I’ve only recently come to love strawberries.
Yeah- I know how odd that is… I had some silly convictions I carried with me through childhood as a picky eater. Strawberries use to be in that category of untouchable foods -like tomatoes. But now that I’m enjoying foods in season, strawberries have revealed themselves to be the nirvana that I had always heard about.
This summer has given me practice in my favorite way to prepare my sliced strawberries. This makes strawberries taste restaurant Grandma quality good, and is better than sprinkling strawberries with sugar. Your strawberry shortcake will thank you!
For a pint of juicy strawberries with amplified flavor:
- - core, then slice 1 pint of strawberries and place into a jar or bowl.
- - sprinkle with a pinch of salt
- - in a small bowl make up a strawberry syrup by mixing 1 Tbs of strawberry jam with 1-2 Tbs of hot water. Stir till the jam is broken up and is now syrup consistency. Putting the bowl in the microwave for 10-15 seconds on High will help loosen up the jam.
- - pour this strawberry jam syrup over the sliced strawberries and allow to sit at room temperature 30 minutes before use.
Not only are these extra juiced up berries good on ice cream and cake, but they’re wonderful spooned over yogurt.
I’m in the midst of a simple bliss- enjoying a new favorite cheese.
Not only that, it’s nestled in between slices of the grainiest bread I know and melted to oblivion. Half-n-half grilled cheese style: horseradish chive havarti and pepperdew havarti.
How do you like to make your grilled cheese grown up?
Weekend Update
New favorite grilled cheese- grainy bread, horseradish chive havarti, and thin sliced pear.
What’s a meat loving girl like myself doing holding a raw “cookbook” like this?
Well, now you’re going to know my secret source for intriguing new recipes.
Delving into the world of raw recipes can seem daunting at first (it really is a whole new world of summer suited dehydrating and freezing techniques) but one is quickly rewarded in the development of a new arsenal of food preparation techniques.
And Yes, reading a raw recipe book can be a nice kick in the butt to eat more fruits and vegetables to supplement my cooked diet. However, Ani Phyo’s raw recipe books serve primarily to remind myself of how successful simple, bright wholesome flavors are.
Her latest book Ani’s Raw Food Desserts: 85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats contains a wide range of raw recipes. From classic coconut oil based chocolates, nut based scones, dairy and tofu free “cream” concoctions, to simple unrecipes of Fleur de Sel Kissed Watermelon and apples dusted with fresh rosemary; Ani Phyo presents ample opportunities to enjoy your summer fruits in a new way.
New tricks I learned: using cacao powder, pairing mesquite flour with chocolate, and playing up agave syrups. Reading through Ani’s Raw Food Desserts shook up my conservative approach to using this sweetner. Now I can’t wait to toss fresh lavender blossoms in agave syrup, or to create a whole bottle of cinnamon nutmeg seasoned syrup for yogurt drizzles.
Featured below is one of the new recipes from Ani’s Raw Food Desserts: Sesame Snap Cookies. These speckled fruit patties are bombs of flavor: tart apricot with crunchy pistachios and sesame seeds that pop in the teeth, and they’re super easy to make with the use of a food processor. I think these will be my new super quick breakfast to grab out the door, when I’m not imagining them covered with chocolate, that is.
Sesame Snap Cookies
From the book Ani’s Raw Food Desserts by Ani Phyo. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2009. Find out more at www.dacapopresscookbooks.com.
Makes 10 cookies
- 1 cup dried apricots
- 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon agave syrup
Place the apricots in the food processor and process into a paste. Add the pistachios, sesame seeds, lemon extract, and agave syrup and process to mix well.
Scoop the dough by 1 1/2 teaspoons onto a sheet tray lines with parchment and flatten into cookies.
Will keep for a week in the fridge or for several weeks in the freezer (thaw before eating).
Variations:
If you love herbs, try adding 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme or tarragon to the dough. Or add 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger for zing.
You might be like me. Someone who can’t leave what’s good enough alone. Coffee is one of those things for me. Rarely can I drink it plain black, and rarely plain warm. Want to teach your coffee to jump through hoops? Here are some ideas.
- Salt your coffee. Either as you are grinding it, or the dairy that accompanies it. Salt enhances sweetness and cloys bitter flavors.
- Rethink the sweet. When you take your coffee sweet, consider an alternative to standard white sugar. This can be as simple as using brown sugar, a raw sugar, agave nectar, or honey instead. Or as complex as adding maple syrup, bitter caramel sauce, Nước Màu or fruit jam.
- Give the beans some friends. Next time you grind up coffee beans, consider tossing in one or all of these flavor additions: half a vanilla bean pod, some cocoa nibs, a small sliver of whole nutmeg, orange zest, a cardamom pod, a couple black peppercorns or a nub of cinnamon stick.
- Steep when you heat. Steeping aromatics in either your pre-brew coffee water or your dairy is a way to get a touch of flavor that is different from grinding flavors with the beans. This could be as simple as making your coffee with peppermint tea or lemon water, or warming your milk with sticks of cinnamon and whole cloves. Who says you have to use plain water to brew your coffee?
- Bloom your coffee grounds. As one blooms dry gelatin before use, moisten your coffee grounds to help prep them for brewing. How to: Shake out your freshly ground coffee into a mixing bowl and stir in 1-3 Tbs of water. Let sit for ~5 minutes and then scrape into your brewing apparatus. It is thought that premoistening coffee grounds results in a stronger or more flavored brew. Have you wondered about using brandy or bourbon instead of water for this step yet?
- Take your time. How about a 12 hour brew? Do those words give you caffeine withdrawal? If you add time and subtract the heat, you will have a new coffee experience in your cup. Check out the Smitten’s cold brew procedure and you’ll be looking forward to tomorrow’s coffee.
- Keep it simple. Sometimes you owe it to your taste buds to take a vacation from your habits and resort to the easiest path: straight black coffee. With the amazing amount of coffee bean varieties and roasts we have access too, there is no excuse for calling straight black coffee boring.
with much thanks to The Delicious for inspiration…
the Twitter fail whale sushi t-shirt.
Or maybe I’m just bitter as I haven’t had sushi in too long…
- metal or non-stick?
- cast iron or stainless?
- cutting board: silicon or wood?
- knife: carbon steel or stainless?
- Kitchen Aide or hand mixer?
- cooktop: gas, electric, induction?
- side-by-side, freezer on top, fridge on top?
- apron or whoops?
- mashed potatoes: by hand, ricer, or mixer?
- sandwich or wrap?
- pb & _________ ?
- pancakes: syrup or applesauce?
- cake: scratch or mix?
-
chili: beans or no?
- napkin: cloth or paper?
- BBQ: takes the whole weekend to make or take out?
- chicken: white or dark?
-
ice cream: cone or dish?
I just stumbled across this website, Fresh Finds, which reads like a party for As Seen on TV products.
It’s an estuary of innovative finds, and gadget-disaster rubbernecking. It’s up to you to define which is the lifesaver or which will sink your boat for the following (Like the name game: My Little Pony or porn star?):
- Slider Station: “makes 5 perfect restaurant style mini-burgers in no time flat! Everyone loves sliders—now you can make them quickly and easily right at home.” Also available in square.
- Hot Dog Toaster: “Enjoy tasty hot dogs as easily as making toast! … Just place 2 hot dogs and 2 buns into the toaster’s special slots and press the lever down. When they’re done, they’ll pop up to let you know!”
- 3-Tier Oven Rack: “Cook 3X as much in your oven! During those family get-togethers or holiday dinners, max out space with the perfect cooking companion. Innovative 3-tier design lets you bake up to 3 of your favorite dishes.”
- Ice Cream Sandwich Maker: “Homemade ice cream sandwiches as easy as 1, 2, 3! This ice cream sandwich maker set turns out perfectly formed ice cream sandwiches. Simply add your favorite cookies, scoop in ice cream or frozen yogurt and press.”
- Chicken Rack: “Cook chicken wings and legs perfectly even, while unhealthy fat drips away! No turning or testing is required—just place up to 12 legs or wings on this upright rack.”
- Silicone Roast Lifter: “Silicone lifter takes the worry out of lifting your roasts! Now you can carry your holiday turkey, roast or ham from the oven to the serving dish effortlessly. Flexible “sling” sits snugly beneath your roast while cooking allowing for easy transfer to a carving board or serving platter.”
- Rack Guards & Oven Gloves: “Rack guards help protect from oven burns. We’ve all been there: we reach into a hot oven to check on dinner when… OUCH! We accidentally brush up against that hot rack. These rack guards cover approximately 95% of the front rail of oven racks.”
- DaysAgo™ Timers: “How old is it? Now you won’t have to remember when you opened it, closed it, sauced it, juiced it or grew it! Reusable DaysAgo™ Timers count up to 99 days—so you know just how fresh your food is.”
- Electric Gravy Boat: “Now your gravy will always receive a warm reception at mealtimes! This unique gravy boat features an electric, stainless steel warming base that keeps sauces and gravies piping hot inside the ceramic gravy boat.”
- Scoop & Release Dough Dropper: “Enjoy making cookies but hate the messy fingers? Well, here’s the solution. This kitchen must-have neatly scoops and drops dough onto baking sheets—without any of the hassle.”
I’m a beginning preserver.
A beginner in that I learned how to put up jam only last year. More so, a beginner in that I don’t quite have a handle on realizing I have to eat what I’ve preserved.
The jars of green beans and peaches were a delightful surprise. However, the many many jars of pantry jam have me realizing I don’t eat that much toast, or jammy cookies.
My jam guilt turned my mind to resourcefulness, and I now have a quart of apricot vanilla soda in my refrigerator, by the graces of my beginning jam excursions. Oh yes. I don’t even have to suggest what a bounty this could be… bourbon mixers, sodas, Italian cream sodas in any flavor of jam you have?
A little warm water, a soda siphon, and your tasty summer efforts are all you need to create an amazing array of flavored sodas.
Jam soda
makes one quart
materials:
- 1 quart pyrex measuring cup, or similar sized mixing vessel with a pouring lip
- whisk
- 1 quart lidded jar
- strainer
- funnel
- soda siphon
- CO2 cartridge
ingredients:
- 1 cup of jam (or a half pint jar)
- hot (almost boiling) water
- lemon juice
instructions:
- Measure into the 1 quart pyrex measuring cup the half a pint of jam.
- Slowly whisk in the hot water, 1/2 a cup at a time till you have one quart of jammy liquid.
- Pour the hot jammy liquid into the 1 quart size storage jar and refrigerate until cold.
- When cold, strain the jammy liquid of any fruit solids into the quart sized pyrex.
- Add 1 Tbs of lemon juice to the strained jammy liquid.
- With the funnel in place, fill the soda siphon with the strained jammy liquid.
- Lid and charge with one CO2 (soda) charger and shake vigorously.
- Pour into an iced cup and enjoy straight up or with a drizzle of half and half.
More lovely things to do with jam
- Orangette, Brown Butter Spoon Cookies with Jam: “they turn out smooth and curvy, the approximate size and shape of a flattened egg. They’re pale gold and flecked with toasted bits of butter, and you sandwich them with a festive sash of jam across the waistline. They’re sophisticated but still approachable, eminently edible. If they were human, you’d want to pinch their cheeks and buy them a drink.“
- 101 Cookbooks, Rombauer Jam Cake Recipe: “moist, with berry undertones, a sugary crispness from the brown sugar icing. Delicious. A perfect autumn and/or holiday cake –just be sure to use a good quality jam.”
- Chez Pim, Homemade Pop Tarts: “if you’re one of those who think a great pie is all about a good crust–I am of course one–these pop-tarts are perfect for you. They are filled with just enough delectable jam to punctuate the flavor without obscuring the buttery, flaky goodness of the crust.”
- the Kitchn, Easy Appetizer Template: Jam + Pork + Cheese: “The combination of sweet, salty, and creamy is sure-fire success, trust us, and you can mix up the components in dozens of different ways.”
Here’s an accidental kitchen science project report:
I happened to leave/submit/forget a handful or orange slices from my Christmas candied orange slices in their final sugar solution for an additional 3 months.
I finally pulled the remaining slices out of their unrefrigerated sugar solution to find them completely encrusted with large blocky sugar crystals.
These resulting candy orange slices are a delightfully crunchy version of the best candied orange slices in the world. The big wonky sugar crystals are gorgeous to look at, and the rind and peel of the fruit seem even more translucent and transcendent… presenting a Platonic Ideal of a candy orange slice.
I soooo need to make these again in grapefruit, lemon, and blood orange batches…
View Larger Map
My itch for seeing information mapped out in google maps has struck again. Here’s the map version of Willamette Week’s article Hot a Chefs Cheap Eats.
Five Portland Oregon chefs list their favorite places to go eat affordable food.
The chefs making recommendations:
- MICAH CAMDEN: Chef-owner of Yakuza; owner of Beast, D.O.C. and Fats.
- JANIS MARTIN: Chef-owner of Tanuki.
- GREGORY GOURDET: Chef at Saucebox.
- GABE ROSEN: Chef-owner of Biwa.
- KIR JENSEN: Former owner-baker of Sugar Cube bake cart, now at Two Tarts.
