Food is Food

There are worse problems in the kitchen than making something that tastes amazing, but is very difficult to name. Like, for example, something that’s easy to name, but tastes terrible. Luckily, this fresh fig and goat cheese “tart” was the former.

I wanted to make some sort of crostata, or galette-type, free-form tart, which I’ve done successfully in the past (and have the video to prove it), but instead of using standard pie crust dough, I decided to try something a little more rustic, and savory, using spelt flour and olive oil.

I knew this would pair beautifully with the sweet fruit, and tangy cheese, but what I didn’t know, was that it would end up being way too crumbly, and pretty much useless as a tart crust. So, I crumbled it into the bottom of a shallow ramekin, and the rest is history.

As predicted, the combination of flavors really worked extraordinarily well, and the somewhat gritty texture of the “crust,” added to the interest. But, what the heck is this? I don’t think it’s a tart. An upside-down crumble? Sandy tart? I give up, but if you have some time to kill, I’d love to know what you would call this delicious accident. Semantics aside, I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

For the crust (makes enough for about 4 small tarts):

1 cup sprouted spelt flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

3 or 4 tbsp water, or enough to form a crumbly dough

For one “tart:”

about 1/3 cup “crust” mixture

2 ounces creamy fresh goat cheese

1 black mission fig, sliced

tiny pinch of salt

very tiny pinch of cayenne

1 tbsp white sugar

spring of fresh lemon thyme

We eat a lot of burgers in our house, especially in the summer. Turkey burgers (here & here), chicken burgers (here & here & here), veggie burgers (here & here), fish burgers (here) or your classic and DELICIOUS beef burger. And while I see nothing wrong with topping these burgers with cheese, bacon or onions and mushrooms (sautéed in butter, obviously), I thought I'd change it up a bit and search for healthier and more unique alternatives.

Instead of lettuce, try chopped bok choy sautéed in garlic. Instead of pickles, try lightly sautéed yellow squash or zucchini. It's almost impossible for me to eat a burger without tomatoes and avocado, so I had to include those. But other ideas: roasted red peppers, pickled carrots or crispy kale. And instead of basic ketchup and mustard, I tried out two different greek yogurt toppings: one with a dash of sriracha and the other with lime juice and lime zest. Also, the vessel? One half of a toasted English muffin instead of a bun. Not exactly easy to eat, but delicious nonetheless.

Doesn't that look pretty? All assembled and ready to eat, yes?! Well SECONDS after this photo was shot, this happened...

The glamorous life of a food blogger... always in a rush to photograph your food and then EAT it. Oh, and don't worry, I put it all back on my plate and did just that. Judge away!

As a Canbassador, I receive a couple shipments of fresh stone fruit from Washington State to preserve. Over the past few years I have made a lot of things with peaches including Peach Ketchup and Ginger Peach Preserves. While there are some good ideas on the SweetPreservation website, in the comments section of my Can-It-Forward giveaway post I received even more fantastic suggestions for canning peaches including peach preserves, peach butter, peach salsa, peach mostarda, brandied peaches, peach pie filling, and a jam from Piemonte with peaches, amaretti and cocoa powder. That should keep me inspired for years to come!

This year I ended up canning some peaches in a light syrup, and I also made Peach Barbecue Sauce. My recipe was inspired by one I found online, Zesty Peach Barbecue Sauce, but I made some changes and am pleased with the results. Barbecue sauce is a very easy thing to make and easy to can. You can and should taste it before you can it and adjust the seasonings as you see fit. You can make it spicy, smoky, boozy--you are only limited by your own imagination. The color may throw you off, but try a taste with your eyes closed, it definitely has the tang of barbecue sauce. I'd recommend using it on pork, chicken or even ribs.

I am a big fan of small batch canning and this recipe made just a little bit over four half pint jars. That's enough for me and enough for me to share. The ability to share something you made from scratch is one of the best things about canning and preserving.

Peach Barbecue Sauce

Make 4 half pint jars (8 ounces)

Ingredients

4 cups finely chopped pitted peeled peaches

1/4 cup finely chopped seeded red bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

2 pressed or finely chopped garlic cloves

1/2 cup honey

6 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1-2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger, start with one teaspoon and add more after tasting

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons gojuchang or other thick chile sauce (not Tabasco)

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Heat jars in simmering water in a hot water bath canner or large pot. Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens about 20 minutes. Puree using a hand blender or in a blender. Taste for seasonings and add more ginger or other seasonings as you like, and continue cooking until the sauce is the desired consistency.

Dip lids and bands in the water briefly. Carefully ladle the hot sauce into the prepared hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims and center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. Place the jars back in the boiling water making sure the water covers the jars by an inch and process for 15 minutes (adjust for altitude if necessary). Remove jars and let cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours.

Enjoy!

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I baked another chocolate chip cookie.

You've heard me go on and on about chocolate chip cookies on this blog... about how many recipes I've tried and will continue to try if the slightest variation in technique or ingredients exist. You could be like, O-M-G Siri, you've got to try this new cookie... the secret is after you cream the butter and sugar together you take off your clothes and dance naked around your kitchen... no for real, it makes the cookies SO MUCH BETTER. And I would test that out, oh yes, I would.

So when I came across this recipe which has one very small and unusual step, I decided to experiment. What is that step? Browning butter - which I've done plenty of times, not unusual - and whisking in an ice cube at the very end. Wha?!? An ice cube?? Had to try it!! You also add the brown sugar at a separate time than the granulated sugar... HOW DIFFERENT! Do you see why I had to bake a batch? The results were delicious. I don't know if the ice cube did anything other than immediately cool down the butter, but the nutty, toffy-like flavor that browning butter offers was very strong. They also tasted less sugary than a lot of cookies I've tried, which I kind of enjoyed.

Ok, off to dance naked around my kitchen.

More about cookies here and here.

Once again, I’m a Canbassador. That means I receive a couple shipments of stone fruit, more than enough to preserve, and I share my results and recipes with you. I already received a large box of dark red cherries and will be working on peaches next. Dark red cherries have an intense flavor, they hold up well with other strong flavors and with that in mind I made two different recipes--Bourbon Cherries and Cherry Vanilla Balsamic Shrub.

I’m afraid I didn’t pay as much attention to the recipe for Bourbon Cherries as I should have, and they will need four weeks to “settle" so I will not be trying them for bit longer. I also froze some cherries, which is very easy to do. I just washed and pitted them and put them in the zip top bag, and froze it as flat as I could. The cherries don’t seem to have stuck to together. And I dried a small batch of cherries in my toaster oven, but it took a very long time and I’m not sure I’d do it again.

By the way, if you have a large amount of cherries to pit, I highly recommend this pitter that cleanly and easily pits 6 cherries at a time! It's a bit pricey, but definitely worth it to avoid the mess and hassle when you have lots of cherries to pit.

The other recipe I made was a shrub. As you may recall, shrubs are vinegar based drinks, often made with fruit. Making shrubs is a great way to use fruit that’s not perfect. The riper the fruit the better. Basically you combine fruit with sugar and water, then let it sit for a while then add vinegar. You can also add aromatics. This was my first experiment and it turned out rather well. Once you make a shrub the easiest way to serve it is with bubbly water, but it’s good in cocktails and to flavor hard sparkling cider.

The cherries leftover from making the shrub have a kind of pickled flavor since they were sitting in a vinegar solution for a full week. They are great as an accompaniment to cheese or in green salads. I recently made a salad with hot smoked salmon, red onions and avocado and the shrub cherries added just the right tangy note.

The Sweet Preservation website has some preservation basics as well as recipes for canning stone fruit, if you're looking for more ideas. Also check out the community site, Punk Domestics.

Cherry Vanilla Balsamic Shrub

Ingredients

About 4 cups washed and pitted cherries

2 cups sugar
1 cup water

2 cups vinegar--I used a pleasing combination of balsamic and Champagne vinegar

1-2 vanilla beans, sliced open, end to end

Instructions

Place the fruit and sugar in a large wide mouthed glass jar and smash it with a muddler or a wooden spoon. Add the water, stir until the sugar begins to dissolve, then cover and let sit for 24 hours. Add the vinegar and vanilla beans and stir again until the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for a week. Strain the cherries out of the liquid and filter through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator and mix with bubbly water, sparkling cider or use in cocktails.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I received stone fruit as part of my Canbassador role, I was not monetarily compensated for this or any other post on Cooking with Amy. This post includes an affiliate link.

There’s a restaurant near us that features a burrata-filled tortellini, served in a cream sauce fortified with fresh, sweet corn. It’s a wonderful dish, and was the inspiration for this simple, summer vegetable cavatelli.

I was going to use reduced cream, with fresh, pureed corn stirred in at the end, but then I had a thought. What if skipped the dairy altogether, and made the sauce 100% cob-based? I was also out of cream.

So, I blended the fresh corn with some chicken broth, and ended up with what looked like corn milk. At first, I thought I’d made it too thin, but after a few tests reducing some in a pan, I realized it was thickening up beautifully.

While I was very happy with this, in hindsight, I’d do a few things differently next time. I went with pancetta, but I think the smokiness of bacon would have made this even more delicious. I also think you should probably add the corn cream to the vegetables, and bring it to a simmer before the pasta is added.

Of course, this recipe will work with whatever fresh seasonal vegetables you happen to find at the market, as long as its something that tastes good with sweet corn. In related news, everything tastes good with sweet corn. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 portions:

For the corn “cream” (will make more than needed for the recipe)

2 ears fresh white corn, or other sweet corn

2 cups chicken broth or water

For the pasta:

2 cups cavatelli

1 tbsp olive oil

4 ounces diced bacon or pancetta (sausage would also work nicely)

1/2 cup diced sweet red pepper

1 1/2 cup diced zucchini

pinch of cayenne

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 to 2 cups corn “cream,” or as needed

1 cup halved sweet cheery tomatoes

1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

1 tbsp finely sliced basil leaves

grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Do you have a purpose when you go to the Farmer's Market? I usually wander around aimlessly, wanting everything but afraid to commit. It would probably benefit me to treat it like any food shopping experience, with some sort of recipe or meal plan in mind. But sadly, I'm not that organized of a person. Especially when it comes to food. The old, Dutch, fat man that lives inside of my appetite usually takes over, and I want to buy everything... but I always chicken out and leave with next to nothing. It's very frustrating! I need help from you people that instragram your Farmer's Market purchases every Sunday, because I know you're better at it than me.

Last week, I left with radishes and golden beets. That's it! No one in my house even likes them, besides me! (Oh, and I also bought a log of mozzarella cheese because... fat man.) I was determined to not let my purchases sit there mockingly, until they shriveled up with mold. So I prepared them both in the easiest ways possible, roasting one and quickly sautéing the other. And guess what? My family loved them! (My family = Carson, my kids eat nothing.) See below for my techniques...

Beets...

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash beets and trim the leafy stems (reserving if you wish, they're edible). Place beets on a baking sheet lined with foil. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place another piece of foil on top of beets. Roast in oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Once cooled slightly, peel the skin off of the beets. Slice, sprinkle with more olive oil, salt and pepper and serve!

Radishes...

Wash radishes and thinly slice them. In a sauce pan, heat a tablespoon of unsalted butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until they caramelize (sometimes I add sliced shallots as well). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Years ago I wrote about Monet’s Palate, a charming film narrated by Meryl Streep. It delves into the life of Monet at his home in Giverny. Monet’s passions were painting and gardening, but he also clearly enjoyed the pleasures of the table—eating, drinking and entertaining guests. A new book, Monet’s Palate Cookbook is less about historical and sometimes antiquated and inaccurate recipes left behind by his cook, and more about his life in Giverny. It covers his approach to gardening, eating and entertaining with plenty of recipes of course.

The book begins with his passion for good food, then moves seamlessly into his kitchen garden and many of the fruits and vegetables that were grown at the time, as well as the specific ones that were grown in his garden and details about how they were propagated. But the majority of the book is dedicated to recipes. The recipes are inspired by Monet’s kitchen garden at Giverny, but fresh and modern. Some of them refer to favorite dishes served to artists of the day—like bouillabaise for Renoir and others are from places he traveled to such as the Yorkshire Pudding from the Savoy Hotel in London. Finally there are recipes from famous chefs like Michel Richard and Anne Willan, inspired by his kitchen notebooks.

The recipes include notes about their connection to Monet, and bits of trivia that Monet fans are sure to relish such as the fact that he brought back seeds for zucchini from Italy or that he imported bananas for ice cream to be served on Christmas. Recipes I’ve bookmarked include Roasted Cod with Fresh Corn, Red Peppers, Onion and Caper Salad, Roast Pork with Cherry Sauce, and Mocha Layer Cake. The book like the film extends the experience of visiting Monet’s home in Giverny. If you’ve been there it’s something you won’t likely forget and if you haven’t, it should be on your bucket list.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a review copy, this page includes an affiliate link. I was not paid to compensated monetarily to write this or any other post.

I've been trying to write this post for a day and a half. A day and a half! Trying to balance life is a daily struggle of mine, and I'm sure you can all relate. I have so much I want to cook, so much I want to share with you, and yet I'm trying to actually put my swimsuit on this summer and go UNDERWATER with my kids. As in, who cares about how cold the water feels or what my hair looks like or having to shower after (or not). I'm trying to play with my kids!! And so my to-do list grows and grows and grows... WHY IS BALANCE SO HARD.

Back to trying to share with you, my virtual friends. Yesterday I had so much fun baking mini blueberry pies with my friend Savannah on Today. It was a Today Original recipe, and they were simple and delicious. Yes, yes, I may have made a few mistake during the segment, but I think you know that I embrace errors in the kitchen and I certainly try not to take cooking too SIRIously.

You can check out the segment and view the Today Original recipe here.