Vegetables for Dessert? Sugar to the Rescue!

My CSA has started, so I got my first zucchini of the year on Wednesday. Since I'm not a great big zucchini fan, last summer's menu featured zucchini bread galore. But this year I'm going whole hog - Sugar to the rescue! Zucchini cupcakes!

For the cupcakes, I used Fab Food Friday's zucchini cupcake recipe. But the frosting? Carrot buttercream!

Here's how you make it: go to your favorite South Asian grocery store and find yourself a can of Carrots in Sugar Syrup:

Put the whole can into the blender or food processor and liquefy, syrup and all.

Cream one stick of butter with two cups of powdered sugar. Add liquefied carrots gradually, tasting until the frosting tastes just carroty enough.

Yum!

Rocks, Grandma, Gas Giants, and Especially Girl Giants...

Here are some things that might not seem to go together at first, but they do.


I hade a wonderful cookie party yesterday - I channelled all kinds of Grandma energy and drank instant Cafe Vienna (like Grandma used to) and poached some pears and made Rocks and Gaufrettes. My house filled up with wonderful friends.

I blogged Gaufrettes last Christmas. Here's Rocks:

1/2 pound butter
2 C light brown sugar
3 beaten eggs
1 pound raisins
1 pound dates, cut in small pieces
1 pound walnuts
tsp cinnamon
tsp cloves
3 C flour
tsp baking soda

Mix it all up and drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or so at 375.

These are called Rocks 'cause they get really hard after a couple days. An apple wedge or a slice of bread in the cookie jar will soften them up. Many thanks to Mom's big brother Bick for bringing the recipe home from his paper route decades ago.

Here's a picture of my mom and me in my Grandparents' living room:

This is right before or after another posed photo where we're both looking at the camera and mom isn't blurry, but I like this one best. Lots of people saw it yesterday 'cause it's been on my bulletin board ever since I got it from my Aunt Marty last spring. There's a lot going on here - I'm maybe three, which would make mom 26. The table and chairs I'm sitting at had just been made by my Grandpa. The paintings above the couch were made by my Grandma's parents. I live with some of these paintings - the yellow one with the poppies by Mom's head is in my bedroom. I'm not sure who made the green afghan on the couch. This is the same room where Mom disproved the sweater curse by unraveling Dad. Clearly I come from a long line of people who are really driven to make stuff.

Here's a drawing my planet-obsessed god-son Silas made at the party:Translation: A LONG TIME FROM NOW THE MOON WILL TURN INTO A RING.

The source of this knowledge: Uncle Steph. Silas has been planet-obsessed for a while now. He's been watching youtube videos comparing the size of the Earth to VY Canis Majoris. He knows that someday the sun will explode. Unlike me, who totally freaked out when I figured out that the universe was infinite, this seems to be ok with him. A while ago he was having conversations with his Dad Dan that went something like: "I love you, Silas." "I love you too. How about 40 kermillion years from now when the sun explodes and swallows the earth, will you still love me then?" "Um, yes."

This morning I wandered out of my bedroom to find that my apartment still smelled spicy and holiday and awesome. I did the umpteen dishes the party left behind singing along to Kimya Dawson, and especially this song:



It all goes together.

How to Pickle Like a Rock Star

This year I signed up for a CSA in my neighborhood. CSA is Community Supported Agriculture - you pay a farmer up front in the spring, and every week from May to Thanksgiving or so you get a box of food from the farm.

I've had ridiculously delicious tomatoes in my house since June, and since it's basically been a blind date with vegetables all summer, I've been learning to play nicely with zucchini and eggplant. Well, trying to learn, anyway. There were cantaloupes as big as my head in July, some of which I ate, and some of which turned into Cantaloupe Gelato. I've also had more cucumbers than I knew what to do with.

Pickling to the rescue!

victorian pickle bookmarks by barking-madcrow

I know it's past cucumber time in this hemisphere, but here's my fridge-pickle recipe anyway. This is the recipe I used for 5 or 6 biggish regular (not "pickling") cukes - and the basic brine should work as well for just about anything that would taste better or last longer all vinegared up.

Slice cucumbers thickly and layer them in a bowl with sprigs of dill and cloves of garlic. I go heavy on the dill, mostly so it won't go to waste.

Mix up 2 1/2 Quarts (10 C) of water, 1/2 C salt and 1 C cider vinegar

adulterate this as you like with black peppercorns, mustard seeds, and red pepper flakes.

Bring the brine to a boil, turn off the heat and pour it over the cucumbers. Let the bowl cool to room temperature overnight on the countertop, and then put the bowl in the fridge.

Start tasting your pickles after a couple of days - optimum pickle magic for me was about 10 days in, but your taste buds may vary. If you want to keep your pickles at room temp all year long, jar them up and process them in a hot water bath. I'm no expert on this part, though I do know that the high acid from the vinegar makes pickles one of the safest things to can. Check Putting Food By or the Ball Book for better instructions.

Enjoy!

Secondary Colors

I pulled my (orange) knitting out of my (green) knitting bag at lunch today, and found a purple pepper Iviva had given me inside along with the blanket I'm working on. Such beautiful colors together! I just ate the pepper for dinner - thanks again!

Bourbon, Spaghetti, Bread and Cherries

It's sour cherry season in New York - you get them for two or three weekends at the farmers' market, and then they're gone. I just put a pie in the oven, and it's reminding me of the super-awesome Philip Guston drawings show that's up now at the Morgan Library. It's free there on Friday evenings.

Philip Guston, Untitled (Cherries), 1980, ink and acrylic on board, 50.8 x 76.2 cm (20 x 30 in), © Estate of Philip Guston, private collection

Tons of really powerful, critical work featuring books, clocks, voilence, Crazy Kat, cigarettes, lima beans and Nixon. One of my faves from the show - a drawing called "what I like to eat". Sorry for the crappy image quality - I nicked it from the checklist (pdf).
From left to right: Bourbon, Spaghetti, Bread, Cherries.

Yum.

Gaufrettes

Tonight Caro came over and we played Scrabble and made gaufrettes. It's a family recipe that came down from my mom's mom's Belgian side. It's a frenchy sounding name for a cookie, but we pronounce it goo-fritz.

You make them on a special iron - the "proper" iron is square and heated over the stovetop, but I use a plug-in pizzelle iron.

Today my sister asked me, "do you have just one iron?" My family's figured out what heirlooms to offer me, and taken advantage of my gemini nature to give me multiples of everything - Two china cabinets, and every Virgin Mary statue they've got. Do you want Grandma Margie's fry pot? Um, no, I've already got Grandma W's.

Anyway, here's gaufrettes. They're simple and delicious - try them hot off the iron and slathered in butter. There's some butter scarcity gaufrette story I seem to remember - if any aunts and uncles are tuning in and want the world to know it, tell me and I'll add it on. Here's what you do:

1/2 # Butter
3 C Sugar
5 Eggs
2 Tbl Vanilla
5 C Flour
1 tsp Salt

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla, stir in the flour and salt. Heat up the iron and grease it by "cooking" 2 pieces of buttered/margerined bread. Drop by teaspoons or with a cookie scoop and close the lid. Cook a couple minutes - just until they stop steaming. If you let them get a little on the brown side they develop a compelling caramelized-sugar taste. If you use too much dough, some will ooze out of the sides - a delicious mess. My mom makes them on the small side and pretty thin. I like to make them on the thick side by letting the weight of the
iron flatten them slowly.

We poke holes in them and hang them on the tree, too - a week later they're subtly pine-tree flavored sugar cookies. My "tree" this year is a little old rosemary bush, so I wonder how that's going to turn out...

And now for the sweet stuff

as promised, here are the recipes for the sweets from last Saturday's Fancy Garden Party.

Ginger Pistachio Scones with Rose Petal Buttercream Frosting
The Scones:
C all-purpose flour
C whole wheat flour
2 Tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbl cold unsalted butter
3 Tbl sugar
1/4 C chopped candied ginger
3 Tbl chopped toasted pistachios
1/2 C cream
1 egg
cut butter into flour; mix in other dry ingredients; mix wet ingredients and add to dry. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes; cool on a wire rack.

The Frosting:
stick of butter (room temp)
2 C powdered sugar
1/4 C rose petal jelly
cream butter with sugar, add jelly and keep stirring. Yum!

Poppy Cake
1 C milk
3/4 C poppy seeds
1/2 C sour cream
Tbl vanilla
2 Tbl lemon juice
2 sticks butter
1 1/3 C sugar
3 eggs
2 C flour
Tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
bring poppyseeds to a boil in milk - remove from heat and cool 15 minutes. add sour cream, vanilla, and lemon juice. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. beat in the eggs. Add flour and poppyseeds t the creamed butter. Bake at 350 in a bundt pan until knife comes out clean, about 45 minutes (if doing cupcakes, start checking after 15)

Spread this on a shoe

Here are the recipes for the tea sandwiches I made for the Fancy Garden Party this weekend. As Meghan pointed out, you could spread this stuff on a shoe and it would be delicious. On thinly sliced bread with the crusts cut off, they're tres fancy to boot.

Radish Sandwiches
1 cup minced radishes
tsp poppy seeds
C cream cheese
3/4 tsp salt
arugula leaves
8 slices of bread, buttered on one side
mix together the radishes, poppy, cream cheese and salt. spread radish mixture on buttered bread and top with a few arugula leaves

Cucumber-Mint Sandwiches
1/4 C chopped mint leaves
1/4 C unsalted butter
1/4 C cream cheese
1/2 seedless cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced, patted try between paper towels
good white bread
mix together butter, cream cheese, and mint, and spread on bottom slice of bread. arrange cukes on top.

Vidalia Sandwiches
1/3 cup mayo
1/2 C minced fresh parsley, divided
2 T minced fresh tarragon
fresh lemon juice to taste
tabasco to taste
Vidalia onion, sliced really thin
bread
butter
mix together mayo, half the parsley, tarragon, lemon, and tabasco. spread on both sides of the bread, with the vidalia in the middle. cut off the crusts, butter an edge of the sandwich, and dip in the reserved parsley. very fancy presentation, and surprisingly delicious.

Goat Cheese-Watercress Sandwiches
2 logs soft goat cheese
1/2 C chopped watercress
salt to taste
3/4 C finely chopped toasted pecans
bread
butter
mix goat cheese, cress and salt. spread on bread and assemble sandwiches. cut off the crusts, butter sides of sandwich and dip in pecans to coat.

Smoked Salmon Sandwiches
8 oz. package smoked salmon
stick butter
1/4 C cream cheese
Tbl grated ginger
Tbl lime juice
3 Tbl chopped fresh cilantro
tsp salt
mix up the butter, cream cheese, ginger, lime juice, cilantro and salt. spread all slices of the bread with the mixture, and put salmon in the middle.

Celery-Walnut Sandwiches
1 C cream cheese
1/2 C celery
1/2 C chopped toasted walnuts
whole wheat bread
you get the idea.

Watercress Sandwiches
1/2 C chopped watercress
1/4 C chopped parsley
2 Tbl chopped chives
1/4 C butter
1/2 C cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste
bread
mix it all up. spread it on bread. cut off the crusts. yummy.