Archive for July, 2008
A Slice of Heaven
OH, you wanted some commentary? Mmmhmmm…
See this pie? I’m too busy eating it to type right now.
I’d apologize. But I’m not really sorry…
Now if you’ll pardon me, it’s time to lick the plate!
BERRY CHERRY PIE
Adapted from The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking
Filling:
2 C. pitted sour cherries
2 C. blueberries, rinsed and drained
1/2 C. white sugar
1/2 C. raw sugar
1/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. lemon juice
1 T. butter
Crust:
2 C. flour
1 t. salt
10 T. cold butter, cubed
¼ – ½ C. ice water
milk for glazing
For the crust, sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter and cut in with a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles a coarse crumb. Add just enough water to bind the dough, being careful not to overwork the dough. Gather the dough into two balls and wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap. Chill for at least 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling by mixing sugar, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon in large bowl. Add fruit and lemon juice and stir well.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough balls to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Roll the dough around the rolling pin and transfer to a 9 inch pie pan. Trim the edge to leave about a ½ inch overhang.
Pour the prepared filling into the unbaked pie shell. Dot with the butter. Cover with the top crust and flute the edges. Cut small slits or cut shapes in the top as desired. Glaze with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Place on a baking sheet (to catch any bubbling over).
Bake at 375 F for 1 hour or until golden. Allow to cool before slicing.
(serves 8 )
Simplicity
In the deluge of summer produce and the push for new and creative dishes (cooking straight from the farm requires taking real advantage of the growing season when it is at its best – i.e., right now), I sometimes forget how delicious and beautiful the simplest preparations can be. This time, thanks to a stray comment from the farmer who was selling the two main ingredients for this recipe, I put on the brakes of my mental wheels and just left well enough alone.
Garlic scapes are a very seasonal farmer’s market and/or kitchen garden find. And, indeed, I was rather surprised to find them still at the Headhouse Market last weekend. I usually sauté them or chop them up to stand-in as a more potent form of garlic. But the farmer, who was responding to a curious shopper’s inquiry as to what these funny curly needles of green were, said he liked throwing them on the grill to char them. “Interesting,” I thought, before scrunching up my nose when I remembered I don’t have a grill at the moment. D’oh!
Have no fear, the toaster oven is here! Yes, you read that right. I, the woman with unreserved distain for toaster ovens, actually used one willingly and to great success. I wanted high heat and the confined and easily visible cavity of the toaster oven worked like a charm. If you’re not really into grilling on your toaster oven rack (gee, why not?), this method is no doubt easily transferable to a real grill.
Flower Power
Gardening brings so much pleasure and beauty to my life. I’m really pleased with how my little plot has been progressing over the past few months. A friend who stopped by my garden the other night asked me to explain my broad sweeping goals for my garden. I didn’t hesitate with my answer: “slightly unkempt cozy cottage garden with a purpose.”
What this mouthful of a mission means is that I wanted a less-fussy but still “designed” garden that would produce practical crops that I could use. My vegetable rows obviously yield plenty of useful crops. I have just begun to harvest carrots, string beans, and lemon cucumbers. Even the tomatoes are starting to blush. Sadly, my gorgeous collection of antique cutting lettuce is just about to bolt in the July heat, but not before I got enough for today’s post.
But it’s been my flowers that have been the most productive so far. I have been taking lots of cut flowers into the house (I have three large bouquets right now in my kitchen), and I’ve already dried dozens of bunches for tea and wreaths yet to be made. However, eating my fresh flowers is the “bee’s knees” in my opinion.
When I was selecting what varieties to grow, I held up a standard in my mind: the best flowers out there are those that serve all of these functions – cutting, preserving, and eating. As such, borage ranks right up there among the best. Its cool cucumber taste has long been a key ingredient in the English “Pimm’s Cup” cocktail. It’s striking when used in salads and to garnish desserts. When you think about it, there just aren’t that many naturally blue ingredients available, making borage special.
Nasturtiums are another favorite. My two small plants have more than quadrupled in size over the past two months, making their flowers a frequent and welcomed peppery addition to my salads. They’re also great in butter and cheese spreads. I’m getting so many of them, some quite large, I’m also thinking about stuffing them with soft cheese the way I do with squash blossoms.
Gosh, I’ve rambled on so much about my garden gatherings that I’ve completely forgotten to talk about what the real recipe is for today: a sweet and tangy dressing for the salad. Buoyed by the delicious results of my strawberry dressing earlier this season, I put some of my stash of fresh blueberries into this one, along with some of the lavender-infused vinegar I’d brewed myself. If it’s no longer blueberry season where you are, the same results can be gotten with frozen berries. Just be sure to thaw them before proceeding with the recipe.
17 Random Facts About Honeybees
As part of my new beekeeper duties, I recently attended a very informative workshop on beekeeping. The presenter, Jim Bobb, president of Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association, really knew his bees, and I could hardly keep up with my note taking. I thought you might be find one or two interesting. Here are the snippets of what I could jot down:
#1 – A single hive can have 50,000 to 60,000 worker bees in it at summer’s peak. In addition, there are about 800 drones and 1 queen.
#2 – In the honeybee world, females do all the work
#3 – Worker honeybees live on average for 35-42 days during the summer before literally falling over with exhaustion. In contrast, they live up to 4 months during the winter when they stay in the hive most days. The queen, however, can leave for 2-3 years since she very rarely flies.
#4 – A hive needs about 60 pounds of honey to get through the winter. Any less and they’ll starve. For hives that are being kept by humans, they usually produce about 120 pounds of honey during the summer so we get half the fruits of their labors.
#5 – Feathery hairs on a worker bee are what actually gather the pollen. This pollen then gets pushed back by the bee’s legs into a “pollen basket” on one of their back legs.
#6 – Bees have 5 eyes: two big ones like us, but then three little ones on the top of the head to help them fly straight.
#7 – Bees can’t see red. To bees, red looks like black. As such, honeybees won’t go to a purely red flower.
#8 – Scouts go out and literally choose what to pollinate. If a scout picks a patch of clover and tells the worker bees to go collect it, those worker bees won’t be put off course no matter how many sumptuous flowers they fly over.
#9 – Bees are actually somewhat picky eaters. They will eventually pollinate just about every flower available to them, but they start with their favorites (salvia) and leave their least favorites until last (pears).
#10 – There are over 30,000 species of bees in the world.
Here’s the Scoop
I’m a very lucky lady.
L.U.C.K.Y.
You see, I have access to some of the best and most productive blueberry bushes imaginable. These bushes have been around since my grandfather plunked them down beside the summer kitchen/wood shop on my family farm. And there they have prospered, with a little help from my mom and me. A year or two ago, I cut them back almost to the ground as they are rather old and needed to rejuvenate. Since then, they’ve grown like weeds, towering almost seven feet in the air, branches heavy with sapphire orbs.
These blueberries aren’t like the ones you get in the store. And, in my opinion after having done a taste comparison, they far surpass anything they’ve got in Maine. I don’t know if it’s the variety (this information is long since lost) or the soil they grow in, but these berries are plump and extremely juicy with a complex balance of sweet and tart from berry to berry. I know the idea of sweet and tart at the same time sounds contradictory, but it’s the way they are. And it makes them great for pies (stay-tuned for that recipe).
As I mentioned earlier, I spent the holiday weekend visiting friends and family in my small hometown in central Pennsylvania, during which time I ate more homemade ice cream in one 24 hour period than should be legally allowed. First I had a couple huge scoops of peanut butter, then vanilla, then chocolate, and lastly strawberry. Hey, before you judge me to harshly, consider how hard it is to make up your mind when presented with so many delicious choices of ice cream churned just the day before from fresh (i.e., not homogenized so it’s ridiculously creamy) milk gotten no more than ten miles away from the spot on which you are weighing the merits of each flavor. Ah yes, now I see the light of understanding dawning in all your eyes…
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