Baba Ghanoush

I've always been wanting to try Baba Ghanoush.  I love hummus and I love eggplant so that led me to believe I would very much enjoy Baba Ghanoush!  But, others around me are not so in love with eggplant, so I worried.  But last week a friend posted the following recipe on facebook and having some time to myself, I didn't much care what others would want to eat - so Baba Ghanoush it was!

Baba Ghanoush, which is as fun to say as it is to type, is a traditional eggplant dip.  You can serve it with raw vegetables, pita chips, or whatever you desire.

Please note, the following picture and recipe comes from the All Recipes website, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/baba-ghanoush-2/detail.aspx.  A great site to check out.  My picture is not nearly so pretty!

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

1 eggplant
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
• Place eggplant on baking sheet, and make holes in the skin with a fork. Roast it for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, or until soft. Remove from oven, and place into a large bowl of cold water. Remove from water, and peel skin off.

Christine's Note:  I did not bake my eggplant.  I brushed it with a little olive oil and grilled it to keep the house cool.  In addition, I did not take off the skin as that would be a horrible waste of tasty fiber!  It was very good grilled. (That is what made it into the food processor was very good, since I was eating every other piece.  Note to self - next time grill 2 eggplants!)  And, the skin pureed nicely and added some pieces of deep color.

• Place eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, sesame seeds, and garlic in a food processor, and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer eggplant mixture to a medium size mixing bowl, and slowly mix in olive oil. Refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.

The summer season, when we can find so much variety at our farmers markets and grocery stores, is the perfect time to try something new.  If you aren't experienced with eggplant, I encourage you to try it!  It turns out my hubby also enjoyed this dip!

Chocolate and Cherries

I am enamored by our cherry trees this year and while I am sure there are pies and cobblers to come, throughout the winter.  This weekend I am loving the classic combination of cherries and chocolate.  Desserts have not been common in our house for awhile, so my dear husband is not complaining!

For Friday night's dinner we enjoyed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies and Cherry Granita.  If someone is really aware of tart items, this Granita may be too much for them, but I loved the combination of frozen tart cherry and chocolate.  This bowl and bad lighting makes the ice look slightly orange, but it was a bright red color.

Cherry Granita
I got this recipe from the Martha Stewart website.  She has a good collection of sour cherry recipes.  This is what I would call a Cherry Ice.  It is very simple and flavorful with only three ingredients!
from Martha Steward Living June 1998

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh or frozen sour cherries, thawed and pitted
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar

Directions

1. Set a colander over a bowl, and drain cherries, reserving all the liquid.
2. Place cherries in a food processor or in a blender, and puree. Pass the puree through a fine sieve, set over a medium bowl. Using the back of a spoon, press cherries to extract the juice. If any solids remain in juice, pass juice through the sieve again. Discard pulp left in the sieve.
3. Add reserved liquid from step one and vinegar to the strained juice.
4. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar with 2/3 cup water; cook over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved, about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, and let stand until cool.
5. Add cooled syrup to juice mixture, and stir until combined. Pour this new mixture into a shallow metal pan large enough to hold the liquid; place in freezer until ice crystals begin to form around edges, about 1 hour. Using a fork, stir the ice crystals into the center; return to the freezer. Stir ice crystals once an hour until all the liquid has frozen and has a grainy consistency, about 5 hours. Serve, or store in the freezer, covered, up to 2 days.

I got this in the freezer and promptly forgot about it.  I'm sure the texture would be lovely if you remembered to stir it every hour as directed.  But even a bit clumpy it was still yummy! 

 

Hmmmm, Cherry Slushy anyone?  How hot is it supposed to get this afternoon?  This would be very refreshing put in a glass with a shot of your favorite liqueur, I'm thinking bourbon, and topped off with some white soda or perhaps a Lime LeCroix.  If you do not drink alcohol, that's ok!  This could be equally as refreshing with just the soda or sparkling water!

 

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour

 

Ingredients

5 1/2 (2 3/4 ounces) tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/3 cup (2 5/8 ounces) brewed coffee, cooled

1 3/4 (6 1/8 ounces) cup whole spelt flour (I didn't have spelt so used white wheat flour)

1/3 cup (1 ounce) dutch processed cocoa

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup (2 5/8 ounces) confectioners' sugar for coating

 

Directions

1. Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.  Beat in the egg and coffee, scraping the bowl, then stir in the flour, cocoa, and chips.  Refrigerate the dough, covered, overnight. 
2. Remove the dough from the refrigerator.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper.  Place the confectioners sugar in a large plastic bag.
3. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls into the sugar int eh bag, about 6 pieces at a time.  Twist the bag closed, trapping air inside and gently shake, coating the balls with sugar.  Place them on the prepared sheets.  Repeat with remaining dough. 
4. Bake the cookies, reversing the pans midway through until they're set around the edges but still soft in the middle, about 11 minutes.  Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on the pan, loosening (but not lifting ) them after about 10 minutes.

Recipe Notes:  Do not be afraid to substitute.  I didn't want to go to the store, but didn't have a whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  So, I emptied a variety of bags of chocolate to get my two cups. I had a mixture of semisweet, dark, and milk chocolate.  Not surprisingly, the cookies are amazing and nobody said, "What's with the different kinds of chocolate?".

A short digression into sugar.  As you already know, I do try to only eat sugar in small amounts and when I say sugar I mean all types of sugar.  But I mostly avoid refined white and brown sugar and all fake sugars.  For all these recipes I used the below Rapunzel brand of organic, unrefined, and unbleached sugar.  I find that I can use this sugar in almost any type of baking, including ice cream.  It's got a flavor kind of like molasses, so I wouldn't use it with a delicate white or vanilla flavored product.  Another hint.  I have a coffee grinder that I use only with this sugar and I always grind it to a powder before putting it in the recipes.  That seems to help it easily dissolve throughout whatever I'm making.  Is it really better for you?  I have no idea, I just know I feel better using it.

Saturday night we headed to a BBQ with friends and  came bearing a wonderful platter of very rich Chocolate Cherry Brownies!  Make no mistake, these brownies are not for the weak, they are very rich, and perfectly fudgy.

Chocolate and Cherry Brownies.

These can be found in many forms on the web.  I happened to find them at the site of Homestead Farm.  A Maryland farm that has many good recipes posted.  This recipe is originally from "Green and Black’s Chocolate Recipes: Unwrapped - From the Cacao Pod to Muffins, Mousses and Moles" paperback by Caroline Jeremy.
 

 Ingredients

1 1/3 cups - unsalted butter

10.5 ounces - dark chocolate (minimum 60%,broken into pieces)
5 - large eggs
1 3/4 cups - granulated sugar (I used the organic unrefined sugar discussed above)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups - plain flour ( I used white wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3.5 ounces of drained tart cherries (I used about 8 ounces!)

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9” x 11” baking pan.
2. In a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate together until thick and creamy.
3. Meanwhile beat together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until thick and creamy. The mixture should easily coat the back of a spoon.
4. Once the butter-chocolate mixture has melted, remove from stove and beat into the egg mixture
5. Sift the flour and salt together, and add to the wet ingredients. Mix until mixture is well combined.
6. Drain tart and pitted cherries and fold into the brownie mixture.
7. Pour mixture into the baking pan and bake for 20 - 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Once finished baking, allow to cool and cut into pieces.

Yes, I did use a double boiler!  I forget how smooth that makes the chocolate.  Hungry for sweet chocolate and tart cherries yet?

 

Cherries!!!

I am so excited to report that the birds have allowed us to keep some of the cherries on our trees this year.  The last few years they have eaten them all.  I'm not kidding, as soon as they'd get close to red, the birds would devour the whole tree in a couple days.  But this year we have cherries!  We have sour cherry trees, which I love.  I eat them fresh without sugar. 

We've been picking and freezing as many as possible, but I need to make some fresh cherry yummies, don't I?  So the next post will have some fun baked goods.  But so far, in addition to the 10 packages of pitted frozen cherries in the freezer and fresh cherries in my morning yogurt, I've dehydrated cherries and made Cherry Vanilla Infused Bourbon. 

Dehydrated Cherries
I am always on the look out for dried fruits without sugar.  What will I use these four trays of dehydrated cherries for you ask? Well, we have a long hike coming up ...

• I'm excited to fill my homemade morning granola, for breakfasts on the hike, with these dried cherries. 
• They will also make a good addition to some of my homemade gorp mixtures.  Possible yummy snack mixes I've thought about:
• The Dessert Mix: Almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and dark chocolate chunks.
• The Banana Split Mix: dried Cherries, dried Pineapple, dried Bananas, and peanuts
• Traditional with a Cherry twist (for Joe): Peanuts, Almonds, M&M's, dried cherries and raisins

If you are dehydrating cherries, note that they take a long time.  So drain them really well and it would probably be good to cut them in 1/2.  It would be good to have a great dehydrator also.  My cherries took over 24 hours to fully dry out.

Cherry Vanilla Infused Bourbon
We'll see how this turns out - although I can't imagine it will be bad!  My Mom used to make something they called Cherry Bounce and this past weekend in Chicago, a friend had a drink with Cherry Vanilla Infused Bourbon - I thought, "I can make that!".

The Cherry Bounce Recipe
1 quart cherries - not pitted
1 cup sugar
1 quart brandy or vodka
Mix sugar and liquid. Pick each cherry with a toothpick and put in liquid, cover and seal. (A good fitting cover) Put in cool place and let sit at least 8 weeks

My Cherry Vanilla Infused Bourbon recipe (before tasting...changes may occur)

• Find and clean jar with good fitting lid.  As you can see my lid didn't fit perfectly so I put an extra layer of saran wrap to keep it tightly closed.
• Fill with cherries (some pitted, some not depending on how they came off the tree)
• Take one long juicy vanilla bean, split it open and insert in the jar. (Don't waste your time on the dried out vanilla beans found in the grocery store - go to Penzey's.)
• I mixed in only about 1/4 cup of sugar because I don't like sweet drinks, so this is the only part I can imagine would mess up the system.
• Fill with a bourbon you like.  I used Makers Mark.  (I'm thinking this could work for brandy also.)

Put in cool place and let sit until you can't stand it anymore.  I'll report back in 2-3 months to let you know how it tastes!

Wait till you see what I make this weekend with the cherries!

A Kindle Cover

I became the owner of a kindle last week at our company's sales meeting.  And, since I'm not teaching right now and don't feel overwhelmed, apparently that brings out the crafty side.  I decided, I could make a cover instead of spending money on one.  So, Sunday I pulled out my old fabrics and the sewing machine and found some foam.  It's not as perfect as some I've seen online, but it works!  Please forgive the dark pictures.  I just need to accept the dining room is not a good place to take pictures.

First, I measured my kindle and added an inch all the way around, I wasn't going to make a closure so I wanted it to fit tightly so it wouldn't fall out.  I cut 4 pieces of fabric and 2 foam pieces that were slightly smaller than the actual kindle.

I used some soft green flannel and brown corduroy.

Next, I pinned together a flannel and corduroy piece, right sides together and sewed three sides.  I trimmed the corners a little bit and turned them right side out.

I inserted the foam pieces, then sewed the three sides, including the top.  The bottom didn't need reinforcement.

The trickiest part of this little project is this piece.  I then pinned together my two sides, right sides out.  I was going to put the flannel on the inside, but thought it would be more fun to have one side flannel and one side corduroy.  I sewed the sides and bottom together.  This was tricky because with the foam on each side it was thick and I was really trying to hit just the edges.  But I got it to work and my kindle fits nice and snug.  

Not the prettiest seam jobs, but my kindle is safe, warm, and in a soft place that can be stuck in a backpack or purse.  I've already downloaded two books and charged it for an upcoming flight.  What else will I make during this break from two jobs?

The Garden: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Vegetable Report:
Well the big garden I share with a friend is doing well this year.  kale, arugula, lettuce, baby bok choi, kholorabi, beets, turnips, carrots, parsley and more are all growing like crazy.  In my little back corner garden I've eaten quite a bit of kale, arugula, lettuce, and beet greens.  My garlic and shallots and mint are going to town and I think I'll get good carrots this year!  In addition, our cherry trees did great this year and the rhubarb was as always yummy.  WooHoo!

But, there always has to be something that doesn't work and the past two years for me it has been squash.  Don't believe what you hear - zucchini is not as easy as they say it is to grow!  We left for Missoula a few weeks ago and the squash and cucumbers in the earth boxes where happy and flowering.  I thought - Yeah!  I'll have a zucchini when I return.  Imagine how bummed I was to return and find this....

Cucumbers were shriveled up and dead and the zucchini is covered with those darn white mildew spots.  I thought I had outsmarted the mildew from last year by using the earth box!  Sadness.  But luckily, the flower report perks me up.

The Flower Report:
I'll let the flowers speak for themselves, but I am really enjoying my front flower beds this year.  They are best enjoyed from afar, where they don't make me start itching!

Happy Growing!

Main focus: Vegetables and Travel

I do apologize for not posting much lately, and a warning, it probably won't get better for a bit.  I'm traveling quite a bit, and when not traveling, I've really been cutting down on large meals and cooking.  I've been focusing on raw vegetables for at least two meals of the day.  This has really been giving me a lot of energy, but it's not so fun to blog about.  So just to explain why I've been absent, I wanted to post.

Here are some examples of my meals lately.  These were my two meals today.

First, I have been giving the blender a workout, with what I call Green Smoothies.  The smoothie base is a half blender full of spinach, beet leaves, swiss chard, or kale - often a mixture.  Then I usually add celery and sometimes parsley.  Then I add some chopped up veggies, either carrots or beets and a piece of fruit, either an apple, banana, or frozen organic mango.  But as you can see by the picture below I'm trying to add more local, seasonal fruit.  In this one I put a plum.  A little fruit adds just the right amount of sweetness for the greens.  Sometimes I also add some lemon juice or ginger.  I put in unsweetened soy milk, which seems to be adding a good amount of protein.

Now granted the color is always interesting and not always pretty.  If I put beets in they tend to be a fun bright red.  Either way, Joe just gives me the "That looks disgusting" look.  But, I enjoy the fresh vegetable flavor and the boost of energy I've gained.

 Joe's not around today, so for my second meal, I just sauteed up some beet greens and swiss chard in some olive oil and garlic and added some quinoa I had cooked up in the fridge.

Just an end note, most of my travel is work related, but we spent a week working in Missoula last week, just because we've been wanting to visit Missoula.  It was a wonderful week.  We had a small condo on the 8th and top floor of the historic Wilma in Downtown Missoula. 

Below you can see the view of the river from our condo.

Below is the view of Wednesday's "out to lunch" event from our condo.  We got something to eat there and brought it up to the condo where we worked and listened to the band play.

Below is a view of the Wilma with Thursday nights band playing in front of it.

I adored Missoula.  The university was beautiful, the people were friendly, and there was always some event going on with live music.  In addition, they have a store called "The Good Food Store" that I was sad to leave.  It's like a Whole Foods, but better!

Muffins, Scones and Special Visitors

For the past week, we have been very excited to have a niece and nephew in Wyoming visiting us.  It was such a pleasure and we did a bunch of activities, but for the purpose of this blog, there was baking.  My niece is really getting into baking muffins.  Throughout the week, we made muffins, biscuits, and scones.  I've posted multiple times about the biscuits we made, you can find information here regarding these multi-grain biscuits.

The first thing we made were Morning Glory Muffins.  These are chock full of good things and were very moist.

Morning Glory Muffins (Adapted from the April/May 2000 Taste of Home recipe)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar (The were a little sweet for me, next time I'd lower this to 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup oat bran
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
3/4 cup applesauce (cinnamon applesauce, works well here)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 medium tart apple, peeled and finely chopped or grated

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In another bowl, combine eggs, applesauce, oil, molasses and extracts; mix well.  Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in carrots, raisins, nuts, coconut, and apple.  Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Makes about 1 1/2 dozen.

Next we made Pumpkin Scones and Spiced Pumpkin Butter.  These were super tall and moist.  A true scone would have been slightly dryer, but they were good!

Pumpkin Scones (I do apologize, I got these off of the web and they seem to be posted by many different people so I'm not sure who originally posted them!)

Scones
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pumpkin ( if canned, make sure it is plain with no sugar or spices)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Cut butter into small pieces and cut into flour.  Mixture should look like coarse crumbs.  In a separate bowl mix together the pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to flour mixture and mix until the dough comes together (don't over mix).

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead gently 3/4 times, and then shape/pat dough into a circle about 1 1/2 " thick.  Slice in half then cut each half into 3 equal pie-shaped wedges.  Brush with egg glaze (1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon milk), and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.

Bake on a cookie sheet or preheated pizza stone at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Pumpkin Spice Butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
Combine all and mix until creamy.

A pumpkin scone with pumpkin spice butter on it.  It was such fun to bake with my niece!

I'll end with a note about ingredients and substitutions.  In the Pumpkin Spice Scones we used dry buttermilk, which I keep in the cupboard.  Considering how rarely one uses buttermilk, I view dry buttermilk to be one of the great inventions.  It is up there with Starbuck's via for backpackers.

Also, if you feel like a recipe is too bland, add spices, and always know that whole wheat flour can be added for at least half of the white flour in a recipe, and most of the time all, if your family is used to the heartier texture.