Well, yes and no. While I didn’t win the slowfish contest (although I did make the first round cut to my surprise!), I did win Midnite Chef’s tea giveaway! I got my tea in the mail on Friday – and it was an extra nice treat because I’d forgotten all about it!

Mmmm… amazing flavors and enough for lots of “cold brewed” ice tea. Sounds fancy, but it just means I put cool tap water in a pitcher, put in the teabags, cover and put it in the fridge and wait a few hours or overnight… easy peasy! Happy happy, as the temperatures outside are definitely summery (hey, I warned you it was coming!).

aptly named “indigo rose” – mmmm!

In case you are curious about my non-winning recipe I will happily share. I really do think these are tasty (and not fishy if that worries you).

And they’re pretty I think. You can use a mix of yellow and red cherry or grape tomatoes, or, if you have planned well and you are lucky you can use your own garden tomatoes.

The anchovy is just salty enough that the tomato (which loves salt) doesn’t need any additional. It couldn’t be much simpler than this:

small bites, small plate

Quick Chovy-Mato Bites 

1 oil-packed anchovy fillet
1/4 cup sour cream
10 grape or cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon cilantro or parsley, chopped (optional)

Toothpicks for serving

In a small bowl, mash the anchovy fillet. Add the sour cream and mix very well. Halve the tomatoes, place cut side down (so they don’t roll around) on a serving plate and put a nice dab of the mixture on each one. Top each tomato half with a tiny bit of finely chopped parsley or cilantro if desired.

Makes 20 “Bites”

***

Now, remember that carrot “soufflé”? I made a batch yesterday (starting with 2 pounds of carrots – not 25!!) and while it was good, it wasn’t quite what I was after.

tree rat…

The one I enjoyed was more dense, sweeter (a little), and spicier I think. So, (having off-loaded much of this one to happy neighbors) I’ll finish eating this batch and try again! The good news is that (1) it was close and (2) it is not expensive so I’m happy to try again. I’ll keep you posted – I promise!

And, in case you were wondering, I did get some of those peaches. I think this guy got the rest. If only he wasn’t so darn entertaining…

More soon… stay cool! Mmmm… ice tea!

Today, just a typical quiet Saturday here in Austin, left me nearly breathless. That’s the thing about living in central Texas; once summer approaches everyone tries to jam everything into the “last weekend before it gets too hot to do stuff outside”!

We’ve been lucky this year. The past few weekends have each been that “last weekend”, with cold fronts (and by “cold” you understand that temperatures have plummeted into the 60s occasionally, at night anyway…) coming through during each of the past few weeks. Still, I can almost smell those 90+F days…

If my (John Aielli approved) rain gauge was telling the truth, we got just over 3 inches of rain here last night. Yup, dark and stormy but we needed it (and we still need more). This morning, though, dawned a perfect day. Sunny, not too hot, light breezes, a great day for a farm tour.

I’ve mentioned that my friends at Slow Food Austin sponsor farm tours from time to time, right? I’ve missed the last few, but this morning I got to visit Fruitful Hill out in Bastrop. What a nice bunch of folks! And, after showing us all around and introducing us to the family, Ruby the dog, the chickens and the resident cat, they sent us home with a very generous sample of the week’s goodies: eggs, greens (salad and cooking), carrots, beets, cukes, onions and more! Mmmmmm!

Mmmmm – mulch!

I know I’m going to use those cooking greens in a pot of Greens and Beans next week, and I may just throw in the beet greens as well. Mmmmm… hungry already!

Anyway, I got back from the farm in time to put my feet up for a few minutes before heading into town to listen to a panel discussion at BookPeople, one of Austin’s finest independent bookstores about the Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cookbook that I mentioned a few weeks ago. What fun!

I’ve never before had the opportunity to be a part of this kind of community, nor to have my recipes included in a book like this. Ok, maybe I’m braggin’ a little, but I’m braggin’ on Austin and our food community – as far as we know there are no other food blogger groups like ours (yet, anyway… c’mon start one where you live!)!

that cookbook, again

The Alliance has issued a challenge – to cook from the book and report. So, expect my take on that “cheesy grits with horseradish” recipe soon!

I haven’t forgotten that I owe you my take on the (wowser it was good) carrot soufflé… oh and I haven’t forgotten that I haven’t told you about the Thai cooking class I took… good heavens!

No recipe this week, but how about a photo that I really wish you could scratch and sniff:

just another day or two…

Mmmm… They’re almost ready to harvest, but we’ll see. Last year I waited one day too long and some critter got ‘em. A few have been bird-pecked, but overall I’m holding out hope! Actually, I think I’ll go check on ‘em now… have a good season until we visit again! Mmmm…

Just back from a week visiting my mom. She lives in a retirement community, a village really, with a population well over 300. The food services are amazing, but even given that, this time I ate something that made me very happy.

The dinner menu (of course you could cook for yourself, but this was a vacation!) every night offers several choices with several sides as well as an “always available” menu of various things (baked chicken, grilled salmon) that are, well, always available.

So, one evening one of the side dishes offered was “carrot soufflé”. I figured I’d try it as I never met a soufflé I didn’t like. Oh my. It was so good that when the server asked what I’d like for dessert I said “More of the carrot soufflé, please.”! Mmmm…

It was sweet, light, seemingly “good for you” and I liked it fine – twice!

I begged for the recipe and the good folks there complied. Now I just have to rework it a bit. I mean, I’d gladly share it exactly as they gave it to me but it starts with:
***
25 pounds carrots
3 quarts liquid eggs
2 quarts half and half
***
You see the problem? Assuming that we are not feeding armies here, I am working on cutting it down to something more manageable. Mmmmm… it sure was good, though, so I think it will be worth it! Stay tuned…

Meantime, this week I am trying to do my bit for the upcoming city-wide “Austin Bakes for West” bakesale (Saturday May 4th, yup, less than a week away!). For those who may not have heard, there was a fire and an explosion at a fertilizer factory in the town of West, Texas on April 17th.

Today I made spiced pecans, and am planning to bake sugar cookies and those choco-almond cookies from last week.

There’s more info about the bakesale and how it all works at austinbakes.com If you are interested, its not too late to volunteer. Saturday should be a fine day for a bakesale, not too hot but (of course) sunny. I’ll be at the Whole Foods downtown location from about 9:30 until roughly noon… I’m just sayin’… c’mon by!

After the bakesale is over I promise I’ll work on that carrot soufflé recipe. Enjoy the week!

Sorry, sorry, family visiting and much too much to do outside in my garden!! I’ve missed you, though, honest!! Didja miss me? OK, enough of apologies! Here’s a quick recap of one of the many things that I found to do recently instead of writing.

Today I took a cooking class. When I told my mom she said “You need to take a cooking class??” Flattering, but yes, yes I do, and today I learned how to make pierogies. What fun and oh mmmmmm!!

I’m not going to delve into details because Midnite Chef tells all here and as she was the teacher, well, why reinvent the meal, er, wheel? But I will tell you that we went from this:

in the beginning…

to this:

the grand finale (finally!)

and oh mmmm!!

Now that we have the main course covered, I’d like to share with you a cookie recipe. Yup. Quick, easy, gluten free, and oh so yummy… my idea for these is to layer two of them with slightly soft ice cream, wrap and freeze hard, and make ice cream sandwiches. I mean, here in Texas it will be summer before we know it (sigh) so I’m just helping those who live around here get prepared! Here’s what you do:

Flourless Choco-Almond Cookies

just add ice cream…

Preheat oven to 350F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

1 cup almond flour* (freshly ground if possible)
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons melted butter

Melt the butter and set aside. Whisk together the almond flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder. Add the egg, extracts, and butter, and mix well.

Drop by scant teaspoonful onto parchment paper. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the parchment on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to cookie rack to cool completely. Store them in an air-tight container. These will (hahahahaha…) keep several days (mine never seem to…).

Makes about three dozen roughly 2-1/2 inch cookies.
***

*Almond flour is available packaged, but I prefer fresh ground. You can buy it in bulk if you live near a Central Market, or you can grind your own in a food processor. Just stop before it turns into almond butter!! Yikes!

Mind you, you don’t have to add ice cream, I just think it’d be awfully good. On their own these cookies are slightly chewy, slightly crisp, and (my friends seem to concur) mighty fine with coffee. Mmmm…

Spring fever is not yet ebbing, but:
I will try to write more often.
I will try to write more often.
I will try to write more often.
I will try to write more often.
I will try to write more often.

I promise! Have a good (and safe) week…

Well you’re just going to have to wait to hear about the Thai cooking class I took as there’s something I really want to share with you first. See, my new friend Simone issued a challenge on her blog and (if you know me then you understand this) I’ve waited until pretty much the last minute to write to her prompt. Sigh… I’m not lazy, I just get busy – especially this time of year!

So, I did have almost a month to think about it, and there are so many books to choose from it was a bit daunting. I am not sure if I especially lean toward books where the characters eat their way through the story, or if food in fiction just jumps off the page at me. Either way, I settled on Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. That gave me several thousand pages, many of which contain some sort of food references, to pull from, in a story ranging over several centuries. Whew!

Some of the options were never going to happen here. I mean, the whole “first you catch the pig” sort of thing is a bit over the top even for me. I opted for making a food that is mentioned repeatedly in the 18th century New World portions of her stories: corn dodgers.

Near as I can tell from my online research and her books, this was a variety of “johnny” or “journey” cake – a rough equivalent to today’s trail mix or granola bar. You made them ahead and they’d keep, even if they needed dunking to make them palatable after a few weeks in a rucksack or a saddlebag.

Corn dodgers can be as simple or as fancy as you like. You could add finely chopped onion, sauteed garlic, even an egg perhaps, or use milk rather than water, maybe sweeten the batter with sugar I think, but the basic recipe is pretty much corn meal and water with salt if you have it. Somewhat bland and built for sustenance not for deliciousness, corn dodgers are a solid utilitarian foodstuff.

I read recipes that called for olive oil, rising agents, and other things I’m pretty sure her characters would not have had on hand. I also don’t think they’d have baked these in an oven; skillet or griddle cooking makes much more sense to me. Given that, I went with just this:

One For the Road Corn Dodgers

mmmmm!

1 C corn meal
1 Tbsp goose grease (or butter)
2 tsp salt
1 C boiling water
bacon grease (or vegetable oil) for frying

Put the corn meal, salt, and goose grease or butter in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the boiling water, stir to completely incorporate, and let sit until cool. The mixture should be slightly stiff but maleable.

to go, please!

Heat the grease or oil (about 1/4-inch deep) in a heavy cast iron skillet. Make small patties of the corn meal mixture, and fry on both sides until done (several minutes per side). Drain well and store or eat warm with jam if you have the luxury.

Makes about 12 roughly 2-inch diameter “dodgers”.
***

You can certainly use butter and vegetable oil to make a vegetarian version, or go whole hog (so to speak) if you happen to have a can of bacon grease in your fridge! (The bacon grease was the suggestion of my friend with whom I shared this experiment – thanks and mmmm!) You know I have goose grease on hand! Mmmm…

What “novel food” grabs you? Ever tried to recreate it? Could be fun… this certainly was!

I’m not sure he thought he was talking about March in Texas, but I’m pretty sure he was. March is a waiting game here, hoping the blossoms will withstand the winds and really really hoping that we’ll get some rain that “sticks”.

It rained yesterday and last night, and at my place at least we missed the threatened hailstorms. Whew!

See, the seeds and seedlings I have in containers can be moved under cover,

coming soon…

and I haven’t put my tomatoes out yet, but my peach tree, which is blooming to beat the band right now, is on its own in the weather.

We’ve had high winds without rain, and last night high winds with rain, and so far so good.

just peachy!

Its a rugged season, and I hope for the best… you just never know around here.

Happily, I am not the only source of food for myself!

Last Sunday a friend and I went to visit the new home of the HOPE Farmer’s Market. I do love to watch a market setting up!

HOPE!

Its only a few blocks from their “old” home, but it is a world away. Plaza Saltillo lends the market a rather European air: lovely benches under the wisteria and a beautiful arcade that feels just right for a market.

have a seat!

Personally I’m staying out of downtown for the next few weeks. Its SxSW season, and spring break as well, and I can happily occupy myself right in my own back yard until Austin is returned to folks who have some idea of where they are and where they’re going again.

Mind you, I’m happy for those who attend, it just isn’t my thing (and I have way too much to do in my garden!!). I wish you could hear the birds out there! Oh and the hummers should be back soon – yay!

I can hear things growing after last night’s rain and I have bags of mulch to spread before it dries up completely out there again. I think I’ll go out and work for a bit, then make a nice cup of cleavers tea. Mmmm… ahhhhh, spring!

Oh, and about Mr. Swinburne. He said it better than I ever could:

(excerpted from) Atalanta in Calydon

And time remember’d is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)
*****

Have a grand week, and I wish you a safe and happy start to the season!

It has been a rather fragrant weekend here, and I mean that in the best possible way. If you live near here, or if you’ve been reading this blog for long, then you know that February is planting season for many thing here in Central Texas, and this weekend has been a great one for herbs at my place.

Yesterday I went to the Herb Festival at Zilker Gardens. It was a chance to catch up with some friends, and to purchase some sweet 4-inch pots of good smelling babies. I bought these

mmmmmm….

from my friends at Gabriel Farms. I was lucky to visit their farm a few years ago, but this time they came here to town.

I want them all…

What beautiful and interesting displays everyone had set up!

I say again, mmmmmm!

It was a very educational (and fragrant) morning! Oh mmmm…

And, in addition to the displays on how to cultivate, how to container garden, and tables featuring some of the sorts of things one can do with herbs (oh yes, my friend Ellen from EZHerbs was there as well, of course), the Herb Society offered all sorts of tasty things the their members had made ranging from herb teas to salads to baked goods. Mmmm…

I brought home three pots of Mexican oregano, not a true oregano but the leaves smell similar and the inch-long lavender tubular flowers have nectar the hummers love. I also bought several kinds of sage including one I’d never seen before, Cleveland sage. The leaves smell wonderful and is apparently used for potpourri rather than for cooking. Mmmmm!

If you want to invite a different sort of visitor into your garden, try putting together one of these fairy gardens. I don’t think of myself as much of a “rainbow and unicorn” girl usually, but dang – these are cute!

if you built it, will they come?

These miniature gardens are usually roughly the size of a bird bath or even smaller, and contain not just plant matter but “furnishings”, chairs or even tiny houses, to entice winged visitors.

I can’t really comment on that, but I did once grow tomatoes and basil in a pot with a small plastic cow: Caprese on the hoof so to speak, so what can I tell you. I do appreciate whimsey… so watch for future postings! Oh and, this would be a great sort of garden to do with kids – the scale is approachable, the maintenance is minimal, and, if you load it up with herbs it is yummy!

One more thing before I sign off. Last weekend you didn’t hear from me because I was busy proofreading a section of the final pages of the upcoming Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cookbook! Woohoo! Let me tell you (she said modestly) it is gorgeous. I was sorely tempted to lick the screen (oh yes, they were “electronic” pages but it is a very real almost 200-page book). The book is due out in April, but you can order now (hint hint).

I was honored to have two recipes selected for inclusion, but I’m even more intrigued by some of the other recipes than my own. I am so going to make that cheesy horseradish grits recipe, and you remember the fish soup I made back during the recipe testing phase? The original recipe for that is in there as well. Mmmm…

So, if you have a friend who cooks, buy them one. Or if you cook, buy yourself one. Or buy 5, get a better unit price and give them out to anyone who wanders by! See? I’m shameless (grin)!

I need to stop writing and start planting, so I’m outta here. Have a great spring until I see you next, and as always, stay well and safe! Mmmm… spring!!

Enjoy the day!

need I say more?

I hear the Garden Council enjoyed the goodies!

Mmmmm…

Thanks for visiting, and see you again soon!

Yes well, it is almost St. Valentine’s Day, and both hearts and flowers are much on my mind. The “hearts” will be explained directly, the flowers, well, even though the New England area is still socked in with snow, here in central Texas things are leafing out, budding and blooming!

lemon tree very pretty…

I wish you could smell it! This Meyer lemon is in my kitchen, but even the ones outside (yes, Meyer lemons can usually survive winters here outside) are about to burst into bloom. Mmmm…

And my salvias are blooming in case the hummers come back early, although I feel certain it will be at least a month yet. But the plants are getting ready…

Now, about the hearts. My garden club is one of the hosts for this month’s Austin Area Garden Council meeting which will be on Tuesday. Since we are the “Heart of the Hills” garden club, and since it is almost St. Valentine’s Day, I thought I would make sugar cookies (for 60 or so!) and use my heart shaped cookie cutter.

Its easy enough if you can time it right. Mostly it just takes a while for the dough to “set”, so you must allow at least two hours for fridge time. Other than that, these cookies are easy to make, fun to do with kids, and can be iced and dressed as fancy as your fancy takes you! They are sturdy but not tough, they travel well, and they cam be made several days ahead if store in an airtight container.

I got the recipe from a friend who says she got it from Betty Crocker. Here’s all it takes:

Certainly Somebody’s Sugar Cookies

sweet hearts

COOKIES:
3/4 cup butter(1-1/2 stick butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (large)
1 tsp. vanilla (or 1/2 tsp. lemon extract)
2-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Melt the butter. Set aside. Whisk dry ingredients together, add the egg and the extract, mix a bit then add the butter. Mix well. It should pull away form the sides of your mixing bowl. Wrap in plastic wrap or put it in a zip bag and chill at least two hours (or overnight is fine).

Dip in and take out about a fourth of dough. Roll out on floured surface. If the dough is a little sticky when you take out of bowl, dip into flour a bit. Roll out to about 1/4 inch or less. After dough is rolled out, cut out cookies and place on ungreased baking sheet.

Cook in preheated 360F degree oven for 6-8 minutes or until edges brown. Remove directly to a cooling rack. Cool completely before icing.

naked cookies!

ICING:
1 box confectioner’s sugar
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or peppermint or lemon or…)
milk as needed

Mix 1 box of confectioners sugar with 1 stick of melted butter. Include about tsp. of vanilla. Add milk until consistency is spreadable. Add food coloring if desired. Go for it.
***

That’s easy enough, right? Mmmmm and they are buttery good!

Now before I forget, I wanted to thank Karen and the crew over at the downtown Savory Spice Shop (oh what a fun place – and does it ever smell wonderful in there!) for hosting last night’s AFBA bash. More on that event and last weekend’s Longhouse coming soon, but right now I have dozens of cookies to ice! Mmmm… what fun!

I have been lazy, its true. How lazy, you may ask? No posts for weeks! But, here I am again to share a lazy girl’s brunch idea.

Lazy, because you can do almost all of it the night before, then lounge in bed until you really have to get up for your guests. Mmmm… lazy is goooood!

I was thinking about make-ahead dishes, but then, if you really make ahead, the house doesn’t smell enticing and intriguing when your guests arrive. Then I got to thinking about something like a strata.

Stratas (layers, just like it sounds) are great because you assemble them the night before, chill, remove from the fridge, bake and voila! A basic traditional strata is (usually, anyway) layers of cooked spinach, cheese, and bread cubes. That may not sound like much, but when you pour a simple custard over it, let is soak in overnight, and bake it, it becomes puffy, heavenly, and oh so yummy. And the house smells divine!

The challenge here was that my guest is one of my GF GFs, so no bread…

This worked out fine, though. I used corn tortillas (tortillas in the Mexican sense, not the Spanish!) and changed it up entirely, but it was still a very easy make-ahead meal. Understand that this, like many if not most of my recipes, is only a jumping off point.

For a vegetarian version add a can of drained rinsed black beans in place of the meat. Mmmmmmm!!

Here’s what I did:

1-Hour 2-Day Tortilla Strata

ready to chill out

1 medium onion chopped
3 T olive oil
1/2 lb. ground beef
ground cumin, coriander, salt and pepper
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 C (or more) grated cheese of choice*

5 or 6 eggs
1 cup (or so) of milk

12 6-inch corn tortillas**
butter for the baking dish

a good handful of chopped scallion greens

In a good-sized skillet, sauté the chopped onion in the olive oil. When the onions are translucent add the ground beef and cook until done. Add the spices and salt and pepper to taste. Add the drained sweet corn, stir to incorporate, remove from heat and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

While the meat mixture is cooling:
Butter a ceramic or Pyrex baking dish. Lay entire corn tortillas with a slight overlap (think roof shingles) in the bottom to cover.

Whisk or blend together the eggs and milk. I used a blender as I wanted it to be smooth.

When the meat mixture has cooled, add a layer to the baking dish, then add a layer of cheese, then a layer of chopped corn tortillas. I cut the tortillas in roughly 1/2-inch squares.

oh mmmmm…

Continue layering, ending with chopped tortillas on top. Pour the egg and milk mixture over to almost cover. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

In the morning (yes, you do have to get up briefly, I’m sorry) take it out of the fridge about an hour before you plan to bake it to let it come to room temperature.

About an hour before your guests are due, preheat the oven to 350F. Uncover the strata, sprinkle with the chopped scallion greens, and bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes.

Let it sit for a few minutes before serving so the “custard” can set, and serve with your salsa of choice on the side. Mmmm…

*I used grated queso Chihuahua but you can use any melty cheese, or even a mix of Jack and Cheddar. Its all good!

**These are soft corn tortillas (not “taco shells”) for you Yankees out there (grin).
*************

If you are in a hurry, you can cut the “chilling” time to as little as two hours, but I think overnight really is best. Or you can make it in the morning, chill it all day and serve it for supper with a green salad and good red wine…

Easy peasy, good and good for you, and if there is any left it keeps nicely and reheats well. As breakfast or brunch, serve with good coffee and good conversation!

Mmmm… Buen provecho!