Dinner Party

I am completely exhausted and I have one hour until it's time to set the table and two hours until time to start cooking dinner.

We started our day at Wegmans. I was thrilled to find a one-gallon glass sun tea pitcher for $5.99 but distraught to find pineapples were $3.99 and that cored pineapples were $5.99. That's nuts.

I spent $48.76, which I'm counting toward the August budget even though it's July 31. I was bummed about that until I remembered I bought the sun tea pitcher.

I bought:

• 2 pounds Wegman's butter, one salted, one unsalted, $1.50 each
• one pineapple, $3.99 (grrr)
• the large bottle of coffemate vanilla chai spice creamer, $2.99
• 2 pints heavy whipping cream, $1.49 each
• 3 packages of celestial seasoning tea (blueberry, almond, and berry), $2.29 each
• 1 liter of Orangina, $2.49
• 3/4 pound sliced ham from the deli, $4.31
• shredded gruyère (domestic?), $3.60
• smoked gouda, $3.47
• the sun tea jar, $5.99
• 3 lbs bananas, $1.09
• 6 ounces raspberries, $2.50
• strawberries, $2
• ground nutmeg, $2.99

Before we left, I made the pear soup and I had set the brioche out and shaped it. When we got home, I baked it and brewed iced tea (green with berry). Then we went to the liquor store for wine. My husband came home early for lunch, so we had leftover crêpes and then I prepped the pineapple crumble and the zucchini cakes.

At 3 p.m., I'll set the table.

At 4 p.m., I'll start the crôque monsieur.

When the crôque is in the oven, I'll fry the zucchini cakes. While we eat the first courses, the pineapple crumble will bake.

Recipes:
Follow these links:

• Brioche-- from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells, also should be accessible via 'French,' 'bread,' and/or 'brioche.'
• Chilled Pear Soup-- Vegan, eileen bresslin
  
• Zucchini crabbiless cakes-- The Imus Ranch Cookbook, 'vegan' (Deirdre Imus calls it vegan even though she used eggs because she has her own chickens) and zucchini
• Perfumed Pineapple Crumble-- Venez Diner, C'est Prêt by Dominique Malet, follow pineapple or French or the name of the book
• Crôque Monsieur-- obviously French, it's from The Barefoot in Paris Cookbook by Ina garten
• Rye bread-- clicking on rye will show you all my experiments with rye flour

My daughter made me a lovely four-course meal:
Tomato salad (pictured)
Piled-High Sandwiches
A cheese and egg platter
Chocolate-Carrot Crumble

Chilled Pear Soup

I wanted to make the chilled pear soup Eileen Bresslin prepared for us in our vegan cooking class at Northampton Community College. But I can't find it. Online or in my cookbooks.

So, I experimented.

I took a big can of pear halves and put them in the blender with the freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon. I added about a 1/2 teaspoon of ginger. I blended. I poured half of it into three bowls and transferred to the fridge to chill.

That's the vegan sample.

I added a quarter cup vanilla-maple- drinkable yogurt from Klein Farm to the remaining stuff in the blender and added the lemon juice from the other half of lemon. This also got sent to the fridge to be taste-tested at lunch.

The verdict from the family:
The vegan option is the most soup like, whereas the yogurt one is more like a dessert or a palette cleanser. Both are equally edible.

Tracy's Yellow Cake

My friend Tracy said yellow cake is her favorite. So, I tried to hook her up.

From:
http://bakingbites.com/2005/10/happy-birthday-to-me/

Yellow Sheet Cake

2 ½ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13 inch sheet pan with parchment paper, or lightly grease it with shortening or oil (butter will produce a harder “crust”).
Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugar and, using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed to blend. Cut butter into 4 or 5 chunks and drop into the bowl with the flour. Blend on low speed until mixture looks sandy and no large chunks of butter remain, 1-2 minutes.
In a large measuring cup, combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat lightly with a fork until combined. With the mixer on low, pour 1 cup of the egg mixture into the bowl. Turn speed up to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes. Reduce speed back to low and pour in the rest of the egg mixture. Continue to beat at low speed for an additional 30 seconds, until liquid is fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds, if necessary.
Pour into prepared 9×13 pan and spread batter evenly with a spatula. Tap gently a few times to eliminate any bubbles.
Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack to cool completely. You can leave it in the pan if you’re serving it casually.
Serves 16 (or 12 birthday-sized pieces)

I really followed this one and made Betty Crocker's chocolate icing.

That I deviated from the recipe...
Chocolate Frosting (from Betty Crocker)
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
(I didn't have unsweetened so I used semisweet)
2 cups powdered sugar (I reduced to 1 and 1/3 cups because of the semisweet chocolate)
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Combine butter and chocolate until well mixed. Not when hot. Stir in sugar. Beat in milk and vanilla. Use enough milk to make desired consistency.

I also gave Tracy some Heath baking bits to sprinkle on top. Turns out Heath is her favorite candy.

The cake didn't cool before she had to leave so I sent her on her way, with the cake in the pan, icing in a separate container and the Heath bits.

Beef Burgundy

My recipe for beef burgundy should come up if you click French. It might be listed as "beouf bourgogne."

I've decided to make this for lunch. It's 90 degrees and humid, but I've been dying for this for days. Hence, why I'm making it for lunch and not dinner. It's hot.

I have never made this dish with a good wine. I've never been able to justify buying a good bottle of wine and pouring it into a skillet. But now that I think about it, if I pay $6 for 2 bottles of cooking wine, I could probably find a nice American red that would work for the same cost.

I have some beef cubes from a local farm in the skillet. I cut them small, because 1. I have a small child and this saves interruptions to my meal later and 2. I believe meat should accent the meal, not be central to it.

I cooked the meat slowly with chives from my garden and a few drops olive oil. As the meat cooked, I added some red cooking wine. And topped the meat with four-color pepper, freshly ground.

I poured more wine, a whole lot of vegetable stock and whisked in two tablespoons flour. That was tricky because I let it get too hot before I added the flour so it was a booger to get the lumps out. My daughter peeled five carrots for me, so I chopped them and added them. I'll let them bubble for a bit on medium before I transfer the whole thing to the big stew pot.

The original recipe for beef burgundy calls for a bouquet garni, which wikipedia defines as such:
"There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, thyme, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are also included in the bouquet.

Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a net, or even a tea strainer instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter and butcher twine can be used instead of leek leaves."

Today, I'm using some herbs from my garden, probably parsley, oregano, a hint of basil and maybe some lemon thyme.

After the stew simmers a while (about three hours) I'll taste the broth and dilute/add wine as needed.

BTW: I've decided never to use cooking wine again. It's real wine or nothing from now on, because the cooking wine is too salty to get the balance of flavor and salt... it either tastes super salty or like nothing.

Honeyed Grilled Cheese on Rye with Broccoli

I had originally hoped to make beef burgundy sometime soon... but stew is not an apropos choice when it's 90 degrees and humid.

So, instead, I used my homemade rye bread to make little grilled cheese sandwiches with white sharp cheddar and a touch of honey on one side of the bread, added right before you take the sandwiches out of the pan.

I sautéed the fresh broccoli in some seasoning I wasn't real keen on.

The recipe for honeyed grilled cheese is actual a ham-and-cheese sandwich and should be available by clicking on sandwiches.

Egg wash substitutes

I do a lot of baking and I don't let lack of ingredients stop me. I need an egg wash today for my pretzels and I am without eggs. This is what I found online:

• According to 'Artisan bread in five minutes a day,' using a cornstarch slurry.

"Using a fork, blend 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch with a small amount of water to form a paste. Add 1/2 cup water and whisk with the fork. Microwave or boil until mixture appears glassy, about 30 to 60 seconds on high. It will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks; discard if it has an off smell."

• soy milk or milk
• vegetable oil
  

90-minute soft pretzels

I thought to take full advantage of today's humidity, I'd make pretzels as well as bread. But I couldn't find my pretzel recipe so I turned to this one:

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1918/90-Minute-Soft-Pretzels89212.shtml

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour; unsifted
2 tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
1 package Active Dry Yeast
1 cup Water
1 tablespoon Margarine
1 tablespoon Water
1 Egg Yolk; beaten
Coarse Salt

Directions:

Mix 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Heat 1 cup water and margarine to 120 to 130 degrees. Gradually add to dry ingredients; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of mixer. Add 1/2 cup flour.

Beat at high speed 2 minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. On floured board, knead 5 minutes. Set in greased bowl; turn to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm, draft-free place 40 minutes.

Divide dough into equal pieces. Roll each into a 20-inch rope. Shape into pretzels or other shapes. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rest 5 minutes. Mix egg yolk and 1 tablespoon water; brush on pretzels. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 375 degrees 15 minutes or until done. Cool on racks.

This recipe from CDKitchen for 90-Minute Soft Pretzels serves/makes 1 dozen

Now, we all know I can't follow a recipe. So, be warned that I used 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat. I used 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon honey. And I don't have any eggs, so I either have to skip the egg wash or find a vegan alternative.

I might use the French bread trick of putting water in the oven to crisp the outside.

My ideas for toppings:

herbs from the garden, salt, parmesan cheese, garlic pepper, cocoa powder, sesame seeds...

I decided to make half my batch apple-cinnamon-almond-chocolate pretzels. I grated an apple that was on it's last leg and tried to drain as much moisture as I could from it. I kneaded about 2 tablespoons of apple into each stick. Then, I used corn starch and water to serve as the egg wash, and sprinkled with cinnamon, sliced almonds and cocoa powder.

Great Day for bread!

It's humid. Humid as in take one step outside and the humidity coats your body.

So I started bread. Lord knows the yeast likes this weather. I experimented with a wheat-white-rye loaf.

In my big glass bowl, I mixed:
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon yeast

(The honey really gets the yeast really moving. It's not necessary.)

In another bowl, I mixed:
2 cups (and a little more) unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
3/4 teaspoon salt

Then I put three cups of that mixture into the water/yeast froth and stirred with my wooden spoon until dough-like. I covered with a damp towel and now it needs to sit for three hours. Then I'll add the rest of the flour and need.

Quiet blog/ Weis

The blog has been quiet because my daughter went with her grandmother on Friday and has not returned home. My husband and I had a nice dinner to attend on Friday, for the first ever Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Literary Awards. That was a fun night.

Then yesterday we ate things like scones out of the freezer and nachos.

We went out last night and stopped at Weis supermarket for a few things I forgot. Butter, greens for the tortoise, ingredients for pumpkin crêpes. When Weis had a store in our neighborhood, I used to shop there all the time. Then they moved the store.

I can say for a fact that store is expensive and I have no intention of going back. Ever if I can help it.

We got two cans of pumpkin. I'm not sure if it's Wegmans or Giant, but one of these sells the generic can for 99 cents. Weis is $1.09. A small bottle of real maple syrup is $4.99 at Wegmans. $5.69 at Weis. Butter is $2.50 a pound, whereas I know I can get it for $2 elsewhere. And actually, if I would have gotten two of there 1/2 pound boxes... I believe those were $1 each. 16 ounces of coffeemate, $1.99. Broccoli crowns were $1.99 a pound, which made my jaw drop when I saw the receipt. But then at the end of the receipt, I see there was a club card discount, dropping the price to $1.29 pound. Red Leaf lettuce was also $1.99 a pound. Carrots were $0.99 for a one-pound bag. At Giant, they would have been the same price but baby carrots would have also been 99 cents, as would organic carrots.

A huge bag of Twizzlers was $1.85, a box of jujyfruits was $1, and their generic fancy chocolate bars are 50 cents a piece. And there was a general box of strawberry shredded wheat for $2.69 that packed a nice nutritional punch.

And the jujyfruits were bad. Half the box were fresh and delicious. The other half were crispy and gritty, not hard and stale, gritty. They are getting sent back to the manufacturer.

Fruity sparkling cocktail

I finally made my zucchini cakes tonight and wanted to serve a cocktail to go with it, something light for summer.

So I placed some ice, about one cup seltzer, about 1/3 cup berry juice, a splash blue curacao and a splash of grenadine in the shaker and mixed.

End of July groceries

I had $71 in my wallet this morning. It was earmarked as the rest of the grocery budget for July. I had a meeting at the office at 10, which I thought would take about an hour. So, the plan was:

• Stop at Wegmans for non-perishable items only available at Wegmans: whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour, mango salsa, chunky pizza sauce.
• Go to office and prepare for meeting, attend meeting (with child, keep in mind) and meet husband to being him home for lunch and go home.

The reality was:

• Go to Wegmans. End up buying those items and more, including a watermelon, which I brought into the office because I didn't think it should spend the morning in the hot car.
• Arrive at office at nine.
• At noon, call husband and tell him to buy lunch at Wawa.
  
• Leave office at one.
• Take child to Friendly's for being so good at the office.
• Watch child eat for HOUR and a HALF.
• Stop at Aldi for perishable items, including greens for tortoise.
• Bring groceries home. (3:37 p.m.)
  
• Finish report for the office and go get husband
• Finally, get home. Open blog and realize: I didn't buy any butter.

My husband spent $4 at Wawa and he had the cash. We spent $22 at Friendly's (Child ate a whole "big kid meal" and I had the $9.99 drink-entrée-dessert deal), which means I still made a profit-- because I had intended to be at the office less than 2 hours and I worked a total of 4.5 today.

But back to the groceries:

I spent $49.12 at Wegmans on the following...

• Food You Can Feel Good About 100% Juice Berry $2.39 (I know I can buy juice at Aldi for $1 a can of frozen concentrate but at the time, I didn't plan to go to Aldi.)
• Inkos White Blueberry Tea, an individual jar $1.75 (I know that's insanely expensive, but I needed a drink for my daughter and I to share at the office. The cleaning man took my old glass bottle thinking it was trash. My daughter and I don't agree on much, and I didn't want to get a soft drink.)
• Three boxes of pasta (2 nugget shapes and one elbows) 89 cents each
• three small cans of Wegmans tomato sauce, 30 cents each (again, Aldi is 25 cents each but I didn't know at the time...)
• 14 ounces of Wegmans tortilla chips $2.50
• Wegmans organic mango salsa $2.99
• Wegmans chunky pizza sauce 99 cents
• Wegmans organic ceasar dressing $1.89
• Wegmans vegetable stock $2.99
• 2 five-pound bag unbleached enriched white flour $1.59 each
• 1 five-pound bag wheat flour, $2.29
• black beans, 59 cents
• 3 cans no-salt added red kidney beans, 59 cents each
  
• 100 square feet of plastic wrap $1.99
• 100 snack bags $2.49
• 12 double rolls of Wegmans toilet paper $4.99
• Hain Safflower Mayonnaise $3.19
• Wegmans Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce with calcium 99 cents
• 2 bottles Suave shampoo and one bottle conditioner, 79 cents each
• Crest vanilla toothpaste $2.69
• One whole seedless watermelon $2.99

And later at Aldi, total $21.36:

• spring mix, $1.69
• spinach rigatoni, $2.99
• 2 bags of frozen peas, 95 cents each
  
• california blend frozen vegetables, 95 cents
• 3 8-oz blocks of extra sharp cheddar cheese, $1.29 each
• 34.5 ounces coffee, $4.99
• 2 cans large black olives, 99 cents each
• smaller can of decaf coffee, $2.99

Mac N Bacon

Oh, the evils...

I never made it to the store to get the remaining ingredients for zucchini/crabbiless cakes. Although ironically, my friend Gayle made them at her house. Tomorrow here I hope...

We have no vegetable in the house, except the 4.5 pound zucchini. We have no flour. No fruit. Very limited resources. I have $70 in my wallet designated for grocery shopping but I haven't made it there.

Oops.

So we made our last box of spaghetti and made mac and cheese by adding a pack of generic cheese mix from a box of mac and cheese I stole the noodles from a while ago, our last tablespoon of real butter, some raw milk, and (gasp!) Velveeta. Someone gave me the Velveeta. I did not buy Velveeta. Let me repeat: I did not buy Velveeta.

That would have been bad enough, from a nutrition standpoint but... I added smoked bacon. Also from the farm. 1/3 of the package went in the pasta, 1/3 in the fridge for sandwiches later, and 1/3 in the freezer.

We topped with garlic pepper and served.

Crabbiless Crab Patties

This recipe comes from The Imus Ranch Cookbook. That particular cookbook considers itself vegan because they raise their own chickens and therefore have a comfort with eggs. If you are truly vegan, this recipe will not appeal to you.

For the everyday eater, this is a fabulous way to use up those zucchini from the garden, especially the big ones that may not longer be tender.

I will be making a version tonight that includes lemon-pepper cheese from the farm.

Crabiless Crab Cakes
By Deirdre Imus
From The Imus Ranch cookbook

2 cups grated zucchini (whether or not you skin it first is a personal preference)
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
3/4 cup soy or regular cheddar cheese (I have reduced this in the past)
1/2 cup finely diced red onion (I skip or replace with some chives or with a clove of garlic)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegan (soy) or regular mayo
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce (I use soy sauce)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup olive oil (for frying)

Combine everything but the oil in a big bowl, form into patties and fry. They suggest these amounts make six cakes. Cook over medium heat seven to ten minutes per side.

Thursday, July 23... Two days after the original post... I finally got the ingredients assembled to make this. That huge zucchini made about 13 cups grated zucchini. I froze about 5 cups in one bag, four in another and kept the remaining for a double batch of the crabbiless patties.

My ingredients
4.5 cups grated zucchini
3 cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
3/4 cup sheddar sharp cheddar
1/2 cup parmesan
1/4 lemon cheese spread from the farm
2 farm fresh brown eggs
2 teaspoons brown mustard
4 tablespoons safflower mayo
2 teaspoons reduced sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh grated four color pepper
2 teaspoons It's a Dilly
a random spattering of fresh chives

I got 11 patties yield. I layered five on paper towels to help absorb the moisture, covered with wax paper, another paper towel and then another five. I repeated one more time with the last lone pattie and then covered and placed in fridge until ready to cook.

Too much moisture and too rapid heat with make zucchini hash out of your patties. So cook carefully.

Mystery Crustless Quiche

I've made quiche several times for this blog, including the crustless version and the mystery version. When I scanned my past entries, the original quiche entry did not appear under any of the logical tags ('French' and 'eggs,' though I'm not sure if I checked 'betty crocker' or 'cheese.') I've decided to retype the original recipe, from the Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook, for ease of use.

Quiche in this house is a good way to use of leftovers. Today we have garden green beans, black olives and salsa/cheese dip in there. I also made today's quiche with farm fresh raw milk and brown eggs. And somehow, my family has managed to use TEN eggs since Sunday.

Quiche Lorraine
By Betty Crocker

One 9-inch pie crust
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded swiss cheese
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
4 eggs
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat oven to 425. Press pastry into pie dish. Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion in bottom. Beat eggs slightly. Beat in remaining ingredients. Pour into pie dish. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven to 300. Bake another 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Today's Mystery Quiche
By Angel
note: I always include a vegetable in my quiche. I rarely use anywhere near the cream and cheese recommended, so my quiches sometimes require less liquid and more cooking time to gel. Honestly, Americans eat a ridiculous amount of protein, so three sources of protein in one dish (bacon, cheese AND eggs) is overkill. By reducing the amount of protein sources in a meal, you reduce the cost.

I oil or apply cooking spray to the pie dish and avoid the crust.

In the bottom of the pan, I arrange, in this order:
1 cup green beans, French cut
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/2 to 3/4 cup American cheese/salsa dip I made for dipping the other night

In a separate dish, I whisked 4 eggs and 1.5 cups raw milk. Add to pan. Follow cooking directions above.

Pumpkin Scones

To use up the pumpkin syrup from the crêpes the other day, I made pumpkin scones and used the syrup as icing. This was my first use of this recipe and it didn't include a size for how to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet, as a consequence, my scone bottoms burned and my top didn't quite cook all the way through because I made them too big. I made them "scone size" forgetting they would rise in the oven.

The syrup did not exactly harden as much as I expected. I thought with the butter it would take on a more solid quality.

I got the recipe from
http://wholesomefeasts.blogspot.com/2008/05/pumpkin-raisin-scones.html

4 C flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C butter, softened
2 1/4 C sugar, plus 4T for the topping
2 eggs, well beaten
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 C raisins
Heat the oven to 375 degree F. line 2 baking pans with Silpat liners. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, allspice, 1 tsp. of the cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside. In a mixer, cream the butter until it is fluffy and then add the sugar. Once the sugar is blended in , add the eggs and pumpkin. Now slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the raisins. With 2 spoons drop the mixture onto the two baking sheets. With the back of the spoon flatten the scones. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 3 tsp. of cinnamon and 4T of sugar and sprinkle on top of each. Be sure to leave at least 2" between each scone. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks. Makes 36.

I modified it in the following ways:
Instead of 2 cups raisins, I used 1.5 cups raisins and 3/4 cups oats. (I ran out of raisins.)
I didn't have enough butter so I used 1/2 cup butter and less than 1/4 cup canola oil.
I used parchment paper, but honestly I have no idea what Silpat liners are.
I reduced the sugar to 1 cup because 2+ seemed like a lot.
And for a topping I didn't mix sugar and cinnamon, I just used a sprinkle of dark brown sugar.

Herb garden

I started my herb garden as a way to plant perennials that would lower my need for yardwork.

I planted lemon thyme as a ground cover in the front flowerbed. It smells fantastic. I have never cooked with it, but the next time I make chicken francaise I plan on using some.

In the back yard I have chives, oregano and spearmint.

I use the spearmint for iced tea. I use a lot of chives. Occasionally, I remember to use oregano in sauces or chili.

I try to plant parsley and basil every year. Basil is yummy and parsley, according to elook.org, is a good source of vitamin A and vitamin C. For organic gardening, different herbs deter different pests because of their strong scents.

In the past, I've planted catnip. I haven't had good luck with it, which is probably good since it tends to grow like nuts if it really takes off.

I also had a lavender bush die this spring. My mother-in-law planted a new baby lavender, which I use to make lavender sorbet at the end of every summer.

I started freezing my herbs so less "go to waste." I've read that they won't stay firm, but they will retain flavor. One person advocated chopping them roughly and putting some in different sections of an ice cube tray, but I carefully arranged mine in small labeled plastic bags and then laid them on top of a box in the freezer. I made sure they weren't touching so it'd be easier to grab them from the others when I need a pinch. Once they froze, I added the little bag to a big freezer bag labeled fresh herbs.

Foccaccia

To use the ripe tomatoes my mother brought us from her garden, I opted to make a homemade herb foccaccia. As usual, there's the 'real' recipe and my modified version.

We're serving this for dinner with farm-fresh corn-on-the-cob and hopefully the last of the greenbeans from my garden.

I've had the original recipe for more than a decade. My notes say it originated with the VegList, a veg*n email recipe exchange list I belonged to when I first decided to learn to cook. I seem to remember a similar recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I guess I'll have to trust my memory.

Rosemary Foccaccia
from VegList
For the dough

• 1/4 ounce active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm
• 3 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, minced

Topping

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds onions, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• fresh rosemary sprigs
  

Garden Foccaccia
Angel's version

For the dough:

• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (maybe a little less)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground pasta and pizza seasoning

For the topping:
combine in food processor:

• close to 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh chives

1 to 2 tomatoes, sliced
parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Combine water and yeast in bowl. Stir with non-metal spoon and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. If you're making Angel's version, prepare the pesto topping and refrigerate to give flavors time to meld.

3. Once the yeast is activated, add the salt and 2 teaspoons olive oil to the yeast and stir with the non-metal spoon. Add 2 cups of flour (if using wheat or rye, use one cup of wheat/rye and one cup white) and the herbs-- fresh rosemary for the rosemary foccaccia and the pasta seasoning for the garden foccaccia. Stir with a heavy wooden spoon.

4. Add another cup flour and stir as dough begins to form a ball. Turn onto floured surface and knead until soft and elastic. Add more flour as dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with. Knead for about ten minutes.

5. Oil a large bowl (with olive oil, cooking spray or butter). Place dough in bowl and flip to coat. Cover bowl with clean, damp cloth and place somewhere warm and free of drafts to allow to rise. It needs to double in volume. Should take about 90 minutes.

6. When it's done, punch down. Oil a 12 x 18 baking pan, including the edges. Place dough in center of pan and spread across the surface evenly. Cover with damp cloth again and let rise for 45 minutes.

7. While dough is rising, if making the rosemary version, heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions in the oil, turning to coat as they begin cooking. Cook about 15 minutes until soft but not burned. The oil should be absorbed. (I hate onions so I have never done this.)

8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When dough is done rising, make indentations with your fingers in the surface of the dough. Lightly brush olive oil (for the rosemary version) or pesto (for Angel's version) across the bread. Sprinkle with salt if desired. (I don't)

9. If using the onions, spread them evenly across the dough now. I use fresh tomato instead, sliced thin. Raw. I brush the remaining oil/sauce over them as I place them. I also sprinkle parmesan cheese.

10. Bake for 30 minutes until dough is lightly browned. If using fresh rosemary as part of the topping, add in the last five minutes of cooking.

Cucumber sandwiches

Because of our trip to the farm this morning, and the offerings from my mother's garden... We opted for cucumber sandwiches for lunch. This works out especially well because my mother-in-law gave us a variety of crackers leftover (and unopened) from my grandmother-in-law's 90th birthday last weekend.

Mimi, my mother, brought us a cucumber from her garden yesterday and there's only two ways I like cucumbers: in a salad or on these sandwiches.

We served with fresh blueberries my father-in-law picked last week and blueberry yogurt smoothie from Klein farm.

Angel's Cucumber Sandwiches (perfect for a tea party or summer lunch)
Ingredients

• 1 cucumber sliced

• Some variety of spreadable cheese, vegan cream cheese, or cream cheese. (Today we used lemon pepper cheese spread from Klein farm)
• Crackers (wheat thins, triscuits, Ritz, whatever)
• It's a Dilly Seasoning (A McCormick product with onion, garlic, dill, lemon and jalapeno pepper. Salt free)

Take one cracker, spread with cheese, top with cucumber, sprinkle it's a dilly on top. I prefer mine open faced. My daughter and husband both prefer lids.

To the farm!

I want my daughter to understand where her food comes from. I also want to support local farms, and since eating local reduces shipping times for merchandise, it improves nutritional content and freshness.

Plus, then I see how the animals are treated.

Today we spent $29. We bought two packages of smoked bacon, one half-gallon of milk, one large container of their blueberry yogurt smoothie, one container of lemon cheese spread, a half dozen ears of corn and a dozen brown eggs.

Pumpkin Maple Crêpes

I'm finally feeling better. I open my cupboards and they are bare. I see a frozen pack of crêpes and decide to make chicken crêpes. I send the family out to my garden to pick fresh lemon thyme. I'll cook the chicken with fresh chives and lemongrass/corn soup and make... what's this? There's no chicken left? Where did it go?

Plan B: Pumpkin Maple Crêpes
from: http://coffeeworks.blogs.com/coffee_and_tea/2006/10/pumpkin_crepes.html
modified of course

This turned out to be fabulous for summer since everything is room temperature except for the pumpkin sauce that tops the crêpes.

Pumpkin Filling
1-15 oz can pumpkin puree (with about five tablespoons pumpkin in reserve for the sauce)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves (I added the cloves to make it taste more like pumpkin pie)

Mix thoroughly in a bowl.

Butter Sauce
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
about 1/2 cup water
5 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Melt butter in a skillet. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Heat well.

Make your own crêpes (this blog has a recipe), purchase some, or use pancakes.
With the crêpe room temperature, spread a thin layer of filling across the crêpe and roll/fold in your preferred method. Coat with the syrup. That's it!

The original recipe yields about 15 crêpes and estimates two per person. We made more filling than that and still ran out after eight crêpes but we had a ton of syrup remaining.

Daddy Pasta

While cleaning Tuesday a.m. I did something to my back. I've spent much of the last few days with ice packs and Aleve. I thought I was better today but an unexpected day on my feet at my desk job destroyed any progress I had made.

This directly relates to my post. I made chicken diable to use the chicken I had planned to prepare as a fancy French style meal on Tuesday. The effort killed me. So, for yesterday and today we lived on leftovers.

Last night my husband made this pasta. He loves to experiment with noodles. Nothing drastic, always lots of cheese.

He made spaghetti. For the sauce he used two tiny cans of the plain tomato sauce, seasoned them with Italian seasoning, and added the tail end of a big old block of cheddar we'd been cooking with for the last week or so. I don't buy sliced cheese. I either get cheddar in blocks from Aldi, $1.20 for 8 oz., or the warehouse club, about $5 for 32 oz. Orange American freaks my daughter out because in our house cheese is white. And since the big blocks dry out if you don't store them perfectly, my husband thought it'd be a good idea to finish this one off.

Then, he added frozen vegetables. Peas, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli to be exact. I would have left out the carrots, but it was a bag of 'California blend' and unlike me, he wasn't about to pick them out.

Chicken à la diable with Asparagus

I made Chicken à la diable for lunch to use the four chicken breasts I thawed for last night's dinner. Click on the chicken link below to see the recipe. I more or less followed it today, except I added some Indian Chili Powder into the bread crumbs for kick. I used the last of my homemade breadcrumbs and had to add some storebought to make it work.

The asparagus. Well, I meant to glaze it with olive oil and bake with the chicken. Except the olive oil came out too fast so it may be heavier than I wanted. I sprinkled library with garlic pepper, my four-color peppercorns and some sprinkle parmesan.

Bastille Day

I had jury duty yesterday so my in-laws bought my daughter pizza for lunch. My husband took generic boxed mac and cheese and doctored it for dinner. We ate the same for lunch today-- pizza and mac and cheese. I planned a fancy chicken dinner for tonight, but threw my back out.

My husband is making cauliflower for dinner, sautéed in olive oil to replicate my popcorn cauliflower recipe. It's purple cauliflower my mother-in-law got at some local farm. To accompany, we're having scrambled eggs.

Not exactly the meal for le quatorze juillet I imagined.

The eggs came from Klein Farm.

Perfumed Pineapple Crumble (Crumble d'Ananas à la Vanille)

We had leftovers for lunch. Fruit from yesterday's 90th birthday party for Nana. The last of the chicken salad with pecan-raisin bread. And some more American brie.

My husband set that up while I prepared a Perfumed Pineapple Crumble for his cousin's baby shower this afternoon.

I adore this cookbook that Jessica got me from France. I had some pineapple from the farmers market so I thought I'd give the pineapple crumble a go. Jessica, when she cooks from one of these French cookbooks, translates the entire recipe and does the conversions, writing it all on the cookbook before she starts.

I don't.

I read over it, look up unfamiliar ingredients (like cassonade, I didn't know that was brown sugar) and then bring the laptop with me for conversions and last minute questions for wordreference.com. Most of the time, I start preparing it and realize I hadn't even read the whole recipe.

So, Crumble d'Ananas à la Vanille called for:
100 g de buerre mou + 1 noix pour le moule
150 g de sucre cassonade + 3 cuillierées à soupe pour le moule
1 ananas
4 cuillerées à café d'extrait de vanille liquide ou en poudre
150 g de farine

So, my conversion calculator suggested that 85 grams equals a cup...
1 cup butter, plus some to grease the pan
About 2 cups brown sugar, plus three "soup spoons" for the pan
1 pineapple
4 "coffee spoons" of vanilla extract (in liquid or powder. I would love to have vanilla powder.)
2 cups flour (okay, I ended up doubling this because my crumbs were really wet and sticky)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the pan and sprinkle (saupoudre- isn't that a great verb?) with three tablespoons of brown sugar.

Cut the pineapple into pieces. "Perfume" them with two teaspoons of vanilla and mix well. Arrange in the pan.

In a mixing bowl, mix the remaining sugar, the flour and the butter (sliced and soft) with the tips of your fingers to make "sandy" crumbs.

Add two teaspoons of vanilla and mix.

Cover the pineapple and bake for about 45 minutes.

Serve lukewarm or cold with vanilla ice cream.

Chicken Salad on Pecan-Raisin Bread

The chicken salad I made this morning came out nice, but what made the sandwich was the bread.

I served with fresh strawberries and "new pickles," both from the farmers market.

My husband hates pickles, but he likes the new pickles because they are salted cucumbers more than pickles. My husband hates vinegar .

I am posting the photos from lunch, because presentation is important. And I like to share.

Feel the Love (Chicken Salad, Lavender Green Tea, and fresh berries)

My girlfriend Shannon has a philosophy for any major purchase: "Feel the Love."

It's okay to spend $100 on a fabulous pair of jeans IF you feel $1oo worth of love. But sometimes, even if something is reduced to $20 from that original $100, and even if it fits, if you're not feeling the love worth the $20, it's not worth buying. Makes sense, doesn't it?

I do that with food. I won't pay $3 for a loaf of factory-processed sliced bread. And occasionally I feel the $4.50 worth of love for the bakery bread I have deemed "magic bread." (Giant's multigrain sandwich bread, it makes the GREATEST toast ever.)

I made a second walk around the farmers market yesterday because I thought I felt the love for the $6.25 fairly large loaf of pecan-raisin bread. It screamed "good toast," "eat me with peanut butter" and "I'm not just bread, I'm dessert." So, I bought it.

Now, remember I spent $40ish total, and this included $15 worth of rabbit. That means 1/2 of what I spent was on two items: a rabbit and a loaf of bread. The rest was produce and spices.

In the same "feel the love" philosophy, I took four organic green tea tea bags and the last two teaspoons or so of my expensive bottle of lavender honey to brew iced tea. (The tea bags were a find at the warehouse club last summer and they're individually wrapped so I don't have to worry about them aging poorly.

Meanwhile, I'm making some plain-style chicken salad to go with the fancy bread. My daughter and I already cut the fresh strawberries (and knowing her, by lunch they may be gone.) I had planned fresh apricot in my chicken salad, but I don't think my apricots are ripe. I slipped a pinch of It's a dilly seasoning, garlic pepper and curry into the cooking chicken.

I sliced and shredded about two cups of chicken, added about two teaspoons of fresh parsley from my garden and at least two, maybe more, teaspoons of fresh chives from my garden.

I lubricated it with 1/2 cup vegan light canola mayonnaise (I hate real mayo, always have. So does my dad). My recipe says 1 cup "dressing" but I thought that would be too wet for the amount of chicken I had, so I added, in addition to the canola mayo, three tablespoons Wegmans ranch yogurt dressing.

I can't wait to serve on the new bread with thin-sliced tomato and red leaf lettuce from the farmers market. I wish it were lunch time.

Rabbit with Sage and Lemon (Lapin à la sauge et au citron)

I bought a three-pound rabbit at the farmers market today. I thought I'd make 2/3 of it, but half fit better in my pan. I got the idea of making rabbit from my Venez Dîner C'est Prêt cookbook that Jessica brought me from France.

Now, I didn't read the recipe very closely and so it took me a while to realize I needed a beer, and not just any beer but a "bière blonde" (blonde beer).

The recipe suggests that one rabbit will feed four people.

Ingredients
1 rabbit cut in "morsels" (the butcher cut mine in four center sections and each leg)
1 lemon, not juiced
4 cloves of garlic, whole, in the "skin?"
8 fresh sage leaves
1 bottle of blonde beer
12 black olives
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 410 degrees.
Arrange the rabbit (I only used half the rabbit) on a platter and salt and pepper it. Place in baking dish with the lemon in quarters (I sliced into eighths). Add the sage leaves and the cloves of garlic.
Add the beer.
Cook one hour, adding the olives at the mid-point. Cook until the meat is tender and the sauce caramelizes. If it cooks too quickly, add more beer. If it doesn't reduce enough, return to the oven.

I'm serving with broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil and fresh pineapple.

The rabbit disappeared. I think my daughter could eat two pounds of rabbit meat by herself. Tender, moist, but like buffalo wings-- a lot of work to get the meat off the bone.

The sauce had a lot of flavor for how simple it was.

Allentown Farmers Market

If you've read some of my other blog entries, I've been trying to buy fresh and local. Or at least from independent folks who know where they're food comes from. But I am on a budget, so I can't go wild.

I spent about $45 today, I say about $45 because my friend Gayle who shopped with me ending up sharing some of the stuff she wouldn't finish all of. I spent $39 exactly. And of that $3 funded breakfast for the child: chocolate milk and a dill pickle on a stick.

I bought produce at two different vendors: baby cucumbers, one tomato, three lemons, apricots and broccoli; then the second was red leaf lettuce primarily for Blue our tortoise and fresh sage.

At one fruit stand I bought two pineapples already cored for $5 (Last time I bought a whole pineapple it was $2.88), and Gayle bought strawberries at another.

At the pickle stand, Gayle bought new pickles, which aren't really pickled as much as cucumbers in brine. My daughter and I both sampled some varieties of different types of pickles.

At the butcher, I bought a three-pound rabbit for $15 and they chopped him into pieces for me. That's supposed to be dinner tonight. At the bread baker, I bought pecan-raisin bread, thinking it would make wonderful toast for me for breakfast or even a light summer dessert if served with fruit. And I'm hoping to make chicken salad for lunch tomorrow and use this bread.

For lunch, we're having leftover brie and brioche, the raisin-pecan bread toasted with peanut butter, and lemon yogurt from Klein Farm with fresh apricots. Crazy combos!

Brioche and American Brie

My brioche, that I used lavender honey in the sponge, came out as the fluffiest brioche ever. Incredible, delicious, but perhaps too fluffy. We served with American brie, JIF natural peanut butter, Nutelli, Smuckers grape jelly and Trappist seedless raspberry jam.

I mentioned to my friend Jessica, who bought me the French cookbook, that I take my food very seriously.

"I know," she replied. "It's one of the things I like about you."

I froze three batches of dough for more brioche. Each should make slightly more than half of what I have pictured here.

Funky Mexican Style Meal

We made that hot bean dip on Sunday and today I plan on using it for some sort of cheddar cheese burritos for lunch. I'm currently boiling water for brown rice. 1 cup instant brown rice. I put in the pan 2 cups water, about a teaspoon commercial chili powder (the kind that has all the chili seasonings not just chili powder), about a teaspoon garlic powder and a few twists of my pepper grinder with the four color peppercorns.

After the rice cooked for about six minutes I threw in some tiny pieces of fresh broccoli, about 1/4 cup frozen corn, about a 1/4 cup frozen peas, and about a 1/4 cup fresh matchstick carrots that are no longer that fresh.

I sprayed my skillet with some no-stick spray, tossed in flour tortilla, some shredded cheddar and a few spoonfuls of the bean dip. With the heat on around medium, I slapped a lid on the skillet and cooked it until the cheese melted, careful not to let the bottom of the tortilla burn. I pulled it off the heat, topped with mango salsa and rolled.

Those who have followed my blog for a while know that I serve mango salsa with my Mexican dinners because it has a nice vitamin C and vitamin A content, so it's not nutritionally void like a lot of salsas. I use Wegmans. They have a generic version that's organic.

Making Brioche

About once a week or so, one of my friends visits for "French movie day." Tomorrow is such a day. Normally, I try to make some nice food, but tomorrow I have to return to work after a month off. Yesterday I had jury duty, so my in-laws served pizza for lunch and I whipped up vegetarian sausage (Morningstar) sandwiches on homemade bread (wheat biscuit for the daughter, and the failed rye rolls for her father and I) and the Greenbean Caesar I made the night before. We ate the entire pound of greenbeans!

Today we have a fairly open day. I'm thinking of making some sort of burritos for lunch with the leftover beans from Sunday. And dinner might be Wegmans boxed mac and cheese with a vegetable as there is a summer reading craft project at the library that begins at 4 p.m.

I brewed some decaffeinated unsweetened tea. And my daughter and I started brioche. It may be ready for dinner tonight. If not, I had planned it as lunch for my friend. I have brie in the fridge that I bought at the warehouse club. It's American double cream brie, instead of French triple, but budget is important these days.

I can get about a 1/3 pound of real imported triple cream brie at Wegmans for about $5. At the warehouse club, about a pound of imported brie is $9. Slightly more than a pound of the American brie is $6.50.

My brioche process comes from the Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. It's been listed in this blog before, click on 'French' or 'Paris Cookbook' or 'brioche' or 'Patricia Wells.'

My daughter took some photos of me starting the brioche. I have included some here.

Greenbean Caesar

I harvested about a pound of greenbeans from my garden. I started making greenbean caesar, but then we also had nachos. (Odd combo, I know, but we just got home from the park and we need to get food in someone's belly so we can get her in the tub.)

We used a special hot bean dip, mango salsa and cheddar cheese for the nachos. They were so good no one wanted any greenbeans so I think I'll wrap them up and serve with dinner tomorrow. I have jury duty so who knows if I'll be home in time to cook.

The original recipe came from the recipe software Darrell bought me for my old Mac Performa... ten years ago.

Greenbean Ceasar:
1.5 pounds fresh greenbeans or two 9-ounce packages frozen
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used EV olive)
1 tablespoon wine vinegar (red works, so does balsamic, so does apple cider in a pinch, and today I tried champagne. Fabulous, especially since my family detests a strong vinegar flavor)
1 tablespoon minced onion (I skip, though I may try fresh chives instead)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I skip)
1/8 teaspoon pepper (I use my grinder with my four-color peppercorns and I don't measure)
1 clove garlic, pressed

Topping
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan*
1 tablespoon butter or margarine*

Paprika

* To make this recipe vegan, I skip the cheese and the butter.

Cook beans to desired crispness. Then toss with all the other ingredients, except the topping. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put beans in oven safe dish. Combine topping ingredients and mix with fingers to form "crumbs." (I often skip this and just sprinkle whatever I want on top, including other seasonings.) Sprinkle over beans. Add paprika to top if desired. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Coffeecake and Egg sandwiches

So, we had coffeecake from Friday for breakfast yesterday and today. Yesterday we finished the blueberry and today we started on the nut and the plain. For lunch yesterday, we had the rest of the salad my friend Kim made me for lunch Friday (it was huge) and peanut butter toast. The picnic we attended for July 4 started at 2 p.m., so I didn't want a heavy lunch.

For dinner Friday night, we had leftover pizza from my daughter's birthday I had frozen.

Today. while my husband took our daughter to the park, I brewed some green and pomegranite teas to make iced tea. For lunch we had egg sandwiches with eggs from Klein Farm on my homemade rye-sesame rolls. I fried the eggs with parsley from the garden. Some cheddar cheese on the eggs. We all had different condiments. I had French dijon mustard. My husband had vegan mayo. My daughter had ketchup. I served with some salt and vinegar potato chips and blueberries and cherries.

Rye rolls take two

My dad and his wife are hosting a picnic today, so, I knew I should bring something but I had no idea what. I'm not a cold salad person, and I don't have the ingredients for any of the cold salads I like. As usual, I'm plotting at the last minute.

My stepmom usually has burgers and corn and watermelon. I opted to make rolls. No one else will make bread, that's for sure, and it's nice and humid. Perfect for bread. My stepmom was surprised to get my call this morning with that news. Hopefully they turn out yummy.

I've taken to storing all my flour in the freezer. My luck lately has been far from good regarding the longevity of my flour. Also, this was my first batch of bread with the brick of yeast from Gayle. There's 32 ounces of yeast there. The date on the bag suggests "best by 2/2011" so it should be interesting to see how long it takes me to use it.

Verdict on batch two of the rye rolls: (recipe available via rye link)
Delicious when you follow the recipe.

Breakfast meeting

I hosted a business meeting this morning. It's my web team for my book's web site. They like to barter instead of get paid.

So this morning I made/served:

• Three coffee cakes (blueberry, honey-pecan and plain)
• Diced potato with fresh parsley and chives
• farm fresh bacon
• creamsicle smoothies
• homemade granola
• local cherries
• blueberries and pineapple
  

Streusel Coffee Cake

Years ago my mother gave me a little pocket cookbook called "Cooking for Two for Couples" (the redundancy in that title is amusing, isn't it?).

I'm using their recipe for streusel coffeecake and making variations for my guests.

I'm making plain, blueberry and honey-pecan cakes. I can't exactly reproduce my recipe because... well, I'm a mess in the kitchen today. Here is the original.

Streusel Coffeecake for Two
1/2 C sugar
1/4 c margarine
1 egg
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons milk

crumbs
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream flour and butter. Beat in egg, lemon extract and vanilla.
Combine 3/4 cup flour, salt and baking powder. Stir into creamed mixture alternately with milk. Pour into greased and floured 6x6 pan. Combine crumb ingredients, sprinkle over top of batter, bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Yogurt Parfaits

For dinner, my husband took this morning's leftover decaf and made iced coffee with raw milk. For dinner, we had some Klein Farm lemon yogurt with my own homemade granola from the other day with fresh pineapple, local cherries and blueberries.