Kisses and berries

 

This coming weekend you can order creamy egg salad and berry fools.

And for the following weekend we have whipped balsamic vinaigrette dip and raspberry meringue kisses.

I love berries.  Anything with berries is good, don't you think?  The berry fools make a perfect delicate dessert that is lightly sweet and are just right for warm summer days.  And the raspberry meringue kisses are a wonderful little snack.  

I am preparing to experiment with a few other meringue kisses as well, strawberry and blueberry.  If I can get the flavor balance right, you'll see those on the menu in the future.

As I prepare my supply run for these upcoming weekends, I will be getting lots of extra berries beyond what I need for orders.  I love having lots of berries around in the fridge, sometimes just by themselves in a bowl, sometimes in a lightly sweet compote, sometimes pureed and mixed into other things.  

The same can be said for melons.  And berries and melons chopped up into a mixture that is already portioned to the right size for an afternoon snack or a light breakfast are absolutely great.  We eat a lot of processed foods in this world, so it's good to take advantage of what nature gives us that needs nothing added, and berries and melons and other fruit are at the top of that list.

Eat some great food today and be sure to get out and enjoy that last bit of spring before the summer heat arrives.

Lots and lots of food

There is something amazing about a feast.  Is it the sheer volume of the food?  Is it the variety of the food?  Is it the community that gathers around the food?

I don't know.  

But I know that when I see a table laden with food, a room filled with trays of food, and the expectant chatter of people as they prepare to gobble everything up, it is a nice feeling.

This morning when I went out to put birdseed in all the feeding stations (and grape jelly and oranges for the orioles), I smelled the aroma of fresh food on an outdoor griddle.  My neighbor was making a special breakfast.  Those aromas wafting in on the slight morning breeze were heavenly.   It made me want to start a fire in the firepit and cook anything that came to mind.

The excitement of a big feast, or an outdoor cooking event, or a special planned dinner, this excitement is a great feeling.  Too much of the time, it seems to me, people just consume food without enjoying the planning, the preparation, the presentation, and certainly even the taste.  We consume at the expense of truly enjoying our food.  

It's nice to bask in the excitement and expectation and the eating, if we can.  And by doing so, we slow down the pace of the world, even if only for a hour.

Summer foods

Good morning to all!

This coming weekend we have savory egg salad and cole slaw ready for ordering.  And for the first weekend in June, you can order creamy egg salad and berry fools.

All of these are great summer foods, cool indulgences as the temperatures slowly start to build as the weeks pass.

I remember as a kid, sometimes we would have hot summer days, and on a whim we'd go to the store and get the makings for cool tuna salad sandwiches, chips, and ice cream.  And if we were lucky enough, we'd have a late afternoon thunderstorm build that would cool things down even more.

I loved those impromptu meals that were fun and unplanned, and the food was always cool and easy to fix.

I still like to do similar things now as an adult.  So enjoy these cool summer foods that are on offer. 

July is coming up.  I take a complete break from teaching for the entire month.  And I have plans to spend the month making lots of new foods.  It will be a fun month, and hopefully I will make some good progress on my cooking to-do list.

Enjoy this nice summer Sunday.  

Pancakes and breakfast meals

 

This coming weekend the weekly menu has our first offering ever of pancakes.  Plus a cookie.  Normally I'd say the cookie is the important part.  Everyone knows I love cookies.  But pancakes are right up there as well.  

I think breakfast foods are often the best foods.  I can eat them in the morning or at lunch or at dinner.  In fact, I think a meal of breakfast foods to end the day is an amazing comfort-food meal and puts a nice touch to the end of the day.  Pancakes, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, hash browns, they are all great for any meal.

When I have pancakes, I think having 100% real maple syrup is worth the expense.  Some people love to have whipped cream and berries on top, but I just want butter and syrup.  That's it.  No fancy variations.

I use pancake rings to cook these pancakes and make them all a uniform size and shape (well, at least mostly uniform).  I spent some time trying to find just the right pancake rings, and then more time tweaking the skillet cooking with them afterwards.  Is it possible to have perfectly uniform pancakes in a home kitchen?  I think not.  But those little differences are just fine.

OK.  It's 500 AM here, and so my writing is a little bit "rambling", but that's fine.  I'm up early today and my mind is already working on many things.  I have a busy day ahead, but I will be thinking of the fun I will have making pancakes this week.  

A recipe for slow-roasted tomatoes

 

If you are looking for something yummy to have that's easy to fix, try these slow-roasted tomatoes.

Preheat your oven to 225 F.

Take Roma tomatoes and slice them in half length-wise.  Then cut a wedge out of the center of each half that removes the fibrous part and discard it.  This fibrous center center will not tenderize as much as the rest of the tomato.

Lay them on foil (or parchment paper) spread on a baking sheet.

Brush them each with olive oil.

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over each half.  I prefer to use kosher salt for this.

Then sprinkle onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, basil, and oregano over each of the halves.

Then cook them for 3 hours.  Yes, that's right.  3 hours.  This low oven of temperature of 225 F will cook them perfectly.  They will be savory and flavorful.

Give them a try and let me know how it goes.

Weekend orders

 

Good morning, everyone!

All weekend orders have been pushed back one week.  You will see the new dates on the website.

On this day in 1947, Kraft Television Theatre premiered on NBC.  This was an anthology series that ran on the network from 1947 to 1958 and which Kraft used to promote one of its cheeses.  Later they introduced another series, this time on ABC, and also called Kraft Television Theatre and which promoted its new Cheese Whiz product.

I ran across this little tidbit of information while casually surfing the net while I was also putting a couple Kraft products in my grocery delivery shopping basket.  So I couldn't resist adding it here as well.

Advertising drove the television world from Day 1, I suppose.  And I think back to many of the food commercials I have seen over the years and how often those products ended up in the kitchen and on the table.  

Is this important?  Not really.  But it's fun remembering the catchy jingles and the feelings I had as a kid when I would see breakfast cereals advertised during Saturday morning cartoons and fast food and candy bars advertised during Saturday's Major League Baseball Game of the Week.

OK.  It's time to think about a few Kraft cheeses to add the finishing touches on my grocery delivery order.

Have a great Sunday and spend some time enjoying some good food.

Cookies for the weekend and orange icing fruit

 

Good early morning.  The month of May has arrived.  And we are seeing lots of blossoms and vibrant colors emerge in the landscapes.  

This coming weekend we have cookies ready for ordering.  Peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chip.  The following weekend is more cookies with molasses spice cookies, but also pancakes, coming frozen to you and ready to heat up and eat.

Seeing all the colors coming out as spring progresses makes me think of all the many foods with wonderful colors and amazing flavors that are part of our culinary environment.  Of late, though, one specific thing has been on my mind:  orange icing fruit.  I think this is an important ingredient for a particular Danish pastry which used to be available at a bakery which is no longer in business.

I remember those pastries very well.  They were amazing.  And after the retail bakery that produced them went out of business, I have thought many times of how to recreate them.  At the time of the bakery closure, I thought about trying to track down the head baker to see if I could speak to him about the pastries.  But I didn't.  And ever since, I have periodically thought about those pastries and have done research on various recipes.  Eventually I began to think that orange icing fruit was the key ingredient I was looking for.

One of these days, I will sit down and play around with a dough that incorporates this orange ingredient.  I have located a few recipes from older bakeries which seem to hint that this is what will bring the magic alive with this pastry from my memory. 

In the meantime, though, I will simply enjoy this wonderful spring weather we are having.  Have a great week, everyone!