Getting My Lazy Arse Some Dessert: Strawberries & Raw Sugar

Some days are seriously lazy.

Lazier than my old orange hound.

But even on very lazy days, I have a very demanding sweet tooth.

So, if you are having a very lazy day, I recommend getting yourself some strawberries on a plate, along with a little pile of sugar and a dollop of fluffy cream.

Strawberries & Raw Sugar
Self-serve. Easy sweets.


No need for a step-by-step, just some organic strawberries, homemade whipped cream (or store bought), and raw sugar. I also had some pretty pink sugar crystals (leftover cake decorations).

Just pluck yourself a strawberry, dip in the cream, then roll in the sugar. Or mix up the combination: strawberry & sugar, strawberry & just cream, spoonful of cream dipped in sugar!

Pictures from the (eating) process.

This plate mimics the old TV dinner trays, but instead filled with some fresh fruit and extras. Four strawberries for me, and four for my hubby.


A bite, and a bit of both sugars ...


More, more, more!

Maple Syrup & Popcorn Everywhere, and I Want to Eat It All!

Popcorn is in the air.
Maple syrup skies.

It must be something about September. Autumnal thoughts? Because I'm seeing some goo-oo-ood recipes out there for maple syrup and popcorn. (Or maybe after eating all mine, I just want to make some more.) In the last couple days, I found these two great-looking recipes, so I thought I'd share:

Joy the Baker
Maple Bacon Kettle Corn
Yes, bacon. Want some now.

Tinned Tomatoes & Rhubarb and Honey (via a recipe exchange)
Maple Pecan Popcorn (made entirely from maple syrup as a sugar source)


These are just fantastic. :-)

Homemade Maple Syrup & Cognac Caramel Corn

Caramel corn!

Hooray!

I grew up on Cracker Jacks. I love-love-loved those boxes with the surprise inside. I was a child who loved caramel corn growing up in a family who loved caramel corn in a town with a caramel-corn loving history! At one point, my hometown actually had competing caramel corn stores. I thought it was normal to get a bunny sculpted out of caramel corn in my Easter basket. Green hard candy eyes. Red hard candy nose. And a tuft of tail easily broken off and munched on. I really had no idea how unusual that was until I moved to NYC. They can't be ordered online. So now, as a grown adult, once a year, you can find me on Easter Sunday, taking the last Greyhound bus from my hometown back to NYC with a cardboard box full of caramel corn rabbits carefully guarded in my lap.

As luck would have it, when I moved to NYC in 1997, one of the first people I ever met and became friends with also loves caramel corn! Walking along 5th Avenue, window shopping together, you can hear us whisper "Fiddle Faddle comes in toffee flavor" or "Crunch-n-Munch comes with cashews" the way other people in NYC talk about stocks and bonds or Dolce and Gabbana.

Her birthday and my birthday are just days apart. So, this year, I made us a birthday treat I knew we'd both love. (I could have eaten the whole batch alone, in a dark closet, where my husband couldn't find me ... but I didn't. Instead, I shared. My husband got some. My First NYC Friend got some. And sharing was fine. No, it was good. No, seriously, sharing was gooood.)

Homemade Maple Syrup & Cognac Caramel Corn
Just a little bit of maple syrup adds a hint of maple flavor without upsetting the delicate chemical structure of candy that you need for that crisp satisfying crunch.


3-3 1/2 c. popped unsalted organic corn
3/4 c. organic sucanat sugar (unrefined brown sugar)
1/3 c. organic maple syrup
1/4. c. refined white sugar
1/4 c. corn syrup
1 stick of butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 T. cognac, or dark beer, or 1 T. vanilla extract
a large bowl of ice water (good advice from Joy the Baker--it's for safety, just in case of sugar burns)

1) Put the popped corn on a baking sheet (cookie sheet or jelly roll pan). Get out two spatulas. Set aside.
2) Combine the sucanat (brown sugar), maple syrup, white sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat
3) Boil for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.
4) Turn the oven on to 250 degrees F.
5) Remove the caramel from heat. Add the baking soda and cognac (or flavoring) to the caramel. If you are using cognac or beer, be sure to keep your head away from the pot as you stir. The alcohol will nearly instantaneously evaporate, and you don't want that alcohol-steam in your eyes!
6) Pour caramel over the popcorn. Toss with the spatulas. Don't worry about coating perfectly.
7) Put the caramel corn in the oven for 1 hour. Toss with the spatulas every 15 minutes.
8) Allow to cool completely. (I lick the spatulas while I wait.) Then, dig in!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* I usually try to avoid corn syrup, but what can you do? Candy requires what candy requires. And when adding a different sugar source, like sucanat or maple syrup, I definitely want the solid and reliable standard crystalline structure of a little corn syrup to be the backbone of the recipe. So, for candy recipes, I compromise. I use whatever alternative sugar sources that I can, but then I'm sure to use some the standard sugar sources so that the candy turns out great in the end.
* Putting the caramel corn in the oven is helpful. It helps the caramel finishing crystallizing nicely (in my opinion), and it coats the corn evenly while keeping the corn crispy. But since the caramel corn will be in there for a while, there's no need to pre-heat the oven. I just turn it on a moment or two before the caramel corn goes in.
* Popcorn, on its own, is a superbly healthy treat. We air pop ours. That means about 32 calories and 1.2 grams of fiber per cup. Not bad! Low in calories, high in fiber. Caramel corn (obviously) has a lot more calories, but it also still has all that healthy fiber. And splitting this batch of caramel corn was a great way to make sure I didn't eat up the whole batch. (Yes, I am a caramel corn addict.) Here's more info about the nutritional value of popcorn.

Here are more pictures from the process.

Excellent treat!


Ready to get started!



Bubble bubble toil and trouble!


A close up ...

Blueberry Streusel Coffeecake

What's better than streusel topping? I can't think of anything. I can eat streusel topping on its own. My husband could bribe me to watch baseball with streusel topping (if he only knew). When I make it for a dessert, I always make a little extra so I can sneakily eat spoonfuls on the sly.

So, it was with great excitement that I saw "Grandma's Blueberry Streusel Coffeecake" on Always Eat on the Good China. First off, she's got several recipes with streusel!!! I like this lady! Second of all, I can always tell when I'm working with a solid, time-tested recipe, because it holds up to my ingredients switcharoos. This recipe is part of the Taste & Create food blog recipe exchange.

Blueberry Streusel Coffeecake
Mouth watering yet?


Cake:
2 cups unbleached organic spelt flour
2/3 cup organic sucanat sugar (unrefined brown sugar)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
grated lemon peel (most, save some for the streusel)
4 T. melted butter
2 organic free-range eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup water
2 cups blueberries

Streusel:
1 cup organic whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sucanat sugar
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
4-5 T. room-temperature butter
1/4 cup organic oats

1) Begin the cake. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2) Whisk together the eggs, butter, yogurt, water, and vanilla in a second bowl.
3) Then, begin the streusel in a third bowl. In this third bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, oats, and chopped-up pieces of butter. Use a fork or your hands to blend these ingredients together.
4) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5) Mix together the wet and dry cake ingredients (the first and second bowls). Then, gently fold in the blueberries.
6) Pour the blueberry cake batter into a 9 x 9 pan or an 8 x 11 pan, prepared with coconut oil or butter.
7) Scatter the streusel on top.
8) Bake 35-40 minutes. Check the cake with a toothpicks. If it comes up clear of cake batter, then you're good to go! If not, turn off the oven and leave in for another 10-15 minutes.
9) Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt, fresh blueberries, and a drizzle of maple syrup!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* I dig non-wheat flours. I don't want all of American agriculture to be cows, pigs, corn, and wheat. I believe my purchase of non-wheat flours, such as spelt, is like a vote in the grocery store. More diversification on the farm field and in our gullet is healthy for everyone all around.
* In addition, spelt is higher in protein than your average flour. A cake with protein in it? Yuh-huh! So, using spelt flour turns a simple carbohydrate cake into a more complex carbohydrate, which my body will take longer to break down. More nutrients and good for stable blood-sugar levels!
* In comparison to standard bleached, white flours and sugars, I have found that spelt flour tends to need/absorb more moisture and sucanut sugar tends to creat more moisture when heated. Together, they are a perfect combination!
* I don't believe in pre-heating the oven before I begin making a multi-step dish. While I want the oven warm before sliding in the cake, I don't want to use all that gas and electricity the *whole* time I'm measuring ingredients. What a waste! So, I pre-heat the oven a few steps before the end of the recipe. Here's a nice and brief article about avoiding pre-heating your oven for a variety of recipes.
* In addition, with stable recipes such as quick-breads and cakes that rely on baking soda and baking powder, I have often tried the approach of turning off the oven and leaving in a nearly-done-but-not-quite baked good for about 10 more minutes. The oven is warm enough to finish cooking the baked goodie. No problemo!


Here are more pictures from the process.

Hello, dry ingredients! I'd like to introduce you to my little friend...


... lemon rind!



... and a few hundred of my little buddies, blueberries!


All set for that recently preheated oven (small mess in the background!).


Good on its own ...


... and with some Greek strained yogurt on top!




Go here www.tasteandcreate.com for more info about Taste & Create.

Pesto Edamame Salad: Husband-Approved Salad #2

I played a little word association game with The Husband today. It went something like this:

Me: Giants .................... Hub: Jets
Me: coffee ..................... Hub: more
Me: cat .......................... Hub: dog
Me: vegetables .............. Hub: minerals
Me: eating vegetables ... Hub: puking up vegetables

Well, if that doesn't just say it all!

So I'm continuing with my personal challenge of coming up with 50 HUSBAND SALADS! We're onto HUSBAND-APPROVED SALAD #2!

Pesto Edamame Salad
I'd recently made a pesto penne with chicken and edamame, which we both really loved. So, I decided to adapt that recipe into a salad. I served the salad with some goat cheese. But this would also be good with thin slices of parmesan, toasted walnuts or pine nuts, or tossed with salad greens. We had it as a side to a salmon entree for a lovely dinner.


1 bag of shelled non-GMO edamame
2 medium-large organic green bell peppers
1 large organic shallot
a handful of heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 organic lemon
a bundle of fresh basil (fully washed of all the dirt and grit)
1 T. organic olive oil
1 tsp. garlic chili sauce
salt and pepper

1) Follow the directions on the edamame bag to cook the soy beans. Then cool.
2) Finely chop the green bell peppers, shallot, and tomatoes. Add to the bowl of soy beans.
3) Rip the basil leaves by hand. Add to the bowl of veggies.
4) Now, time to season! Pour the olive oil onto the veggies. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the veggies. Add the chili peppers, salt, and pepper. Toss together.

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* My husband dislikes most vegetables, but he loves lima beans, kidney beans, and such. Edamame is wonderful for anyone who likes beans, as it offers a fairly familiar texture and flavor, but a much better nutritional balance. Edamame has tons of protein, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and fiber, and they're low in calories. Check out the nutritional breakdown edamame for more info.
* By making my own simple salad dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, and seasoning, we avoid trans fats and unnecessary corn syrup that are common with store-bought bottles of salad dressing.
* I like to buy non-GMO edamame. If you ever watched Food, Inc., then you remember the whole section about Monsanto's control over GMO soybeans. Big Brother. Disgusting corporate behavior. For more info, here's an article from Ecosalon, and another article about Monsanto suing farmers for saving seeds from Organicconsumers.

Here are more pictures from the process.

Freshly cooked edamame. Que adorable!


Why hello there, Mr. and Mrs. Green Pepper, fresh from the bath!


The pale lavender veins in shallots are gorgeous to look at up close. Lovely enough for a tattoo ... hmmm.

I Love A Good Challenge--Want to Give Me One?

I love a good challenge!

Maybe I watched too many MacGyver episodes as a kid. Maybe I view my kitchen as a cutting-edge laboratory. Maybe this is my way of being an astronaut, a scientist, and a magician all at once.

I don't know why. But I'm a challenge addict. Easy = boring. Challenges = fun!
I don't know what it is about piling my plate high with "to-do" tasks that gets my brain going and my blood flowing, it just does.

#1: I've already given myself the The 25 Husband-Approved Salads Challenge. (Wondering if I'll allow certain things like pasta salad ... hmmm ... seems like cheating.)

#2: This fall, I'm thinkin' I might give myself The Pancake Challenge. After trying Dragon Musing's excellent pancake recipe, I suddenly had loads of ideas for different pancake recipes. Something I'd definitely like to try once it gets cooler.

#3: But the challenge I'm MOST keen about, MOST excited would be the one I've just come up with (of course) ... The Leaner, Greener, Meaner Challenge from Friends. I was thinking how much fun it would be for friends to give me their recipes to try to adapt into a healthier or greener versions. Is that obnoxious of me? I hope not.

So would you help me out? Give me a challenge? I'm willing to get my hands dirty and make my taste buds giggle. Pick your favorite comfort food, your favorite overall recipe, a recipe you would make more often if it was healthier, or Aunt Betty's Artery-Clogging-Casserole recipe ... and I'll see if there's any thing I could come up with to make it healthier AND make it taste as close as possible to the original.

If you have a recipe you think would be fun to contribute to my goofy challenge, please post or e-mail me.

xoxo

I WANT PANCAKES!

I'm sitting ... waiting ... morning church bells ringing, computer chair sticky, husband asleep.

Oh, how I want pancakes, I want to eat them right now!

But, you see, I'm waiting for my pancakes to rise. "Rise"? Yes, rise. These are wicked cool pancakes. Made with yeast. My husband and I will be dining on pancakes for Sunday supper.

This recipe is part of the Taste & Create food blog recipe exchange, and I got to try out a nifty recipe from Dragon Musings, a blog I'd been checking out and admire. And I decided to try her pancake recipe. I mean, how could I resist? "Sultanas"--what the hell are those? But they sound sultry. Pancakes made with yeast, not quick rising like your usual pancake recipe. I don't know if it's more common to make pancakes with yeast in Australia, but I think it's nifty.

So, right now I'm waiting ... for my pancake batter to rise in the frig.

Overnight Pancakes
Dragon Musings recipe was awesome. "Sultanas," as it turns out, are a type of raisin. Which I thought I had in my pantry. But found I did not, a bit too late. So, instead of the sultanas/raisins, I added in some of my favorite pancake ingredients, to see how they'll meld with the yeast-based dough. It turned out awesome. After tasting these cakes, I can tell you, I plan to use this recipe again, and with raisins next time! Yum.


1 and 1/2 cups unbleached organic wheat flour
1/2 cup organic spelt flour (or other non-wheat)
1/2 cup bran flakes
1/4 cup oats
2 T. raw sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 package dried yeast
1 tsp. (or more) grated organic orange rind
1 T. molasses
1/4 melted butter
1 organic, free-range egg
1 and 1/2 cups warm organic milk

1) In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, bran flakes, oats, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast.
2) Then, add the moist ingredients: orange rind, molasses, butter, egg, and milk. Stir gently until well blended.
3) Cover and store in the frig overnight, or for about 12 hours.
4) When you are ready, cook the batter in a buttered skillet, as you would with normal pancakes. (NOTE: My batter was a tad too thick once I took it out of the frig, so I added about a half cup of water to the batter. Turned out perfect, light pancakes that held their form through cooking and flipping.)

Now that I've tried this recipe once, I can't wait until next time. Somehow thinking of pancakes with yeast completely alters my perception of pancakes. How about rose water and pistachio pancakes? Or Chai and raisin pancakes? I believe I'll be trying Dragon Musing's pancake recipe again soon!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* Whenever I'm making something fairly sturdy, like pancakes, I try to blend the types of flour I use. I'd like to avoid using only wheat. Other types of flours bring more to the table and my gut: spelt has got protein, bran flakes have fiber, and the combination will help create a more complex carbohydrate. So, my body will register the pancake not as sugar, but as a longer lasting energy.
* For a portion of the sweetener, I used a wee bit o' molasses. Molasses has got that deep color, deep flavor, and iron!
* It's hot here in Brooklyn. Hot and humid. (Bluck!) So, doing a recipe that requires such little cooking and use of a heat source is a perfect way to conserve energy and keep from frying in our little apartment.

Here are more pictures from the process.

Those alluring orange rinds peeking out from the dry ingredients...


Now, adding in the liquids ...


Just some pictures of pretty fruit, bound for the fruit salad!




MMMMMmmm, more please!



Go here www.tasteandcreate.com for more info about Taste & Create.