Dreaming of Autumn

Honestly can it get any hotter, I love summer and all but jeez we went from sweatshirts to swimsuits in a matter of days. I enjoy the slow warm up and cool down of the beginning and end of summer. It transitions into my favorite season, Autumn. It is the perfect weather for me, I can still wear sandals, but they can be comfortably paired with jeans and a long sleeve shirt. And some of my favorite foods can be found, like apple pie, pumpkin ice cream, did you think I was going to name savory foods? Come on now. So while sitting in my house with the AC cranked up, I'm dreaming of cooler weather and food that warms your soul.


Apple Tart

3 Apples, cored and thinly sliced - Use whatever is your favorite I used Gala
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed if frozen
2 tablespoons of apricot jam

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a parchment lined baking sheet place the sheet of puff pastry. Arrange the apple slices so that they are layering over each other in either straight rows or starting at a diagonal in one corner, making sure to leave a small border around the edge. Fill in any spots that look sparse after covering the whole pastry with apples. You may have some apple slices left over depending on the size of your apples. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the edges start to turn a golden brown. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack. Melt the jam in the microwave until it is completely melted and using a pastry brush, brush a thin layer of jam over the whole tart. Let cool to room temperature and serve.

Fireworks in your Mouth

The 4th of July, I used to love it, the brightly colored themed food,the cook out and of course the fireworks. My Dad would travel every year and buy us good fireworks since they were illegal in the state we lived in. I still to this day do not know where he found the time to go cause we never saw him leave to go up there and would just be surprised on the 4th with whatever he decided to bring back for us. And lucky for us we lived on a cul de sac so he would just go in the street and set off the fireworks for us and all the neighbors to see. We got to help occasionally but most of the time my Mom deemed them too dangerous for us to be near. But of all of the fireworks we did my sister and I loved Sparklers and would try to hold as many as possible with out burning ourselves. I think back and I'm sure we loved them because my Dad bought so many that we could have one lit almost the whole time he was setting them off. But now that I'm an adult I see the other side of it, all the prep that it takes to put on a 4th of July Party. So this weekend when I attend some parties that my friends are having I will appreciate all the work that they do and I will try my darnedest to help with a themed dessert. So this is dessert number one, kind of an upscale themed dessert, no food coloring here!



Red White and Blue Crostada

1 lb of strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 cup of blueberries
1 tablespoon of sugar

80z cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 pie crust, store bought or homemade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, and place the pie crust on the parchment paper. In a bowl combine the strawberries, blueberries and sugar and stir to combine and coat all of the strawberries and blueberries with some of the sugar. In a bowl combine the cream cheese, flour and sugar until smooth. Add in the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Using an off set spatula spread an even layer of the cream cheese mixture leaving an inch border all the way around. Place the berry mixture so that they cover all of the cream cheese mixture, it will be a big mound on top but will reduce in the oven. Fold the edges over about every inch to inch and a half and continue all the way around. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack completely and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

Simplicity

Summer is one of my favorite times of year because everything is simple. Produce is at its finest and doesn't need to be doctored at all. So its the perfect time to show case fruit and not mess with it at all. So this crostada is just that beautifully simple and full of flavor. You won't be disappointed if you make it.


Peach and Blueberry Crostada

4 medium peaches, sliced into 8 pieces
2/3 cup of blueberries

1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 pie crust, store bought or homemade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, and place the pie crust on the parchment paper. In a bowl combine the peaches and blueberries and stir to combine. Mound up the fruit in the middle of the pie crust and make sure to leave an inch border all the way around. Fold the edges over about every inch to inch and a half and continue all the way around. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and brown sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack completely and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

One of the Best

I love my Husband, he is so supportive and wonderful but if you heard how we talk to each other sometimes you would think we were going to get divorced next week. Case in point. I am allergic to strawberries but since everyone in my family loves them, I cook and bake with them. So that means no sampling the product to see if it needs something or if the recipe turned out how I wanted. Which is a horrible thing to do when cooking as you are always supposed to taste your food. But unless I want to break out in hives and have my tongue swell to double its size that just isn't going to happen. So after making this crostada my husband has a slice and proclaims "You are a Freak of Nature". And I look at him and say what did you just say? And he repeats himself, so of course I ask for an explanation as to what the heck he means. Apparently this is a compliment that even though I can't eat strawberries I make a mean strawberry crostada. So I guess that is a great compliment that even though I couldn't taste it at all that my ideas of what it should be like were spot on. So I guess you could say this is one of the best compliments I have ever gotten.

Strawberries and Cream Crostada

1 1/2 lbs of strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 tablespoon of sugar

80z cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 pie crust, store bought or homemade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, and place the pie crust on the parchment paper. In a bowl combine the strawberries and sugar and stir to combine and coat all of the strawberries with some of the sugar. In a bowl combine the cream cheese, flour and sugar until smooth. Add in the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Using an off set spatula spread an even layer of the cream cheese mixture leaving an inch border all the way around. Place the strawberries so that they cover all of the cream cheese mixture, it will be a big mound on top but will reduce in the oven. Fold the edges over about every inch to inch and a half and continue all the way around. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack completely and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

Melt the day away

Do you ever have those days where you don't know if you can make it the whole work day? Where all you want to do is go home and crawl under a blanket on the couch and eat something that is not at all on your diet. That is exactly how the last few days have been for me. So I wanted something super comforting and easy at the same time. I couldn't decide what I wanted to make and by the time I got home I was so tired and worn out that I didn't feel up to baking something elaborate so I went to my new best friend, My freezer. And I pulled out some lemon scones and put them in the oven, but I knew that would not be good enough to soothe the day that I had. So I whipped up some fantastic blueberry butter and once those scones came out of the oven and the blueberry butter hit the warm scone it was pure bliss and the day melted away as the butter melted into the scone.


Lemon Scones

10 oz of AP Flour
1 3/4 ounces of sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 lemons, zested
4 oz of cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of sugar

Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Add in the cubed butter and stir to coat the butter with flour. Using a pastry blender cut into the butter until they become the size of small peas. Add in the heavy cream and lemon juice stir to combine. Once it starts to come together into a dough, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it a few times until it completely comes together. Pat the dough into a circle that is about 1 inch thick and cut as desired. I used a big square cookie cutter and then sliced them in half to get nice triangles, but they can be made into any shape. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until they are light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and serve.

These do not really keep that well so they are best served the same day.

Blueberry Butter
3 tablespoons of left over Blueberry Sauce
1 stick of room temperature butter

Combine the butter and the Blueberry sauce until it is mixed thoroughly and if you would like to add more Blueberry sauce go for it!

When life gets in the way, I'm here to comfort you

So ever since my wonderful and much needed trip to London to see my best friend my life has been speeding ahead at 100 mph with me hanging on for dear life. So my apologies for my absence lately. So after this weekend of my very first catering job, don't get too excited it was for my mom's birthday so no harsh critics there. I decided I needed a break and I needed to relax for a bit. So as a treat for myself I made one of my childhood favorites breakfast for dinner. I used to love when my mom would announce it was going to be breakfast for dinner, because lets face it who doesn't like breakfast.We would get so excited and think we were getting away with something because we knew everyone else would be eating regular food for dinner that night. But not us we would be eating breakfast food. And when we had breakfast for dinner we always had blueberry muffins with a surplus of butter on them. So I knew that I had to make those but instead of a box mix, I had to find something that I could use fresh berries in.

Now I know not everyone understand this concept of breakfast for dinner basically what you might make for Saturday Breakfast (or at least in my house) would be made for dinner on a random night. I honestly think it was because it was easier and my mom forgot to take something out for dinner because the whole thing muffins included came together in about 20 minutes.

So I found this recipe and changed it up so I could have blueberry muffins, and I will tell you these were the best blueberry buns I have ever had. Buns not muffins, they were light and fluffy and kind of melted in your mouth but they were not per say muffin texture. But they were intoxicating and you couldn't stop at just 1 or 3 or OK fine I ate 5 of them. They made for a great end to a busy week.


Blueberry Cream Cheese Buns adapted from Bake or Break

1 3/4 cup of AP Flour, divided
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup of half and half
1/3 cup of blueberry sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 regular muffin tin with paper liners. In a bowl combine 1 cup of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the cream cheese, butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix in the vanilla. Add in the flour mixture and alternate with the half and half. Add in the remaining flour and mix until combined. Fill the cups up 2/3 full and top with a teaspoon of blueberry sauce. Swirl the sauce into the batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Blueberry sauce
1/3 cup of fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon of sugar

In a small saucepan over medium high heat, combine the blueberries and sugar and cook until the blueberries soften and have created a syrup. About 5- 7 minutes. Any left overs could be used over ice cream.

Borough Market.....I wish I could live there

I had a fantastic time in London, honestly probably my favorite trip over there. And one of the highlights of my trip was going to Borough Market, Thanks to my best friend for knowing that a food blogger would die and go to heaven in a place like this and making it one of our first stops.

Get ready for a Photo Extravaganza because there was just so much going on and I don't even know if I saw half of it.

First I will start with the first thing that we got there Raclette. It was amazing!

Here is the cheese melting looking delicious under the warmth of the flame.

Then they scrape off all of the cheese onto potatoes, pickles and pickled onions. They finish it off with freshly ground black pepper. They just grab it off the heat with bare hands I was in awe.

Finished plate. We got one to share and I wished that we had each gotten one after we started eating, it was fantastic. We went back up but the line was really long much longer than what we had already waited through so we pushed on.

We enjoyed our Raclette in this park/church area right next door and we weren't alone.

While walking back in and passing the Raclette booth I saw that they also made some toasted cheese sandwiches which I was tempted to buy but knew there were other goodies to eat throughout the market.
So we made our way to the area that held most of the produce. It was beautiful all of the colors and varieties of vegetables and fruits.

These tomatoes were fantastic looking, we picked up some yellow cherry tomatoes to take home and they did not disappoint.

I love when carrots have their tops on still and these little beauties were wonderful and still smelled a little like dirt just how a carrot should.

And any type of asparagus you could want, even some very interesting looking skinny asparagus.
And Mushrooms all laid out in a cascading pattern. I was so tempted to buy some but resisted as they were not part of our tapas menu for later in the weekend.

So we moved to what was on the menu, of my favorites. Cheese and lots of it. I was amazed at the huge wheels of cheese and made sure to sample as many as I could.


The most amazing Gruyere, honestly probably the best I have ever had.

Yes that is 4 wheels of parmigiano reggiano cheese you see and there was more where that comes from. I think I tried 20 different cheeses and all of them were good. We bought a Stilton, Parm, a soft goat cheese and a soft cows milk cheese. All of which were fantastic.

I loved seeing all of the different meat and seafood booths just knowing that everything was so fresh and out there for you see and smell.

There were so many types of sausages from all over Europe it was hard to decide what to get.

And how could you pass up a sample of prosciutto that was carved right off of the ham that still had the foot attached!

And Imagine noon on a 75 degree Saturday not being able to smell the fish at all they were so fresh. Honest they smelled like the sea.

And there were so many other items as well, jams, spices, seasonings, tea.

I loved this huge pile of fleur de sel that you just packed up what you needed and they had flavored salts too.

And tons of bakeries with so many different kids of bread, I was really envious of my best friend now because I can't find a bakery with half of the quantity or quality of bread that they had here near me.
And tons of olives, sun dried tomatoes and other oil cured goodies. I think I ate my weight in all of the free samples that they handed out.

And the Strange one of the bunch...........
Ostrich eggs, yes real ostrich eggs that you could buy and cook.


And Last but not least you don't think I would leave out the sweet would you. And there were plenty to be had.

Ice cream, some flavors I recognize and some I don't, but everyone in line seemed to like the finished product!
And this was atleast 6 feet long of these wooden hand carved bowl that were all attached and intertwined filled with different kids of chocolate truffles.

And brownies seemed to be a popular offering as well as cakes and a few cupcakes.

And some baklava which came in, no lie 15 different forms. We bought 2 kinds and they were both good.

And next to the Baklava was something called Turkish delight which was kind of like a gummy candy, but in interesting flavors like rose water and pistachio.

And we were beckoned over to have a piece by a salesman saying "Don't worry I won't kill you" It was very charming :)

And around the corner from the Turkish Delight was a ton of dried fruits and chocolate and yogurt covered goodies.
And I could have gone crazy over all of this but I restrained.
As the sun was going to be beating down on us for a while as we walked around and I didn't want a bunch of chocolate goo in a bag.


And to end a perfect day we stopped at a bar on the way home for a Magners and took in what a great day we had at the Market.

Thanks for letting me Appreciate you!

Courtesy of Random.org the winners are.............

Here are your random numbers:

2 15 24 7 3

Maria  said...

I love the little jars! Too cute! What a fun giveaway! Thanks!!!

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

Katie, what a lovely idea! You are so smart. Love to have one of these. Imagine the possibilities!

The Queen of Quite a Lot said...

Those both sound great! Crossing my fingers! Have a good time in London!

Lisa said...

Such a fabulous gift!! I would love to receive it. lisaweddle@msn

Emily said...

Vanilla sugar here I come!
(emily at yarnmiracle dot com)

I had a great time in London! I will hopefully be posting pictures tonight of Borough Market which was fantastic! Thanks for all the warm wishes!

Alittle Appreciation is in Order

Once I started my vanilla extract adventure I started to get really into the idea of making things for people as gifts. I think I drove P crazy with all my possible ideas of what I could make. But for my second venture I decided to make some flavored sugars. I figured this would be easy just like vanilla extract as it just has to sit and take on the flavors of what ever I wanted to flavor it with. So with summer around the corner I decided to make a Lemon Lime Sugar and the ever popular Vanilla Sugar was always in the plans. So I bought a lot of sugar because if you are making some thing like this you might as well make a lot and just surprise people for no reason with a small token of appreciation. And who doesn't like to get appreciated or a gift. I know I love gifts no matter the shape or size. So why not make some flavored sugars and give them to the people who brighten your day or have helped you recently. And since all of you Brighten my day every day and since I have neglected my blog this week and will be continuing to neglect it while on vacation this weekend and into next week while I visit my Best Friend in London I figured why not do back to back giveaways to show my appreciation. I don't worry I will be taking pictures and sharing with you all when I get back! And these will have labels on them that match my super cute vanilla extract labels I just wanted you to see what the sugar looks like.

So I will be giving away 5 pairs of containers of sugar and you get to pick which kind you want! So that means you can have one of each or both the same it is up to you, and if you don't want them labeled so you can pass them off as your own I can do that too! :) All you have to do is leave a comment making sure to leave an email address, or post something on twitter and leave another comment, if you do both so you have double the chances of winning!
This is open to US and Canada only and will close at 5pm Central time on May 26th! So pass it on and Good Luck!


Vanilla Sugar

5lbs of sugar
8 vanilla beans

Pour sugar into an airtight container and place halved vanilla beans into the sugar so that the sugar completely covers them. Wait about a month and you have vanilla sugar, and just like the extract just keep putting more sugar into the container and you will continue to get vanilla sugar for a few years with out changing the beans.

Lemon Lime Sugar

10 lbs of sugar - 5 for lemon and 5 for lime
Zest of 6 lemons
Zest of 10 limes

Zest the citrus and let it sit out for about 15 - 20 minutes to dry slightly. Then mix together with the sugar and let sit out at room temperature for a few hours so that the citrus zest dries out and you won't have clumps of sugar. I think I'm going to run mine through the food processor too so that it can be superfine sugar and can dissolve better into drinks.

Speaking of Drinks, you might be thinking what could I use these for or what could I tell the recipient to do with the sugar. Well I have a few ideas, Both can be used as a sweetener for a multitude of drinks, iced tea, coffee, and mojitos just to name a few! And they could also be used as rimming sugar for glasses, And try using vanilla sugar and cinnamon to make your cinnamon sugar it adds a little something extra! And you can use vanilla sugar to replace regular sugar in any baked good, I would suggest giving them a little more than my small jars if you were going to do that. But honestly the possibilities are endless, so make some already!

And the People who get to Taste my Hand Crafted Vanilla Extract Are.....

Through the wonderful Random.org the 3 Random numbers are....... 29, 18 and 8. Congrats I will be sending you some Handcrafted Vanilla Extract!

And Because I hit my 50 people comment mark I picked one more person to win some extract!

So Random.org gave me number........ 17!!!!!!!!!

29 -

Megan said...

I would love to try your vanilla!!! And I love the little bottles that you used.
I voted for your risotto. I have a recipe in the contest too but after seeing several of you with votes in the 1000's, I gave up on my poor queasadilla with little 50 votes. LOL O-well!

18 -

Ingrid said...

Oh, hey! I'm crossing my fingers that I win so I don't have to make my own. :)

Good luck on your contest....gonna hop over and check it out now.
~ingrid

8 -

Mary Ann said...

Wait! Sorted it out - you can find the tweet here: http://twitter.com/MaryAPorch/status/1795664114

17 -

Miss Isabelle said...

Yes, please!

I tweeted - http://twitter.com/MissIss/status/1797595169

heartcooksbrains@gmail.com

And to answer some of the questions I was asked -

I get my Vanilla Beans from Vanilla Saffron Imports.

I got my bottles and basically any jar or bottle I ever get for anything at Specialty Bottle.

My labels - now this was a pain in the you know what. I downloaded every program I could find and nothing would work/I didn't have patience to learn anything that complicated, these were supposed to be easy labels. So finally I used the background image and altered the dimensions to fit the label size and then used Avery's Design Pro software since that was the label brand I was using and set the picture as the back ground. I love how they turned out I just wish I could have figure that out day one instead of day 10! :)


And Don't worry for those of you who didn't win I made some more goodies a few months back and before I leave for London on Thursday I will do another giveaway!