summer highlights

Every summer I make a little vow to accomplish a list of things. My list consists mostly of silly endeavors such as eating as many peaches and as much melon as I possibly can this season. Check. Spending a little less time at work, and a little more time enjoying my daughter. Check. Exercise at least three times a week. Check. Swim in the lake more. Check. Buy a house, (almost there)! Smell the flowers. Check. Make jam. Check. Make pickles. Check. Sneak in a bit more beach time. This is a tough one, as there is never enough beach time. Time on the beach can mean lazily meandering along the shore, occasionally throwing a stick in the lake for our old dog to fetch, and collecting heart shaped rocks. Beach time can include swimming, rock skipping, or lounging on the warm rocks while soaking up the sun. One of my favorite beach times this summer was a week ago on my birthday. I enjoyed the evening with my family and three lovely and great ladies- Kate, Aria, and Bryn. We made a fire, roasted hot dogs, and ate figs as the moon rose. Kate inspired me as she prepared fire roasted figs on a stick. What a wonderful idea! The figs get roasty, warm, and sweet. There is no recipe, just a great concept. I might try stuffing the figs with slightly softened goat cheese in the future before I roast them, or pair them with some really dark chocolate. It was such a simple and perfect treat. As the fire dwindled, the moon's reflection mirrored Lake Superior's surface, and my daughter curled on my lap, I felt one hundred percent contentment.



Another summer favorite was a watermelon cocktail. My future in- laws were up for a visit, and brought us a 30 pound watermelon grown by their neighbor. It was sweet, delicious, and it helped me achieve one of the top things on my list; eat as much melon as possible. Even though I was trying to eat as much melon as I could, there was still a lot of melon left to be consumed. I threw my conundrum to my co-worker Kim, thinking she'd have some ideas as to how to use up some of that melon. Her suggestion; juice it, mix it, and drink it on the rocks. For one of the most refreshing drinks I have ever had, I did the following:

Juice, or puree and strain about 5 pounds of watermelon. You'll be left with about 6 cups of juice.
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup agave nector

Combine the above ingredients, adding more or less lime juice and agave to your liking.
Fill an eight ounce glass with ice. Pour one shot of vodka over the ice. Top with the watermelon juice. Sip and enjoy.




I have one more summer greatness that I'd like to share. Sweet refrigerator pickles. My daughter and I are fairly particular about our pickles. I made a batch of sweet gherkin pickles with good results, but I didn't really enjoy the four day process that came with them. I'm usually strapped for time, and these pickles, as great as they are, almost put me over the edge. I was curious if I could create a simple refrigerator pickle with as much flavor and greatness of our high maintenance gherkins. I pulled it off with this recipe:

2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
 1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp allspice berries
1 tsp pickling spice

Place the cucumbers in a clean spring- top jar.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 4 full  minutes to wake up the flavors of the spices.

Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over the cucmbers, completely filling the jar. Allow the pickles to cool to room temperature before topping off with any remaining pickling liquid. Refridgerate.

Refrigerate the pickles for a week to ripen. They will keep for about 2 months in the fridge. Belly up!!

Summer Squash & Ricotta Cheesecake

 It has been a hustle and bustle month for me. Amongst many things, we are in the midst of buying a farm. It is a process, but the end results will be amazing. Wide open spaces are a bit rare in Cook County Minnesota, so when we stumbled upon an old family farmstead, over looking Lake Superior, with a near 10 acres it was instant love. I am looking forward to growing more of my own food. I am constantly flipping through seed catalogs searching for seeds that are better suited for this sometimes unruly northern climate. I have also been stock piling recipes to put my produce to work feeding my family. I found this recipe, originally a zucchini cheesecake recipe, and decided to give it a try. I had a beautiful specimen of a summer squash, bright yellow and unblemished, and it wanted to be a star. I think of this recipe as a base recipe, meaning the flavors are calm and not too pushy. It's a great base for adding flavors to. I went with fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and scallions to flavor the cheesecake. Any fresh herbs would work nicely, and bold flavorful add ins will accentuate the subtle flavors of the summer squash and ricotta.  Think roasted corn and chipotle peppers, or rosemary and bacon, or toasted almonds and poblano peppers. Endless possibilities for a future endless bounty of summer squash. Belly up!!


2 cups summer squash, unpeeled & grated
1 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 bunch of scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffinade
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons sun dried tomatoes, chopped
3 large eggs, well beaten
1/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled
drizzle of olive oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter/ oil a 6 inch spring-form pan.  A 6 inch spring- form pan is kind of a rare size, so a tart or pie pan would work too.

In a strainer, toss the shredded summer squash with the salt and let sit for ten minutes. Now aggressively squeeze and press out as much moisture as you can. Set aside.

In the meantime, combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, and mix until well combined. Fold in the summer squash. Fill the springform pan with the ricotta- squash mixture and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour- 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the cake barely jiggles in the center (it will set up more as it cools).

Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes, then release the cake from its pan. Cool completely, serve at room temperature with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top.

This cheesecake is made with ricotta, so the texture is going to be different than a traditional cheesecake. We ate slices of this for appetizers, and I think this would be really great baked in a crust of some kind- maybe a cornmeal pie crust?....

Garlic Scape, Rainbow Chard & Sweet Corn Spoon Bread

I love August. Not only is it my birthday month, but it also resembles summer coming to an end in northern Minnesota. A month to soak up as much sun as possible, swim in Lake Superior a few more times, and a time to eat sweet corn. I made a point at the beginning of summer to indulge in as much fresh melon and peaches that I could possibly stand. I was successful, and now I am applying the same rule to sweet corn. Seasonal produce is, well, seasonal. It is at it's peak in flavor during it's peak harvest time. To achieve maximum satisfaction, you need to eat produce while it's in season. Sweet corn is ready!

I was trying to put together some new recipes using sweet corn. Something substantial. I was given a basket full of garden veggies a few days ago when I did a favor for a friend. What was left in the basket were garlic scapes, rainbow chard, and jalapeno peppers. I like the idea of all of these ingredients co-mingling with my sweet corn. I thought about a warm salad with a bacon vinaigrette. That would be AWESOME, but I was out of bacon. I was thinking about corn bread, but I wanted something custard- y. I finally stumbled upon a corn spoon bread recipe. Spoon bread is like a hybrid of cornbread, grits, and a souffle. It's an old time southern dish made with cornmeal, and is actually more like a pudding than a bread. It is soft and custard-y, and can be served and eaten with a spoon. The addition of rainbow chard seemed to keep this dish in line with it's roots as collard greens are a common add in.


Garlic Scape, Rainbow Chard & Sweet Corn Spoon Bread

1 Tablespoon butter, plus more for the baking dish
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups sweet corn kernels
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
coarse salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup sharp cheddar ( I used a sharp, raw milk cheddar)
1/2 cup garlic scapes, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
1 cup rainbow chard, chiffinade
4 large eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2- quart souffle or casserole dish; set aside. In a medium saucepan combine butter, milk, corn, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and cayenne. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring frequently, until mixture is slightly thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cheese, garlic scapes, rainbow chard, and jalapeno. Let cool until just warm to the touch, about 15 minutes. Stir in the egg yolks until combined.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the cornmeal mixture until combined, then gently fold in the remaining whites with a rubber spatula. Pour into prepared dish.

Place dish in oven; reduce heat to 375 degrees. Bake until browned on top but still slightly loose in the center, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving. Belly up!!

Wild Berry Dutch Pancake

It brings me such peace and joy to spend the early hours of my weekend mornings, with my sweet darling and her four year old personality. She's the first one to rise out of bed every morning, and the first smiles of my day are plastered to her giggling face as she tries to pull me from my cherished sleep. She is so eager to jump into the day, and not wanting to stand in the way of such enthusiasm,  I muster up all that I've got and get to it. If the sun is shinning, then we head outside. We water the garden, walk down to the beach to skip rocks and dip our toes in the water, or pick wild berries that grow along the ridges surrounding our house. I forget about the attention span of a young child, and before long Addie is running through the sprinkler as I finish up the berry picking. I hardly mind. There is nothing that could disturb the moment. As I switch to drinking coffee in a lounge chair, my darling secretly eats wild berries which is evident by her blue fingerprints. She then reminds me that it's a pancake morning, and we get to it.

I'm always game for a new pancake recipe, and so when I stumbled upon a recipe in Bon Appetit, I was curious. The recipe is originally called Peach Dutch Baby Pancake with Cherry Compote. The name alone was a challenge for Addie. The objective of the recipe was to utilize seasonal peaches and cherries. We had wild berries. I skipped the compote part of the recipe. I wanted the berries in the pancake. This pancake is one that requires a preheated oven, a preheated skillet, and about 20 minutes of baking time- no flipping necessary. This recipe was easy to put together, and the finished cake reminded me of an eclair shell filled with berries and drizzled with maple syrup. Yum!

the Pancake:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a blender combine the following ingredients;
2 Tbls butter, melted
4 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1 Tbls sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Blend batter until smooth, then set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add;
2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls sugar
cook,  stirring constantly, until sugar starts to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Add about 1 1/2 cups wild berries to the skillet and turn off the heat. Pour in the prepared pancake batter evenly over the caramelized berries and transfer to the oven.

Bake the pancake until puffed and golden brown all over, 17-20 minutes (it will deflate as soon as it's removed from the oven). Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, with a drizzle of maple syrup or honey. Belly up!!

Spiced White Peach Jam

At the food co-operative where I work, we have an abundance of stone fruit right now. It is so ripe and ready, that you can't pass them up for another day! It happens sometimes though, that folks decide to buy peaches later in the week, and those peaches that are ready, just don't wait. So when my co-worker handed me a half of a case of bruised but perfectly ripe white peaches, I couldn't say no. It wasn't possible. The peaches wouldn't allow it. Besides, I had been thinking about peach jam. Opportunity just presented itself.

White peaches are similar in flavor to your everyday yellow peach, but with a bit of a mild honey, floral, and melon flavor. When eaten in their perfect ripeness the juice flows down to your elbow, and the flavor is exceptional! Since I was going to be working with white peaches, a touch more unusual than yellow peaches, I wanted a jam recipe that was a touch unusual as well. Peach jam is wonderful, but I wanted to add some other flavors that would highlight the white peaches. Brown sugar, ginger, and dark rum came to mind. With those flavors I kept thinking about the tropics and the spice trade, and so cardamon, cinnamon, and allspice made there way in as well. It all worked together very well, and I was happy with the end result!

Spiced White Peach Jam

4 cups white peaches, peeled, and chopped
6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1-1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/4 cup dark spiced rum
1 Tbls butter (optional. it helps remove the foam)
1 package of liquid pectin

Prepare the fruit. In a large stock pot combine all of the above ingredients except the liquid pectin. Bring those ingredients to a rolling boil (a boil that keeps on boiling while you are stirring it). Add the liquid pectin, and continue to stir at a rolling boil for 1 minute. After 1 minute turn off the heat and ladle jam into prepared jars. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from the water bath, and allow to cool to room temperature. Share a jar with your neighbors and friends. Trade a jar for some freshly baked bread, and slather away! Belly up!!

Grilled Turmeric & Lemongrass Chicken

With summer upon us, I find I spend more time outside than I do inside. It probably has to do with the idealistic climate in which I live. Beautiful mornings with a cool lake breeze, sunny afternoons with temperatures no higher than 80 degrees, and the evening fog that rolls in and cools us back down to our comfort zone. The thick blooded northerners are protesting the "summer heat" , but mid westerners have been flocking to the cold waters of Lake Superior for the instant cooling affect. Outdoor cooking is not only my favorite, but it symbolizes summer time for me. Grilling out on the patio, bonfire on the beach, and camping trips are all opportunities for me to test out new food ideas. I love the flavors that are created when fire meets food. The smokiness. The rustic- homey- earthy flavors. I can't get enough.

This week I thought I'd try a recipe I came across in my newest Bon Appetit magazine. There I found inspiration with an article on Malaysian cooking. The author had learned while in Malaysia, he could transform a marinade into a basting liquid, then reduce it and serve it as a dipping sauce. This method not only utilizes all of the marinade through the different stages of cooking, but it also ensures a depth of flavor with all of the layering going on. The marinade goes together easily in the blender, the chicken marinates overnight, and the next day there is minimal cooking required. The recipe calls for chicken wings, but I substituted chicken thighs. I'm thinking that this might be a great way to go about turkey legs in the future. Or pork. Or fish. Or tofu.

Grilled Turmeric and Lemongrass Chicken:

1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
3 shallots, chopped
3 garlic cloves
2 lemongrass stalks, (bottom third only, tough outer layers removed), finely chopped
2 jalapenios
1 1" piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp tamarind juice concentrate (not paste or pulp) or 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp tumeric

Combine all of the above ingredients in a blender with 1 cup of water, and puree until a smooth marinade forms.

Place 3lbs chicken wings or thighs in a large baking dish. Pour marinade over; turn chicken to coat evenly.  Cover chicken and chill overnight.

Remove chicken from marinade, shaking any excess marinade back into the dish. Transfer chicken to a large platter. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Transfer marinade to a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until marinade thickens, 10-15 minutes. Pour half of marinade into a small bowl; set aside for basting chicken while it grills. Keep remaining marinade in saucepan, cover and keep warm until ready to serve the chicken.

Build a medium fire in a charcoal grill, or heat a gas grill to medium- high heat. Oil grill grates to prevent sticking. Grill chicken, turning every 5 minutes or so and basting occasionally with marinade in samll bowl, until fat is rendered and skin is nicely charred in spots, 30-35 minutes. (The key here is to turn the chicken often so the skin doesn't burn.)

Continue cooking chicken without basting (so it will get crsip) until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes longer.

Transfer chicken to a large platter and let it rest for 5 minutes. Squeeze lime wedges over wings. Transfer marinade to a small bowl. Serve warm marinade alongside chicken as a dipping sauce.


P.S. I thought I'd share a pic of our dessert that followed. A handful of Saskatoon berries picked from the back yard, er, forest. Also called June berry, Pigeon berry, or Service berry, these berries are native in North America from Alaska across much of Western Canada. With a sweet nutty flavor the fruits have long been eaten by Canada's aboriginal people, and is a well known ingredient in pemmican. Saskatoon berries are becoming more known as a super fruit for its nutritional value and health benefits. I think they go well with dry bubbly wine! Belly up!!

Addie's Buckwheat Buttermilk Flapjacks

 A typical Sunday morning at my house consists of giant mugs brimming with coffee laced with cream, which are sipped on our deck with the lake superior breeze and the sun. Unless a fog rolls in. Then we make pancakes. Our favorite pancakes lately are a blend of buckwheat and whole wheat pastry flour. Depending on what I have on hand, I may throw in some rye flour, wild rice flour, or cornmeal. It's very simple to play around with the dry ingredients as long as you are keeping the quantity of dry ingredients about the same, and are keeping in mind the different characteristics of each flour. Whole wheat flour is dense, but buckwheat flour is light, and so they seem to pair up well. Combined with buttermilk, maple syrup, and studded with fresh fruit- these flapjacks are exactly what we're looking for on those cool mornings. Pancakes are a great vessel for fresh seasonal fruit. This time of year we're using fresh berries to adorn our cakes. This past winter we were experimenting with caramelized bananas or handfuls of granola with honey Greek yogurt.  However you take your cakes, this recipe is versatile, and can serve as a great host for your seasonal harvests. Try strawberries and rhubarb with browned butter, cherries and toasted almonds, or peaches with a few tablespoons of toasted cornmeal added in.


Addie's Buckwheat Buttermilk Flapjacks:

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Whisk together all of the above ingredients in a medium sized batter bowl. In a separate bowl mix together:

2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
3 Tbl maple syrup or honey

Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Fold any additional fruit as well, about 1 cup worth. A great cast iron skillet works great for cooking a few pancakes at a time. You want to cook the cakes over an even and consistent heat source. Make sure the pan is pre-heated correctly, or you'll end up with pancakes that spread too much and not rise well.

I am really interested in the variety of flours that are now available. Switching up the flours in your recipes can add wonderful flavors. It can be as simple as swapping half of the all-purpose flour in your chocolate chip cookie recipes, with whole wheat pastry flour. It adds a slightly nutty flavor with a honey-sweetness undertone.  I bought a cookbook called, "Good to the Grain", written by Kim Boyce. Each chapter features a variety of flour. From Amaranth flour to Buckwheat flour to Spelt flour, this book includes many great recipes. I enjoy this book the most because it seems built on the fundamentals of utilizing these great  grains for their unique flavors, and the end results are tasty! Typically when I see multigrained recipes those grains are used as substitutes to make baked goods either healthier or gluten- free, which isn't always a tasty end product. There is a forward written by Nancy Silverton in the beginning of the book, and she sums it up perfectly by writing the following: "My priority as both a baker and an eater is not health but flavor. What makes the recipes in this book so special is that- weather you care about whole grains or not- they are truly delicious." That makes me smile.

Here is an easy mulitgrain flour blend recipe that is included in 'Good to the Grain':

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1 cup barley flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup rye flour

This recipe was designed to be versatile. You can also experiment with blends of your own. Kim says to keep in mind that every flour is different and has different qualities, so your goal is to create the right balance of flavor and structure. This blend would make wonderful pancakes! Belly Up!!