Spring has Arrived

We went to the Farmer’s Market like we do every Saturday. Picked up some asparagus, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, and rhubarb.

We grabbed the puppies and were off to visit my parents. The weather was perfect. A great day. Wednesday and Schuman had soooo much fun running around and jumping in the muddy swamp that sits near the house that they had to get baths before they could come inside.

Now, I’ve never been a rhubarb fan. Probably because I’ve always been such a picky eater, and wouldn’t branch out and try new things. Well…

Today was The Day of Rhubarb. Joe made a Rhubarb Upside-down Cake [Recipe below], and my mom made a Rhubarb Pie. Both were glorious.

AND dinner was just as fabulous. Herbed chicken, grilled asparagus, steamed and statued potatoes, micro-green salad, and sourdough bread from Eugene City Bakery.

We also had a chance to watch Juno again. My parents hadn’t seen it yet. I’m going to try and watch it with the commentary before we have to return it. It is such a great movie!

A day well spent.

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Squeeze Me

Everyone needs a sweet treat! Lemon and Poppy seeds are one of my favorite combinations! [click to continue...]

Craving!

One part boredom, plus ne part left over chips, plus two parts hunger equals Butterscotch Chip Cookies. I’ve wanted to try Alexis Stewart’s Brown-Sugar Chocolate-Chip Cookies for as long as I’ve know about it. They are supposed to be flatter and less cakey than normal chocolate chip cookies.

After using all the chocolate chips in the house, and having half a bag left of butterscotch chips, I just had to make them. You can find the recipe here. NOTE: The image shown on the website is in actuality not the actual recipe (per Alexis Stewart on Whatever Radio)

I halved it as 50 cookies is quite a lot! Plus I didn’t have enough chips. After baking the first batch I saw that I made the drops too large, and there wasn’t enough flour in the batter. I added about 4 tablespoons more flour and reduced the size and voila! Yummy golden brown buttery goodness.

Let’s Get Baking!

Baking an Onion and Potato Tart. I don’t know what got into me. I had fun yesterday making cookies and we’ve had these onions sitting on the counter forever! Joe was doing dishes when I got home so the kitchen was nice and clean for me to make a mess Sorry, hon.

I dried the dishes and got to it.

First thing was finding a Pâte Brisée recipe. Pâte Brisée is just basic pie dough. I say Pâte Brisée because I think it makes me look fancy. teehee. First, the recipe in Joe’s school book was for 5lbs of dough! I didn’t want to convert it. The one in Chez Panisse Desserts was a little too complicated, and I didn’t want to think that hard. Plus the pages kept turning on me and I didn’t want to get the cook book holder down. So I decided on an adapted recipe from a Season Baking Class hand out by Julie Fether. (I did have to half it, the exact recipe I used tonight below) I adapted it to fit my own style.

Pâte Brisée
enough for one 11″ tart, plus extra

1 cup AP Flour
1 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3~3/4 cup cold water
8 oz. cold butter

Sift flour, add salt. Cube cold butter. Working quickly use your finger tips to work the butter into the flour until you reach an oatmeal/cornmeal consistency. Don’t over work the butter as it will melt. Cold flakes of butter = Flaky dough. If needed you can toss the mixture back in the fridge.

Quickly and all at once, add the water and mix until incorporated. Always err on the side of less water. It’s easier to add water than take it out.

Once the dough has gathered, turn it out on a lightly floured surface and knead it gently. Don’t overwork the dough. There should still be “marbled” butter batches visible. Once the dough is smooth and firm shape it into a disc and wrap it in plastic, chill completely.

Lasts 3-4 days; 2 months in freezer.
Take the dough out a few minutes before working with it. Always work with a cold dough. If it begins to warm up too much, toss it back in the fridge.

Once I had the dough made and in the fridge I moved on to the filling. I was searching for Caramelized Onion Tarts in our cook books and online. This is the one I based my recipe on. There are many many variations all over the place. The filling isn’t an exact science - mix and match fillings and spices to your hearts content. Experiment! [click to continue...]