summer | familystyle food

Farm Fresh Summer Tomato Salad

Aug132007

Simplicity in a bowl – fresh ripe tomatoes

After a just one week here in Maine, I’m reveling in the peak of summer produce – what could be better?

The weekly bounty

My Missouri friend Alanna (of A Veggie Venture), and Stephen Cooks, have been maintaining a virtual relationship with the folks at Wolf Pine Farm, a community-supported farm in southern Maine. In a simple twist of fate, it happens to be the very same CSA that my sister and brother-in-law belong to, and is always at the top of my list of places to visit during our annual summer trips.

As I helped L gather her weekly share, I couldn’t help thinking that summer is almost over – all the more reason to savor the simple, fleeting pleasures of sweet summer tomatoes.

Simple Summer Tomato Salad

Fresh tomatoes, in a a variety of colors and sizes
Extra-virgin olive oil, the best you can find
Salt
Finely sliced red onion, optional

Serve the tomatoes in a bowl, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt. Stir in some sliced onions, if you’re feeling adventurous.

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11 Comments · Filed Under: soups & salads, The Recipes:, vegetables · Tagged With: farmers market, salad, summer, tomatoes

Weekend Herb Blogging: Lavender Lemonade

Jul152007

Herbal Refreshment

In my front-door herb garden, my lavender plants are in the starring role right now — you can smell the blooms from across the street!

I’ve been noticing lots of recipes for lavender that are intriguing me (rubs, panna cottas, roasted chickens and shortbread cookies), but time is of the essence, and today is hot.

I saw this recipe in the August issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray (She’s everywhere!) and made up a batch. It has a nice undertone of lavender and seems to be a perfect partner with lemon.

Susan at FoodBlogga is hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Go on over and check out what’s growing and cooking.

Lavender Lemonade
adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray

7 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons fresh lavender flower buds
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Pour 3 cups of the water over the lavender in a heat-proof bowl; let steep 15 minutes. Pour remaining water over sugar in another large heat-proof bowl and stir until dissolved.

Strain lavender mixture and pour into a pitcher along with water and lemon juice. Chill.

Serve over ice with a lavender sprig.

Beautiful Bins of Lavender at the Portland Farmer’s Market

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11 Comments · Filed Under: drinks and snacks, The Recipes: · Tagged With: drinks, lavendar, lemonade, summer, weekend herb blogging

Black Raspberry Birthday Cakes

Jun272007

I felt Farmer’s Market Greed during our Saturday morning trip to the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market. I was in line waiting – relatively patiently, I might add, despite the fact that my eyeballs were starting to sweat and it wasn’t yet 9 a.m. – to purchase a few baskets of fresh, dewy black raspberries. Then the woman at the front of the line chose to buy all the pints displayed on the table. I felt a clenching, anxious panic come over me as I watched her snatch them up.

The person behind me sucked in her breath and said “Oh, are there any left!?”

That’s just what I was wondering, but because I was in the process of sending out invisible extra-pointy asparagus spears into the back of the black raspberry-buying woman’s head, I wasn’t able to articulate the question myself.

It turned out that yes, there were plenty more berries – enough for everyone!

But I was a little traumatized by my greediness. I might need to do some deep breathing before shopping for precious produce next time out.

We just happened to be celebrating a birthday in the middle of a busy weekend, and I thought that individual cakes would be satisfying and fuss-free. I might be a little greedy, but I don’t have time to mess with fussy, fancy cakes. I adapted a recipe for Brown Sugar Bundt Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours (is there any recipe in this book that doesn’t turn out perfectly?) by baking the batter in oversized Texas muffin tins instead of a Bundt pan and reducing the baking time.

These are essentially big, rich cupcakes. They would be yummy without the topping, maybe just a dusting of powdered sugar over the tops.

I would stand in line for these any day. Just don’t buy all the berries!

Black Raspberry Almond Birthday Cakes
for 10 cakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely ground almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, softened
2 cups (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Topping:

1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint mixed fresh berries (blueberries, raspberries and blackberries or black raspberries)
Powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 2 6-cup oversize (Texas) muffin tins with softened butter and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Beat in the extracts.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and mixing just until dry ingredients are incorporated.

Spoon batter evenly into 10 cups of the muffin tins (pour water 3/4 full into the 2 empty muffin cups for even baking) and bake 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Cool pans on a rack 15 minutes before turning cakes out to cool completely.

To make the topping, combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat at high speed until the mixture forms soft peaks. Dollop over the tops of the cakes and top with berries. Dust with powdered sugar.

Happy Birthday!

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