The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

First let me say thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers for the past weekend. Hurricane Irene wasn't as horrible here as we expected, but she did pack a wallop. We didn't get too much rain, but we got a lot of high winds. At one point I thought my river birch tree was going to come crashing through my front window.

We lost power for the whole day. It didn't come on until sometime early this morning. I panicked later on in the evening and had my hubby drive to my brothers house (he had power). I pulled all my blueberries, t-bones and bacon from the freezer in the garage and had him bring them to him. I got sick thinking about going through fall and winter without my berries. So they are safe and sound.

We didn't open the fridges but maybe twice during the whole storm, so I think I managed to save everything else. Irene caused a lot of downed trees and power lines. We took a quick drive later in the day and saw lots of damage. One house down the road lost 2 cars to a fallen tree.

The clean-up is going to be intense, but we all made it safe and sound through the storm. That's enough hurricane fun for this season, now we'll just wait for a big snow storm! On to the recipe!
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I have two teenage boys.

Two teenage boys eat...a lot.

Then they bring other teenage boys over to the house and soon you have not two, but maybe five or six boys in the house, boys who are always looking for food.

I have discovered that there is one dressing that almost all these teenage boys love. It's ranch. They slather it on all sorts of things. My nephew is so addicted to the stuff that I literally have to stop him from putting it on his pasta. It's a sickness I tell ya.

I try to get them to eat healthy snacks, and although I know ranch isn't the healthiest of dressing, knowing that it's homemade and filled with herby goodness makes me feel a little better about it.

It is a great way to get them to eat their veggies!

Herbed Ranch Dressing
makes about 2 cups
From the kitchn.com
3 scallions white and green parts chopped, about 1/4 cup
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon nice olive oil
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup good mayonnaise
1 cup plain yogurt

If you're using a food processor, add the scallions, basil, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper to the work bowl and pulse a few times to incorporate. You don't want to puree this, just blend it up a little. Add the mayonnaise and yogurt and pulse once or twice again to blend. Scrape into a jar and refrigerate.

Alternatively, you can just stir all the ingredients together in a bowl. Just be sure you've chopped the onion, basil and garlic fine enough.

I find that the flavors are best after a day's rest so if you can, make this a day ahead of serving. It lasts about a week in the refrigerator.

Notes:
If you are using this as a dip, you may want to use a thicker yogurt, such as Greek-style. If you are using this as a salad dressing and you think it's too thick, thin it with a splash of milk or buttermilk. A very forgiving recipe!

If you want to use the traditional buttermilk, substitute the plain yogurt with 1/2 cup Greek yogurt and 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

If you don't have green onions, you can substitute finely chopped shallots or sweet red onion to equal 1/4 cup.

Basil is my preferred herb here but you can replace it, all or in part, with parsley. A bit of fresh tarragon is nice, too, although I add about 1 tablespoon of finely chopped tarragon to the 1/2 cup of parsley instead of doing the full 1/2 cup substitute.

Variation: Sprinkle in a bit of powdered chipotle or smoked paprika for some smokey heat!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Spaghetti a la Philly

I have lived in New England my whole life. I have lived in the same town my whole life.

I have experienced blizzards, snow storms, nor'easters, flooding and hurricanes.

Out of all of the above mentioned, I really don't like hurricanes and we have one headed right towards us.

Ugh.

The good thing is we have been through this before. We are prepared.

We know our garage will flood. We know that we will spend hours picking up anything that can become a projectile in the yard. I know I can kiss the last of my tomatoes good-bye *sniff*. We know that the power will go out.

We will make sure we all have a good book to read and something delicious to put in our bellies. We bought some extra lamp oil, we are stocked up on batteries, and we hit the packie (that's liquor store in Yankee talk) to pick up some beer & wine. I'm going to whip up some brownies and some bread. Make something delicious for supper and then we'll just hunker down.

This recipe is one that I could whip up even with a hurricane on the way! So easy, but ummm, not so pretty.

So not every recipe wins the beauty contest. This one is pretty ugly.

They are are not all equally photographable, but I won't let that stand in the way of sharing deliciousness with you.

This is an easy weeknight dinner. Just adding in a small amount of cream cheese transformed this from ordinary to ordinary but with a little "wow" added in.

The original recipe called for a 1/2 pound of pasta. That is called an appetizer for my teenage boys. I adjusted the ingredients to make a full pound.

Spaghetti a la Philly
Adapted from a recipe at Mommy's Kitchen
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash (or any other seasoning of your choice)
3 cloves of crushed garlic
1 jar (24 – 26 ounces) spaghetti sauce (or use your own)
5 oz cream cheese
1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained
Parmesan cheese

Cook the beef in a skillet over medium high heat until well browned. I added in some Mrs Dash and crushed garlic at this point too. Drain and return to the pan. Add in the sauce. Cut the cream cheese into chunks so they will melt easier. Add to the sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook for 3 minutes or until the cream cheese is melted.

Place spaghetti in a large bowl and add beef mixture. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

I found this recipe on Mommy’s Kitchen. Tina has a lot of great recipes that are very family friendly. Thanks Tina!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Wordless Wednesday~

Monday, August 22, 2011

Blueberry Vanilla Cream Cheese Pies

Every year for the past oh, about 16 years now, I have picked blueberries at Macombers Blueberry Farm. It’s sort of become a family tradition to go take a ride out to Western Coventry and travel down Mr. Macomber’s dirt rode to pick some of the finest blueberries in Rhode Island.

This year I was late. I usually pick at the end of July, but this and that got in the way. You know how this and that can be. Luckily Mr. Macomber is technically savvy and he made a Macombers Facebook page so it was easy to see when the patch was open.

We finally made it late last Friday afternoon. It was a little harder to pick than usual but the berries were still plentiful, we just had to dig a little farther into the bush to get them.

We picked 8 pounds, most of which were frozen for use over the winter. I did reserve some to make these scrumptious Blueberry Vanilla Cream Cheese Pies.

Heaven I tell you. Flaky puff pastry stuffed with a creamy blueberry filling.

Jesse was eating them straight outta the oven.

Look for my notes to see how I adapted the recipe to make these mini pies.

Blueberry Vanilla Cream Cheese Pies
Adapted from Fine Cooking – Karen Baker
Two 17.3 oz packages puff pastry (I only used 1 box)
3 oz cream cheese, softened
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
Seeds scraped from ½ vanilla bean (or ½ teaspoon pure vanilla)
2 large egg yolks
1 cup blueberries
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons crème de cassis (I used Chambord)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners’ sugar for finishing

Thaw 3 sheets of puff pastry overnight in the fridge. * see my notes

Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and pre-heat to 375. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the vanilla bean seeds (or extract) and 1 of the egg yolks. Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Combine the blueberries, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the cornstarch, crème de cassis (or Chambord in my case) and salt in another medium bowl and mix gently.

On a lightly floured surface, roll each pastry sheet into a 10 inch square……..arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet. . *See my notes - I did things a little differently.

In a small bowl, beat the remaining egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of water. Brush the outer edge of each pastry in the egg wash. Dollop ½ tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each pastry. Top with 1 tablespoon of the blueberry mixture. Fold in half to seal, pinch edges. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon remaining sugar. With the tip of a paring knife, cut a steam vent in the center of each pie.

Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, swapping and rotating the baking sheets positions about halfway through. Cool slightly on sheets then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

I made mini pies. Here’s what I did:

I rolled one piece of puff pastry out into a 10 inch square. I then cut it into 9 equal squares. I dolloped the cream cheese mixture and the berries in the center and then picked each one up (just like you were sealing a dumpling) and pressed the edges together. I then took a fork and crimped the edges. The berries are still going to seep out a little. There really is no avoiding that. I think it just adds to the rustic charm! So this recipe made 18 mini pies for me.