Quick Strawberry Pastries

We're still getting a few strawberries from our garden so I decided to try a new and easy recipe with them.

I was browsing strawberry recipes when I saw one using canned croissant dough. I remembered that Sami had bought some a long while back and we hadn't used it yet. The recipe called for jam, but I figured fresh berries would work ok too. I just mixed them up with a little bit of brown sugar and sprinkled some pearl sugar on top for decoration.

The pastries were pretty tasty and super easy. Although I think the Strawberry Crisp is still our favorite strawberry recipe.

Winter Squash & Leek Quiche

We went to the farmer's market again and I decided to buy a pumpkin-looking sort of squash and some leeks.

I browsed around through some recipes combining squash and leeks and we finally decided to make quiches. I adapted this recipe by adding ground beef and I used a different pie crust recipe that included sage in the dough. Very tasty. We ate one and put the other in the freezer for a quick dinner later.

It's Plum Season!

Strawberries and Plums from our yard.

We have day neutral strawberry plants that produce continuously from June to frost. They are excellent and surprisingly easy to grow.

The plums are italian prune plums. Sami picked about 5 gallons off the small tree in our front yard and estimates that there are still about 3 gallons left.

Plum puree (for the baby)

I filled up all five trays of the dehydrator with halved plums.

After that we still had a lot more than we can eat fresh so I decided to cook some up for baby food (yes, I know it's quite a while before the baby can eat it). Anyway, the results were amazing, and I'd happily eat them all by myself.

Strawberry Crisp

We first made this recipe last weekend. It was so good we decided we had to have it again.

I changed the original recipe by doubling the ingredients for the crisp topping and baking at a higher temperature (375F )

Desiree's Scalloped Spuds with Ham

Scalloped Potatoes - Yum!

My new friend Desiree loves baking and cooking too. She just gave me this great new recipe for scalloped potatoes. Haven't tasted them yet, but they smell soooo good!

Pear and Blackberry Sponge

My Double Fruit Pear and Blackberry Sponge.

Since we have so many pears in our yard and Sami just picked blackberries a couple days ago, I decided to try this recipe.

I don't have a proper sponge pan, so I figured I'd just use the big glass dish and double the recipe, but I realized after putting the fruit in that I had only two eggs... Actually I had 14 eggs but for some reason couldn't find the second box. Anyway, it's rather light on the sponge, but still looks and smells very yummy.

Sami Made Lasagna

Two beautiful lasagnas.

Sami made them and decided they were blog-worthy.

The recipe he uses is a Finnish one though, so it won't be very useful to most of you.

Happy Birthday to Me

We had my birthday party at our house on Saturday night. I made my favorite German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing, Sami made 3 kinds of pizza, and we had other assorted snacks.

I was busy being the birthday girl, so I didn't take any pictures during the party. Sami did take this one of me blowing out the candles (we only had to light them 4 times) and another of the cake.

It was a good party. Eric, Aaron, Amanda (in the pink) & her husband Derrick, Sopan & Keren & baby Rivka, Erica & Melissa, and Hyung-Jin were all there. You can't really tell from the photo, but we managed to get our house really clean and everyone was impressed. I even managed to make a cool little flower arrangement with flowers and herbs from the yard.

Oh My D-Lux Chocolate Chip Cookies

I seem to have gotten into the Christmas spirit. That means I'm baking cookies!

Yesterday I made Sami's favorite Oatmeal and while I will always love my favorite Chocolate Chip cookies, I decided to try out a new recipe for Coconut Crispy Chocolate Chip cookies.

Burgundy Beef and Wild Mushroom Stew

I found this recipe in a library book a couple years ago shortly after we bought our crock pot. It has become one of our favorites. Our friend Heather requested the recipe yesterday. Coincidentally I was also planning to make the stew. In fact, I had already prepared the meat when I made a batch last week. Often I add potatoes to the recipe. This time I've added butternut squash to the stew.

several ounces fresh wild mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms or chanterelles, chopped into bite size pieces (origanal recipe called for 5 oz. dried mushrooms)

1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup beef stock
2 large carrots, or large handful of baby carrots
1 onion, chopped
8 oz button mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf

If using dried mushrooms, combine with boiling water and let stand 20 to 30 minutes.

In a heavy plastic bag, combine flour, pepper, basil oregano and salt. In batches, add beef to flour mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to a plate. In a large skillet, heat half the oil over medium-high heat; cook beef in batches adding more oil as needed, until browned all over. With a slotted spoon, transfer beef to slow cooker. Add beef stock to pan; stir to scrape up brown bits and transfer to slow cooker.

Add carrots, onion, mushrooms, wine, tomato paste, vinegar and bay leaf to slow cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW 8-10 hours, or on HIGH 4-6 hours, or until vegetables are tender and stew is bubbling. Remove bay leaf and discard before serving.

Fancy Spanish Food

This week my assignment for Spanish class was to find a recipe for a latin dish, to translate it and to bring it to class. Here are the results.

A sort of tapas:

Honeyed Figs and Serrano Ham on Nut Toast

And this lemon and almond tart. It was excellent!

Tarta de Santiago

Rhubarb Pie

Sami has requested rhubarb pie for his birthday. This is one of our favorite recipes. Right now we don't have enough of our own rhubarb growing to make a pie, but we're hoping to have lots later this summer.

Crust

1 Stick margarine
1/2 cup sugar*
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling

4 cups rhubarb pieces (peeled)
1/2 cup sugar*
1 tablespoon potato starch
cinnamon
ginger
mint

Preheat oven to 400 F

Whip margerine and sugar. Add egg to mixture. Mix the baking powder with the flour, and add slowly to wet ingredinets. Pour/spread in pie dish, shaping dough into a piecrust.

Boil half of the rhubarb pieces with sugar until soft. Remove from heat and mix potato starch with 2 tablespoons water and add to filling. Add reserved rhubarb pieces to mixture and bring to boil. Remove from heat, add cinnamon, ginger and mint.

Pour filling into crust, brush with egg if desired. Bake for 20 mins at 400 F.


*1/2 sugar may be replaced with splenda. Or additional sugar may be added if a sweeter pie is desired.

Better Ducks and Pasta

Yesterday afternoon Sami and I were going through the mail. I was ripping up my magazines pulling out pictures of kitchens and bathrooms and cool hardware and stuff when I found an extremely cute project in Better Homes and Gardens. Duck topiaries. Normally I'm not a big fan of such artificially shaped plants, but these seemed quick and easy and fun (and I think Sami's love of ducks is rubbing off on me).

Then, as I continued through the magazine I found a recipe for homemade Spinach Pasta. Neither Sami or I had ever made pasta before, but we did have a big bunch of spinach in the fridge, so it seemed like a good idea. To go with the pasta, the magazine suggested Chervil-Chicken Saute (made with baby portabella mushrooms and balsamic vinegar). We used parsley instead of chervil... I think we planted some chervil seeds a few weeks ago, but I don't actually know if we like it or not.

Anyway, the pasta turned out ok. Not very spinach-y and a little chewy. I think our flour is too glutinous, maybe I'll use whole wheat next time instead of white. Also, I think if we cut the pasta bits smaller they might cook more evenly. The chicken was very good. Sami actually licked his plate...and mine too. We'll definitely make it again, hopefully with chervil next time.

I also cut out a recipe for a Beer Rye bread made using a Belgian-style ale. The picture looks great and the recipe doesn't seem too difficult. I don't know if we can adapt it to work in the bread machine, but we'll probably try that later this week.