the three deadly C's

Carbs. Cheese. Cream.

All in one recipe - in the form of potatoes, bleu cheese, and heavy cream - oh yes!

This recipe is to die for. Seriously, it's like scalloped potatoes IN A PIE. Soaked in cream and doused with cheese! Make it now - for breakfast, for brunch, for dinner, for company, just make it!

Bleu Cheese and Red Potato Tart
Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen via Gourmet Magazine

• pre-made pie dough (if you want to make your own crust, see Smitten Kitchen)
• 1 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 pound bleu cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
• salt

In a medium saucepan, cover potato slices with water by two inches. Simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Pat potato slices dry with a towel.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Press the pie dough into a 9-inch tart pan and trim any overhanging dough from the edges. (You could probably make this in a pie pan too, but it looked so pretty as tart, that I highly recommend using the tart pan.)

Arrange potato slices, overlapping slightly, in concentric circles on top of the pie crust in the tart pan. Sprinkle bleu cheese over potatoes. Whisk cream and egg yolk together and pour into tart shell, then sprinkle tart with herbs and salt.

Bake tart at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, until bubbling and golden brown.

A few notes:
On herbs: When I sprinkled the full tablespoon of herbs over the tart, it seemed like a lot and I thought it might be overpowering. It wasn't - it was perfect.

On bleu cheese: I love bleu cheese. Some people don't. That being said, this wasn't overpoweringly bleu cheesy - it was perfect.

Also, per Smitten Kitchen - the filling will remain soft and custard like after baking - it will not firm up like a quiche.

fresh squeezed

I love strawberry lemonade. Love it. I can make myself sick off of it whenever I see it on a restaurant menu and order a glass. And then another. And another. But why have I waited this long to make my own lemonade? I finally checked it off my To Do list earlier this summer. And then I checked it off again. And again. And again. Then I made it with peaches. As far as I'm concerned, there should be a pitcher of this stuff in my refrigerator at all times throughout the summer.


This recipe is for all the new or pregnant mamas out there who are laying off the booze this summer. It's an easy and refreshing recipe - I recommend making it during baby's nap. When baby wakes up, the two of you can go out and sit on the porch and you can enjoy a nice cold glass of lemonade with a happy baby on your lap. (Isn't that how it works? There's no baby crying, no diapers to change - just a quiet afternoon on the porch with mother and child and maybe a good book...right?!)

Also, I doubled Emeril's original recipe - there's no sense in going to the trouble to squeeze lemons if you only make enough lemonade to last an afternoon. I put it in a glass drink dispenser, but if you don't have one, I'd recommend mixing it all up in a big pasta pot and then pouring it into several pitchers. Make a lot of this stuff and you will be happy.

Strawberry (or Peach) Lemonade
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse
8-12 servings

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
• 2 cups fresh lemon juice (10-12 lemons depending on size and juiciness)
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and halved (or 2 16-ounce cans of peaches plus syrup)
• 4 cups cold water

Bring 4 cups of water and the sugar to a boil in a saucepan.  Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon peel and lemon juice, stir, and remove from heat. Let cool completely, then strain into a drink dispenser.

Puree the strawberries using a blender or immersion blender and add them to the drink dispenser with the lemon juice. Add additional 4 cups of water and stir well to combine. Refrigerate until chilled.

Note: If you're serving this for a party, add some whole strawberries (or peach slices) and lemon slices to make it look fancy.

Happy squeezing!

for the love of squarsh: the ubiquitous zucchini post

Every summer, food blogs are filled with posts about "how to use up zucchini."  Now, I think that good ol' zucchini bread is a treat, not a way to use up an over-abundant vegetable.  In fact, I have bags of shredded zucchini in my freezer, so I can make this treat year-round. However, I will admit that the plethora of summer squash can get a little overwhelming at times.  It's a good thing I have a vegetable-loving dog!

My favorite zucchini recipe is of course, Blueberry Zucchini Bread - one of the recipes that started this blog. However, when I asked Larry if he had any requests for zucchini recipes this week, he asked for regular zucchini bread and squash pie - just like his mom used to make.

Larry's mom makes squash pie (or as she pronounces it, squarsh pie) - and if you've never had it, I suggest you try it - it tastes like custard!  After he requested squarsh pie, he worried "but you don't have Mom's recipe" and I promised that with a little googling I could figure it out.

As for the zucchini bread, I realize that everyone has their favorite recipe, but I had a bottle of buttermilk in my fridge that I needed to use up, so a little more googling, and I had found this recipe.  I'm a firm believer that buttermilk makes every recipe better.

Neither of these recipes are fancy or complicated - really, they are simple (confession: I even used pre-made pie dough) summer staples, just like mom used to make.

Squarsh Pie
Adapted from Just Jane

• 1 cup zucchini pulp (see below)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter

• pre-made pie dough

To make zucchini pulp:  Peel a large (or 2 medium) zucchini.  Cut it into chunks and boil in water until tender. Drain well.  Puree in a food processor.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Press pie dough into a pie pan and form crust.  Blend pulp, sugar, evaporated milk, flour, eggs, vanilla, and salt in food processor.  Pour filling into pie shell and top with butter cut into chunks.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Buttermilk Zucchini Bread

Adapted from Caviar and Codfish

Makes one loaf

• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 large or 2 small)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan.  Combine buttermilk, oil, and sugar in a medium bowl and mix with an electric mixer until light-colored and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix.  Fold in the zucchini.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, and clove.  Stir to combine and then mix everything with the wet mixture until just combined.

Pour batter into a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 70 minutes or until the top is firm and a toothpick comes out clean.

the last of the blueberries

Just a week later, and all seven pounds of blueberries are gone.  I made blueberry oatmeal squares, blueberry smoothies, blueberry maple parfaits, blueberry freezer jam, and ate handfuls of blueberries straight from the bucket.  However, the last three cups of berries went into the best recipe yet - a beautiful blueberry galette.

I'm a little obsessed with galettes.  They're like free-form pies and I love their rustic look.  Confession:  I often don't make my own pie crusts - the rolling out, the tearing, it is all too frustrating to me.  But the galette filling recipe is so easy, that a recipe that called for a homemade crust was a requirement this time around.  Not only did this crust make the dessert (the addition of cornmeal is fantastic), but it came together in a snap in the food processor.  I may be revisiting my feelings about homemade pie crusts from now on because it was totally worth it.  The other great thing about galettes is that they are not supposed to look perfect - so a cracked and uneven crust is part of its charm!

Blueberry Galette

Slightly adapted from I Shot the Chef

For the crust:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 2-3 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:

• 3 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, chilled

To assemble:

• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse briefly to blend.  Cut the butter into pieces, add to the flour mixture, and pulse until the butter is cut into very tiny pieces, about 30 seconds.  The texture should be sandy with very tiny lumps throughout.

While the food processor is running, pour the cream and 2 tablespoons of ice water through the feed tube. Process until the dough begins to hold together.  Turn off the food processor, remove the top, and feel the dough - if it holds together it is done.  If it is still crumbly, add the remaining tablespoon water and pulse again.

Turn the pastry dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Shape into a flat disk and wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator 2 hours, or until firm.  When ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit 10-12 minutes to become pliable.

Place the berries and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a mixing bowl and toss together to distribute evenly. Taste the berries to see if they need any more sugar.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.  Roll out the pastry dough between sheets of lightly parchment paper to a large circle about 12 inches in diameter.  Carefully, peel the parchment paper off the top of the dough, brush excess flour off the dough, and transfer the pastry dough with the bottom piece of parchment paper onto a baking sheet.

Mound the berries into a pile in the center of the dough circle, leaving a 2 1/2-inch border all around.  Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and distribute over the berries.

Fold the border up so that it partially covers the berries.  Brush the dough with the cream.  (Be careful that it doesn't run under the galette - if it does, wipe it up because it can cause the bottom of the galette to burn.) Evenly sprinkle the sugar over the dough border.

Bake the galette at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until light golden. (If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.)

Note: The only problem I did have was that it is impossible to move the baked galette from the baking sheet to a serving platter and attempting to do so would result in a catastrophe of epic proportions.  I was able to make the transfer by leaving the parchment paper under the galette and then tearing off the exposed parts of the paper from around the pie once it was on the serving platter.

perfect parfaits

We've been eating a lot of blueberries around here lately, and I usually gravitate towards dessert recipes that involve baking - so I'm extremely glad that I gave these blueberry parfaits a try. They were phenomenal - and easy to make, too. This would be the perfect dessert to serve at a summer dinner party - they look elegant, and are rich, but refreshing at the same time.



When I first mentioned to Larry that these had maple syrup in them, he looked at me skeptically and said "Maple syrup is for pancakes - and nothing else!" I tend to agree - I don't really like the flavor of maple unless it is going on my breakfast. But the syrup paired perfectly with the blueberries - and accented the flavor much like cinnamon pairs perfectly with apples.

I wish I had better glasses to serve these in - one of the reasons that this recipe caught my attention was the beautiful way it was photographed in Gourmet magazine. But layers of purple berries and fluffy white whipped cream can't look bad - no matter what you serve them in!  (Also, I took the photo before I topped them with nuts - which accented the blueberries perfectly and added a little crunch.)

Another note - don't be tempted to halve this recipe. I was only serving three people, so I cut the recipe in half - big mistake. Trust me, even if there are only a few of you - you will finish these up without any trouble (and lick the glass clean while you're at it!).

Blueberry Maple Parfaits
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, July 2009
6 servings

• 3 1/2 cups blueberries, divided
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup, divided
• 1 cup chilled heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• crushed pecans

Cook 2 1/4 cups blueberries with 1/2 cup maple syrup in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until blueberries have burst, about 3-8 minutes. (Note, I recommend doing this step the day before you plan to serve them and then just popping the mixture in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the parfaits. However, if you make the blueberry mixture shortly before you serve, then cool it in an ice bath.)

Beat cream with remaining 1/4 cup maple syrup in a bowl using an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks.

Stir lemon juice and remaining 1 1/4 uncooked berries into cooled blueberry-maple mixture.

Spoon 2 tablespoons blueberry mixture into each of 6 glasses and top with whipped cream. Repeat layering blueberry mixture and whipped cream. The top layer should be blueberries. Top with crushed pecans.

seven pounds of blueberries!

Here is our bounty after our day at the U-Pick Farm - seven pounds of blueberries from Butlers Orchard.
Stay tuned for lots of blueberry recipes!

the best marinade

So...not to sound like a snob here, but those bottle grocery store marinades quite often lack a quality that is important to me when cooking (and eating): flavor.  Not only that, they're full of chemicals and salt.  So Larry and I quite often make our own marinades, but still, a lot of them fail to add enough flavor to satisfy me. Bland meat just doesn't make me happy.

So I was completely blown away after we adapted a recipe in Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook to marinate beef and pork kabobs for a 4th of July barbeque.  I bought this cookbook so that I would have recipes for all the herbs in my herb garden and it has turned out to be my new favorite cookbook.  It isn't full of glossy photos, but the recipes are fabulous.  I highly suggest you pick up a copy of this book - or at the very least add it to your Christmas List!  And if you haven't come across Jerry Traunfeld before, he was the executive chef of The Herbfarm Restaurant, a restaurant outside of Seattle that harvests its ingredients from its own kitchen garden. This place is definitely on my To Try list next time I am in the Pacific Northwest.

This marinade is amazing.  In the cookbook it is used to marinate flank steak, but we used chunks of pork and steak grilled on skewers instead.  The recipes calls for the meat to marinate for 8-24 hours, but I only marinated it for 4 hours and it was still bursting with flavor.  Even better, the oregano and thyme came from my own herb garden!

Oregano Marinade (for pork or beef)
Adapted from The Herbfarm Cookbook
Makes enough to marinate meat for a crowd of about 8 (cut recipe in half for a smaller party)

• 2 large bunches fresh Greek oregano sprigs (according to the book, a bunch is about 1 1/2-inches in diameter and 4-inches long - I decimated my oregano plant and didn't have quite enough, but it was still fine - so eyeball it and use what you have)
• 24 3-inch springs fresh English thyme
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt

Roughly strip the large stems from the herb sprigs - it's ok if small stems remain.  Put them in the shallow baking/casserole dish that you are going to use to marinate the meat.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Add your meat and turn to coat all surfaces.  Cover the dish and let the meat marinate for at least 4 (and up to 24) hours.

Grill meat as desired.