Fallen Souffle

I became obsessed with these planters while I visited my parent’s last weekend. My Mom has purchases 3 cylindrical planters from Amazon and has them hanging form her clothes line. I have never had much of a green thumb, I think my sister got it. Nonetheless, I thought it was worth trying myself as I know I spend a lot of money on tomatoes over the summer when the cost of a plant is about $2.50. So I was all ready to buy a few planters when Evan suggested I try and make them myself. So after a few days researching and thinking and planning and waiting for Saturday to get here, I finally went to Ace Hardware to purchase a medium hanging planter and a few plants. I decided to go with a grape tomato variety as I use those most in salads and fresh sauces. Then I got the ingenious idea to put a basil plant on top so I have the whole Italian thing going on, basically sauce in a pot! Ha!

So I simply used a box cutter to cut out a small circle of the pot out then carefully pushed the roots of the tomato plant though so the roots are in the inside of the pot and the plant is growing out the bottom. I then hung it on my mini flag pole and filled it with potting soil. I then plated the basil in as you would a normal plant. This pot is quite heavy, so I put it on a post in our backward that used to hold our hammock, I figured if the hook could hold Evan it could hold this pot. My only concern right now is that my pot is too small, but I can always transplant it if need be, but I wanted to try something small and cheap to see how it would work.

I will keep you posted on the fruits of my labor!

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This Month’s Book Club selection was Heat by Bill Buford. (The title is much longer, but I wanted to keep it easy to remember) I thoroughly enjoyed this book, probably because it has to do with cooking and Italian cooking nonetheless. The book centers around our friend Bill who becomes an apprentice under Mario Batali and his trials in becoming a better cook and understanding true Italian cooking. I read this while we were in Utah, so I was itching to get back home and start cooking. So of course I offered to host Book Club so I could make some new Italian dishes.

I first made a dish inspired by none other than Rachael Ray, I know how dare I, but really this recipe was a hit. Rachael uses ground chicken but I used used turkey sausage because I love the flavor and it already comes pre-seasoned! Rachael says this make 6 cigars but I think you could do 3 logs and cut them into 4 generous pieces.

I then made a crostini with fig jam, prosciutto, and pecorino cheese, inspired by Giada. I decided to add the prosciutto instead of the apple and in making the fig jam I added almonds instead of hazelnuts. My only tip would be to pulse the nuts before you add the figs, otherwise they are too chunky. I think this turned out well also and was a nice change of page.

Finally I made Caprese salad on a stick, so simple….a cherry tomato, basil leaf and mini mozzarella ball all on a stick. Line up in a place, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper…could not be easier!

I think everyone enjoyed the book, the food, and the company…and what more could you ask for!

Turkey Sausage Cigars
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 small Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
1 pound turkey sausage, meat squeezed from casing
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup (about 10 leaves) fresh basil, chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, melted
4 sheets phyllo dough

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Heat a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Once hot, add the onions and garlic, and cook until soft, about 6-7 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, spoon contents into a medium-size mixing bowl and let cool. Once the onions and garlic are cool enough to handle, add the chicken to the bowl with the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, oregano, fennel, chili flakes, cheese, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix to combine.

Place a piece of phyllo on a nonstick cookie sheet and brush with the melted butter. Top with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with butter again. Divide the chicken mixture in half and form a one-inch thick log the length of the long side of the phyllo dough. Roll the chicken log up in the phyllo tightly.

Cut the chicken-filled phyllo into 3 “cigars” and brush with a more butter.

Repeat with the remaining 2 sheets of phyllo and the rest of the chicken mixture to make a total of two chicken and phyllo roll-ups Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Pecorino Romano with Apples and Fig Jam
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
6 dried figs, halved
1/2 cup simple syrup, recipe follows
2 tablespoons brandy
1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
24 baguette slices
Olive oil, for drizzling
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
prosciutto slices
1/4 pound chunk Pecorino Romano, for shaving 24 pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the figs, simple syrup, and brandy. Bring the mixture up to a simmer. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Place the fig mixture and the hazelnuts in a food processor and blend, pulsing a few times, until pureed. Set aside.

Place the baguette slices on a heavy baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Top each slice with 1 teaspoon grated Pecorino Romano. Bake until the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted and golden, about 7 minutes.

Top each slice of toast with 2 teaspoons of fig jam, a slice of apple and a piece of shaved Pecorino Romano. Transfer the toasts to a serving platter and serve.

Simple syrup:
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar

In a saucepan combine water and sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved. Take pan off heat and cool the syrup. Any extra cooled syrup can be saved in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

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After much toil and stress my sister is now in London. We can all breath a sigh of relief. As Evan and I said, once she is on the plane she is all on her own. You see my sister is a bit of a procrastinator, she kinda works on “Steph time”. So she didn’t think much about the fact that she needed to send in her passport renewal much earlier than anticipated because of the new restrictions the government has put on travel without passports. So she finally sent her application in sometime in March, thinking she would have plenty of time to get it back. The cash was checked at the end of April. Then about three weeks ago she logs into the State Department website and realizes her passport has not processed. She begins to freak out. She sends out emails to all Congress and House representatives, news stations, all the while staying on hold with the State Department which always seems to hang up on her. She finally gets a response from Thelma Drake who is now like a part of our family and may even get an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. Thelma and her staff get Steph the necessary paperwork and they call in and get her passport processed. Now the passport has been processed but it may not get mailed in time, so they suggest she make plans to go to D.C. and get another passport processed. Luckily, my Dad picks up some kind of Congressional letter that will put her at the front of the line so she doesn’t have to get there the night before to wait in line.

So she and my Dad plan a Father/Daughter day in D.C. which consisted of waiting in line for 2 hours, getting the paperwork processed, touring D.C. a little and then returning at 3:30 to pick up the all important passport. All the while keeping me and my Mom updated with calls and text messages.

So she is set for her trip. She returns to VB where she is to leave Thursday afternoon from Norfolk to Charlotte and then to London. Luck would have it that her passport that has been stuck in New Hampshire for god knows how long shows up in a FedEx envelope on my parent’s door step 2 hours before she leaves for the airport. That’s just the James luck. So now she is doubly prepared with two passports. It just figures.

Three weeks of living in London, touring museums, seeing shows…I am quite jealous. Let this be a lesson to all of your that are waiting to get your passport, they are anticipating passports are currently taking 6 months to get processed and mailed- so you should start the process yesterday if you are planning to go anywhere. Though me and my family now feel like passport experts so if you have any questions or problems let me know.

If you are in need of a new blog to read, Steph has set up a blog to chronicle her vegetarian eating adventures in London, thewanderingveg.wordpress.com. Hopefully she will keep it updated, it is sure to be quite a funny read.

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About a month ago I was asked to make three different cakes within a 4 day time span. For some reason I always find the need to try brand new recipe during this time, I know not the smartest thing. Luckily, every “experiment” has turned out, even if not as originally planned, I make it happen

Two of the cakes were for baby showers and I really wanted to make something light and something that could use the abundance of berries I had acquired from the Farmer’s Market. The picture is from a baby/wedding shower that I organized for work, this was the third cake I made so the decoration was kept casual but I think everyone agreed the taste was not lacking.

This cake is form Cooking Light so it is a rather guilt free cake and it perfect for the summer. It had the texture of angel food cake but had a bit more substance which I really like. It was easy to make, and the hardest part is separating all the eggs and getting them beaten up. And it makes three beautiful cakes that I think lend perfectly to fresh berries. With July 4th just around the corner (I know where did June go!) this would be perfect to take to picnics and get togethers. I used meyer lemons in my cake but I think you can use whatever citrus fruit you fancy.

Citrus Chiffon Cake
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cake flour
2 cups sifted cake flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup fresh lime, lemon, or orange juice
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon finely grated lime, lemon or orange rind
3 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. To prepare cake, coat bottoms of 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray (do not coat sides of pans); line bottoms with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

2. Lightly spoon 2 cups cake flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups cake flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk until well combined.

3. Combine oil, 1/3 cup juice, 3 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon rind, lemon extract, and egg yolks in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add oil mixture to flour mixture; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

4. Place egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into flour mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture.

5. Divide cake batter equally among prepared pans, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake at 325° for 20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Remove wax paper from cake layers. Cool completely on wire rack.

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My friend and co-worker Scottie brought in some really wonderful crab bisque that he made one night and I had to share the recipe. He added more crab and more sherry, and a few other ingredients but this is the basic recipe you can go off of. This is by no means “light” but the taste and smell reminds me of my days as a waitress at the Surf Rider in Virginia. I would serve this in individual bread bowls with a crisp white wine and some strawberry shortcakes for desserts…sounds like a perfect summer meal to me!

Crab Bisque Chincoteague

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
4 cups milk
3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons seafood seasoning
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2 tablespoons cooking sherry
1 pint whipping cream
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt to taste
1 pound backfin crab meat

1. Melt butter in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour to make a roux. Slowly add milk until it is well blended. Stirring constantly, add cheese and cook until mixture thickens.

2. Reduce heat and add seasonings, sherry, cream and parsley. When mixture is thoroughly heated, add crab meat, stirring gently to keep lumps intact. Serve immediately in warm bowls and garnish with parsley.

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I have not posted yet because frankly I was disappointed that I didn’t win anything with this recipe, it encompasses absolute strawberry goodness and who wouldn’t love that! But after taking a look at the winning recipes I realized I had some stiff competition this year! Notably, the second place winner has been in a few pie contests that the Food Network has covered. I also need to stick to my strategy of bringing in my entry near the end of the registration period because that means it will be tasted near the end.

The post was also prompted because Evan recently went to the Outer Banks on a “business” trip. This is in quotes because I always question how much business is actually conducted when he is there Nonetheless, he raved about this strawberry pie that our friend Grier made. He said it was really simple but really fantastic, so he got the recipe from her and forwarded it onto me. The recipes were almost identical! So I guess my recipe wasn’t as original as I thought but it’s good to know that Evan will eat it if I make it again.

So here is my recipe, just a quick note, the sugar can be adjusted to how sweet your berries are. mine were pretty sweet so I only used 1/2 a cup, but if yours are less sweet use up to 1 cup.

Good Ole Strawberry Pie
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream or Cool Whip

1. Arrange half of strawberries in baked pastry shell. Puree remaining berries and combine with sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling strawberry mixture. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour mixture over berries in pastry shell. Chill for several hours before serving. In a small bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Serve each slice of pie with a dollop of whipped cream.

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IT is no secret that Evan and I love food; especially pizza, wings, pasta, and barbeque. We ended up watching about 6 hours of Food Network yesterday and it happened to be a weekend pretty much entirely dedicated to grilling and barbecuing. We were both in heaven! We recored an episode of Tyler’s Ultimate in which he made ribs, coleslaw, baked beans and biscuits…so we changed our entire menu plans to make some ribs which we happened to have in the freezer. Tyler baked his ribs while Evan let me know ours would be smoked, I don’t come between Evan and his smoker. One thing we did take away form this episode was the awesome barbeque sauce. We have about 5 bottle in the pantry and fridge right now but we both agreed this sauce must be made.

After making this sauce, those 5 bottles may be in there a while as I don’t think you can beat this recipe. A few minor adjustments just because I didn’t want to go to the store, we used fresh rosemary instead of the thyme, because I have a bush of it in the garden and we used apricot preserves instead of peach. I don’t think either change will alter the recipe too terribly, so play around with it and see what you like.

Tyler’s Ultimate BBQ Sauce
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 bacon slices
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 onion
3 smashed garlic cloves
2 cups ketchup
1 cup peach preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard or 1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika

Wrap the bacon around the middle of the thyme sprigs and tie with kitchen twine so you have a nice bundle. Heat a 2-count of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the thyme bundle and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly, without coloring, for 5 minutes. Add all of the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors.

*Baby Back Ribs*

If anyone was wondering how to smoke baby back ribs, I’ll add my 2 cents.

-Season the ribs with a rub and let sit for at least an hour. I use a texas style rub but salt and pepper works just as well in this case.
-For the wood I used a mixture of 75% hickory and 25% mesquite.
-Since I don’t have rib racks, I rolled the ribs and used a long wooden skewer to keep them together and stand them on their side.
-The baby back ribs smoked for about 4.5 hours.
-At the 4 hour mark I heavily basted the ribs in Jen’s BBQ Sauce (above) and let them simmer for 30 more minutes.
-To test the ribs for done-ness, the meat should start pulling away from the end of the bone and you should be able to loosen the bone with a simple twist.
-If you happen to finish the ribs before dinner time, simple wrap them in foil and stick them in the oven at 200degrees until you are ready to eat them.

-Evan
-

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I was inspired to make this dish after perusing the menu of one of those meal assembly places. I do not hide the fact that I go to these type of establishments everyone once and a while as a way to try new foods and make life a little easier in the kitchen. They offered a 4 cheese penne with tomatoes sauce that got my mouth watering. So I did a little research and found a couple of really yummy recipes, but for one reason or another I couldn’t find one that I really liked, so I kinda combined a few of them and made this up. The main recipe I used included slices of zucchini in the dish but I knew Evan would not go for that, but add it if that’s your thing. I also baked mine in an 8 inch pan and made two ramekins for lunches, we are trying to be better about our portions I imagine you could also freeze half for a busy night, which I may do with our schedules filling up again!

Also feel free to play around with the cheeses and such, also add more milk if it is becoming cement like…it’s a very forgiving dish.

Creamy Tomato and Cheese Baked Penne
1 pound penne pasta, cooked al dente
15 ounces ricotta cheese
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated parmesan
3/4 cup milk
1- 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (Or diced tomatoes that you have pulsed in the food processor)
1 T. italian seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except pasta. Save a bit of mozzarella for the top.

3. Mix in pasta and pour into a 9×13 baking dish.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden on top.

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