not too long ago...

I made blueberry muffins.

 

 

 

Made from this recipe, a favorite. I added lemon zest and black pepper to the mix.

 

I may need to make some more. Yes, I think I need to make some more....

putting the pitcher to good use

I picked up this vintage pitcher a few months ago and it has mostly kept up space in a lower kitchen cabinet. The iced coffee goes into the glass pitcher I thrifted and since we no longer have any citrus trees we don't have any citrus to squeeze into juice and so the vintage pitcher sits waiting for the blue water jug to need refilling so that the last little bit of water gets poured into it.

I had a watermelon to cut up and was searching for a large container when I remembered my favorite watermelon tip...put it in a pitcher! A pitcher takes up less space than a melon or a large storage container and if it has a lid you can pour off excess watermelon juice.

d'ough!

 A very early morning or so before we left for our road trip, the mister poked his head into the very dark bedroom where I was snoring snoozing away and said:

"Jessica? There is dough on top of the fridge?"

Ugh. This is what happens when you operate on an addled pre-roadtrip brain. While trying to organize the food for the trip, I had to reorganize the freezer and fridge. I took this package of mini croissants from Trader Joe's out of the freezer and placed them on top thin king I would prep them for breakfast the morning of...

As we can all see...that didn't happen. They were magnificently light and airy though....the dough...not the croissants. This did not get baked.

Sigh.

making syrup simple

Sugar syrup is a wonder in the summertime for when you want an ice cold coffee with just a smidge of sweet. Granulated sugar simply does not cut the mustard and those fancy cafe syrups from the store cost more than their worth. My mother taught me how to make a simple syrup when I was in junior high. I used it in iced tea and two-squeeze lemonade ( I should write about that). Now, I use it in iced coffee and the occasional mixed cocktail.

Simple syrup is super simple to make. Everyone seems to have a different combination of sugar to water so I will let you be the judge. I personally use one cup water to one cup sugar. I let it come to a mini boil then I turn the heat off to cool. The longer you cook it, the more the water evaporates or burns off.

As I lean towards the semi-fancy, my simple syrup has a twist. I make mine flavored. it is super easy to do, all you need is a handful or so of your favorite fresh herb, washed and dried. I recently made up a batch of minted syrup, perfect for iced tea, two-squeeze lemonade and mojitos (of course!), and a batch of cinnamon syrup perfect for iced coffee and golden cadiallacs.

I wanted to make up a couple of batches both because of the great visit, and because I am currently on an iced coffee fix and need to purge myself of my fondness for Coffee-mate's Natural Bliss. It helped that I kept the containers and so off I went.

 

For the cinnamon syrup I added one whole cinnamon stick to the mix and let it hang out in the sticky sweet goodness until the whole thing cooled down. The mint syrup was made with a handful of fresh mint that I had crumpled a bit in my hand to break the leaves a bit and allow the minty goodness to steep.

 Once cool, discard the extra bits and pour into your reusable containers. Add a little bit of labeled whimsy and chill until it is time to mix up some drinks! Syrups should be happy in yer fridge for a few weeks as long as you have strained all herbally bits out of it. Make small batches to ensure you use it up quickly. Lookie how pretty the syrups are! Mmm...now it is time for some iced coffee!

 I also make a lavender syrup. I use it in two-squeeze lemonade and soda water for a fizzy herby drink. If you do want to make a lavender syrup, go easy. Fresh lavender is super heady, I would recommend one large floret and discard after boiling. Enjoy!

making black pepper strawberry scones

this batch came out super soft and fluffy. while i prefer my scones to be on the dry side, these were so very tasty and barely lasted more than one day and we did not even share them. Nu-uh.

I don't have an exact recipe for ya, I kinda just mixed 'em up. Here's an estimate for ya:

*1 1/2 cups flour

*dash o salt

*1 tsp baking powder 

*1/2 tsp baking soda

*1/4 cup sugar

*2-4 Tbl butter

*about 1/3 cup plain yogurt

*3/4 roasted strawberries

*1 tsp black pepper

*heavy cream to dampen dough & wash tops

*sprinkling o sugar on the top

Mix dry ingredients then cut the butter into the flour. Add strawberries then yogurt, barely mixing. If there is too much flour floating about, add a smidge o milk or cream to form a dough.

 

 

Pat dough out onto a flour silpat and cut as many scones/biscuits as you can. My biscuit cutter is square my scones will be of the angular variety.

 

Brush tops with milk, sprinkle sugar and bake at 400 degrees about 15-18 minutes.

Once cool, drizzle a bit o glaze made from powdered sugar and milk and enjoy. We have pesky ants in the tiny casa so I had to put these tasty bits into a container immediately. If I could have, I would have let them sit out to dry up a smidge. Either way they are super-duper yummified! I think I need to make some more...once I restock on yogurt...and butter....and strawberries.

say cheese!

 Thank you for the get better vibes. Last night I only snuffled and hacked a handful of times. In other words, I slept until 4am without a fuss but then the brain turned on overtime and I couldn't lull myself back to dreamland until 6am and then I was up after 45 minutes or so. Drats! So, I mentioned I made cheese last week, paneer to be exact and I took photos because well, I'm me and it's cool and so very easy I think you should make some if you do the dairy thing...check it out, I used this recipe from The Kitchn.

Squeeze a bunch of lemons to get about 2-3 Tablesoons of juice. Set aside.

Pour a half gallon of whole or 2% milk into a large pot. Turn on heat and bring to a boil but watch it, it foams up uber quick. My milk never actually boiled in a bubbly way, it just foamed up. Once that happens, remove from heat.

 While milk is heating, double line your colander with  cheesecloth (muslin will work as well). If you have a large tub or bowl, pop the colander on top of that so you can save your whey for future uses. I did not and am now wishing I did. Off!

Add your lemon or lime juice, 2-3 Tablespoons or more if you feel like yer not getting enough curd out of your milk. The milk will curdle and hopefully keep curdling as you add all of your citrus juice. I also added a couple of cranks of sea salt at this point just to see how it would turn out.

Pour the curds and whey into your collander and allow to sit until cool enough to handled.

 

Once cool, wrap it up and squeeze excess moisture out with your hands. Pop the ball o' cheese now flattened by you, it will be crumbly, onto a large platter with a rim to hold any remaining liquid, placing a heavy cutting board  or other weighted bits on top to press, kinda like when you press out tofu. 

 After an hour or so it is good to go. I kept mine in the fridge for a few days, we ate it last night with curried lentils and it was delicious. It does firm up oodles i nthe firdge. OYu can also store it in water but the water needs to be changed daily. I sadly have no photos of the pan fried goodness as it was dark and I was hungry. Enjoy!

at least i got something done today....