Loving the fall

I just love this time of year. Even on day like today where the rain won't stop, I just can't wipe a silly grin off my face. The leaves have already started to turn (due to all that drought, no doubt) and it definitely smells like fall. Yesterday was my farmer's market day and I bought a bunch of apples that smelled so good it was out of this world. You just don't get produce that smells like that anymore- and they taste pretty darned good too!

I'm officially "in" with the vegetable farmer who now gives me a hug when I see him. I'm not trying to brag, but he gave me a $2 discount. My loot at the farmer's market was sizeable and I'm psyched to start cooking some fall recipes. In the lineup are:

I can't remember which one I was planning on doing, but here are two similar recipes: one is Apple-Parsnip Soup, the other is Curried Apple Soup

Kris is demanding a repeat from last year of The Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings

I love cooked apples! Spice Pork Tenderloin with Sauteed Apples

My favorite farmer "convinced" me to stock up on sweet potatoes for the season. Gonna need a few more recipes to use up the 25 pounds in my garage. Two Potato Beet Hash with Poached Egg and Greens

Here's another one! Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

I made the original version of this (which is a Cinnamon Bun) for Christmas a few years ago and it was a huge hit. This year we're adding apples for some Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

This might be the most exciting thing I've ever seen: Pumpkin Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches

I also need to get my hands on a bottle of Eric Bordelet's Cider:

He is based in Normandy, which is in the Northwestern part of France and is famous for their ciders. When in Normandy, please try the butter. If Provence runs on Olive Oil, then Normandy runs on butter. And they use that delicious butter to make Crepe Sarrasin (a heavy but divine buckwheat crepe.) which should really only be had with some dry apple cider. Did I mention that Mr. Bordelet also make pear cider? Because he does and I might like pear cider even better.

Eric Bordelet with a 300 year old pear tree

forkandbottle.com

Let the fall season begin!

Finally Fall

Up at 8am on a Sunday gave me the chance to mess around in the kitchen before people started waking up and if there is any chance that I might be able to bake something before they do wake, I have to at least try. The latest issue of Cooking Light had a couple different banana bread recipes and this is the one for which I had most of the ingredients. Yes, I didn't have peanut butter, but I had spiced rum. It's the sort of household I run.

This recipe really turned out. It uses a lot of mashed bananas- and let's face it, when you have one black banana, you usually have 2 or 3. The orignal recipe used plain yogurt but I did not have that on hand, so I went with the dairy product I always have in my fridge: sour cream. I'll put sour cream on just about anything- strawberries, pizza, sweet potatoes ect. And it really works here too. You're just gonna have to trust me. Or substitute the yogurt back in!

Bananas Fosters Bread

Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe from October 2010

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups mashed ripe banana
• 1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
• 1/4 cup cognac or dark rum, divided
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter, and 3 tablespoons spiced rum in a nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool. Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Add sour cream, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.

Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; place on wire rack.

Combine remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter, remaining 1 tablespoon cognac, and powdered sugar; stir until well blended. Drizzle over the warm bread

Now wouldya like a bushel of corn?

Do you know how much corn is in a bushel of corn? I had an idea that it was a lot. If it's a measure of unit used by a farmer, it's probably too much food for my kitchen. "But ya see, it's the end of the day so I can make you a real good deal." I already had 5 pounds of tomatoes, 3 sweet potatoes and 2 white and purple striped eggplants in hand. I had only brought so much cash. "you got a checkbook?" no. He noticed my shirt. "you work here?" no, but I work at site down the street. "I tell you what, you go get your car and pull it up here and I'll bring the corn over. You just come back next week with $15." I'll be right back.

For your information, a bushel of corn is about 50 ears- as in: I'm up to my ears in corn! and I couldn't be happier!

Blackberry, Lavender & Goat's Milk Ice Cream

When my mom came back to the U.S. for the summer, she was dying to get back in the kitchen and we were both feeling pretty ambitious. We had plans for dinner parties, pickling, jamming, making our own butter and after an incredible dinner at Sean's Panorama in Syndey, a hankering to make some homemade goat's curd.


Trader Joe's happens to sell goat's milk and we thought the battle was already won but some Internet research showed that to make goat's curd or goat cheese, you can't really use the Ultra Pasteurized kind. Not wanting to let carton go to waste, we had to find something else which was unnaturally easy when Alinea at Home posted an "at Home Adaption" of raspberry, goat's milk, red pepper taffy, pistachio.

This ice cream was pretty phenomenal. You can really taste the lavender (if it's still fresh!) and the goat's milk makes for a very creamy custard. It's the kind of treat that takes people off guard because although it sounds fancy and complex, the flavor combo is very accessible- especially if you pair it with the pistachio brittle (which I will definitely make again for Christmas).

Blackberry, Lavender & Goat's Milk Ice Cream
Adapted from Alinea at Home who adapted from the Alinea Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 cups goat milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 tblsp food-grade lavender buds
• 1 quart blackberries
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 cups heavy cream
• dash vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, warm the goat's milk, sugar and salt just until the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the flame, add the lavender and let steep, covered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, put the cream in a large bowl with a strainer set over it. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs.
After the milk has been infused, strain the liquid into a saucepan and discard the lavender buds. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat and then add a few ladles to the egg mixture, stirring to incorporate. Add another ladle or so, whisking and stirring the whole time and then add the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan over medium heat. Keep stirring the mixture until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Poor the mixture through the mesh strainer, into the heavy cream. Add a dash of vanilla. Let the mixture cool completely and then chill in fridge before continuing.

Before churning the ice cream, mash up the blackberries a bit- I spread them onto a cookie sheet and used a potato masher. Add these to the mixture and then churn the whole thing in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Pistachio Brittle

Adapted from the Alinea Cookbook, page 92

Ingredients

• 165g (5.8 oz.) pistachios, roasted and salted!
• 465g (1 lb. .4 oz.) sugar
• 72g (2.5 oz.) water
• 5g (.2 oz.) baking soda

Heat the sugar and water to 342F degrees (172C), then turn off the burner. Add the baking soda which will cause the mixture to foam and bubble- then add the pistachios. Pour the mixture onto a silpat lined baking sheet or if you're lucky enough like me, pour it straight onto a granite counter top. Let it harden to room temperature. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container. Try not to eat it all at once.

Lime Chiffon Cupcakes

Good grief do I have a doozy of a recipe to share! And it all started with a wedding. Oh no, not me! But one of Kris's close friends is getting married next year and it got me thinking about what I would maybe one day want should I ever decide to get hitched. The first thing to consider of course, is the food. I think some good ol'country food would be grand. Maybe with a French twist as an homage to my heritage. Smithfield ham and Dijon Moutarde? Sweet potatoes would have to make an appearance, as would corn. This is starting to sound like Thanksgiving... Holiday food aside, my biggest pickle would actually be the wedding cake. Although I love to bake and decorate, I never wake up in the middle of the night hankering for some cake. Weird, I know. Most of them are too chocolaty or dense and sweet. Buttercream is delicious- one teaspoon at a time.

This theoretical problem stayed with me for a few days until I just had to sit down and think about it and came upon a Lime Chiffon Cake recipe. Not too dense or sweet! A departing intern at work was the perfect excuse to try it out. And it was very good. Very pretty too. But I could do better...

The lime filling was delicious but there wasn't enough with each bite and I didn't like Cooking Light's frosting which was made with Cool Whip. Also, not enough frosting in general. The Solution? Cupcakes! For the frosting I went with a whipped cream frosting that has a block of cream cheese in it to keep it sturdy and delicious. A bit of lime juice and ginger essence thrown in for good measure and we were good to go. Did I mention delicious? Because these were DELICIOUS. Just about perfect in every way I could conceive of for a cake OR cupcake. At least, to me.

Lime Chiffon Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 36 cupcakes

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

Lime Filling:

• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Lime Chiffon Cake:

• 2 cups sifted cake flour (7 1/2 ounces)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7 tbls canola oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
• 3 tbls water
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp pure lemon extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 8 egg whites
• 1 tsp cream of tartar

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 8oz block of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ginger essence
• 4 tbls lime juice
• 2 cups whipping cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

To make the cake, in a large bowl combine 2 cups cake flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk well to remove any clumps. In another bowl, whisk to combine the oil, lime juice, water, lime zest, lemon extract and 3 egg yolks. Add the oil mixture to the flour mixture and whisk well until it is smooth.

In the bowl of a mixer, whisk the egg whites on high speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue mixing at high speed. Once the whites have reached the soft peak stage, add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar a little at a time. Keep beating until the egg whites are stiff.

Fold 1/4 of the stiff egg whites into the cake batter. Once incorporated, add the remaining stiff egg whites, carefully folding the mixture until homogeneous.

Fill your cupcake liners almost full and bake for about 15 minutes or until the tops are starting to turn golden brown and the cake is receding from the sides. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile make your lime filling by combining the sweetened condensed milk, the lime juice and lime zest. Refrigerate until needed.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of a mixer, add the softened cream cheese, sugar, ginger essence and lime juice. Mix on high until smooth and fluffy. On medium speed, slowly pour in the whipping cream. Mix on high until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.

To assemble- with a small sharp knife, cute a cone out of the top the cupcake and cut off the the bottom of the cone. Fill the cupcake with lime filling and replace the cupcake top. Frost the top of the cupcake to cover the cut and garnish with blueberries and mint leaves.

If you are making these on your own, it will probably be easiest to fill all the cupcakes at once and then frost them. If you have a partner in crime, an assembly line will be easiest where one person fills the cupcakes and the other frosts. Just be sure to let everyone decorate!

Bastille Day in Pictures

Vive la France!

Pastis- like the old French men like it!

the farmer claimed these were a red pepper/ tomato hybrid

either way, these were perfect for a Ratatouille. The trick? Cook the vegetables seperately and reassemble at the end to avoid sogginess

Ratatouille the following day

wishing these were melons de Cavaillion

Le Clafoutis aux Cerises

Whole Lemon Tart

Another Birthday!

In this season of birthdays, my brother was next. His birthday seems to lose some of its sparkle due to the inconvenient time of year; in France it was usually the last day of school- in the US, friends are away on vacation. But this year we tried to make it an affair and the boy did end up having 4 different birthday cakes within a few weeks. I'll admit that this awesome cake idea was all Kris's doing while we browsed the Toy aisle at Target. The boys' recent obsession with a new video game and a GI Joe The Movie action figure on clearance made for a fun and tasty cake:


Confused? Here's a snapshot from the game Just Cause 2:


Not bad right?
I know my brother favors a cream cheese frosting but I wasn't feeling carrot cake. I did a little research and decided to go for a Hummingbird cake which is made with crushed pineapple, coconut, walnuts and mashed up bananas. This is one SWEET cake! The frosting includes 2 packages of cream cheese and 2 POUNDS of powdered sugar! I stopped short of the full amount of sugar and will cut out even more of it next time. Still, this cake was really moist and delicious. We ate the whole thing in a few days (still tasty later!) and by "we" I mean, 4 of us. My mom, who eats like a bird and very rarely has sweets, had this for breakfast. twice.


We also had a proper Birthday dinner on the porch. On the menu: fancy burgers, jalapeno poppers, onion strings, homemade steak fries, and panaches.

It was nice

Praise Summer- It's Peach Jam!

It has been hot hot HOT in Virginia. Days have been reaching the triple digits and my office just lost air conditioning- so there is clearly no better time to fire up the stove and make some jam!

My first batch of jam was back in May at my boyfriend's parent's house at the height of strawberry season. There had been a death in the family and having never been through this kind of situation before, I wasn't quite sure how to help the family cope. I figured that I should turn to something I was familiar with; food, and hoped that jam might bring some momentary comfort. The jam was a success and I made a second batch as soon as I got home- you know, to hone my new found skillz.


This past weekend the boyfriend and I spent a solid 4 hours in the car in what should have been a 2 hour trip. Yes, I know it was the 4th of July. The point is, between Chesapeake, VA and Nag's Head, NC there are a lot of fruit stands & farmer's markets and the haul we brought back just about made up for the hassle. I got 5 pounds of peaches, a homemade tomato vadilia onion salad dressing, a handmade peach basket, 2 pounds of the juiciest tomatoes and Kris had his first BLT ever ($2.50 and on Wonderbread) and it might have been the best one I've ever had.

Peach Jam came about this time as a started slicing up peaches for a cobbler and realized that I really didn't want another baked good or sweet. How about preserving those juicy North Carolina peaches for later, say February when I'm about ready to hang myself waiting for the weather to heat up! And let me tell you, I already know this jam is gonna do the trick because the first taste of this jam re-defined Peach Jam. I have obviously never had peach jam made from scratch before because this was an experience. My brain's entry for peach jam used to include "sweet", "dense" and "hint of peach flavor", now it's been re-catalogued as "juicy", "peachy" and "bright". Yes, it's still very sweet, but sweetness is no longer the distinguishing characteristic. This will of course depend of the type and ripeness of your peaches, but if you use your brain (make this in season) and taste buds (ripe but not bruised peaches), you too are in for a treat.

Peach Jam
Adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving 2009

Makes 8 half pints

• 1 quart of not overripe peaches (about 10 peaches)
• 7 & 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice
• 1 pouch liquid pectin

Start by peeling and cutting up 1 peach at a time onto a cookie sheet. Using a potato masher, mash the peaches (not too much!) and measure them out into 1 cup increments until you have 1 quart (or 4 cups).

Combine the peaches, sugar and lemon juice in a large dutch oven or pot. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the pectin and bring the mixture to a hard boil. You'll know it's a hard boil when stirring the mixture doesn't lessen the bubbling. Let it boil like this for 1 minute.

Add the jam to the sterilized jars and process as usual, boiling the jars for 10 minutes and letting them sit in the water for 5 minutes before removing. Can be stored for 1 year.

If you need a tutorial on jam making, here is a very handy one complete with pictures!

juicy

Fresh Mint Ice Cream and a Birthday

I've wanted a kitchen garden or at least an herb garden for as long as I've been cooking. And it just hasn't happened yet. I have had too many dried up basil and mint plants and too many dark kitchens. But through no effort of my own, I am now the proud owner of a huge forgotten mint plant and a gargantuan basil plant growing in containers on my porch. Ah to reap the benefits of other people's efforts!

This recipe calls for 2 cups of lightly packed fresh mint leaves, or 80 grams. Now if a recipe gives me weight measurements, that's what I'm gonna use, but 80 grams of mint is A LOT OF MINT. I plucked as much mint as I thought the plant could possibly spare and we got very close to 80 grams.

Look at all that fresh decliousness!

Letting the mint steep in some whole milk. And presto chango! You got yourself some intense mint ice cream:

The flavor of this ice cream really did take me by surprise because it was unlike any mint flavor I had tasted before. I guess I've never had fresh mint anything! Or at least not this variety of mint. It was oddly intense and yet not overpowering. Truly delicious and very much worth plucking my plant almost to death.

Gotta eat it quickly! The Washington heat has been oppressive this year.


Fresh Mint & Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart
Adapted from this recipe in David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups (80 gr) lightly packed fresh mint leaves
• 5 large egg yolks
• 5 ounces finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
  

Warm the milk, sugar 1 cup of the cream and salt in a small pan until hot to the touch. Add the mint leaves and stir to immerse. Cover, remove from heat and let steep for about 1 hour.

Strain the mint-infused milk through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to extract as much flavor as possible, then discard the mint leaves. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and place a strainer on top.

Rewarm the mint-milk. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mint mint liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrap the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir mixture constantly over medium heat with the heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker. Meanwhile, melt the chopped chocolate either in a double boiler on the stove top or in short increments in the microwave. Drizzle some of the chocolate into the mixer as the ice cream churns and use the rest to line the bottom and sides of the storage container.


Last weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of getting my cat Maggie. As I don't know her real birth date, June 21st will have to do! Kitty treats, a pat of butter and a not very welcomed party hat were on the menu. Happy Birthday Maggie!

Hello! Remember me?

Hey! It's been ages! How have you been? Me? Yeah, I know, I've been out of touch for a while. But you know how it is - life - it got the better of me. From just reading my blog, one would think that I went to China and never returned. I have so much to tell you and we have so much catching up to do! Here is an attempted recap in pictures:

Since Hong Kong, I visited my parents in Hainan, China for Christmas

At the walking street in Sanya

A chocolate Terracotta Army

We stayed at a beautiful hotel

We relaxed- I acquired some mad Scrabble Skillz

We stayed at "The Windiest Villa of them all"



I'm not sure anyone slept that night. We were up and gone by 7am.

We spent a few days in Beijing

We saw the Forbidden City

It was much colder

Leather boots were not a good idea for this weather

We saw the Great Wall

It was even colder

We celebrated the New Year

On our last day in Beijing it snowed

We visited the Temple of Heaven

We took goofy pictures

Back in the states the New Year was in overdrive. The boyfriend and I celebrated 5 years by going to Boston. My hard drive died and all that remains of the trip is a silly video:

Soon enough, we both quit our jobs and were headed back for Virginia. Someone had a Hipster themed Birthday to celebrate a quarter century and the exodus from New York:


Next thing I knew, my unemployed butt did the responsible thing and flew half around the world to:

Australia!

And once I get all the pictures back from that journey (read: also lost in hard drive failure) I'll see about posting some more information on that amazing trip. But there has also been a lot of cooking and eating since Hong Kong! And I hope to catch you up on that too. I'm back to being employed and I must say- It's good to back home in Virginia.