Postcards from the Trail

I love Thai food. It is my favorite next to Mexican. I shied away from cooking it at home for a long time. The ingredients looked too exotic and I thought it would be difficult. Fine Cooking Magazine had a great section on stir frying rice noodles a year ago. It was a great introduction to SE Asian cooking. My favorite dish is Pad Thai. I've tried a couple of different recipes and I want to try it with tamarind paste. I'm going to try Pim's recipe soon.

I've also becoming interested in Thai curry. I used to eat at the Mandalay Cafe in Seattle. They had an awesome Burmese curry. But alas, they have closed. I came across a Goan Fish Stew from Food and Wine. It is quite tasty and easy to make on a work night. I have used both tilapia and shrimp.

I did not realize how easy it is to make a curry. Ms Glaze had a very interesting looking Yellow Thai Curry on her blog. The ingredients looked just right so I gave it a try tonight.

First a quick trip to my local market which has a good supply of Asian food - Shoreline Central Market. I love to go there and search through the shelves for ingredients. I knew they carried lime leaves, thai basil, galangal, and fresh lemongrass. Unfortunately, I didn't know what shrimp paste looked like. I did find a jar but I was a turned off by the plastic purple color on the jar. I should have got it. It was what I needed. I ended up having to substitute anchovy paste.

It was very easy to make. I used a food processor to grind the ingredients for the paste. The aroma of the paste frying brought my hubby into the kitchen. I can not find langoustines here in the NW so I used local rock shrimp and squid. The squid was really good in this curry. I'll make this one again.

By the way, it goes great with a NW Riesling.

I was cleaning out the cupboard yesterday and came across a couple of winter squashes that I had left over from other dishes. One was a butternut and the other a carnival. What to do? Soup!

I looked through my cook books and came across an interesting recipe from Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" that used winter squash and sage. I had some fresh sage and thyme. Perfect.

I wasn't certain how much squash I had. The recipe calls for 2½ to 3 pounds of squash. I think I had about 2 pound which ended up being enough. It also calls for 2 onions which seemed a lot to me so I cut that to 1 onion. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. It was easy and extremely good.

Winter Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves

2½ to 3 pounds Winter Squash
¼ cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
12 whole sage leaves, plus 2 tbs chopped
2 onions, finely chopped (I used only 1 onion chopped)
Leaves chopped from 4 thyme springs
¼ cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
8 cups water
½ cup fontina shredded. (alternatively you can use pecorino or ricotta salata diced)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds. Brush the surfaces with oil, stuff the cavities with the garlic and place them cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes.

In a small skillet, heat ¼ oil until nearly smoking, then drop the whole sage leaves and fry until speckled and dark, about 1 minute. Set the leaves aside on a paper town and transfer the oil to a soup pot. Add the onions, chopped sage, thyme, and parsley and cook over medium heat until the onions have begun to brown around the edges, 12 to 15 minutes. Scoop the baked squash flesh into the pot along with any juices. Peel the garlic and add it to the pot along with 1½ tsp salt and the water. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes. If the soup becomes too thick, add more water to thin it out. Taste for salt.

Puree the soup until smooth. Ladle into bowls and distribute the cheese over the top. Garnish with the fried sage leaves and pepper. Enjoy!

Serves 4 to 6

I needed some comfort food tonight. I love baked pasta dishes. I found this recipe a while ago in Fine Cooking. I really like the flavor of cauliflower in the dish. It is nutty and goes really well with the flavor of the Fontina cheese.

I've modified the original recipe to reduce the amount the dish serves. The original makes a large amount that is too much for just two people so I cut the original in half. I've also adapted it to use prepared marinara sauce. I make large batches of marinara sauce and store it in the freezer in one cup containers.

One variation that I've considered is to add a few capers and I often make it a bit spicer by adding an additional 1/4 tsp of pepper flakes. You might also add a bit more cheese if you like it richer.

If you are interested in the original, here is a copy from Meals Matter.

Rigatoni with cauliflower in spicy pink sauce

2 cups Marinara sauce
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 lb rigatoni
2 cups cauliflower florets, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup shredded Fontina
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a 7x11 inch baking pan with olive oil.

Combine the marinara sauce and cream in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes until thickened. Add pepper flakes and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add rigatoni and cook about 10 minutes until it is al dente. Remove the pasta with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce. Add the cauliflower to the pasta water and cook until barely tender - about 2 minutes. Drain and add to the sauce.

Add 1/2 of the fontina to the pasta mixture and toss. Transfer to the prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Top with the remaining fontina and the parmigiano.

Bake uncovered until the cheese is golden brown - about 15 minutes. Let rest about 5 minutes and serve.

Vegetarians - Look away quick!

G doesn't eat meat but I still do. I find it difficult around holidays to avoid traditional meals. At Thanksgiving, I always want to cook a turkey. St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon and I'm feeling the need to have corned beef.

My ancestry is mixed. A little German, a little Scottish but mostly Irish. We always cooked corned beef for St. Patrick's Day when I was growing up. It was not cooked in G's household. I cooked it a couple of times early in our marriage but it never became a tradition in our house. It was easy to give up when G became vegetarian. But there has been that little nagging in the back of my mind in March that it is time to cook corned beef.

I tried it a couple of years ago. I bought one of the major commercial brands and boiled it up as my mother cooked it. Yech! It was so fat and salty. I decided to write it off. But the March nagging persisted.

Metropolitan Market is a local market which has a great selection of choice meats, fish and seafood. I love to shop at the Queen Anne branch during my lunch break. I was shopping last week and noticed that they had Market House Corned Beef. Market House is a small local company that brines their own corned beef. In Seattle, it is considered the best local corned beef and they provide corned beef to many of the local restaurants. I found a small piece and decided to give it a try.

I cooked it on Sunday. The package recommended baking it at 300 degrees covered in a pan with 1/4 water for 3 - 5 1/2 hours. My piece was rather small so I cooked it just about 3 hours.

I cut off a small piece after cooking. Oh my goodness, it was so good! It was not salty at all with a nice spicy taste. I couldn't stop snacking and finished off about 1/4 of it.

Today I had a great sandwich made with whole wheat bread, mayo, horseradish and dijon mustard. I maybe able to get a second sandwich off the small piece I bought. But my craving hasn't been satisfied. I'm making another trip to Metropolitan Market for another piece to cook next week.

For more information on the history of Market House - here is an article from the Stranger newspaper. If I have inspired you to try some yourself, you can order it up until around March 12 from Made in Washington.

The March 2008 Gourmet is a special issue focusing on French bistro cooking. It has many interesting and easy recipes for many of the typical dishes from French bistros, from steak and fries, roasted chicken to profitroles. The cuisine is not necessarily vegetarian friendly since many of the dishes focus on meat or include some type of pork.

One of the recipes was for a vegetarian version of cassoulet. Cassoulet is a dish from southwestern France that is a stew made from white beans and meat. The meat varies by region with the most famous combination of duck, sausage and white beans. I have wanted to try it but never have since G does not eat meat.

So the recipe for a vegetarian version caught my attention. It was also pretty simple since it used canned beans instead of requiring the long cooking. I also had three cans of white beans that I have been trying to use. Perfect.

I just checked the comments on Epicurious. Several of the people commenting added tomatoes but I enjoyed it without the tomatoes. I use tomatoes so much in my cooking - it was a nice change. A very satisfying dish.

Vegetarian Cassoulet from Gourmet

For cassoulet
3 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only)
4 medium carrots, halved
lengthwise and cut into 1-inch-wide pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch-wide pieces
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
4 thyme sprigs
2 parsley sprigs
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 (19-ounce) cans cannellini or Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 quart water

For garlic crumbs
4 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs from a baguette
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Halve leeks lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces, then wash well and pat dry.

Cook leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil with herb sprigs, bay leaf, cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 15 minutes. Stir in beans, then water, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender but not falling apart, about 30 minutes.

Make garlic crumbs while cassoulet simmers:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Toss bread crumbs with oil, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a bowl until well coated. Spread in a baking pan and toast in oven, stirring once halfway through, until crisp and golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool crumbs in pan, then return to bowl and stir in parsley.

Finish cassoulet:
Discard herb sprigs and bay leaf. Mash some of beans in pot with a potato masher or back of a spoon to thicken broth. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, sprinkle with garlic crumbs.

Here is another good baked pasta from Fine Cooking. This one is very rich and it is a little more complicated than it seems at first. It took me four pans to prepare and bake the dish. It is so nice that G will clean up. Once it all comes together, the baking time is short.

I cut the recipe in half but made the full amount of sauce. I only used half of the sauce but it was easier to make the full amount of the sauce than try to cut it in half. The final dish is somewhat dry so some people suggest using double sauce but I think that would be too rich. The left over sauce will make a nice pasta dish for lunch.

There are several variations of this sauce on the web. One suggested adding smoked salmon which sounds great. If you have some lemon vodka on hand, you may also want to try this lemon aspergus fettuccine instead.

Baked Fettuccine with Aspergus, Lemon, Pinenuts and Mascarpone

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs asparagus, cut in 1-inch pieces
8 scallions, sliced
2 lemons, zested
1 lemon, juiced
2-3 sprigs of thyme, chopped
salt, pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup Grana Padano or parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
pinch of allspice
pinch of cayenne
3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 lb fettuccine pasta
1/2 cup pinenuts, toasted

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly grease a large shallow baking dish with olive oil. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and blanch the asparagus until crisp-tender - about 2 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to colander and run under cold water. Drain well. Save water for pasta.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the scallions and saute for 1 minute to soften. Add the asparagus and saute briefly. Remove from heat and add half of the zest, the lemon juice and thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter and flour over medium heat, whisking until smooth. Cook 1 minute. Add the milk and cook, whisking, until it comes to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until smooth and slightly thickened 3-4 minutes.

Turn off heat. Add remaining lemon zest, Mascarpone and 1/2 cup of Grana Padano, whisking until smooth. The texture will be a little grainy. Season with cayenne, allspice, salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and remaining Grana Padano cheese. Season with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Return cooking water to boil and cook the fettuccine. Drain well. Return the fettuccine to pan. Add the pine nuts, the mascarpone sauce and the asparagus. Toss and taste for seasoning.

Pour into the baking dish and sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly over the top. Bake uncovered until bubbling and golden, 15-20 minutes. Serve right away.

I was reading Anadamo's post about pie. My Pi post inspired her to try an apple pie. Yeah! Anadamo - your pie sounded great. Congrats on a successful pie from scratch.

I missed making a pie on Pi Day but I thought - what the heck - and decided to make one today. I remembered I had a frozen prebaked small pie dough shell that I made a while back in the freezer. I needed to use it up. That limited my choices to a pie that could use a prebaked shell. Hmmm... cream pie would be good. I asked G and of course he said - chocolate.

Last time I made a chocolate cream pie, I used a recipe that I had been making since high school. It was little bit grainy since it was thickened by flour. I wanted something a bit silkier today. I have another recipe that makes a great banana cream pie. It uses a combination of cornstarch and flour to thicken the filling. That would be better. Much more like a French pastry cream.

I decided to cut it by 1/3 since I had a small pie shell. Eck! I had to use math to figure out how to divide 2 1/2 tbs by 1/3. l ended up taking everything back to teaspoons in order to divide it by 1/3.

Oh but it was soooo good. I had some great bittersweet chocolate left over from the chocolate cake I made a Christmas. I added a bit of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips. It wasn't dark enough so I added a bit of unsweetened chocolate. It really makes a difference to use great chocolate. If you are looking for some great baking chocolate - check out The Chocolate Man website. For bittersweet - Maricaibo by Fechlin is awesome. For unsweetened - Caraque by Cocoa Berry is so good. No bitter taste even though it is unsweetened.

We scarfed down half the pie tonight. I suspect I won't be able to sleep with a bit of caffeine from the chocolate. Oh well, it was so good.

Here is a recipe for the cream pie. You can use it as a base for any type of cream pie. I've included the variations at the bottom. Enjoy!

Cream Pie

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs flour
3 cups mild
3 egg yolks - slightly beaten
1 tbs butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
whipping cream
9" pie shell, baked

In a sauce pan, combine sugar, salt flour, cornstarch and milk with a wire whisk. Stire constangly over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Boil for 1 minute. Then slowly add egg yolks and bring to a boil once again. (It can help to add a couple of spoons of the hot milk mixture to the eggs first before adding to the hot mixture). Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.

Chocolate: Add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate to mixture. Stir until chocolate is melted and combined. Pour into pie shell. Chill and top with whipped cream.

Coconut: 1 cup shreadded coconut, toasted. Spring 1/2 over pie crust. Pour cream mixture over coconut and hill. Cover with whipped cream and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.

Banana: Put a thin layer of cream mixture over the bottom of the pie shell. Slice bananas over the thin layer. Continue alternating cream and bananas. Chill. Cover with whipped cream.

I won't like to go out to lunch. I prefer to make something interesting on the weekend and eat at my desk. We have a central lunch room but I usually just microwave something and bring it back to my desk. Since G doesn't eat meat, I usually can indulge during lunch.

It was rainy, windy and wet on Sunday. I didn't really want to go to the store so I dug around through the pantry to come up with something that I could make. Ah hah! Lentils. I had some left over vegetable broth from last weekend's risotto plus the classic mirepoix ingredients (carrots, celery and onion). Perfect. Lentil soup.

Cruising around on Epicurious to see if there was anything different. There really was not but I did find this recipe for French Lentil Soup which used exactly what I had in the house. I decided to make a 1/2 batch and add a bit of spices to the soup - a bit of bay leaf and fresh thyme. It was done in less than an hour and now I have a couple of days of lunch.

French Lentil Soup

3 tablespoons extra–virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery stalks plus chopped celery
leaves for garnish
1 cup chopped carrots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups (or more) vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups lentils, rinsed, drained
1 14 1/2–ounce can diced tomatoes in juice

Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, lentils, and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 35 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (mostly solids) to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to soup in pan; thin soup with more broth by 1/4 cupfuls, if too thick. Season with salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with celery leaves.

Note: - I added a 1/2 bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. I also added an additional cup of water since my lentils were rather old and needed to cook more. I definitely recommend to puree 1/2 of the soup to give it a better texture.

Krista came up with a great idea for the bloggers on Slow Travel. We will pick a recipe from a cookbook and bake it some time during the week. On Sunday, we will all blog the results. Jerry came up with the name - Sunday Slow Bakers.

I missed the first week challenge - Italian Crumbly Cake so I didn't want to miss this week's challenge - Sicilian Pistachio Bars from Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma chosen by Deborah.

First challenge was to find shelled unsalted pistachios. Fortunately, we have a great local market which has an excellent bulk food section. They have everything a baker (or cook) needs in bulk form. This save a lot of time and my finger nails.

The pistachios are ground fine in a food processor and added to the flour. The butter is creamed with the sugar and eggs. Next add the flavoring, vanilla, almond (extract or amaretto) and lemon. I completely forgot the lemon. I should have zested it before starting the recipe. They were good without it but I think the tangy sour lemon would have added a lot.

The cookies are baked in a rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan 18x13 that has been lined with parchement paper. The dough is dense so it can be difficult to spread evenly. The recipe recommends an off-set metal spatula which would have been great. I didn't have one so I used a hard plastic spatula. The cookie dough forms a thin layer. You will want to watch the browning depending upon your oven. My oven is a little cool so the 35 minutes were fine to create a light browning along the edges but lightly golden in the rest of the pan.

Let them cool 30 minutes and slice up. Excellent with coffee or milk. These can also be frozen.

Here are a few of the other results:

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants!
• In and Out of the Garden
• My Place in the Sun
• Whistlestop Cafe Cooking
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I really think

Next week - Babbo's Breadsticks.

There is nothing that says spring like aspargus. It is season now. The best asparagus comes from the San Joaquin Delta area around Stockton. Juicy fat stalks.

I picked up a bunch at Costco this weekend and I've been using in several different dishes. My favorite and easiest is to drizzle the spears with EVO and pop in a hot oven (400-425) until slightly carmalized. Yumm. Perfect with salmon or fresh Alaska halibut.

I dropped by the University Farmer's Market this weekend. I don't know exactly what I was looking for but I really didn't find much. I did find some lovely organic eggs from Rickman Gulch Farm. The yolks are sunny yellow.

Asparagus and eggs are a great combination. I picked up some lovely Comté Gruyère from the Resident Cheesemonger in Edmonds and made an aspargus souffle on Sunday. I had a bit more aspargus and Gruyère left over so I made a quiche tonight.

My favorite quiche recipe is from an 'old' recipe book - Sunset Cooking for Two - copyright 1978. G came home tonight was remarked "This book was only $2.95!!". Check out the fashions!

Yes, it is a little dated but I love this quiche. Originally the recipe was a Crab quiche but it will work for any filling. I increased the recipe since it is easier to use a 9 inch pan than a 8 inch pan.

"Oh - did you make a pie today?' asked G when he got home.
"No - I made a quiche" I replied.
"That looks great!" he said.

It was.

Aspargus Quiche

Buttery Pastry Shell
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
5 TBS cold unsalted butter
pinch salt
1 egg yolk
4 TBS cold water

Put the flour into a food processor bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour. Add a pinch of salt. Pulse until the butter is combined into coarse crumbs. Add egg yolk. Turn on processor and add water. Continue running until it just starts to form a ball.

Turn out onto a floured surface. Form into a ball and roll out to fit a 9" pie pan. Prick dough bottom and side with a fork. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes until lightly brown. Cool.

Quiche filling
1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
8-10 spears aparagus, break off tough ends. Slice on diagonal into 1/2 inch slices.
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp thyme
4 eggs
1 cup half-half
pinch salt

Prepare pastry shell. When cool, evenly sprinkle cheese over bottom of shell. Heat EVO in a saute pan. Add onion and saute until transparent. Add herbs.

While onion is cooking, blanche the asparagus in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and add to cooked onion. Spoon over cheese.

Beat eggs with cream and pour over asparagus. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until custard appears firm when dish is gently shaken. Let stand for a few minutes to cool slightly b efore cutting in wedges to serve.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our third bake.

This week's selectionis a savory item - Babbo's Breadsticks. I had my doubts about it since I've only had the hard cellophane-wrapped breadsticks. Would it be worth the effort? G had a company party to go to Saturday and signed us up for cheese and crackers. The breadsticks would be great to take along with the cheese so I decided to do them on Saturday.

I tried to find 00 flour but no luck in my area. I tried Trader Joe's and Central Market and neither store carried it. But I did find an locally grown and milled flour by Stone Buhr. The flour comes from Shepard's Grain , an alliance of family farms who have been certified as "environmentally and socially responsible" by Food Alliance. I think that is so cool that I can find socially responsible local flour here in my grocery store.

The recipe went together easily. I was surprised by the recipe including a 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. These may have a little spiciness. I don't have a standing mixer to knead the dough so I blended the ingredients and then turned them out onto a floured sheet and hand kneaded them for 5 minutes. The dough handled similar to pizza dough.

Our house is cool so for good measure I warmed a bit of water in a large soup pot and laid a cake rack on top to warm the dough. I placed the towel covered bowl on top the warm pan and left it to raise.

After the dough doubled in size, I punched it down and cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. It took a little bit for me to get the hang of hand rolling the dough into foot long pencil thin strands of dough. I'd always end up with one section really narrow. But the dough is really forgiving and you can push it back together and re-roll it out.

The instructions were to bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. I had to bake for almost 20 minutes to get them lightly golden in my oven.

They were golden and crispy. The tangy salt with the peppery bite was addictive. G and I ate several right out of the oven. I placed them in a large pint glass and took them to the party. They were definitely attention grabbers and were gobbled up.

Here are a few of the other bloggers results:

• Destination Anywhere
• In and Out of the Gardens
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants!
• Old Shoes - New Trip
• Palmabella's Passions
• Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Next week: Grappa-soaked mini sponge cakes

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fourth bake.

This week's selection is Grappa-soaked Mini Sponge Cakes from Dolce Italiano by Gina de Palma. This recipe had a couple of different challenges. First, I didn't have a mini-bundt cakes pan. I don't even have a bundt cake pan. I thought I would use a regular tube pan and then I remembered that I have a savarin ring pan. I thought that might be better than a regular tube pan.

Next challenge was to find grappa. I had found some locally produced grappa from Clear Creek in Oregon. But no luck today. So I ended up with some grape brandy from Bulgaria! Next time I'll remember to use the State Liquor Board's web search page.

The recipe went together smoothly. I have not had too good of luck making sponge cakes. First you create a simple syrup of water, grappa and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients.

Next separate 8 eggs. Beat the eggs yolks with sugar and honey until double in size. Add the flavoring (more grappa!) and melted butter.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites until soft folds. Pour into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool cake for 5 minutes and then remove from pan. Brush with the grappa syrup.

Serve with berries and whipped cream.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fifth bake.

Jerry at Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants! selected this week's bake - Lemon Semolina Cookies. After reviewing the recipe, I realized these are a lot like a ginger molasses cookie that I make except the focus is on lemon - lemon juice, lemon zest and Lemoncello!

First task was to buy some lemoncello. Another run to the State Liquor Store. Fortunately, they had several in stock. Semolina was easy to find. Central Market had it in bulk so I could buy just what I needed.

First you combine the flour, semolina, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Next cream together the butter, olive oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs.

Zest and juice a lemon. Add to mixture with vanilla and lemoncello. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients.

The dough is much moister than the typical cookie. Chill for an hour first. I went out for a run. Then roll about a teaspoon into a ball and roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I put the dough into the freezer after the first batch to get it firmer to make it easier to roll the second batch.

Bake in 325 degrees for 15 minutes. My oven is cool so I baked them an additional five minutes. They were very light but cooked. Lemon aroma wafted thoughout the kitchen. I could not wait and bite into one. Yummmmm...

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our sixth bake.

Today's bake is the Hazelnut and Grape Tart from Dolce Italiano selected by Kim. It is very different from the typical fruit tart.

First make the tart crust. This is a nice dough although rather soft. It does not use water but uses egg and cream. For flavoring, vanilla and lemon rind.

First you beat together the egg yolks and sugar. Add grated orange rind and vanilla. Grind the hazelnuts and sugar in a food processor and add to the yolks. This ends with a stiff batter.

Beat eggs whites with a little sugar until stiff and fold into the egg/nut batter. Spread on over the tart shell.

Cut grapes in half and sprinkle with sugar and grappa or your liquor of choice. Arrange the grapes cut side down in a circular pattern. They are a little bit slippery and sticky so be careful. G felt it looked like a cobblestone mosaic.

Bake until golden and cool. It is very rich and interesting. I think it would be good with a light dollop of whip cream.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our seventh bake.

Today's bake is the Zucchini-Olive Oil Cake with Lemon Crunch Glaze from Dolce Italiano selected by Jan from Keep your Feet in the Street.

It is early for zucchini here in the Pacific Northwest. We have three plants in our garden and I hope that I will get lots of zucchini this year. I struggle growing zucchini - they never seem to pollinate. My fingers are crossed.

The recipe is very similar to a carrot cake. First sift together the dry ingredients - flour, spice (cinnamon, giner and nutmet) and leavening. Next combine eggs, oil and sugar. The difference in this recipe is it uses olive oil. Then stir in the dry ingredients. Add the zucchini and finely chopped walnuts. Pour into a bundt pan or in my case a tube pan and bake. Drizzle with a sweet lemon glaze. Moist and lovely.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today's bake is the Chocolate and Polenta Tart from Dolce Italiano selected by Marcia from Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog.

Chocolate and polenta, what an unusual combination. This time I needed to chase down instant polenta. I have standard polenta which has a coarse grain. One option would be to use cornmeal but I decided to check Central Market. They had several different polentas by Moretti. Unfortunately I didn't look up the different options before running to the store. My Italian is not as good as my French so I stood there for a bit mulling over which one might be instant. Fortunately, there is a translation on the package and I decided to go with the lampo which turns out to be the instant.

Next decision was what chocolate to use. There were multiple choices from different countries and even the single plantation chocolate. As luck would have it, there was a chocolate tasting at the store hosted by our local fair trade chocolatier - Theo Chocolates. I discussed what would be a good bittersweet to use to bake and we decided the 75% Cacao which blended chocolates from Ghana, Panama and Ecuador would be good. BTW, if you are looking for a great blog on Chocolate, take a their Theonistas Unite! blog. Hmmm... I just discovered they have tours. I will check them out.

All the ingredients now located, it was not time to start baking. The crust was similar to a shortbread crust except it included a 1/2 cup of polenta. Combine flour, sugar, polenta and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Then add unsalted butter and pulse until it resembles coarse sand. Next combine egg, olive oil and vanilla. Add to the flour/butter mixture and pulse until it comes together in a ball. Refrigerate for 2 hours and then roll into 10" pan.

That's when my problems began. I found the dough to be very sticky and I didn't use enough flour when rolling it. I put down parchment paper to roll it out on and it stuck to the paper and it came apart when I tried to put it in the pan as you can see below. I have better luck when I put soft dough like this into the freezer. It probably would have been good if I had a marble slab for rolling it on. That would have kept it cool. Fortunately, it seems to be somewhat forgiving and I was able to press it into the pan.

Next melt butter and chocolate over hot water. This is the best way to melt chocolate. It stays somewhat cool and doesn't burn. Beat eggs and sugar until triple in volume. Stir in vanilla and then fold into the chocolate mixture. Sift flour and polenta into the mixture and pour into tart shell. Bake for 25 minutes at 350. Or in my oven's case - 360.

The taste was gorgeous. It was a little drier than I expect and I would be better served warm. G, my resident chocoholic said - "Yummmm... this will be gone in no time".

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today's bake is the Bittersweet Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies from Dolce Italiano selected by me! I wanted to make another cookie. I chose chocolate because G loves chocolate.

Chocolate and Hazelnut, this is my favorite combination. I love the chocolate pralines candies from Belgium. One of my favorite chocolates from Italy is Baci - chocolate with a hazelnut in the center. It is also one of my favorite gelato flavors.

I've made a chocolate crinkle cookie that sounded similar and I expected these would be similar but they are not. These are more dense and drier. The cookies didn't raise and crack as much as I expected. I used Lindt 70% chocolate along with Felchlin cocoa. The cookies actually are a bit too chocolate for me. I should have used a bit less intense chocolate since the Felchlin is very dark and strong.

Start by mixing the flour and cocoa together. Chop the hazelnuts medium-fine in a food processor. I lightly roasted them for flavor but I didn't skin them.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. The mixture will be very stiff. Don't over beat but you'll have to work a bit to combine all the dry ingredients. Chop the bittersweet chocolate finely and add to mixture.

Chill the dough. I was running out of time so I didn't chill it for a full 30 minutes. Roll into 1" balls, flatten slightly into a small disk. Roll in powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake 8-12 minutes until puffed and cracking.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today's dessert is Strawberries in Chianti with Black Pepper Ricotta Cream from Dolce Italiano selected by Amy of Destination Anywhere. Perfect choice for June when local strawberries are at their peak. It was also great not to bake and to have a little lighter dessert. I passed on last week's Ricotta Cheesecake.

Strawberries are late this year due to the unusual cold weather we have been having in June here in the Pacific Northwest. We've renamed June to Junuary due to the cold. But fortunately I saw the first batch in my favorite local grocery store. These beauties are locally grown in the rich Skagit Valley just north of Seattle. The grower is the Sakuma Brothers. They have been local farmers for three generations and have been growing strawberries since 1948. Here is another interesting article on the family from Sustainable Northwest.

I picked out a nice basket and carefully carried them home. I didn't want them bruised for the photo shoot.

The recipe is super easy. Wash and quarter the strawberries into a large bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and add a 1/2 cup Chianti wine and macerate for two hours. Meanwhile beat cream and sugar until forms soft peaks. Add ricotta cheese and cracked pepper. Serve as a parfait.

We really enjoyed it. I loved how different it tasted. Not extremely sweet. I did not crack the pepper but instead coarsely ground the pepper which gave it a milder flavor. In fact, G couldn't tell it was pepper. He thought the spice was cinnamon. I'll make this again.

The local stone fruits are just coming in at the local farmers markets. The berries are at the height of season. There are great selections of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and tayberries in the markets. I have been serving sweetened berries with vanilla ice cream but I got a craving for a crisp. I had several interesting crisps while in California. I like a topping that has a nutty whole grain flavor versus more pie like topping. This month's Bon Appetit had several good summer fruit recipes including this one for Nectarine Raspberry Crisp that caught my eye. It looked very easy especially since it used melted butter instead of creaming in soft butter.

I cut the recipe approximately in half to serve myself and G. I always find it challenging to come up with a pan size that is half of 11x7. I decided to use a round 8" pan instead.

Today I went to our local farmer's market and found some fresh nectarines and tayberries. I made it again and I think the tayberries are even better than raspberries. I love boysenberries and tayberries are similar - a cross between blackberry and raspberries. It smelled wonderful coming out of the oven. I'm going to serve it with a big scoop of Ben and Jerry's Vanilla.

Here are my modifications:

Topping

1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs dark brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
generous pinch of cardamon
2 Tbs finely chopped walnuts
3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly

Fruit Mixture

3 nectarines but into 3/4 inch thick slices
1/2 pint container of fresh berries (boysenberry, tayberries, raspberries or blackberries)
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch

Mix flour, oats, sugars, cinnamon, salt, cardamon and walnuts in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and rub together mixture until it comes together (can use fingers or spoon).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8 inch pan. Combine nectarines, berries, sugar and cornstarch. Pour into pan and spring topping eve over fruit. Bake until fruit mixture is bubbling and topping is golden, about 45 minutes. Cool 20 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.

Several Slow Travel bloggers have been doing the Omnivore's Hundred Meme started by Andrew on Very Good Taste. Krista was the first Slow Travel blogger to post the meme. Jerry and Kim were next. I love Jerry's cartoon.

Clotilde got into the act today on Chocolate & Zucchini. It is a lot of fun. I don't think of myself as an adventurous eater but I was surprised to see that I've tried many of these on the list.

Here are the rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison (No but I have had gemsbok)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (Everyone makes Blackberry wine in the PNW)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (We grow these ourselves)
22. Fresh wild berries (Yep, they are everywhere in the PNW)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans (I had this this week!)
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (habenaro yes- but I don't think a scotch bonnet)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (long long ago)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (No but I have been to a tasting of 20 different single malts)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (no but I'm considering having it here in Seattle)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (Okay... well only durian candy in Singapore)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (does rabbit count?)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I've been saving cooking magazines for ages. I've got several boxes of old Bon Appetites, Gourmets, Fine Cooking, Sunset and others. I used to go back and re-read the older issues. But I've come to realize that everything I really need is on the web especially with Epicurious and Find.MyRecipes.

So I've been going through the old boxes and recycling the old magazines. I usually will go through and review a few that look interesting.

We have an abundance of cucumbers this year. We're growing Orient Express and it has been producing like crazy. I came across this interesting recipe in Sunset for a cold creamy cucumber soup. I had this in France and loved it.

The recipe is very easy. I was surprised to see that it had celery but it added depth to the soup. I'm definitely going to make this one again.

Creamy Cucumber Soup
Sunset - July 2002

2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 pound White Rose or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 cup thickly sliced celery (about 2 stalks)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1 green onion, rinsed, ends trimmed, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon butter
1 English cucumber (about 12 oz.), rinsed, or regular cucumber, peeled and seeded
About 3/4 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
About 1/2 teaspoon salt
About 1/8 teaspoon hot sauce

1. Combine 2 1/2 cups broth, potatoes, onion, celery, parsley, green onion, thyme, and butter in a 5- to 6-quart pan; cover and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes mash easily with a fork, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, thinly slice a fourth of the cucumber; wrap airtight and chill. Coarsely chop remaining.

3. Working in batches, whirl potato mixture and chopped cucumber in a blender until smooth; pour into a large bowl. Stir in 3/4 cup crème fraîche, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon hot sauce. Cover and chill until cold, at least 1 hour, or up to 1 day.

4. Thin soup with more broth. If desired, add more salt and hot sauce to taste. Ladle into bowls and garnish with sliced cucumber and more crème fraîche.