Category Archives: Fruits & Veggies

Blueberry Dumplings

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It’s shameful that I’ve never shared this recipe before. It’s one of my favorites. I’ve been eating these blueberry dumplings for several years now. They make a sweet little weekend breakfast for us, but an equally good dessert. If you like blueberries you will love this, I promise.
BlueberryDumplings2One of the reasons I love this recipe is because it’s from one of my favorite places:

contextThe Gunflint Trail region of northern Minnesota.

The Gunflint Trail is a 57 mile scenic byway from the north shore of Lake Superior to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The scenery is incredible, the people are some of the nicest I’ve met in my travels and I love the quiet places I always seem to find up there. The trail has been, and still is, dotted with little inns and lodges filled with history, and yes, some pretty amazing old family recipes. This recipe comes from The Rockwood Lodge, and it’s owner Ann Clark, who served it to her guests when she and her husband Dave owned the lodge in the late 1940′s. It’s still in business today.

I have to wonder what else they served at the lodges back in the day? If these dumplings are any indication of the food they served on a daily basis, I’m sure I would have lived there. :)

There are three things I adore about this recipe: 1. It comes from a place I love; 2. It’s very simple to make; and, 3. It has blueberries! I have such a big crush on blueberries…

Want to try it?

To make the dumplings:

BlueberryDumplings5Mix together 3/4 of a cup of all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 3/4 of a teaspoon of baking powder, a 1/2 of a tablespoon of butter, a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup of milk. I used a hand mixer, but you can do it by hand too. Either way you’ll get a little ball of sticky dough that looks like this. Set it aside, and move on to the blueberry mixture:

BlueberryDumplings4Heat 2 cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen), 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, then drop teaspoons of the dumpling dough into the blueberries.

BlueberryDumplings3Place a cover over the mixture and let it cook for 10 minutes. Don’t take the cover off while it’s cooking, just let everything boil. After the 10 minutes, your mix will look like this and your house will smell terrific. You’re welcome :)

BlueberryDumplings1Serve warm for breakfast, or for dessert.

This recipe makes 4-6 servings, depending on the portion size. I used an 8 ounce ramekin to serve it to myself today. It is so hard to control myself with this one! But I promised to save some for Hubby. If you have leftovers like I did this morning, just store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Reheat over medium heat.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Dumplings Recipe

from Ann Clark, late 1940′s owner of The Rockwood Lodge on The Gunflint Trail

Ingredients for the dumplings:

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup milk

Ingredients for blueberry sauce:

  • 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

For the dumplings: Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, salt and milk until a sticky dough is made.

Combine blueberries, water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt and cook over medium heat until berries are tender and mixture just begins to boil. Drop dough by teaspoons full in boiling blueberry mix. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Cool slightly, but serve warm.

Chilled Avocado Soup

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THANK YOU to those of you have that have emailed and tweeted me in recent weeks about missing the recipes here. I had no idea, when I turned on the privacy feature, that so many of you were using them. Yay for you guys! So, as of now, we’re back to “public” status. Cook away! (It’s fun isnt it?)

Here’s a new favorite recipe for you too! Enjoy!

Cooking is an escape for me. It’s more than a hobby, it’s often how I relax. So, I’m not necessarily attracted to a recipe because it’s quick or easy, I’m looking more for fresh and new. But this avocado soup is all four of those things.

I love Mexican food, so I’m thrilled to have this month’s issue of Saveur, the Mexican Issue and especially this recipe in my arsenal now. Despite having a full cup of cream in it, it’s remarkably light to eat. My favorite part is the fresh flavor. No flavor overpowers, they all meld well in this chilled soup. I’m sure there will be many, many cravings down the road for this now that we’ve tried it.

When I say “we’ve”, I mean me, Hubby is allergic to avocados. I can’t imagine being allergic to avocados! Life would have no meaning..

…Anyway, here’s the fabulous recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 4 serrano chiles, stemmed
  • 2 large ripe avocados, pitted, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (from 2 lemons)
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 plum tomatoes, seeded, finely chopped

Simply place 1/2 the serrano chiles, both avocados and half the onion into your food processor….

…and process until a thick paste forms. Or as I call it, guacamole. Next, add the chicken stock, cream and lime juice and puree until very smooth. Note: My always too small food processor wouldn’t let me do it all at once. I tried. Made a mess. Then wound up doing it in batches. If you have a small processor too, save yourself and your kitchen, and do it in a couple of batches.

Pour the soup through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, season with salt and pepper and chill at least 2 hours before serving. Really, make sure you taste and season here. (The longer you chill it the better, the flavors come out more and more the longer it’s chilled) That’s all!

Use the rest of the serranos and onion, along with the tomatoes as a garnish to serve.

I LOVE the creamy texture of this chilled soup. It’s SO satisfying on this hot, late summer day.

Note: The first time I try a recipe like this, I never change anything from the original. Next time however, I might just add a jalapeno to the mix. I like a little heat, what can I say? ;)

To see and print the original recipe, visit Saveur Magazine

Enjoy!

Strawberry-Tomato Gazpacho

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Yes, I know I just posted a gazpacho a little over a week ago, but this one had to be shared ASAP – I didn’t want you to miss out on those marvelous, in season, local strawberries!

Or, if you want to, you can blame my seemingly duplicate post on all that Nyquil I’ve been taking for a week since I caught a doozy of a cold that has now turned into a sinus infection. Lucky me. Wait. Actually! That’s another reason to love this gazpacho! It is chock-full of that good ole immune system enhancer, vitamin C. Go C!

Okay, so you already know I love gazpacho. I make a version of it a much as possible during summer months when the produce it is at its peak. It is one of our summer staples for its ease to make (without the stove) and fresh, healthy flavors. And, this Strawberry-Tomato Gazpacho, while a new recipe for us, has jumped to the top of our list of favorite gazpachoes. Why? Strawberries. It’s all about the strawberries and how they come together with the tomatoes and cucumbers to give us a welcome (on this 97 degree F day in southern Wisconsin), delightful and chilled summer soup.

Harvest to Heat

Before I get into the specifics of the Strawberry-Tomato Gazpacho, I want to show some heartfelt love for the cookbook that gave us this recipe, Harvest to Heat, by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer. I bought this cookbook several months ago and have literally fallen in love with it. It highlights farm to table recipes by chefs from the country’s best restaurants and the farmers and artisans that grow and make the ingredients for them. The gorgeous pages are full of amazing, fresh recipes, yes, but also stories from every cook, chef, artisan and farmer that contributed to the recipe. The authors visited each one of them and put together a cookbook that feels like a love story for the best, freshest ingredients. I love that. There’s a sneak peek of the book at Amazon’s listing for Harvest to Heat where you can see a sampling of recipes, and view the list of all the recipes in the table of contents. If fresh food is what you love, you’ll find so many good ideas in this cookbook. (I can’t wait to try the Crème Fraîche Galette with Heirloom Tomatoes this week too!) There are just a handful of recipes that had ingredients I didn’t recognize or couldn’t find. Most of the time they give you a substitute ingredient right in the recipe. Once or twice they don’t, but I just look at that as a chance to google it and learn something new. :)

My gigantic hulled strawberry.

This particular recipe has the simplest ingredients: strawberries, tomatoes, a red bell pepper, cucumbers, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Kosher salt and a day-old slice of bread (for the croutons). It will take a little time to hull the strawberries and chop everything, but once that’s done…

…it all goes into the food processor to be puréed until it’s nice and smooth. Then, to get rid of the strawberry seeds, the mixture gets strained through a mesh sieve into a large bowl. Except the croutons! (The process for making the croutons is with the recipe below) At this point I seasoned my gazpacho with a little bit of Kosher salt and let it chill in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

That. Is. It! Just ladle your beautiful creation into a bowl and garnish with the croutons, diced cucumbers and diced strawberries. This simple process to a fantastic gazpacho like this one was much appreciated on a hot day like this (and on a day where I didn’t feel so hot myself).

Enjoy!

NOTES: Because I knew it was going to be blazing hot today, I made the croutons last night (rather than heat up the stove (and my kitchen) today). This recipe serves 4, or one sick girl for a day. :) Cost: $7.08 or $1.77/serving (I already had the vinegar, oil, bread and salt and just had to buy the produce).

Strawberry-Tomato Gazpacho Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Chef Jean Georges Vongerichten in the cookbook, Harvest to Heat by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 pints fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 pound red cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
  • 1 medium cucumber, peeled and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided: 2 tablespoons, 1 tablespoon
  • Kosher Salt
  • 1 slice day old bread, cut into 1/4 inch dice
  • 1 small cucumber, cut into 1/4 inch dice, for garnish

Directions:

Hull the strawberries. Set aside a half pint of strawberries and cut the remaining 2 pints in half. Put the halved strawberries in a food processor and purée until smooth.

Add the tomatoes, bell pepper, chopped cucumbers, balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil to the the food processor with the puréed strawberries. Purée until smooth then strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Season with Kosher salt and set aside.

To make the croutons:

In a medium skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the 1/4 inch bread cubes and toss them in the oil for 3-5 minutes or until they’re lightly browned. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to cool completely.

For Garnish & Serving:

Cut the remaining 1/2 pint of strawberries into a 1/4 inch dice. Ladle the gazpacho into serving bowls and garnish each with a spoonful of the diced strawberries, diced cucumbers and a few croutons.

My Favorite Gazpacho

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Gazpacho = summer. Well, it does for me :) I love the stuff and every summer I look forward to using the seasonal veggies to try new recipes for them. I know I’m pushing the tomato season, at least here in Wisconsin, but I had to try a new gazpacho today. It was a craving that had to be honored. Hands down, THIS gazpacho recipe is my favorite one to date.

It was so nice smell the fresh tomatoes and cucumbers as I made this today. I can remember my grandmother canning both when I spent summers with her on the farm. I think of her standing over them in the farm house kitchen, chatting away with me, every time I smell them. I think that’s one of the reasons I love summer food so much, it brings back happy memories of Grandma.

In this recipe, the tomatoes and cucumber, combined with the balsamic vinegar, make a genuinely fresh mouthful of summer flavor. Add that dash of hot sauce and now we’re talking Sarah’s favorite kind of flavor. ;) It doesn’t hurt that you don’t have to turn the oven on for this either, right? I love that part!

Do you like gazpacho? If you do, I’d love to hear what you think about this one. I, for one, am very glad it made such a big batch. Here’s how I did it…

First things first:

Hello

Thoroughly rinse the cat hair off your cucumber and red onion after your sous chef has inspected them. Thank him for his assistance, and send him off to play with his 110 pound Labrador Retriever brother.

Next, add 2 cups of extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar (I used golden balsamic) and 1 teaspoon of Tabasco sauce to your blender and briefly blend. It’ll look a lot like this.

Now chop half of a medium red onion and half a medium cucumber into large pieces. You’ll also need 12 fresh basil leaves and the leaves from 6 large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley for the next step…

…which is adding all of those things to the oil mixture in the blender.

Blend until smooth.

Now, chop up 3 medium Roma tomatoes and 4 heirloom tomatoes into large pieces.

Add a few tomatoes to your blender, and blend until smooth. Continue adding the tomatoes, a few at a time, until the blender is about 3/4 full. At this point, pour half the soup into a large bowl. Continue adding and blending the tomatoes like this until they’re all incorporated.

Pour it all into a large bowl and chill for at least 2 hours. Don’t skip the chilling, your gazpacho will not be good unless it’s chilled through, and that would be bad for your happy summer day.

Season with a little more salt, vinegar and/or hot sauce to taste and serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. That’s all there is to it, except to take it outside on your deck or patio and enjoy it in the summer breezes.

Enjoy!!

NOTES: This recipe took about 20 minutes of hands on time. It made 7 cups of gazpacho. That’s  lot for a two-person household like this, but rest assured none of it will go to waste. :) Since I already had the olive oil, vinegar and hot sauce, this gazpacho cost us $4.21 ($3.00 for the tomatoes), which comes out to about 61 cents a serving if you use 1 cup servings. (I can’t eat 1 cup servings, it’s more like a 1/2 cup serving for me).

My Favorite Gazpacho Recipe

Adapted from a recipe in Bi*Rite Market’s Eat Good Food cookbook.

If you don’t have this cookbook yet, and you’re interested in seasonal, sustainable eating, this book is a must have. We’ve had it since last fall and it is one of our favorites, we cook from it all the time. Eat Good Food is filled with all kinds of information, ideas and recipes. I especially love that the recipes are sorted by season. It’s fantastic!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (or sherry vinegar), plus more as needed
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce, like Tabasco
  • 1/2 medium red onion, peeled and cut into large pieces
  • 1/2 medium cucumber, trimmed and cut into large pieces
  • Leaves from 6 large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
  • 12 large fresh basil leaves
  • 1 large clove garlic
  • Kosher salt
  • 3 medium Roma tomatoes, cored and cut into large pieces
  • 4 medium heirloom tomatoes, cored and cut into large pieces

Directions:

Add the oil, vinegar and hot sauce to the blender and briefly blend. Add the onion, cucumber, parsley, basil, garlic and 1 tablespoon salt and blend until smooth. Add the tomatoes, a few at a time, blending as you go. When the blender is about three-fourths full, pour half of the liquid into a large bowl. Continue blending and adding tomatoes like this,  a few at a time, until all the tomatoes are incorporated and everything is blended smooth. Pour the soup into the large bowl.

If you’d like a smoother texture, strain the soup with a fine-mesh sieve.

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Whisk to blend, then taste and season with salt, vinegar or hot sauce as needed. Garnish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

The Perfect Summer Salad – Greek Style Panzanella

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As you guys know, I’ve been all about summer these past few days because I’m taking it off for some R & R and exploration into new things. One of the things on my to-do list for this first week of my 98 days of summer, was to search out some lighter, fresh recipes that used summer’s harvests and wouldn’t have me slaving over the stove for more than a few minutes.

This Greek Style Panzanella, from Ina, is just the kind of thing I was hoping for. It definitely made the list for a favorite summer recipe. Hubby and I reallllllllly loved this. It is such a refreshing mouthful of summer flavors. I’m just crazy about the feta and olives in here too. The feta in particular is a nice tangy contrast to the sweetness of the peppers and tomatoes. And the bread adds such a great texture to it all.

Would you like to try it too? I highly recommend it :)   Here’s how I put it together:

First things first: Browning the bread. Dice up a nice rustic loaf of bread into 1 inch pieces. Place it into a large skillet (over medium heat) that’s been coated with a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Sprinkle the bread with some salt and pepper and toss it frequently for a few minutes….

…until the bread has gotten a little crunchy and lightly browned. This took me about 5 minutes. Voila! Croutons! Set these little yummies aside while you chop up the veggies for your panzanella:

Here’s the veggies and the preparation you’ll need to make this pretty salad: 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper, both seeded and diced into bite-sized pieces; 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled and halved lengthwise, then sliced into 1/2 inch thick half rounds; 1/2 of a small red onion, thinly sliced; and finally, a pint of cherry tomatoes that all need to be sliced in half. Put them all into a large bowl.

Once the veggies are all prepped and ready to go make your vinaigrette: In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. If you do this, YOUR vinaigrette will be much prettier than mine. Why? Because I used white wine vinegar and ground oregano. Poor planning on my part. I was so wrapped up in my 98 days of summer plans that I messed up the grocery list. Ok, I flat out forgot those two ingredients.  But as ugly as it is, it was still incredibly flavorful and satisfying. This vinaigrette is so good! I will definitely be using it in other salads.

Next, add a 1/2 cup of pitted kalamata olives and 8 ounces of feta cheese to your bowl of veggies. I diced my feta into 3/4 inch pieces.

Now, throw your completely cooled croutons into the bowl with everything else…..

….slowly drizzle your vinaigrette over everything….

…and lightly toss it all together. Now, a little patience is necessary while you let your gorgeous panzanella rest for 30 minutes at room temperature – all those flavors need a little time to get to know each other.

At the end of the 30 minutes, taste to see if it needs some salt (mine needed just a pinch), then, dive in and enjoy this refreshing bowl of summer! If you were here, I’d share because it made quite a bit more than the two of us can handle in one meal. I’ll be making this again this summer…..to enjoy on the patio…with some lemonade….while I get into my R & R….

What is your favorite summer dish to prepare?  Which summer vegetable is your favorite? I think I love them all :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Greek Style Panzanella Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten, in her cookbook Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That? (pretty darn easy Ina, thanks!)

Ina also has a similar recipe at The Food Network

Ingredients:

For the croutons:

  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 cups rustic bread, diced into 1 inch pieces
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:

  • 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, halved length-wise, seeded, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
  • 1 red bell pepper, seeded, large diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, large diced
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced in half rounds
  • 1/2 pound feta cheese, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted

For the vinaigrette:

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Set aside.

Place the cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper in a small bowl. While still whisking, slowly add the olive oil to make an emulsion. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta, olives and bread cubes and mix together lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

Add the feta, olives and bread to the vegetables in the bowl. Add the vinaigrette and lightly toss. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Season to taste and serve at room temperature.