Havarti on Ciabatta with Mushrooms

Real cooking is out the window this week with the temperatures in the high 90's. I wanted something quick, delicious and easy enough to make that I didn't have to dirty up half the kitchen or turn on a bunch of burners.

This was super easy and fast. I took a pound of mushrooms (use what you like) and sliced them up and sauteed them in a hot pan with a little butter and olive oil until done. Set them aside until cooled. I then took a store bought Ciabatta bread and sliced it open to make two slabs of bread. I place the bread in the oven (on a cookie sheet) on broil with the cut side up and toasted it. Pull the bread out of the oven. Then take a couple of peeled cloves of garlic and rub all over the top of the toasted bread. Next is my favorite part. Pile about a 1/2 -1 cup of shredded cheese onto each slice of bread ( I used Havarti) then pile on the mushrooms. Slide both sections back into the oven and broil until nice and melty (should be a word by now). I served this all up with a nice green salad and some ice cold water.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Greek Yogurt and Lemon Yest, topped with Fresh Marion Berry Buttercream

We are having a bit of a heat wave here...the real ugliness starts tomorrow with some triple digit temps. I am not excited about it. My daughter texts me while I am on my way home from work, and tells me that she wants to make cupcakes. I text back..."seriously it is 90+ out and you want to turn on the oven?" "Are you high". Pretty sure those are close to my exact words. She was and so we did. She had a recipe that called for a few things that I didn't have, but what I did have worked real well.

For the cupcakes: 1 3/4 cups cake flour 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 plain Greek yogurt 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large egg whites, at room temperature 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted and cooled 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and set aside in a smaller bowl add your wet ingredients yogurt, egg whites, vanilla, lemon juice and zest and mix together. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and blend. Then add your wet to your dry and mix until batter is smooth.

Preheat your oven to 350 degree and line a regular size cupcake pan with paper liners. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full of batter. Bake in preheated oven for roughly 16 min. Toothpick check to make sure they are done and remove from oven and from pan. Place cupcake on cooling wrack and allow to cool. This is a small batch recipe and makes roughly 12 cupcakes. Perfect for a little gathering of friends.

For the Marion Berry Buttercream: 1 cup Marion Berries 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 sticks (4 ounces) butter, VERY soft, pinch salt (do not skip!) 2 cups confectioners sugar (more if needed), sifted. Into a small bowl add your marion berries and 1 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Mash them until really, really pulverized or use your immersion blender. Then pour through a strainer you want all the juice but none of the seeds. Use a spoon to work it through the strainer if you must. Then into a separate bowl place the soft butter, and pinch of salt and whip together. Add confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time and alternate with slowly drizzling in marion berry puree. Get your buttercream the consistency you want by adding more confectioners sugar or more marion berry puree. You have to gauge how stiff you want your frosting. You may not use all of the puree. If you store the cupcakes in the fridge take them out about 30 minutes before serving.

Blueberry Crostata

The other day I made a Blueberry Crostata with some frozen blueberries that we picked last summer. It was amazing to say the least and the crust was a thing of beauty.

For the pastry 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp cold butter, cubed, pinch of salt, 1 egg yolk, save the egg white in a little bowl, 2 tbsp cold water, To make the dough, put the flour, sugar, butter and salt in a food processor. Pulse enough times for the mixture to resemble course crumbs.

Add the egg yolk and cold water. Continue to mix on low until a dough forms. Scrape the dough together and form it into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the blueberry filling 16 oz of frozen blueberries (make sure the berries have been thawed and rinsed and drained well), 3 tbsp white sugar, 3 tbsp corn starch

To make the filling, put the blueberries in a medium bowl and mix in the flour and sugar and set aside.

Roll the dough out into a roughly shaped disc on parchment paper. If you haven't discovered parchment paper you should...you can thank me later.

Slide the whole thing onto a baking sheet ( I used a pizza pan).

Pile the berries into the center.

Fold the crust up over the fruit overlapping the crust along the way to shape the rustic inside edge. Brush the dough with that saved egg white and sprinkle on some raw sugar.

Pop it in to a 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. This dessert is easy and goes well with fresh whipped cream.

My much loved Aunt Martha passed away early this morning. She was seventy nine years old, had spent the last 64 years being married to my rough around the edges Uncle Junior. She had been sick on and off for sometime. I remember one of the last things my uncle said to me...she was here in town at the hospital...He said to me "What the hell am I going to do!? She's been cutting my hair for the last 60 odd years!"...That's love. They weren't the perfect couple, but they knew what it took to make things work. Aunt Marth we are all going to miss you so damn much.

Peanut Butter Cookies w/ Blue Agave

My son has dietary issues due to stage 2 diabetes, so he asked me if I could make him some cookies without using Sugar. I gave it a shot. The cookies came out really tasty and baked perfectly just not very crunchy, so I am working on that next. I took a standard peanut butter cookie recipe and tweaked it to suit my needs.

Ingredients 1/2 cup butter, softened, 1/2 cup natural (no sugar added) peanut butter, 1/2 cup blue agave, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts

Directions In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the agave, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Cover and chill dough 30 minutes to 1 hour or until easy to handle. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls (I used my cookie scoop). Roll balls in chopped up peanuts. Place balls 2 inches apart on an parchment lined cookie sheet. Using the tines of a fork, flatten balls by making crisscross marks on top. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Makes about 36 cookies.

I have some other posts to work on. I have been busy with being back to work and trying to get Spring cleaning and gardening done. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekends.

Citrus Upside Down Cake

Many years ago, maybe even in another life, I was told Cardamom was great with hot chocolate. I was a young woman with nothing more than 6 years of home ec. under my belt I went out and bought a bottle of this pricey spice and kept it on a shelf somewhere until my youngest graduated from high school...never used it once. Threw it out never knowing just how wonderful it would be in all manner of foods. I have used it twice in the past three months. in Ginger cookies and now in this fantastic Citrus Upside Down Cake. This cake is the dessert portion of my Valentines Day Dinner.

butter a 9 in. cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a small saucepan combine 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1/2 cup light brown sugar (you can use dark), 1 tablespoon honey, 2 teaspoons lemon juice and cut and set aside about 5 thin slices citrus, enough to nearly cover the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan. melt the butter over low heat with the light brown sugar, honey, and lemon juice, whisking until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and pour syrup into the cake pan. Arrange the sliced citrus on the bottom of the pan in a flat even layer. Set aside.

I used blood orange and tangelo.

Looks so pretty. Next time I am going to overlap a few slices to fill it in a bit more.

In a bowl combine 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon cardamom.

In another bowl combine 4 eggs, 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup orange or blood orange juice, 1/4 cup citrus juice of your choosing, 3 tablespoons whole milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon grated blood orange zest. Whisk until blended.

Gradually add dry mix to wet mix.

Pour batter onto cake til pan is 3/4 of the way full. If you have batter leftover (I did) I made a small 6 inch layer cake. That I cooled and froze for a later use.

Bake for around 30 to 40 min. or until cake tests done with cake tester. Cool for at least 30 min. before flipping cake out of pan. Make sure you loosen the edge first.

Look at how pretty that is. It was really delicious and I am looking forward to having a reason to make it again. The little layer cake is going to be carefully cut to make two layers and frosted with a yummy orange buttercream frosting for friends dessert following a dinner I am making for them.

We had a lovely Valentines Day dinner as well, as usual the bf handled the grill masterfully and everything was spectacular. I hope everyone had a wonderful day. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy New Year

Around here the new year started with a quiet little bang. We stayed up until midnight which has got to be a first for me in many years. We were watching a movie it didn't end until 11:30 p.m. we figured "Hey while were up we should ring in the new year" The neighbors were still lighting off fireworks when we crawled into bed around 12:05 a.m. The funny thing I was back up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning I guess I have plenty of time to sleep when I am dead.

Time to get back on track with my portion control and eating. I swear during the holidays I misbehaved every way possible and had absolutely no self control. I have reset my goals (bumped things up a bit) and am back on track starting today and for the new year. Now if the weather would just cooperate with me and be less cold and wet I would happily be out riding.

I did roast a beautiful chicken for our New Years Day dinner, and it was all made possible by being able to have fresh herbs straight from the garden even this time of year.

I heated the herbs up with some butter to infuse their wonderfulness into the butter, so when I basted the chicken it got the full flavor of the herbs.

Roasting a chicken is easy you basically season it and slide it into a well preheated oven (I roasted mine at 350) for a hour and a half to two hours depending on your oven and temp and size of bird.

I wanted to make a dessert on New Years Day, but we went for a hike to enjoy the frosty air and sunshine.

Two of my favorite guys! I let them lead, that way I can take photos of obscure ice formations that don't turn out.

Is that not one of the cutest faces on the planet? Right now those eyes are beseeching me to let him off the lead so he can follow the scent of a deer, coyote, squirrel, rabbit, chipmunk, slug to the ends of the earth...That's a big not.

We hiked for roughly three hours, which was about all my poor feet could handle.

It really was a perfect day for a hike.

For my delayed dessert I made a slab pie, and I was impressed at how simple it was. No recipe was needed for this. Basically what you do is make a pie crust for a two crust pie and add some filling (I used some of my home canned jam). It worked like a charm and the bf was amazed at the flavor.

So you put all your butter, shortening, salt, sugar (I added some raw sugar) flour into the bowl of your food processor and give it a whirl until you have crumbs.

Add your liquid.

TaDa!(should be a word) you have pie dough.

My kitchen helper today is Katsu!

Cut the dough so one chunk is a little larger.

Roll the larger half of dough out first. I did a circle, but you could do a square or oblong it doesn't really matter.

spread your fruit filling onto the dough leaving about an inch of edge. I used 2/3 cup of my homemade and canned jumbleberry (this is a word in my world) jam. I could have used just a smidge more, but decided err on the side of caution the first go round.

Roll out the top of your slab pie.

Place the top on and fold over the edge and crimp it with a fork. Poke some fork holes in the top (being careful not to poke all the way through to the bottom) Brush the top with some milk (or egg) and sprinkle with some additional raw sugar.

Bake in 400 degree oven until the bottom is golden brown.

It was wonderful and easy to make and tasted like a poptart should. As a matter of fact if you have kids and they like poptarts don't let them anywhere near this or you will be cranking one of these out of the oven every morning.

I have spent the long weekend going through things and getting a box of odds and ends together for the consignment shop, working on a healthier menu for next week, cleaning, sorting and throwing away things. I purchased this years day runner yesterday and I need to work on that. I am currently sorting through recipes some I have collected with good intent only to decide that I am never going to make/bake this or that. I have a brand new shiny recipe box (thanx again K.B. I love it) that I need to organize and fill. I read my first dyed in the wool romance novel in over twenty years this holiday break...Fiola, I loved it! Keep up the good work. I don't do resolutions because in my opinion that is a sure fire way to jinx yourself. What I am going to do is try and be kinder to myself and others...lets see how that works out.