Rainy Days and Thyme, Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon Glaze

It's a rainy day here in the Northeast. The kind of rain that you just know is going to last all day. 

No bother. 

My mouth is still hurting from the insult of a root canal. The gardens really needed a good soaking by Mother Nature and I have some recipes that need testing. 

Here is one I already tested. It also comes with the seal of approval by The Best Husband In The World. I adapted it from a recipe from The Food Network magazine, August/September 2009 issue. 

Mini Thyme and Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon Glaze

(makes 48 mini cakes or 24 cup cake size)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Position rack in middle of oven.

Butter and flour your cake pans. 

1 cup flour

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest (about 2 lemons)

2 large eggs

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup milk (I used 1%)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (I used fine sea salt)

1 teaspoon finely minced fresh thyme, plus tiny sprigs for garnish

In your food processor, blender or stand mixer, pulse the lemon zest and sugar to combine. Add eggs one at a time and mix. With motor running, slowly pour in olive oil, then milk. Keep motor running until you have a thin batter. In two batches, add flour combined with baking powder, salt and then thyme. 

If using mini pans (pictured) place 1 tablespoon batter in each cake. If using cupcake pans, place 1/4 cup in each. 

Bake at 350. 20 minutes for mini pans, 22-25 minutes for cupcakes.

Cool in pans for 5 minutes, transfer to rack. 

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups confectionary sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Whisk together the sugar, butter and juice. Thin with more juice if necessary. Pour over warm cakes. Garnish each cake with a sprig of thyme. 

A Cooks Note: to make a more savory cake, decrease sugar by 1/3 cup. Substitute rosemary for thyme. MMMM... I'm also thinking sage and cornmeal.. yes! Thanksgiving... 

Dentists and A Perfect Summer Dinner

I don't go to the dentist anymore for a simple cleaning.. oh, I go every six months like the good little patient I am.. but it's never that easy.. 

No, life on the other side of fifty is more complicated than that. Seems every filling I've ever had is now listed on the Smithsonian's Dental Roles as antique and has to be redone.

Redone is code word for Root Canal. 

Now my dentist, bless his heart, always tries his best to avoid the dreaded Root Canal. But my antique mouth resists all manner of dental work. It wants the cadillac of service. 

I swear one tooth looks at the other and says, how come she gets a brand new shiny crown and I have to settle for a standard old filling? 

This tooth bemoans their filling state over the coarse of a few days until BAM - a full blown toothache wakes me in the middle of the night, mouth pounding, jaw screaming... 

So here I am waiting for my dentist, bless his heart, to call me back and send me off to the special root canal dentist. Then I'll go back to my dentist for the crown that will cost me somewhere around a $gazillion dollars. 

I'm glad we had the perfect summer dinner last night. Tonight I'll be sipping soup, and taking motrin. 

Grilled Steak, Shrimp and Pesto Corn: (for two)

Not a pot in the house gets used for this dinner. Pour a nice Rose, make the pesto in advance , then sit back and let the man do the cooking:

2 Rib Eye Steaks (or meat of choice)

1/2 pound Extra Large Shrimp (about 8)

2 ears fresh shucked sweet corn

Pesto (recipe follows)

Olive Oil 

Salt and Pepper

Take steak out of fridge one hour before cooking time. 

Peel and devein shrimp. Thread on skews

Drizzle steaks and shrimp with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper (both sides)

Heat Grill to Medium High

Pesto:

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more)

salt and pepper

Place basil in food processor, pulse a few times. Add cheese and pine nuts and process until almost smooth. With motor running, drizzle in olive oil until desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pulse one or more times.

Paint pesto on fresh shucked corn. 

Grill steaks, shrimp and corn until done. 

Slice some watermelon for dessert. 

Mmmm... tastes like summer. 

A Cook's Notes:

The pesto freezes beautifully! I freeze it in little 1/4 cup containers, then use it all winter long on pasta, pizza and chicken. 

A Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day here in the Northeast.. working in the garden, taking the pup for a stroll and enjoying life!
Happy Sunday Everyone

My flower garden: (yes I have a white picket fence)

Impatience and Fried Green Tomatoes

I have posted before that my garden has taught me many things. 

Gardening, by nature (no pun intended) teaches patience. You just can't rush Mother Nature. Things grow. They ripen. And then you eat them. That's the way it is.

Unless it's a tomato you're growing.. 

Now I know I should wait out the next week or so and then harvest beautiful red, ripe tomatoes, but I can't wait. I want to eat tomatoes today. I'll just pick a few... 

I'm learning patience, I haven't perfected it.

(OVEN) Fried Green Tomatoes: makes as many as you want...

3 green tomatoes

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. 

Pour the olive oil into a rimmed cookie sheet.

Slice the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Set up your breading station with 2 shallow pie plates. 

Combine the panko and cheese in one.

Beat the egg in the other.

Dip the tomato slices in egg, then coat with the panko / cheese mixture

Set aside to allow the tomatoes to "dry".

While the tomatoes are drying, place the cookie sheet into the oven for 5 minutes for the oil to get hot. 

Carefully, lay the tomatoes in the oil and place back into the oven.

Oven fry for 10 minutes. Turn the tomatoes over and oven fry for 10 more minutes.

Sprinkle with salt and enjoy. 

Patience is a virtue, but fried green tomatoes are a blessing. 

Garden Tip:

Old knee high stockings or panty hose make great tomato ties. They stretch, water flows through them and they won't hurt the tender tomato stalks (or anything else you need to tie up) They are also virtually invisible in the garden! 

A Cooking Class, A Girl, A Good Day and Basic White Bread

Meet Lilyanna. Lily for short. 

She is as beautiful as she is smart as she is talented. 

One day she wants to be either a chef or a plastic surgeon. She has some time to decide. 

I had the good fortune to spend a day cooking with Lily and her mom, Renee.

Lily loves soup. And bread. And cupcakes.

So that's what I taught her to make. 

Fresh Chicken Stock - that we turned into chicken noodle soup.

Fresh Loaves of white bread.

Classic Golden Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. 

After we cooked (for 4 hours!) We ate. 

It was a good day with two very nice people. And now Lily, and her mom Renee, know how to make some of Lily's favorite things. 

I do believe I have the best job in the world. And yes, I got hugs from both Lily and her mom when I left. When was the last time that happened to you at work?

Basic White Bread (makes two loaves)

1 package dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)

3/12 to 4 cups flour (I like to use ½ bread flour and half all purpose)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 ¼ cups warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup warm water. Let stand 5 minutes.

Mix flour and salt together (start with 3 cups)

Add 1 ¼ cups warm water to dissolved yeast and stir.

Slowly, in 3 additions, add flour/salt mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon after each addition. If dough is workable…. (it will still be sticky - don't add more flour...)

Turn out on lightly floured board. Have ½ to 1 cup flour measured and knead dough, adding flour by small amounts to board, not top of dough.

Knead about 10 minutes, incorporating more flour until smooth and elastic.

Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with a dry towel and let rise 1 hour (minimum) or until doubled.

Punch down. Shape into 2 loaves, rounds, or rolls.

Place on ungreased and floured pans.

Cover and let rise 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a cake pan with 1 inch hot water on bottom rack.

Brush loaves with egg white beaten with teaspoon water OR mist gently with water.

Place on middle rack (above cake pan of water) and bake for 15 minutes.

Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake 15 more minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when rapped with knuckles. 

By The Sweat of My Brow - Cucumber Salad

I garden. 

Therefore I eat. 

If I were in charge of the world (someday, someday) I would make everyone grow at least one thing to eat.  It would do everyone much good to grow just one thing that nourished them.

Over the years my garden has taught me many things. 

Patience

Wonder

Frustration

Humility

Awe

Hunger

Joy

Courage

Fear 

Every year, before the first hint of spring, I start thinking about what I'm going to grow for the coming season. Now let me make this clear. I do not like digging, bending, yanking, back aches, bug bites, sweating, getting really dirty. Well, okay, I kind of don't mind getting dirty. 

It is the joy of the growing and the triumph of the harvest that keep drawing me back to the dirt. 

When you start the garden, it is cold. The earth is muddy and ungiving. It is only a good imagination that allows the gardener to "see" the garden. 

So you dig

And you plant

And you water

It helps if you have one of these:

A rain barrel collects all that spring melt and up coming rains. Plus it looks pretty cool in your yard.

So after a few weeks of looking at what appears to be pitiful wilted green things lounging around in the mud, one day you go outside to pull yet one more weed and you find something like this:

It's the hint of a cucumber. Not even big enough to be a gherkin.. a veritable Vlasic reject, a kosher pickle wannabe - but just big enough to spur you to bend over and  pull one more weed, one more time. 

A few weeks, some rain and sunshine later and you find that the little patch of cucumbers and squash, look like this:

By now your heart is racing because under these leaves you know (you hope) you are going to find what you've been waiting for, hoping for, sweating for:

Cucumber Salad with Yogurt and Mint: (serves 5)

4 large cucumbers, preferably home grown, thinly sliced.

1 cup greek style 0% fat yogurt 

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped fine

Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper

Whisk together the yogurt, honey, salt and pepper.

Toss the cucumbers with the mint. 

Stir in yogurt dressing and serve chilled. 

This goes great with lamb. Or simple grilled chicken. 

I just spotted this today - be still my pounding heart,  the cherry tomatoes are getting ripe, the eggplants are growing...
Time to weed... to bend, to sweat a little more. Hush my aching back...

Pet Peeve and Fresh Corn Fritters with Chipotle Pepper Salsa

My kitchen is my domain. I am lordess and master over all that goes on in my kitchen. 

That's the way it is. Period. You want good eats? Listen up. Obey.

As lordess and master I have a few rules that must be obeyed. I'm not anal about a lot of things. Messy bedrooms, whatever. 

Dog paw prints pretty much everywhere - that's the way it goes. 

You want to wear the same dirty underwear 3 days in a row? I gave up trying for mother of the year eons ago. Have at it. 

But the kitchen.. ah.. that's another story. 

So, when a simple rule is broken - it tends to send me over the edge of reason. 

I have a nifty little garbage bin attached to the door under my sink. I use the bin for coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable refuse. When it's full, it goes into my compost bin for regeneration into rich, fertile soil for my garden. This is not a new rule or phenomenon. This is the way it is. 

So, then. ahem... can anyone tell me what this is doing in my refuse bin, nestled among the coffee grounds and recycled paper towels and eggplant skins?

A can? A Vernor's Ginger Ale can to be exact. 

How many years will the can take to turn to compost? Oh, I don't know, let's see.. maybe a million???? 

Nothing frosts me more than messing with my garden, my compost or my kitchen rules. Is it too much to ask to follow a few simple compost / kitchen rules?

The only thing I can do with such wanton disregard of a few simple rules is wait until each and everyone of my KidAdults is grown and have homes (and rules) of their own. Then revenge will be mine. I plan on visiting on a regular basis and breaking some rules! 

Fresh Corn Fritters with Chipotle Pepper Salsa: (adapted from Fine Cooking, August/September 2009 issue, page 38.

I lightened the original recipe by replacing whole milk with skim milk and sour cream with Zero % fat Greek yogurt. I also simplified the recipe by using store bought salsa and adding Chipotle Pepper flakes. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt (and more for sprinkling)

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 cup greek style yogurt

2 large eggs

1 cup fresh corn kernels cut off the cob and coarsely chopped (about 2 ears of fresh corn, uncooked)

Vegetable or Canola Oil for frying

Stir flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt and eggs. 

With a rubber spatula, fold the milk combination into the flour mixture. Fold in corn kernels. Let sit for 10 minutes for baking powder to do its job. 

Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan to 350 degrees. (you want about 2 inches of oil)

Using a tablespoon or mini ice cream scoop, drop batter into hot oil. Don't crowd the fritters and work in batches. Fry until golden, about 2 minutes, turn and fry other side another 2 minutes. Repeat until all batter is used. Drain on brown paper bags and sprinkle with salt. 

Serve with store bought salsa (the heat level is your choice) to which 1 teaspoon of Chipotle Pepper Flakes is added per 1 cup of salsa. 

If you have any leftovers eat them in the morning, sprinkled with powdered sugar and warm maple syrup for dipping. 

Let me know how that leftover thing works because I've never had leftovers... unless of course someone keeps putting cans into my compost bin...