Lime Ice

This turned out fantastic! I got the recipe from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday.
Here is his website for Frontera Grill.

Fresh Lime Ice with Berries

Nieve de Limon con Moras

Serves 6

Recipe from Season 6 of Mexico—One Plate at a Time

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Ingredients

5 to 6 large limes (or enough to make 3/4 cup fresh lime juice)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
2 to 3 cups fresh raspberries, blackberries or strawberries (you’ll want to slice or quarter strawberries), for serving

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Directions

Grate the zest (colored part only) off 2 of the limes and scrape into a large bowl. (If the zest is in large pieces, chop it finely.) Juice the limes, measure 3/4 cup and pour it in with the zest. Add the sugar, corn syrup and 1 1/4 cups water. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour the mixture into the canister of your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.

The ice will have the best texture if you scoop it from the ice cream maker into a container and let it firm up for several hours in the freezer. The ice is best eaten within 24 hours, scooped into small dishes and sprinkled with the berries.

Peach Pie

C's 41st birthday, and this is what I made instead of a cake (I wish the picture were better):

Lattice-topped Peach Raspberry Pie

It's easier than it looks when you use a premade crust. This one is Pillsbury refrigerated rolled crust. I've also liked the Trader Joe's frozen crust.

Just put one crust in the bottom of your pie pan. Fill it with the filling, cut strips of the top crust and weave them together, leaving just 1/4 in. overhang. Tuck the edges under the bottom crust and then press together with a decorative edge. Brush the top of the crust with a bit of something (beaten egg, cream, even water) then sprinkle with sugar to make the top glisten with sugar crystals. Bake at 375 until crust is golden. I also put a pie crust ring around the rim after it has mostly cooked to keep it from browning too much faster than the rest of the pie.

For the filling, I basically used M's frozen peach pie recipe from her blog, with the addition of the almond extract and a handful of raspberries:

About 4 cups of cut up peaches (I didn't bother peeling them)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. citric acid (skip it if you don't have it)
1 tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. instant tapioca
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Stir together and put in unbaked pie crust and continue as above.


I also brought a version of this to a party in late August, where I used a crumb topping instead of the lattice. I prefer that, but C likes his pastry pure.

Puffy Pancakes with Peach Sauce

We have a peach tree that is much later to produce than others in the area. We're just now starting to get peaches from it. Some of them are pretty great, but far too many are small and green and spotted with some kind of fungus. We tried to thin them and spray the tree, but obviously didn't do enough. The tree is weighed down with peaches and 2 of the branches have broken off because we didn't thin the peaches enough.

What to do with this bounty?

This morning we had oven pancakes with peach sauce (pureed peaches with a bit of OJ to thin it and a dash of almond extract and a spoonful or two of sugar).

Oven pancakes aka David Eyre's Pancakes aka Dutch Babies aka Puffy Pancakes

for each serving, mix together
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt
(so if you're making it for 4, use 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 4 eggs, etc.)

Melt some butter in a baking dish (9x13 is good for 4 servings) at 450 degrees. Use 2-4 Tbs. Pour the batter into the hot dish, and put it back into the oven. Bake until puffed up and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately with toppings of your choice. Some ideas: fresh fruit and whipped cream, fruit sauces, applesauce, maple syrup, jam, powdered sugar...

(The photo is from our anniversary breakfast in bed, which Z made for us on our anniversary)

Kettle Corn

One of the foods I never had before coming to Pittsburgh is Kettle Corn. They sell it at fairs and farmer's markets, cooking it in giant steel vats over a jet of burning fuel that reminds me of raku firing. It's salty and sweet, but not as sweet as caramel corn. They just throw the sugar, salt and popcorn into the hot oil all at the same time and stir like mad with a wooden paddle until the popping slows, then they tip the hinged vat into a bowl to cool and ring the bell to let you know it's ready to buy. It's quite a drama, especially if you've got little kids in tow. It also seems very expensive, especially given that the ingredients are so cheap. I didn't see how I could ever make it at home - you can't stir a stovetop sized pan of popcorn without it popping out all over the stove, and shaking it wouldn't be enough to keep the sugar from burning to the bottom.

To the rescue: my new kitchen toy, a stovetop popcorn popper (never used) that I picked up yesterday at the neighborhood yard sale for $1.50. I saw someone using one of these at girls camp this summer, and I was impressed at how much easier it was to get the results of stovetop popcorn without the hassle of shaking a pan over a hot flame. You turn the crank, and a little blade stirs the bottom of the pan, keeping the popcorn moving. We made a batch of plain popcorn last night for movie night, and it took less than 5 minutes, possibly even including the time it took to wash the pan. It's so much better than microwave popcorn.

As a side note, I also made myself some "popcorn salt" by running some salt in an old electric coffee grinder that I use for various kitchen tasks (like grinding spices). The finer salt sticks to the popcorn better and less of it goes farther.

Tonight, we tried the more ambitious kettle corn. It worked wonderfully, and was just as good as the stuff at the farmer's market. I keep popcorn in my food storage, because it lasts forever, and so I always have the ingredients on hand, and it probably costs about a quarter for 4 quarts of kettle corn. The funnest part is that it feels so old-fashioned, like pulling taffy or something, and just the thing for a family game night, but it's so easy. Next time you come over, ask for some popcorn or kettle corn, and I'll be happy to make some for you.

Warm beans with herbed tomatoes and goat cheese

This seems like the perfect dish for the beginning of fall. It's warm and hearty from the beans, but still hangs on to the best of summer flavors: garden-fresh tomatoes and basil. I can't believe I haven't thought to make this recipe all summer when it's one of our favorites. As for how quick and easy it is - just look at how short the instructions are. Bobbie, thanks for giving me this recipe!

Warm Beans with Herbed Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

3 tomatoes, chopped; peeled and seeded
1/4 cup fresh basil; snipped
1/4 cup fresh oregano; snipped
2 green onions; sliced
1 clove garlic; minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
15 oz can kidney beans
15 oz can white beans
4 ounces goat cheese

Mix herbs and seasonings with tomatoes and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes (less is ok). Heat beans to boiling in liquid from cans. Let simmer 2 minutes. Drain and mix into tomatoes. Crumble goat cheese over the top and serve immediately.

Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with Tomato Black Bean Salsa

New recipe of the week comes from Fine Cooking Magazine.
Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with Tomato Black Bean Salsa

This was a very satisfying and delicious summer meal. Good for hot summer days when you can't bear to turn on the stove and heat up the house. It used up some of those delicious summer tomatoes and the cilantro we got from the farmer this week. Also the leftovers make a good lunch. I doubled the chicken, since I had two chicken breasts, thinking we'd eat the leftovers later in burritos, but we ate it all with the salad.

School lunches

Fortunately, I have a daughter who likes to try new foods and enjoys a wide variety of things. Unfortunately, she also demands more than the usual PB&J in her lunch box. She gave me the thumbs up for her first week of school lunches. She has tended to prefer the ones she had more of a hand in. Mostly I've been figuring out ways to send dinner leftovers (sometimes difficult, since she has no way to heat them up), so don't think that I cook like this for lunch everyday!

Tuesday: Cold burrito (filled with spice-rubbed grilled chicken, black beans, cheese, cilantro, canned green chiles, and a dash of lime-cilantro vinagrette), fresh pea shoots (from TJ's, yum), mini bell peppers, and a quarter of an avocado. A kiwi, cut in half, with a spoon. Some iced mint herbal tea. I can't remember what I sent for snack. I think a granola bar. Madeleine cookies (Costco). She left a couple bites of avocado and supplemented her lunch with some mashed potatoes from the cafeteria.

Wednesday: I thought she had chosen to have the school lunch, but I knew she was staying for cross country and wanted her to have a snack after school as well as during snack time, so I sent a lot. Too much, apparently, since she thought I was sending a full lunch and only supplemented it with some sweet potato wedges from the cafeteria. She was ravenous at dinner that night. Mixed fresh veggies (baby carrots, mini bell-peppers, and sugar snap peas) with peanut dipping sauce (I usually put it on pasta) and fresh cantaloupe. Also a little bit of trail mix: almonds, dried cranberries, M&Ms, walnuts, sunflower seeds. She didn't eat the walnuts and sunflower seeds.

Thursday: Leftover grilled chicken and black bean salsa salad: This one had the spice-rubbed chicken, lettuce, black beans, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, avocados, lime-cilantro dressing. Tortilla chips. Cut up fruit: papaya, cantaloupe, and kiwi. Grapes, dill havarti, and multigrain crackers for snack. Madeleine cookies.

Friday: I mixed up the rest of the asian peanut sauce with some plain pasta I set aside from dinner last night. Added some chopped snap peas, mini bell peppers and carrots. Cantaloupe and grapes. A croissant with nutella for snack, and a banana for after school cross country snack.

Ok, so I'm realizing two things as I write this: I already know I think about food way too much, but especially so when I'm watching my calorie intake. I'm thinking this week I've been feeding her extra because I'm eating less. It probably has something to do with wanting her to get off to a good start, too. And second, there's no way I'm going to keep this up for a whole year. It's back to bagels and sandwiches pretty soon.