Grilled Zucchini.

Oh how I love summer grilling. Looking back at what I've posted lately, it would seem that I've only been cooking dessert, but that, I assure you, is not the case. We've been breaking out the grill often, which, while making delicious food, it is not usually especially unique and so I've remained silent. But now, now I MUST share this. Zucchini. Have you grilled this? It's not so much a recipe as an idea. Cut the zucchini into long thick planks, don't bother to skin it, and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of seasoned salt on top and let the grill do its work. SO GOOD. If you've been hesitant about zucchini in the past, or simply prefer other vegetables to it, I implore you, try this. 

Apple Hand Pies.

Happy 4th of July! My family is definitely going low-key this year, hanging out at home and watching what fireworks can be seen from our deck. Nevertheless, there's going to be some delicious 4th of July fare, grilling and such, going on. One thing that always seems to be touted as a perfect 4th of July dessert, beyond the red, white, and blue trifles, is apple pie. I love apple pie, but frankly, in July, especially in this heat wave we've been having, I don't want my oven on that long if I can help it. I had some apples to use up though, and I do really like apple pie, so I decided to see if I could make mini pies that didn't take as long to bake. Success!

Apple Hand Pies, by me! (with help from my mom's pie crust recipe)

Filling Ingredients:

Chopped apples (I used about three apples, but had some left over. You could probably make these with two.)

Brown sugar

Lemon juice

Vanilla

Butter

Cinnamon

Pumpkin pie spice/apple pie spice (I had pumpkin pie spice on hand)

salt (optional)

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter

1 1/2-2 T cold water

a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon, if you like (I liked.)

Directions:

For crust: Mix flour and salt together. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or knives. Slicing it up into small chunks first makes this easier. Once the butter and flour mixture is well blended, and resembles small peas, add in the water, a little at a time. Blend as you go, adding just enough water till everything holds together. You probably won't need it all. Set aside in the fridge until your filling is ready.

For filling: (Sorry for the generalities ahead, everything is to taste.) Chop apples into small chunks. Throw some brown sugar over top, add some lemon juice, and stir together. Taste an apple, and add more brown sugar or lemon juice as needed. Add a healthy splash of vanilla. Add some butter for flavor. (I used around 2 Tbsp, but you can use more or less, it's for taste, nothing else.) Add cinnamon and pie spice, stir everything together. Taste again, balance flavors if needed. Sometimes adding salt will help meld flavors, so if needed, add a little salt here.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out thin. This may take a bit of work, this particular crust is rather flaky and doesn't like rolling much. If it gets too sticky, just ball it up and pop it back in the fridge to cool down for a couple minutes and try again. Once you've got the crust as thin as you want it, tear off palm sized chunks and place them on a greased tray. The edges don't have to be smooth or pretty, that's part of the charm with these.

Once all crust is on the pan, spoon filling into the center of each crust and fold the edges of the crust up around the filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350ºF oven. Let cool for a couple minutes on the pan, remove, and enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Birthday Cake.

On June 9th, Chris turned 27. On June 10th, I left for northern Minnesota for a few days to participate in a fairly young family tradition called Chick Week. (Only girls attend, for the most part...) In any case, I wanted to be sure that Chris' birthday was extra special this year, with very little packing on my part, and lots of celebrating instead!

We started the morning early, at 6:15, so that Chris could run a charity 3K race in a nearby neighborhood. He finished a full minute quicker than last year! Then we came home, regrouped, and headed out for a victory beignet at The Green Gateau, a great place for a date night, but even better for a nice brunch.

After brunch and a quick nap, I sent Chris out for a break to do some writing, and I scrambled to make a cake and get some cleaning done for the mini surprise party that night! We had some lovely friends over, Steve and Laurie, and their ADORABLE little girl Noelle over, enjoyed some great food and even better company. All in all, a great birthday!

This cake is dead simple to make, and it's completely delicious. I'd suggest serving it with some ice cream, or some barely sweetened whipped cream. Not too much extra sweet though, as the frosting is plenty sweet on its own. I will definitely be making this again. Yum!

Cinnamon Sugar Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting, from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

Cake:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) Butter, room temperature 
1 cup Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch Of Nutmeg
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 cups Cake Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt

Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter, room temperature 
⅓ cup Brown Sugar, packed 
1 tsp Cinnamon
4 cups Powdered Sugar
4 Tbsp Heavy Cream
1 tsp Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Grease 2 8 or 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract.

Gradually add in cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until smooth. Batter will be very thick. Ridiculously so.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and spread out batter until level. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine were done at about 42 minutes.)

Cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before removing cake and allowing to cool completely on a cooling rack.

For the Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the ground cinnamon and salt. Extra cinnamon is wonderful here. Beat in the powdered sugar and cream, alternating a cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of frosting until it's all incorporated. If frosting is too thick, add a small amount of cream until desired consistency is achieved. If frosting is not thick enough, add powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved. (I found the frosting is rather thick, but it is still a nice consistency for this cake, and doesnt need too much thinning.)

To Assemble:

Put a dab of frosting on your cake plate to hold cake in place. Place a cake layer on cake plate. Top cake with ⅓ of the frosting and spread evenly. Top with second cake layer and the rest of the frosting, spreading it evenly across the top and down the sides. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon for decoration, if desired. (Definitely do this!) Enjoy!

Strawberry Pie.

Strawberries are on sale again. That doesn't entirely mean they're in season locally yet, but they're in season somewhere, and that was enough for my husband to bring home a 2 lb. container from the grocery store the other day. The thing with that many strawberries in the presence of two adults and a toddler...well, we cant make it through all of them quickly enough — they start to grow beards. I decided that this time they'd become a pie instead.

I rarely make a strawberry pie (or any pie for that matter, much to my husband's dismay) mainly because the chopping of the strawberries takes awhile, and I'd rather be doing something other than slicing two pounds of strawberries to manageable pieces. Still, the reward is worth it at least once a year...

 

Strawberry Pie, from Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?, by Betty Rae Frandsen, Kathryn J. Frandsen, Kent P. Frandsen

Ingredients:

3 T. strawberry gelatin

1 C. sugar

3 T. cornstarch

pinch salt

1 C. water, divided

3 drops red food coloring (I didn't use)

3 C. sliced strawberries

1 baked 9-in. pie shell (recipe follows)

Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

Combine gelatin, sugar, cornstarch, and salt to make a paste with 1/8 cup of the water. Set aside.

Boil 7/8 cup of the water and gradually add the paste, stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Cook until thickened. Cool two hours.

Bake pie shell, if you're making your own.

Arrange sliced strawberries in pie shell. Stir food coloring into cooled glaze, if you like, and pour over strawberries. Chill completely. Top with whipped cream.

Pie Crust, from Gayle Van Camp

This is actually my mom's quiche crust, but I use it for everything, as it's delicious.

Ingredients:

1 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1/4+1/8 c. butter flavored shortening (6 T.) (I use regular unsalted butter)

1 1/2 to 2 T. cold water

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening/butter with pastry blender till it resembles peas.

Add water, a little at a time. Form ball and roll out to fit a 9" pan. (I find this crust somewhat difficult to roll out, so I usually just press it into a pan.)

Bake crust for 8 or 9 minutes at 375°F. Enjoy!

P.S. This crust is also great when spices are mixed in and you wrap it around a peeled apple and bake for 20 minutes. DELICIOUS! But that's for another post…

Granola Bars (or loose granola).

A while back, we bought some granola bars to help tide us over for the long car ride home from wherever we were. Jonathan LOVED them. A bit later, we bought some CLIF bars to have on hand in case of 'emergency' (needing to leave right away and realizing we'd forgotten breakfast, or to help tide through an extra long meeting, etc.). Again, the one bar Jonathan had, he loved. And obsessed over. Nearly daily, he begged that his snack/breakfast/lunch/dinner/whatever could be a CLIF bar. This was getting out of hand! I decided that if he loved granola bars so much, I'd rather make them and know exactly what was in them. 

Then, for my birthday, Jonathan got me a new cookbook, and lo and behold, there was a granola bar recipe in it. It seemed destined to be. :)

Granola Bars, or Loose Granola, from The Supper Club, by Susie Cover

Ingredients:

3 1/4 c. old-fashioned oatmeal

1/2 c. flaxseed (recipe specifies golden, I used the regular that I had on hand.)

1 1/2 c. shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened (I used sweetened, what I had)

1 c. dried cranberries, chopped coarsely (ended up using raisins in second batch, ran out of craisins)

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

3 T. honey

3 T. maple syrup

2 T. canola oil (I used corn oil)

2 T. vanilla extract (yes, Tablespoons, not teaspoons!)

3/4 t. kosher salt

nonstick cooking spray (opt.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread the oats (and flaxseed, though I chose not to put it in at this point,) on the prepared baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly golden and aromatic, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, stir together the coconut and cranberries. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until the brown sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is a smooth syrup, about 5 minutes. (I frequently walked away, and there were a few granules of brown sugar left in the bottom of my syrup, but they got blended in well in the next step.)

Pour the syrup over the cranberries and coconut, add the toasted oats (and flaxseed!), and stir and toss with a rubber spatula until everything is evenly coated with the syrup and blended well.

To make loose granola, discard the parchment paper and spray your pan with cooking spray. Spread the oats mixture in a single layer on the pan and bake in a 325ºF oven, until golden brown. (Recipe says 30 minutes, but I scorched my first batch black in that time...15-20 should be fine.) 

To make granola bars, lightly spray the parchment paper with cooking spray (or not, I forgot to!) and spread the oats mixture evenly across it. Press down until everything is one large, evenly layered rectangle. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes in a 325ºF oven. Let cool till only slightly warm, then cut into bars. Transfer to the refrigerator and let the bars set and cool completely, about 1 hour. Then, using a thin spatula, remove bars from the pan and serve. (I removed the bars from the pan when I cut them, and packed them in a container in the fridge to cool.) Enjoy!