipes for different versions of the Amish friendship bread have morphed into calling for TWO boxes of pudding, and I think that's probably overkill. The bread is almost TOO moist, if that's possible, and with a texture that flirts with gumminess. I will make these amendments to the recipe below. Still, the resulting bread was delicious, and I definitely recommend it as an option for those of you with extra starter still hanging around, or for those looking for an excuse to develop the starter and begin your own tasty experiments!

Lemon Poppyseed Amish Friendship Loaves
(Source: adapted from Allrecipes)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup poppy seeds (I would double this=1/4 cup)
2 (3 ounce) packages instant lemon pudding mix (I would reduce this to one box)
1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
1 vegetable oil (may swap out out applesauce for some or all of the oil)
2 eggs (if reducing the pudding to one box, I would add one egg=3 total)
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (or the finely-grated zest of one or two lemons), optional

In a large mixing bowl blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, poppy seeds, and lemon pudding mix. Make a well in the center of the bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the Amish starter, oil, eggs, milk, vanilla, and lemon oil or zest. Add to dry ingredients and blend until just combined. Pour batter into two greased loaf pans (I spray mine with flour-added baking spray.)

Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for one hour. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan and cool completely on the rack.

Soup for you!

Open the windows, close the windows. Open the windows, close the windows. Turn on the fan in the bedroom or get a heavy sleeping bag and throw it on top of the duvet to survive the night? And today, the weather man even dared to utter the "s" word, as in "a chance of s___ on Wednesday." ACK! Last month was AUGUST, for cryin' out loud!

The weather may be a bit schizophrenic right at the moment, but I think I have come up with the PERFECT way to transition between the seasons...with a fabulous, stick-to-your-ribs chowder that blends the last of the summer's harvest with first of autumn's. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: PUMPKIN CORN CHOWDER!

LOOK at it! Don't you just want to dive into that golden-orange lusciousness? And I promise you, it is a wonderful combination of flavors that tastes as good as it looks! It starts off like a basic corn chowder, but I've taken it up a notch by stirring in a can of pumpkin puree at the end (sure, sure...roasted fresh pumpkin would be even better). Then it seemed to want for something else, but what? I tried a little cumin, and that was pretty good, but then I went with a pinch of spicy Madras Curry Powder, and it was absolutely PERFECT with the pumpkin. I didn't want so much that it screamed "CURRY SOUP," but just enough to add a little warmth and depth and sweetness. People, this soup is SO GOOD, especially the next day...as such things so often are. And it yields something close to three quarts, so you will be set for your lunches all week! You're welcome.

Pumpkin Corn Chowder

8 slices bacon, browned and crumbled, fat reserved
2-3 large stalks celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
6 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
leaves from a large bunch of thyme (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon of dried)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (or 1/4 t. for wimps!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 ears of corn, kernels cut and endosperm scraped from cob (about 6 cups)
8 small to medium red potatoes, cut in one-inch chunks
1 can pumpkin puree (about 1 3/4 cups)
1 cup evaporated milk
handful of fresh parsley, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

In the frying pan used to cook the bacon, saute the celery and onion in 4-6 tablespoons of the reserved fat until tender. Add the stock and stir, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the thyme leaves and bring to a boil.

Transfer the vegetable mixture to a large stock pot, add the curry powder, tumeric, cayenne, salt and pepper, and stir. And the corn kernels and endosperm (the milky stuff scraped from the empty cob with the back of a knife) and the potatoes, and bring back to a boil for about ten minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the canned pumpkin and the evaporated milk (substitute half and half if you prefer, but I like the flavor of the evaporated). Finally, add the crumbled bacon pieces and the chopped, fresh parsley. Taste to correct seasonings and serve.

Fabulous Fall Fare/Fair

Ah, fall! My favorite time of year! We didn't have much of a summer, but all that cool and wet seems to have been setting us up for a most glorious and colorful autumn! Last weekend, I had a nearly perfect day, taking in one of my favorite annual events, the Peru Applefest--a tiny little church fundraiser with carnival games, crafts, baked goods, and live music. On Sunday, the Catholic menfolk do a great BBQ, too. You get a half a chicken, corn on the cob from Rulf's Orchard just down the road, a baked potato, cole slaw, a dinner roll, all the milk you can drink, and ice cream for dessert, all for nine bucks!

I showed up around 1pm, and first cruised through the annex to look at the crafts and bake sale items. I'm sad to report that I was too late for the infamous beer bread, but I did manage to snag a jar of dill pickles that this one young fellow makes every year. (They are ALMOST as good as my own! Tee hee.) Then I headed out back for the BBQ lunch, and when I was done eating, I was going to head down the road to Rulf's, like I typically do, to get apple cider donuts and take a horse-drawn wagon ride through the apple orchards. But as I was walking back to my car, a local band started playing, and I decided to stop and listen for awhile. Two hours later, I was still sitting there! They were pretty good, playing lots of country rock covers and a few originals; but mostly, it was just nice to sit out in the warm sun for what will surely be one of the last few days that one could do so comfortably.

After the Applefest, I skipped my Rulf's visit and headed over to my friend, Lee Ann's. It was her husband's Steve's birthday the day before, and I wanted to drop off some special treats for him. In the past, I have made him lemony things, but I knew that Lee Ann would be making a key lime pie (as requested) for dinner. With the citrus quotient covered, I decided to make something somewhat chocolately. Of course, I am still playing around with my Amish friendship starter, and I found a recipe for some tasty-looking streusel muffins. They are meant to include some sort of fresh or dried fruit, but I thought chocolate chip walnut muffins with the sourdough tang and the sweet, crispy tops would be delish. Plus, they would make a good grab-and-go breakfast item for the family during the school and work week. For my pains, I got invited to stay for a terrific, seasonal dinner (penne with chicken and homemade pesto and tomatoes from the garden), and even better, to play Beatles Rock Band with the birthday boy (it was his present) and daughter, K. Naturally, we rocked, as do these muffins. ;-)

Amish Friendship Muffins
(Source: adapted from amishrecipes.net)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Amish friendship bread starter
3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup nuts, chopped (I used toasted walnuts)
1 cup raisins or blueberries or chopped apple (optional--I used chocolate chips instead!)

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, slightly softened

Preheat oven to 350. Liberally grease muffin tins if not using liners.

Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt,cinnamon, and sugar. Stir in the starter, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add nuts. Mix in optional ingredients, if desired. Fill lined or well-greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Sprinkle each muffin with topping and bake for about 20 minutes. Makes about 22 regular muffins.

All by myse-ee-elf! Don't wanna be...

Everyone who knows me knows what a very social creature I am. I really love people, and in true Myers-Briggs extroverted type, when I am feeling down or tired or frustrated, being around others usually reenergizes me and pulls me out of my funk. So perhaps you can appreciate the gravity of the situation when I tell you that my closest friend and (former) roommate left at the end of August last year for "a month of training" at the home office of her company near Minneapolis, and never came back. I don't blame her, mind you. Two months after she left, they reorganized and eliminated her department back here in Plattsburgh, so she no longer had a job to come back to! And in this economy, a person would be a fool to give up a steady, salaried position. However, that means that I have been living on my own for over a year now. Fall semester (2008) wasn't too bad, as I am always so busy, that I blinked and it was Christmas! But the holidays were tough, and even more so, the long, dark, winter cooped up in the house by myself. And then this past summer, when everyone was out and about, and I am usually taking my little road trips here and there and doing fun things, I had no one to go with me (sniff!).

In short, I am just OVER living alone! I admit, having the big comfy chair and the remote control and/or the computer to myself is nice. And everything is always exactly where I put it, so I can usually find things when I need them. And even though I love cooking, sometimes it's liberating, after a long day at work, to just grab a hodgepodge of odds and ends from the fridge to nibble on (what my friend and officemate, Lee Ann, proclaims "Sampler Night" at her house!) and call that dinner, without feeling the need to prepare a proper meal...or even do the dishes for a day or two (since there aren't that many to pile up)! But using my fabulous new Beatles Rock Band game as a metaphor for life, it can be enjoyable to play by yourself, but it's always more fun to have others play with you in your band!

There are other (culinary) things that are vexing about living alone, too, such as the tiresome redundancy of leftovers in general, and the inability of one person to use an entire loaf of bread before it goes stale in particular. They really should sell half loaves for singletons. I can't tell you how much bread I've thrown out since my roommate moved away! In fact, I buy bread a lot less now, prefering to keep wraps in the fridge for the occasional sandwich. But I was craving toast recently, so I broke down and bought a loaf. Still, I only managed to consume maybe a third of it before it dried out on me. This time, I refused to be wasteful, so I considered what I might make with the leftover bread. Croutons and panzanella (bread salad) were initial contenders, but then I was reminded of an episode of Nigella Feasts where she used a knackered old loaf of bread to make what she called "bread and butter pudding." So that's what I decided to make, bread pudding.

Usually I make a very decadent version with croissants and heavy cream for special occasions, but this was a more workaday version. In fact, so that I didn't end up wasting the leftover bread pudding, I ate it for a few nights for dessert, and then I would split a piece in half and brown it on both sides in a frying pan, eating it like French toast for a few mornings for my breakfast! Clever, eh? It was very tasty, but I made one big mistake. As I usually use croissants or a crusty, hearty loaf of some kind to make bread pudding and not sandwich bread, I ended up cutting the pieces too small, and then I mixed them together with the custard, so that the pieces disintegrated and the pudding compacted too much, with the resulting dessert being tasty, but too dense for my liking (refer to picture at the end of the recipe). I do remember Nigella making hers with alternating half pieces (with every other pointy end sticking up), then pouring the custard over the top, and now I see why. At the very least, I should have toasted the bread a little ahead of time. Oh well, I will correct these problems in the recipe below, and then you folks may learn from my mistakes. I dedicate this bread pudding, as Beyonce' sings (featured prominently on tonight's episode of my new favorite show, "Glee"), to all the single ladies!

Singletons' Bread and Butter Pudding

about 2/3 to 3/4 of a loaf of stale bread, pieces cut in half (you may wish to lightly toast the pieces of bread before cutting if it's a very tender sandwich bread)
1 to 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, toasted*
6 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter, cut into very small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, and layer in the pieces of bread, overlapping them to try to eliminate empty spaces. Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the bread as evenly as you can.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until light in texture and pale in color. Then whisk in the half-and-half, extracts and salt. Pour the custard evenly over the bread and almonds, and set aside for about ten minutes for the custard to soak in thoroughly. Top the pudding with bits of butter scattered across the top, and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until the pudding is puffed, browned, and just set in the middle. Serve by itself or with a dollop of your favorite jam and/or whipped cream.

*I personally LOATHE those wrinkly little abominations known as raisins, but feel free to swap out raisins for the almonds (or use both!) if you so choose. Though I would nuke the raisins with a little orange juice or rum and let them plump up first before adding them to the pudding. Again, you do as you see fit...

MORE squash-based desserts? Really??

I know I seem to have a theme going here, but bear with me. I bought one small (four-inch) pot of yellow squash starts to plant in my garden, split it in half to share with my friend, Vicky, and I still have yellow squash coming out of my ears! Vicky must be also be awash in squash, because she brought a loaf of the BEST zucchini bread into work the other day to share with us, her lucky co-workers. Now, as you know, if I am adding squash to baked goods, I prefer the chocolate zucchini cake in all its forms. Regular zucchini bread has never done too much for me. But this was REALLY delicious! So I asked for the recipe, and wouldn't you know, it was from Paula Deen, known for providing us with killer (almost literally) decadent recipes. For my colleagues who tasted the bread that Vicky made and want to make that exact version, here is that recipe (although Vicky omitted the nuts):

Paula's (and Vicky's) Zucchini Bread
(Source: Paula Deen via Food Network)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in.

Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

When I went to the Food Network's website to retrieve the above recipe, I read almost all of the previous 487 reviews! With the help of the people who had gone before me, I had some pretty good ideas about what I might want to tweak. And I am happy to report that my version yielded two AMAZING loaves! The bread was tender and flavorful with an awesome, slightly crunchy crust. Here's what I did to adapt Paula's recipe:

--Despite reviewer claims of saltiness, I left it at a half tablespoon, because I love the salty-sweet thing. (Those who don't may wish to cut back to 1 teaspoon.)

--I cut the nutmeg to 1/4 teaspoon (freshly grated, which is powerful stuff).

--I added 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (and had no loaf top sinkage as many reviewers reported, and as the picture on the Food Network's web site clearly displays).

--I upped the cinnamon to half a tablespoon.

--As many people found the bread overly-sweet, I reduced the sugar to 2 1/2 cups, and swapped out one cup of brown sugar for the white.

--Many reviewers chose to cut the oil by half and replace it with applesauce to add flavor, preserve moistness, and make it a bit healthier. I might try that next time.

--I omitted the water (which I always consider a flavor diluter), and increased the squash to 3 cups, thus adding more moisture. Also, I used yellow squash instead of zucchini, because as I said, I have a TON of it from my garden!

--I added 2 teaspoons of vanilla because it seems wrong not to.

--I doubled the amount of nuts (2 cups) because I love them so, and toasted the pecans for a few minutes in a dry frying pan beforehand. This is always worth doing when nuts are involved.

--As many reviewers had trouble with the loaves sticking, I sprayed my pans with floured nonstick spray and put parchment just on the bottoms of the pans. The loaves turned out perfectly (after letting them cool in the pans on a rack for 10-15 minutes).

--I used dark, nonstick pans, so I reduced the baking temperature to 325, and they took an hour and five minutes, rotating the loaves about halfway through for even baking.

Taking all of these amendments into account, my version of the recipe goes like this:

Gina's Summer Squash Bread

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated yellow squash
2 cups toasted walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and sugars. In a separate bowl or large glass measuring cup, combine oil, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add squash and nuts and fold in.

Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray and lined with parchment, for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes. Let loaves cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before turning out and allowing to cool completely on the rack.

More fun with zucchini!

It's that time again...when your garden starts giving you daily baseball bats of zucchini--or if you didn't plant any, your friends and neighbors clutter your stoop with their friendly offerings. Oppressive as the onslaught may be, I still welcome it. I make my zucchini relish for the rest of the year (which I put on darn near everything!), shred and freeze some in two-cup portions for baking during the winter months, and of course, make my very favorite, absolutely-to-die-for chocolate zucchini cake! However, recently, one of my dearest college friends was talking about using an Amish friendship starter in her baking--something I haven't done in more than a decade, because you ultimately end up with swimming pools of the stuff once you feed it a few times, and your friends and colleagues quickly become vexed when you overshare! But it had been a long time since I had baked with the "Amish" starter, plus, I remember reading in the King Arthur cookbook that you could use your regular sourdough starter to convert it to the sweet Amish friendship starter, which I've always wanted to try.

So I took a cup of my regular sourdough starter and put it in a glazed ceramic bowl, then added a cup of milk, a cup of sugar, and a cup of flour, covered it loosely and let it do its thing for about 24 hours on the kitchen counter. Sure enough, the next day, it was all bubbly and puffy and lovely. Now...what to do with it? This is when I got what turned out to be a brilliant idea: AMISH Chocolate Zucchini Cake! I sort of combined King Arthur's recipe for the traditional Amish friendship cake made with the sweet starter and my regular chocolate zucchini cake recipe. For an initial experiment, I think it turned out very well, moist but structurally sound and very flavorful, with that slight sourdough tang from the addition of the starter. And I really took it over the top by adding a terrific maple walnut icing! The only change I would make would be to increase both the sweetness and the cocoa content by a little bit, and I have included those amendments in the recipe below. The great thing about the King Arthur version of the Amish friendship starter is that the leftover cup of starter can be stored in the fridge and fed again again at a later date to bake something else yummy! But let's start with this:

"Amish" Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/3 cup butter
2 ounces/squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup cocoa powder (preferably dark)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (activated) Amish friendship starter
3 cups zucchini, peeled and shredded
2 cups walnuts, toasted and very coarsely broken up
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray one 12-cup bundt pan and a large loaf pan.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the two squares of unsweetened chocolate with the butter (about two minutes total, stopping and stirring once or twice). Mix in the cocoa powder and set aside to cool a bit.

Beat oil and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until well blended. Slowly add in the chocolate and butter mixture and mix. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients in thirds, alternately with the Amish friendship starter. Mix in grated zucchini, nuts, and chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about an hour for the bundt, and 50 minutes for the loaf. Cool cakes for about 15 minutes in their pans before turning out to cool completely on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving, or better yet, coat with maple walnut icing (recipe to follow). This is such a moist cake that it will keep (covered) for up to a week.

*Like most cakes of its kind, it's even better if you let it age for at least 24 hours before cutting and devouring.

Maple Walnut Icing

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup (real, preferably Grade B) maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
pinch of salt
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, cooled, and chopped

Cream together the butter and syrup until smooth. Mix in the vanilla and maple extracts and salt. Whisk in the powdered sugar (adding a little extra powdered sugar if too thin or some cream by the teaspoon if too thick). Stir in the chopped walnuts. Pour over the cakes and let it drip down the sides. (You can always zap the icing in the microwave for 15-30 seconds on defrost to make it more pourable if need be, then it will set up nicely as it cools.)

That takes care of dessert, but there's always more zucchini to use up, so we need something savory. There are many, many versions of zucchini bake, casserole, or pie out there, but I have one that I favor that makes use of many goodies from the garden, including fresh herbs and both sweet and hot peppers. It makes a good side dish for dinner with some sort of meat from the grill, or a nice lunch entree, or topped with poached or basted eggs, a terrific breakfast/brunch!

Gina's Zucchini Bake

1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups shredded (unpeeled) zucchini (or yellow squash or a mix of the two)
1/2 large onion, diced or shredded
1 large red pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced or shredded
2 jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed, diced or shredded
4 green onions, root ends removed and sliced thinly (both white and green parts)
4 large eggs, beaten
1 cup Bisquick (or similar baking mix)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (or a teaspoon dried)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 8x8 square baking dish or 9-inch Pyrex pie plate with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the shredded squash, onions, and peppers. Cook for about five minutes until veggies start to soften. Set aside to cool for ten minutes or so.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, then mix in the Bisquick, cheeses, parsley and salt and pepper. If the veggie mixture has cooled to warm, stir it all in at once. If it's still very hot, add it a little bit at a time to the egg mixture to temper it slowly (like a custard).

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes until set in the very middle and golden brown on the bottom and edges. You can top with some more shredded cheddar cheese, or some sliced ripe garden tomatoes and/or poached eggs for a breakfast dish. Yum!

Early Autumn Incites Baking FRENZY!

So much for our two weeks of summer! I have spotted the first few trees starting to turn color, and a few nights ago, I had to run around the house, closing all of the windows, and digging up some spare blankets to avoid turning on the heat! There was an actual frost warning--IN AUGUST! What ridiculous weather we've had this year. And this weekend has been drizzly and damp, and it has really put me in a serious baking mood.

I usually bake for other people, but as this is my last weekend of freedom before the semester starts in earnest, yesterday, I made some cookies just for ME! Not that I won't share them, of course, but they are just the kind of cookie that I like best--sweet, salty, buttery and nutty. YUM! This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour, and they are simple drop cookies--easy-peasy! You can mix up the dough and bake it right away if you like, or you can chill it for cookies that are less flat and crispy (as pictured below) and more rounded up and chewy...your choice. I really only made one significant change to the recipe. I LOATHE the overpoweringly artificial taste of butterscotch chips, so I swapped out some toffee bits and extra pecans. Delish and truly addictive!

Salty-Sweet Butter Pecan Cookies
(Source: adaped from King Arthur Flour)

1 1/3 cups pecan halves (I used 2 cups)
2/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon butterscotch, vanilla-butternut, or butter-rum flavor (I used Princess Cake flavor, which is mildly nutty)
1 teaspoon vinegar, cider or white (I used cider)
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups butterscotch chips (I swapped out 1 cup of toffee bits)
1/2 cup granulated sugar mixed with 3/4 teaspoon plain table salt, for topping

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment or a Silpat) two baking sheets.
2) Place the pecans in a single layer in a pan, and toast until they've darkened a bit and smell toasty, about 8 to 9 minutes. Set them aside.
3) In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter, shortening, salt, espresso powder, baking soda, vanilla, flavor, and vinegar, beating until smooth and creamy.
4) Beat in the egg, again beating until smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly combined.
5) Mix in the flour, then the chips and toasted nuts.
6) If you're going to refrigerate the dough, cover the bowl, and refrigerate for about 4 to 5 hours; or overnight. Cookie dough refrigerated for 3 1/2 to 4 hours will spread moderately; chilled overnight, it will spread much less.
7) Mix the 1/3 cup sugar and salt for the coating, and put it in a bowl. To bake cookies immediately (without refrigeration), use a spoon (or a tablespoon cookie scoop) to scoop 1 1/2" balls of dough into the sugar/salt mixture, rolling to coat. Then transfer to the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2" between them on all sides; they'll spread quite a bit. Or use a teaspoon cookie scoop to scoop 1 1/4" balls of dough.
8) Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes — 11 minutes for smaller cookies, 12 for larger ones. Their edges will be chestnut brown and their tops a lighter golden brown. (For dough that's been refrigerated, add 30 seconds to 1 minute to those baking times.) Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan until they've set enough to move without breaking. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Yield: about 4 dozen 3" cookies, or 7 dozen 2 1/4" cookies. (SHEESH! Mine must have been big ones, as I only got 32 cookies!)

But I didn't only indulge in selfish cookie baking, I also made a pie today--perhaps the most perfectly executed specimen ever to come out of my oven! I'm thrilled that it turned out so well, because it's a gift for my neighbors who helped me out of a (literal) jam lately. I won't go into too many of the gory details, but suffice it to say, I'm still having sewer drainage issues that have been plaguing me since the spring thaw. And my brave and selfless neighbors came over, dug down to the main line in the back yard, and snaked it clear with a couple of long lengths of cable from the barn. Talk about Good Samaritans! So I thought the least I could do was to pay back some of my indebtedness with a homemade pie. Both fellows enjoy all kinds of berry pies, so I rooted around in the freezer and found one bag of blackberries and another quart of wild blueberries. Thus, it was to be a black-and-blue pie! And since I've been making a lot of double-crust pies of late, I decided to go with a crumble topping for this one. My neighbors like a rather sweet pie, so I knew it would go over well. I believe that this recipe yields a perfect transitional pie between the seasons--showcasing summery berries inside, but with a warmly-spiced topping that hints at autumn right around the corner.

Black-and-Blue Crumble Pie

one nine-inch pie crust, your favorite recipe

Black-and-Blue Filling:
5 cups blackberries and blueberries (in any proportion you prefer)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (or ground instant tapioca)

Crumble Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly softened

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and chill the pie crust until very firm. In the meantime, gently mix together the berries, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, corn starch and tapioca flour. Set aside until the oven has come to temperature and the pie shell is well chilled.

Pour the berry filling into the pie shell and even the top with a spatula. Bake on the lowest rack in the oven for 30 minutes. Toward the end of the first half hour of baking, make the topping. Whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Then blend in the butter with your fingers until evenly distributed throughout the dry ingredients, and large, moist crumbs begin to form.

After the pie has baked for 30 minutes, remove it from the oven, add a pie shield (or tin foil) to the edges, then carefully top the pie with the crumble mixture. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees, and return the pie to the oven for about another 45 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling up from underneath and puffing up the topping all over (especially in the middle!), and the topping is golden to caramel brown.

Carefully remove the pie shield (tucking any loosened pieces of the crumble right back onto the hot pie filling), then cool the pie completely on a wire rack, at least two hours, before serving.

The summer's finally PEACHY!

I command you to walk away from the computer this very minute, and hurry to the store or farmstand or farmer's market, and buy yourself a whole passel of peaches which are--right at this very moment--at their peak of juicy perfection! Of course, my zone (4) is just too frosty for this heat-loving fruit, so our "local" peaches generally come from New Jersey, just a day's drive. Despite the cool, wet summer, the peaches are quite lovely this year. Other than eating them out of hand, the best thing you can do to showcase peaches when they are perfectly ripe is to make a homemade peach pie! But first, an introductory anecdote, as is my way...

Last weekend, my friends and I attended the 154-year-old tradition known as the Redford Picnic (colloquially, "The Fifteenth of Redford") in Redford, NY. Its main function is as a church fundraiser, and there are all the typical games of chance and food booths and homespun music performances that are to be found at any such country fair. The two attractions that make the Redford Fair unique are first, the wonderful 1890's Armitage-Herschell wooden carousel that was donated to the Church of the Assumption in Redford in 1910 and is reported to be the oldest in America that is still in operation. It is comprised of 24 original carved horses and four sleighs, and the carousel can be ridden just once a year at the Redford Picnic, formerly powered by actual horses, and now run by a tractor.

The second event that truly defines the Redford Picnic is the pie booth, where you put your quarter down on a number between 1 and 30, spin a roulette-type wheel, and if it lands on your number, you win a pie! Of course, if you're not a lucky person, you can always purchase a pie for ten bucks. Though the pies are homemade, whether you get an edible one or not seems to be as much of a gamble as the spinning wheel game itself.

My friend June and I both tried to win a pie, but we gave up after a couple of bucks' worth of quarters. June finally bought a pie, mainly for her pie-loving husband, Tom. She chose peach, but I could tell by the looks of it, it was sub-standard. (I suspect that pie-making skills have deriorated quite a bit since the Redford Picnic's inception in 1855!) The crust looked thick and dry and decidedly un-flaky, and the peaches inside--God help us--may have been from a can. Moreover, they were glommed together with little beads of undissolved tapioca. In a word, EWWW!

I felt so bad for them, that when I spied some lovely Jersey peaches in the grocery store this week (for a mere $0.69/pound!), I quickly grabbed a few pounds and decided to make them a proper peach pie. As he ate his icky Redford pie, Tom (born in Alabama and raised in New Orleans) unkindly proclaimed that northern piemakers obviously knew nothing about making peach pie. So I took it upon myself to reclaim the honor of the Yankee piemaking tradition!

Of course, I began with my favorite half-and-half pie crust recipe rom Ken Haedrich, but to make it truly old-fashioned, genuinely Southern, and ridiculously light and flaky, I made it with half butter and half lard instead of vegetable shortening. Then for the filling, I used three pounds of perfectly ripe, peeled peaches, with just a scant half cup of sugar, a little vanilla and a few drops of almond extract (always good when paired with stone fruits), and because they were so juicy, some extra thickener so that the filling wouldn't end up being runny.

Since I made the pie as a gift, I didn't get to see the inside with my own eyes, but June sent me a picture after she cut the first slice, and it was GORGEOUS! The filling wasn't runny, but neither was it stiff like Jell-O. The peaches softened but did not dissolve into mush, and the bottom crust was golden brown, as it should be. I quote June, the recipient of said pie: "The peaches were perfect. Tender, yet each holding its shape. Their freshness really shone through. The pie was light and yet tasty. The perfect summertime dessert." SUCCESS!

Perfect Peach Pie
(Source: crust recipe adapted from Ken Haedrich's Pie)

Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup frozen lard, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup ice water

Filling:
3 lbs. peaches (8-10), peeled and sliced in sixths
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons corn starch
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter

Egg Wash (optional):
1 egg
1 tablespoon cream

In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, sugar and salt and pulse to blend and aerate. Add the cold butter and lard and pulse about ten times until the fat breaks into petite pea-sized pieces and the dough looks like crumbly oatmeal. Drizzle in about 1/2 cup iced water, more or less, just until the dough holds together when pinched between your fingers. Divide the dough in half, form two disks on pieces of plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour, or even overnight.

When the dough is thoroughly chilled, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and prepare the peach filling. Make an shallow "X" in the bottom of each peach with the tip of a sharp knife. Drop the peaches into boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, or until the peels start to loosen. Remove the peaches to a bowl of cold water, then peel and pit them, and cut each one into sixths. Sprinkle the peach slices with the lemon juice, then gently mix in the sugar, vanilla, almond extract, corn starch and tapioca flour, and set the mixture aside while you form the pie crusts.

Roll out one of the crusts and fit it into a 9-inch Pyrex pie plate, cutting off the excess and forming a stand-up edge between a half-inch and an inch high. Place in the freezer to firm while you roll out the second crust. When the botton crust is firm, pour the peach filling into the pie plate, scatter bits of butter on top of the filling, and cover with the second crust. Pinch the edges together to seal and crimp decoratively. Cut four large slits (or many smaller ones) in the top of the pie, and use a pastry brush to apply a thin coating of egg wash (one egg whisked with one tablespoon of cream) if desired.

Bake the pie for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, reduce the heat to 350 degrees, cover the edges of the pie with a shield or tin foil, and bake for about 45 minutes more. Let cool for at least two hours before cutting and serving.

In which I pretend to appear on "Chopped"...

YIKES! Another muggy, 90-degree day today! But I'm not complaining, as my vegetable garden is finally getting the heat that it needs to produce. I planted so late, and the summer has been so cool and rainy, that I wasn't sure that I would see a proper harvest this year. But yesterday while I was weeding the garden (not the hottest--har, har--idea I've ever had when it's 90 degrees), I found a few surprises and what I hope is the harbinger of many good things to come in the next couple of months.

TA-DAH! The first (mini-) harvest! I picked a small red tomato (I believe it was a super-early variety appropriately named, "Manitoba"), three black cherry tomatoes, the first straightneck yellow squash, and a handful of several kinds of basil (mostly, I was just trying to pinch the flowers off of the plants). Being the sort of person who never enjoys things going to waste, I challenged myself to using all of these fresh ingredients in one meal, sort of like my own personal episode of "Chopped."

And HERE'S what I came up with: Bruschetta-Topped Ribeye with Pan-Fried New Potatoes and Jalapeno, Squash and Corn Spoonbread! Are you feeling me, people?! Let me walk you through it...

First, I had the idea to make a cornbread filled with lots of sauteed veggies, but what I ended up with was much softer and moister, more like a squash casserole that you could almost pick up and eat with your hands, or perhaps most like a southern spoonbread. It was DELICIOUS, and as a postscript, the leftovers were great with poached eggs for my breakfast/brunch today. (My second attempt at poaching eggs Julia's way was more successful than the first, yet still nothing to brag about. But I digress...)

Jalapeno, Squash and Corn Spoonbread

4 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
1 very large or two small jalapenos, seeded, ribbed and diced
1 6 to 8-inch summer squash, seeds and spongey core removed, then shredded
2 ears of corn, husked, de-silked, and kernels cut from the cob
1 can cream-style corn
salt and pepper, to taste
2 small packages of cornbread mix (I used Martha White), batter prepared acc. to package

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the diced onion, jalapeno, squash, and corn from the cob, and cook over medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender. Add a can of creamed corn and mix everything together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare the cornbread mix according to the package directions (I used two small boxes of Martha White and made the batter with milk), then stir in the sauteed vegetables. Spray two regular muffin tins liberally with nonstick cooking spray, then using a large scoop, fill almost to the top of each muffin cup (you will probably get 18-20).

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until set in the middle and golden brown around the sides. Run the point of a sharp knife around the spoonbread muffins when they come out of the oven to loosen, but let them cool in the pan for at least ten minutes or they will fall apart as you try to extract them!

While the spoonbread was baking, I diced the tomatoes, added minced garlic, salt and pepper, a drizzle of EVOO, a good splash of balsamic vinegar, a few pinches of parmesan cheese, and a chiffonade of Genovese, Aromatica, lemon and lime basils, and set the bruschetta aside for the flavors to meld while I got onto the meat and potatoes.

I liberally coated a bone-in ribeye with the house barbecue rub, and threw it immediately into a hot pan with two tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil to sear. Meanwhile, I nuked four smaller new potatoes that I acquired from a farmstand down the road about five miles from me, and when they were tender, I halved them and peeled them. When I flipped the steak over to cook on the other side, I placed the potato halves face-down in the meat drippings to brown. When the meat was done, I removed it from the hot pan to cool for a bit and to let the juices settle, and kept browning the potatoes on all sides. When they were crispy and golden, I added them to my plate, topped the steak with the bruschetta, and threw a spoonbread muffin on the side.

If that doesn't do it for ya, I don't know what will! A fitting feast to celebrate the beginning of the harvest in the North Country! REVEL in it, my friends! It was slow coming, and it'll be gone way too soon.

Summer Simulacra

Friends, at long last, summer has found us. We have been flirting with 90 degrees for about a week, and there has also been some icky humidity--not Deep South muggy or anything, but uncomfortable nonetheless. I, for one, am extremely happy that it held off until my short break between the last summer session and the beginning of fall semester. And as long as there's enough heat to ripen my tomatoes and peppers, it's all good. However, as the temperatures rise, we're often less inclined to spend time in the kitchen in front of the hot stove. So I've been eating a lot of entree salads for dinner, and of course, drinking different sorts of refreshing frozen beverages. In fact, I have two recipes to share with you to help you endure the dog days of summer, as late as they may have been in coming.

First off, I simply must tell you about my new favorite salad with which I have become more than a bit obsessed! Awhile back, I was reading The Pioneer Woman's blog, as I am wont to do, and she was documenting her trip to the annual Blogher conference in Chicago. While visiting the Windy City, P-Dub enjoyed a lovely meal at a well-known restaurant called Bandera, and she was particularly effusive about a salad that she had called the "Macho Salad." I did a quick internet search and found a copycat recipe from a sister restaurant to Bandera in the same group called the Cherry Creek Grill. So I made the salad one night, and have had it at least three more times since then! I love this salad--it's creamy and sweet and tangy and crunchy and altogether DELISH! However, I refuse to reprint a precise salad recipe, as I believe you should use as much or as little of an ingredient as you prefer, and you may wish to add or omit or substitute an item. It's YOUR salad...make it the way YOU want! But here's the general blueprint:

Cherry Creek Grill/Bandera's "Macho" Salad
(Source: Malisa's Food Blog)

fresh greens
diced chicken or turkey (I cheated and shredded up some breast from a deli roaster)
chopped tomatoes (I will add these when mine are finally ripe)
chopped dates (this is the key ingredient--I love the sweetness they add!)
diced avocado
crumbled goat cheese
sliced, toasted almonds
cornbread croutons (I've substituted focaccia croutons and in a pinch, used a handful of seasoned cornbread stuffing cubes)
freshly-ground black pepper

Dressing (this is easily enough for 4 to 6 entree salads):
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced (I doubled this, as is my way!)
1/4 teaspoon dried basil (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh)
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh)
1 1/4 cup olive oil (I used half olive and half canola oil)

After you have your nice, healthy salad for din-din, you're allowed to have a special treat for dessert. One of my all-time favorite summer splurges is the Orange Slammer from Friendly's. It's SO yummy, and really cools you off on a hot day. Buit what is NOT cool is the price! It costs $4.60 or thereabouts--as much as some sort of fancy coffee beverage at Starbucks! Ridiculous! So I usually only enjoy a couple of them each summer. But the last time I was in there, I lucked out and got to watch and learn as a new employee was trained on the Orange Slammer methodology.

You add four or five good scoops (about a pint) of orange sherbet into your blender and add a cup and a quarter to a cup and a half of a fizzy beverage. Which fizzy beverage? Well, IF you can find a good-quality, flavorful sherbet (like Friendly's!), then all you need is seltzer (for my North Country peeps, Stewart's even sells a mandarin orange flavor under their house label). The problem is finding a decent orange sherbet! As far as I can tell, none of the higher-quality ice cream brands has a plain orange sherbet (though many of them have an orange and vanila swirl variety). So you may well end up having to buy house brands of sherbet. If your sherbet is of a lesser quality, you might want to add a little more zing with some lemon-lime soda, or if the sherbet really needs a flavor boost, use orange soda (and I prefer to use diet sodas myself). Whichever carbonated beverage you choose, add a half teaspoon of vanilla before you blend it up. Serve your frosty, citrusy beverage with a whimsical straw, and enjoy it along with the last burst of summertime!

Julia would not be pleased.

I know I'm a week late on this post, but cut me some slack, eh? I've been finishing summer school (YAY!), and I'm still working on a big side project at school that needs to be completed this week. Ugh! Anyway, my friends and I went to see the highly-anticipated foodie film, Julie & Julia last Saturday night. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and capped off the evening with a post-movie discussion/analysis over a decadent Espresso Chocolate Truffle Mocha at Starbucks. (Have you had one of those? Good heavens! It's like liquid candy!)

Since you couldn't join us last week, here's my mini-review. In short, it was worth EVERY PENNY of my nine bucks to see Meryl embody the completely contagious joie de vivre of Julia Child. All I have to say is, they better start polishing her Oscar now! There are also strong supporting roles, including the always-wonderful Stanley Tucci, who is delightful as her husband, Paul--they have such WONDERFUL chemistry together! (Only actors of their caliber could make us see Julia as a sex object!) And also, one of my very favorite actors, Jane Lynch, plays Julia's equally tall, equally hysterical sister. Love that! However...

I understand the filmmaker's aim, to draw the parallels between the lives of these two women, each struggling to find her identity and purpose and passion in life, by interweaving their stories. However, that gives us only half the typical amount of time to devote to each story. Unfortunately, the Julia Child story is the one that really engages the viewer (leaving us wanting more of her biography!), as there is simply not enough time to depict fully the roller coaster of triumphs and tragedies in the kitchen so charmingly detailed in Julie Powell's blog and subsequent memoir. I am a big Amy Adams fan, by the way, ever since her first role as Leslie Miller in Drop Dead Gorgeous, one of my very favorite (black!) comedies. But I would call her performance in Julia & Julia affable, but insipid. I do not fault Ms. Adams or her talent; she simply wasn't given much to work with. I can tell you, as someone who followed her blog early on, before it was a book or a movie, Julie Powell is much wittier and more entertaining than the film reveals. Again, I think it's because so much of her culinary journey was short-changed by the parallel lives format.

I hate to speak unkindly toward the film's writer-director, as Nora Ephron also wrote the screenplay for my very favorite film, When Harry Met Sally. But other than Sleepless in Seattle, I generally do not prefer her directorial efforts, and in the case of Julie and Julia, I fault her adaptation as well. She clearly privilieges the Julia over the Julie in both plot and characterization. So in short (too late), the film is palatable, but Meryl is truly DELECTABLE!

The other thing that's tantalizing about the film, as you might guess, is the FOOD! In fact, my friends and I decided immediately after our viewing that we needed to have a theme dinner soon involving, at the very least, Bouef Bourguignon with Raspberry Bavarian Cream for dessert! And I myself feel compelled to make the Sole Meuniere that Julia and Paul sample when they first arrive in Paris. But until we get around to those more involved dishes, I thought I might honor Julia by mastering the art of poaching an egg. At least, that was my goal...

I started by bringing about two inches of water to the barest simmer in a large saute pan. Although I was certain that my eggs were as fresh as can be (thanks to my hens), I took a tip from Julia and boiled them for a mere ten seconds to start setting the whites. I thought it might be a good idea to poke the large end of each egg with a large push pin like I do when I'm boiling eggs (it helps the egg release from the shell more readily). But mostly, it just made little squiggly white worms swimming around in the pan!

So I fished the squigglies out, and added two tablespoons of white vinegar to the water, as per Julia's instructions. (The vinegar helps the eggs hold their shape as they cook.) Once the water came back to the simmer, I cracked each egg and gently slipped it into the water, immediately trying to lift the white up and over the yolk, in the classic tradition, but I must admit that I had little success and getting the white to cling to the yolk. (Sigh.) Still, I persevered and worked my way clockwise around the pan, cooking a maximum of four eggs at a time.

After the first egg went in, I set the timer for four minutes. When the timer went off, I used a skimmer to lift the first egg out, and I pressed it gently with my finger to test for doneness. (It needed perhaps another 30 seconds to a minute for my tastes. I like the yolk to be jellied, not liquid--what the Frenchies call "mollet.") When it was ready, I removed it to a bowl of cold water that I had standing by. This washes off the vinegar and stops the cooking.

I proceeded with the rest of that batch of eggs, and then poached four more. Julia tells us that the eggs can stay in the cold water for several hours, but I drained and refrigerated all but the ones I was planning on eating for breakfast. (If you're poaching, might as well do a bunch, for a quick breakfast for a few days or to top entree salads for lunch or dinner.) To reheat, you simply slide the egg back in the simmering water for thirty seconds, drain on a paper towel, and serve.

Julia says (hear that voice in your head now), "A perfect specimen is neat and oval in shape, and the white completely masks the yolk." It all sounds so easy, right? Then why do mine always comes out looking like MUTANTS, despite my best efforts and Julia's (and Martha's) tutelage? I mean, don't get me wrong, they are tasty little mutants, but not pretty enough to serve for company or anything. (In the picture to the left, only the egg in the back came out halfway decent-looking, and you can still see the yolk bulging out of the side a little bit!) I guess I just need to keep practicing, but for the life of me, I just dont see why we need to poach eggs at all, when it's so much easier to BASTE them--a technique I learned as a breakfast cook at Crescent H Ranch in Jackson Hole back in the day.

To baste eggs, you melt a little butter in your pan over medium-low to medium heat, crack in your eggs, and sprinkle each with salt and pepper. Then you toss two big ice cubes into the pan and cover it tightly with a lid. Cook/steam for about four minutes (or to desired doneness--press the yolk lightly with your finger to test it), and that's it! I guess they're sort of a fried/poached combo, but it's well-suited to Eggs Benedict and all other poached egg applications--with a lot less fuss! (I hope Julia isn't rolling over in her grave now!)

Fear of Falling and the Great Cooking Magazine Backlog

I am embarrassed to admit that I have fallen woefully behind in reading my cooking magazines, and it's even more embarrassing to admit why that is. You see, one of my favorite things to do is to crawl into a nice, hot tub with a couple of issues of Gourmet and/or Bon Appetit and simply luxuriate. You might think that the summer's heat has been keeping me from taking hot baths, but given this year's "summer" temperatures or lack thereof (it was 45 degrees the other night when I went to bed--in AUGUST!), that's not the problem. Instead, it is the sorry state of the plumbing in the bathroom. During the spring floods, we had sewer issues in the basement that I don't even want to talk about in polite company (especially distasteful on a food blog!), and on the heels of that nasty crisis, the wood around the bathroom window has become so rotten, that when I shower, water leaks down, inside the walls, through the dining room ceiling below, and into a big bucket that I place in just the right spot so that the wood floors aren't ruined. This has actually been going on for years (yeah, my landlady rocks!), but only recently has the floor underneath the bathtub started to sound squeaky and feel a little spongey. So I became terrified that I was going to fall from the bathroom through the living room floor, all the way to the basement, and the paramedics would find me, still in the bathtub, naked and paralyzed, clutching a soggy issue of Gourmet. (Though I might prefer death to this humiliation!) Eventually, the landlady did come over and brought a plumber to check things out (nine years later--thanks!), and though the wall and the window will have to be replaced, he assured me that the bathtub is sound. You can hardly blame me for being distrustful, though, so I try to shower quickly and run away to avert disaster of the watery, plummeting variety. I have not yet been brave enough to fill the tub with the extra weight of water; consequently, my leisure reading has suffered.

Now that summer school is finally over, one of my (albeit minor) goals is to get caught up in reading my cooking mags, which will be no small feat, as there's a substantive stack of them! But I started with the March issue of Gourmet, and I was immediately inspired to make two excellent recipes found therein. For two weekends in a row now, I have treated myself to a yummy batch of something the fictitious Fannie Farmer named "Bridge Creek Heavenly Hots." They are these practically flourless, ethereally light silver dollar-sized pancakes. And they are very quick, too. The sour cream-based batter can be whipped up in a minute or two, and even though you have to prepare the little pancakes in multiple batches, they cook so quickly, that it goes very fast. (Also, as I was making them just for me, I only made a half batch.) If you love crepes or Swedish pancakes or Dutch babies, this is the recipe for you! The Heavenly Hots cook up very puffy from the eggs and sour cream, but as they have so little flour, they deflate like those other types of eggy pancakes do. In fact, when I made them a second time for brunch yesterday, I decided to double the flour, and I think I liked them even better, as they maintained a little more structure as they cooled. I served mine with browned butter and powdered sugar, which are my favorite crepe/Dutch baby toppings. But I believe blueberry jam, or a fresh blueberry sauce now that the fruit is ripe for the picking, would be IDEAL to serve with these little sour cream pancakes, especially if you were to grate a little lemon zest in the batter!

Bridge Creek Heavenly Hots
(Source: originally from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book via the March 2009 issue of Gourmet)

4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cake flour (yes, this recipe is correct as written!)
2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
*I added a teaspoon of vanilla, too.

Put the eggs in a mixing bowl and stir until well blended. Add the salt, baking soda, flour, sour cream, and sugar (and vanilla, if using), and mix well. All of this can be done in a blender, if you prefer.

Heat a griddle or frying pan until it is good and hot, film with butter, and drop small spoonfuls of batter onto the griddle—just enough to spread to an approximately 2 1/2-inch round (=a tablespoon of batter). When a few bubbles appear on top of the pancakes, turn them over and cook briefly.

*While you are cooking successive batches of pancakes, keep the finished ones on large oven-proof platter or cookie sheet in a warm oven.

So that's what's for breakfast. Now, what shall we have for lunch? Though I may take issue with a simple grilled sandwich as the cover of GOURMET magazine, I could not deny its tempting allure. The dish that was March's cover girl was the Monte Cubano, a cross between a Cubano (the Cuban sandwich that usually has roast pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard) and a Monte Cristo (which has ham and turkey and cheese and is then battered and fried). How GOOD does that sound? And it's SO simple! I was even thinking that this would be a terrific recipe for your panini grill (shout out to my friend, June, who just got a new one!).

Monte Cubano
(Source: Gourmet, March 2009)

2 slices firm bread
1 to 2 teaspoons mustard
4 or 5 dill pickle rounds
2 slices boiled or baked ham
2 slices smoked turkey
3 thin slices Swiss cheese
1/2 garlic clove
1/2 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Spread one slice of bread with mustard and top with pickles, meats, and cheese. Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, then mix with mayonnaise. Spread on remaining slice of bread and assemble sandwich. Beat together egg, milk, and 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper, then soak sandwich in egg mixture.

Melt butter in a heavy medium skillet over medium-low heat. Cook sandwich, uncovered, until underside is well browned, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook remaining side, covered, until well browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, one minute.

As both of the above recipes call for eggs, I thought I might end this post by sharing a picture of the weird eggs that one of my hens has been laying for me lately. Often, when pullets first start to lay, they'll give you tiny eggs, but even the youngest of my girls are almost three! Very peculiar...

A Canning Miracle!

I was reading GardenWeb's Harvest Forum, as is always my way, and someone calling herself Malna from New Jersey posted a picture of her new canner that her hubby surprised her with. It's from Ball (Jarden), and it's their new Elite stainless steel canner. Well, one look at that beautiful thing was all I needed! I decided to splurge and buy one for myself! (Some girls treat themselves to clothes or shoes or purses--I prefer kitchen equipment. Tee hee.) To be sure, the price tag was a bit daunting at $80, but I rationalized the purchase in two main ways.

First, my current (classic speckled enamel) canner--at 13 years old--was looking worse for wear, coated with mineral deposits inside and getting thin in spots on the bottom. And the uncoated rack was all but disintegrating due to rust! In fact, I had been considering buying a new stainless steel rack for my old canner (the kind with narrower concentric circles so that small jars don't fall through), but the rack was twenty bucks by itself. Which leads to my second justification, which was that the only replacement canner I could find around here was the whole Ball canning kit, including all the tools that I already have, and that one is $60! OK, OK...I could order just the canner and rack online for maybe $25, or to be truly frugal, I could go buy a big pot at the kitchen supply store for even less and fit it with a round cake rack in the bottom to serve as a rack. But DARN IT, I just wanted the new, fancy canner! And as my first one lasted thirteen years, the heavy-bottomed stainless steel one should last the rest of my natural life! I'll certainly get plenty of use out of it, as anyone who reads this blog knows that I can A LOT, and also teach canning classes at school from time to time.

Even though I thought I could probably get another season out of my old canner, I talked myself into ordering the lovely new model from a site called The Housewares Store. They had it on sale for $68.99, so with eleven dollars for shipping, that took it to $80, which is about how much it costs if you order it from Ball's website, but then you still have to pay shipping on top of that. So at least I saved a little there! However, I didn't have time to wait for the new canner to be delivered, as I still had three pounds of Black Velvet apricots getting overly-ripe in the fridge, and one of my projects for the weekend was to experiment with an aprium-pomegranate pepper jelly based on my favorite apricot pepper jelly recipe. So earlier today, I busted out the old canner and got to work. I had the jelly cooking on the stove, and the water in the canner was almost up to a boil when I heard a funny sound, like a hissing, and then smelled propane. As I bent down to examine the burner, I could see that the depression around the element was filling with water which had snuffed out the flame. My faithful old canner had sprung a leak, the day after I placed an order for the new one! DIVINE PROVIDENCE, I say! The universe clearly wanted me to have the fancy new canner!

I swear to you, I did NOT sabotage my old kettle with a screwdriver or anything to further justify my extravagant purchase. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't have filled it with very hot water that then leaked all over the kitchen for me to clean up! Furthermore, I had to process the pepper jelly in my pasta pot which wasn't really big enough for the job and kept boiling over, making even more of mess for me to deal with. By the hardest, though, I completed the two batches (having to process it in three!), and I must say, for all my trouble, the fruit combination was delicious and made a terrifically tangy and spicy pepper jelly! And it is a beautiful burgundy color as well! However, the first batch didn't set enough to my liking, so I'll give it a few days, and then decide if I need to reprocess it. By that time, the Cadillac of canners will probably have arrived, and that'll be a good excuse to break it in! In the meantime, here's the pepper jelly recipe if you want to give it try...if your canner is still sound and water-tight, that is!

Aprium-Pomegranate Pepper Jelly

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped finely
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used a smaller yellow bell pepper, plus one Hungarian Hot Wax pepper from my garden to make up the size difference)
1/2 cup hot peppers, seeded and chopped (I used one Anaheim-type, two jalapenos, and two serranos)
9 fresh Black Velvet apricots (or any aprium or pluot variety), pitted and chopped
2 cups cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
1 pouch (3 oz) liquid pectin

Put the dried apricot bits into a microwave-safe bowl and pour the pomegranate juice over them. Microwave on high for four minutes, and set aside to let the dried fruit absorb the liquid. In the meantime, seed and chop the peppers and the fresh apricots.

Add the reconstituted dried apricots, peppers, fresh apricots, vinegar and sugar to a large pot and stir. Bring to a full rolling boil for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pectin and stir in. Bring back to a hard boil for 5 minutes. Check the set, and continue to boil at two-minute intervals until the desired set is achieved. Fill (seven or eight) half-pint jars, wipe the rims, adjust the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.