Spanish Gazpacho

I never liked gazpacho, there was something unappealing about cold soup. But, then in the heat of the summer Seville sun, I had my first taste of real Spanish Gazpacho, and I was hooked. The only thing Spanish about this soup is that it is made by Latina and I used Spanish olive oil. Nonetheless it is delicious, and so easy to whip up. Even my 10 month son liked it. I have garnished the grown up rendition with crisped tomato peels and watercress. I love the look of the intensified peels when they are crisped in the oven; I love their taste and their crunch. I also like how the peppery watercress contrasts with the cool soup. Feel free to simplify the recipe by not bothering with the garnish and not seeding the tomatoes, but I do recommend peeling them for a smooth consistency.

Ingredients
6 ripe tomatoes (it is ok if they are a little too ripe)
1/2 an English cucumber
2 or 3 slices of stale bread
4 cloves of garlic micro planed
1/2 cup of Spanish olive oil
1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of Spanish pimenton (paprika)
Salt and pepper to taste
Watercress and edible flowers to garnish

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F, and boil a pot of water big enough to hold the tomatoes
2. Score the tomatoes on the bottom with a sharp knife, making an X, be careful
3. Dip the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds or until the skins loosen
4. Let cool on the cutting board, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
5. Dice the cucumber and bread and place in the blender
6. Micro plane the garlic straight into the blender
7. Add the rest of the ingredients save the tomatoes
8. Peel the skins off the tomatoes and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet in the hot oven
9. Halve the tomatoes and gently squeeze the excess water and seeds into a bowl (reserve for Pan con Tomate recipe next)
10. Pop the skinned and seeded tomatoes in the blender and blitz until smooth, add water or tomato juice if necessary
11. Remove the crispy tomato peels from the oven after about 10 minutes or when they are crispy but before they are burned. And garnish the soup with crispy peels, edible flowers and fresh watercress.

Serve and enjoy! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does. And, I hope it offers respite from the summer heat and a wonderful use for all those garden tomatoes.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy eating...

Pan con Tomate

So, no Spanish table is complete without good red wine and Pan con Tomate. This is so easy, it is not nearly a recipe, more of instructions, for an easy and tasty Spanish take on Bruscetta. Which I am willing to bet both Spainards and Italians would be happy to eat either rendition.

Ingredients:
crusty bread of
any kind quality extra virgin olive oil
tomato or the reserved tomato seeds and water from the gazpacho recipe
clove of garlic

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice your bread in half and drizzle with olive oil
3. Toast open faced in your oven until just golden
4. Cut the tomato and the garlic in half so you have good sized chunks
5. Take the bread out of the oven and while still hot rub the cut side of the garlic on the bread
6. Rub the cut side of the tomato on the bread or smear the reserved tomato guts from the last recipe
7. Eat, greedily with good Spanish Wine and someone you love

Buen provecho! As always, much love, many blessings, and happy eating...

Garden Strawberries, Organic Yogurt, and Muesli

I have been making granola for years. There are some delicious recipes out there. But I have always wanted to try muesli and see what was different and if it was better. So, I did, I bought a box. Tried one of the recipes of leaving it in the yogurt overnight (you can do this with milk too) and then eating it in the morning with some fresh strawberries. Muesli is delicious and so easy, instructions below, no baking! Not that I am against baking, but please I have 10 month old, anything I can do easier, I'm in. For this recipe of yogurt soaked muesli, if you forget to do it the night before, you can eat it straight out, it just is a little more crunchy. I bet this is delicious warmed with milk in the winter... Ingredients 1/2 cup muesli (recipe follows) 1/2 cup yogurt your choice (i love organic, plain, whole milk of any persuasion) 1/2 cup of fruit (washed and cut up) Method: 1. mix the muesli and yogurt together, leave in the fridge overnight 2. top with fruit and enjoy Muesli Ingredients 4 1/2 cups rolled oats 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ 1/2 cup wheat bran 1/2 cup oat bran 1 cup sultanas (golden raisins, a personal favorite use any dried fruit you like) 1/2 cup chopped brazilian nuts (also personal choice) 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds Methods: 1. mix all of the ingriedents 2. store in air tight container away from sun and heat and enjoy for up to a month As always, much love, many blessings, and happy mixing...

Meg's Shower Birds and Bees Honey Cake

My dear friend and gardening partner has been blessed with twin baby girls. It couldn't be more wonderful. She and her husband are going to make wonderful parents, and the world is better off with two more people as kind and considerate and Meg and Brad. It is a wonderful life.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Her fabulous party planning-extradoinnaire sister, mom, and I hatched a Birds and the Bees Shower for the Mommy-to-be! In celebration of the theme I made a Simple Honey Cake in great Bee Hive Mold. What makes this delightful sweet is not the cake itself, but the honey lavender glaze.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup melted butter

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Butter and Flour your cake molds
3. Whiz together all of the ingredients in a food processor
4. Pour the batter into the cake molds
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool
7. Using your fingers gently pry the sides of cake pan free. Lift gently and ice as desired.

Lavender Honey Glaze

Ingredients
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoons of edible lavender (preferably organic)

Method:
1. heat ingredients over medium until simmer
2. allow to cool
3. strain out the petals
4. using a pastry brush paint the cake with the glaze

I finished decorating the cake with a quick icing and little fondant honey bees.

And we can't wait to meet you Baby Girls, we are already so grateful you are a part of our lives.

As always, lots of love, many blessings, and happy baking

Bourbon Maple Sauce on Pecan, Maple Pancakes

Is there anything better than pancakes on Saturday morning? I love pancakes, they are an unexplored medium for creativity. Just like the cupcake fad is blooming with thousands of variations, pancakes too with their fluffy canvas of relatively bland carbohydrates is the perfect foil for wonderful and intense flavors. For my latest reincarnation, I decided to use some lovely Christmas gifts for breakfast...

There is no better gift than time spent with a good friend. But the second best gift is most definetly homemade, small spun artisnal ingredients... from a good friend. And, I am very blessed to have wonderful friends that do make such fine products. My good friend Meg's family in Vermont bottles their own maple syrup, amazing. And our good friends Ron and Donna in Georgia have a prolific pecan tree, of which every Christmas we are blessed with a wonderful unassuming ziploc baggie of fresh pecans. And there are no words to describe the difference between a fresh roasted pecan and stale supermarket one.

In honor of these lovely gifts, I made roasted pecan and maple pancakes topped with maple syrup, roasted pecans, and banana. You can also make a delicous Bourbon Maple Sauce, the recipe is below.

Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 Tablespoon of melted butter
3 Tablespoons of crushed up pecans
1 Tablespoon of maple syrup

topping:
Banana, bourbon maple sauce, and pecans all to taste (for me... lots)

Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl
Set an electric griddle or non-stick skillet to medium heat
Place a 1/2 cup or so of the batter on a medium hot skillet
Wait until the edges are slightly golden and bubbles start to pop in the batter
Flip gently
Wait about 45 seconds or so until the pancake
Pile high and decorate with your desired toppings... chocolate chips would also be good.

Bourbon Maples Sauce

Ingredients
1 cup of maple syrup
1 oz (shot) of good quality Bourbon

Method

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat
Add the ingredients
Warm gently, allow to simmer for 10 minutes to remove the bite of the bourbon
Pour generously over pancakes

Please note: this is not really suitable for children, the alcohol will not entirely cook away, and they do not like the taste...

Tomorrow: bacon and chocolate pancakes...

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy pancake flipping.

Sweet Potato and Banana Puree

They say the way to man's heart is through his stomach and I would have to agree. My husband certainly married me because I cook. And now it seems my son has quite the appetite as well.

But this post is not really for them, it is more to encourage all those moms out there that are exhausted, strung out, and covered in baby spit up. You can with almost no effort make organic baby food in no time, with leftovers and your fruit bowl.

Ingredients

1 baked sweet potato (left over from the night before) (preferably organic)
1 banana (preferably organic)
a little water to thin the puree if necessary

Method

You can do this one of two ways:

1. add ingredients to a bowl and have at with a potato masher or a fork
or
2. puree in a food processor

Viola! That is it. Now the tough part... getting it into his mouth.

Good luck out there. My son Freddy, 6 months, loves this mash-up. I hope your bubbies do too.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy mashing.

Potato and Leek Soup

There is something about cozying up on the couch with a hot bowl of delicious soup and comfy blanket and movie that you may or may not nap through. If you are looking for a vegetarian option but an absolutely harty and delicious soup, I reccomend Potato and Leek Soup. There is no cream and yet it is absolutely luxioursously creamy, there is no meet and yet it is a completely satisfying meal.



Ingredients
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 large cleaned leeks
4-5 medium red potatoes
water to cover (or chicken stock if you are ok with it not being vegetarian)
salt and peper to taste



Method:

1. Clean and soak your leeks, be careful there is usually grit in the layers as they grown in sandy soil. Although, now Trader Joes is selling them already clean and cut in their frozen veg section.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot, large enough to hold the soup.
3. Cook the leeks with salt and pepper until they turn translucent and begin to carmelize, cover with about a quart or so of water.
3. Wash and chop the potatoes. Don't bother to peel them if they are red or yukon gold.
4. Add the potatoes, partially cover and allow to simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
5. When mushy and delicious, blitz in a blender or use a stick blender to make the soup smooth and creamy.
6. Taste to adjust seasoning, i.e. salt and pepper.
7. Enjoy in a mug, cozy and warm.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy cooking.