Rustic strawberry tart

Wondering what to do with your strawberry picking bounty?
















How about a strawberry gazpacho ??? It's soo delicious!
The strawberries replace the tomatoes giving the cold soup a beautiful slightly sweet taste .

-I used about 2 lg pints of strawberries (8 cups?)... Or more to your liking.
-a tablespoon and 1/2 of olive oil
-a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
-a small garlic clove
-1/2 a small red onion
- a small red pepper or half of a large one.
-one cucumber
-salt/pepper to taste

Feel free to adjust to your liking.

(I tend to eyeball my cooking... unless I am using an actual cookbook ... And I think cooking should be about feeling comfortable enough to improvise, to add or take away from the ingredients. To feel confident enough to smell and taste as you cook and be able to adapt a recipe to your liking . Sometimes you might succeed and there might be a time you might not... ( as my mango pie fiasco of long ago might tell you. Some things are just not made to go in pie... ) live and learn! ;)






And how about a super easy rustic strawberry/ blueberry tart!

You need puff pastry. Found near the icecream freezer section of your supermarket!
-score the perimeter of it with a knife, like making a frame. ( this will help it puff up!)
Score the inside square you created, with a fork ... Like the picture below .
-brush one egg yolk all over the tart dough.




-in a separate bowl add 3/4 of a cup of ground almond flour.
-1/3 cup of sugar
-dash of vanilla
-2 egg yolks
-5 tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter
And mix by hand .
-add the mixture to the inside square of the puff pastry square.




-slice your fruit. And place it on top. Remembering that the berries will shrink... So load it up!




Bake at 420 * f for 15 minutes
And then lower heat to 350* f and bake for another 10 minutes.




The almond inside is delicious with the berries!

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Plastic bag holder

This was made with love for my depeche mode, earth loving friend, Judy and her newly renovated kitchen which is by the way, kick-a$@!!

A sewn and hand embroidered bag to hold and recycle supermarket plastic bags .
(If you are a child of the 80's, you'll get the pun!)

I embroidered the hand and words on a piece of denim cloth about 14"x25"... Depends on how long or wide you would like it.
(But I bet you could use an old set of jeans and cut off a leg for this ?)



I hemmed the top and bottom but on the bottom seam I made it wider so that I could stick a ribbon through.




I sewed a ribbon on the top for hanging.




And this is a close up of the bottom seam with the ribbon through .







This is what it looks like finished.







And here it is stuffed with bags!




^_^ easy !

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Today...

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile 
at the other's welcome,


and say, sit, here, eat.
You will LOVE  again 
the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine.  Give bread.  
Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger 
who has loved you


all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from 
your bookshelf,


the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.


Sit.  Feast on your life.


              _derek walcott 
                                                           from collected poems 1948-1984 

Unicorn cookies

Oh... our unicorn loving continues...










This time in the form of mama baked and iced, sweet unicorn sugar cookies!










Honeypie was in loooooveeee!!






I used Martha Stewart's sugar cookie recipe (here) and her royal icing recipe ( here) too, which I love, since it uses meringue powder rather than egg whites.


I tend to make my royal icing and place it in small ziplock bags in which I can drop some wilton food gels, and blend by hand.
Then I can just snip the tips if the ziplock bags to ice them.
But you have to snip a tiny tiny bit to get a fine tip!!! Remember that .
I start by outlining the cookie with the fine tip. I then flood royal icing on the inside with a larger tip and swirl with a toothpick to even the cookie out!
When that dries a bit... I use my sprinkles and detailing icing!


Super Cute no???


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More from "emeril at the grill"

Day 3 of grilling and though absolutely delicious ... I think I need a break from meat !
Something about 4th of July weekends that send people into a beef-poultry frenzy and though I'm sneaking in the "greens", I think next week is vegetarian week. Emeril's book is amazing! Not a bad thing in there and full of amazing salads and sides
BUT it is a meat grilling fiesta!




Yesterday was about his
Orange, cumin, and cilantro grilled porkchops with orange marmalade glaze.
And grilled sweet potato salad with crumbled Cotija cheese, cilantro and red onions.





And for dessert...
Grilled peaches with marscapone cheese , honey and walnuts !




And today is about his mango , avocado, watercress salad with grapefruit/honey dressing...




And his pork and chorizo burgers with green chili mayo. We added some heirloom tomatoes and pepperjack cheese... Mmmmm.





Now maybe later we can end the day with those grilled apples stuffed with chocolate...

Too much ?
Viva the 4th of July .

I think I need a nap....


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Happy 4th of July

Hi there! Happy 4th!
If you are in the USA ... I am sure you are grilling right about now.
Today is a beautiful sunny day here for that and it is "HOT"!
We recently bought this book for daddy ("emeril on the grill") and we are grilling from it this weekend. What I love most about the book is that it also has the most amazing sides, salads and desserts !!!
Amongst all these the delicious recipes is one for grilled peaches with marscapone cheese and honey, one for these decadent chocolate chipotle brownies we made yesterday (mmmm spicy!) and what we are making today... Which is sinful... Grilled apples stuffed with ... Snickers chocolate bits... Oh Boy!! ;)
We are also making a grilled sweet potato salad, a mango, watercress, avocado and pink grapefruit salad, and grilled spiced cauliflower to go with the various meat dishes like lemongrass/Ginger chicken wings, hanger steak with a smoked paprika rub and the pork /chorizo burgers with the green chili mayo...
All in all, tons of mouth watering summer grilling fun!!











Here is what we did with our chocolate chipotle brownies...
A red, HOT and blue plate that honeypie devoured in one sitting.
And by the way... The brownies have just a subtle hint of chili spice. Very mexican mole influenced, Unique and really tasty!
We used raspberries, blueberries and whip cream with our brownie, for this American flag inspiration.
































Here's the recipe from the book
( I added an extra cinnamon teaspoon because I like cinnamon . Emeril calls for just one tsp.)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper powder
4 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup chopped Mexican chocolate or semisweet chocolate morsels

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325* F.

Grease and flour an 11 by 7-inch baking pan or dish with a little butter and flour.

•Heat the 2 sticks of butter and the 4 oz of unsweetened chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted.

•In a medium bowl, stir together remaining flour, sugar, cinnamon, and ground chipotle.
•Add the sugar/flour mixture to the melted chocolate mixture, stirring to combine.
•Add the lightly beaten eggs, mixing until smooth.
•Stir in the chopped semisweet chocolate morsels.

•Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan or dish and Bake until the center is set, 35 to 40 minutes.
•Cool completely and then cut into small squares.

Enjoy today!

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Sugar snap peas

The bounty of delicious sugar snap peas that has grown in our garden, had me thinking of munching on them with some sort of dip... So I came up with a miso dip of sorts... It could probably serve as a salad dressing as well. Light, not too creamy and very tasty .






All you need is, this plus a lime.










Here is the recipe .
If you make it, let me know what you think!

Miso dip for raw veggies

1/3 c mayo
1 1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1tb lime juice
1 tsp minced Ginger
2 tb miso paste

Whisk together and add

2 tb sesame seeds ( or more to taste)

All done!

Enjoy!!




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