Capturing The Last Bites Of Summer

I had to go out of town recently and had a dilemma... what to do with all the fresh produce on the counter before I leave? There were tons of grapes, a whole lot of two different kinds of tomatoes, and 5 peaches. On our budget, this stuff is like gold. I had to make the best use of it that I could, and I only had a few days to do it. It wouldn't keep until I got back.

First up... the five peaches. A nice lady at church shared the last late fruit from her tree. They were lovely and fragrant. We could have just eaten them as is, but I wanted to do something a little more special with them. It's not every day that we get such beautiful ripe fruit and it will be a long time until peaches are in season again. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for peach ice cream that sounded kind of slightly spectacular...

Peach, Bourbon & Brown Sugar Ice Cream

adapted from Serious Eats

4-5 ripe peaches
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp molasses
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp bourbon

Wash, dry, and cut the peaches into large chunks. Don't bother peeling them.

Blend the first five ingredients together in a blender or food processor until the peaches are completely pureed.

Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Simmer for 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Take off heat and let cool to room temp.

Stir in the salt and the bourbon, then transfer the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight.

When it's fully chilled, process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer the soft ice cream to a freezer container and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

My Notes: If you have dark brown sugar, use it and omit the molasses. The bourbon is not a strong presence in the finished ice cream but I would be afraid to add more as it might interfere with the freezing. Still, I like that it's in there and just because it isn't a strong flavor doesn't mean it's not adding to the overall deliciousness. Definitely let this stuff sit in the freezer for a few days if you can... the brown sugar really comes forward at the finish if you do. Really nice ice cream. Sweet, subtle, perfume-y, earthy... yummy.  

All-in-all, a fitting finish to summer.

Coming up... my preserve-a-thon continues with concord grapes, two kinds of tomatoes, and much much more! How about you? Preserve anything lately?

Savoring The Simple Gifts Of Summer

I didn't plan on taking a photo of my dinner last night. I didn't plan on blogging about it today. I didn't plan the meal at all. Sure, I knew we'd be having leftover bratwurst with mustard, but beyond that, it all just fell together, and when I sat down and started to dig into it... my senses took everything in and I had to grab the camera.

What you don't see in the photo is the color of the summer evening sky. You can't feel the perfectly soft warmth paired with the gentlest of breezes in such contrast with the scorching heat earlier in the day. You might get a hint of the relaxed ease of the meal, but what about the thrift? What about the sense of accomplishment, stewardship, gratitude, and relief? And, of course, there's the deliciousness to consider as well. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but how many can you really see? To anyone else, it's just a plate of food, but to me it represents so much more...

Limes Fly When You're Having Rum

A well crafted Mojito can be a beautiful thing. Tropical yet bracing with a hint of sweet, a wisp of sour and a kiss of mint. Tall, cool and refreshing, it's the perfect quencher on the hottest of muggy summer days. Those are precisely the kind of days when I feel most like a slug however, and slugs don't have the energy (or thumbs) to make a well crafted... anything. What's a thirsty girl to do? Short of hiring a cabana boy (which might get awkward if she doesn't have a cabana), she can quickly mix up the ultimate "Faux"-jito. Basically it's little more than a spiked Italian soda, and I will admit here and now that it will fool no one (unless maybe they've never had a real Mojito before). What my Mojito Syrup does best is to approximate a Mojito. Go ahead and call it a lazy-girl's Mojito. For that is exactly what it is... and I am that lazy girl.

Why am I talking about tropical drinks and heat waves in November? It's because of the 5-pounds of limes I bought of course. I made up a double batch of this Mojito syrup... so that's 6 more limes used up and the last of the fresh mint too (at least until next spring when it will miraculously revive and dominate the side yard once again). Don't ask me how many fake mojitos this makes... I could figure it out, but I don't think I want to know.*

Some Like It Hot

...and some, well, some do not. I fall into the latter category at least when it comes to food. Why then am I so intrigued with making my own mustard? Well for one thing... we ran out. Yep, currently mustard-less. Now, while mustard is not something that we put on a lot of the foods we eat, when we do use it, it's generally crucial to the outcome of the dish we're making. Like grilled cheese sandwiches for example. O.K. maybe Chicken Dijon* is a better example. But a smear of spicy mustard inside a grilled cheese can be pretty dang fabulous.

"I'm not headlined in the bills, but I'm the mustard in the salad dressing just the same." [O.Henry, "Cabbages and Kings," 1904]

Also entering into the equation is my ongoing pursuit of saving a buck, learning new things and avoiding excess packaging. Etcetera. As such, I attempted to wade into the shallow end of home mustard making, looking to splash around a little and get my feet wet. Instead, I suddenly found myself pushed into the deep end, street clothes and all. Now, to an experienced swimmer, that might be amusing, but to those more comfortable on terra firma... sheer panic.

I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

Lavender Lemon Mini Tarts – because it's cold outside, and I'm dreaming of the month of May.* Looking at the lemons and egg yolks sitting next to each other on my counter as I got ready to make these tarts, brought to mind those great lyrics and thoughts of sunny days ahead. After our little false-Spring came to a cloudy end yesterday, I've realized how sick of Winter I am. But then I think about all the things I love about Winter and I start to miss it before it's even gone. Twisted, I know. It's like that with every change of season for me. So relieved to finally welcome the next one, but wistfully sad for the loss of the last. A good reminder to appreciate the things we have while we have them.

Lavender Lemon Mini Tarts
These are a combination of two different recipes. With a dozen+ egg yolks in my fridge and some of the first lemons off our little tree, making lemon curd seemed the thing to do. I liked the idea of a butterless lemon curd, since I'm running low on butter and the word "butterless" sounds healthy (or at least less fattening). The spiced tart crust recipe that I found, appealed to me as much for the flavor possibilities as for the promise of less shrinkage from the addition of vodka.

Butterless Lemon Curd (from the Lemon Angel Food Cake recipe), page 510, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, 1995

My Notes: Butterless but not effortless. Unless you consider 40+ minutes of whisking over a steamy stove-top, effortless. It's times like this that I wish I was more ambidextrous than I am. But what better opportunity for practicing, right? This lemon curd is a lovely shade of creamy pale yellow and it took 8 of my egg yolks left over from the other day. The Meyer lemons from our tree are pretty small, so it took two of them to come up with enough zest, but two were not enough to make the 3/4 cup of lemon juice required. I augmented it with some lemon juice I had frozen some months ago and then made up the difference with a little bit of bottled lemon juice. After the lemon curd cooled, I pressed plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerated it until the tart shells were ready. The flavor is lemony lovely. The texture is very light, almost fluffy or foamy, as if there were egg whites in it instead of egg yolks. I can see why it would go nicely inside an angel food cake. Maybe it's not the best choice texturally for tarts but I was curious and am glad I made it.


Lavender Tart Shells adapted from Spiced Lemon Tarts at sugarlaws.com

1-1/3 cups flour
2 Tblsp sugar
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried lavender
1 stick of cold butter
1 large egg
2 Tblsp vodka, ice cold (we keep it in the freezer)

Put all dry ingredients into bowl of food processor and pulse a few times until lavender flowers are ground up. Cut the butter into small pieces. Add the butter and egg and pulse until combined. Dribble the vodka into the mixture a little at a time as you continue to pulse. Once the dough begins to form into a ball, take it out of the food processor and pat it together on a lightly floured board. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

On a floured board, roll out the dough to approximately 1/8" thickness. Cut out 12 circles from the dough using a cookie cutter or an empty can (I used the 3.5" ring from a large Mason jar canning lid). The circles need to be large enough to fit into the bottom of a muffin cup and go up the sides 1/2" or more. Press the dough circles down into the 12 muffin cups. Prick the bottoms all over with a fork and place pan in the freezer. Turn oven on to 350°.

Bake tart shells for about 20 minutes, or until they begin to turn a nice golden brown. Place pan on rack to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove tart shells from muffin tin and finish cooling on the rack. Store in airtight container if not using right away. To serve, fill with lemon curd and top with fresh berries and/or whipped cream.

Notes: There was enough dough left over to make 12 super-mini tart shells (and 6 "cookies"). I used an old tomato paste can with both ends removed (2.25" diameter) as a cutter and pressed the dough circles into a mini muffin pan using my dough "tamper". It was the first time I'd used it and it worked perfectly.** These little bite-sized tarts turned out so itsy-bitsy cute. If I had my Teddy Bear here, we could have a splendid tea party.

*Paraphrased lyrics are from the song "My Girl" written by Smokey Robinson. Simple, pure, and timeless: "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May." In other words, carry it with you in your heart, and you'll never be without it.
**Plus you can use it as a muddler for making mojitos in the Summer!

Mayo & Mustard

I remember going over to my friend's house after school one day and there was her big sister, making mayonnaise. So detached was I from "real" food that I didn't really know what mayonnaise was made of, or (even more amazing) that you could make it yourself at home. Once we finally work our way through the big ol' jar of mayo in our fridge*, I am going to start making our mayonnaise from scratch.

• Homemade Mayo and More Homemade Mayo at the Passionate Homemaking blog
  
• Julia's Mayonnaise from pg. 86-88 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. I by Child, Bertholle & Beck (2009)

In the meantime, I want to make some "fancy" mustard. Hubs and I both really love all of the Sierra Nevada mustards, and a nice honey-mustard is sure good on sandwiches. One of our favorite things is to shmear a strong flavorful mustard on the inside of a grilled-cheese sandwich before cooking it. Mmm.

So, in the continuing interest of "make do and bloody well make it yourself", we're going to try to recreate some fabulous mustards at home.

• Best Mustard Ever from Alton Brown at FoodNetwork.com
• Beer Mustard II at anyideasfordinner.com
• Homemade Guinness Mustard from bitchincamero.com
• Four different homemade mustards from Martha Stewart (MSL/Nov 1996)
  

*Waste not want not.

Grand Chocolate Chip Cookies

A long time ago in a far away land, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for an "end of semester" party that were so good, my teacher exclaimed in front of the whole class, "If I'd had these before I turned the grades in, I would have given you an A!". I had mixed feelings about her statement (and frankly still do), but that's a dialog for another day. These, by the way, are not those cookies. They are inspired by those cookies.

Tonight when I asked Hubs if we should make our "regular" cookies or try a new recipe, he enthusiastically said, "Try something new!"  As I randomly pulled out a cookbook, he asked if adding dried cranberries would be a good idea. Cranberries and chocolate? Definitely, yes, affirmative, and uh, ya-sure-youbetcha! My thoughts drifted to other flavors that would compliment, and I remembered that we happened to have a lone orange looking for something to do.

It was while I was zesting that orange into the cookie dough, that I flashed back onto those grade-changing cookies from my past. Grand Marnier... that's what was in them. And everybody knows that Grand Marnier and chocolate were absolutely designed for each other by divine decree. It's expensive stuff, to be sure, but you only need a tablespoon and we just happened to have some.*

These are really good cookies in their own right, but with the changes we made, the flavor was spectacular. Truly a chocolate chip cookie worthy of special occasions. When I get more organized, I will dig out that other recipe and give it another go. Until then, this one is top of it's class.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
page 321, The Silver Palate Cookbook (25th Anniv. ed.), 2007
Do you still not have this book? Seriously, go get it!
Until then, here is the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and another review of it at Over the Hill and On a Roll

Notes: To the Silver Palate recipe I added... 1 cup dried cranberries, 1 cup chopped pecans, zest from one orange, and 1 Tbsp Grand Marnier. Made approximately 6 dozen using my little cookie scoop. I baked one batch right off (12 minutes @ 350°) and they spread a great deal, making large but quite thin cookies. Not a bad thing, but I suspect it was to do with either the temperature of the butter or the temperature in the kitchen (making the dough too warm). Scooped the rest onto a sheet pan, froze them, then bagged up for later.

*I need to seriously think about moving the booze into the kitchen. I just love to cook with it, especially around the holidays.

Better Luck Next Time Rum Cake

Rum Cake, page 66, Desperate Measures, Kevin Crafts, 1993

Colors Not Found In Nature

"It's fruitcake weather!" I can't make these cookies without thinking about A Christmas Memory, the short story by Truman Capote. Sweet, wistful, and wonderful; one of those stories that is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. So good when done well. And this one surely is. There is an old television production of it starring Geraldine Page that is excellently done. It used to air every year around the holidays, and hopefully still does. As good as that teleplay is, it's the book that always grabs at my heart the hardest. To read the words is to be rewarded. Rewarded by the elegant writing, tangible descriptions, sweet and tender sentiment... I will read it again this year. Like fruitcake, it's tradition.

My Mom used to make these cookies when I was growing up, but it's a big job these cookies. I started making them the year I got married. I'll never forget it: I bought 6 lbs. of pecans when I needed 6 cups. We put pecans in everything that year. This year I added flour in when it should have been sugar. But it all worked out. It always does, one way or another.

Twelve dozen cookies later and I was finally done. The music on the stereo came to an end and the house was suddenly quiet. I leaned against the counter, closed my eyes and bit into one of the cookies... in that one moment was the Christmas of my childhood. I heard bells chiming. Turns out they really were! There's a church nearby that plays bells every hour. It was five o'clock. My senses and memories converged, just for one perfect moment. Every once and a while that happens. Or maybe it happens all the time and I only notice it every once and a while.