June 30

I am a Farmer's Market addict, or maybe just a fan. I went to another city's market yesterday and bought some great vegetables (garlic, red onions, broccoli, zucchini), and today I found some different things that I wanted at my local market- basil, cilantro, and bread. Mmmm sweet bread.

I made more pesto with the basil, supplementing my own little harvest. And I added the cilantro to my Roasted Corn Salad for tonight's dinner.

The bread I'm saving for tomorrow for sweet toast or maybe french toast again. Mmm. It has maple, cranberries, walnuts, and raisins. It's a local bakery that I have never heard of. He said that he sold 75 loaves in the first hour of the market, and he was calling the bakery to have them bring over more bread. I have to check out the bakery! I guess they have homemade soups too. Soup and bread? I'm so there!!

June 29

Farmers Market finds (Andover). Broccoli ($2), red onions ($1), red potatoes ($3), garlic ($1), zucchini ($2).

Buttermilk Broccoli and Carrot Slaw & Grilled Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce

I cleaned out my refrigerator today and it felt good. I actually know what's in there! So I started to look for recipes that would make use of what I had. I bought bone-in pork chops yesterday that were on sale (buy one, get one free), but I had no idea how to make them. I used my trusty Google Reader to do a search for "pork chops" within my favorite cooking blogs. Sure enough, one of my blogger friends had recently grilled pork chops and the word "rhubarb" popped out at me! I was thrilled. We have so much rhubarb and to find a way to use it in something that is not baked or with lots of sugar- SCORE!

So I set to work on making the citrus mint brine that the recipe suggested. I didn't have orange pineapple juice but I did have orange juice and some pineapple tidbit cups. So I used 4 ounces orange juice and an entire pineapple cup with the juices and fruit. I figured the fruit would add a little extra something something. And lucky me that I had just frozen my fresh mint! It was only $1 for the entire bunch but I hated to waste it. I read one one of my other blogs about how to freeze herbs, and so I was trying it out. I didn't know it would only freeze for a day before I'd use it though.

So as the pork chops sat in the refrigerator, doing their thing, I made this coleslaw. I really just found a recipe for the basic idea of coleslaw. I had a head of broccoli that was beginning to wilt so it was perfect for a slaw. I really really loved this buttermilk dressing! (And wow, I actually had buttermilk in the fridge!) The little bit of cider vinegar was awesome. Who knew that coleslaw dressing is just buttermilk, mayo, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper?

Other refrigerator/pantry items that I used: chopped red onion, baby carrots (shredded), sliced almonds.



So I didn't really follow the recipe exactly. Smitten Kitchen didn't use carrots. She also added dried cranberries but I didn't have those.

Back to the chops- I made the rhubarb sauce ahead of time. It was easy enough but it took longer than I thought. It didn't demand constant attention, but I needed to stir it every 4-5 minutes for a total of like 20 minutes I think. I liked the sauce but I think I would take it easy on the cinnamon and allspice if there is a next time.

The porkchops cooking on my grill pan-



Dinner!


Jim and I liked the porkchops but we really liked the slaw. We had second helpings of it!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Broccoli Slaw.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pork Chops with Rhubarb Honey Sauce.

Strawberry Extravaganza!

I went a little nuts today with the strawberries. My son and I went strawberry picking and we came home with 5 pounds! I didn't really have a plan but I found some easy things to make that didn't require a lot of planning or extra supplies.

First up, strawberry preserves. I don't have a finished picture, like on toast, but so far so good. I opened a jar and it seems to have set well and it's nice and chunky with fresh strawberries. It's also a little tart from the lemon zest and juice. Yum.





Second, the Strawberry Rhubart Tarts. I went searching on one of my favorite food blogs for anything with strawberries and rhubarb and this was perfect. It was something new when I really wanted to go with something familiar, like last summer's Strawberry Handpies, so I'm glad I headed into the unknown. I really am very glad that I made these, they are wonderful! I loved that I got to use my little tartlet pans and they are a perfect portion size. (We tend to overeat our sweets in this house :)

I was a little confused when I followed the recipe at the end, mixing the strawberries and rhubarb with cinnamon, brown sugar, and an egg. I figured it would work out well. Uh, yeah!

In between making the top two delicious items I was making Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, from none other than David Lebovitz. So easy! I think I might have found my favorite way to use my ice cream maker. It feels healthier using organic plain yogurt instead of the heavy cream and whole milk, and eggs, and lots of sugar.

It felt like all day I was cutting strawberries, mixing with it sugar, and letting it get happy for a while before using it in my cooking/baking. Lots of dishes going on! It was all so worth it! I'm trying to decide if I should go strawberry picking again next week- maybe make a whole pie! Oh my Jimmy would love me so much if I made a true strawberry rhubarb pie! (Did you notice that every sentence in this paragraph ended in an exclamation mark?!)

Yes, exciting stuff! Great day! :)

I am sharing some of the jam (it made two half pint jars), probably with my mother-in-law, and then I froze the remaining tarts after Jim and I each had one for dessert. I'm sure Jim will dig in tomorrow again though :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Preserves.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. (Perfect Scoop)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Tarts.

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

I can't wait to make this ice cream this week! We are going strawberry picking, hopefully tomorrow, and I have great plans!



They include making at least one of these-



Mmmmm strawberry floats! This is another of my childhood favorites.

This ice cream is creamy, tangy, and just so freaking good!

This recipe is from the Perfect Scoop, home of the most perfect ice creams, but the recipe is online too.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream.

Tangy Pork with Tomatillos, Tomatoes, and Cilantro

I LOVE this pork dish. My husband? Not so much. He thinks it's the cumin but he's grown to love cumin and spice, so I think maybe the tomatillos? Or maybe he's just so used to saying that he doesn't love it that he doesn't love it. I think that's it.

It's not at all spicy but it's kind of smoky and sweet at the same time. I just love tomatillos! I wonder if I can ever find any fresh ones at farmer's markets? Well anyway, this reminds me of a dish that my Mom used to make for us when we were young. I don't think her version had the cherry tomatoes, and I think it was spicy?

I found this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine waaaaaaay back. I found the recipe online, of course, because it's a great recipe.

Click here for the online recipe.

Mexican Mojito

Do you get that I like tequila? I honestly don't drink much. I made this one single drink and I was done. It's a week night after all!

My sister sent me this recipe from a Rick Bayless Mexican cookbook. Who knew there was such a thing as a Mexican Mojito? Mojitos have never appealed to me because I don't like rum much (or any other liquor). But making it with tequila?? Game on!

I thought this was sweet, just a little minty, and it went down well. I would make it again, maybe with less sugar? Or maybe steep the mint in the hot water first?? I just thought it would be more minty, and I even used more mint than it asked. Hmmm. I need to think.

I made just the one drink so I followed the per glass proportions, making a small amount of simple syrup (1/2 cup hot water, 1/2 cup sugar, shake until dissolved).


Mexican Mojitos – adapted from Rick Bayless’ Fiesta at Rick’s
Makes eight 12 oz drinks

8 large sprigs fresh mint
1 ½ cups simple syrup
Ice cubes (you will need about 2 quarts)
2 cups 100% silver tequila
1 ½ cups fresh lime juice
Sparkling water or club soda

Set out eight tall 12 oz glasses. Put the leaves stripped off a single sprig of mint into each glass – you’ll need about 10 leaves for each drink. Divide the simple syrup among the glasses (3 tablespoons/1.5 oz per glass). Use a muddler (or the handle of a wooden spoon) to crush the mint, releasing its flavor into the syrup. The more muddling, the fuller the mint flavor. Fill each glass with ice. Measure the tequila (1/4 cup/2 ounces per glass) and the lime juice (3 tablespoons/1.5 ounces per glass). Use a long handle, ice tea spoon to mix everything together. Top off each glass with a little sparkling water or soda.

Thanks, SisterFriend!

Blackberry Sorbet

I wasn't even planning on making a sorbet tonight. I noticed that the blackberries that I got on sale a few days ago weren't going over very well with my son. He gets into fruit funks where one day he can't get enough of a certain fruit and then the next day he refuses it. It's hard to buy fruit sometimes because I'm not sure what he'll do. So I try and buy fruit that I know I will enjoy too. And really, which fruit is a bad one? I love them all. I especially love the fruit that you can make into sorbets! I think that's ANY fruit according to David Lebovitz.

So this is a simple recipe. I think I need to tackle one of his more unique, complicated ones. I like a good ice cream challenge!

The color of this sorbet is awesome! It was sweet and fruity, but a little bitter too. Just like a blackberry. This is a great way to use up frozen blackberries too! I had mostly fresh berries but I used 1/2 cup of frozen berries. Oh, and I only made half of a recipe. I need to do that more often with a lot of recipes. Extras are nice but not when I want to move on to the next recipe and then feel guilt that there is half a cake (or whatever) left.

I used my Perfect Scoop cookbook but I found the recipe online, of course.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Sorbet.

CSA Farm Share Box #1

The farm sent an email that the first boxes would be light. The rain really did a number on their harvests- I guess some of the lettuces were beaten to the ground. It's still pretty early for most vegetables but I'm glad to start slow so I can get a feel for what I know and don't know. I did refer back to their email to identify two of the vegetables in here.

Clockwise from top left: Swiss chard, leaf lettuce blends, pea shoots (I think), and baby radishes and green onions.


I'm assuming these are all salad items. I'm going to research what I can do with the swiss chard and the pea shoots (both new to me!) I'm also not a big fan of radish but I have to admit I haven't had them for years. My grown up self might like them now :)

We didn't have much of a dinner planned for tonight, and I had picked up a rotisserie chicken so I just shredded some chicken on our salads. I think the lettuces were noticably different from store-bought lettuce. I think they were the freshest we've ever tasted (picked this morning! delivered this early afternoon for a 4:00 pick-up!) and they were bright tasting and a little spicy, maybe.

We had the carrots and mushrooms. What a nice start! I think every other week is not often enough now :) But we'll see.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

I made this last year. I had an abundance of blackberries, wanted to bake something, and found a simple cake that looked interesting. The blog that I stole this from has better pictures of the cake, in process and then plated.

I remember that this cake was sweet but not overly sweet. When you think of cake, well when I think of cake, I think of frosting and fluffy cake. This was almost more coffee cake or pound cake like. It was a very simple cake. I think I end every blog posting with this- I think I should make it again :)

I did substitute blackberries for raspberries. The original recipe said it was okay, and of course it was.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.

Domaine de Canton Margarita

For Father's Day I bought my wonderful husband a bottle of a liqueur. He is in love with all things ginger! So I went with a ginger theme- chocolate with ginger pieces (Chocomize), ginger chips (Williams Sonoma, baking?), and this ginger liqueur. It is French Ginger Liqueur with cognac. He immediately read the recipe booklet and made a drink at noon! It is this drink though there are several that we will be investigating very soon!

Domaine de Canton Margarita

2 parts Domaine de Canton
1 part tequila
1 splash Triple Sec
1/2 part fresh lime juice
1 splash fresh orange or pineapple juice

Serve on the rocks.

Bricks Pub

We don't eat out too often, or at least not at very many places. We stick close to home or eat the usual places- Big Bowl, Five Spice, Chili's, anywhere child friendly I guess. We know the owner of Bricks Pub, formerly known as Cru, so we decided to try their new concept- American pub.

I've decided to include restaurant food in this blog if it's somewhere new or something unique. My hamburger was definitely unique! It was called a Market Burger, which was described like this: "Market Burger -open faced asiago garlic bread, house made bbq, grilled pineapple, bacon & fried egg." The egg intrigued me so I ordered it. I also wanted to see what their homemade bbq sauce tasted like- I know how easy it is to make bbq sauce thanks to Pioneer Woman's BBQ Meatballs. (Wow, just realized I haven't blogged about those. I will remedy that.)

Anyway, the verdict was that my hamburger was very good. I really liked making sure I had a little bit of everything on my fork and eating it that way. I had never had pineapple in a burger, or egg actually. It didn't taste strange though I was prepared for that. It was nice!

I was in love with the fries. I don't know why. They just hit the spot. You could choose between garlic herb or sea salt fries. I chose garlic herb. My son liked them too.

My husband ordered an Italian Sausage Pizza "from the Brick Oven". It was good too, for what it was. I would have ordered the Greek Pizza. Mmmmm feta cheese, something I don't eat often enough.

We split our meals so we could try a bit of both.

This place had a big selection of bottled and on tap beers. I don't even remember what beer I had, something the waitress suggested. Jim had a Goose Island special. After he ordered he realized it was a $12.99 beer! A little steep but it's Father's Day, so what the heck :) Actually, it ended up being a 22 ounce bottle, so a few glasses worth. He enjoyed it mucho.

I like the picture that I took because you can see my glass in the background that says, "Liquid Goodness". That was about right!

I think we'll end up going back (especially because it's owned by one of our daycare parents), but my husband is more anxious to try the new Tavern restaurant for lunch/dinner. We had brunch there a few weeks ago and it was really good.

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Ann told me that she made this recipe with great success. I had Cinnamon Rolls on my summer list and with Father's Day I wanted to make these for my sweet. He has a love for Cinnabon and he has been denying himself after reading how many calories each roll has! I don't think these are calorie free but maybe a bit better for you since they're homemade. They did get a "Very Good" rating from him, so I think we'll make these again :)

I have a slight fear of yeast so I was pretty nervous about making the dough. The dough part was still pretty tricky, especially rolling up it up "tightly" but I did the best that I could. I figured even if they were a loose roll, the taste would be unaffected.

Cream cheese is layered into the dough, adding a little something something to the flaky roll. Mmmmmm. My guy loves his cream cheese so I'm glad this recipe included that too!

Before the rolls were refrigerated and they were allowed to "rise"-


I refrigerated the rolls overnight and pulled them out about 45 minutes before I expected my husband to get up from his slumber. He had great timing- they were cooling slightly as he came downstairs and I had the SW pancakes almost ready too!

The rolls before baking-


Done!



I took it easy on the icing and I'm glad. I love when rolls are bread-like but also a little gooey.

I hope my husband doesn't object if I make these again! These would be great for overnight guests.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls.

Star Wars pancakes

Happy Father's Day! My husband and small child are SW geeks so I thought making special pancakes were fitting for this special day. My husband saw the SW pancake molds too early- he had a friend who sent him the Williams Sonoma link and he very excitedly told me about the molds. I was disappointed because I was going to buy them secretly and then surprise him with the pancakes. Oh well. I bought the molds and showed them to him, content to just surprise our son with the pancakes that morning.

They were very easy to make, especially with my pancake pen! I just had to let one side of the pancake cook in the mold for 2 minutes, remove the (nonstick) mold carefully, and then flip the pancake. It held its shape nicely but I used a toothpick to trim some extra edges and to make sure the eyes and other cut-outs were neat.

Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, and Yoda!

So I definitely give these pancakes molds a big thumbs up! I know we'll use them often :)

Summertime Lasagna

I don't know what intrigued me about this recipe- probably the word Summertime! I wouldn't even call this a lasagna except that it uses the noodles and then some ricotta. This recipe is exactly what it looks like- some sauteed zucchini, cooked cherry tomatoes and garlic, noodles, ricotta cheese mixture, and some basil. We really liked that it was simple and really, how nice not to eat meat every day.

Again, a good use of farmer's market vegies when I get them!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Summertime Lasagna.

Chipotle Lime Chicken Tacos

We've made this a few times and I do have to say that some times it is FABULOUS and then other times we wonder, what did we do different? It was good but not the FABULOUS that we remembered. Well, the time I made it and took this picture, it was FABULOUS. So worth the extra work. And it is some extra work. I remembered that I used almost my entire son's naptime to do the preparation. I think once I get used to a recipe I become more efficient and figure out short-cuts.

We made tacos with just some cheese, cilantro, the chicken, and some sour cream. The chicken is VERY flavorful so not much else is needed!

We served the chicken with the Grilled Corn Salad that we love so much.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chipotle Lime Chicken Tacos.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

OMG! I think I say that every ice cream is my favorite flavor but really, really this is it. I think I only made this once because it was a pain in the arse to strain the seeds from the raspberry puree but I think I need to get my lazy self going on this one again. I need to find some local raspberries, that don't cost me an arm and a leg.

I added the chocolate chips because I remembered that Sebastian Joe's in Minneapolis makes this ice cream and I've always insisted that I get it whenever I'm there. It's funny that I'm not even tempted to go there anymore now that I make my own icre cream. Actually, I do want to go there. I think I would like to get some more ideas :) They make some unique flavors but I do tend to stay on the safe, simple side.

I used my Perfect Scoop cookbook for this recipe but I found the recipe online. Of course! I think every food blogger that makes ice cream uses that book!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Raspberry Ice Cream.

Zucchini bread with pineapple and cranberries

I'm really glad that I'm posting these recipes from last summer. It is reminding me that when I get my CSA farm share box with zucchini or when I see it at farmer's markets I will need to make more of this bread for myself but also for my brother in law who loves it.

I had never really made zucchini bread but remembered that my older sister used to make it once upon a time. I kind of remembered that it was sweet like carrot cake, and so I found a recipe that included some other sweet additions- like pineapple and raisins, though I substituted dried cranberries. Yum. What a great way to use up some zucchini!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Zucchini Bread with Pineapple.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

This recipe isn't so much a recipe but a concept. I actually "cheated" just like the blogger I stole this from and I used a prepared cheesecake filling. So it was REALLY easy. The strawberries are hollowed out, a little cheesecake filling is spooned inside, dredge the filled strawberry in some graham cracker crumbs, and then drizzle the chocolate on the strawberry. Done!

We're strawberry picking next week... I think I might need to make some of these!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.

Julia Child's Omelette

Right around the time that Julie & Julia came out in the movie theaters, PBS was showing old episodes of Julia Child's cooking show. I watched one in particular about making omelettes. I remember watching the brief explanation, pausing the TV, and getting to work. Voila! It worked! Well, the first time. I tried making a second one right after the first but it burned a bit. I think the pan was too hot.

Julie & Julia was pretty inspiring though! Julie cooked her way through Julia Child's french cookbook and I thought I should come up with a similar project. I didn't end up doing that but I have this little blog and that's enough for me. I think I might be overwhelming my FB friends with my food posts, so I think I might slow down on FB at least. I'll always update this blog even if it's just a silly, cute picture of a heart shaped PB&J for my son!