Kitchen Firsts & Lasts

So much changes in the kitchen this time of year. Out winter stockpile dwindles just as we transplant the new seedlings. We simultaneously welcome fresh ingredients and say goodbye to all those hearty cold-weather recipes. Firsts and lasts abound.

~first corn, last jars of freezer jam and pesto~

~First green smoothie, last frozen blueberries, picked in July~

~first store-bought garlic, last batch of lentil soup~

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the year I planted enough garlic to get us though until the next harvest. That this is the year we pick not ten, but twenty pounds of blueberries. That this is the year I jar up double the amounts of jams and tomatoes. That this is the year we rely more on our own food production than ever before. 

What comfort foods are you saying goodbye to for the summer? What things are you welcoming back into your warm-weather kitchen?

Italian Ice For All

I think we can officially can this summer the Summer of Italian Ice. We're obsessed, but the frequent trips to the store to get our hands on some Richie's Italian Ice is getting pricey and junky. So we figured out how to make our own, and haven't stopped making it yet.

Watermelon: cut up half of a watermelon and put into blender with 2 tbsp of sugar. Blend until fruit is liquid and sugar is dissolved. Add one tray of ice cubes and blend.

Blueberry: Combine 3 cups of berries and 2 tbsp of sugar. Blend until fruit is liquid and sugar is dissolved. Add one tray of ice cubes and blend.

Peach: Combine the meat of 6-8 peaches and 2 tbsp of honey (the honey compliments the peaches nicely). Blend until fruit is liquid. Add one tray of ice cubes and blend.

Coffee: Make coffee to your liking. Be sure to sweeten while the coffee is still warm. The finished product would be delish with a bit of whipped cream.

For all Italian Ice flavors, pour mixture into shallow tray and put in freezer. Every half hour or so scrape the surface with a fork. Do this until the entire mixture is frozen and snowy.

I forgot about the coffee in the freezer, so it got no fork scrapings. You can see it is much more crystallized than the others.

We have raspberry and lemon on the list for this week. What flavors can you think of? We'd love some new flavor suggestions!

The Biga, The Better

I am from Boston, but I don't mean "biggah," I'm talking about biga, a bread starter. Cousin to the sourdough starter, the biga is the key ingredient used in Italian-style country breads like ciabatta and pagnotta. It adds flavor and gives a crisp crust and moist chewy inside that, until now, I had only enjoyed in store-bought loaves.

It's a bit of a process, this biga business, but I found a recipe for a two-week biga in The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, that makes a large batch that you can pull from for...two weeks.

A dough made with a biga is somewhat sticky, soft, and invitingly smooth. This batch made a delicious round loaf we devoured with pasta and broccoli. Pictured below are the rolls we ate with soup. Really though? It was more like the soup that accompanied the rolls. So good.

We have been baking our own bread for years now—sandwich breads, baguettes, rolls and sweet breads, but I have never been able to match that certain something found in country breads from the bakery. Bread with a crisp, knobby crust, airy inside, and deep flavor seemed out of my reach. Not so, anymore, now that I have tapped into the Italian in me. And just as the author of the recipe I followed predicted, I will never be without it. Best part is I still have another eight days to use the biga in my fridge.


I found a good history of the biga and instructions to make one here.

Apple Mania

The apple pickers brought home a multitude of apples this weekend, and so the fun begins. I am licking my lips just thinking of all the apple sauce, pie filling, cobblers, and muffins (and I think I need to find a good cider donut recipe this year) we will be feasting on soon.

I know so many of you are enjoying apple season as much as we are, and here's a little more apple mania to eat up:

The apple peeler/corer/slicer. Seriously, what did we do before this?

I thought a few crocheted apples would help celebrate our abundance. (As you may already know, I'm crazy for these crochet patterns—this one is by Amy Gaines. I have mentioned them a couple times before: here and here).

Plenty of applesauce, ready for the freezer.

And some more of those caramels, because caramels should never be too far from so many apples.

New Rhythms

In the swing of things again, and it is bittersweet. Those wide-open days of summer vacation seem so long ago already. New rhythms keep the beat while we get ready for school, do homework, go to soccer, bake lots of bread for sandwiches, and have productive sessions in the workshop.

This year, in an effort to cut down on the waste in the girls' lunchboxes, I made a bunch of snack sacks. They were so simple and quick—I made 9 of them in one sitting. I didn't have a pattern, so I decided to wing it and take my cues from a basic envelope. Once they were constructed, I added a few pieces of Velcro to keep the contents from spilling out.

They have been so great, and the girls have gotten lots of comments about them from teachers and classmates. (Maybe this will help spread the no-trash lunch idea?) Plans are in the works for sandwich wrappers next, as these are a bit small for a pb&j.

It's That Time Again

There's been lots of action in our kitchen lately, now that the cooler weather is settling in. Canning, simmering, baking, braising, stewing, and fermenting are again part of the routine.

It'll be 8 weeks until we can taste these dill pickles, and we are waiting as patiently as we can. We tried a new recipe this year and we're holding out hope for crunchy spears this time.

This savory stew was flavored with a very special bay leaf.

And these are the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to ever come out of our oven.

(I love when new recipes are a success!)

Surroundings: Part 3

When we moved into our home, the kitchen was a bit out of date. And by out of date, I mean 1940s, complete with a huge contraption that we believe was the first dishwasher ever. Fast forward a few years to the kitchen renovation—a budget remodel, done completely by "A".

The new walls, windows, floors, cabinets, and counter tops were a dream come true, but it is the back splash that remains the conversation piece of the room. We covered the walls between the counter tops and cabinets with pebble tile, giving the kitchen a natural feel. The best part? The wave.


Crafted in homage to our time spent surfing in Southern California, our wave is a reminder of the place where we started our family. And with time flying as fast as it is (case in point: our baby started to kindergarten today), we are doing all we can to keep our special memories at the surface. This pebbly ocean swell may seem like merely a decorative touch to some, but to us it is so much more.

Mush

Alas, today brings the last of the blueberry recipes—and it only seems fitting, as we experience a break in the heat and wake to a crisp, dry 60-degree morning. It's as if, just like that, the summer weather has set its sights on back to school and apple-picking season.

We have eaten the majority of our blueberry glut frozen, like little hard candies. The remainder of those berries went into yogurt and scones, were served up with homemade whipped cream, or as an icy treat.

Today's recipe is the result of setting the girls free in the kitchen to do what they wished with a bowl of berries. They raided the drawers choosing a cheese grater, meat tenderizer, and wire whisk, among other tools, to transform bananas and blueberries into, well, mush.

The final product was surprisingly delicious, with a pudding-like consistency and a rich flavor. This is a snack to be eaten immediately, as the mashed banana will soon turn brown.

Those little chefs have thought up a healthy snack—one they plan to put on the menu at the restaurant they are going to have when they grow up (it's a perfect plan, since one girl aspires to be a chef and the other longs to be a waitress). They have generously given me permission to share the recipe with you. Enjoy!

Blueberry Granita

An icy blueberry treat...the perfect berry recipe for these hot muggy days. You may have noticed that since the scones, we have not baked any other blueberry recipes. No thanks. In fact, I don't think we have turned on the oven at all. It's been sandwiches and grilled fare for meals all week. So enjoy another blueberry recipe that involves very little cooking:


Blueberry Granita
1 cup blueberries
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
water

Combine blueberries, brown sugar and water in medium pan. Heat over low flame, stirring often and using back of spoon to break up berries, cook for about 10 minutes. You want the consistency to be syrupy-mush.

Dissolve 1/2 cup granulated sugar into 1 cup boiling water. Combine with blueberry mixture and pour into shallow pan and put in freezer. Use a fork to scrape the freezing mixture every 15 minutes or so, to make ice shavings. Once the mixture is completely frozen, scoop out into small dishes. Enjoy!

Mmmmmm...

The deep-fried millet croquettes (recipe from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair) we had for dinner last night were delish, but it was the pot of leftover deep-frying oil (safflower oil) that inspired our dessert-on-a-whim. These home made potato chips, complete with a generous helping of salt were thin, crispy, and full of real potato taste. Quick, easy, and yummy.