Thyme for some strawberries!

There comes a time during the summer months where you just crave strawberry shortcake. One of the problems with strawberry shortcake (for me) is that I like it with biscuits, and a nice slathering of butter on the biscuit to make a nice barrier between the strawberry juice and the biscuit. This, of course, as we all know does nothing really to stop your biscuit from becoming a soaking sponge for the strawberry juice but it does give you some time before the whole thing turns into mush.

So (besides the juice issue) the biscuits and butter are things I can’t really eat. So what are my options, angel food cake, that almond pound cake I have in the cupboard or some other craziness that might pop in my head (let’s not go there…). Since I didn’t want to go to the store and buy something (budget minded), I thought about what I had in the house. I had a Tastefully Simple party a while back and still have bunches of boxes of pound cake, scone mix and beer bread. So out comes the pound cake, which is full of butter and I should not eat.

What I have learned on my new eating journey is that sometimes you just want to have a taste of something. So, instead of making the pound cake for me to eat all by myself (and surely cause myself some damage) I would make it and bring it in to my co-workers along with the apple cider donuts that were staring me in the face demanding that I warm them up and pop them in my mouth!

Anyway! So Tastefully Simple has a great almond pound cake recipe that I baked. But I wanted to add something to my strawberries. At this point they were just berries and sugar, which is a great combo, but I wanted something a bit more. So I started to think of different strawberry mixes I have heard of, basil, balsamic reduction? I saw a lot of recipes that said to add lemon. Which got me thinking of all of that lemon thyme I have growing in the garden (I made a wonderful lemon thyme pound cake that I just realized I never blogged about!).

So off to the garden I go and grab some lemon thyme, which I then promptly add to my strawberries. Let me tell you what I lovely addition that was. It was simple, but gave the strawberries a punch of lemon and the freshness of the herb.

That night I had a slice of the pound cake and some strawberries and thyme and was able to get in my fix and make my co-workers and my body happy the next day!

trying to get my groove back

The last time I wrote I was still in FL, I have been back for about two weeks now and the first week was very over whelming. When I first booked my vacation I did not know that it was going to turn into a month in FL so I didn’t think to take a day off after traveling back home.

I arrived back on Tuesday night to a cool house and two very happy boys. At first I didn’t mind because for the last month I had been sweating so being cool was not something I minded. But then I started to get settled and things started to just get piled up. Did you know that if you do not use your washer machine that the parts can dry up and it will leak on you until they are primed again? I didn’t either.

My car, had a swamp in it, because (I believe) my sunroof is leaking and I was trying to play catch up at work. It was just a lot to take in and I couldn’t seem to get my head straight.

One evening I even tried to work on the furnace myself. Me, playing with gas, fire and a furnace. The next day, after an emergency call to the heating company and one fixed thermal couple later I found myself in a warm house and time.

I knew the one thing that would help me get back into the home groove and that would be cooking a good meal in my kitchen. I was going to make risotto! I have been wanting to make it for a year now and I had been afraid of it. But I found an easy recipe on foodnetwork.com and I had picked up a lobster the day before because it was on sale for 5.99 a lb!

I spent the next two hours with my music, my boys and cooking something I have always wanted to try. It was just what I needed to feel back at home.

A day out

So today, I headed out to run to a few shops that I love in Downtown Melbourne and to go over to my StepMom’s house to visit her mother Peppy. Peppy is a Puerto Rican woman who is in her sixties, and I was honored (and I must admit begged) for her to make her rice for me. I have been in love with her rice since we were introduced six years or so ago.

There was no recipe card, nor did I write any of it down. It was a show and tell, with me asking questions here and there and sniffing her special ingredients (which I later found out to be sofrito). Sofrito has this tang smell that is fantastic, I could not stop smelling it and I knew that this was one of the keys to her rice. Something that if I had not watched her, I would have never known and would not know how to create this wonderful dish.

I also had another kitchen lesson in how to make fried plantains . The first time I tried to make them, I did not let the plantains get ripe enough. They seriously need to look like you would throw them away before you cook them. I can’t wait to try and replicate these!

I did what I love to do when I don’t know someone and they interest me. I asked about her life, I learned that she became married at 14! and was married for sixty years. That her husband Leo (a wonderful man) was her first and last. She moved to NYC in her later teens to live with her husband’s family while they started their own.

This was something that I was hoping would happen but didn’t think would because I am only a stepchild and not her full blooded children. I was so honored for her to share her heart, her kitchen and pieces of her life with me. It meant a lot to me and I let her know.

Add some Italian to your day

Last night I had a double birthday party at my house. A friend of mine and I share a birthday (today). We had a small gathering at my place and one of the left over items were cherry tomatoes.

Today I decided to just relax, but I kept thinking about those cherry tomatoes and how I would use them before they went bad. So, I got dressed and hopped into the car. It is sunday after all and one of my favorite things to do is go to the farmer’s market and walk among the vendors before I make my purchases.

Normally, I stay away from the fresh bread vendors because while I am not on the low carb diet anymore I am trying not to have tons of bread products in my house (chips are an evil thing.. and this includes pita chips). But today, there is bruschetta on the menu and it craves french bread based in olive oil and rubbed with fresh garlic after it is taken out of the oven. I also picked up some fresh basil, yum. I think today is an Italian day.

After spending a few hours in my favorite shop (Bliss on Jay Street) and my friend Amy, I came home and got right back into my comfy pants. It is lunch time so I started to cut up the cherry tomatoes and sliced my french bread. I used this as my base recipe but I didn’t boil the tomatoes.

Once the tomatoes were cut up, I rubbed a garlic clove over the toasted bread and flipped it so that oil olive side was on top. Then I put the left over garlic (two cloves) crushed in with the tomatoes. Next came basil, and here is a link on how to chiffonade basil. Add some salt and better and drizzled in oil olive and balsamic vinegar and stir it all together.

It was so yummy! Sometimes I think we forget that the simplest recipes can sometimes be the best. The right paring of herbs and vegetables can make the most amazing punch to your taste buds.

Upon a Mother’s Request…

My mom saw that I made dill pickles and made a request for bread and butter pickles. Well, I am all for a cooking challenge and thought why not, my grandma use to make those too. After asking my mom for the recipes, which she then replied I don’t think she ever wrote it down. UGH!

So the internet I turned to and found a few recipes. I followed this one except I canned them.

I must say the first 24 hours were a little stinky because of the raw onions but in the end I was amazed by pickling liquid. At first I was very doubtful about the mixture of spices but once I smelled it cooking and then tasted one of the spare pickles I knew it was the right recipe.

These beauties will be given as gifts and saved for thanksgiving dinner.

I put myself in a pickle….

For pickles!

One of things that I remember about my grandmother is that she made pickles and when I was growing up one of my favorite things to do at her house was to steal the garlic out of the pickle jars. I loved the taste of it and loved my grandma’s pickles.

This past sunday at the farmer’s market my favorite stand had pickling cucumbers and they were only five for a dollar. How could I go wrong at that price? So then I started to look in my cookbooks for pickle recipes and sadly had to turn to the net.

I found the following recipe and created my grocery list. Who knew that you had to buy special salt for pickling?

Pickling is a two day process. The first day you need to soak your cucumbers in a bath salt and let them soak for 12 to 24 hours. I sliced my cucumbers so that they would fit in my jars easier.

Day 2 – Be prepared to spend a little time boiling water. Repeatedly. I had to boil the jars, boil the disks, boil the pickling liquid. I told you there was some boiling going on.  Then once you have filled your jars with your cucumbers, dill, mustard seeds and garlic you need to boil them again to seal the tops.

In the end I have three jars of pickles that I am so proud of. As soon as I poured the pickling liquid it reminded me instantly of my grandmother and the pickles that she use to make.

I still have some jars and the pickling liquid left, so I do believe this sunday I am going to pick up some more cucumbers to make some more pickles.. They have been requested for Thanksgiving dinner.

My first attempt at pickles