Summer


Here in the deep south Summer means Watermelon.  Every spring we plant a watermelon patch.  Last year the weather was not cooperative. THIS year we made up for it….

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We have given so many watermelon away to friends and family this year that they may be sick of them.  We, however, are not.  Watermelon every day is a great way to survive the heat of summer.  Especially this summer – HEAT DOME!!

Good thing Kayte chose melons for our theme this week in Eating with Ellie.  And good thing Ellie had this recipe for Watermelon Blueberry Pops.  And did I mention it is also Blueberry season?

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The only change I made was to use lemon juice rather than lime juice.  BTW all you need is 3 cups of watermelon so buy a small one and freeze away!

You can find the recipe on page 250 of Ellie’s So Easy or  HERE.

What else is on the Melon Buffet this week? And if you want to join Eating with Ellie the themes are on the side.  Just make one of Ellie’s dishes and post a comment.  We’ll visit!

It is now Saturday. Try as I might I just didn’t find the time to get this great little dessert posted before midnight. But…at least this week I found the time to actually MAKE the FFWD pick.

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The galette was super simple to put together. A simple sable cookie crust that went together in no time, fresh berries, lemon curd, and whipped cream gave us an elegant dessert. Since there are only two of us at home now I only made 1/4 of the recipe. This gave me more than enough do to make a 6″ tart with some dough left over for a cookie. I topped it with lemon curd AND whipped cream, {orie suggested one or the other….}and topped that with some fresh blueberries from the garden. Some strawberries from the market and some blueberries from the pasture behind the house. Sooooo good. This is definitely a keeper. Fresh, faintly sweet, flavorful.

Visit with the other Members of FFWD and drool over their galettes. You won’t be sorry.

The recipe is on page 464 of Dorie’s around my French table

Sorry for the dark pictures. I just got a new computer and haven’t yet learned how to use the picture edit.}

Strawberry Season. I can think of lots of wonderful sweets to make with fresh Strawberries. Pie. Cake. But the first thing that comes to mind is usually ICE CREAM!.

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      Rich Strawberry Ice Cream

    2 cups fresh strawberries stemmed and halved.
    2/3 cup sugar
    1/2 cup milk
    1 1/2 cups heavy cream
    1 Tbl vanilla extract
    dash salt

Add 1/3 cup sugar to the chopped strawberries and let sit about 30/40 minutes.
Place strawberries and remaining ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to freeze. Pour contents into ice cream maker.
Devour!! {Okay, that’s not really part of the recipe, but this IS good ice cream.}

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This is a composite of several recipes because I couldn’t find one I really liked that was quick.

    Wednesday!

Halfway through Phyl’s Ice Cream Week and that means today’s theme is Sorbet.

Sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water flavored with fruit (typically juice or purée), wine, and/or liqueur. Mine is made with pineapple, and lots of coconut – cream and milk. What better mixture than pineapple and coconut? Tropical and refreshing!! Perfect for summer. While I don’t often take a drink when I do I prefer sweet drinks and this is my favorite so when I saw this recipe I knew I had found my selection for Sorbet Day

All it needed was a tiny umbrella on the side of the bowl!!

Piña Colada Sorbet
{adapted from Fearless Homemaker}

2 15 1/4 ounce cans pineapple chunks and juice {I wish I could have found a GOOD fresh Pineapple!}
1/4 cup Splenda
1 cup light coconut milk
2/3 cup cream of coconut

Place pineapple, juice, and Splenda in a blender and process until smooth.
Combine pureed pineapple mixture, coconut milk, and cream of coconut in a bowl; stir well with a whisk. cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once frozen, spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze for 2 hours or until firm.

And Amy was right – IT.IS.ADDICTIVE!!!!! Every once in a while you run across a piece of pineapple. and in between the distinct taste of coconut. “SIGH” Maybe next time I will add some toasted coconut!!

Phyl has a nice Slushy for adults!
Rebecca’s gone tropical with Mango.
Abby made a neat ice cream accessory
Di made a raspberry treat!!

I admit it! I cheated! There!! I said it and I don’t feel bad at all.

Tuesday of Ice Cream Week is Frozen Yogurt. And I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed for making what I wanted so I improvised. I seem to be doing that more and more all the time.

Have you ever wondered if you could make frozen yogurt by just pouring regular yogurt into an ice cream maker? I had. For quite a while.

And the answer is…..

    YES!!!

I went on Bing and asked that question. I got various answers. Helpful, sorta. I figured all I had to lose was the price of a quart of yogurt so I just did it!! I used:

    1 quart Strawberry low fat yogurt
    3/4 cup Splenda {you can use the same amount of sugar}

and simply poured it into the ice cream maker. Viola!! Frozen Yogurt!! After about an hour in the freezer it was perfect. Not too hard, still creamy (despite what I had read!) and delicious.

This is dangerous information. All I have to do now is buy regular yogurt (think of all the flavors out there) and throw it into the ice cream maker.

Visit Phyl, and Rebecca, Abby,and Di for their ice creams.

Back in June Phyl sent out a notice that he was doing an Ice Cream Week “right smack in the Dog Days of Summer“. Lots of us said we would join in and then promptly several of us forgot. Well, I did, anyway!! Thankfully I was reminded on Twitter that the Ice Cream Week was fast approaching so Into the kitchen I went. I wanted to make some different ice creams than I had before so after some lengthy research I came up with some new recipes. Some of them are mine, some adapted, some straight from other bloggers.

The first Ice Cream up was labeled as Summer Fruit. Many fruits came to mind but I decided on Blueberries. I didn’t want a blueberry ice cream but rather an ice cream with a Blueberry Swirl. I found lots of recipes but decided to simply use some ideas I had already had while baking some cakes, crumbles, and pies.

    Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake Crumble Ice Cream


BLUEBERRY SWIRL: {adapted from Kokocooks}

    1 cup fresh blueberries
    3 Tbs sugarSplenda
    1 Tbs cornstarch
    1 Tbs water
    1 tsp fresh lemon juice

In a small saucepan, crush the blueberries with a potato masher. Stir in the sugar. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. While the blueberries are heating up, form a slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Add the slurry to the blueberries, stirring constantly. Continue stirring for one minute as the mixture thickens up. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour blueberry mixture into a heatproof bowl, cover, and chill until cooled. Keep in refrigerator until ready to add to the ice cream.


CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM
: {adapted from Kokocooks}

    6 oz. block cream cheese, softened
    ¾ c superfine sugar Splenda
    ½ c sour cream
    1 ½ c heavy cream
    Pinch kosher salt
    3 Tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
    ¼ tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and continue to beat until fluffy. Add the sour cream, heavy cream, salt, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Cover and chill overnight.

CRUMB TOPPING: {adapted from Nick Malgieri’s Blueberry Crumb Cake}

    2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1/3 cup sugar
    1/3 cup light brown sugar
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
    12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Melt the butter and stir it in evenly. Rub the mixture to coarse crumbs by hand. Spread mixture on buttered foil and bake for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees until browned and crunchy.

When ready to churn, remove mixture from refrigerator. Whisk a little to make sure the mixture has no lumps. Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When Ice Cream is almost finished churning pour in the crumb topping and a few fresh blueberries. When the ice cream has finished churning spoon into a container. Spoon the blueberry mixture into the bowl and mix just enough to swirl through the ice cream. Freeze until hardened.

I had made Cheesecake Ice Cream before but with Strawberries. Blueberries sounded like a good mix. And earlier this summer I had made Malgieri’s Blueberry Crumb Cake {post to come}. I wrote on the page that the topping would make a good ice cream topping. So why not put it IN the ice cream instead. And so we have this lovely, fruity, crunchy ice cream.

I did have one problem with the ice cream. It never did soften enough to scoop. It seems to be more of a slice-and-eat ice cream. So, sorry, no pics of a pretty scoop of ice cream it a cute little bowl. Was good though.

Wowza! But I missed a lot of July TWD selections. Seven to be exact. Good thing I love to spend time in the kitchen – even in the hot weather. And it has been HOT in July! Plenty of 100+ days temp wise. Little rain. LOTS of humidity!! What DID people do before Air Conditioning???

Summer, of course, means lots of fresh fruit and many of the pics for July were fruit based. Such as….

    Summer Fruit Gatte

Dorie gave us plenty of choices for this galette, a free form ‘pie’ where the crust is folded up over the filling. There is so much in season right now in Louisiana – plums, peaches, figs, nectarines. But the peaches were so juicy and sweet I could not pass them up. One big ripe juicy peach was just perfect for one small 6″ galette. The crust and peaches are baked first for a few minutes then the custard is poured in around the fruit before baking the entire galette a little longer. What you end up with is a peach ‘pie’ with a sweet filling in all the little nooks and crannies left by the slices of peach. Eh… YUM!!! On July 29, 2008, this was a popular pick from Michele of Michelle in Colorado Springs and you can find the recipe on her blog. (Pg 366 in BFMHTY} If you have lots of fresh summer fruit this is the recipe for you. Quick. Not fussy. Delicious.

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On July 15, 2008, the TWD bakers were in the kitchen making Chocolate Pudding.

After my miserable attempt at making the Split-Level Pudding in October 2009, I was a little leery of this one. THAT one never set up and ended up going down the drain – literally!!

But this time….

    ….it came out PERFECTLY!!

So perfectly that I am never ever buying box pudding again. It was sooo creamy. Like pudding should be. And this one did NOT go down the drain.

I only made 1/2 of the recipe and that was perfect for two ramekins. Thank you, Dorie, for perfect pudding. And than you, Melissa of Melissa’s Kitchenfor helping me conquer PUDDING!! The recipe is on her page. (Page 383 in BFMHTY) Melissa served hers with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Sprinkles. So Cute!!

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Last, for this TWD Catch-up installment, I give you….

    Brioche Plum Tart

I had planned to make this one back when I was making up the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns and Brioche Raisin Snails because they were also made with Brioche dough. But after reading the recipe I discovered the recipe was just different enough to warrant a separate post.

So glad I did because these tarts deserve to be on their own. The dough was a sweet contrast to the somewhat tart plums {not what I had planned but…}I used Muscadine Jelly for the base because it tends to go with every other type of fruit out there without overpowering the taste.

Denise of Chez Us was the host for this lovely little Tart July 14, 2009. She opened her post with,


    “Lightly sweetened brioche dough is pressed into a tart pan and filled with jam and fresh plums, to make a wonderful breakfast treat.”

1/2 of the dough recipe and two nice plums were enough for three 4′ tarts.

And she is absolutely correct. GREAT breakfast!! The recipe is on her blog. (Page 54 in BFMHTY)

THat takes care of July TWD selections. August will be a potpouri of recipes as I only missed one so I am filling in. Maybe I CAN finish before the end of the year!!!!

Peaches are in season – FINALLY!! That means lots of juice dripping down fingers as you bite into a sweet ripe peach. It means slices of peaches for cobbler or tarts. It also means Peach Ice Cream.

Ingredients:

    2 cups 1/2 and 1/2
    3/4 cup sugar
    1/4 cups nonfat dry milk
    3 cups peeled, pitted sliced peaches, or 1 16oz frozen sliced peaches, defrosted
    3 Tbs lemon juice
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    dash salt

Combine 1/2 and 1/2, sugar, and dry milk in a blender or food processor and process unti smooth.
Add peaches with remaining ingredients and process until smooth.
Chill in the fridge until ready to freeze. Blend mixture for a few seconds before pouring into the ice cream maker.
Follow the manufacturere’s instructions for freezing.

If you like lots of peach flavor in your ice cream then this ice cream is perfect for you. I even added in a few chunks of peach to the mix just before it was finished churning. Perfect!!

This recipe came from From Your Ice Cream Maker by Coleen and Bob Simmons (1994)

Normally I am not a summer soup fan.

    That has now changed.

      Thanks, again, to Dorie!

      warm-weather vegetable pot-au-feu

Dorie describes traditional pot-au-feu as, “a mix of hearty cuts of meats, root vegetables and a warming-down-to-your-toes broth….” But this is NOT a traditional pot-au-feu, it is a “harbinger of warmer times.” There is not a lick of meat in this soup. In fact the only protein is the poached or boiled egg served on top of a warm bowl of barely tender carrots, shitakis, potatoes, spinach, and asparagus to which I added zucchini, and yellow squash.

I finished it with a drizzle of sun-dried tomato coulis since Dorie said we could basically add any summer veggie we had and since my tomatoes are not quite ready yet, I added them through the drizzle instead. Now, if the corn would just come in…..

I cannot tell you how much I actually made. Dorie’s ingredients come together for 4 servings, but since I didn’t really measure anything….

>Please visit the other members of French Fridays with Dorie for their versions of the wonderful, tasty, light summer pot-au-feu!!

And you can find the recipe on page 378 of Dorie’s around my french table which was just named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professinals. YAY!!!! Dorie!!!

I don’t think there is anything better than cobbler for a quick and tasty dessert. I love making cobbler with fresh fruits – apple, peaches, pears from our trees, strawberries, etc. But if you cannot get fresh then for many cobblers frozen peaches or berries. And this is what Ellie had in store for us this week with Pamela’s pick of

    Mixed Berry Cobbler

which was made will all frozen fruit. I had my reservations. I don’t often use frozen for desserts but I need to remember to trust Ellie. It came out deliciously.

Made even better with just a little of Dorie’s

Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream. Topped with a little of the juicy goodies in the cobbler.

While this is healthy with the Whole Wheat Crust on top, I made it just a little better by using Splenda in the berries instead of the sugar (even though it was only 1/4 cup) and in the topping. Actually, I forgot to put the sweetener in the topping, so just sprinkled it over the entire top of the cobbler. It was good!!

I have to admit, I almost forgot the zest too, but Kayte reminded me when she said (we, along with Marthe)were Twitterbaking) she was zesting. So, thanks Kayte, the zest really added to the flavor.

Pam this was a great pick. I will make it often. You can find Ellie’s recipe on FOODTV and it will be on Pam’s site.

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