It's Rhubarb Season!

 

     Tasting my Mom's delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie yesterday awoke me to the beautiful fact that the rhubarb was ready!  Yay!  Today, after picking some stalks of rhubarb, I made rhubarb custard and rhubarb chutney.  The custard did not meet my expectations (I am always trying to recreate the rhubarb custard I had in Piccadilly Circus, London while a teenager on an European tour with my Aunt Debby and my brother.  There they called it "souille" but I have no idea how it is actually spelled just like I have no idea how to make it but I do know it was phenomenal!).  The rhubarb chutney (the recipe is from Eating Well Magazine) was deliciously exactly what I expected since I'd made the recipe last year, but instead of serving it hot with sauteed chicken, I served it with pita sandwiches and then later had it with low-salt wheat thins which was also great.  I'm thinking goat cheese would be a fun addition too when eating with crackers.  I love, love, love rhubarb.   I am going to plant some rhubarb of my own this year and hopefully try freezing some for next winter--that way I can have more rhubarb! 

Hot Cross Buns

Recipe for Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns:
3/4 cup warm water
1 T yeast
3 T butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 egg white
1 egg yoke
3 cups flour
2 T water
3/4 cup dried currants (optional)



Unbaked buns with piping, raisin, & egg glaze, just prior to baking.

Decorative Cross
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
dash vanilla
1/4 cup milk or enough for piping consistency

Directions:
Combine warm water and yeast and let rest for 10 minutes.

In mixer bowl, combine white sugar, salt, butter, egg, egg white, and half of flour.  Add yeast mixture and rest of flour.  Add currants if desired.  Knead dough.  Place on floured surface and let rest 10 minutes.

Shape into balls and arrange on greased pans.  Cover and raise in warm place until doubled (40 minutes). 

Combine ingredients for Decorative Cross.  Place in piping bag and pipe cross shape on buns. 

If desired, add part of a currant or raisin to center of cross design.

Combine the egg yoke and 2T water and glaze buns.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Soup on a Rainy Day

Chicken & Spinach Soup with Fresh Pesto

served with Homemade Oatmeal Bread

Two mini loaves of homemade bread

Mmmm: beans, carrots, spinach...

Cinnamon rolls

Liliana eats soup.

       This past Tuesday was a rainy, soggy, drizzly day--perfect for snuggling under a blanket with two toddlers on my lap and a stack of books beside me!  It also seemed like the perfect day to make my new favorite soup (Chicken & Spinach Soup with Fresh Pesto) and a batch of my Aunt Connie's Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread (made into two tiny loaves and a pan of cinnamon rolls).  My cousin Rachel came for dinner so we gloried in the stories of her recent engagement as we sipped soup and broke bread together.  Yay for rainy days, good books, healthy food, and a happy family!

 

 

 

Recipe for Chicken & Spinach Soup with Fresh Pesto

 

2 tsp/1 T olive oil

9 carrots, diced

1 red pepper, diced

chicken breast (thinly sliced)

1 lg clove garlic, minced

2 c reduced sodium broth

3 c water

1 1/2 tsp dried marjoram

3 oz baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1 15-oz can cannelloni beans, rinsed

1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

1/3 c lightly packed fresh basil leaves

1 T pine nuts

freshly ground pepper

 

Directions:

Heat 2 tsp olive oil & add carrots, red pepper and chicken.  Cook until chicken is browned and carrots mostly cooked.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute.  Stir in broth, water, and marjoram and bring to boil.  Reduce and simmer.  Transfer chicken to a plate and cut into smaller pieces.  Add spinach and beans to pot and bring to gentle boil.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Combine remaining 1 T oil, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pine nuts in chopper or food processor until pesto is combined.  Stir chicken and pesto into pot.  Season with pepper and serve when chicken is hot.

 

 

The original recipe can be found here.  My version has more vegetables, less broth bouillon, and the addition of pine nuts.  (somehow pesto is not pesto without pine nuts!).  Yummmmm!

 

Black Bean & Rice Taco Salad

Vegetarian Taco Salad: 

a Green Salad with Long Grain Brown Rice & Black Beans

My recipe guru, Eating Well Magazine, had this recipe on their website, and I tried it last night and loved it!  See the link here for the official recipe.  See below for my version which has a little less chili powder (due to serving a 1 and 2 year old) and used colby jack cheese instead of pepper jack.  I used my parent's homegrown tomatoes and corn frozen from their crop and I will definitely be making this again!  I did cook up some hamburger meat for Brian but I was happy without the meat in this meal because it was so tasty as it was.  If you decide to make this, be sure to start the rice first since long grain rice takes 45-50 minutes to cook.  I just recently changed from using brown minute rice to using all long grain brown rice for recipes and it's sometimes hard to remember how long it takes the rice to cook!  Luckily, with this recipe, by the time I completed all the other tasks for the rest of meal preparation, the rice was ready to be used in the recipe--not that the recipe takes that long, it simply takes me that long to cook with two babies underfoot!


Black Bean & Rice Taco Salad

1 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 c fresh corn kernels or frozen
3 tomatoes
1 1/2 c cooked long grain brown rice
15-oz can reduced sodium black beans, rinsed
1 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano, divided
1/2 c fresh cilantro
1/3 c salsa
2 c shredded romaine
1 c grated colby jack cheese
1 c tortilla chips (although only Brian used the chips)

Heat oil.  Add onion & corn, cooking 5 minutes (or longer if starting with frozen corn).  Chop 1 tomato and add to pan with rice, beans, chili powder, and 1 tsp oregano.  Cook until tomato cooks down, about 5 minutes.  Let cool slightly.

Chop remaining 2 tomatoes.  Combine with chopped cilantro, salsa, and 1/2 tsp oregano in a small bowl.  Toss lettuce with 1/2 of the salsa mixture and 2/3 c cheese.  Serve with the bean mixture, extra salsa, the extra cheese, and the tortilla chips.  I think Brian may have used some Tabasco or taco sauce as well, in addition to some hamburger meat.  I think guacamole and sour cream would be great with this dish, too.  Yum!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

       I've always enjoyed my sister's recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but for some reason couldn't locate my copy of the recipe so I made up my own (see below) since I had some extra pumpkin puree and a tiny pile of chocolate chips left over from making ganache.  This recipe only yields 12 cookies, which is perfect for our small family.  Often pumpkin-based recipes use a lot of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger but I wanted to focus on the pumpkin so you won't see those spices in the recipe, but they could be added.  I also tried using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour because I love the fine quality of cake flour and the lovely taste of cake flour.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12 cookies

1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c softened butter
1 egg
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c plus 2T cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c chocolate chips or more if preferred

Cream butter and sugar, add egg, then rest of ingredients except flour and chips.  Add flour and chocolate chips, stirring just until combined.  Drop in mounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until they look almost done (cookies will continue to bake even when cooling on a rack).

 



Happy robot girls devour a couple cookies:

 

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins
 

       Wanting to start September with some pumpkiny goodness, I made a batch of pumpkin muffins based on my sister's recipe (I lessened some of the spices but otherwise very similar to my sister's).  Here is my version:


Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine dry ingredents.

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup milk
1 egg

Combine above above four ingredients and then mix into dry ingredients.  Place in muffin cups and sprinkle on a streusal topping (I combined some flour, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.  My sister's recipe calls for pecans in the topping which I'm sure would be splendid, too).

Bake at 350 degrees until raised and they look "almost done."  For me it took 10 minutes for the miniature size muffin pans.

Ganache & Truffle Frosted Cake to Celebrate a Doctorate

A Ganache & Truffle Frosted Cake

to Celebrate a Doctoral Accomplishment

       My brother-in-law, Jim, just recently completed his PhD at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and is now officially Dr. Watkins, PhD.  Since we are fortunate enough to have him and family close by since they just relocated from Switzerland, we had a celebratory dinner, complete with a chocolate cake. 

       I had asked Jim's 6-year-old son, Jonah, to name Jim's favorite dessert.  Jonah told me "Chocolate cake or non-cake chocolate" ("non-cake chocolate" evidently meaning chocolates) so I made a chocolate cake with cream-cheese frosting, topped with drizzles of Ganache and pipings of Truffle Frosting.  I constructed the doctoral pennant from paper and a bamboo skewer.  I did not care for the cake recipe I used, but enjoyed the Ganache and Truffle Frosting so I'm including those recipes below:

Ganache

1 c heavy whipping cream (found in the milk section of a grocery store)
1 -11.5 oz bag milk chocolate chips.

Bring the whipping cream just to a boil, then immediately remove from heat and add the chocolate chips into the pan.  DO NOT STIR.  Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until combined and smooth.  Cool for 15 minutes and then drizzle or coat cake. 

Truffle Frosting

Make above but after cooling for 15 minutes, refrigerate overnight, then whip in mixer for 20 seconds, then pipe onto cake.