Merry Christmas (I baked you a pie)

There was no plan to take December off from blogging. It just sort of happened. With so much going on this month (and no posts stockpiled for the winter), something had to give as they say. Blogging was it.

Even during a non-major holiday time of year I don't understand how other bloggers can keep the pace they do. It's enough to make my head spin. It's something that I occasionally struggle with... keeping up. I think the trick is not to. After all, it's my blog, my life, my pace... so this month I took a break. 

In addition to all the regular cooking, cleaning, mending, and tending that goes on around here, I've been getting the house ready for Christmas and visiting family, Hubs has been re-doing the guest bath, I've done a bit of holiday baking, but mostly... lots of gift-planning and making (we do homemade gifts for Christmas). We're exhausted, but in a really really good way. It's a feeling you just can't get from shopping.
 

From Me To You

I have a gift for you too. My signature pie. If there's one dessert that I've made more than any other over my lifetime (thus far anyway), it's my St. John's Organic Walnut & Drunken-Raisin Pie. Well... I've probably made chocolate chip cookies a lot more often than this pie, but are cookies really dessert? I see them as more of a snack. Anyway, this pie is stuffed with walnuts and studded with raisins that were soaked in bourbon overnight (turning them into little flavor-bombs). I've made it dozens of times for dozens of pot-lucks and holidays and there's never any left over. It's my go-to pie. And now it's going to you.

Quoting... John Greenleaf Whittier

"Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?

What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?"

- John Greenleaf Whittier (from the poem, The Pumpkin, 1846)

Blueberry Blues

or... can my cuter computer keep on keepin' on?

Let me explain a bit. I do still dig my groovy Blueberry iMac the most, but more and more my Fellow-Babies, it's getting to be like an LP in an MP3 world: you can still put a record on a turntable and listen to music, but it's usefulness is quaint and limited at best. 

The latest dust that I've been left behind in is when my e-mail client/program announced recently that it no longer supported the web browser I use. And now, I find that I am unable to send e-mails or reply to them. Never mind all of the other stuff that I haven't been able to do on it for years, sending e-mail is a bottom-line basic task... but now when I attempt it, my 'puter just sits there... cutely.

Coming up with creative "work-arounds" to get things done on the computer has been practically a way of life for me. No surprise with an 11 year old computer. She's a hell of a trouper though. Solid and dependable, intuitive... and darn cute to boot.

Must all good things come to an end? Can I keep squeezing usefulness out of the old Mac-asaurus? Will I find a way to send e-mails and thus be able post photos onto this blog again? These are the questions keeping me up at night. Well, that and watching old iMac TV ads on YouTube. And getting all weepy. 

In honor of that sweet little computer o' mine...here are a basket-full of blueberry treats to keep me going as I try to figure out how to keep her going...

• Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins from Joy The Baker
• Peach & Blueberry Sour Cream Cobbler from 3191 Miles Apart
• Tiny Blueberry Star Pies In Jars from Babble via Creature Comforts
• Blueberry Overload Coffee Cake and Blueberry Crisp Tart at Serious Eats
• Blueberry and Apricot Crumble at The Kitchn
• Lemon Blueberry Pancakes from The Pioneer Woman
• Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing from Veggie Belly
• Blueberry-Maple-Pecan Conserve from Serious Eats
• Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Buttercream from My Baking Addiction
• And finally, a wine with "aromas of blueberry, cinnamon, and baking chocolate, all of which are echoed in the palate" via Good Wine Under $20 ...sigh.

A Perfect Pie For Epiphany

January 6th is a  pretty special day. Known as The Twelfth Day Of Christmas (regardless of how many drummers you  have drumming)... Twelfth Night... the first day, or Feast of Epiphany... and around here, we also remember it as Dad's birthday. It's a day to mark  transitions (maybe even more so than New Year's), as well as the revelation of something remarkable. To me, that's a date that deserves special observance.

This is the perfect pie for the occasion.* Sweet, but not too sweet. Festive, but without strict nostalgic ties to any other holiday. Comforting, as all apple pies should be. Sparkling, with surprising flavors to awaken your palate from all the hearty winter foods of late. A transitional pie. A revelatory pie.

The Christmas Dinner That Was

There's nothing like planning ahead. Or not. Last Wednesday we poured through my cookbooks looking for recipes, Thursday we bought the ingredients, Friday we did all the prep and went to a lovely candlelight service, Saturday we cooked and feasted, and Sunday we slept in  and then attacked the dishes. All in all, pretty darned glorious...

So, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good bite.

Strawberry Crostata Is So Last Season

For the last night of my sister's visit, Hubs grilled bratwurst and I made polenta topped with roasted vegetables. Sis opened up a bottle of local Syrah that went with the food like Cinderella and fragile footwear.

Dessert was to be a crostata, so earlier that day, while the frozen dough was thawing, we went to the store to pick out some fruit. We pondered over apples, pears, peaches, plums... and strawberries. Strawberries? In October? She wanted the strawberries. I knew they wouldn't be anywhere as good as they are in July, but then again, they would be baked in a hot oven and their flavors would concentrate. It had never occurred to me to make a crostata with strawberries, but why not? You can use virtually any fruit. My biggest fear was the amount of liquid they would let go of. I decided not to worry about any of that and just go for it. Even if it totally botched up, it would probably still taste good. It did.

The Prodigal Pastry and a Peach-Blueberry Crostata

I learned (or uh, re-learned) a valuable lesson this past weekend. Have a back-up. That's it... have a back-up. Turns out that I had no back-up for my #1 favorite simple dessert of all time: the Peach Crostata. I made it, like, 47 times last year.* So many times you'd think it would be committed to memory by now. But no, my brain doesn't work that way. That's why I have this blog. The original link to the recipe was here on the blog, right where I put it last summer. When I clicked on said link last weekend though, I was given the option of purchasing the article containing the recipe or subscribing to the newspaper for full access to all their archives. What? Deep breath. It's o.k., I wrote it down... somewhere. No time to search, so I quickly threw together the Peaches & Herbs Shortcake instead.

The shortcake was a fine substitute but I was still mighty vexed over the apparent loss of the crostata recipe and the next few days were spent tearing the house upside-down looking for it. At least there was some comfort in the thought that, should I not find it, I could buy it. Harumpf. I seriously considered purchasing the article, even though the thought of it riled me up like a wet cat. That's how much I liked that recipe.

Well, the lost became found. Sort of. I finally located my notes yesterday, scribbled into one of the six or seven partially filled notebooks that seem to float from room to room here like indecisive specters. It's not a good system but I'm working on it, I really am. New habits (at least the good ones) take time. Backing-up is a very good habit. Favorite recipe? Save it to a file, be it paper or digital, or better yet, both. Don't ever be caught without your favorite pastry recipe at your fingertips. Save yourself that particular panic and back it up... today.

Summer's Last Hurrah

Next summer, when we have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with*... I'll know exactly what to do with them. I will make this tart. I will make this tart over and over and over, all summer long... and we will never tire of it. It's that good. There is so much going on in this tart I can't even begin to describe it. So I won't. I'll just let the ingredients speak for themselves: some homegrown tomatoes, fresh herbs, a smear of homemade mustard, a drizzle of olive oil, tangy goat cheese, a touch of honey... all caramelized, concentrated, cozy and warm, and in the loving arms of a crisp pastry shell.

I rolled the pastry dough out quite thin so I could make two tarts and use up all the tomatoes we had picked. We'll still get more tomatoes over the next few weeks, but not in this quantity. This was summer's last hurrah. Here, baked together in a tart shell, were our Sungold, Early Girl, Juliette, and Sun Kiss, snuggled up cheek-to-cheek.*

Upsetting The Apple Tart

This is a story of two tarts. Two apple custard tarts. I would like it to have been a story of one bad apple tart and how it redeemed itself and became a good apple tart and made everyone around it happier for having been near it. This is not that story.

No, this story is about two apple tarts that were alike in many ways but were dramatically different in others. One's strength was the other's weakness. Neither of them were very good, but neither were they all bad. Their goodness, overshadowed by their badness, brought joy to no one and left only disappointment in the hearts of those who tried to love them.

Apple Custard Tart #1: Went together beautifully. Crust was flaky and delicious. But when you hear the voice in your head say: "Wow... that sure seems like an awful lot of ground clove!", listen to it. Ponder. Evaluate. Trust your knowledge and experience. Tell yourself it's o.k. to not follow the printed directions to the letter. Allow that typos happen and other people's tastes are not your own. Someone may actually want a numbing sensation after finishing their dessert. Perhaps they have some pending dental work? What a waste. I couldn't even look when Hubs dumped it into the trash can.

Famous Local Beauties

There are three pounds of Gravenstein apples* on my counter. What to do? They're just a little bit special. Gravensteins don't keep well, and they don't travel well either. What good are they then? Well, they taste absolutely lovely. Mostly sweet, a little bit tart with something almost floral hiding in there too. And they can more than hold their own when baked in a pie. When you see Gravensteins, you just buy them. Period.  It'll be another year before you see them again.

So now that I got 'em, what do I do with 'em? How to use them to their best advantage? Perhaps one of these gorgeous apple recipes I've had my eye on...

• Apple, Honey, Goat Cheese Tartlets from Serious Eats
• Apple Dumplings from the Design*Sponge "In The Kitchen With..." series
• Tarte Aux Pommes at Apartment Therapy/The Kitchn
• Free-Form Apple Tart also from The Kitchn
• This Apple Tea Cake at What Katie Ate is simply beautiful

*Read more about Gravenstein apples here.

They Go Together Like... [fill in the blank]

Peanut butter, banana, chocolate & coffee. Four regular residents in my kitchen. Sometimes they like to be on their own, but they always love getting together when they can and seem to truly enjoy each other's company. They're good friends. They bring out the best in each other by being supportive, encouraging, and complimentary. With so many different and delicious ways to combine them, where does one start?

Start here... How To Make Homemade Peanut Butter (Joy The Baker) and make your own peanut butter from honey roasted peanuts... that's right, honey roasted peanut butter. Pure genius. How could I not try it? The honey roasted peanuts were cheaper than the plain ones after all, and I'm all about saving money. It is, incidentally, by the way, and in fact, fantastically tasty. Is making peanut butter from scratch cost effective? Not sure. Math was not one of my strongest subjects, especially when trying to compare weights and volumes, but if you can find peanuts that are at a really good price... go for it. At least you'll know what is and (maybe more importantly) what isn't in your peanut butter. O.k.? Now, go work through the following two lists of recipes...

Tomatoes On My Mind

Our five tomato plants have taunted us with a total of 7 little ripe tomatoes last month and then nothing since. They were freaks. Delicious freaks. Cruel, that these few ripened so much earlier than the others. I know more are on their way, I can see them, a multitude of green and gold marbles hanging in clusters. The lesson is patience and the trick is to just keep my eye on the prize. That doesn't mean I'm camped-out in the back yard or installing a tomato-cam in the garden; but focussed on what I know in my heart to be true: that in just a few short weeks, we'll be swimming in tomatoes.

In preparation for that glorious time of year, I've compiled some links to a few tomato-rific treats and tidbits... you know, in case shoving them in our face as fast as we pick them gets too tiring... It could happen.

• 30 Days Of Ripe Tomatoes at the LATimes. I could probably just stop right here.
• Here's a suggestion for wine to pair with all those ripe tomatoes at Good Wine Under $20.
• Fantastically interesting article by Harold McGee in the NY Times about cooking with tomato leaves... yes, the leaves! Read it! 
• This easy French Tomato Tart from David Lebovitz will be one of the first things I make (but I'll have to call it Domestic Tomato Tart since I don't have any French Tomatoes).* 
• After the tart I want to try this Spiced Tomato Gratin at 101 Cookbooks, chock full of amazing summer flavors. 

* That's a joke... admittedly a bad one, but a joke nonetheless.

Peaches Aplenty

It's just not summer without peaches. Lots and lots of peaches. While it's great when you hit on something fabulous to make with them, something you could make over and over with no complaints, it's also fun to mix things up a bit and try something new. The repeat favorites around here are of course the recent Peaches & Herbs Shortcake and last summer's Peach Crostata. If I made nothing else but those two recipes with each and every fresh peach that came my way, I would be a happy happy girl. But when I look around and see so many other wonderful ways to prepare and feature this luscious summer fruit... well, I start to cave. I wonder if maybe I might be missing out on something great. And after all, I have the crostata and shortcake in my back pocket (in a manner of speaking), and can make them at any time knowing they'll be wonderful. Why not venture out a little. See if there is a new favorite waiting to be discovered.

Here is a list of peach-centric recipes for breakfast-time, snack-time, dessert-time, and even cocktail-time. They all sound just peachy to me...

• The easiest thing you can do and still call it "dessert" Peaches Simmered In Muscat at The Kitchn
• Picnic portable Peach Ginger Hand Pies also from The Kitchn
• Fresh-Peach Drop Cookies at Martha Stewart sound delightful (and easy).
• Peach and cinnamon are practically made for each other Cinnamon-Peach Cottage Cheese Pancakes at allrecipes.com
• Peach And Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake also from MSL (Aug 2008 issue) has a little lavender in the mix to give it that extra summer something.
• Muddle, shake and sip on a  Whiskey Peach Smash from The Kitchn (extra points if you have a veranda to sip it on).

Tender Sweet Apricots

I always have some sort of dried fruit in my pantry. Always. Dried fruits keep practically forever and are endlessly versatile. One of my very favorite dried fruits is the dried apricot. Soft and sweet with a honeyed-tang. They are amazing in everything from oatmeal at breakfast to turkey stuffing at Thanksgiving. Dipped in dark chocolate, well then  they've dried and gone to heaven.*

In summer though, my thoughts always turn to fresh fruit, and the little fragrant fresh apricots often get overlooked as I bee-line to the berries, peaches, plums and melons. They even get overshadowed by their own genetic offshoots: pluots, apriums, etc. Whats next? Grapricots? Aprinanas? It's time I took another look at the subtle and classic blushing beauty that is the fresh apricot... 

 

These desserts all look so very tempting, my problem now is to pick one:

• A yummy Apricot Cake and Apricot Fold Over Pie both from Serious Eats
• Tea-Steamed Apricots & Blackberries on page 20 of Healthy Desserts  (Williams-Sonoma Collection, 1995 )
• This gorgeous Walnut Apricot Bread also over at Serious Eats uses one of my favorite flavor combinations
• Apricot Slice, a tasty looking thing that would be equally at home either for breakfast or dessert (I just love those). Found on page 23 of Best Of Baking (Wolter and Teubner, 1980) 
• The Martha Stewart Cookbook (1995) has Apricots Baked With Vanilla Sugar (pg 422) and two kinds of Apricot Tart on page 453 (one with Grand Marnier and the other with rum... yum!). 
• Also from Martha are two apricot-almond recipes: a Fresh Apricot Tart and a simple dish of Baked Apricots with Almond Topping..

* I really have to apologize for that cheesy awful joke.

Triple Berry Bars

The weather and the calendar are almost in sync. It stopped raining and the sun sort of came out for most of the weekend. Just in time for a big backyard BBQ yesterday. This dessert is the ideal thing to bring to any kind of potluck: it's easy to make, easy to transport, feeds a crowd, and... oh yeah, it's yummy. I do so love an unfussy scrumptious dessert...

Sweet/Tart

This tart was almost too tart, but then again... if you love lemon, it was just right. A fantastic dessert that seems light and rich at the same time. I'll have to make another one though, as we ate it all before I had a chance to photograph it! Mine was nowhere near as smooth and gorgeous as the one in the Gourmet photo, but I'm pretty sure it tasted just as good!

• Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil from Gourmet.com

My Notes: Made this tart with... Meyer lemons (of course). The recipe called for a "fruity olive oil (preferably French)". I used a Clementine Olive Oil from Sonoma County instead (pretty sure that's not what they meant by "fruity", but I think it worked out really well). The crust dough was very unusual, unlike any I've used before: really soft as you spread it in the pan, but light and almost sandy once baked. It was a perfect foil for the rich lemony curd. All in all, it was quite quick and easy. Be sure to chill it for at least 4 hours before serving.

Vegetable Tarts, Egg Pies and a Savory Bread Pudding

Any of these would be great for brunch, lunch, or even a light dinner when served with a salad. Made ahead of time, they would be perfect for warm summer evenings when I don't feel like cooking...

• Individual Three-Cheese Frittatas from Sweet Paul
• Ina Garten's Country French Omelet at ABCnews.com
• Mushroom Tart with Herb Salad at Serious Eats
• How to make a Panade From Leftovers at The Kitchn
• Five delicious sounding make-ahead quiches from The Kitchn
• Tortilla With Peas Mint and Yogurt at Serious Eats

Marvelous Meyers

Our dwarf Meyer decided to finish it's inaugural year with a "huge crop" (6 lemons) all ripe at the same time. In light of this unexpected bounty, I combed through my bookmarked recipes to find something wonderful to make with them. Now all I have to do is decide...

• Lemon Pepper Pasta with Capers sounds like a lovely light supper. I may even try making my own lemon-pepper noodles to go with it.
• Always wary of the label "ultimate", this one may well be justified... The Ultimate Lemon Butter Bar at epicurious.com
  
• Glazed Lemon Cookies from ATK by way of Serious Eats sound pretty tasty...
  
• ...as do the Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze from Giada at Food Network.
  
• Can't decide between cake or pudding? Make individual Lemon Spongettes from The Kitchn
• This Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil from Gourmet.com looks absolutely stunning.
• Super-Lemony Soufflés from David Lebovitz sound sensational but they will have to wait for the next dinner party or the Hubs and I will be forced to eat all 6 servings...
  

Lemon Love

Oh, how do I love lemons? Here are but a few more ways...

• Two of my favorite flavors together: Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake from williams-sonoma.com. It may be a little early for fresh lavender, but I always keep a jar of dried in the pantry.
  
• A Lemon Crostata (my favorite form of pie) from gourmet.com featuring a toasted almond lattice crust.
  
• Lemony Angel Food Cake from marthastewart.com (originally published in the May 2009/MSL magazine, this version has been updated). Lemon cream frosting on top... yes, please.
  
• Little Lemon Hazelnut Cakes at JoyTheBaker.com

Many of these recipes call for cake flour which usually brings me down real fast, since, just like buttermilk, I don't usually have any in the house. I know I can just go to the store and get some, but I tend to be a spontaneous baker: When I get the urge to make something, I want to jump right in and get started. If I don't have a crucial ingredient and can't immediately substitute something, I move on.

Well, now I never have to pass over one of those recipes again while lamenting my lack of cake flour. Joy The Baker has busted up the mystery of cake flour and shows us how to make it at home from regular all-purpose flour (which I always have in the cupboard)... how very cool!

• How To Make Cake Flour from JoyTheBaker.com
  

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!