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Caramelized Cherry Tomatoes in Olive Oil
There is no doubt in my mind that fresh tomato and basil is the official taste of the summer. I can understand the argument for watermelon, especially as I have friends who live for Cookout’s seasonal watermelon milkshake, but there is nothing that compares with some homemade bread topped with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Our garden is currently overrun with two things: climbing squash vines on which no squash are currently growing and cherry tomato plants – Matt’s Wild Cherry to be exact. I don’t like killing volunteers, and anyone who has grown cherry tomatoes for more than one season knows that there are plenty of cherry tomato volunteers. I…
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Late Night Bread Baking
On Sunday afternoon, I decided I’d love a loaf of homemade bread. Only this time, I didn’t want to use the bread machine. I’m not a baker type, although I’ve ventured into it slowly with the scones and dabbled in baking brownies from scratch (just stick to the box, Paige), and I decided to experiment. In the early afternoon, I filled a measuring cup with just over one cup of warm water and added 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, 2 tsp of sugar, and 2 tsp of white flour. I mixed it all with a whisk and let it sit until the evening. Around 9pm, I decided it was time…
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The way cheaters make fancy pancakes
My two blackberry bushes have started producing a couple of ripe berries here and there, and since they are rather tart and I’m not a fan of the seeds, I’ve decided to tuck them in to Wookie’s birthday peach cobbler. It was pretty yummy in my biased and rather uncultured opinion. Having fun with berries brings me to my faux crepes craze. We had a pint of strawberries last week, and after watching a PBS program which the scent of the crepes was pouring from the screen, I needed a quick fix. I sliced my strawberries and sugared them, mixed them and let them sit a few minutes. I already…
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Orange Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones
Over the past couple months, I’ve developed a scone fetish and I’ve been plotting my first attempt at baking scones on my own. To pay $3 a scone every weekend at the Farmer’s Market and on weekdays when I get overcome by a hankerin’ would be too much damage to the bank account. After browsing Pinterest and Allrecipes, I pieced together the following recipe that resulted in flavorful, fluffy, moist scones. Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 8 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, chilled 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 cup half and half…
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Cucumber Sandwich!
I had never tried a cucumber sandwich until last year. With all the wedding and baby showers I’ve attended in the past 8 years, and being a southern girl, it’s amazing I was able to dodge them for so long. Essentially, I have an irrational fear of what I call “old lady foods”. Allow me to expound. Fruit salad, tuna salad, potato salad, coleslaw, chicken salad, pimento cheese, jello with things in it, frozen jello-fruity-pink salads, pasta salad, sandwich pinwheels, deli meats, pickles, AND cucumber sandwiches all make me uneasy. However, during a play date last summer, my friend Erin made a very simple cucumber sandwich that I loved and…
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The Brunch was ever so Sassy and Southern
Late this spring I purchased a hand blown glass pitcher for $12 from the flea market. The shape was so simple, elegant and lovely, that I felt the need to host a bunch simply to give it a proper introduction to my friends and home. Of course, I washed her out and she found a spot in the corner cabinet of the dining room where she has been sitting ever since. However, the idea of a brunch was not lost, and so I invited some friends over to a “Sassy Southern Brunch” complete with hats and homemade, garden-fresh dishes. With some of these ladies (ye-ole-college roomie and her current roomie)…
