Rhubarb, anyone?

Hey everyone!  I hope you've had a lovely week.  Mine hasn't been too bad.  I just wanted to share a quick post tonight, with a family recipe I love.

We were in the supermarket yesterday, and my hubby saw rhubarb in the produce section.  After making puppy dog eyes at me (The man is skilled, I'm telling you.  Stupid brown eyes...), and telling me about how it's been years since he's had rhubarb (though I really thought I made something rhubarb-y last summer), I decided to get some and make a rhubarb cobbler.

Here's the Recipe, courtesy, I think, of my Grandma Johns.  I got it from my mom, but I think she got it from my Dad's Mom.  Either way, here it is:

For the filling:
6-8 C chopped rhubarb (about 8 medium-large stalks)
2 C sugar
3/4 C EVAPORATED milk
1/2 C flour

For the topping:
1 C Flour
1 C Brown Sugar
1 C Rolled Oats
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 C butter

Now, for most of you, the evaporated milk is probably kind of a "HUH?" thing.  Here's why we add it: it REALLY helps cut the acidity of the rhubarb.  Ever since he was young, my Dad had gastritis, which caused his stomach to be really sensitive to acidic, and spicy, foods.  So the evaporated milk twist is courtesy of his Mom, who added it to her cobbler to make the rhubarb edible for my pop.  I'm not sure if my mom just adopted Grandma's recipe, or added the evaporated milk to her own, but either way we've been making it with this recipe for years, and really, I think you'll enjoy it.

As far as assembly goes, dump all the filling ingredients in a bowl, mix it up, and spread it in a 9X13 baking dish.  Then, for the topping, mix everything but the butter together, then cut in the butter so you have a crumbly topping.  Sprinkle it evenly over the top of the filling, and bake for 30-45 min in a 350 degree oven.

VIOLA!  Sorry guys, this is the only photographic evidence I have for this dish, because I wasn't planning on blogging about it.  But, it is pretty good looking...

Now, anyone who lives in the Provo/Orem area, PLEASE COME OVER and help us eat the rest of this pan full of cobbler.  Really.  Please.  And the rest of you- give this recipe a try!  It's not your average rhubarb cobbler.  Enjoy!

Aaand, we're BACK!

Hello, everyone!  After nearly 2 weeks' absence, I'm back.  Hubby and I took a much-needed weekend getaway to Las Vegas, had a grand time, and as a result, I've been a while without blogging.

Time to fix that situation, I say!  So I'm coming back with this: another summertime favorite for me- Margherita Pizza.  What can be better than bread, EVOO, Basil, Tomatoes, and Cheese?  Really?

I started with Jay's Signature Pizza Crust, courtesy of Allrecipes.com.  This crust recipe is simple and tasty- always a good thing, but there is one thing to beware of.  With Margherita pizza, thinner crust tends to be better (at least in my opinion), and this recipe yields quite a bit of dough.  If you use it all for one pizza, the crust will be fairly substantial.  Simple solution?  Use half for the pizza, and turn the other half into breadsticks.

Here's a run-through:

1.  Mix the dough, using 2.5 cups of the flour to begin with.  For me, the dough was REALLY sticky at this point.

2.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead more dough in until the dough is no longer sticky.  Because my dough was SO moist, it took adding the rest of the flour in the recipe, plus AT LEAST another cup of flour, to get it so it wasn't sticky anymore.  Form a ball, and place the ball in a well-oiled bowl to rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.

NOTE: Neat Gadget- I have a Misto, and LOVE it.  It's just a special spray bottle that you put oil in, and then you pump the top to build up air pressure so you can have your own "cooking spray" without additives- just oil.  I use it for everything.  I used it for oiling the bowl I put the dough in, the oil on the crust itself before baking, and for oiling my pans.  It's especially nice for baking- typical cooking spray leaves a residue which is hell to try to get off pans.  This way, all you've got is oil, and it comes right off.

3.  Punch the dough down, and allow it to rest for 10 minutes or so.

4.  Form dough into whatever you're making.  In my case, it was a 12" round for "bread sticks" and then a 16" round for the pizza.

"Breadsticks."  Dough, coated with EVOO and dusted with Italian seasoning, then
pre-cut and baked for 15 or so minutes.  Yum.

Pizza Crust

FOR THE PIZZA:
Slice up some Roma tomatoes, cut some fresh basil, and slice fresh mozzarella cheese.  When dealing with fresh mozzarella, a wire-type cheese cutter is VERY helpful.  Like this one.

First, Spread oil over the crust, then add Basil,

Tomatoes,

And Cheese.

Bake for around 20 minutes, until the crust is turning golden and the cheese is starting to brown.  Serve topped with a little fresh ground pepper, if you like.

YUM!  I hope you all enjoy this fresh, seasonal pizza as much as I do.  Let me know what you think!

The Thing About Peaches...

Fun tidbit: I LOVE peaches.  I love everything peach, with the possible exception of peach lip gloss, because I don't much like lip gloss.  Too sticky.  (However, when my MIL gave me some peach lip gloss, I tried it, because it was peach.  Silly, I know).

So OBVIOUSLY, I was really pleased, and surprised, when I found peaches at the market that were actually ripe.  It's pretty early in the season for big, ripe, tasty peaches- we don't usually get them until September around here.  Most that I've seen recently have been rock hard.  Needless to say, I bought a big bag of them.

But here's the thing about peaches: They go from lovely, ripe beauties to peach scented mush fairly rapidly.  I looked in the fridge this morning (I've been taking a peach with me to work every day this week for a snack), and found that I had about 5 left that were rapidly approaching the mush stage.  So, here's my favorite thing to do with ALMOST-over-ripe peaches:

Peaches And Cream

Just what it sounds like: a fatty delight.  First, take peaches and skin them.  An easy way to do this is to dip the peaches in boiling water for about thirty seconds then immediately transfer them to cold water.  The skins will slide right off.  Next up, slice them up and pour some sugar on and let them sit in the fridge until you have a peachy, simple-syrupy delight.  Pour cream over the whole mess and dig in!  I just leave the cream in liquid form, but you can whip it first if you'd like- it looks more elegant that way.

Enjoy!

Summer Food!

So here it is, a thoroughly summer-y food post.  I love all the fresh produce you can get during the summertime.  Along with produce, however, are the often-overlooked fresh herbs.  I bought this basil plant at the local farmer's market (it was already this large, by the way.  I bought it last week), for $4.99.  If you're interested, that's how much you pay for a little sprig of cut fresh basil at most grocery stores, or how much I could pay for a gallon-size bag of it at the farmer's market.  Check it out:

Since I had a basil plant sitting on my porch taunting me (I'm telling you, this plant was gloating...) I decided to make a favorite treat of mine, that happens to require a whole lot of basil.  I made PESTO!  So far as I can tell, just about every pesto recipe contains some quantity of the following ingredients:

Basil

Garlic

Pine Nuts

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

I don't have my own favorite recipe, so I used one from Allrecipes.com.  Mine required 3 cups, PACKED, of fresh basil.  That's quite a bit, so... my plant got quite the trim.  (Don't worry, it's still doing JUST FINE)

After I cut it, I rinsed the basil using a salad spinner.  (SEE, a LOT of basil.)

Next up, to the food processor.  Most pesto recipes just sort of tell you to put everything in and pulse until it comes together, but I'm a bit more systematic about my pesto.  I like to chop the nuts first, until I get a paste that looks like this:

Then, I add the garlic cloves and continue to pulse until they're worked in (the paste will look basically the same; it will just smell lusciously garlic-y.

Next up, I add the basil and Parmesan.

I just used the cheapo, grated parmesan you buy at the grocery store, mostly because the recipe called for quite bit of it and I didn't have a block of quality parmesan on hand big enough to suffice.  The pesto turned out just fine with the cheap stuff, but if I'd had better, I would have used it.

AAAAND, we pulse:

Until we get this:

Then, with the food processor running, slowly add the Olive oil.

My recipe called for optional parsley, but I didn't have any fresh on hand, so I did add some dry when everything else was all combined.

As far as serving goes, I really like to mix some pesto sauce with cream (YUM!), and serve it over pasta.  Any type of noodle will do; I tend to buy wacky noodles.  Just because.  I serve it with tomatoes and parmesan cheese on top, YUM!  (By the way, if you have the time- slice the tomatoes, and broil them with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.  It's heavenly.)

So, in conclusion... Heck, I don't know.  Go slaughter a basil plant, I guess.  Enjoy the fruits of summertime, people!  It's tasty out there...

Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  I wanted to post with a summer-y, all-american dish today.  Personally, I'll be making beer brats on the grill, but I've already shown you all how to do that.  So, obviously, I was in a bit of a pickle, until my SIL, S, sent me the following email.  Kudos to S for saving the day with her Man vs. Food inspired, all-american treat. Try this delicious BURGER (I know I'm going to, very very soon...)

Tee-hee... I thought you'd be impressed with my creation.  C and I love that Man vs. Food show, so we decided to invent our own fancy schmancy burger inspired by one that we saw on the show recently. It doesn't look big, but its on an extra large bun and I used almost 3/4 pound of beef. C said it was the best burger he's ever eaten.

I used ground sirloin and mixed some diced onions and Herbamare seasoning into the meat. I divided it in two and shaped it into patties.  Then I sliced open a big jalapeno pepper, cut off the stem, scooped out the seeds, filled it with cream cheese and re-closed it. Then I sandwiched it between the two patties and mashed them together to make one big patty.  I grilled it until it was done and topped it with a few slices of bacon, some pepper jack cheese, avocado, and lots of Hawaiian BBQ sauce. It really was a delicious burger. I wish I would have had some pineapple on hand - I could have grilled it and put it on the burger as well. We had fun coming up with our own Man vs. Food inspired burger, though.  The jalapeno and cream cheese center was a fun twist. Next time I try making it I'll use a smaller, more edible portion of meat and I'll also baste the burger with the bbq sauce as it cooks.  Ooooh, that sauce is so delicious.

Don't tell me this doesn't look fantastic.  

So, my moral of S's story is thus: try something new.  It's FUN!  If you normally just fry up a chunk of beef, try adding some liquid smoke or bbq sauce to the mix.  Or, you can add just about any number of spices to the meat.  My general rule of thumb for seasoning ground beef:  If you can't smell the seasoning, you probably won't be able to taste it.  The raw meat should smell good before it goes on to cook.

Also, try new toppings!  I like to make burgers stuffed with cheese and crumbled bacon, and then topped with pineapple and BBQ sauce.  The sky is pretty much the limit here.  So, try something new, and have a 

HAPPY, safe 4th of July.