Extra Schmaltz!

I was invited to a dinner party with rather short notice, and asked to make dessert, which isn't really my specialty. Luckily, I got this ginormous, very British cookbook "1000 Classic Recipes" for $2 at a book sale. Being British, probably half the recipes are for cakes, pies or tarts, and flipping through I found this recipe which was ludicrously easy and required very few ingredients. It's low fat (for the gallbladderless among us), it could probably be made with gluten free flour, it takes maybe half an hour to make from start to finish, and it's really tasty - a nice, light summer dessert. The one caveat is that it's best to serve fairly soon after making, otherwise it gets a bit mushy from the berry juice. Also, it doesn't make a huge amount - I'm not sure how amenable it would be to doubling, though it sufficed for six people for a light dessert.  It's best served with vanilla ice cream. 2 c. worth of berries (I used raspberries, stra...

After a recent visit to North Carolina, where strawberries are already ripe, I was inspired to make this simple but wonderful dessert. Makes six. 1 pint strawberries 1 c. heavy whipping cream, divided 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 c. sugar, divided 3/4 c. flour 1 egg 3 Tbsp. cold butter 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle with2-3 Tbsp. sugar. Add a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon, if you have it. Allow to rest for an hour. Use a fork to crush some of the strawberries. Sift the flour together with the baking powder and salt. Stir in 3 Tbsp. of sugar. Cut the butter in with a fork until it is the size of small peas. Whisk the egg in a cup and reserve a couple spoonfuls of it for later. Add 1/4 c. of whipping cream to the cup and stir. Pour into the flour mixture and mix until the dough comes together. Turn onto a flour board and cut into circles or squares. Brush the remaining egg on the cakes and ...

These cupcakes are completely bonkers. Moist, springy, flavorful, but not overly rich. They are based on my Apple Cupcakes recipe with a vanilla-bean version of Frances Frosting.  The basic principle could be used with any flavor--and I've had it as a sheet cake with orange jello and mandarin oranges, which was fantastic. You can go 100% trailer trash and frost it with Cool-Whip, but I recommend the frosting variation below. You can see the incredibly moist strawberry interior of a completed cupcake in the lower right. 1 recipe Apple Cupcakes (or other white or yellow cake) 1 package strawberry Jell-O 1 c. boiling water 12 strawberry fruit snacks for garnish foil cupcake liners with paper lining pink sprinkles ~2 c. frosting (see below) Place the paper liners in the cupcake pan, saving the foil liners for later. Fill each cup to within 1/4" of the rim. Bake as directed (22 minutes). Allow to cool to about room temperature in the pan. Poke 10-12 holes in each c...

For Valentines, I whipped up a nice batch of chocolate covered strawberries. The original recipe I saw called for you to "drizzle white chocolate over the top with a fork" but it turns out the white chocolate I had wasn't terribly drizzleable. We ended up putting it in a plastic bag with a hole cut out of one corner, frosting style, and distributing it that way. It's hot - watch your fingers. Chocolate covered strawberries: 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate 1-2 Tbsp butter 1 # strawberries, washed and dried well 2-4 oz white chocolate (optional) 1-2 Tbsp butter Heat the dark chocolate double boiler style with 1-2 Tbsp butter - I put it in a ceramic bowl over a saucepan of water. When the chocolate is liquidy enough, dip in and rotate the strawberries one by one until each is properly covered. Place on a cookie sheet with wax paper. When you're done with the dark chocolate, you can heat the white chocolate (with or without butter) and drizzle however seems best. Place in f...

Hooray! We finally got a grill and we put it to use immediately. Crisp, succulent cauliflower seems to be in season around here so we threw some on the grill. I make this in the winter too, using the oven. Simply cut up a cauliflower into fairly large chunks, brush with oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika. Roast it in a hot oven (450) with a run under the broiler, if need be, or on a charcoal grill. It may take some time, so be patient. The steaks simply had salt and pepper on them and were fantastic. There may be hope for my steak-making skills yet. Look forward to more grill recipes! *** In other news, I finally found some rhubarb at one of the farmers' markets around here and I set out to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie. It sure looked good when I finished baking it... ...but, alas, it didn't thicken up enough and was also rather tart! Reflecting upon what went wrong, I realize that I only used 3 Tbsp. of thickener instead of 4 because I lost count, and I probably...