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Lamb Tagine with Blackberries and Dates

Lamb Tagine with Blackberries and Dates, almonds, onions, garlic, ginger cinnamon, corriander, honey, and orange zest
Christmas Eve found us retreating inside, close to the wood stove, as the -35 F wind chill and blowing snow made outdoor activity rather unpleasant. But, if you have a wood stove and time to hang around it, you can do all sorts of fun cooking. On this day, I made a delicious lamb tagine with freeze-dried wild blackberries we foraged this summer, and dates from the pantry.
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Pecan Rolls

Pecan Rolls

Yummy, sticky, sweet, spicy… Pecan Rolls!

I wish I could make pecan rolls as good as Joann McCormack, “The Cinnamon Roll Lady.”  Alas, I must limit myself to those little sticky plops of ambrosia to summer, when I can get them at the Tuesday evening Culver Farmers’ Market.  Mine, though, are still pretty durn sticky-good.   My version is also easy and quick to make.  I can put it together in time for breakfast even on a busy Sunday with parade, chapel, or other commitments. Continue reading →

Refrigerator Brioche Dough

Brioche Dough

Make and refrigerate (or freeze) a large quantity of brioche dough, and you can make a wide assortment of fresh goodies in little time

Things have been a bit really crazy lately, allowing not so much time to cook, let alone bake.  Yet the ducks kept laying eggs, even as the days get shorter and colder.  Normally they would have slowed nearly to a stop by now.  The result?  I’m running out of egg storage space!

So, on a stormy Sunday with no work duties(!) and a lot of studying to do, I decided to do something about it.  I made up about a 4 1/2 pound batch of refrigerator brioche dough!

Brioche is a (very) enriched bread dough, with lots of egg and butter, and sweetened with a bit of honey.  It’s often baked in a typical loaf shape, but can be substituted for challah, made into cinnamon rolls, or beignets filled with chocolate or jam (though that requires deep frying,  a mess I seldom want to deal with). Continue reading →

Blueberry Basil Salad Dressing

Blueberry Bail Salad Dressing

Blueberry Basil Salad Dressing

I awoke from my post-farmers’-market nap Saturday with a start.  I had been pondering what to feed some farm volunteers (and us) who were planning to come by Sunday morning, as well as how best to emphasize the produce we’re harvesting now.  And it came to me in a flash.  Or a dream.  I can almost never remember my dreams…

It’s getting into mid-July, and we’re starting to get some good variety in the harvest, but not really high summer.  Some exciting stuff is coming in – we’re harvesting lots of blueberries, cucumbers and zucchini are coming in strong buy we’re not sick of them yet, and the basil is really getting going.  Wait a minute!  Blueberries and basil might go together!

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