Tennessee Locavore

Snickerdoodle Blondies and wrap-up of the Eat On $30 challenge

It's been a crazy last few weeks work wise and I haven't had time before now to post my thoughts on the Eat On $30 challenge.  

First, here's a breakdown of the final numbers:

Breakdown of costs:

Breakfast: Scrambled free-range eggs, bread, fair trade coffee and local organic milk
Lunch: Homemade pizza with homemade sauce, cheese and turkey sausage
Dinner: French onion soup w/ swiss cheese and bread
Dessert: Snickerdoodle Blondies - 2

Breakfast:
3 Eggs: 57¢
6 tbsp milk: 18¢
3 tbsp coffee: 33¢
Bread: n/a
1 organic local apple: 70¢
TOTAL: $1.78

Lunch:
TOTAL:  $0 because these were leftover from the previous nights dinner

Dinner:
1 pounds onions: 80¢
Organic beef broth: $2.50
8 oz wine: $1.44
Bread: n/a
4 oz Swiss cheese: 56¢
TOTAL:  $5.30 (with leftovers for the next day's lunch)

Dessert:
Snickerdoodle Blondies: 76¢
TOTAL: 76¢

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE DAY: $7.84
TOTAL SPENT FOR ENTIRE CHALLENGE: $54

What are my thoughts on this challenge?  First of all - a reminder.  This is in no way an attempt to mimic the life of anyone on food stamps or on such a limited budget.  There's no way to do that and this challenge was less about stepping into the shoes of someone in that situation and more about bringing attention to the issue of hunger.  I think the challenge was pretty successful in that right.  A lot of bloggers participated and lots of people have expressed interest in doing this challenge the next time it comes around.

With that being said, I guess what it comes down to is that I DID feel like a bit of a fraud doing this challenge.  There's just no way that what I do can mimic what's it's like to have to live with this on a daily basis.  I have way too many resources - too many stores within walking distance, too much cooking equipment, too much knowledge of how to cook and eat healthy - all of these are issues I covered in previous posts.  I'm so relieved to not have to do the endless calculations to see if something was in our budget.  I'm not talking about making sure to stay within a rough amount - I'm talking about the sheets of paper I filled out with the cost per ounce of lots of the foods we eat on a regular basis.  I'm grateful that I can pour a glass of cheap wine and not have to worry about how it will affect our budget.  Like I said, my husband and I are already very frugal out of necessity but I didn't expect how wearing it could be to constantly think about food, down to each and every penny.  I take my dollars seriously but I take those pennies for granted.

What did I learn from this challenge?  I'm already a pretty thrifty person.  We have to be to stay afloat in this economy.  Vegetable odds and ends go into my freezer so I can make vegetable stock.  I do the same with chicken bones and scraps.  I was surprised by the way one ingredient can make the price per serving skyrocket. I love my Penzey's double strength vanilla but I'll be saving it for recipes where the vanilla flavor really stands out.  We do a pretty good job with not letting food go to waste in our house but I'm being even more vigilant about using everything up.  I'm also watching my grocery spending.  I'm not going to break everything down into a price per serving but I am going to keep better track of how much we're spending.  I think a lot of people underestimate how much they spend on groceries - I know I did and I'm going to keep better track of my spending in that area.  I was also amazed by how $60 seemed like such a huge amount in the beginning but when I started adding up the costs, that money flew out of my hands.

What am I going to do differently next time?  I'm going to plan ahead of time so that my fridge doesn't have any leftovers that need to be dealt with.  I want to go into a store with the money I have for the week and buy what I'll need - no borrowing from my pantry and figuring out the cost per ounce.  I've thought about buying a box of food from Angel Food ministries and figuring out how to use that with the addition of a few staples - that would be a challenge because I'd have to come up with a menu based on what I got from there.

I'd also love to get a group of people in East Tennessee to do this challenge with me the next time. I'll post about the next challenge ahead of time and I'd be glad to have a party afterwords at my house.  We could collect food or money for a local food bank in our area.  This time, I'm going to be making a donation of $27.69 to Second Harvest Food Bank - that's the price of one of those Penzey's bottles of Double-Strength vanilla that I've been taking for granted.

I strongly urge you to donate either your money or your time to one of these organizations.  They do a great job helping the working poor in our community :
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee 
Fish Pantries

I also want to thank Tami of Running with Tweezers for organizing this great challenge.  She was a wonderful cheerleader and I'm grateful for her kind words and encouragement and for all the support I got from fellow participants, other food bloggers and my readers!  You all are awesome!

I'm going to end my posts about this challenge on a sweet note.  I'm a sugar junkie and for the sake of my husband's sanity, I knew I'd have to have some kind of sweet treat while doing this challenge.  Chocolate desserts were out - too pricey and I thought about making an apple crisp.  But then I saw this recipe on my friend Maris's blog and I knew we had a winner.  Snickerdoodles are my husband's favorite cookie of all time.  He's been known to inhale a dozen cookies in less than half an hour and he actually tested several recipes a few years ago to find his "perfect" cookie.  Because these are a bar cookie, they're much easier and while they'll never replace the actual cookie in my husband's heart, we both thought these were fantastic.

Snickerdoodle Blondies (Adapted from In Good Taste and Dozen Flours)

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt 
1 cup packed brown sugar 
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 
1 egg, at room temperature 
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract 
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons & 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, divided

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8x8 inch pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat until smooth

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until blended.  Don't over mix!  Spread evenly in 8x8 pan.

Combine the 1 1/2 tablespoon of white sugar with the 1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake 25-30 minutes(this is what the original direction called for but ours were done at 23 minutes) or until surface springs back when lightly touched. Cool slightly but cut into bars while it's still warm.

Here is a list of the other wonderful bloggers who participated in this project! If you decide to follow along on Twitter the hashtag is #EatOn30:

• Tami of Running with Tweezers - Twitter @runwithtweezers
• Betty Joan of Trouble With Toast - Twitter @bettyjoan
• Carrie Neal of carrienealland - Twitter @carrienealland
• Paula of Bell'alimento - Twitter @bellalimento
• The Broke Socialite - Twitter @brokesocialite
• Jimmy of Eat It Atlanta - Twitter @EatItAtlanta
• Robert of WhizKid Sound - Twitter @rdyson
• Jen of Use Real Butter - Twitter @userealbutter
• Mike's $30 Project Blog - Twitter @boutte
• Zach of Mise en Face - Twitter @drzachary
• Hailey of Hail’s Kitchen - Twitter @hailskitchen
• Susan of Doughmesstic - Twitter @doughmesstic
• Frugal Hostess - Twitter @frugalhostess
• Diana of Spain in Iowa Twitter @dianabauman

The Best Cornbread I will Never Serve My Mother-In-Law

In the family I married into, cooking is done only by the matriarchs.  They are the best cooks and they are the only cooks.  The kitchen is their domain and woe to anyone who thinks they can keep up on that battleground.  I very rarely cook for my in laws - I usually let my husband do that.  Better for them to think that I've whipped the man into submission into the kitchen than to give the appearance that I think I can compete in the cooking Olympics.  Sure I can compete - I think I'm a damn good cook and I know many that agree.  But I'm perfectly willing to yield that reputation at my in laws door.  Anything I would make would be too weird, too spicy, too healthy, not what they're used to.  Too different is what it boils down to and to be honest, I'm really at peace with that.  Every once in a while, I'll make something non-confrontational - tomato salad, bread, cookies.  But I never make fried chicken.  I never make biscuits.  And the last thing I would ever do is make cornbread.

Cornbread is the heart, soul and community bread for breaking in the South.  We're as passionate about it as we are about religion and football.  Family recipes are guarded carefully and the cornbread you make is never as good as the cornbread their mommas make.  It's as simple as that.  You're either using the wrong type of cornmeal, desecrating it with sugar, adding too many eggs or not using the right kind of fat in your skillet.  It's a tradition here and many feel like you should never mess with a tradition.

Although I grew up in the South, my parents weren't Southerners so I don't have any tried and true rules when it comes to cornbread.  I have no pre-conceived notions about what cornbread should taste like.  I just know what tastes good to me.  To me, a lot of the cornbreads served up north aren't the cornbreads that make up a daily part of life.  While I don't share the disdain for them that many in the South have, they do seem more like cake than bread.  Tasty, but with their copious amounts of sugar, not cornbread.  I've had cornbreads that have more flour than cornmeal but, in my opinion, that's getting rid of the essence of the cornbread.  It might be very tasty but it's a bread with cornmeal, not cornbread.  Stone ground cornmeal is heads and shoulders above any other kind of cornmeal - it hasn't had the corniness milled out.  Buttermilk does magical things in cornbread and should never be omitted.  And while my Mom always baked cornbread in a baking pan, I am a complete and utter convert to the use of a cast iron skillet in the making of a proper cornbread.  The buttery crust that shatters in your mouth, right before your teeth sink into the creamy corniness of the inside is, to me, the soul of the cornbread.

My husband on the other hand has been indoctrinated from a young age about what a proper cornbread should consist of.  Getting him to branch out and try something different was about as easy as herding cats.  But my husband is nothing but competitive - this is the man that decided to master making a pie crust because his Mom could never quite get one right.  By instilling the mere thought that there might be better cornbreads out there, I was able to lead him down the path of the underground cornbread resistance.

So we went on a quest for the "perfect" cornbread.  I can't tell you how many recipes we tried - they blurred together in a cornmealed frenzy.  I checked out book after book from the library on Southern cooking and cooking in East Tennessee.  During the course of this marathon, I made some of the densest, driest cornbreads imaginable.  It was very frustrating.  And then I thought of something that I was quite ashamed hadn't occurred to me before - why hadn't I looked in my tried and true cookbooks - the one with splatters and rips in the pages.  No - they weren't "Southern" cookbooks but if they had served me well in other areas, why not check them for this?  And that's when I found our cornbread "Holy Grail".

One my favorite cookbooks is Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. And it's definitely the cookbook I use most judging by the sorry shape it's in.  In it, she has a recipe for Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread.  It had all the basic requirements and nothing I've ever made from her cookbook has been less than very tasty - most recipes become repeats here in our house.  And no one can say that this woman doesn't have passion for cornbread - she's written an entire book about it.

This cornbread has become the very definition of cornbread to me.  It's light as can be but still packs real substance.  I can eat a slice of it by itself and be a very happy girl but it's the perfect accompaniment to chili, soup beans and greens.

Some of you from the South are already fussin' up a storm because you saw sugar in this recipe and good, true, REAL cornbread doesn't have sugar in it.  I say, hooey.  I'll take any tried and true Southerner and give him/her two cornbreads made exactly the same, one with a little bit of sugar, one without.  Sure as spit, they'll always choose the one with a touch of sugar.  I've brought this cornbread to plenty of functions (as long as the in laws weren't there) and every single time, this cornbread gets eaten up while the other "authentic" cornbreads look lonely.  Adding just a touch of sugar makes this taste like you're biting into a piece of bread made with buttered sweet corn.  It does not taste like cake in any way.

Another complaint I'm sure I'll hear is that this has flour in it.  Well, so does the basic cornbread recipe at the holy shrine of all things cornbread, Lodge Cast Iron Cookware Company.  So do many of the cornbread mixes sold to Southerners here in East Tennessee.  I know that using flour in cornbread is an anathema to many here in East Tennessee and some of you may not even try this because of it.  You're really missing out.  When you use really good cornmeal (stone ground and preferably local), the flour merely accentuates the corniness of the cornbread.  It lightens the texture, giving it lift and keeping it from being as heavy as many cornbreads I've tried.  It also creates a cornbread that keeps well and reheats beautifully - important in this household of two.  We've even frozen wedges and let me tell you, on a cold, hectic winter night, there's nothing quite so life affirming to pull out of the freezer for a quick meal than a slice of this cornbread.

We still love to experiment with cornbread but this is the one we always come back to.  When my husband and I talk about cornbread, this is the cornbread we picture in our minds.  It's the cornbread we make for our friends and my family.  It's the cornbread we bring to potlucks and parties.  It's a cornbread I would never serve to my mother in law.  It's too good.  Serving her this cornbread would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Edited to add - My friend Laura just did a post about this cornbread as well.  Check it out - it's a great post.

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread
(Adapted from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon)

Note: There are all kinds of variations that you can make with this cornbread.  Over the next few months, I'll show you some of them.

1 cup stone ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1- 3 tablespoons sugar (the fresher the cornmeal, the less sugar you'll need. I use 1 tbsp)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (please use good buttermilk if you can get it, like Cruze Farm)
1 large egg

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola, or peanut

Preheat your oven to 375.  You need to make sure your oven is good and hot if you want to get that crunchy crust that turns cornbread into a little slice of heaven.  This page has a good description on how to calibrate your oven temperature - at the very least, make sure you know how much your oven is off so you know how to adjust the heat or timing of your baked dishes.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (cornmeal through sugar) and stir well to combine them.  If your baking soda or baking powder have any lumps, sift them (or break them up well with a spoon) before you measure them into the bowl. 

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vegetable oil.  

Put your 10 1/4 inch cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat and let it heat up for 2-3 minutes (or as long as it takes to get nice and hot).  Add butter to the skillet and once it's melted and bubbly, tilt it around to make sure the butter has spread all over the bottom of the pan and up onto the sides a bit.  

Mix the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients.  Please make sure not to over-stir this - you only need to mix it until everything is wet.  There will still be small lumps in it - you just want to mix it until there are no big pockets of dry ingredients. 

Pour mixture into the skillet.  You should hear it sizzle a little.  Put this into the oven right away and bake 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Cut cornbread into wedges and serve warm.

For a printable recipe, click here!

Cherry Pies for April

I'm going to be blunt- I really wasn't sure if I should even write this post.  I feel like my writing skills can't even begin to convey what a heartbreaking week this has been.  Part of me doesn't even want to write this because I know I'll cry the entire time.  But I feel like not writing about it would be cowardly - April's been such a strong, courageous person throughout this entire ordeal that it would be wrong not to share it.  It would be wrong not to try to describe how much love and care could be found, even in the worst of times.  I apologize for how inadequate my words are but I had to try.

Our friend April has been fighting breast cancer for the last two and half years.  She was diagnosed at the young age of 33.  When her cancer was discovered, she already had multiple tumors and several were inoperable in their current state.  The hope was that they could use chemotherapy to shrink the tumors small enough so that they could remove them.

She's been through several rounds of chemo.  Some have seemed to help for a while but the tumors always kept coming back.  Some rounds of chemo had to be discontinued because they were killing her.  But we all hoped that the fix for her was right around the corner.  

When Marcus and I got married in November, we asked her to do a reading. She was obviously very tired, but she came and made a day that was already special, even more special to us.  We were all worried but we still hadn't given up hope. 

Even when we found out last week that April's liver was starting to fail, we all still held out hope.  Surely the stopgap chemo would work so that she could participate in a new trial she had gotten into for a drug that showed a lot of promise and hope.

Saturday, April went back to the doctor to see if her liver levels had improved.  The doctor was compassionate, but blunt with her and told her that he needed to let her know that she probably wouldn't be leaving the hospital again.  April turned to her family and said "I'd like to have a house party blow-out, with all the people I love." So plans were put in motion Saturday afternoon for a party on Sunday.  A Hawaiian Luau was planned and we were all told to wear our brightest, most gaudy outfits.

In this country, we love our David and Goliath stories.  We love to hear about people overcoming all odds, fighting through every obstacle in their path.  But sometimes we need to be reminded that no matter how hard we try or how hard we fight,  we can't win. We don't always get our fairy tale endings - no matter how much we want them. We want to hear the Chicken Soup for the Soul version of cancer and we tend to forget that life is rarely that black or white.  No one fought harder than April and her family and no one deserved a happy ending more than them. This is a real story with an ending that no one wanted, but it's the ending that we got.

I can't even begin to convey how wonderful it was to see the tender care that April's husband has been giving her.  Watching him feed her, gently wipe her mouth and try to get her to drink - I still have a mark on my hand from where I rammed my thumbnail into it so I wouldn't completely break down in sobbing tears.  I couldn't even look at my husband because I know in my heart how much we love one another and I know we've both been putting ourselves in April's husband's shoes. When Mac and April said their wedding vows, they had every reason to hope that any sickness they were promising to support one another through would be brief or after they had spent a lifetime together.  Yet the love they've shown one another throughout this whole ordeal has been a gift to all of us who love them. 

I can't even begin to describe the grief of a best friend who put a party together in less than 24 hours - knowing it would be the last gift she could give her.  We watched her hold her infant son in one arm while the other hand held her best friend's hand.

We laughed as one of our friends showed up in a coconut shell bra and grass skirt that was very becoming to him and we were all grateful to see one another and tell stories about April. One of April's best friends, Val, remarked about how heartbreaking it was to know that we were all probably going to be seeing one another again soon.

I can't even begin to describe the grief etched on her parents faces - watching a daughter they loved begin to weaken and knowing that in this unfair, cruel world, she was going to die before them. We listened to her dad break down as he described how they had to have this party because it was April's last request and hugged him, wishing we could do more.  We watched her sister play with her little boy, and wished that he was able to grow up with his Aunt April looking out for him.

I can't begin to describe how helpless I felt, asking if there was anything, ANYTHING I could do to help and knowing that the one thing everyone wanted most was beyond my ability to help.

I can't begin to describe the bittersweet mingling of grief and love that everyone at the party felt.  I heard people that used to work with April talk about how lost they've been without her.  How she was always so organized and knew where everything was.  Friends shared stories about her.  Marcus reminisced about the week they were co-counselors and got stuck with the boys that would not shower.

I can't begin to describe what a beautiful party it was.  We had lots of babies around us, good food to share.  There were fireworks and lots of laughter - tears too - but the party really was a celebration of April's life and what she had meant to all of us.

We made food to bring - how could we not?  But the entire time I was trying to figure out what we could bring, I kept thinking how screwed up it was that I was bringing something to a party to say goodbye forever to a friend.  I mean - what the hell do you bring to that?

April has always told us that she loved the way we experimented with food.  Marcus visited her Friday, bringing homemade sourdough bread and elderberry jelly we had canned that week.  Marcus explained why the jelly was named 'Monty Python' jelly and she laughed and told Marcus that she loved it when we got inventive in the kitchen.  So we made a grilled corn salsa and peach brown butter bars - both are foods that celebrate the bounty of summer and are a little different, without being strange.

Sitting there in that bedroom with her was such a painful experience - seeing how yellow she'd become in two days.  Looking over at the pictures of her on her parent's desk - pictures of her when she graduated from high school, pictures of her looking radiant on her wedding day - times when everyone, including her, thought she had a lifetime in front of her.

There were moments of laughter as well.  When we came back later that evening, she whispered that if we didn't mind, she was keeping the bread we had brought and we both laughed and told her the bread was all hers.  We spent some more time with her and then we both kissed her goodbye and Marcus told her that we loved her.  She had been struggling that day to stay awake with limited success but a brief moment of lucidity came over her and she looked at us and told us she loved us too.  We left and cried all the way home.

The last update we heard was that April was mostly unconscious but seemed to be resting comfortably.  So we wait - waiting for the news that we know is going to come.  News that you'd think would be a relief but no one wants to hear. 

We love you April.  The world is a much better place because we had you as long as we did and it will be a much poorer place without you.

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Marcus and I were talking with April's mom Sunday afternoon before the party and she mentioned that April had always loved cherry pie so when she was at Kroger's getting food, she tried to get her something that might get her to eat.  She picked up a cherry coffeecake but like most grocery store baked goods, they're always a lot prettier than they taste.  I knew at that moment, exactly what we were going to do.

As soon as the party was over and we had helped clean up, we let her parents know that we'd be back in a little bit and we drove as fast as we could to the closest grocery store.  We ran in, got our supplies and headed home.  Our kitchen was a mess - full of dirty dishes from cooking food for the party and we had boxes of fruit and tomatoes everywhere that we had been planning to can that day.

Normally, we'd make our own pie crust but in a 90 degree kitchen with no counter space to find, that was not going to happen in a speedy manner.  So we bought pie crust at the store, along with puff pastry.  We did have several bags of frozen cherries we'd been hoarding away since last summer so we combined them with a jar of homemade pie filling we had.

Were these pies pretty?  No - we didn't have time to let them cool before drizzling icing on them.  We raced back to her house and when we got there, I realized that we both looked like deranged bakers - I had flour prints all over my black top and Marcus had managed to splash cherry filling on his ear.

We came in and Mac was feeding her but it was obvious that she was struggling to eat.  After she had rested for a bit, she whispered to him that she wanted to try the pie.  I held the plate while Mac fed her.  Did April eat them because she was really hungry or did she eat them because she knew it would make us feel better?  I have no idea - April's the type of person who would have eaten them even if they had tasted awful.  All I know is that we have never felt more privileged in our lives to cook for someone. 

My Mom later told me what a sweet thing it was that we did.  I explained to her that it was the very least thing we could do - how blessed we were to be able to do it.  Those aren't just pretty words I said - words to show off and prove how humble and giving I am.  I have never in my life cooked something for someone and had it mean so much to me.  I know Marcus feels the same way.  I never want to have to repeat that experience and if there was some way to have warded off the circumstances, we would have done just about anything to do so.  But circumstances were beyond our control.  I'm grateful we could do this one thing.

I know that for the rest of my life, whenever Marcus or I eat a cherry pie, we're going to think of April.  And while we may cry, we'll both be smiling through our tears.

Quick Cherry Turnovers and Quick Cherry Pie

1 can cherry pie filling - try to get a good one so it isn't sickly sweet.
3/4 cup frozen sweet cherries
3/4 cup frozen sour cherries
Sugar - I can't give you a precise amount.  Just add it until the sauce is a little sweeter than you'd like it to be because you want it to soak into and sweeten the cherries a bit.
1/4 cup flour, sifted into mixture and stirred.

Combine all of the above in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar and flour are completely incorporated into the mixture and the filling is heated all the way through.

To make turnovers:
Take one package of puff pastry and thaw one piece.  Cut into four squares.  Spoon a few cherries onto each piece(don't overfill) and fold the pastry over until it's a triangle.  Brush a little beaten egg on the edges and crimp together.  Spread a piece of parchment paper over a baking sheet or pan and place the turnovers on it so they're not touching.  Brush the turnovers with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until turnovers are puffed and turning golden.

To make pies:
Take the circle of pie crust and cut it in half.  Cut each half in half again.  Spoon pie filling onto each piece and dab a little beaten egg on the edges.  Fold the dough over to form a triangle and crimp the edges shut.  Brush with beaten egg and cut a couple of slits in the top of each pie.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until pies are beginning to turn a golden brown color.  Mix 1/4 powdered sugar with as little milk as possible to turn it into a thick liquid.  When pies are done, wait until they cool and drizzle icing over with a spoon. 

Just a note - I wrote this post last night.  We found out earlier today that April passed away in her sleep this morning.  Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.  

Drowning in Peaches - what a wonderful problem to have!

There is nothing in the world that screams summer to me more than a peach.  The way it smells, the way it tastes, the luscious texture, the overabundance when they're in season.  A few years ago, Marcusand I decided that we were going to try to buy all of our fruit locally that year.  We had been buying almost all of our vegetables locally for several years and we wanted to take it to the next level.  Of course, that would be the year that a late freeze in April, after several unseasonably hot weeks, killed off all of our plans for fruit that year.  We went to ridiculous efforts to save our strawberries that involved wrapping our beds in plastic and putting lights out to keep it warm enough not to freeze.  But local farmers around here couldn't do that and the 23 degree nights devastated farmers all over the southeast.  That summer was a lean year on the fruit front.  We had our miracle strawberries and we had melons but that was it.  Without peaches, the summer just didn't seem the same.  So every year since, we've gorged ourselves silly on local peaches.  I like yellow peaches best but any local peach will taste so much better than peaches trekked in from hundred of miles away.  

I always buy too many peaches and end up with some that are going a little soft around the edges.  This cake is a great way to use them up.  I really loved this recipe.  It's a very light, eggy, sweet cornbread with a deliciously buttery peach layer on top.  Next time I make it, I'm going to wedge in even more peaches - this cake can handle it.

Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

11 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 medium ripe peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, pitted, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges
1 cup coarse yellow cornmeal or polenta
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt three tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat.  Make sure to swirl butter up on sides so that they're coated.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over bottom of skillet.  Sugar will start to bubble and turn a golden-brown color - this will take about three minutes.

Arrange peaches in a circle around the edges of the skillet.  Arrange the rest of the peach wedges in the center.  Reduce heat to low and cook until the peaches are soft and the juices are bubbling.  This will take around ten minutes.  Remove from heat.

Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Using a mixer on high speed beat the remaining stick of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar until mixture is fluffy and pale.  This will take about three minutes.  Reduce speed to medium and add eggs, one at a time allowing each egg to be fully incorporated before adding the other.  Scrape down the sides of bowl and add the vanilla and cream.  Reduce speed to low and add half the cornmeal mixture.  Scrap down sides and add the rest of the cornmeal mixture and mix thoroughly.

Drop large spoonfuls of batter over the peaches and spread the batter evenly over them using a spatula.  Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.  This will be 20 to 22 minutes.  In my oven, it took 25 minutes.  Place skillet on a wire rack for ten minutes and then run a knife around the edges of the cake.  Do the next movement quickly - Invert cake onto a large plate or cutting board and tap the bottom of the skillet to release the peaches.  Carefully remove skillet - you may need to reposition the peaches on the top.  Let cool slightly and serve.

Click here for a printable recipe!

This is my entry for week two of Summerfest.  Join in the fun!

Brown Butter, Bacon & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am in love with chocolate chip cookies.  Some people say they're boring but give me a plate of still warm chocolate chip cookies and a glass of Cruze Farm milk, a good book and a comfy chair and I'm in my own personal Shangri-La.  Don't get me wrong - I'd never turn down a homemade cookie of any kind (although no walnuts please!) but chocolate chip cookies are the best of both my cravings.  You get the buttery, rich cookie bits, the melty, transcendent chocolate bits and both tastes in one bite if you so choose.  

As a kid, my Mom quickly learned that if any cookies were going to make it to whatever function she was bringing them to, she better make a triple batch and hide them well.  I could sniff out a chocolate chip cookie better than a bloodhound can find his man.  I'm still pretty good at it but I've found that extra minutes on my rowing machine are a far more effective deterrent than any hiding place my mom could ever come up with.

I've tried a lot of chocolate cookies in my day and I've eaten a lot of lousy ones.  One thing I hate is when a chocolate chip cookie has too much chocolate in it, so much so that it really ceases to be a chocolate chip cookie anymore. You want the contrast between the cookie and the chocolate part.  I also hate super crisp or chewy cookies.  The edges need to be crispy enough to spray crumbs everywhere when they shatter.  The inside needs to be soft - just on the done side.

A few months ago, Marcus and I discovered an amazing recipe in Cooks Illustrated.  I realize that brown butter is very trendy but I could care less.  If something tastes as good as brown butter, it's earned its trendiness fair and square and it's certainly a trend I'll keep following long after it's cool, just like my trusty Birks have made it past their heyday in my college years.  Combine that with just the texture I've been looking for and this is our go-to recipe for plain chocolate chip goodness.  I've made a couple of changes to it as far as the chocolate goes - I like to add a little grated milk chocolate to the batter.  I also add chunks of semisweet chocolate to the bittersweet chocolate chips in my cookie.  I like the flavor even better this way.

Bacon has also been getting a lot of attention lately, especially when used as an ingredient in something unusual, like a sweet or dessert.  I had heard about Mo's Bacon Bar long before I ran into it last week at our local Earthfare.  They had small sizes so I bought one and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't all that I had heard it was.  I could see the potential though.  I also have been swooning over this Bacon Caramels recipe at Not Without Salt. Since my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe has such strong caramel overtones and I knew the chocolate would compliment the bacon as well, I thought I'd tinker around with bacon in my chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The first thing I did was do some research and see what food bloggers were saying about their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I found a couple that looked promising so we made a batch of both recipes and then a batch of our favorite cookie dough.  We added minced bacon, chopped bacon, and a combination of minced and chopped bacon to some of each dough and baked a control cookie that had no bacon.  In each case, we thought our standard recipe was the best.  We also quickly decided that the chunks of bacon worked best and no noticeable additional flavor was added by including minced bacon.

Marcus and I brought three plates of chocolate chip cookies with bacon (and one plate with no bacon) to a party Friday night.  It was hilarious listening to people talk about them.  I think the most common refrain was "Holy %^$#!  There's bacon in those chocolate chip cookies!" After getting over the weirdness, they were quickly gobbled down.  At the end of the night, there weren't any of the bacon cookies left and only a few of the plain chocolate chip cookies were left.  The ones that got the most praise were the cookies that were made from the browned butter.  If the idea of bacon in your cookies freaks you out, just fry up a piece or two and add the bits to a few cookies and see if you like it.  I'm willing to bet you do.  And then you can run around like our friends on Friday night doing an imitation of this commercial:

Brown Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4 oz semisweet chocolate bar, diced into 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
3 tablespoons milk chocolate, grated
1 cup bacon that's been fried until crispy and diced into roughly 1/4" pieces

Put your oven rack in the middle and heat your oven to 375 degrees.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk 1 3/4 cups flour with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.  Set this aside.  Try to do this like me and get as many floury fingerprints as you can all over your clothes.

Fry up a few pieces of bacon.  You'll get about a cup from roughly eight pieces of bacon but if you're like me, you'll cook a few pieces extra just in case some disappear like it always seems to happen to me.  You want the bacon to be as crisp as possible without being burnt.  If you can find good, real hickory smoked bacon, use this.

Burn a few pieces so that you HAVE to eat them so they don't go to waste.  Cut the bacon into roughly (and this is very roughly) 1/4" pieces.

Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat until melted.  Continue cooking until it turns a dark, golden brown and smells divine.  Swirl this pan constantly and stir the bottom frequently for good measure.  Watch this carefully! I'm not going to say how I know this but this goes from ready to burnt quicker than anything.  As soon as it's done, take off the heat and pour immediately into a heatproof bowl.  Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons of butter so that they melt.

Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoon vanilla. Lament the fact that you are now officially out of Penzey's Double Strength Vanilla.

Dip a piece (or eight) of bacon into the mixture and eat.  Because I said so.

Add egg and egg yolk and mix until mixture is fully incorporated.  If you don't have a mixer, use your whisk - it works just as well. 

Let sugar/egg/butter mixture stand for a few minutes.  Then whisk again for 30 seconds.  Do this several times - you want to make sure that the sugar has "melted" into the liquid.  When ready, mixture will be smooth, thick and shiny.

Chop your chocolate.  Dust the cat hair off the few pieces that fall on the floor and eat.

Grate your milk chocolate

Using wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in grated chocolate, chocolate chunks and bacon pieces.  Don't over mix but make sure no flour pockets remain.

Using a teaspoon, place a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I get about 14 cookies per baking sheet.

Bake for 10-14 minutes (my oven takes 11 minutes) until cookies are golden-brown and set along the edges but the middle is still soft.  Remove from oven and set baking sheet on a wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes, keeping the cookies on the baking sheet.  You see the two cookies fused together in the center.  Those should be considered ruined and eaten so as not to expose anyone else to imperfect cookies. 

TIP: I usually make a whole batch of cookie dough and freeze half of it.  Just put it on a baking sheet like you're going to bake it, stick it in the freezer for a few hours and put the frozen clumps in a freezer bag.  I haven't frozen the ones with bacon but I might leave that out and just stick a few pieces to the top when ready to bake.  Take from the freezer, put on a baking sheet and add a few minutes to your normal baking time.

Click here for a printable recipe!

Two sticks of butter in one 8X8 pan = heaven!

When I read the recipe for Cherry Brown Butter Bars by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, I fell in love with her blog all over again.  Deb posts some of the most delicious recipes, especially when it comes to baked goods. Last month, a new Earthfare opened near us and they had a fantastic special on organic cherries.  Since our local cherry harvest was so poor, Marcus and I treated ourselves and bought a few pounds to snack on. Brown butter is very trendy right now but it's a trend that I love. The combination of brown butter and cherries?  There was no way I could not make this recipe.

It certainly lived up to its billing. The shortbread crust combines winningly with the egg-y custard brown butter layer.  Deb compares it to a clafouti and the comparison is spot on.  I've made it three four times now and the after the third batch,  I was running low on cherries.  As much as it pains me to say it, the recipe is almost too rich (or at least it is when you're making four pans of it) and the fruit helps to cut through and lighten it a little.  So I wondered how I would taste with sliced peaches instead.  Peaches are in season here and I thought I could add more fruit if I used peaches instead - the cherries are a bit difficult to split between bars.  So I added a thin layer of peaches for the second batch of bars and I liked these even better than the cherries.  I tried thick slices of peaches and several thin layers of peaches.  I think it's really a matter of personal preference because both taste great to me and to my tasters.

Just a warning - watch the butter carefully. It will start to brown in a matter of seconds and you don't want it to burn.

Peach Brown Butter Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:

7 tablespoons butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

Pinch of salt

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter (equal to one stick)

4 Peaches, peeled and sliced

To make Crust:

 Preheat over to 375°F. Deb has instructions at her site for faking a tart pan.  I used a nonstick cake pan and although I made the first batch using parchment, the other three I didn't bother using it.  Make sure to grease your pan using a little butter.  Using a rubber spatula or fork, mix the melted butter,vanilla and sugar in a bowl.  Then add the flour and salt.  Stir until all of the flour is mixed into the butter and transfer the dough to your 8X8 pan.  Using your fingertips, press the dough so that it's distributed evenly across the bottom of the pan. 

Bake the crust until golden. This takes me about 15 minutes but Deb's instructions say 18 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it.You don't want it too done because you're going to bake it again.  Put pan on a rack and cool slightly.  Keep the oven at 375°F.

Make the filling: 

Melt the butter in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat.  You want to cook it until it's a deep brown.  One thing I noticed is that the milk solids will cook faster than the butter.  I cooked it until those were a dark brown and then poured it into a ramekin to cool.  This took about five minutes.

Whisk eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl to blend.  Add flour and whisk until smooth.  Add a small amount of brown butter and whisk.  Gradually add the rest of the butter and whisk until smooth and well blended. 

Arrange peach slices on crust.  If using thick slices, arrange like I have in picture.

  

 

If using thin slices, arrange a layer and then alternate another layer in a criss-cross fashion. Pour brown butter mixture carefully over the fruit.

 Bake bars until filling is golden and puffed.  This took around 40 minutes for me.  Cool bars completely on rack.  Cut into squares and serve.  If made more than a day ahead, store in fridge.

The next time I make these, I think I'm going to cut the peaches into thin slices and do about three layers, all criss-crossed over the previous layer of peaches.  I would have tried this again so I could have gotten pictures of it but there's only so many sticks of butter I can eat in a single week.  My friends all love them but have made me promise not to bring them any more of these because they can't say no to them.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a rowing machine!

One Local Summer - Week Three

We have been roasting here in East Tennessee.  It's been over 90 degrees the past few days with high humidity.  Combine that with a kitchen that has no air conditioning (or walls, cabinets and ceiling but that's a story for another day!) and cooking is the last thing you want to do.  We've been grilling out a lot and doubling up recipes so we have lots of leftovers.  Later this week I'll post recipes for roasted green beans and an amazing recipe for a potato, squash and ham frittata.  I thought I didn't like frittatas but luckily, I was wrong.  My favorite recipe this week comes from one of my fail safe cookbooks,A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop.  It was very easy to make and it was delicious hot and cold.  It's also deceptively filling.  The only non-local ingredient was the lime juice and the ginger, which although it wasn't local, was still reasonably close - it's from Alabama.  This soup served with grilled chicken thighs from Laurel Creek Farms was my "official" One Local Summer meal.  We finished it off with a peach cobbler that was completely local except for the flour. We sweetened it with local honey and homemade butter from local cream.  The ice cream was made with local honey and local milk and cream.

Chilled Curried Yellow Squash Soup with Cilantro-Lime Puree

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds yellow summer squash, chopped (about 5 small squash)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
6 cups vegetable broth
1 medium russet potato (about 8 ounces), peeled and diced
Salt
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Heat 2 T oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the squash and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Stir in the ginger, garlic, and curry powder and cook just until fragrant, about one minute.  Add the broth, potato, and salt to taste and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the potato is very tender, about 25 minutes.  Cool slightly, purée the soup in batches until very smooth.  Adjust the seasonings.  Transfer to an airtight container and chill thoroughly.  When ready to serve, purée the cilantro, lime juice, and remaining 3 T oil in a blender until smooth.  Salt to taste.  Taste the chilled soup and adjust seasonings as necessary.  Ladle soup into small bowls.  Drizzle some cilantro purée over each bowl and serve.  Serves six to eight.

Make your own Girl Scout Cookies

The other day, I realized we hadn't gotten any girl scouts knocking on our door this year.  I have very fond memories of Girl Scouts and I still think they're a great organization.  They're much more inclusive than their male counterpart organization and I love how they teach young girls to stand on their own two feet.  My mom was a Girl Scout leader and I had the greatest time selling cookies each year.  I sold the shit out of those cookies.  I could sell dead people Girl Scout cookie I was so good.  My poor parents were forced to drive miles because I insisted on venturing into distant neighborhoods to peddle my product. Boxes upon boxes of cookies would have to be delivered and I thought it was awesome.  My poor parents. 

One thing I don't like about Girl Scout cookies is that they still contain trans fats in them, even though according to the package, they don't "measurable" trans fats.  However, if you look at the list of ingredients, partially hydrogenated fats are listed which means they've used the trick of making the serving sizes small enough that the trans fats are just under 0.5 grams - that way they can market them as having 0 grams of trans fats per serving, even when they contain trans fats.  And seriously, when was the last time you ate two cookies?!!  For an organization that promotes good health, it's really time the Girl Scouts required their bakeries to leave out ALL trans fats.

So this year, I'm going to make a donation to the Girl Scouts - that way my local troop will get to keep 100% of that money, rather than the 16% of cookies sales.  It will be tax deductible as well.  And because I don't want to deny myself the quintessential summer treat of Thin Mints straight from the freezer, I'm going to try some of the recipes below.  These all are healthier, cheaper and probably tastier than traditional Girl Scout cookies.

Thin Mints(From what I've read, the secret to these is to use peppermint oil, not peppermint extract):
Homemade and All Natural Thin Mints at 101 Cookbooks - I have two of Heidi's cookbooks and the recipes are amazing.  These would be my bet to make first.
Chocolate Mint Cookies at Epicurious
Homemade Thin Mint at Baking Bites

Somoas:
Samoas at Baking Bites 
Samoas Bar at Baking Bites
Homemade Samoas at Chicken in the Road

Tagalongs:
Tagalongs at Baking Bites 
Homemade Tagalongs at The Recipe Box

Do-Si-Dos:
Do-Si-Dos by Baking Bites  

Sometimes simpler really is better

We had a Mardi Gras party this year.  For some odd reason, we ended up with a leftover keg of Yuengling beer after the wedding.  I am not the drinker I used to be, nor is Marcus.  Our friends can't put them back like they used to either so a small, intimate party was not going to get rid of all the beer we needed to drink.  So we decided a planned out kick butt soiree was needed.

I tend to get in over my head when it comes to party food.  So I made a conscious effort not to go crazy this time and kept things simple.  I made vegetarian gumbo and chicken & sausage jambalaya with a big pot of rice for our main dish.  We had S'mores for dessert (along with some delicious cookies that our friend Mary brought!).  Munchies were tortilla chips and homemade salsa, potato chips with homemade french onion dip and homemade bread with a butter & cream cheese spread.  I would never have made bread for a party like this but the no knead bread is so easy that it actually was a cinch to make.  Everyone raved about it and the spread I made was so good I was eating it with a spoon.  Here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Butter Herb Spread:
Equal amounts of softened butter and cream cheese (I used a pound of each)
Minced garlic to taste
Minced herbs to taste (I had rosemary and parsley in the garden so that's what I used)

Stick in the mixer and whip together.  If you make this before the party, make sure to take out a couple of hours before so it's easy to spread.

Dinner - Pizza with tomatoes, basil & homemade mozzarella

I spent part of this afternoon making mozzarella because Friday is pizza night here at McPhelps Manor! The milk we get is either from Cruze Farms or from River Ridge Farms. The Cruze milk is purchased from Three Rivers Market, our local food co-op. It's not homogenized and is lightly pasteurized. It's around $5.60 a gallon. It is some of the most wonderful milk I've ever had. We let it sit in the fridge for a day or two and skim the cream off unless we're making cheese. The cream is used for coffee or we stick it in the food processor and make butter with it. I don't think I'll ever be able to drink supermarket milk ever again! The milk from River Ridge Farms is raw milk and is for our pets only. {wink} They say it's some of the most amazing milk they've ever had. It's a bit pricier at $10 a gallon so we can only get a half gallon a week. I want to support them because they offer raw milk but we can only afford so much.

The recipe and supplies I use to make mozzarella are from New England Cheesemaking Supply. I never knew making mozzarella would be this easy. I was inspired to do this when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time. I'll write a review of it at some later date but I'm so glad I got impatient and bought a copy instead of waiting for one from the library. Anyway, I bought the Starter Special which comes with a book, DVD and 30 minute mozzarella kit. I've made mozzarella twice now and it's AMAZING! So easy to do and so yummy. Plus I can use local milk so I know my cheese is local! When I'm done making the mozzarella, I use the whey to make "Ricotta from heaven". Last time I did this, it worked really well. Tonight....not so much. I got a little bit of ricotta but I'm going to have to try it again. After doing all that, I used the whey to make pizza dough. I'll post all of these recipes at a later date but they're all amazing.

So....tonight's local meal was pizza with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. I doubled the pizza dough recipe so I could freeze some for later. The flour I use is a mix of unbleached all purpose and King Authur's White Whole Wheat - so not local at all. The olive oil isn't local nor is the salt or yeast. The two things that were local were the whey and the corn meal I sprinkled on the pan! I'd love to find local flour or even local wheat I could grind on my own. The mozzarella was local except for the citric acid, rennet tabs and cheese salt. The tomatoes were an Ananas Noire and a Burgundy Traveler from the garden. The basil was from the garden. The vino and salt and pepper weren't local but you have to have wine or beer with pizza!

I'm planning my strategy for tomorrow's farmer's market. We've got something eating some of our tomatoes so I don't know if I'll have enough to last us all winter. I think I'm going to buy some poundage to preserve tomorrow.