Great Summer Desserts Pt. 1

We love dessert.

It runs in the family. My dziadek (my Polish grandfather) was a big fan of puddings. That love was passed on to my mum, who eats some kind of dessert every night. I do like something sweet after my evening meal, whether it's a full-blown cakey/icy sweet or a lovely piece of fruit.

Now, my oldest son always expects something for dessert after his dinner. It' usually fresh fruit, since I don't want him to have the awful dental problems that have plagued me all my life (thanks to all those gummy bears and chocolate I've eaten), but during the summer, and especially at the weekends, I do like to cook up a good old-fashioned dessert course.

I usually put more effort into this last part of our meal than I do the main course. And when the summer fruits start coming in (read: berries!) it's really hard for me to resist.

Over the past couple of weekends I've made my favorite dessert, strawberry shortcake, and we grilled up some pineapple and ate it with caramel sauce and vanilla cream.

Growing up in Scotland, I'd never had strawberry shortcake until I moved to the U.S. Now I'm making up for lost time; I think I make it a couple of times a week. Anyway, I follow the recipe from the back of the Bisquick box--it's really awesome--but I whip up some cream with a little sugar and vanilla extract instead of using store-bought whipped topping (an Americanism I just can't endorse, sorry!). It turns out beautifully, and we always keep the leftover biscuits, wrapped in foil, for breakfast the next morning.

The grilled pineapple was Andrew's idea and again, I whipped up some cream with sugar and vanilla to have with it. The caramel sauce was way too solid, but it had some rum in it so it tasted awfully good. Next time, we'd make a thinner sauce or have the pineapple with some good vanilla ice-cream instead.

Kitchen Nightmare

So let me preface this by saying that I don't like chocolate-chip cookies. I know, I know, but remember I'm not an American. 

So when Cameron asked me to bake chocolate-chip cookies, his favorite (he IS an American, after all), I felt like I couldn't refuse. I mean, I had Dorie to keep me right. Right?

 

Maybe it's because they aren't one of my favorites anyway, or maybe it's because the recipe was slightly off, who knows.

 

I used the recipe from "Baking: From My Home to Yours," and followed the directions to the tee. Unfortunately the first batch was overdone, and the second, even though I put it in the oven for two minutes less, was a bit dry and crunchy too. I like my cookies soft and gooey, which is why oatmeal raisin are my all-time faves, and although these tasted just OK (the salted peanuts I added really made them for my husband, and made them almost palatable to me), I don't think I'll be making them again.

 

By the way, Cameron wouldn't even eat them! That's 3-year-olds for ya.

Lean, Mean, and All That

This past weekend the weather was so great, and the grass not so crazy, that we decided to grill out (a favorite pastime year-round). We have a few grilling staples--beer-can chicken, spice-rubbed pork loin, roasted potatoes, and, of course, burgers--but we were looking for a bit of a change and decided upon some pre-marinated lamb tips. 

We grilled them up and ate them with some minted roast tatties and a nice salad of mixed greens with herbs, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and raspberry dressing. 

Awesome!

Dorie Greenspan Is In My House!

Baking has invaded my kitchen, and my life.

Joy the Baker has turned me into a cake-mad lunatic, and I just can't help it. Those Lemon Whoopie Pies were so amazing, I think they did something to my brain chemistry. I've never been good at baking cakes--way too much faffing about with measures, ingredient temperatures, and the fluffiness of your mix. Cookies and pies are a lot less scientific, and besides, I like 'em a lot better anyways.

I went to the library and checked out Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours," and spent the next day or so deciding what to make. Dorie is an expert dessert-maker who's written a bunch of award-winning books, and no wonder, her treats look so amazing I just couldn't figure out what to bake first.

I decided on these Chocolate Chunkers. These are insane. There are five, FIVE different kinds of chocolate in them. In fact, these cookies are about 80% chocolate. They do call for flour--a whopping 1/3 cup. They also have nuts and raisins in them.

Frankly, they were a bit too chocolatey, even for me. Next time I make them I'll use a bit less, and I'll make sure I add salted peanuts instead of the toasted walnuts I used here. Still, these are truly fantastic, and not for the faint of heart!

Joy of Baking

Thanks to my new favorite blog, from Joy the Baker, I did some baking this afternoon after the boys and myself woke from a nap.

 

I'd seen these Lemon Whoopie Pie cookies on Joy's website and just HAD to try them. I LOVE lemon-flavored cakes and biscuits, and I'd had these on my mind since I'd first seen the photos. They came out really well. Don't they look good? Well, they are delicious, and I urge you to try them out. Mmmmm.

 

I used my favorite baking tool to make these--Andrew's old General Electric food mixer, circa God-knows-when. Works great!

Farms Are Ace Update!

Here are my pics of the meal we had thanks to the farm. The frittata was especially good--olives, roasted red peppers, feta and oregano. 

The pie, as you can see, has a robot sticking in it. That's because a certain someone freaked out that I hadn't made a robot cake. So I improvised and turned the pie into a robot pie. Being able to think on your feet is one of the most important traits for a mum of boys. 

Farms Are Ace!

Yesterday we all headed out in the rain to visit Bull Run Farm, the farm that we have a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share with.

We did a fruit and vegetable share last year, a record drought year in VA, and we liked it. We're hoping that this year's crop yield will be a bit higher. The dry conditions last year made our weekly bags of produce quite light. But we signed back up because we think it's important support local agriculture (the farm is in The Plains, VA, about an hour's drive from our house), we like eating food that is organic AND fresh from the field (the farmer picks it all the morning we collect it). We also got a kick out of discovering new vegetables to cook with. What's purslane? What do you do with garlic scapes? Bok choi??

This weekend was one of the seedling giveaway events that Leigh Hauter, the farmer, has every year. Last year we went nuts and carried home WAY too many seedlings, all of which grew into plants that we ignored to water. This year, in a bid to get a bit more realistic about our gardening abilities, we took only basil and cabbage, and we planted them directly into the ground instead of keeping them for three weeks in a bucket and then cramming them all into pots which dry up a lot quicker. 

We also collected two dozen eggs, which had been laid the day before, and we cut some fresh rhubarb from Leigh's garden. Check these eggs out! So fresh they are still mucky from whatever gross farm detritus eggs collect. Let's not think about that too too much. And some blue ones too. I am very excited. I can't wait to see the color of the yolks in these babies.

Our veggie share starts in a month or so. We'll likely be getting bok choi (which we fry up with some balsamic vinegar and garlic), salad greens (so good they are ruined by dressing), and some garlic scapes (slice and cook up with the bok choi or scatter on the salad). 

For now, I'm off to make a rhubarb pie and frittata for dinner.