The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  Can’t wait to take them in to BCS on Friday!!  Families have been asking for the last month when we’d have fresh, ripe tomatoes.

90 percent of the tomatoes are still green, including many gigantic beefsteaks, like this Brandywine (look at that sucker in my hand! HUGE!).  If you’ve got a moment, say a quick prayer that they’ll all ripen before the cooler weather sets in, or I’ll be sending out lots of green tomato recipes with the week’s harvest (green tomato chutney, green tomato pickles, fried green tomatoes…).

The first of the tomatillos are ripe as well – these are the DeMilpa, which have  a purple blush, and regular old green tomatillos mixed together.  We have ten tomatillos plants, so there will be many MANY pounds of tomatillos to harvest in the next two or three weeks.

How to use tomatillos?  Well, there are several uses, but after removing the husk and washing these sticky little cousins of the tomato, I like to make them into the best salsa verde ever:

Larksong’s Super Simple Salsa Verde (this is sort-of a recipe – just wing it!)

Two to four double- handfuls of ripe tomatillos, husks removed and washed (how many did you pick in the garden today? Use what’s on hand…the amount is flexible!)

(optional – if you like it spicy!  I leave it out for the kids) 1 small jalapeno, whole

3 or 4 cloves of garlic (add more or less, to your taste), crushed

lime juice, to taste

sprinkling of sugar

flake sea salt.

Directions:

1)Line a broiler tray with foil, and oil very lightly.  Place tomatillos (and optional jalapeno) on the tray and broil, checking every 1-2 minutes, until blackened.  Remove tray, and with tongs, flip tomatillos (and jalapeno) over.  Place back under the broiler until all are blackened on the other side.  Remove from oven and let cool.  (Remove stem and seeds from jalapeno and slice, if using.)

2)Toss whole tomatillos and any accumulated juice into a blender with the garlic (and optional jalapeno slices – sometimes it’s best to put in half at first, so you don’t get it too hot).  Blend, then add sugar, lime juice, and salt to taste, blend again to incorporate. (My kids like a bit more sugar, and depending on the source of your tomatillos, they may be pretty acidic and not need much extra lime juice – so just taste as you go!)

3) Serve!  Enjoy!  Make lots, because it goes fast!

Ah, summer dinners in the backyard…

Here’s one of my favorite summer dessert recipes – we’ve been making a lot lately, with whatever fruit we have on hand:

Larksong’s Farm Stand Fruit Pie

For the filling:

5 peaches, peeled and sliced or 10-12 apricots sliced

4 big handfuls of raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup white sugar

For the crust:

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour

1/3 cup cornmeal (I like Bob’s Redmill’s medium grind.  If you use their blue cornmeal, the crust will have a pretty lavender color.)

1/3 cup white sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for dusting the crust

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, grated with a box grater on the large setting

1 egg white

1.  In med bowl, combine all crust ingredients, except egg white, using clean hands to evenly distribute the grated butter.  Slowly add 4-5 Tbsp ice water, one Tbsp at a time, until nice dough comes together.  Shape into a ball and place in the fridge while preparing filling.

2.  Prepare fruit as necessary, and then, in a large bowl,  combine all filling ingredients, and toss gently (so as not to crush berries).  Make sure no lumps of cornstarch remain.

3.  Preheat oven to 425 F.   Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp of cornmeal.  Remove dough from fridge, and carefully roll out on parchment into a round approx 14-15 inches.  Dough will be fragile – take care in handling it.

4.  Mound fruit filling (using a spatula to scrape out any fruit juice/sugar remaining in the bowl) in the middle of the dough, leaving a 2-inch margin all the way around.  Carefully fold edges up over the fruit – leaving a large opening in the center.  Take care to seal any cracks.  Crust should have a rustic appearance – don’t worry about getting it perfectly round!

5. Carefully transfer parchment to a large, rimmed jellyroll pan (this will prevent any juice that bubbles over from spilling out and burning onto the bottom of your oven!!)  Brush outside of crust with egg white and sprinkle with additional Tbsp of sugar.  Chill for 20-30 min.   Then, bake at 425F for about 45 min, or until crust is golden and fruit is bubbly.

Enjoy! Excellent served warm with whipped cream or ice cream.  Leftovers make great breakfast the next morning!

Just a quick post to share the recipe for my favorite childhood snack.

We were given 40 lbs of honey (albeit, crystallized, so I’ve had to de-crystallize it in batches), so I’ve been trying to come up with ways to use it in my cooking.  We’ve made several batches of jam, substituting honey for a portion of the sugar (more on that later this week.), and tomorrow we’ll be canning peaches with honey instead of sugar and also starting a batch of mead.

I wanted to pass along a recipe that my mom used to make me for an afternoon snack – it’s super simple and quick to make, uses whole, natural ingredients, and kids love it.

Larksong’s Energy “Candy”

Time: less than 10 min start to finish - no baking!

1 cup natural nut butter (we use the grinder at the grocer’s – no added sugar, just nuts – peanut, almond or cashew – all are yummy!)

3/4  cup dry powdered milk

1/4 cup wheat germ (I keep mine in the freezer – it goes rancid easily)

1/2 cup honey

Additional 1/4 cup wheat germ (to roll balls in)

Directions: 1)  Combine first four ingredients in a bowl and let your kids use their hands to knead them together until a homogeneous, non-sticky dough forms.

2) Pinch off scant tablespoons of dough, roll them in your hands until they form a ball, and then roll the ball in additional wheat germ to coat.

3)Enjoy now with a big glass of milk, or store in the fridge up to 3 days.

Little Hen’s new favorite jam:  Black Currant!

I’ve always loved a little Cassis in my hot tea in the winter, but this is the first year we’ve tried jam made from these relatives of the gooseberry, which have a distinctive, smoky/ musky flavor.

Black currants are full of pectin, so they are perfect for jam – all you need is currants, sugar, water, and a little lemon juice.  (Although, next time, I think we’ll try adding some cardamom or cloves, as Sarah@ UrbanMamas suggested).

Here’s what we did:

Sterilize jars, wash lids and rings and get them hot.  Have canner going and almost up to a boil.  Then, you can start making the jam –

In a heavy bottom pot, bring to a boil:

2 1/2 cups water plus 5 heaping cups black currants, stems removed, and washed (that’s how much we picked).  Reduce and simmer 15 minutes, crushing berries against the side of the pot.   (Berries should be soft and well cooked.)

Add in 6 cups sugar + 1/4 cup of lemon juice and return mixture to a full boil.  Continue to boil until you have reached the setting point (22oF) (check often – mine took about 15 min – you don’t want to over cook!).

Remove jam from the heat, and continue stirring once a min for 5-7 min (this helps distribute any berries so you don’t have floating fruit).  Pour into hot, sterilized jars, place lids and rings on, and process 5 min in a hot-water-bath canner.
Enjoy!

A bit late, but here are some pics from our drive out to Sandy Farms last week to pick sour cherries.  (A big thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for letting me know about the good cherry picking there!)

This was the first time I’ve cooked with sour cherries, and we made sour cherry + brandy jam, and sour cherry + rhubarb jam.  Both were delicious!  We also started some cherries in brandy and some in vodka, for liqueur making next month, and froze a LOT of cherries for pies this winter.

It seems like the girls and I have been pitting cherries endlessly, but we’ve enjoyed the fruits of our labors -

Not much says “summer” more than a rustic cherry pie (with cornmeal, butter crust), hot out of the oven!

The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator.   We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch of  sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).

If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to remove cherry pits.   I like the way the cherries dry better when they’re sliced fully in half, but I do pit them when making brandy, pies, feeding them to the children.

Later this afternoon, we’re going picking for sour cherries (more on that tomorrow).  I’m excited to get some locally – I’ve actually never cooked with them before, and hear they make excellent pie and jam.

I really like preparing stone fruit for jam, drying, etc.  It’s such a rhythmic, meditative process.   Gives me time to think, pray, while slicing the fruit, removing the pits to a separate pile.  It reminds me a bit of traditions that use prayer beads.   It’s a very peaceful thing, really.

A while back, Sunset Magazine called for summer recipe submissions with 5 ingredients or less.  I sent in a recipe, and they published it in the July 2010 issue!

It’s a super easy fruit salad recipe based on a dish I make all the time in the summer.  (It’s a great dish to take to a potluck, btw.)  I basically use my homemade lime marmalade warmed up to make a dressing, and tossed with any cubed melon.  (Although, it’s also good with some fresh mint added, or using strawberries and oranges if melon isn’t available).

So, check out the current issue of Sunset for the recipe!

Larksong’s Simple Stone Fruit Cake

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

approx 3 -4 apricots, plums, pluots, etc, washed and sliced, or a large handful of pitted, halved sour cherries

sanding sugar to sprinkle on top (about 1 Tbsp)

Directions

1)Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan (or, line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment if you don’t have a springform pan) and set aside.

2)In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat on med-high for a few minutes until  quite fluffy. Meanwhile, sift flours, salt, b. powder and nutmeg into a separate bowl.

3)Add vanilla and slowly add flour mixture until just combined.

4)Pour into pan and arrange sliced fruit over the top.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar.

5)Bake 40-50 min or until edges are browning and center is set.  Let rest 5 minutes before removing from pan.  Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream.

ENJOY!!

The other night we tried out a new pizza recipe from Good Eat’s guru, Alton Brown.

I really liked that the dough is made the night before and allowed to set-up in the fridge – this way, when I’m in a hurry to make dinner the next night, I can quickly take out the dough, stick the pizza stone in the oven, and quickly whip up some homemade pizza.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how the pizzas turned out (one recipe makes two medium pizzas) -

2 chief issues – my husband didn’t love the texture of the dough, and Alton called for flour on the pizza peel – I went against my instinct and trusted him on this.  Big mistake.   Using flour made the dough stick to the peel horribly, and, as you can see from the wonky shape of the pizzas, it was a real pain to slide the pizza off onto the 500F stone without destroying the pizza and losing all the toppings.  Always ALWAYS use cornmeal on the pizza peel, and you won’t have dough stick to it.

The kids had simply mozarella, parmesan and ham on their pizza, and we added red peppers on ours.  I’m looking forward to having enough basil from the garden soon to add that, and in retrospect, I should have added some kale as well, which crisps up nicely on a pizza.  But, I used what I had on hand and was in a hurry.

We are hoping to build an outdoor wood-fired bread and pizza oven this summer (not sure yet if it’ll be cob or brick), so that we can continue to bake in the heat (if it ever arrives), and would like to start our own version of Barbara Kingsolver’s tradition of homemade pizza on Fridays – using whatever fresh ingredients the garden or market provide.

Eventually, we hope that the bread/pizza oven would be a place to foster community in Parkrose – folks in our neighborhood could gather and bake bread once a week (just like an article I read in Sunset magazine about the Cully neighborhood’s bread oven).  I’d let people know that I’m going to fire up the oven every Friday at a certain time, and anyone who wants to bake can come with their dough and we can have tea and chit-chat while it bakes.

In the meantime, we’re still in search of the perfect pizza dough recipe – if you have a favorite, please share it with me!  Thanks!

Anyway,  best get out to the yard for a bit while the sun shines!

Well, one upside of all the cool rainy weather is that it’s prolonged the “baking season.”  It has yet to be so hot that I can’t justify running the oven. 

Firecracker and I tried out a new recipe and whipped up some cookies for the neighbors – Martha’s Chocolate Malt cookies.   We’re working our way through Martha’s Cookies book (we’ve made 9 of them, and have loved every recipe so far!).  We decided to leave out the filling (no cream cheese or chocolate on hand – oops!), and just make the cookies.

The dough was a little sticky, and the cookies baked up thinner than the pictures in the book, so I’m glad I didn’t make any filling – they were just too delicate.

(Please excuse the scorched Silpat – the result of trying a Martha recipe for tofu-fries, which required putting the Silpat under the broiler – I found out later that a Silpat should not be heated above 450F – a lesson not to trust every Martha recipe, I guess…

Anyway, the cookies were still really tasty – I love the addition of the malt flavoring – reminds me of the chocolate malts my mom would make me on hot summer days in Tucson.  If we ever get any hot weather here, I’ll have to make some for the girls. 

What have you been doing to make the best of the perpetual March weather?

Is anyone as excited as I am about tomorrow’s forecast of 80 and sunny??  YAY!!