Almond Plum-Cherry Buckle.... a mouthful

I couldn't resist the grocery aisle full of sweetly scented plums (that's for you Lindsay), and even though I was shopping on a budget - these are in season, so luckily it wasn't going to really affect my spending too much. But - what should I now do with
all these plums? I mean, I love to think I'm the kind of person who has this lovely basket of fruit that sits on my kitchen counter and whenever I get a sweet tooth I reach for some fruit.. but no, fruit never really satisfies my sweet tooth and I tend to skip over it. I usually end up cutting it up and putting it in my oatmeal or yogurt. Unfortunately ever since the flood, ants have taken up some kitchen front property in my cabinets and every 2 weeks they show up in large numbers and feed on their sweet sweet poison... and slowly taper off and are gone completely... and then it rains! And they are back!! Ahhh I've chosen to just live with it because no matter how hard I fight them, I can't win. So - long story short, ants = no fruit on the counters.

So! To satisfy my sweet tooth with fruit, I bake with fruit! I found a recipe on epicurious for an Almond-Plum Buckle... so I thought - thats it! I didn't want a tart with a heavy shortbread crust and loads of mascarpone (although, that would be nice) but no - I'm kinda trying to watch my diet these days, so I needed something a little healthier. So I came across this recipe, which uses ground almonds and I substituted some wheat flour in as well... and I guess in my head, that means its "healthier". Oh - and I originally thought I wouldn't have enough plums, so I labored over a bowl of cherries with an unwound paperclip and began the task of pitting cherries to throw in with it to make sure I would be covered in the fruit to cake ratio. Well - turns out I was wrong, I only used half of the plums! Figured I'd throw in some cherries anyway. On to the recipe!

Almond Plum-Cherry Buckle
adapted from epicurious.com
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole almonds (about 2 1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup plus 4 teaspoons sugar, divided
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 plums, any variety, halved, pitted and then each half cut into 4 slices*
  
• 15 cherries, pitted
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Spray 9-inch-diameter spring-form pan with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper round.

2. Finely grind almonds in processor**. Transfer to medium bowl; whisk in flours, baking powder, and salt. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add 1 cup sugar; beat until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated. Beat in vanilla and almond extract.

3. Transfer batter to prepared pan; spread evenly and smooth top with spatula. Gently press plum slices, flesh side down, into batter in spoke pattern around outer rim and center of cake, placing close together. Fill gaps with cherries. Mix cinnamon and 4 teaspoons sugar in small bowl. Sprinkle over plums and cherries.

4. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes. Run small knife between cake and pan sides to loosen. Now you can either leave the cake on the springform pan plate or you can invert cake onto platter; remove parchment paper. Place another platter atop cake. Using both hands, hold both platters firmly together and invert cake, plum side up. Cool cake completely. Cut into wedges. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or healthy - some fro-yo! ugh I hate that word) or slightly sweetened whipped cream... or do like my mom and put cool whip on it, because yeah - thats healthy.. mmmm chemicals.

*The original recipe called for 1 1/4lbs plums, about 8 medium sized one. I had about 1lb, which was 5 plums... and I bet I only used 3-4 of them. So, use your judgement.. I'm sure you'll be able to eat the leftovers with no problem.

**The almonds... oh the almonds... these suckers are LOUD in the food processor. Just be warned. One option you can do is just pick up a bag of almond flour from Trader Joe's. I had almonds handy so I didn't bother making the trip to the store.

Ok - so there ya have it. My buckle is still cooling on the countertop, so once I get before/after photos up I'll post them as well as how delicious it is... it smells wonderful, so I can only hope it tastes equally as good.

Enjoy!
Lauren

Blueberry Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

This recipe came about when looking at a cherry upside down cake but wanting to use this bunch of local blueberries we'd just picked up from the Franklin Farmer's Market... and really, I bet any berry could work here as well as Cherries... but maybe next time I make it, I'd cut back some on on the bluberries. Although - thinking back, the amount of blueberries tasted right, just doesn't look as pretty when so overloaded with them. Oh well - not gonna complain. This recipe was delicious and would probably have been even better with a scoop of buttermilk ice cream or some sweetened mascarpone on top. (yes, I have a sick love affair with buttermilk.)
This also is a great cake because its not overly sweet - yes its dessert, so its sweet... but the cornmeal adds a nice contrast in adding almost a savory aspect to it.. as well as the balsamic vinegar! yum! I bet if I had the time and patience, I could live off recipes involving buttermilk and balsamic vinegar.

Blueberry Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
serves 8-12, depending on how generous you are
adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

• 3/4c (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided.
• 1/4c (packed) dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 3c bluberries (though you could probably get away with 2)
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground medium grind)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (I bet almond extract would be nice, too)
  
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine 1/4c butter with brown sugar and balsamic vinegar in a 10" or 11" ovenproof skillet with 2" sides, preferably cast iron. Heat over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring often. Increase heat to high, add blueberries and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, & salt. Using electric mixer, beat 1/2c butter with sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
   
4. Using dry beaters in a separate clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. (I say, if you can hold the bowl upside down over your head and the egg whites don't fall out, you're there... although I'd hate to see what happens if they're not ready!) Using rubber spatula, fold 1/4 egg whites into batter to lighten up. Then add remainder of egg whites in 3 additions, gently folding so not to lose the volume. Batter will be thick!
   
5. Spread batter over blueberries in the skillet and use an offset spatula to evenly spread over all bluberries and cover completely.
6. Place cake in center of the oven and bake until top is golden brown and cake tester comes out clean... I'd say start checking after 35 minutes... though could take up to 45 minutes. The smaller the skillet, the longer this cake will take to bake.
7. Cool in skillet for 5 minutes. Run spatula around the edges of the skillet to loosen cake from sides. Place large serving platter on top of the skillet and then very carefully, as well as swiftly, with potholders in hands, plate firmly held to skillet... invert the skillet over! Leave skillet atop platter for an additional 5 minutes to let the topping start to gain its new position. Remove skillet......... and.... hopefully........ you will have a beautiful upside-down cake! Now its very possible a few rogue blueberries decided they wanted to remain in the skillet, so a little positioning of these blueberries may be in order. Thats ok, no one is going to notice. Let cake cool at least 45 minutes and then cut into wedges to serve. Can be served warm, or at room temperature... but I bet you this cake tastes delicious cold, too!

Enjoy!

Lauren

Bread & Butter Pickles

Maybe you're not a pickle fan... but I honestly think that even if you're not a fan of them, these... you will like. Or - maybe you love pickles and you've never attempted to make them before... well, now you have no excuse! I bet you find this to be so incredibly easy - you stop buying Bread & Butter pickles completely! (Plus, these just taste amazing!) Now, if you're not sure what bread & butter pickles are.... well they're sweet! Sweet and sour is how I look at them. They're delicious on top of a burger or a pulled pork sandwich.. or my favorite thing to do is just eat them straight out of the jar. You could also chop them up and put them on top of a hot dog or add them to potato salad... numerous things, but really, just eaten straight out of the jar works. Now - I have to warn you, I got this recipe initally from Smitten Kitchen, but I'm really bad at following the amounts given sometimes when it comes to recipes such as this.. so I will post something similar to what is on the Smitten site, but with a few adjustments that I did.. but, at the same time... I may not have done. I know - I'm awful... whats the point of putting it on a blog if I'm not writing down my recipes! Sometimes I just tend to throw things in without measuring so when it comes down to writing down the recipe... I have to guess. So here's my best guesses and I KNOW you will enjoy these. .. unless you hate pickles. Then you're just wrong.

Oh and one more thing. The type of pickles/onions I use are important. Its best to make these in the summer when those cute little Kirby Cucumbers are numerous in the Farmer's Markets... and Vidalia Onions are in season, too!! Kirby's are best to use for pickling as their water content is much less than a traditional cucumber and they don't have the seeds you typically like to remove. So - its so simple, no peeling of the skin, no seeding... just simple slicing. Its easiest if you have a mandolin for that slicing, though!


Bread & Butter Pickles
adpated from Smitten Kitchen and personal tastes
makes 1 quart

Ingredients:

• 1lb kirby cucumbers, sliced 1/4" thin
• 1 medium vidalia onion, sliced thin as well
• 3/4c white vinegar
• 3/4c sugar
• 2T kosher salt
• 1t tumeric
• 1T mustard seeds
• 1T coriander seeds
• 1/4t celery seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed but not chopped
  
• a few cloves

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine cucumbers, onions, and salt. Toss to combine. Cover with ice and let sit at room temp for a couple hours. This will help crispen up the onions and cucumbers as well as release a little excess water.
   
2. In large pot, combine sugar, vinegar, garlic, and spices and bring to a boil.
   
3. Drain cumbers/onions (Do not wash! Leave the salty flavor to bring to the brine mixture). Add to the vinegar mixture and bring almost back to a boil. Remove from heat.
4. Pour ingredients into large 1qt mason jar or several smaller ones. *
   
5. Let cool at room temp. and then store in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks (though I still think they taste good a month later)

*This is a quick pickle recipe... not necessarily a "canning" recipe in which these will be able to sit on the shelf in your pantry for over a year. I still go through the process of sterilizing my jars/lids in boiling water and then pouring the hot pickle mixture into the hot dry jars and sealing them immediately, allowing the heat to create a vacuum and sealing the lid completely. They still need to be placed into your fridge once they've cooled and stored there until ready to use - and have a shorter shelf life because of it.

Enjoy!
Lauren

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella

So - its prime time in the Farmer's Markets to be purchasing tomatoes... and how can you expect to walk past aisles of heirloom tomatoes and not want to bring home a bunch? This weekend, we scored a pretty little heirloom "salad mix" as the woman explained it. Basically - if you're not sure what kind of heirlooms you like, they put together a little bundle of them in quart containers and you can have a nice variety to do something with. Some of these were small cherry or pear tomatoes, others were larger.. so a very nice variety. Now... what to do with all these tomatoes?! Something to showcase them, of course... they can't just be thrown in somewhere. No - they need to shine.

Well, I don't know where you are... but here - ITS HOT! I mean, sitting outside at night, its so humid and hot its miserable. I know some people like that, but I don't. So - one needs to consider side options to make when its hot outside... like, something refreshing. Its been awhile since I'd made a panzanella, and for some reason I looked at these tomatoes and thought - bread salad! So if you're not sure what panzanella is - its an Italian dish made from stale tuscan bread, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, and seasonings. So if you ever have a loaf of bread that's a few days old, this is a great dish to toss together. Otherwise - do as I did, and make croutons from that bread - toast it up in the oven. I didn't use Tuscan bread, as it was not available at the store I went to... but any good rustic white bread will work.. french bread.. whatever. Just do me a favor, and don't use sandwich bread. Just don't even bother.

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella
adapted from Michael Chiarello
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ripe heirloom tomatoes; seeded, and diced
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1T balsamic vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Several grinds black pepper
• Panzanella Croutons, recipe follows
• Wedge Parmesan, for shaving

Directions:

1. Drain the tomatoes in a sieve to remove excess liquid while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Add the croutons and toss well
3. Grate fresh parmesan over salad and serve immediately. ** This is important! The bread will begin to soak up all the juices from the tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, etc... and become soggy after awhile. If you want to do this ahead, make up the tomato mixture up to 1 hour prior to serving and toss in croutons at the LAST MINUTE.

Panzanella Croutons

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 6 - 8 cups crustless cubed day-old bread (1/2-inch cubes)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and preheat a cookie sheet in it.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and cook until it foams. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute (be careful not to let butter get too hot and burn garlic, if so - throw out and start over!). Add the bread cubes and toss to coat with the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the bread to a baking sheet. Immediately sprinkle with the cheese and toss again while warm to melt the cheese.
3. Bake, stirring once or twice, until the croutons are crisp and lightly colored on the outside but still soft within, about 8 or 9 minutes. Let cool. Store in an airtight container.

I promise - this is a very tasty, simple side dish to serve at any summer BBQ you attend... I might just make it again for one I'm going to this weekend. Just remember - toss bread at the last minute with the tomatoes so you don't show up with some soggy pile of bread.

Enjoy!

-Lauren

Pickled Red Onions

Wow - what an amazingly easy recipe! I had no idea, otherwise I would have been pickling things years ago. Now - I can't say the shelf life is what you would expect from most preserved/canned items as this is not traditionally canned. There is no water bath, no process that you need to follow here... which is why it is so easy! Not only that, its very tasty and almost the same as eating pickles out of the jar. Plus the pretty pink color is enough to impress anyone.

I made these because I was going to make steak tacos for dinner and was trying to think of a tasty interesting condiment to make the steak tacos extra special, yet required very little effort and ingredients. Why not pickled onions! Not only are these good with the steak tacos, but I added them to some beer brats since I didn't have any saurkraut or relish... and it was sweet and sour, so worked perfectly for those as well. So - don't pass these up if you ever make steak tacos in the future!

Pickled Red Onions
makes about 1 pint

Ingredients:

• 3/4c white vinegar
• 3T sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 allspice berries*
• 5 cloves*
• 1 large red onion, peeled and sliced thinly into rings, about 1/4"

Directions:

1. In a small, nonreactive sauce pan, heat the vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices to a boil.
2. Add onion slices and lower heat and simmer for 30 seconds.
3. Remove from heat and let cool.
4. Transfer onions and liquid to a jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
   

The onions should keep for several months in the fridge.

* you can use a variety of spices based on your personal preference. I had a bottle of pickling spices and used about a teaspoon of these spices since I didn't have a jar of allspice berries on hand. You can add cinnamon sticks or star anise for a totally different flavor.


Enjoy!
Lauren

Marinated Flank Steak with Asian Stir Fry

I tend to stay away from making Asian inspired meals as I usually don't want to go out and purchase a bunch of ingredients necessary to pull them off. I'll keep the typical soy sauce around.. and garlic and ginger are cheap to pick up... But the fish sauces, hoison, rice vinegars, chili pastes, dried shrimp, etc... etc..... Seems too much! Recently a friend of mine was moving and needed to get rid of everything in her kitchen - so naturally, I jumped on it! She unloaded a bunch of asian pantry items on me so - it was time to figure out a good stir fry recipe. One of the ingredients I was really wanting to base a recipe around were the Somen noodles I was given. They take only 2 minutes to cook! 2 minutes!@$ Thats amazing! Plus - they are 98% whole wheat, so they're healthy to boot! Now I think traditionally these noodles are supposed to be served cold... which I was wanting to do, but instead ended up throwing them into a stir fry and serving them hot.
I should also disclose the fact that I cheated in this recipe. I rarely ever cheat, but I'm on a budget this summer and it was more cost effective to purchase the Trader Joe's Soyaki marinade rather than making my own teriyaki marinade. But! If you want a good recipe for a teriyaki marinade I'm sure you could easily create one with some soy sauce, lime juice, pineapple juice, worcestershire, garlic, ginger.... etc etc... I just didn't feel up to it. Plus the TJ version contains pretty much those same ingredients and no weird unpronounceable ingredients you've never heard of.

Marinated Flank Steak with Asian Stir Fry
serves 4

For the Steak:

• Teriyaki marinade (your own recipe or I used TJ's Soyaki)
• 1.5lb flank steak

For the Stir Fry

• 1 8oz package Somen Noodles or some other kind of asian noodle (Or you could use angel-hair pasta)
• Assortment of Stir-Fry veggies: mushrooms, bell pepper, broccoli, snow peas, carrots - I would say use your judgement on what would feed 4 people because I didn't measure these ingredients! I used 1 broccoli crown, half a container of cremini mushrooms and half of a red bell pepper to feed 2 people.
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
  
• 3T soy sauce
  
• 2T hoison
• 2T rice wine vinegar
• 1t minced ginger + extra to throw in with veggies
  
• 1t minced garlic + extra to throw in with veggies
  
• 2t cornstarch
• sesame oil (I used a little for flavor at the end, but this is not necessary)
• safflower or canola oil
• salt/pepper
• sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Put flank steak in a large ziploc bag and pour enough marinade in to cover steak. Place in fridge and let marinate for 3-4 hours, turning over every once in awhile.
2. Make stir-fry sauce by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoison, cornstarch, minced garlic and ginger, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Heat a large pot of water to boiling while working on everything else.
4. Heat a large non-stick skillet over med-high heat with a tablespoon or so of safflower oil. Once pan is hot, pull steak out of bag and place in the skillet. You can do this on a grill or cast iron skillet if you prefer, but we chose the method that would not smoke up the whole house! Sear the steak over med/med-high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Check to make sure the pan isn't so hot that the sugars in the marinade aren't burning on the steak. Flip steak over and sear other side for 3-4 minutes... making sure it isn't burning. At this point, I flipped it over on each side again for another minute or two, depending on the thickness of the steak. I like my steak med-rare, so 5 minutes per side was plenty. Pull steak out and loosely cover with foil and let rest while you make the stir fry.
5. Wipe out the skillet you cooked the steak in if it has burned pieces in it - otherwise, you can reuse this pan to add a little more oil to and throw in your veggies to heat. A word of advice with the veggies - think about the size of them and how long they take to cook. I try to cut things like carrots quite small as they take longer to cook, where as mushrooms and peppers take less time, so they can be a little bigger. You may also want to start with the veggies that take longest to cook and add the others a little later to try and keep them evenly cooked. So to start off, heat the oil over med heat, add a little bit of the extra garlic and ginger you chopped up earlier to flavor the oil. When the oil gets hot - don't let the garlic burn!! Begin adding your chopped veggies and maybe turn up the heat a bit so they cook up quickly, but don't burn. Once the veggies are almost done - its time to throw those 2 minute noodles into your boiling pot of water!
6. Once noodles are done cooking, I used a pasta spoon to pull them from the boiling water/slightly drained and then tossed them with the veggies I had stir-frying. At this point, take your stir fry sauce and add it to the hot skillet and let it boil up and cook for a few minutes. The cornstarch will help this turn into a nice thick glaze to coat all your veggies and noodles. Remove from heat. At this point, you can drizzle some sesame oil over for a little extra flavor.
   
7. Slice your flank steak, against the grain, into nice thin pieces. I like to cut it at a slight angle so the pieces are a little bigger.
   
8. Lay your stir fry noodles out in the center of your plate, top with slices of steak and garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.
   

There you have it! Simple meal that takes maybe 30-45 minutes to completely pull off!
Plus - its relatively healthy - bonus!

Enjoy
Lauren

Turkey Sloppy Joe's

*update* I made these again, so this time I took a picture!

Well - I'm sure everyone has given up on even checking this site anymore. I don't blame you! Its been 3 months since my last post, and even then... that wasn't a whole lot! So... Hopefully THIS time, I will be better about posting some new recipes. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me when I made this dinner - so I couldn't take any pictures. I should start keeping my old camera at Brandon's house so that way I always have my camera ready! Oh well.

So anyway - Sloppy Joe's.... blast from the past! I haven't had a sloppy joe since my mom used to make them for us when we were kids! I believe it also involved canned sloppy joe mix... or maybe packaged dry mix to add to ground beef. Easy quick meal that left everyone happy. So recently, after helping a friend clean out her kitchen before she moved out of town (who wouldn't want to raid someone else's pantry and take home a bunch of free food!), I was unloading one of the bags of food I got and noticed a can of Manwich thrown in. What! This stuff still exists?? How did it get in my bag?? I guess in the desire to get rid of everything in her kitchen.... somehow things I DIDN'T want still ended up in my bags. So... it made me all of a sudden start craving this stuff... more for nostalgia reasons. I couldn't really remember what it tasted like - I just remembered it being this tasty ground beef concoction between a hamburger bun. Well.. I certainly wasn't going to use this canned mixture... I'm sure the sodium is out of control and they managed to fit corn syrup into it somewhere..

As luck would have it... I was watching Food Network (I know!) and Tyler Florence was making his Ultimate Sloppy Joe's.... OH man... it was on. So with everything Tyler Florence makes on TV - you have to watch... and then when you read over his recipes later, realize he eyeballs EVERYTHING on his show... and the measurements on the website tend to be quite off. So - I decided to interpret some of what I saw on TV as well as change a few things based on ingredients I wanted to add or didn't have or whatever. So - here goes...

Turkey Sloppy Joe's
serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
  
• 1 medium sweet onion (I always get Vidalias when they are in season), chopped
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1c+ ketchup (I used organic TJ's brand - so no corn syrup!)
• 1T+ yellow mustard
  
• 2T tomato paste
• 1T brown sugar
• 1/4t cayenne
• 1T balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• hamburger buns (I like the french water rolls from Publix!)
  

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add about 3 T of olive oil to the pan. Chop the onion in smallish pieces.. you know, not too small but not chunky either. Add onion to the skillet and allow it to caramelize... about 10-15 minutes. Turn up the heat or down the heat to adjust so not to burn onions... but also not to sweat them. Once they are almost done, add the diced red pepper. Again - these need to be cut about the same size... remember, it will be in the mixture so think about what size pieces you'd like to bite into in your sandwich.
   
2. Add ground turkey to the skillet with the onions and peppers. Keep the heat around medium/med-high. Season with salt and pepper. Make sure the meat is all the way cooked through! This isn't like beef where it can be a little pink and still be ok. Once turkey is cooked through - add the ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, tomato paste, and cayenne. Give it a good stir and then add a splash of balsamic vinegar. You can use red wine vinegar if you prefer. At this point... if you feel you want it to be a little saucier, add more ketchup. Taste! Taste now and if you think it needs more sweetness, add more sugar... more mustard, add more mustard.... More salt or pepper? Add more. Just remember you can always add more of these things, but you can't take away... so thats why I say to start with these amounts and move up from there.
3. So once the mixture has all come together and is heated through, you can remove it from the heat. Split open your hamburger buns and pop them under the broiler for a few minutes... give them a nice little crust. I find this helps a little with the moisture... so your bun doesn't get too soggy! Pile on some sloppy joe mix and enjoy!
   

So - there you have it. A simple... fast.... delicious meal thats also very affordable! I had no idea how good these were.... and now I think I'll be making these a lot more often. You can swap out ground beef or ground chicken as well... but I like using ground turkey as you tend to forget that its not ground beef.

I also followed Tyler's idea of making some slaw and homemade bread & butter pickles to serve with it. Recipes of those to follow soon.

Enjoy!
Lauren

Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

Wow - How long has it been since someone posted on here? WAY TOO LONG. So - hopefully this post will spring me back into the habit of keeping up with my kitchen adventures in blog form... and force my sisters to comply as well.
So I'll start off with something nice and simple. A salad dressing.
Last night, I was in the mood for a salad but had a bunch of random ingredients and not quite sure where to put them. I had bibb lettuce, a tomato, goat cheese, a red onion, walnuts, a red pepper, blue cheese, mushrooms, and a pomegranate. Now - how do you pick the perfect salad from these ingredients? Do you go with the mushroom, onion, goat cheese, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds with a nice balsamic vinaigrette? Nah - done it too many times. I wanted to use that red pepper! So then I thought - roasting it would be nice! But.... I didn't want something soggy/soft nestled in my salad.. I like my salads to be crunchy. So - I made a vinaigrette! I also enlisted the help of Brandon to help tie it all together nicely.
So the salad I ended up with was Bibb Lettuce, shaved red onion, toasted walnuts, and crumbled buttermilk blue cheese... oh and some tomato slices - topped off with a nice roasted red pepper dressing.

Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 Red Bell Pepper, roasted and diced
  
• 3 cloves of roasted garlic, or 1 clove unroasted (I like the flavor of roasted better)
• 1T balsamic vinegar
• 1T honey or agave nectar
  
• 1T stone ground mustard
• 2T mayo
• a splash of apple cider vinegar
• 1/3+ c olive oil
• salt & pepper
• paprika

Directions:

1. Place the red pepper, garlic, honey, balsamic, mayo, mustard, & cider vinegar in a mini food-pro or blender. Blend until well combined.
2. Drizzle olive oil in and continue to blend - at this point, you may want to add more oil or more mayo to change the consistency of the dressing. Add salt/pepper/paprika to taste

So yeah - simple recipe - was perfect for the salad!

Enjoy!
-Lauren

Ponzu Sesame Seared Tuna with Zucchini & Sweet Onion Sautee

So I'll try my best to recreate this dish for the purpose of this post - but it probably won't turn out EXACTLY like mine did, since I threw stuff together on a whim. I knew we had this amazing sashimi grade Tuna to use up and no money to spend on more groceries... so it required to dig around the pantry/refrigerator to come up with a marinade for the Tuna and a side dish to stand up to the meal.
So I created a marinade from some toasted sesame oil, ponzu sauce, soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, garlic, and vegetable oil. I think some ginger would have really tied it together well, but didn't feel like making a quick trip to the store for a tiny knob of fresh ginger. The zucchini & sweet onion sautee came together out of a late night scramble for some food ... and it turned out to be so yummy I wanted to make it again for dinner the next night! To make the meal complete, I cooked up some brown basamati rice (any rice would work, but thats what we had in the pantry) and served it on the side with the zucchini.

Ponzu Sesame Seared Tuna
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 6-8 oz portions of sashimi grade tuna
• 2T toasted sesame oil
• 1T ponzu sauce
• 2t soy sauce
• 1T honey
• 2T brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4c safflower oil, or vegetable oil
• fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. Whisk together sesame oil, ponzu, and soy sauce until combined. Add in honey, brown sugar, and minced garlic. Slowly whisk in safflower oil until all is combined. The important step now is to taste. If its too salty (as the ponzu/soy sauces tend to be quite salty), add more brown sugar. If its too sweet, add more ponzu. If its too strong, add more oil... Again, I did this all on a whim and added more of this and that until the flavor was what I wanted.
   
2. Pour marinade in a ziploc bag and add tuna steaks to the bag. Seal and set on the counter for 30 minutes. I say leavethis out at room temperature because the Tuna is seared rare, so to keep the center from being ice cold, I left mine out to at least try and keep it slightly warm.
3. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add a little safflower oil to the skillet and once oil is hot, add tuna steaks. It will spit and smoke.. and the sugars from the marinade may burn up in the skillet.. so be careful. Cook tuna about 2 minutes per side depending on how rare you like your tuna. I like mine pretty rare, so about 2 minutes per side does the trick. Remove from heat and let rest. While the tuna is marinating, you can cook your rice and make the zucchini side dish.

Zucchini & Sweet Onion Sautee
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini, sliced 1/2" slices then sliced in half (so they're like half moons)
  
• 1/2 sweet vidalia onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• 1t toasted sesame oil
• 2t honey
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat vegetable oil with the toasted sesame oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until starting to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Add soy sauce and continue to cook. Add honey. Once the zucchini gets close to being fully cooked, add in the garlic. (I like to add the garlic later so that it doesn't overcook or burn) Continue to cook about 5 minutes, so garlic has softened and zucchini is fully cooked.
   
2. Important step -- Taste! If its too salty, add a little more honey. Its important not to put too much soy sauce in the dish so not to overpower it. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm until Tuna is ready.

So there you have it - hopefully it comes close to what I created that night. It's very tasty and I intend to make this marinade again! Hope it comes out for you as well. Good luck and Enjoy!

Posted by lauren

Heirloom Tomato BLT

A recent trip to the Farmer's Market led to purchases to create the ultimate farmer's market/local BLT sandwich. We started with some fresh homemade Amish bread, a lovely head of organic romaine lettuce from Delvin Farms, and an assortment of locally grown heirloom tomatoes. We also managed to come across some fantastic applewood smoked bacon from Niman Ranch (where their pigs run free, never fed hormones or antibiotics, no nitrates are added, and humanely raised on sustainable farms).

So I know there is no wrong way to create a lovely BLT - and really, the recipe is in the name... Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato. So I suppose my "recipe" will just more or less be a list of ingredients.

Farmer's BLT -

4 Thick slices of fresh bread, toasted
Romaine lettuce
6 strips of applewood smoked bacon, browned in a skillet, turning frequently
Heirloom Tomatoes, preferrably 2 or 3 different types, 2 slices out of each one.
Mayo, preferrably Dukes


The layering, to me, is important to be done in a certain order. Of course, this is only because I'm obsessive compulsive and prefer to have the tomatoes in the center. You spread mayo, generously, on BOTH pieces of toast. Start with layering the lettuce, as much or little as you would like. Season your slices of tomatoes with some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Layer 3 slices of tomatoes on top of the lettuce. Next take your bacon and layer it on top of the tomatoes. I like to have these lay diagonally on the toast. Then top with final piece of toast. Slice sandwich in half diagonally (opposite direction of the bacon) and voila! The perfect BLT. These will probably become a typical weekend meal throughout the summer while heirloom tomatoes are in season.



So go out - enjoy your local farmer's market - and create the ultimate BLT with some fantastic ingredients that didn't travel across the country to reach your kitchen.

Posted by Lauren