Roasted Banana Brown Butter Muffins

Green Goddess Smoothie

I've always been pretty good about not drinking soda, not drinking sugar filled juices, packaged ice teas, any of those sports drinks. I had a brief affair with Kombucha but didn't notice any major health benefits that really offset what was essentially like drinking moldy flavored soda water. But the one thing I absolutely cannot resist when it comes to drinks outside of water (alright... and coffee) is Naked's Green Machine. I don't know why but it's just delicious. But it's also pricey and juice of any kind just means more sugar. So why not make my own.

I'm not a big proponent of diets, or cleanses, or anything that causes me to change up my body's status quo for a short amount of time in the hopes of maintaining once it's done. For me, it doesn't work and just messes up my system even more. But working something into my diet that I can maintain on a mostly daily basis, and is something that I already love to begin with and if sugar and/or money were no object would consume on a daily basis... well bring it on. And the beauty is that for smoothies you really don't need to follow a formula. Need some protein- throw in some nuts or peanut butter. Need potassium, how about a banana. My big thing though is calcium. I loath milk, usually going the soy route, and am not the biggest fan of yogurt so this is a great way to hide it in a smoothie, a la Jessica Seinfeld style. As for veggies, bring it on. I love every kind of green, so that's not a problem, but if it is for you, just add more fruits to help balance it out. The beauty is you can make it your own and make it different every day.

Cranberry Onion Jam

I made this for the first time last Thanksgiving and was hooked. Immediately it became a must have for all future giving thanks holidays, and I think it works especially with a smoked turkey (another Thanksgiving tradition). It's punchy, puckery, oniony and there's this caramelized depth that is just so many flavors in one in your mouth. It's so bright, just so... holiday-y. It's sweet but it also has an undeniable presence. And it's really not that hard to make. No, not as easy as popping open a can of cranberry jelly and scooping out into a bowl, but it's so much more worth it, if anything for the flavors that aren't one-note, but many.

This may have been one of the first recipes of Luisa's (The Wednesday Chef) I ever made, as it fell right around the holiday a year ago when I got really engrossed in her blog. I think it was also the first bright thing I made after days and days darkness and what first started to bring my appetite back (if you need clarification on this you can read here) and one of the first things that made me finally put pen to paper (so to speak) and actually start up this little blog. And it's amazing how many things can change in a year while some things always stay the same. I mean that in the best way, in having a new recipe to add to the many Thanksgiving's to come, a new tradition to add to the old, a new thing that moving forward will stay the same, even as so many other things change.

Grilled Peach and Blueberry Pie

Cherry Pie Turnovers

How much more fruit can you take? Because just to warn you, I still have a grilled peach and blueberry pie post to come. If it isn't already clear, this summer I've enjoyed a plethora of fruit. Strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, apricots, blueberries, peaches. The past few weekends at the farmers market I felt like I had to physically will myself away from the tables upon tables of blackberries... as my favorite jam of all time is blackberry. And in my head, that luxurious shiny spread over a bit of butter and homemade bread... too much! I am not ready to face canning again... just yet.

Red on red

And maybe not exactly pie, but I am loving preserving in the form of turnovers to be frozen back. The strawberry ones were such fun that I decided to go for the same with some cherries, only mix it up a little with the ingredients and spices. Where the strawberry ones were so bright and summery, with the cherry I knew I wouldn't be eating them until the fall or winter so I made them warm, smooth, a wrapped up in a blanket near a fire kind of taste. I also did my pie crust with a portion of almond flour, to give it a different sort of texture and crumb. It was nice, a little different and added a lovely nutty flavor, which I thought would go well for fall. A last minute spontaneous decision that I know... I know... I shouldn't do when baking, but we all know I'm never going to stop trying.

Spiced Strawberry Turnovers

With the strawberry jam made and no immediate inclination to preserve again any time soon, I've been racking my brain for what to do with the carton and a half left of strawberries. I adore strawberry rhubarb, but mostly for the rhubarb and I've done that already. I don't need sugary stuff lying around for those nights when my sweet tooth comes out of hibernation and there aren't that many savory dishes with strawberries that I can do... especially using the whole carton plus. So I decided to channel my baking idol and mentor, my Mother, and do as she does every year after her annual peach picking excursions and make turnovers.

So maybe not absolute beauties but pretty in a rustic way

Turnovers are great because they're small, as small as you want them to be, and they freeze well. They're great for snacking, picnics, beach days or if you hold off especially perfect for those dark days of winter when you need something that tastes like summer to get you through. With the filling I was able to add my own little creative tweaks, like a (big) splash of bourbon, some golden raisins, cardamom, cinnamon without worrying about messing too much up. And for the crust I used a full butter crust (I cannot find shortening.... granted I'm probably looking in all the wrong places but where in the h can I get some Crisco around here?) and made it the way I was taught in my pie baking class a few weeks ago- large fat pieces, bake on high heat, egg wash, sprinkled with raw sugar, otherwise not too much different than my usual pie crust. The result was a flaky and tender crust and the filling was sweet and spicy, in a spiced way like apple cider, not like spicy heat. A pretty good use for preserving strawberries, and a way that fits my comfort zone perfectly.

Strawberry Jalapeno Jam

Basically ever since I moved into my latest home, and came into such a plethora of storage space in the form of a modern lean-to between my bathroom and the backyard, I knew that I wanted to get into canning. I imagined jars upon jars of pickled okra, chow chow, and of course jams and jellies, and jars and jars of them hanging out there, waiting for months where cravings didn't quite match up with the seasons. Being an absolute lover of the farmers market since I moved to New York, what better way to hold on to those beautiful fleeting tastes of spring, summer and fall than to preserve? It's a second step in my main objective which I hope to one day fulfill in life, of near complete self-sufficiency, which is a larger topic I'll elaborate on in a later post someday.

So here it is... finally. My first official, all by myself canning experience. How did it go? It was good and bad. The good was that I made an absolutely delicious strawberry jalapeno jam, sweet but also oh so spicy as a perfect accompaniment to cheese, meats like pork, or even over buttered toast. It tastes like Texas, like home, in one small spoonful. The bad was that this was my first time actually wielding the instruments, boiling the water, watching the mixture turn to jam with only my own judgement to make the call when it was done.  My jam yielded 3- 1/2 pint jars and then my inexperience messed up 2 irreparably in the water process. So I was left with one. One tiny little half pint of deliciousness... and whatever was left in the pot that was too little to process. You could bet that I was saving that too of course, especially after I had a taste. But so be it. This is my first try and I did it all by myself. To have even 1 jar makes me so happy and proud.

Drunken Cherries

My first foray into the world of preserving, canning, putting back outside of a class and it's a pretty easy one. It involves no intensive slaving over a hot stove, no purifying, dunking, boiling, waiting. Well, maybe a little bit of waiting. It involves an age old tradition of preserving in alcohol, which makes it pretty much a snap to make and reminds me of a classed up version of "marinated" maraschino cherries (remember those from high school parties?). This is definitely the grown-up version of that though.

Drunken cherries are simply that. Cherries that have been stemmed, though not pitted, slit down the middle and submerged into a bath of bourbon and brown sugar. They are good within a week and can be kept up to a year. Great over ice cream or in a Manhattan, in a tart or simply with some whipped cream. The leftover bourbon shouldn't go to waste either, I'm sure there are tons of drink concoctions either known or created on the fly.

Cherry Summer Spice Cake

This post goes out to my sister who is celebrating her birthday this weekend. For those who don't know her, she is such a wonderful, kind, and talented person, as well as a gracious hostess during my numerous sojourns to Alexandria. In the past few years that she has been my Northeast partner in crime we have celebrated everything from new jobs, apartments, appliances, good riddance to bad exes and opening our hearts to better boys. And this weekend we celebrate once again, with some good ol' American 4th of July pastimes of baseball and beer, but also some Texas favorites thrown in, like margaritas and guacamole. It will be sunny skies and smiling faces and perhaps a proper homemade birthday cake too.

Along those lines, in what I like to think of as a totally endearing quality, I have this way of completely hijacking peoples kitchens when I come into town. For me it's a way to say thank you, by cooking a dish, participating in preparation for a meal where we sit and talk and laugh and enjoy. So when I came to visit my sister a few weekends ago (and honestly, where is the summer going?!?) I had my heart set on making us all a summer cake, which is basically a summery spiced version of the strawberry buttermilk cake I had previously made, but dotted with beautiful ripe cherries and fragrant with ginger, allspice and cardamom.

Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

If you haven't noticed, I love taking something and making it "mini." Mini rhubarb pies, bread puddings, mini chicken pot pies, etc. It's not really because it's cute, it's more because I live alone and 75% of the meals I cook at home are just for me. I don't want a whole pie or cake sitting around for me to just pick at. My body, the way I want it to be, can't afford that so when I "mini" a recipe it's usually to have something that I can easily set aside, freeze back or easily cart around to my taste testers.

I also love buttermilk. Buttermilk pie is my absolute favorite pie, but also lemon buttermilk sorbet, buttermilk pancakes, soaking chicken in buttermilk before roasting... it's so wonderful and delicious and I'll reach for buttermilk much more often when I'm at the market over regular old (yucky) milk because I love doing so much more with it. And it goes so naturally with lemon that it's great for when the weather gets warm.

Sweet Spring

Spring is wonderful in that it comes after the long, biting and bitter New York winter. It's wonderful that my quaint little town, aka Park Slope, Brooklyn, aka the middle of the largest metropolis in the United States (a girl can dream though) comes out of hibernation, streets bursting with people and puppies and lots of strollers and everyone seems to share this frenetic need to be outdoors. It's wonderful in that I have an unquenched need to wander all over my city, as I did yesterday evening after work, listening to some great music and just exploring, discovering and forever imprinting into my memory my time here.

So yes, spring is a time for reemergence and renewal, a time to both energize and also to just stand in the sun. But for me, well I also get touches of trepidation too as the weather warms and earth begins to bloom again. Because to be a bit corny, but spring hasn't always been all sweetness and light for me. It's been tart, a lot of the time, with a fleeting taste of something bitter amongst all the sweet. I guess I should explain a bit further.

I'd be hard pressed to think of a better combination of both sweet and tart than strawberry rhubarb pie

Good Morning Sun!

Welcome back to my life! I've missed you terribly and can't wait to spend so much time with you, being warmed and freckled by your glow. And as I sit on my couch and snack on my breakfast of pre-cut watermelon- such a summer fruit itself- I can't help thinking forward to all the fun we will have in the coming months.

Did you know how good watermelon is for you? It's not only an excellent source of vitamin C and A, B6, B1 and magnesium, it's also packed full of antioxidants and contains electrolytes, making it great after a night of drinking. Additional health benefits of watermelon include being good for kidney disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart care, heat stroke, macular degeneration, impotence, etc. And it's delicious. Watery, sweet, melt in your mouth yumminess.