Ground Cherry Salsa
… and more fun items from my CSA share
The angle of the sun has shifted, the kids are headed back to school and football fans are restless. All signs that summer is threatening to end. But because my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership lasts until October – I’m refusing to admit summer is over. Having the freshest in-season fruits and veggies over several months is perhaps the most obvious reason to have a CSA. But your purchase of a CSA share or subscription also provides important support to local farmers throughout their growing season. I find that I plan my meals around what’s in my CSA box each week, so we actually end up eating more fruits and vegetables. Another one of my favorite things about belonging to a CSA is that it exposes me to unique produce items that I may never purchase otherwise - or that may not even be available from the grocery. Last week I received a pint of ground cherries. Ground cherries are housed in little paper husks sort of like mini tomatillos. Inside the husks are marble-sized orangish-yellow fruits that have a sweet-tart taste described by some as a tomato mixed with pineapple or mango. I had never tried these little gems. At first I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but they quickly found their way into a slightly sweet ground cherry salsa.
Spaghetti and Tiramisu Birthday Cake
Another trip around the sun and we are still in pandemic mode. At times it feels like we’ve lost a year (going on two). But in reality—a lot has happened since this all started. Life goes on and we’ve all had to find creative ways to celebrate special events in our lives. My daughter turned 30 earlier this month, which made me reflect on all the birthdays we’ve celebrated. I was the mom who started months in advance with planning a themed birthday party for my kids. My daughter was more into it than my son (go figure). Fast forward to my daughter’s 30th. We were traveling over her birthday, so once we were back to our respective homes, I wanted to properly celebrate with a birthday dinner and cake. She lives three hours away, so the transportation of said cake needed to be considered. I decided to make spaghetti-sauce-to-go and a tiramisu cake that could travel without too much trouble.
Winning blueberry recipes
For those of you who have been with me for the last year, you know that I love blueberry-picking season. We have the best blueberry farm within 10 minutes of our home. Besides being the easiest berry to pick – no bending over or prickly vines (for the most part) – blueberries also last the longest and are the simplest berry to freeze. Every year I search out and make new blueberry delights. Besides the recipes I have on repeat, this year I made a blueberry-ginger salsa served on halibut, blueberry-mint Arnold Palmers, blueberry cheesecake ice cream, blueberry Dutch babies, a blueberry cocoa crumble and a new take on blueberry scones.
French Silk Pie Bars
I’ve seen many mentions of and recipes for “French Silk Pie” in cookbooks and online over the years and never really gave it much thought. After all, I have a chocolate cream pie made of melted candy bars in my recipe vault handed down from a family member that’s a crowd pleaser and super easy to make. So, what led me to make French Silk Pie Bars? It all started a few months back when I posted my Brown Sugar Cookies followed by Neapolitan cookies, both from Sarah Kieffer’s 100 Cookies book. With so many cookies in the cookiesphere, I proposed the idea of making a new cookie each month and asked for requests. In response, my friend Nancy suggested Cookie #63 - French Silk Pie Bars. (What?! A cookie that involves pie crust?) Being easily distracted, sadly I did not follow through on making a new cookie in June or developing a list. (Please send me your requests now!) But I’m happy to report that I’m back on track (barely). Thanks to Nancy’s visit on July 29, I snuck in the French Silk Pie Bars as the July cookie.
80th birthday picnic: pulled pork, potato salad & cakes
Recipes for Amy’s Barbecue Sauce and Shirley’s Potato Salad
We recently celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday with a family picnic at Wayne Morris Ranch in Eugene. The picnic shelter includes limited kitchen facilities (sink, stovetop and outlets) but no barbecue grills. So, we decided on a menu of pulled pork sandwiches, an assortment of salads, baked beans and birthday cake! My sisters and I made all the food between us. For the pulled pork, we used the recipe for barbecue sauce from my friend (and work-twin) who self-named her recipe: Amy’s Famous Barbecue Sauce for Pulled Pork Sandwiches. We had a variety of salads including coleslaw, fruit salad, tomato-basil pasta salad and my mom’s potato salad recipe — Shirley’s Potato Salad. Our dessert table included German chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting, lemon cake and funfetti cupcakes. Anyone who knows our family, knows one dessert option is not enough!
Summer Sandcastle Cake
Summer officially kicks off for me with the Fourth of July and then I invariably try to cram in a summer’s worth of fun in one month. Almost ever year over the past 15 years we have been lucky enough to celebrate the holiday with our long-time family friends who have a house on the Oregon Coast. It’s one of my favorite traditions. Gathering at the same time each year to check in on each other’s lives has created a special bond between our families. All the laughs, inside jokes and priceless memories and traditions will hopefully extend for generations to come. Naturally part of our tradition is the food! Seaside means corn dogs courtesy of our friends’ neighbor, caramel corn from Philips Candies, spinning the wheel at the Seaside Candyman, chowder at Norma’s, clam digging for part of the crew, and good ole American burgers and watermelon year after year. Recently, crème brulee French toast with berries has been a hit. But dessert has been the tradition that has stood the test of time. I like to joke that my entry fee for being invited each year is making “the pie” (but I’m not really joking). In addition to the requested chocolate candy bar pie, this year I decided to re-introduce the Sandcastle Cake.
Tillamook cheese bread and White Zinfandel
I had never watched tennis until I met my husband. He was the cutest player on the University of Oregon men’s tennis team. Well, okay he was the only player I watched (or knew). Five years later we started our married life in Arizona, where of course, tennis was very popular. My husband’s parents also played tennis and his mom loved to celebrate Wimbledon. She’s been gone for 28 years this August, but I think about her every year when Wimbledon occurs. In the days before streaming, she’d plan her day — and sleep — around the time of a key match (her favorite was Chrissy Evert). For the finals, she would make chocolate-dipped strawberries and a toasty, gooey Tillamook Cheese bread meant to be enjoyed with a glass of White Zinfandel. After all, this was the late 80s. A few times a year I dig out the recipe card that’s in my mother-in-law’s handwriting and reminisce about watching tennis with my husband’s family. With the grand slam tournament being cancelled last year, this year’s Wimbledon (semifinals July 8/9 and finals July 10/11) calls for lots of cheesy bread and juicy chocolatey strawberries, and wine. But make mine rosé.
Yummy Strawberry Recipes
I was so excited for strawberry season this year, anxiously watching the Remlinger Farms Facebook page for opening day. When the day came, we drove out to the (very crowded) farm and told ourselves to not go overboard; we’d come back later in the month. And then it rained and rained, life happened, and we never made it back. So unfortunately, although I had intended on writing about strawberries and showing my pics weeks ago, that didn’t materialize. I did manage to make strawberry scones, and one batch of strawberry jam. Oh and maybe some ice cream bars and milkshakes and mocktails. Hopefully some of you still have access to strawberries either from a local farmer’s market or your own yard. The grocery store works too. Confession. I went to my freezer and dug out a bag of vacuum-sealed strawberries from last year and made what I call Strawberry Cookies & Cream Ice Cream. You know. Because we are having an unprecedented heatwave in the Pacific Northwest. And yes, I know that other parts of the US regularly have triple digit heat (I lived in Arizona for 17 years). But my and my husband’s stubborn streak said we don’t need no stinkin’ air conditioning when we moved to Washington. Ha! And if you must know, I had ice cream at 8am this morning. And again at 2pm. Read on for strawberry recipes and ideas.
Fika with Cardamom Rolls
A few years ago when I was on a work trip to Germany, I visited a college friend who lived in Munich. One afternoon as we walked around the city, she suggested we enjoy the German tradition of “kaffee und kuchen" (coffee and cake). This may have been my favorite moment of the trip! This afternoon ritual where friends, family or coworkers meet at a café or one’s house to enjoy coffee and cake while socializing is Germany's answer to Swedish fika. Both traditions are meant for slowing down and taking a break. Fika (pronounced fee-ka) is both a verb and a noun. In Scandanavian countries, cardamom buns or rolls are popular for Fika. Variations of these sweet buns gained popularity in the U.S. when in 2019 the Swedish bakery Fabrique opened its first United States location in Manhattan. In Finland, people enjoy a similar ritual of eating pulla, a buttery Finnish sweet bread scented with cardamom. In the spirit of Fika, I decided to make Finnish Cardamom Rolls.
Neapolitan cookies (times two)
There’s something nostalgic about Neapolitan ice cream. I remember my dad opening up and unfolding the rectangular cartons of the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream and cutting big slices that consisted of equal portions of each flavor. Neapolitan actually refers to belonging to, or characteristic of Naples, Italy. The associated tri-color may have originally included pistachio (instead of chocolate) to represent the colors of the Italian flag. To this day, there seems to be a debate on the correct order of flavors and the correct order to eat the flavors! When we lived in Arizona, my nanny would buy Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches for the kids. They would methodically eat one flavor at a time. White or vanilla was winter; chocolate or brown was fall; and strawberry or pink was summer. Kids’ imaginations are great. I guess we didn’t have spring in Arizona—winter went straight to summer apparently in their minds! Regardless of which order you prefer the three flavors to appear in your Neapolitan treats, to me, it’s more about the nostalgia than the actual taste. When I saw Neapolitan Cookies #70 in Sarah Kieffer’s 100 Cookies book, I knew I had to make them.
Brown sugar cookies with brown-butter cream cheese frosting
I’m so excited to share my new cookie discovery with you all — Brown Sugar Cookies! Everyone is familiar with sugar cookies. Plain, sprinkled, frosted. Rumor has it that The Pioneer Woman’s husband prefers sugar cookies made from tubes of store-bought refrigerator dough. And you’re probably lying if you say you don’t like those soft, frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles sold in the bakery section of your local grocery store. And then there’s the Pillsbury sugar cookie dough that comes in different shapes for the holidays. Soft and chewy. Pretty tasty actually. So you may be wondering, does anyone need another sugar cookie recipe? The answer is yes. Most definitely. Yes.
Asparagus quiche with brushetta topping
Question for all the mothers out there: Do you want Mother’s Day breakfast in bed? The popular vote says no thank you. Apparently, this tradition dates back to the 1930s when American media suggested that children serve breakfast in bed to their moms. Personally, I’d welcome a lovingly made, hand-delivered bedside brew, but keep the food in the kitchen where it belongs. Don’t get me wrong, I do have sweet memories of my two young kids carrying breakfast into the room with their smiling proud faces peering over the tray. But that time has passed, and luckily it was before I became a coffee drinker. Today, eating in bed would totally mess up my routine of slowly savoring my morning coffee and letting the day soak in before I think about breakfast.
Butternut squash and black bean enchiladas with tomatillo salsa
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is widely interpreted as a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, and for many people, an excuse to enjoy tacos on a day other than Tuesday. Sure, Taco Tuesday is great but there’s so much more to Mexican food. Like enchiladas! Tacos and enchiladas are both very popular in the U.S., where most Mexican food is far from authentic or traditional. But I love it all. Mexican (which comes from a combination of ancient Aztec, Mayan and Spanish traditions), Tex-Mex and other Southwest dishes all have their nuances but similarly celebrate fresh ingredients such as tomatoes, chiles, tomatillos, onions and cilantro.
Enchiladas, which actually did originate in Mexico where the practice of rolling tortillas around food such as small fish dates back to Aztec times, are one of my favorites. When making enchiladas at home, I like to experiment with different salsas and fillings. Chicken and vegetarian are my favorite. (Let's face it: at the end of the day, it’s really all about the guac.) With Cinco de Mayo around the corner, I wanted to share my version of roasted butternut squash, corn and black bean enchiladas, topped with a red sauce and freshly made tomatillo salsa.
Chicken Salad and Coffee Mud Pie à la Cork ‘N Cleaver
Someday I’ll tell my grandkids that back in the day I drove a car (with an internal combustion engine no doubt) 40 minutes to an office building every Monday through Friday and worked in a cubicle all day. Maybe that already dates me, but it pretty much describes my early corporate career. I worked in public relations for a big tech company back when out-of-town editors would visit and it was our job to treat them to fancy lunches (and wine in the middle of the day). Discovering all the nice restaurants on an expense account in Phoenix and Scottsdale was definitely a perk of the PR job. Working for a large company also meant lots of coworkers’ birthdays to celebrate with team lunches. Cork 'N Cleaver was the default birthday restaurant in the 90s for my department. A group of us ladies always ordered the same thing: chicken salad that came with banana bread and a big piece of shareable mud pie with an uninhibited round of happy birthday.
Filberts or Hazelnuts? Toss ‘em in your salads!
Depending on where you are from and how old you are, you may call these small round nuts a filbert or a hazelnut. I grew up in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and vividly remember the filbert trees at the end of the street. When all the nuts would fall to the ground, we would stomp on their hard shells to break them open. They were never considered a delicacy and we never thought about actually eating them. Years later when hazelnuts started appearing in cookbooks and on restaurant menus as an Oregon specialty, I pondered, “When did the lowly filbert become a sought-after hazelnut?” Today, hazelnuts provide a fancy addition to chocolate desserts and a sweet, toasted crunch to all kinds of salads. Two recipes where hazelnuts shine are my sister’s veggie pasta salad and a shaved Brussels sprouts and apple salad.
Incredible edible flowers
When my husband put in two elevated garden boxes a few years ago, we jokingly said they were “his” and “hers” and entered into a friendly growing competition. It has become apparent that I may not have a green thumb, or maybe it’s patience I’m short on, but I’ve tried a variety of herbs such as basil, cilantro and oregano. My basil always dies. The cilantro bolts. My sage, rosemary and thyme are in the ground, so they are good. (Yes, I know I’m missing the parsley.) They say mint is impossible to kill, but I think I have. Really it just got too big for the pot and I didn’t tend to it in time. My chives are planted in the ground and besides looking pretty, the lavender-colored sphere-shaped flowers make lovely garnishes. Through all of this, I’ve determined that I like to grow pretty little fragrant food garnishes and flavorings that are accessible only a few steps off my patio to decorate a dish or garnish a dessert. Last summer I decided I needed some edible flowers and planted chamomile, pansies and violas in my garden box. The latter of which are just starting to pop up again to say hello.
Tie-Dye Easter Eggs
Most of us associate tie-dye and tie-dye apparel with the hippies of the 60s. However, tie-dye was part of American culture in the roaring 20s, and the 80s decade is when tie-dye hit a high point in fashion. Tie-dye continues to come back in style every few years. During the pandemic, tie-dye made a massive comeback and was a hot quarantine fashion trend especially in the form of stay-at-home lounge sets. Most of us have tried our hand at tie-dyeing t-shirts or other clothing items at least once. I remember my sister making tie-dye shirts with my kids in the 90s (outside on the patio). Granted it can be a messy undertaking. But who doesn’t love a good tie-dye? When I saw tie-dye eggs pop up on my Instagram feed from Grossy Pelosi — using shaving cream or whipping cream —I knew that was definitely more my tie-dye speed. I’m here to tell you it worked magically and to share pics of my groovy eggs!
Frosted Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
If you lived in Eugene, Oregon or went to college in Eugene during the 80s and into the 90s, I’m betting you remember The Cookie Cottage in Valley River Center (VRC) shopping mall. And if you were not in the vicinity of Eugene during this time, you’ll wish you were once you see the cookies I’m about to tell you about. The Cookie Cottage featured a black pot-bellied stove and they sold several warm cookie varieties — but their specialty (or the most original) was a large chocolate cookie covered in chocolate frosting with a marshmallow filling. They were on the south end of the mall outside of Meier & Frank (where I happened to work during college). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on the internet to confirm which years they were at the mall. I do know that when I was in college, and not naming names, we would make a special trip to Valley River for one of these cookies. Several of my sorority sisters (and my own three sisters) still talk about the renowned chocolate marshmallow cookies. In the words of one of my favorite sisters in the bond, they were “a fine product.”
Challah bread ups your morning toast game
Avocado & Egg Toast | Overnight Crème Brûlée French Toast
There aren’t many things better than the smell of warm bread baking in the oven. Well except for eating that warm bread with a big slab of melty butter smeared on top. Bread is one of the world’s oldest foods. In fact, Egyptians were buried with loaves of bread to provide sustenance in the afterlife. (Hmm, perhaps one can live by bread alone.) Most of us probably remember our moms or grandmas baking bread; and depending on your age, you may remember bread machines being a big trend in the 90s. But chances are you may have never made your own bread. Well, now is the time. Baking bread has been extremely popular during the pandemic. The act of making bread with your own two hands provides the ultimate fulfillment. It’s comforting, relaxing and provides a form of creative expression. Plus, the end result is delicious and makes everyone in the house happy. I recently made my first challah bread that beyond just giving us thick slices to enjoy, lent itself to a breakfast of avocado and egg toast one morning, followed by a custardy blueberry French toast the next. (And I think my husband snuck in an afternoon BLT.)
How the pandemic deepened my connection with food
It’s been quite a year. All of us have experienced some degree of loss when it comes to normalcy and sense of time. Others less fortunate have lost jobs, security, and sadly, loved ones. It feels like the longest-shortest year ever. In my home state of Washington, the governor issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 23, 2020. To me that’s the marker of when this all began. While we had no idea what we were really in for, fear of the unknown was real and many of us went into a hunter-gatherer mode. In reality, my immediate circle of friends and family were lucky. We had warm roofs over our heads, running hot water, Wi-Fi, Netflix and access to enough food to fill us up. It may not have always been what we wanted to eat, but we certainly weren’t going hungry. In fact, throughout the stress and monotony, food has brought us together, allowed us to virtually travel, and provided a sense of comfort and connection. For me, this has been especially true.