summer bounty

Yesterday's haul out of the garden. We are drowning in summery goodness.

Piles of fresh produce are the mother of invention and I have been trying out new recipes in order to keep up with the inventory around here. Matt's Mom brought us blueberries, ranier cherries, bing cherries, and peaches last weekend and despite munching on these goodies all week, I realized yesterday morning that I still had a pile of fruit nearing over-ripeness. Must save the fruit!

So I made a crisp. I almost went with my old stand-by crisp topping (melted butter, brown sugar, oats) but decided to try something new from Rustic Fruit Desserts. I used the almond crisp topping and oh. my. goodness. It's just butter + sugar + flour + toasted almonds but it could not be more delicious. I was nervous because Matt doesn't normally like nuts in his desserts (I know, crazy), but even he pronounced it awesome.

This week we've had so much rain that the tomatoes are splitting open on the vine. I dashed out to save them and then put together this watermelon tomato salad from the August Martha Stewart (sorry can't find the recipe on her website, must not be up yet). I didn't bother with making the basil oil, instead I just tore up some basil leaves. A little goat cheese, lemon juice, and a drizzle of olive oil. Quite tasty.

And this was my lunch yesterday, which was so pretty I had to take a picture. This is uncommonly healthy for me. I had a bowl of crisp for dessert to make up for it.

Now I need to figure out what to do with all this yellow squash. Matt tells me his Memom always made fried squash cakes and called them "croquettes." I'm thinking about this recipe. Paula Deen and fried food--can't go wrong. Any favorite squash recipes?

my mama's rolls

Did I say I was going to blog every day this week? I meant everyday except Tuesday. Because Tuesday, though it was not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, did not have anything particularly to recommend itself and I am very happy to abandon it to the fogs of memory as soon as possible.

Wednesday, now wednesday is looking up. Twin had a potluck at work today so we made a batch of my Mom's rolls. These are holiday rolls in our house, and smell like Christmas to me. Buttery and delicate and completely delicious. They are especially good with a very thin layer of country ham inside.

In microwave-safe bowl, heat until hot:
2 cups milk

Add:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar

Let cool until butter has softened.

In mixing bowl, combine:
4 cups flour
3 pkg dry yeast (one strip)

Stir in milk mixture and beat for five minutes.
Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add more flour (1/2 to 1 cup) until dough holds together but is still very soft. (It is much gloopier than most bread doughs)

Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over the top, cover, and let rise until doubled in volume.
Turn out 1/2 the dough onto a floured board. Pat it into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Spread 1/2 stick melted butter over the top. Cut into triangles (like a pizza) and roll from the wide end to the tip to form a crescent-shaped roll. The rolls should be the size of a baby's fist. Or a small mouse. (This is not an exact science. Most of mine come out looking like weird, oddly-sized lumps. They still taste good.)

Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Let rise until puffy.
Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

YUMMY!

happy happy brand new year

hmmm. Do I have to go back to work now? pooh pooh. We've been back in NYC for a few lazy days. I have read three novels (almost as many as Twin, gasp!) and accomplished almost nothing. I did balance my checkbook and create a new revised personal budget that is a model of economy and moderation—the effort of which left me a bit depressed and drove me to seek refuge in the aforementioned novels. Twin is a little money squirrel. She has hoards of it. Well, relatively speaking anyway. I would not be surprised if she has little sacks of it hidden in nooks and crannies all around her room. Me, I hemorrhage money. Unfortunately.



Anyhoo that's my resolution and I'm sticking to it. I made a few other resolutions but I won't share them, because then I would actually have to stick to them as well.



These pictures are a few I took in Williamsburg over Christmas. Have you visited Williamsburg? Probably you were dragged there in the third grade and you found it deadly dull. But it really is lovely. "Pleasant" and "charming" both apply which gives some people the heebie-jeebies, but I think it beautiful. It's home. If you want to see more pix there is a set. And no, Williamsburg is not bathed in a perpetual rosy cast, there just happened to be a particularly spectacular sunset that evening.



And look what was in my mystery box from Twin. The cake plate I have gazed at adoringly for years from Crate&Barrel is now all mine. I baked a cake today and it can be excused for being slightly dry and having strange coagulated chocolate bits in its icing, because it looks so very regal sitting atop its elegant pedestal.



Kind of like a birthday cake, which seems fitting for the day. Happy birthday to this new year and may we make it a peaceful one, and a good one.

christmas cheer over at twin's

Twin has some awesome awesome christmas cheer going on over at her blog. She is taking part in an Advent Blog Tour, where each blog on the tour is assigned a day to post something jolly and christmas-y for visitors. Isn't that just too nifty? Jennie has posted an excerpt from A Christmas Carol, a recipe, and a free little giftie (ooooooo, aaaaah!)



We've been busy baking three batches of our all-time favorite Christmas cookies for all our co-workers. We've always called these cookies Viennese Crescents in our family, and they're very like the Russian Tea Cakes Hannah posted on the Recipe Box a few weeks ago. This year we're tweaking tradition by calling them Viennese Snowballs, because though I guess they are supposed to be crescent-shaped, we've always made them in little balls. Just like snowballs. So I'm not sure the new name will stick, but I do rather like it. Anyhoo, head on over for the recipe and some gift tags to download.

chocolatey goodness

My friend Pip got a big chocolatey-goodness kind of cake for his birthday. You can read the recipe here. This is classic birthday cake in my family--a recipe perfected by my grandma.

I covered it with ganache and then topped it with espresso bean bark. The bark is one of those wonderful things that sounds difficult and makes you seem all fancy-wancy gourmet but really is completely simple to do. Just melt bittersweet chocolate in the microwave, stir in some espresso beans, and pour it onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Spread it out fairly thin and pop it in the freezer. After it has hardened you can break it into pieces.



The key is using good chocolate. This time I used Scharffen Berger 62%. Yummy. I don't even like coffee but this. bark. is. yummy. You can also make larger shards of the bark and stick it to the sides of the cake all around to get a modern, architectural-looking kind of cake. Super easy. And everyone's all "oooooooo! aaaaaahhh!" And that's always fun.

soup man peach turnovers

Across the street from our office is a soup man. He sells about 20 different soups daily in his tiny shop. We love the soup man. He's no soup Nazi. He's a kind-eyed and quietly smiling man who is very generous with his soup. Also his cookies, which he will tuck in the bag when you're not looking. He's Mexican, and when you ask him for Mexican Meatball, he points to himself and says, "You want this?!" Funny every time.

The soup man gives you a piece of fruit with your soup. You don't get to choose what kind of fruit; you take what you get. Banana, apple, plum, nectarine. I don't always eat my fruit (the soup really fills you up) so I got in the habit of lining my fruit up on my desk. On the weeks I am very lazy and don't pack my lunch, my lineup of fruit can grow quite long. My coworkers started poking fun of my lineup and adding their own uneaten fruit to my desk. Last week he was giving out peaches, and by Friday this was the scene on my desk:



I packed them all up and took them home and made turnovers. I brought them in to work Monday. Now everybody is giving me their soup man fruit in the hopes I will make more confections. Not likely to become a regular occurrence.

This crust is an easy and forgiving dough--rolls out nicely and generally cooperates in a way that other recipes I've tried do not.

Pate Brisee:
5 cups flour
1/2 lb butter
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup buttermilk

Cut the very cold butter into the flour. (If you have a sturdy standing mixer, use that. If you have a food processor, use that. If you have neither, well then roll up your sleeves and have at it with a pastry cutter or two knives. The idea is to get an even, grainy texture without melting the butter.) Add the buttermilk and yolks and stir until just mixed.

This makes quite a lot of dough, probably enough for 2 full-size pies (with tops). The dough freezes well, just be sure to defrost it in the fridge until it is thawed to rolling consistency. It's great for sweet or savory pies. If you like a sweeter crust, toss in a few tablespoons of sugar.

For the insides, just about any fresh fruit is good. For the peaches, I added a couple spoonfuls of sugar, some fresh grated nutmeg, and about a tbs of flour. You can't really go wrong here.

Brush the tops with a mixture of 1 egg and a drizzle of water. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.



Twin doesn't like peaches. Crazy, right? But she put her lower lip out and looked so pitiful, so I made her a mini apple pie instead.

i'm melting but my eBay purchases will sustain me.

I came home from work today to find my computer whirring uncharacteristically loudly, its little fan racing in an attempt to keep cool. I fixed myself a nutty fluff, and found that the peanut butter was oozy, gooey, and shiny melty in its jar. It's a little hot here.

But a little eBay goes a long way toward soothing all manner of discomfort. I got a batch of notions someone rescued from an estate sale, among it all these cool wooden spools of thread. In the bottom of the box was the dust of many years, along with a few stray beads, safety pins, and a rusted bobbin wound with brown thread. There are notations on the button envelopes like "Marshall Fields peach twinset." All of which has gotten me wondering who all this stuff came from, and wishing she knew that to me it is like a little treasure chest.



Another eBay purchase that I put to use this weekend before it got too hot was my new bundt pan. Just like my Mom's—heavy metal and all officially "Bundt" brand. I made a Sally Lunn, then a blueberry cake (above).

The heat is supposed to break tomorrow. I hope so, because I really can't keep rationalizing all this eBaying.

grandma's chocolate cake

Hi there, Julieree readers. This is Jennie (AKA Twin). I've got Julie bound and gagged in the closet and I've taken over her blog. MWAHAHA! I'll probably let her go soon. But until then...you get me.

I actually baked today, a very unusual occurrence. Julie is a fabulous cook. Me, sadly, not so much. I love to eat what Julie cooks, but few things inspire me to make the effort of baking. This cake is one of the exceptions. It is light and fluffy, very chocolatey but not overly sweet.

First, the story behind the recipe. When our grandparents got marrried in the late 1930s, Grandma decided to have a recipe bridal shower, each guest bringing a favorite recipe to share. When Grandpa first tasted this cake, he made it a condition of the marriage that she make the cake once a week. Of course he was kidding, but it has been a family favorite ever since. Julie and I have probably had this cake at every single birthday. It is by far my favorite dessert. Grandma always made it with regular chocolate frosting, the fluffy kind made with confectioner's sugar. Mama has since traded this for a rich ganache for even greater chocolatey decadence.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbs cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup boiling water

Directions: Preheat oven to 250. Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and egg yolk. Beat well. Sift flour, cocoa, salt, and soda together in a separate bowl. Gradually add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk. Begin and end with flour mixture. Add hot water and stir to mix. Pour batter into greased 9"X13" pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 250 for the first 20 minutes, then increase temperature to 350 until done.

As you can see from the picture, we made them as cupcakes this time. They take about 20 minutes at 300 degrees.

Mama's Ganache:
1 1/4 cup cream
12 oz chocolate (highest quality you want to spring for)
1 tsp vanilla

Just heat the cream in the microwave, then stir the chocolate and vanilla in. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until it has set to a good consistency.

Special warning for all you baking novices out there (like me). This is actually my second attempt at the cake this week. On my first try, I realized at the last minute that we didn't have any cocoa. So I pulled out some Nesquik thinking, hey, it's the same thing, right? Ummm, no, not really. Disasterous results. Practically inedible. So this time I bought the good stuff--Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa. Good ingredients make for a good cake. A lesson learned.

my mama's brunswick stew

Brunswick stew is good southern cooking. I think it's traditionally made with squirrel or rabbit or whatever you gone done shot in the woods out back, but I pretty much just stick with chicken. (and just for the record, I have never been hunting and prefer to get my meat all wrapped up in cellophane from the market.) I was always taught that Brunswick stew originated in Brunswick County, Virginia, though I recently learned this is a disputed claim— Brunswick, Georgia also calls itself the home of Brunswick stew. A heated debate, I'm sure.

It's a thick, hearty stew made from a tomato base with a good kick of red pepper. It's great in winter, but warmed two southern girls' insides this weekend as the early summer in New York seemed endlessly cool and rainy.

Here's my mama's recipe:

1 smallish chicken (or the equivalent parts)
celery
yellow onion
carrots
12 oz. bottle of V-8
1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes
2-3 baking potatoes, chopped
1/2 bag frozen lima beans
1/2 bag frozen shoepeg corn
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper


Place the chicken parts in a large pot along with 2-3 stalks celery, 2 carrots, and 1/2 the onion (all roughly chopped). Add salt and pepper. Cover with water and cook 20-30 minutes until the chicken is just done. Remove the chicken. Cut the meat off the bone into bite-size pieces, set aside. Return the bones to the broth and continue cooking at high heat until the broth has reduced to about half.

Strain the broth, reserving the liquid and discarding the rest. Add the V-8 juice, the tomatoes (chopped) along with their liquid, 2-3 chopped carrots, 2 stalks chopped celery, the other half the onion, the potatoes, and the lima beans. Season with the cayenne (a couple good shakes or more if you like it spicy). Cook 30-45 minutes. The longer it cooks the mushier it gets. (I think mushy is good.) Add the corn and the chicken for the last 5-10 minutes. Season to taste.

You must eat corn bread with it. There is simply no other way. The stew is even better the next day and freezes well.

If you're not up for cooking, try to find Mrs. Fearnow's, which is made in Virgina though a bit difficult to find outside that venerated commonwealth. It looks like dog food coming out of the can, but sure does taste good. Great for camping, too.

a ceck.

I baked a cake this weekend. I got the recipe from Martha (the January issue that was so good because it was a compilation of the best of their first 15 years). My cake is not quite as pretty as hers, of course, but turned out fairly well for an amateur. It's a very light spongy kind of cake with lemon curd between the layers. Martha called for a meringue icing, but I miscalculated the bazillion eggs required for all the different parts, and ran out of eggs. So I used traditional buttercream—nice and tart.

Baking is the most fun. Cooking a big meal stresses me out—orchestrating all the cooking times and the mad rush just before bringing it to the table. But baking can be done a step at a time, all methodical like, and then brought together, assembled, and stowed away in the fridge for leisurely enjoyment.

I've completely lost my touch with the decorating, though. Need to practice a bit more. I'll just have to make cake-baking a bit of a habit.