A dessert for independence: Clafouti !

Just barely in time for your freedom celebrations.
Fun to say, fun to eat, this dessert is so simple to make it will free you up to have more fun tomorrow.
In my original recipe I used peaches, in this newer version I used blueberries and boysenberries.
It definitely looks more patriotic and would be great with any kind of berry.
Make in early in the day and sit back and relax !

Berry Clafouti

 Ingredients:

 1/3 cup white sugar
 3 cups berries: blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries...
 3 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. almond meal ( don't have it, just skip it)
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Whipped cream for topping (optional)

DIRECTIONS


1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 10 inch pie plate.
2. Arrange berries so that they cover the entire bottom of the pie plate.
3. In a blender, combine the sugar, eggs, milk, flour, almond meal, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.            Process until smooth, about 2 minutes.
 4. Pour over the fruit in the pie plate.
5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and lightly browned.
6. Let stand 30 minutes to an hour before slicing. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve with whipped cream.

It's great leftover for breakfast !!

It's asparagus season !!

I love fresh asparagus, it has been in my farmer's market for a few weeks now.
It's fun to plan meals around what is in season in the farmer's market.

There are several ways to cook this fine vegetable, whether you steam it, roast it or grill it, please do it lightly !!
Don't shy away from the fatter stalks, we fine them to be sweeter than their skinny brethren, a grower gave us that tip.

My favorite way to eat them is roasted. 

Roasted Asparagus
    •    1 bunches asparagus
    •    1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or olive oil spray
    •    1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
    •    Freshly ground black pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2) Cover an edged cookie sheet with foil or a silicon baking sheet.
3) Wash then, snap the woody ends from the asparagus.
4) Spread the spears in a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzle or spray with olive oil, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and roll to coat thoroughly.
5) Roast the asparagus until lightly browned and tender, about 10 to 16 minutes depending on their thickness. Give the pan a good shake about halfway through to turn the asparagus.
6) Serve as is or with a light dipping sauce like a vinaigrette, lemon juice or plain yogurt.

I love them cold as well, they are great added to a salad or as a side dish.

 

Sweet Potato Muffins

I love seeing what's in my fridge and being creative.
The other day I had a friend coming over for brunch, I made a quiche with roasted red pepper I had on hand and sauteed some chard as a side dish. I wanted one more item to complete the menu.
I looked in the fridge and saw one leftover cooked sweet potato... "hmmm I wonder if I can make muffins out of that ? "
As they grow very well in the south, my daughter gets a LOT of them in her CSA( Community Supported Agriculture) boxes, I figured if this recipe worked she would have one more way to use all those sweet potatoes.
I did what I usually do and googled it, up came a variety of recipes and as I usually do I melded a few together with my own twist. I am so impressed with these tasty little muffins.

Laurie's Sweet Potato Muffins

Yield: one dozen

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked mashed sweet potato
1 egg
1/2 canola oil
the zest of one orange

1) Preheat oven to 375 F, grease or paper a muffin tin. I used my silicon muffin cups which I love.
2) In a bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3) In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients: mashed sweet potato, egg, oil and orange zest.
4) Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry, just until moistened.
5) Fill the muffin cups, about half full ( just use all the batter, don't get too carried away measuring how much.)
6) Bake for 15-18 minutes, using the toothpick trick. Mine took 18 minutes.

Serve warm !!

All the recipes called for glazes but I like them just the way they are.

I am very pleased with how they taste even several days later.
I am going to try freezing them too.
Wish I had a surplus of sweet potatoes ;-)

Tortilla Soup

Several weeks ago I wanted a hearty crowd pleasing soup to serve for a casual dinner. I remembered this tortilla soup but always thought of it as a summer soup, I think because I do love using fresh seasonal ingredients.  With a few changes to the original recipe I came up with a very satisfying dish, I liked it so much I made it twice !! It's a delicious taco in a bowl.

Tortilla Soup ( for any season)

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

1-2 bell peppers, chopped

1 bag frozen fire roasted corn*, rinsed and drained ( Trader Joe's has it.)

1 cup finely chopped red or green cabbage

2 cups cooked beans ( black beans, kidney or pinto beans)

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 pint canned tomatoes ( stewed, fire roasted, whatever you like.)

1 quart veggie or chicken or beef broth




1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp. ancho chili or other powdered chili
1/4 red chili flakes, more if you like it hotter
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika ( optional)
2 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp. of dried oregano ( sprig of fresh oregano if you have it)
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
strips of corn tortilla
sour cream
grated cheddar or jack cheese
chunks of avocado
fresh minced cilantro
sliced black olives
salsa
hot sauce
lime wedges

* (If you start with regular frozen corn, it's best to brown it first.)

1) Saute the onion in the olive oil until it starts to brown slightly.

2) Add the garlic, cabbage, corn and bell pepper, cook until soft.

3) Add in the spices and saute another minute or so, to release the full flavor of the spices.

4) Add the tomatoes, beans and broth, simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

5) Serve with corn tortilla strips ( I found that heating them up first is great) and any or all of the topping listed above.

As with a lot of my soup there is room to modify and adjust to your tastes and what's in your pantry.

Enjoy !!

The Chocolate Holiday is almost here !!

Forget sentimental cards, diamond earrings and bouquets of roses... Valentine's Day is all about chocolate !!

This year I decided to experiment with the chocolate bark I blogged about two years ago.
Instead of one big round, I made it into individual disks studded with nuts and bits of dried fruit.
It's so very simple,  quick to make and they look beautiful.

I also tried to make some in my silicone baking cups with shredded coconut on the bottom and almonds on top.

It was marginally successful...I wished I had been a little more aggressive about mixing the melted chocolate with the coconut.

I tried the same trick with the disks on the parchment.

With similar results...

I am sure they will all taste delicious !!
I used a mix of two dark chocolates, I find the quality of these bars great for this kind of confection.

Since our microwave oven is broken, I melted my chocolate the old fashioned way, in a double boiler. It is slower, requiring more patient ;-) but does the job, it's best not to let the water boil.

Use your imagination, customize each one, have fun !!

Here are a few other wonderful chocolate desserts to try.

Flour-less chocolate cake

Very Very Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache ( vegan)

The Most Amazing Chocolate Ice Cream

Chocolate Lava Cakes

Easy Brownies

Chocolate Walnut Cookies

Divine Brownies

Chocolate Sorbet

Citrus Season

I do love the citrus season. There are so many great varieties and such a long span of productivity.
First come my sister's Satsuma mandarin in late fall, she is always generous, giving me huge baskets of these sweet little gems. Her navel oranges are next in the new year and are one of my favorite evening snacks. Our little Satsuma mandarin produces lots of fruit but due to our warmer climate they don't get very sweet, so I juice them.

A bushel of mandarins make about two gallons of juice. I have a glass every morning, liquid sunshine!

I freeze some, share with friends and use it to make this wonderful orange cake. It's so simple, moist and vegan !! I don't bother with the fancy candied orange peel in the photo below, but I do sometimes as some almond extract to the batter and some slivered almonds to the top.

My friend, Susan gave me this wonderful Cthulhu citrus, which is actually called Buddha's hand but reminds me of the H.P. Lovecraft monster. It's all about the peel, Susan uses the zest in all kinds of sweet and savory dishes.

I have been revisiting some of the fun breads from my Bread Machine Magic cookbook lately.
I was looking for one that used citrus and found this lovely marmalade and oats bread.
The recipe is for a bread machine but if you already bake your own bread I am sure you can adapt it.
I use my own marmalade but any commercial version will do.

Marmalade and Oats Bread.

Ingredients
2/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats ( not instant)
1 1/8 cup milk or soy milk ( or almond etc...)
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoon butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup citrus marmalade 
1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast ( Red Star is the one recommended in the cookbook).

Place all the ingredients in the bread machine in the order above. Use a light crust setting and regular baking cycle ( it's a three hour process in my machine).
Once the baking cycle ends, remove from pan and allow to cool for one hour. It's important that you let it cool. The oats in the dough make it very chewy and moist. It's fabulous toasted with butter and marmalade !!

Laurie's Warming Winter Squash Soup

This fall my brother grew some great winter squash and was kind enough to share two of them with me, a huge Hubbard and a warty French squash.

There are so many ways to use these versatile fall and winter vegetables, I did a whole post on that several years ago. While each winter squash including pumpkin have slightly different flavors and textures they are, for the most part, interchangeable in my recipes.

I wanted to come up with another savory soup using winter squash, I had some ideas so I just started cooking. The result was rich, warming and tasty, it reminds me a bit of a warm savory pumpkin pie.
I made it a second time to take photos and measurements so I could share it with you.

Laurie's Warming Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 diced onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 cups cooked winter squash*
1 cup tomatoes*
1 1/2 cup coconut milk**
1 tablespoon Garam Masala
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds
2 teaspoons  fresh grated ginger ( freezing fresh ginger makes it easy to grate and keeps longer)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon ( optional)
salt to taste

* I used the Hubbard squash I had roasted, cut into chunks and froze, same with the tomatoes. I think a large can of pumpkin and a can of stewed tomatoes would work as well.

** Use coconut milk not coconut water, I like this Trader Joe's coconut milk.

1) Saute the onion in the olive oil until soft.

2) Add the spices,  stir and cook for several minutes.

3) Add the cooked winter squash, tomatoes, coconut milk, water and bouillon. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

4) Allow to cool before pureeing in the blender. Salt to taste.

You can serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and a garnish of fresh parsley or cilantro. It will certainly warm you up on a cold winter night.

Beet Borsch(t)

This fall I was fortunate enough to travel to New England, I had a friend in Vermont and one in Massachusetts, I spent time with both. Strangely enough they both served me beet borsch made two very different ways. I loved them both and so far I have the recipe I like for one version and plan to work on the second one soon.

This soup feels like winter, deep red in color, hearty and good for a cold evening.
I made the omnivore version, it is easily adapted for the plant base diet*.
It begins with these humble ingredients.

Beet Borsch

2 cups peeled and diced beets ( 3-4 medium size beets)
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 pound beef stew meat cut into 1" pieces
1-2 large onions
3 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, chopped.
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon  honey
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper
8 cups water
sour cream for topping
*If you are making the vegetarian recipe add 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon.

Most of the work for the soup comes in preparing the beets and cabbage.
The beets need to be peeled and cut into chunks while still raw.

The cabbage is shredded or chopped to the size you like for your soup.

1) Peel, chop and saute the onions to soften in a small amount of olive oil.
2) Add the beef to brown it.

3) Add the all veggies, spices, vinegar and water.
Note: as with most soup the exact about of each vegetable is flexible. While the original recipe called for 3 1/2 cups of canned tomatoes, I used maybe 2 cups of my frozen tomatoes.

4) Simmer for 1 hour.

5) Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a nice salad and a slice of rye bread !!

Here is my friend's cat sitting on the original recipe.

The best from 2016, it's a short list.

Cooking new things and blogging about them were not high on my list this past year.
While I still love to eat and to cook, food blogging has slowly taken a back seat.
Times change and so does the focus of our lives.

This morning I did make creme caramel for dessert tonight with friends. It came out beautifully.

I was inspired to make the New Years Day special: hoppin' john, eating a bowl is said to bring you good luck for the year.

Here are a couple of recipes worth remembering from 2016.

 Oven Roasted Chicken Shawarma !!
 This is such a tasty way to serve chicken.

My favorite chocolate chip cookies, these are worth the extra work.

Wacky cake is fun to say and simple to make and it's hard to believe that it has no eggs or dairy.

Two desserts, no surprise ;-)

I do have a lovely beet borscht recipe I hope to post soon.

A friend gave me a book on American Cakes, their history and recipes.
I hope to try one recipe from this book each month, yum !!

Happy New Year to you all, may it be full of good food !!