Andrea’s Recipes

When I acquired a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours a couple months ago, my reasoning was I needed it for whatever challenges The Daring Bakers might throw out, but really it’s because I wanted to try every recipe in the book. I’d seen wonderful samples all over the cooking blogs for so long I couldn’t hold out any longer.

Even though The Daring Bakers made Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake in March, I felt I should start at the beginning and work my way through the book, so we started with her Orange Blueberry Muffins for breakfast one morning, and they were gone in a flash. As I studied the recipe the night before, I realized I had some homemade candied orange peel stored in a jar of sugar in the pantry, and I couldn’t resist adding it. I chopped about 1/4 cup of the peel (sorry, I forgot to weigh it) and then sprinkled some of the orange sugar on top of the muffins. As it turns out, it’s a good thing I added the chopped orange peel because Top Gun was stealing blueberries behind my back, so adding the orange peel helped make up for the loss of the blueberries.

We enjoyed the extra orange flavor, and now I have to make more candied orange peel so we can have these muffins again.  The orange and blueberry combination was delicious. And as for the color, they really were that orange! Continue Reading »

Early today I returned home from 10 glorious days of vacation to find our garden in full production mode. All the tomato plants have green tomatoes, teasing, making me wait until they ripen. I could pick some of the green peppers to encourage more flowering, and I probably will as I find it difficult to wait for peppers to fully ripen to a beautiful red, yellow, or orange.

The parsley is very bushy, even though I trimmed it back before we left and made fresh tabouleh with the leaves and stems. Tabouleh is one of the healthiest salads you can make; the parsley alone is bursting with 13 vitamins and minerals and even supplies protein; the bulgur provides fiber, protein, and potassium; the tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and lycopene; and the scallions are a significant source of vitamin K, about 250% of the daily requirement. Somehow knowing that the salad is so healthy makes it taste even more delicious.

Continue Reading »

Tags: grains, herbs, tomatoes, vegan

Thanks to everyone who participated in this round. We had 20 participants from three countries, and we cooked with our homegrown chard, basil, mint, rosemary, zucchini, cherries, amaranth, manathakkali, cinnamon basil, orange mint, chives, fennel, parsley, cilantro, Thai basil, black raspberries, quail eggs, plums, and peaches.

If you are new to Grow Your Own, visit the Grow Your Own page to learn more about the event. The deadline for the next round is July 30 and Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi are hosting. Visit their blog for information on how to participate.

And now for the round-up! Click the images to visit the posts.

Susan of Farmgirl Fare (Missouri, United States) was inspired by her friend’s fresh veggie salad and created her own tasty version using her homegrown swiss chard and scallions. Continue Reading »

Tags: GYO round-up

For some, sand and surf are the first things that come to mind when thinking about Hawaii, for us it is shave ice.  We’re not talking about snow cones, that’s totally different. With shave ice (not “shaved ice”), the ice comes out in fine flakes which absorbs the syrup flavors better and melts like snow in your mouth. On a hot day, there is nothing better in the world.

We did the research before our trip, so we knew that the North Shore was the place to go for the best shave ice; specifically, Matsumoto Shave Ice or Aoki’s Shave Ice, both in Haleiwa. The directions we got from the hotel were not the best and we went past the turn off for quite a ways before we figured out we had to go back. If you are approaching Haleiwa from the south via 99 coming from Honolulu/Pearl City, watch for the brown sign indicating a left turn into historic Haleiwa. If you are approaching from the north via 83, look for a similar sign indicating a right turn. Both shops are on the main drag on the same side of the road, separated by a church and parking lot.

Because this was vacation and we knew we would have shave ice on multiple occasions, we decided it was vital that we sample from both stores so we could make an informed decision on which one we thought was the best. This is important stuff, you know, and we were as scientific as possible, but in the end we thought weighing the ice and measuring the size of the flakes would be a bit of overkill and probably not endear us to the proprietors or other customers. We just watched closely while they made our ices and sampled several flavors. This is vacation, after all. Continue Reading »

Tags: Hawaii

We’re breaking away from our current Hawaii programming to bring you the latest Grow Your Own post direct from our summer garden. This marinade is mixed up like a pesto and flavored somewhat like a chimichurri without the extra liquid. Last week I grabbed some fresh parsley and cilantro as well as a few snips of oregano from our outdoor garden, tossed in some fresh garlic, olive oil, and a little water, then let the food processor do the work. We used it as a marinade for grilled chicken breasts and served them with grilled corn and a simple green salad. Shrimp or a good firm fish will also work well, just reduce the marinading time to about 30 minutes or so. The marinade adds a lot of flavor to light and easy meals for busy, hot summer days.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. The event now happens twice a month, and I am hosting this round. The deadline for entries is tomorrow July 15, so you still have time to join in. Check out the Grow Your Own page for instructions and send me your entry! Continue Reading »

Tags: herbs, vegan