L is for lemons, life and love

Though I haven’t written for a long time, I still love life and writing. Here’s the fix. When creativity wanes and life is giving me lemons, I turn to a beloved dessert — lemon sponge pie. It’s sweet, light and comforting. So good, in fact, it may have the magical power to unlock writer’s block (testing this theory).

Today, March 14, is also Pi Day… pie without the ‘e’. Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (3/14) around the world (who knew?). Pi (the Greek letter Π) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. Thus we have, March 14, and the perfect day to make pie and celebrate! Let me be honest here, a deep understanding of mathematics is definitely, not my super power! But pie making? Yea, I got this!

Lemon sponge pie is an old Pennsylvania Dutch favorite. Recipes for it can still be found in most Amish, Mennonite or Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks published these days, attesting to its popularity. 

The sponge part of this pie is created when the egg whites are beaten separately and then folded into the other batter ingredients. This process creates a layer of lemon custard on the bottom of the baked pie with a light, spongy, cake-like layer on the top. 

Recipes vary in the amounts of sugar to egg to lemon juice ratio but are otherwise the same. I make smaller pies so the 2-egg version with 3/4 cup of sugar worked best for me. Some of the older recipes just call for the juice of a lemon or 2 along with the zest. I favor recipes that give exact quantities; i.e., 1/4 cup of lemon juice instead of ‘the juice of 2 lemons’ for the obvious reason that not all lemons are the same size. Here is the version I made for a recent event. It’s sweet and tart, just right and very light. It received rave reviews! The following recipe makes one 8-inch or one 9-inch pie plus one custard cup* (no crust).

Lemon Sponge Pie

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons here, but regular lemons are fine)

2 tsp. lemon zest

2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup melted, unsalted butter

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

2 large egg whites

One 8-inch or 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the sugar and flour. Add the lemon juice and zest, egg yolks, butter, and salt. Mix well with a whisk. Stir in the milk. Beat egg whites until firm; fold into batter**. Pour into prepared pie crust. 

For one 8-inch pie plus one custard cup: Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat and bake 35 minutes more at 350 degrees.

For one 9-inch pie: Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat and bake 45-50 minutes more at 350 degrees or until pie springs back to a light touch. Cool on a rack then refrigerator for a few hours to firm up the custard. This pie is especially nice in the Spring, for Easter or Mother’s Day or heck, any day you need a little sweetness in your life. Enjoy!

*I like to make 8-inch pies so when there is extra batter, I butter a small custard cup, fill it with remaining batter and bake it alongside the pie. It’s a nice treat for me if I’m giving the pie away with the added bonus of taste testing the baked filling without cutting into the pie.

** If the egg whites are overly beaten, they can become dry and create clumps of egg white that are difficult to incorporate into the batter without compromising the lightness. If this happens, it’s not a disaster, the separate layers just may not be as distinct in the finished pie; it will still be light, airy and delicious anyway. Promise.

K is for Ketchup

'Still been gardening all this time, but now I'm starting to harvest... tomatoes, no less so K is for ketchup! I found this ketchup recipe on Jay DeMay's blog. She has recipes for paleo and whole30 (right in line with my current eating plan) so I tried her ketchup recipe using my home-grown tomatoes. I love ketchup on so many things, but most store-bought varieties have too much sugar for me.

Using my latest tomato harvest, I whipped up a batch today using Cherokee purple, Costoluto Genovese and smaller stupice and punta banda. First, I cored the tomatoes, then chopped them and cooked them in a big pot until they were quite soft, about 30 minutes. After they cooled, I ran the whole batch through a ricer to remove the seeds and skin. It worked like a charm with a resultant velvety smooth tomato puree.

Jay's recipe calls for canned roasted tomatoes which I would have used too but I had fresh so that's what I went with. I've made ketchup before so I added some extra spices that I've used in previous batches. In her photos, the ketchup looks chunky but I wanted mine to be smooth like regular ketchup so I pureed it in the Vitamix. The taste and texture were perfect with just enough sweetness! Here's my recipe:

Paleo Whole30 Compliant Ketchup 

• 1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1-1/2 cups of fresh tomato puree (cooked)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup bone broth or water
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon each of smokey paprika, cayenne, ground cloves, and ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a small saucepan.
2. Cook on medium low for 30 minutes and then turn heat off.
3. When cool, add tomato pulp to a ricer to remove the seeds and skin.
4. Blend in Vitamix for smoothest consistency.
5. Store in mason jars or similar jars in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Yields 3 cups.

I is for iceberg lettuce

The prime ingredient in the retro wedge salad as well as many other salads produced since the 1920s, iceberg lettuce has been around for a long time! Crisphead, as it is also known, was the only lettuce I remember from my childhood in the 1950s; I didn’t even know there were other kinds of lettuce until I was well into my teens. Back in the day, it was typically found on every sandwich made at home from egg salad to bologna to BLTs. It was often served as a salad too with Russian dressing, occasionally topped with tomatoes or cucumbers or sometimes just dressing if toppings were scarce. 

Iceberg lettuce was so popular in mid-century America that Tupperware even invented a plastic container in which to store it! Many of you will remember these green containers that took up so much space in the refrigerator; the inside had a removable plastic disc with a spike sticking up so you could push that into the core of the lettuce head and then add a bit of water to the bottom of the container to keep the lettuce from drying out. Attach the lid, burp it and voila, crisp lettuce for weeks. Ingenius! I had one of these at some point in the past but got rid of it when we started eating more romaine and other greens.

The story behind the demise of iceberg’s no-rival popularity fascinates me. It happened like this, more or less: back in the 1970s when Caesar Chavez organized a boycott to protest the working conditions of California lettuce pickers, iceberg suddenly disappeared from grocery store shelves and/or became so expensive that shoppers looked to other alternatives. Alice Waters had a little something to do with the unraveling of iceberg’s celebrity as well when she opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, in 1971. Waters simply dismissed iceberg lettuce as inferior produce while promoting the more delicate, flavorful greens she had discovered in France while training there as a chef. As a champion of the fresh and healthy food movement, Waters recognized the nutritional shortcomings of iceberg lettuce (substandard by all accounts) over other greens such as romaine, endive, mesclun, and arugula. These two accidents of history changed our tastes and broadened our culinary choices forever. Who knew?

Today iceberg still remains popular in America especially at steak houses, small town diners, and now, with the resurgence of the wedge salad, it can be found in many fancier restaurants too. I love iceberg lettuce on a good wedge salad; and, of course, one cannot have a real BLT sandwich without iceberg… it would just be wrong and un-American as well. My iceberg wedge salad recipe adapted from Bon Appetit magazine is listed below the photo.

Wedge Salad
Serves 4

4 slices of thick-cut peppered bacon
1/2 finely chopped small shallot
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar in a small bowl
1/2 cup crumbled Maytag or other mild blue cheese
Adjust consistency with buttermilk, if needed. Season dressing generously with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and more vinegar, if needed. Cut 1 small head of iceberg lettuce into 4 wedges; place on plates and spoon dressing over. Top with bacon, chopped chives and more freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy!

H is for hummus

One of my favorite appetizers and all-round healthy snacks, hummus is dead simple to make at home in under 10 minutes. I usually make the classic recipe which follows below but once in a while, I'll add some roasted red bell pepper which is very good too.

Hummus originated in the Arabic world and literally meant "chickpeas" with the complete name of the prepared spread being "hummus bi tahina," which just means chickpeas and tahini (sesame seed paste). The earliest known recipes for this dish are recorded in cookbooks published in Cairo in the 13th century. Smart people even way back then! The basic ingredients are chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste), lemon, garlic and salt; it's been eaten in the middle east for millennia.

My introduction to hummus began in a Greek restaurant in Silicon Valley many, many years ago. It was just the classic version served with a drizzle of olive oil and the freshest pita bread for scooping up its deliciousness. And even though hummus is widely available in most grocery stores, it's easy to make at home and tastes so much better than commercial varieties. I don't go to the extent of cooking my own garbanzo beans, however, as I've found the canned variety is just fine. Here is my recipe:

CLASSIC HUMMUS

1 (19 oz.) can garbanzo beans, half the liquid reserved (add extra liquid for a smoother consistency)
2-3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. tahini
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Super, super simple... just add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon into a serving dish, smooth it out and add whatever extras you want: a drizzle of olive oil, spices, chopped olives, chopped roasted bell pepper, cumin, parsley or nothing. Serve with pita bread, chips, or veges of choice.  (The swirled chili oil on top in my photo is Magic Ancho Chile Relish from Heidi Swanson's blog: 101cookbooks... the recipe can be found here. It's out of this world tasty; I use it on everything that needs a lift: sandwiches, tacos, veges, and as a bread dip.) Healthy. Yummy. Bon Appetit!

F is for figs

I love figs, fresh with goat cheese or all by themselves. When we moved into our new/old house in May of this year, one of the first things I did was plant a black mission fig tree. It produced exactly 2 figs this season which I devoured right off the tree as soon as they were ripe. They were small but sweet and I imagined the bounty this tree could produce over the years and imagined baskets full that I would eat the same way hopefully having enough left over for making jam.

Figs are a gift from God I'm convinced. I've made fig jam from scratch using dried figs and eaten fig jam and preserves prepared by many purveyors. I never tire of it. One of the most special commercial prepared products I've come across is from Kozlowski Farms, Forestville, Ca, north of San Francisco. They call it, Fig & Muscat Wine Preserves. It is so excellent I can't imagine trying to duplicate it. I use it on pizza with goat cheese and spinach, on scones and on canapes. It's wonderful and I'm not even getting paid to promote it! Just saying. Check it out if you are intrigued. Bon appetit!

E is for epazote (eh-paw-ZOH-tay)

Epazote is native to Mexico and the tropical region of Central and South America, where it is commonly found wild. It is also widely naturalized throughout the world and the United States, especially California. In Mexican cooking, epazote is always added to the pot when cooking black beans for its natural carminative (gas-preventing) properties and because its potent aroma cuts the heavienss of the beans. Who knew!

When we started settling into our new home, I went in search of some cacti to add to our patio collection. An ad on Craigslist led me to a cacti sale in central Tucson held by a woman who had been growing cacti and succulents on her large residential property for several decades. There were so many varieties of cacti growing in the ground and in pots all over her property. I found several I wanted; one of them, a pine cone cactus had some other plant growing in the pot with it. The woman let me know it was epazote that had reseeded from her herb garden. It's especially good when cooked with black beans, she said. I had to have it; the cactus with the herb. So sweet.

All summer the herb grew effortlessly next to the cactus and now in January it's still doing fine after several prunings. I dried some of it, but most recipes call for fresh epazote and I can understand why. It's not unlike basil which is so much better fresh than dried so if you decide to use it, fresh is the way to go. Here is my black bean recipe with epazote:

Mexican Black Beans with Epazote (serves 2-3)

1/4 pound chopped fresh chorizo sausage

½ medium diced onion

1 diced carrot

1 diced celery stalk

2 garlic cloves chopped

1.5 tsp. ancho or New Mexico chile powder

1.5 tsp. ground cumin

1 large sprig fresh epazote chopped (or 1 tablespoons dried)

1 can black beans

1 cup chicken stock

1 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a large, heavy skillet, brown chorizo sausage. Remove the chorizo, leaving the fat in the pan. Add onion, carrots, celery stalks, garlic and epazote to the pan and cook over medium heat until the vegetables become soft.

Add the can of black beans and the cooked chorizo to the vegetables, along with ancho or New Mexico chile powder, ground cumin, and salt to taste.

Cook on medium low heat for 15-20 minutes adding chicken stock to keep the beans moist. When ready to serve, top with chopped cilantro. Will keep for a couple of days in frig.

Tapas at home

After a wonderful lunch of calamari, pork burger, salad and dessert at La Campana, we decided on tapas at home for dinner. Unfortunately, my risotto cakes were a flop -- I forgot to add an egg which would have kept the cakes from falling apart and the pate we purchased at a local grocery store was disappointing as were the olives. So in the spirit of keeping it real... not every culinary adventure in this house is a success! But we live and learn and move on to the next meal. (Our tapas plate was pretty though, don't you think?)

Morcilla and mussels

Last night was my night to cook so I bought one morcilla sausage at the mercado in the morning along with some fresh green beans and arborio rice for the risotto. Jack was not real keen on the morcilla idea, so he purchased some mussels to steam just in case. This was the first time I cooked morcilla so I wasn't sure how to go about it, but Google saved me once again... slice and saute, no brainer. The interior of this sausage is really soft so gentle treatment is a must. I learned there are several types of morcillo, this one was most definitely Andalucian... sort of spicy, rich and savory. I loved it! This was also the first time I made risotto without careful measurement; there are no measuring cups or spoons in this kitchen, so I just winged it. Thanks to Jamie Oliver for his no-fail risotto recipe that is my go-to. It turned out great just eye-balling the amount of rice to liquid; it accompanied the morcillo and mussels perfectly. All together, a rich meal, but that's what wine is for, right!

Birthday dinner in Seville

Today is Jack's birthday and he's cooking dinner for us in our abbreviated Sevilliano kitchen. There is a 2-burner cook top (sadly electric, not gas and no oven) on which he's making sauteed duck breast with fresh homemade plum sauce, steamed asparagus, and green salad with cabra and kiwi dressed with sherry vinaigrette. I'm just writing the post about it :), he doesn't need my help. For both of us, it's a treat to have the kitchen to ourselves to create a special meal. Since it's his birthday, I let him christen our itty, bitty kitchen with his menu of choice. Soon I will have my day and do something with a special local sausage that I remember from previous trips to Spain. It's called morcilla (blood sausage). Stay tuned!

Grape Harvest 2014

Last year the birds and critters ate all of our grapes. This year they left some for us and there are still a ton on the vines. These are destined for grape jam.

Sardines with mustard

This was lunch today... sardines with mustard and Jack's freshly made finishing salt. Really good sardines, not so great food photography, awesome salt.
There are many good choices for sardines... these are from Trader Joe's but my all time favorites are Matiz Gallego from Spain, of course... available via Amazon and other online sources. Here is the finishing salt recipe:
1/2 cup coarse sea salt
1/4 cup packed rosemary leaves
1/4 cup packed lemon thyme leaves
1 cup fine sea salt
Put the first 3 ingredients into a food processor and chop until fine. (The reason you want to use coarse sea salt for this part is to help breakdown the herbs and release their oils.) When the mixture is fine, add 1 cup of fine sea salt and pulse until thoroughly incorporated. Pour the mixture onto a rimmed cookie sheet and allow to dry for several hours before storing in small jars... wonderful sprinkled on nearly anything at the table. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies (like Grandma Gehret's)

I know it’s a little late for Christmas cookies, but I didn’t have time in the weeks before Christmas to research recipes that would duplicate Grandma Gehret's basic sugar cookie cut-outs. Sadly, neither I nor my sisters nor cousins appear to have Grandma’s original recipe, but I have it in my taste buds and memories. They were thin, crisp and perfect for dunking into coffee. Ultimately, I found a recipe that most resembles Grandma’s… it’s from Real Simple magazine and goes like this…

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (I used half this amount)
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled,
   plus more for the work surface
• decorating sugar (optional)

Directions:

1.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, then the vanilla and salt.

2.  Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined (do not over mix). Shape into a 1-inch thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

3.  Heat over to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll the dough 1/4 inch thick (or less - my version). Using lightly floured 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes, flouring the cutters and rerolling the scraps as necessary. Place 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, if using.

4.  Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the edges just begin to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

After testing several recipes, I finally realized that there was no leavening in Grandma’s cookie recipe… no baking soda or powder which makes the cookie thicker (not what I wanted). This one has just the right taste when I reduced the amount of salt to ¼ tsp., rolled them out thinner than ¼” and baked them for 12 minutes.
 

Perfection. Where's my coffee?

Makes 40 cookies -- Hands-On Time: 20m -- Total Time: 2hr 45m

No ordinary tapas

Mo Gastrotapas... we discovered this restaurant on Trip Advisor's website for Nerja restaurants... it was ranked #1 in Nerja and we soon found out why. The food is that good! The restaurant is named after Montserrat Mayor Heimer, thus Mo, who trained with the top chefs of Spain including Ferran Adria of El Bulli. The photo above is of Mo as a little girl and is a wallpaper sized photo in the restaurant along with a modern eclectic design in orange and lime green and an industrial touch of concrete panels and textured walls. Beyond the welcoming modern interior, Mo's menu is an exquisite expression of classic small bites of tapas… artistic, beautiful constructions of the most glorious food imaginable from split grilled shrimp on a fish cake with piquant sauce served on an artful pick to a wondrous meal of dorado wrapped in nearly sheer zucchini ribbons and bacon, stuffed with a tomato confit, and resting in a pool of buttery saffron sauce. Each plate is a stunning presentation of color, texture and flavor, evidence of the thoughtful consideration brought to every dish. 

And then there are all the little additions throughout the meal… did I mention those? from the welcoming amuse bouche of the croquette del dia to the finishing touch of a vanilla-scented buttercream cup over sweet wine… scoopable with a flattened, macerated raisin on a decorative skewer. You scoop out the cream with the raisin and then sip the wine. Sheer billance! We ate at Mo Gastro twice during our stay and it was without a doubt, one of the highlights of our trip to Nerja! Tapas photos below:

Sadly I don't remember the names of these different tapas, but they were all amazing!!

Soup for Dinner

Jack made this shrimp bisque last night for dinner... rich and yummy!

Duck Confit Leftovers

Our first night in Barcelona, I ordered duck confit... a dish I love but would never take the time to make. It was scrumptious... but a half a duck is too much even for my hearty appetite, so I asked for a togo box. My husband cringes every time I do this in the states... in Europe, he absolutely wants to crawl under the table. Me, I have no problem with this... I learned to cook with Julia and she never wasted anything! Plus we are staying in an apartment here with a perfectly good kitchen where I know I can make something really wonderful out of these "leftovers." We have this ongoing "discussion" about what a "vacation should be," but that's for another post. I love to cook and cooking on vacation in a foreign kitchen with foreign ingredients appeals to me in ways I can't articulate. The Mr. is not so enrolled. I won this one though and made an awesome duck quesadilla the next night with the confit, manchego cheese and a berry, wine, balsamic reduction sauce. (Thank you to whomever left the French mixed berry preserves in the frig). Even the Mr. thought it was yummy... the compromise being... no more "leftovers" this trip. Sigh.

Squash and Pumpkin Harvest

Today was harvest the squash and pumpkins day in the garden and here is the bounty...


I planted alot of everything but unfortunately I neglected this garden for most of the summer so didn't get as many pumpkins as I would have liked. Tons of acorn and butternut squash though!

Sorta sour grapes...

When Jack and I first settled into our home on a few small acres here in Nebraska, we toyed with planting fruit trees and a small vineyard. That was until I took the master gardening course in Lincoln and found out how much time and effort goes into tending grape vines! Not for me! I'm retired and have no illusions of being tethered to the vines, so to speak. We did plant two table grape varieties in our enclosed garden just for the fun of it and because... well, I love the color of grapes, will grow them just for that and leave the wine making to the experts. Their dusty, royal purple gets me every time. They don't even taste really great, but I simply don't care. This is the sum total of our harvest after two years growth. Beautiful, I think.

Blue Ribbon Jam!

Woo hoo! On a whim, I entered some of my homemade apricot jam in the County Fair and to my utter surprise it won a blue ribbon! I am so thrilled because I almost never "win" anything. Seriously. Then I find out they even have a category for antiques and collectibles! So guess who's going to be entering a truck load full of her collectibles in the Fair next year? County Fairs are so fun!!