Good Real Food

This has always been my favorite pie. It is THE pie made for the month of June when the strawberries and rhubarb can be found in your own garden, or one near by.

My mom came in to town to visit me for my birthday. She gave me a piece of advise about pies. Don’t be ashamed to buy frozen ready made crusts. She spent years laboring over the perfect hand made crusts before realizing that life is just too short. So, though I still feel romantic and occasionally ambitious and need to make pie dough from scratch, it feels like more of a winter activity, especially when you just want to use up some fresh local fruit to take to a summer BBQ that you are already late for.

This recipe is from “The Chez Piggy Cookbook” by Victoria Newbury, from the restaurant that carried that name.

• 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 5 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1/4 inch chunks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp. sour cream
• 1 9 inch prebaked pie crust plus another for the top crust
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 Tbsp. milk for egg wash

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, mix strawberries and rhubarb with sugar, flour, cinnamon and sour cream, and place in the prebaked crust. Roll out top crust and cut into 1/2 inch strips. Arrange in lattice top on pie and brush with egg wash. Bake for 35-45 minutes.

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I put this dinner together inspired by our second CSA box which contained garlic scapes, onions, and mixed greens. Here is what was in the box:

And here is what I came up with:

The greens are simply braised in olive oil with some of the onions and scapes. The lentle salad is really easy. Cook the lentles in boiling water for about ten minutes. Drain them, then toss with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and the onions and scapes. It was good both hot and cold.

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making lunch for my daughter this evening, this is what I came up with as an accessory to lunch:

so, my question - is it wrong that I’m pleased as punch that she needs to go through the carrots to get to the chips?  Sure, as my wife pointed out, she’ll dump it all out on the table to get what she wants.  Still, maybe, just maybe, this will inspire some order?

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It is the season for salads! The first local spring greens have arrived inspiring new ideas for dressings. This is one I have been using a lot the last few weeks. I toss it with fresh spring greens, cucumbers, peppers, and snap peas.

1. Peel and chop fine a one inch piece of fresh ginger.

2. Toss the ginger and the rest of the salad with 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, a handfull of cilantro, and a dash of salt.

Prepare some extra ginger to make this refreshing iced tea:

Simmer a Tbsp. of chopped ginger with one lemon, sliced in half, juice squeezed into the pot, about four cups of water, and some fresh mint leaves (now growing rampant in my garden!).

Let it simmer for about five minutes, let it cool, and drink it over ice, sweetened to taste.

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We’ve been having enormous salads for dinner at least once a week the last few weeks.  Tonight, after reading Rebecca Blood’s recipe for raspberry vinaigrette, I figured I’d remix her recipe a bit and out came this lovely strawberry vinaigrette.

First, Rebecca Blood’s recipe (from memory, excuse the errors):

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp raspberry preserve

Directions: mix well.

My recipe, which was likely influenced by something I read on her site anyway

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 3 strawberries, pulverized on a ginger grater like this one
• 3 basil leaves, very finely minced
• about a 1/2 Tbsp honey

Directions are the same: mix.  I generally use a jar, add all the ingredients, tightly screw on the lid and shake until well combined.

Enjoy

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Make crepes!

I’ll admit, I’m probably more proud of this than I should be, but I was faced with a dilemma this morning and think I killed two birds with one stone in a rather nice way.
My dilemma - my daughter and I were planning a bike trip to the farmers market this morning along with other assorted errands. Given that I had no idea how long we’d be, I thought a picnic lunch somewhere along the way would be smart. The problem was that the cupboard was really bare - not even bread to make some sandwiches.

I was puzzling over this as I made pancakes for breakfast. My wife and daughter reached their “full” point and I still had pancake batter left over - happens all the time around here. So, I just thinned it out with more milk and the end result are the crepes you see above. Filled with either turkey and cheese or PB & J, they were the perfect lunch food and made excellent use of what would otherwise likely have gone to waste.

I’ve been making my pancakes from scratch for about the last year, and while there are many recipes, this is the one that I generally “orbit” around - making modifications as I see fit, but generally sticking near to the following:

1. one egg, beaten
2. 3/4 cup of milk
3. 3 or 4 tablespoons of yogurt
4. 1 tablespoon of melted butter
5. 1 cup of flour - whatever kind you have and/or a mix of flours like all-purpose, whole wheat, rye, spelt
6. 2 teaspoons baking powder
7. 1 teaspoon salt

Method: combine your dry ingredients in one bowl, you wet in the other, and mix your wet into your dry and stir to combine. Add more of the wet or dry (so either milk, yogurt, or flour) to adjust the consistency to your liking. Crank up the heat (to medium-ish) under your cast iron pan and go to town - pour or ladle batter into pan, when top get bubbly, flip and cook other side for a few more minutes. I toss mine on a plate in the oven to keep them a bit warmer while the stack cooks. Serve with syrup, fresh fruit, or whatever else suits your fancy.

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