Bumbleberry Pie

I don't do pie. I have a love/hate relationship with the crust.  All my life, my mother was the expert pie baker.  She taught me everything I know about cooking and baking and yet, I could never really master pie crust.  Oh, I can make one and it's edible but I have angst.  When I met Sean and discovered he was a pie baker extraordinaire. my angst increased.  Emma says Sean and my mother need to have a pie bake-off with her being the judge.  Because, of course, Brian does not eat pie.  Or cake.  Or any other kind of dessert expect vanilla ice cream and the occasional chocolate chip cookie.  "you can't make me eat that piece of pie mommy".  Ok honey, you don't have to eat that piece of pie.  More for your sister.

Years ago I read a very nice little book about pie.  Humble Pie, Musings on What Lies Beneath the Crust.  The author, Anne Dimock, writes about how pie has been  part of her life from the day she was born.  She writes about New Englanders loving pie for breakfast (of course, that and baked beans).  She writes about no matter what is going on in her life, there will always be pie.

Every summer, when we go to Maine, Emma and my mom make Blueberry Pie.  Sometimes Bumbleberry pie.  The berries in Bumbleberry are blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  The recipe comes from the King Arthur Baking Book.

Emma loves pie.  Emma was also sick with a cold this weekend and I had the ingredients for the pie in the freezer.  So I decided to make it.  It came out pretty good and high praise from Emma when she said the crust was flaky.  I'll bring Sean a piece tomorrow and get the ultimate opinion.

I used blueberries (picked from Butler's Orchard), Blackberries (picked from the community garden), Sour Cherries (picked from Homestead Farms) and Peaches (Farmer Allan).  The pie is pretty tasty.

Fruit, with sugar, lemon juice and tapioca, ready to be cooked and thickened.

In the bottom crust

Top crust added

Yum, Bumbleberry Pie

Meatless Monday

Tonight, Emma told me she thought that at some point she will become a vegetarian.    When I was 19, I decided I was going to be a vegetarian and that was it for the next 25 years.  I would eat fish and seafood when going out to dinner and could never say no to the Italian sausage at my mom's and when I was pregnant, I had cravings for chicken.  For the most part, it was vegetarian cooking, 50 weeks out of the year.

Both Emma and Brian were raised vegetarians in the house but all bets were off in restaurants and other places.  Chicken nuggets?  Go right ahead.  Hot Dog?  Enjoy honey.  So 3-4 years ago, when I started up my CSA with farmer Allan, he was offering free range chickens and farm raised heritage hogs and I couldn't refuse.

Cooking these days does involve fish, chicken and pork.  I still don't have a taste for beef or other kinds of meat (never liked lamb in any case) so I don't cook it.  We have meatless meals at least a couple of times a week.  Unfortunately for Emma, she doesn't like to cook so I'm not sure how she's thinking she is going to live on vegetarian meals.  I have offered to teach her how to cook and so far, she's not interested although she does bake.  I really need to show her how to do at least the basics of putting a meal together.  Her brother loves to help me cook and Emma's response is always "don't worry mommy, I'm going to hire Brian to cook for me"

Tonight we had polenta, pole beans and fried potatoes. 

Polenta is easy.  Bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups polenta and cook a few minutes until thick.  Stir in some gobs of butter.  Pour 1/2 into a greased pan, top with grated cheese, cover with the rest.  Bake at 400 for 30 min.  Serve in wedges.

I steamed the beans and served with butter.  The potatoes were cubed, then boiled under tender.  Heat peanut oil until hot, add potatoes, salt and pepper and fry until golden.

I didn't have potatoes with mine but ate some of the quinoa salad instead.

Kohlrabi Slaw

My gardening neighbor planted some purple kohlrabi this year.  Since he is away this month and said I could have carte blanche in picking in his garden, I picked the kohlrabi.  I enjoy this vegetable, raw, sliced in salads so I thought it might be good in a slaw.  I consulted one of my reference cookbooks - Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider and there was a suggestion for an Asian inspired slaw.

I peeled and julienned the kohlrabi, a couple of carrots and the few small beets that came in my CSA this week.  Salted it, let it sit for a few minutes, then rinsed.

The dressing was rice vinegar, a little sugar, a couple of splashes of my homemade hot sauce, some Minor's cilantro lime sauce and enough vegetable oil to hold it all together.  Mix with vegetables and top with some chopped peanuts.

Sean and I are going to eat this with brats and steamed beans tonight.

Garlic Spicy Pickles

 More pickles today.  The canning jars and pretty much used up but luckily, I am going to meet a friend of a friend this week who has jars to give me.  The next thing to make is blueberry syrup but today it was time to use up the cucumbers.  The problem is I had the dill sitting right in front of me and I forgot to put the sprigs in the jars.  I did manage to remember to put in the little chili peppers and slices of garlic so hopefully they will come out ok.  This recipe came from this month's Better Homes and Garden (my friend drops off her magazines every month for me. I come home and there they are on my porch. It's like Christmas)

Best Ever Dill Pickles

3 to 3 1/4 lbs small pickling cucumbers

4 cups water

4 cups cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup pickling salt

6 tblsp dill seeds

chili peppers

garlic

Thoroughly rinse cucumbers.  Cut off a thin slice from both ends of cucumbers.  Slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices.  In a large nonreactive pot combine water, vinegar, sugar and pickling salt.  Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, prepare jars.  Pack cucumbers loosely into hot, pint canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Add 1 tblsp dill seeds, 2 little chili peppers and 1-2 cloves of garlic, sliced.   Pour hot vinegar mixture into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, top with lids.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Start the time once the water starts to boil.  Remove jars and cool.  Let stand at least 1 week.

Recipes from the garden

The garden is producing like mad.  This week, it's going to be close to 100 degrees every day so I'm going to have to water morning and evening, I think.    I'm from New England, and after living in the south (North Carolina before DC) for 16 years, I'm still not used to the hot and humid weather here.

Yesterday, Sean and I went blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard.  He needs some picking training as I seemed to have filled up my container while he was eating the berries off the bush instead of putting them in his bucket.

Here is the garden harvest and some things we made with the fruit and vegetables.

Blueberry Cobbler

Right out of the oven

Yesterday's haul

Leftover zucchini from relish making.  We decided to bread and fry the slices

Garden tomatoes, broiled with mozzarella cheese

Tonight's dinner.  Zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, layered with bread crumbs, basil, mozzerella, parm and topped with beaten egg.  A favorite from the Moosewood cookbook

Cucumber Purslane salad with minty garlic yogurt sauce

Zesty Zucchini Relish

It was time to try making relish.  We started this project last night, as the vegetable mix was salted and needed to sit over night. 

If you can believe it, I'm almost out of canning jars - at least the ones that are recommended to use. I have plenty of the old fashioned kind with the rubber rings.  The recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving.  I used purple peppers and hungarian wax peppers.  I also had to go out to my local funky foodstore (Rodman's) to get the horseradish and as always seems to happen, I ran into someone I knew.  Happily, it was an old friend and we spent a few minutes chatting.

Zesty Zucchini Relish

Makes 5 pint jars

12 cups finely chopped zucchini

4 cups copped onions

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped

1/3 cup pickling salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 tblsp ground nutmeg

1 tblsp ground tumeric

4 tblsp prepared horseradish

1 chili pepper, including seeds, chopped.

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine zucchini, onions, peppers, and salt.  Cover and let stand in a cool place for 12 hours or overnight. Transfer to a colander placed over a sink and drain.  Rinse well with cool water and drain thoroughly.  Using your hands, squeeze out excess liquid.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine drained zucchini mixture, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, turmeric, horseradish and chili pepper.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until liquid is reduced and mixture is the consistency of a thin commercial relish, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids.  Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot relish.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove Canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Chopped zucchini

Sean, chopping peppers

Finely chopped peppers

Sean crying from chopping onions

Onions

Mixture with salt

Next day, continuing with relish

Relish to go in the fridge

There's the relish!

Sesame Poppy Seed breadsticks

My son seemed a little bored when I got home from work - what tipped me off?  "I don't know what to do mommy" - I had just come home from work with a stop at the vegetable garden to water.  Since I rode my bike, when I got home all I wanted to do was to sit on the front porch and drink my iced tea.

"I know Mommy, can we make those twisty breadsticks with the poppy seeds?"  So said my son a few minutes after I had my iced tea.  "of course, honey, let me get the recipe"

Here is what we did this evening - recipe is from an old Ladies Home Journal

Sesame Poppy Coated Twists

1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup warm water (110F to 115F)
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup room temp water
6 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tblsp olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water in 2 cup measuring cup
Let stand 5 min until yeast is dissolved

Mix flour and salt in large bowl
Add room temperature water to dissolved yeast.  Add liquid to flour mixture and mix until a rough ball is formed.
 (I use the Kitchen Aid mixture with dough hook)
Knead a few minutes until dough is smooth and elastic

Place dough in lightly greased bowl, turn to grease top.  cover bowl and let rise in a warm draft free place until double in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Combine sesame seeds, poppy seeds and kosher salt in a small bowl.

Grease a large cookie sheet

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface, press into a 12 inch square.  Sprinkle 3 tblsp seed mixture over the top.  Fold square into thirds, business letter style to form a 12 x4 inch rectangle. Pinch all seams to seal

Brush top with 1 tblsp olive oil, sprinkle evenly with half the remaining seed mixture.  With 2 large spatulas, turn over dough, seed side down, onto cookie sheet.  Brush top with remaining oil and spread remaining seed mixture.  Cut rectangle crosswise into 12 pieces

Twist one strip at a time and stretch to form 6 inch long twist.  Arrange twists 1/2 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 425.  Bake 20 min and reduce heat to 375 and bake 10 min more.
Cool on wire rack.

Meatless Tuesday - Leek and Potato Soup

Meatless Monday didn't happen because my son wanted to go out to dinner and I'm an easy mark.  We went to Z burgers for hot dogs, turkey burgers, shakes and fries.  After dinner I decided to tackle some of the produce in the fridge and settled on leek and potato soup.  I had 3 leeks from my garden to use up.  It's very easy to make.  Chop leeks, saute in butter.  Add chopped potato and some vegetable broth to cover.  Simmer until cooked.  Puree in blender, then add heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste.  I like this soup cold so it was perfect to eat the next night.

Leeks in butter

Potato with Vegetable Base (My potatoes aren't really ready yet, this is store bought)

Soup!

While I was in the kitchen, I decided to roast some beets to have on hand for salad.

Sour Cherries - Danish Cherry Vlaai

On Sunday the kids and I went to pick strawberries and as luck would have it, the sour cherries were ready too.  My friend Kathryn has a cherry tree and in years past, I pick at her house.  Unfortunately, her tree didn't really produce last year so I felt like I had to seize the moment and pick cherries right away.

Ugh, my camera was blurry!

Usually I just freeze the cherries and then over the year, dehydrate them to put in my granola.  I found a recipe for something called Danish Cherry Vlaai.  It's a sweet yeast dough, put in a tart pan and topped with sugared cherries and baked for 30 min.

Dough in tart pan

Cherries mixed with sugar and beaten egg

Ready for the oven!

The rest of the cherries I put on a tray and froze.

Today's harvest from the garden

I try to stop by the vegetable garden every night or every other night on my way home from work.  I just haven't been able to find the time lately to weed so this long weekend will find me with the vegetables.  The weather is now getting hot so I don't think the spinach, raab or arugula is going to last much longer.  The 2 screens that were hinged and set up for the cukes to grow on are working great - I planted mustard and lettuce underneath it and it's shaded enough for the greens to do well.  The potatoes are in flower and look wild!  My favas are also in flower but since I've never grown them before, I'm not sure what the bean is going to look like.

Today I picked lettuce, mizuna and mustard greens as well as snow peas.

Mizuna and mustard

Snow peas

I was going to blanch the snow peas and then saute with a little sesame oil but the kids wanted to eat them raw.  They were good and crunchy but could have used some dip - everything tastes better with dip

For my dinner, I had a little heritage ham in the fridge, so I diced it up and heated it in oil.  I added the greens and mixed it all up until the greens were cooked.  This was going to be dinner but looking at it I thought, hmm, this would taste better with eggs.  So I used the easy poaching method (fry for 1 min, add a few ice cubes, cover and cook 2 more min) and made 2 eggs.  Top ham/greens with eggs and grind pepper on it to taste (the ham was salty so I didn't add more salt)