Exotic Orange Pancakes

Delicious Pancakes

Green Eggs and Ham Grow up

Rosemary Apple Pecan Pizza

Our favorite pizza

Catching up

Wandering in Contemplation

I love to cook, but some days I’m tired and just order pizza. Some days I’m busy and pick something up instead of cooking. Some days I cook and take pictures, but don’t find the time to write. I’ll tease you with a few recent pictures and add the recipes as I find the time.

Better late than never: Pi Day Goat Cheese

Many circles to celebrate pi day

Here’s another dish I made for the Pi day party.

Pi Day Goat Cheese Rounds

• 1  log soft goat cheese (8 ounces)
• Roasted red peppers
• Pimiento-stuffed olives
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 lemon wedge
• Black pepper
• Paprika (smoked paprika is wonderful if you can get it)
• Round crackers

Slice the goat cheese and arrange on a plate.  Slice the pepper into thin strips and arrange the strips to make a pi symbol on each cheese round.  Slice olives crosswise to make circles and arranges the olives on the plate.  Cut the garlic cloves in slices.  Heat the olive oil in a small pan over low heat.  Add garlic and cumin and continue to cook, stirring, until the garlic is soft and the cumin is fragrant.  Be careful not to let the garlic burn.  Drizzle the oil over the cheese on the serving plate.  Squeeze the lemon wedge, sprinkling juice over all the cheese rounds.  Season with freshly ground black pepper.  Garnish with paprika. Serve with round crackers.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

My rosemary, plus some new herbs I planted recently

Parsley, dill, mint and lavender in containers on the front porch.

Fresh herbs are a wonderful thing to have.  I was chopping parsley the other day and was amazed by the fragrance.  There’s a big difference between what I just harvested from the pot on my front porch and what comes from the grocery store.  Who knows how long ago the supermarket herbs were harvested and how long they had to travel after that?  I encourage you, if you can just find a little bit of earth for yourself, to grow some herbs for your kitchen.

Tuesday Pot Roast

Pot roast, sauce, mashed potatoes, and green peas. A good meal to come home to

Lest my readers begin to think I spend all my time in the kitchen making fancy baked goods, I think it is time to share a simple meal. Tuesdays are busy days for me, and I find the best way to manage a home cooked meal on a busy day is to start something in the slow cooker while the kids are all at school. This is what we are eating today.

Tuesday Pot Roast

• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 1 onion
• 3 lbs chuck roast
• 1 cup red wine
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried thyme

Wash vegetables and chop them finely. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the vegetables until soft, but not browned. Transfer the vegetables to the slow cooker. Rinse, pat dry and trim excess fat from the chuck roast. Season with salt and pepper and brown in the same pan that was used for the vegetables, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker. Pour the wine into the skillet and bring to a boil, stirring to loosen all the tasty brown bits. Pour the wine into the slow cooker,sprinkle dried thyme over the meat, and set the cooker to cook on low for eight hours. When it is time to eat, lift the meat out of the slow cooker onto a serving plate. It should be very tender and fall apart so that cutting is not necessary. Put the remaining vegetables and liquid through a food mill to make the sauce. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Coffeecake

The coffeecake. With coffee, of course.

Yesterday I woke up early and could not go back to sleep. I read on the couch for a while, then started to think about breakfast. I had not made coffeecake in a long time. This was as good a time as any to remedy that situation. I considered cherry scones, but I knew there was no cream in the fridge. I love the tart Montmorency cherries they sell at Trader Joe’s and my husband very kindly fills his luggage with cherries for me whenever his travels bring him near one of the stores. What about a cherry coffeecake? While checking the fridge for other ingredients, I came across some apple slices left over the previous day’s festivities, and so the idea was born.

Apple Cherry Coffeecake

Topping:

• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cake:

• 2 cups White Lily flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1 Granny Smith apple, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13×9 inch pan. Put topping ingredients in a food processor and pulse several times until the mixture is well mixed and crumbly. Set aside for later use. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl combine the yogurt, vanilla, and lemon zest. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the yogurt mixture, mixing slowly, starting and ending with flour. When the batter is smooth, spread it in the greased 13×9 inch pan. Top with fruit, followed by the topping mixture you made earlier. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Use a wooden toothpick to test for doneness. Serve warm.

 

Pi Day Cupcakes

Lesson for the future: Photograph first, then taste test, then blog

With Pi Day as good excuse to celebrate, we had a little gathering over the weekend to enjoy pie and other circular foods with friends. I went a little overboard in the menu planning, but had a lot of fun with ideas. I ended up omitting a few recipes, everybody was well-fed, and we still had delicious leftovers.

The unused ingredients will serve me well at lunchtime in the coming week. Alas, my children do not yet appreciate the beauty of cucumber sandwiches, but I will enjoy them nonetheless.

While I was shopping I discovered some adorable polka dotted cupcake liners I just couldn’t pass up. Neither muffins nor cupcakes were part of the original menu, but I thought I could find a way to work them in. Though I ran out of time on the day of the party, I did manage to make cupcakes on Sunday afternoon. I had just enough to enjoy with my family and to fill the container some friends had left behind the day before.

The recipe I chose is one I remember fondly from my childhood. We called them Birch Hall Cupcakes. The texture is more like a brownie than a cake. Rather than make them exactly as written, I decided to play with the flavors a bit, adding cinnamon and orange extract.

Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Pi Day Cupcakes

• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a wire whisk. Stir in the pecans and sugar. Add cinnamon, vanilla, and orange extract. Stir in the chocolate and butter mixture. Stir in the flour. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes. Makes 24 cupcakes.