Raised on the Farm

Blueberry Pecan Frittata

Recipe boxes. Who remembers them? My mother’s favorite recipes are easily identified, even today. As she aged into her nineties, she became less capable of cooking, but the browned recipe cards with worn and tattered edges remained in her recipe boxes, which I am delighted to now own. She frequently penciled in changes to the recipe, depending on what she might have tried or intended to try. She also used the power of free speech and opinion writing rather liberally on her recipe cards, scribbling comments like “Delish!” on the edge. Or a directive such as “I urge you to try this!” might be scrawled next to the addition of wheat germ when recipes were headed in my direction. The source of the recipe, when known, was always carefully noted as well. She was a librarian, after all.

I tend to be a bit, eh… perhaps lazy is the right word in regards to maintaining her practices. It’s not unusual for me to make major changes to a recipe, then neglect to note them. My husband predictably asks if I wrote down the modifications, with the likely answer of “well, not yet.” Implying that I will do it, ha-ha. Inevitably I will ask him if he remembers what I did when I attempt to make the dish again…

I am delighted to tell you that I have turned over a new leaf! Or recipe card! Or something like that. In other words, I am trying to be more systematic about noting the original source of a recipe, along with how I have altered it. Sometimes I don’t alter the original at all, but enjoy it enough to use as a template to create a dish that is similar, yet unique in its own right. The recipe I’m presenting today came about in this fashion.

I have no idea what I might have been searching for when I stumbled onto a strawberry almond breakfast frittata recipe that sounded like a low carb sort of thing I might actually want to eat. I am most decidedly not a savory breakfast sort and I once managed to eat low carb for almost six hours…

Anyway, I found this recipe on the blog https://www.asaucykitchen.com/sweet-frittata/. Turns out the blogger further credited Eating and Living Gluten Free magazine, from which she adapted the recipe. Nor is my alteration the only one you might locate using an online search. This crediting of sources is much more complicated than I ever might have expected, and I wonder if my mother would have continued the practice under these conditions… But I do think she would have enjoyed this particular recipe, even though low carb would have been a foreign concept to her. She did live on an egg farm!

I encourage you to check out the original recipe, because it’s really quite tasty and I still make it, though not as often as my own adaptation. Why? Because blueberries and maple syrup is a match made in heaven, pecans are my favorite toasted nuts and goat cheese provides a tart richness that perfectly counters the small hit of sweetness. Perhaps I could even “urge you” to take a deep low carb plunge and try them both.

Print Recipe

Blueberry Pecan Frittata

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Mary Kay Allen

Ingredients

6 eggs
¼ cup pecan meal
3 tablespoons maple syrup divided
½ teaspoon each vanilla extract and maple flavoring or 1 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
1- tablespoon butter
Sprinkle of cinnamon
1/3- cup goat cheese crumbles
1/3- cup chopped toasted pecans divided
2 cups blueberries divided
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Instructions

Whisk the eggs, pecan meal, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, extracts and salt together until fluffy. Melt the butter in a 9-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and cook, not stirring, until partially set, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon, the goat cheese crumbles, ¼ cup of the pecans, and ½ cup blueberries. Pop under the broiler for about 5 additional minutes, or until eggs and set and top begins to brown. Remove from the broiler, and scatter the remaining pecans and berries over the top. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon of maple syrup, and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Makes 4 servings

Mexican Rice and Black Bean Salad

More and final musings on “Why Cook?”

I have been a lifelong cook, primarily because I enjoy it. I enjoy being creative with flavors; when I am playing with my food, one never knows-could be tremendous, could be horrendous…I am thankful that I can cook, though, because over the years I have had to accommodate diet for varying medical conditions.

My mother prepared at least two variations on the meal each evening. One was for my father, who had ulcers along with then unknown IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and reflux disease. Since next to nothing was actually known about these digestive issues, his diet was bland; picture a hospital tray prepared with a bit of my mother’s finesse. For the rest of us, the meal was usually a bit more inspired, and certainly better seasoned. Today, many people need food prepared for specific dietary concerns, more than ever before.

I have learned the hard way, several times over. When my beautiful daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the grand old age of eleven, the whole family was thrown into a tizzy. During her week in the hospital, all we managed to learn was how to give practice shots to oranges. (And not very well, at that.) Our first post-diagnosis grocery trip took hours, as my husband and I studied nutrition labels in horror. What in heaven’s name had we been eating up to then? I was so grateful at that point that I not only knew how to cook, my bachelor’s degree had included concentrated study in the science of food and nutrition. Because now, each and every gram of carbohydrate had to be accounted for to figure the exact dose of insulin, and there were limits to the grams of carb that could be eaten at each meal. Let’s see, there’s 13 grams of carb in a cup of milk, 24 grams in ¼ cup of flour… Uh, yeah. We stockpiled cookbooks and magazines in which the carb counts were already included. If you made changes to the recipe, the carbs had to be re-calculated…

Fast forward to now. While conditions like IBS and reflux disease supposedly don’t have a basis in genetics, I have followed in the old man’s footsteps with both, and my unfortunate adult son is well on the way to following mine. I have spent years trying to decipher what might explain my digestive issues and what I should and should not be eating. Be careful for what you ask! My new gastroenterologist pointed me in the direction of the FODMAP elimination diet, which made more than clear that several classes of carbs were culprits. So I am back to cooking for specific dietary needs, now for myself.

Enter this salad. A recipe for kidney bean and rice salad has long been a favorite of my husband. But beans? Hard to digest. And garlic as the major seasoning? Can’t digest that either. Yes, you heard that right. I can use garlic infused oil, but no cloves of garlic. Compensating for the loss of that strong a flavor basically meant starting over. Time to play with the food… A Mexican flavor profile has the potency to substitute for the garlic heavy French one. Sprouting powerfully improves both the digestibility and available nutrition of beans, and I receive easy-to-sprout fresh black beans in my CSA box.* Black beans and corn in tandem are delicious. Add in some roasted poblanos, diced serranos, and avocado. Dinner is done and everyone can eat it. And thankfully, there are no hospital trays in sight!

Print Recipe

Mexican Rice and Black Bean Salad

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Total Time1 15

Course: Entree Salad

Servings: 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

1-½ cups cooked brown rice
2 cups cooked black beans from dry beans or canned
2 ears of corn stripped from the cob (can use canned or frozen)
1 roasted poblano pepper chopped
¼ cup diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon diced Serrano pepper
¼ cup sliced celery
1 scallion thinly sliced
Dressing
2 tablespoons garlic infused oil can substitute fresh diced garlic clove and olive oil
1- tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons orange juice
pinch each of salt pepper, cumin and oregano
Avocado and tomato for serving

Instructions

Combine all ingredients through scallions in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, toss with the salad and chill. Serve on plates with sliced tomato and avocado.

*I start with the freshest dry beans I can find. The beans I get in my CSA box are always fresh and sprout easily. I also have had good performance from Rancho Gordo beans, available online at https://www.ranchogordo.com/

Using a quart jar with a sprouting jar strainer lid, soak the beans for 8 hours, then strain the water. Rinse and strain the beans 3-4 times a day until small white plant sprouts appear. Cook as usual.

Baked Zucchini Fries

True confession…

My name is Mary Kay, and I just might be a recipe addict. Thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be a habit for which I really need to join a support group. (My husband might disagree.) It’s just one of the ways I like to spend my time, checking out other people’s ideas about what to cook and how to cook it. Upon which I can then put my own spin.

In retrospect, I come by this habit pretty honestly. When my parents bought their farm, the house was a typical old, drafty farmhouse. They might have been the originators of the open concept, as they would go on to renovate the kitchen and living areas, adding substantial space. One wall of the newly expanded living room consisted of upper display shelves for my mother’s knick-knacks, with the bottom being enclosed bookshelves. While books might have been the original intention, in actuality, piles upon piles of “women’s magazines” lived there. Magazines that were chock full of recipes. This is the closest my mother ever came to hoarding…but either of us could easily select an old issue to peruse, assured that if enough time had passed, we wouldn’t remember it!

I continue her collecting today, though I limit the number of accrued magazines by tearing out the recipes I really want to try, and recycling the remainder. (I live in a smaller house, okay?) Not to mention the fifty or so cookbooks I regularly refer to for inspiration. There’s always the library, and of course, the Internet is any true recipe addict’s dream come true!

Now, if one Googles the phrase “cook without recipes” a list of sites will pop up, because there are some who believe that not using recipes is the key to teaching our cooking illiterate populace to prepare food at home. The theory reasons that recipes, with their lists of required ingredients and steps, not to mention shopping, are intimidating. Particularly if one has to use a recipe for every dish being served at the meal.

A professor in my grad school program believed when children are learning to read, they need to understand that the printed word is simply “talk, written down.” Well, as I see it, recipes are just spoken instructions, written down. As you read them, just imagine the steps popping patiently, one by one, out of your grandmother’s mouth. Hopefully she was a good cook…

While I did learn general cooking principles working side-by-side with my mother, I would argue that many of the foods I prepare without a recipe today are simply the product of repetition; having made the item so many times I know the directions by heart. That said, it is easier to make a meal when only one or two dishes require referencing directions. And it certainly is helpful to be able to open the pantry and fridge, offer up a little prayer as to the contents, and cobble together a meal with what happens to be there.

With that, I offer my “recipe” for zucchini fries. Nobody at my house gets too fired up when I mention that the vegetable tonight is zucchini, with this one exception. These are nothing but breaded, seasoned zucchini sticks, baked until crisp. But as you read through the “recipe”, just imagine my voice is guiding you through the steps…

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Baked Zucchini Fries

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Vegetable

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 small young zucchini
¾ cup flour of choice gluten free is fine
2 eggs beaten
1 ½ cups bread cracker or nut crumbs
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon chopped rosemary
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Olive oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425° F.
If you have a shallow rack, place it into a half sheet pan. If not, line the half sheet pan with parchment paper. Place the flour in a shallow dish and the beaten eggs in a second dish. In a third, combine the crumbs, pinch of salt and pepper, the rosemary and cayenne. Slice the zucchini into ½ inch sticks. Salt and pepper the slices. Dredge the zucchini slices in the flour, then roll them in the beaten eggs, then coat with the crumb mixture. Place on either the rack or parchment in the sheet pan. Drizzle slices lightly with olive oil. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and tender.

Mediterranean Cobb Salad

Mediterranean Cobb SaladOn the farm, my mom and I participated in a bizarre thrice-daily ritual, typically gathering a specified list of ingredients, measuring and combining in proportional amounts, and applying heat or refrigeration. We called it…COOKING.

Mind you, growing up, there was not an abundance of choice. We lived on a FARM. There was a paucity of nearby restaurant options and truth be told, my mother was quite picky about where she would eat outside the home. She knew we could eat better at home than in most restaurants at that time. She’d probably still be correct in that assumption were she sitting here today.

During the years of my career, we ate more home cooked meals using real ingredients than many families of the time. While I must admit to feeding my family the occasional frozen item, none of them were met with much enthusiasm. It was more fun to buy them than to eat them; they offered such promise while still in the box, but seldom delivered on the taste buds. Nevertheless, when my grown and fully employed son comes for dinner, we have a new ritual. He raves about the meal, I state that it was easy to prepare; he reminds me that, given the available time after work, “easy” is pouring milk on cereal… (There is hope for him, as he recently acquired an Instant Pot!)

Cooking, and/or the lack thereof, has been a topic of great concern in recent times. The trend of allowing others to prepare one’s meals is trumpeted either with alarm or delight. One can choose to eat out, order in, purchase previously processed food, order meal kits etc., etc. The list can go on ad finitum because the options are limitless. “Cooking” is much simpler than it used to be. Being the foodie that I am, I find the study of this phenomenon fascinating.

I first viewed the idea of delivered meal kits as an odd concept, but they facilitate people feeling that they are cooking themselves and their families a good meal, and their detailed instructions may actually help people learn to cook. They also encourage folks to try new ingredients and flavors. (One of these delivery services has even published a cookbook! That’s coming full circle!) The downsides are cost, along with perhaps allowing users to think that all meals need to look like a restaurant plate.

Other ways being used to encourage people to cook include preparing “bowls.” Grain bowls. Buddha bowls. The “recipes” offer up lists of simply prepared ingredients, placed in little piles atop a bowl of grain or greens and topped with a dressing or sauce. No measuring, flexible substitution of ingredients, simple to prepare ahead.

Then there are the “sheet pan suppers.” A list of ingredients including vegetables and proteins are combined on a large sheet pan and oven roasted together. I can go for this as long as raw meats are separated from the other ingredients, each to their own side of the pan, please. Because many recipes just jumble them together, don’t you know. Makes the home economist in me shudder.

To be truthful, I was one of those kids who didn’t like the different dishes being served to touch one another on the plate. I can still hear my mother tell me that it all ends up together in the end…
But today, in the end, I’m grateful that cooking is simply routine for me.

There is, however, one simple dish I prepare in the heat of the Tucson summer that fits the easy cooking bill. Like the “bowl,” it combines various single ingredients on a bed of lettuce with dressing. In other words, it’s a SALAD. And the ingredients are neatly separated into lovely colorful stripes. My Mediterranean Cobb Salad is both easy to prepare and beautiful on the plate. Is it cooking? Maybe…

Print Recipe

Mediterranean Cobb Salad

Prep Time30

Total Time30

Course: Salad

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

Salad greens of choice
Diced roasted pepper green or red
Diced roast chicken
Diced Kalamata olives
Whole cooked chickpeas marinated in the dressing if desired
Diced green onions and parsley
Cooked farro or other grain of choice
Diced fresh mozzarella feta is a good substitute
Frozen peas, thawed
Diced tomato
¼ cup quality olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon each of thyme and oregano
pinch of freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon prepared Dijon mustard

Instructions

Prepare the dressing by whisking the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, salt, mustard and seasonings together. Clean and tear the salad greens into small bite size pieces and use to line the serving platter. Amounts of remaining ingredients are flexible, depending on the number of people being served. To serve four, use ¾ to 1 cup of each item. Spoon each ingredient onto the platter in a neat line, being sure to alternate colors. When ready to serve, drizzle with dressing.

Notes

Nutrition:
Calories: 492
Total Fat: 20.9 g
Sat Fat: 3.7 g
Cholesterol: 34 mg
Sodium: 265 mg
Total Carb: 43.2 g
Fiber: 13.8 g
Total sugars: 10.6 g
Protein: 22.1 g

Put An Egg On It

I have to wonder what they were thinking. Perhaps they were ahead of their time, transitioning the diversified family farm to an egg farm. My mother was a stay-at-home mom after years of being employed. Perhaps she was bored, or they wanted to supplement my dad’s income. Who knows? Whatever the reason, the pullets arrived and we began to produce eggs. Y’know how a few chickens in the backyard is a charming idea? Two thousand chickens, not so much… and that’s a small number when compared to today’s egg production facilities.

Egg farming facilities tend to get a bad rap these days, but many of the high production practices of today weren’t even imagined when my folks decided to narrow their farm focus to egg production. Our chickens were housed in a huge old airy tobacco barn, well ventilated with a high roof and lit with long windows. The dirt floor provided plenty of room to roam along with insects to supplement their feed. Rows of roosting boxes lined with hay allowed them to nest comfortably. No cages and no oddly bred birds unable to hold up their own weight. These birds lived in the high rent district in comparison to the chickens of today.

The egg business also ensured that our own supply of eggs and chicken were never in short supply. Not too surprising that many of our meals were centered on eggs: eggs baked in nests of buttery bread crumbs, waffles and eggs, creamed hard cooked eggs with dried beef, etc. etc. The chickens, however, were the old biddies, who having outlived their ability to produce eggs, required stewing to be tender. My mother and eventually I became masters at producing chicken dinners from long and slow simmered geriatric hens.

The family favorite was what my mother called “pot pie.” Pot pie was not a deep dish of meat and vegetables with a crust, though. It was more of a stew, with squares of chewy homemade noodle dough, carrots, celery and hearty chunks of chicken all afloat in a bowl of very rich chicken broth. It often included little eggs, basically yolks, from the hen’s egg sac. It was true homespun comfort food. I’ve learned in the past several years that it is actually an Amish and/or Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, as are several of my family’s traditional foods.

I had not made this delicious richness in decades. It was lost along with the robust hens that actually taste like chicken. The bland birds available in the supermarket just wouldn’t make this dish. But in recent years I have once again been able to find authentic well-raised hens, at my local community supported agriculture. Better yet, the birds are not the geriatric types. We manage a number of meals from one of these birds, first roasting the whole chicken for dinner, reserving pieces of meat for the stew. Followed by slicing meat for sandwiches. When the carcass is the only remainder, it is stewed along with aromatic vegetables to make the flavorful broth needed for the pot pie. This recipe begs for a cold lazy day. Don’t wait as long as I have to try it.

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Chicken Pot Pie

Prep Time45

Cook Time20

Total Time1 5

Course: Entree

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 cups of high quality chicken broth preferably made from your own chicken
¾ - teaspoon each of thyme rosemary, and tarragon
4 large carrots scrubbed and sliced ¼-inch thick
4 ribs of celery washed and sliced ¼-inch thick
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups cubed or pulled chunks of chicken
Dough
2 cups flour I use my usual blend of sprouted and spelt, but all purpose is fine, too
½ teaspoon salt
2 lumps of shortening or butter the size of a walnut (about 3 tablespoons)
1 egg
½ cup hot milk

Instructions

Bring the broth to a boil in a large soup pot and season with the herbs. Add the carrots and celery and reduce to low. Cover the pot and simmer the vegetables while preparing the dough.
Combine the flour and salt, then cut in the shortening until the texture resembles grains of rice. Stir in the egg and hot milk, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half very thin, approximately 1/8-inch in thickness. Cut into 1 to 1 1/2 –inch squares.
Bring the broth mixture back to a boil, and drop the pot pie squares in slowly. Once all are in the broth, stir to ensure the squares don’t stick together, then reduce the heat to a strong simmer. Cook 20 minutes, or until the pot pie dumplings are tender. Add the chunks of chicken and heat through. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Almond Cherry Scones

Old Midwestern farmhouses are notoriously chilly places come fall and winter. With its huge old fuel oil furnace in the basement, ours was no exception. The family bathroom was the one reliably warm spot in the house. Dread built to a fever pitch each morning as I prepared to exit my warm bed, until finally I’d hop out, grab a robe and race down the steep stairway to that warm room of sanctuary.

My mother could often be found standing atop the heating vent at the foot of the stairs, her nightgown and robe inflated into a bell by the force of the warm air rising up from the basement. Steam emanated from the tightly clutched mug in her hands, an invisible lifeline connecting her to the coffee pot. As a kid, I never understood why she just didn’t want to chat until at least one cup of her caffeine elixir was consumed, but I understand now!

Eventually, she would recover enough stamina to tackle making breakfast, which was always a solid morning repast. While it was often some combination of bread and eggs, she would also bake quick breads like bran muffins and whole-wheat biscuits. In our home, this tradition has morphed into scones, hands down my husband’s most popular quick bread. While he will eat just about any of my baked goods with gusto, when asked what he would like, the answer is always scones. In his mind, they are just slightly reminiscent of his southern mama’s biscuits. I have a number of scone recipes, but the Almond Cherry Scones I’m sharing today is one of my favorites.

These scones are a bit softer than the typical biscuit, due to the addition of an egg and a small amount of almond paste. They are moist and full of almond flavor, without being too sweet or rich. The recipe as written uses 100% whole wheat flour, but all-purpose flour can be substituted for whole-wheat pastry flour if you can’t quite handle that much “health.” Given that I am one of the ill-fated folks with IBS, I use a combination of sprouted wheat, spelt and Sonoran white wheat flours to maximize digestibility and nutrition. But basically you can use whatever wheat based flours you like; I have not tried this recipe with gluten free flours.

This year in the Sonoran desert, summer lingered into what is usually a lovely lengthy fall; summer temps have finally been pushed off center stage, and winter is nipping around the edges. Chilly mornings are welcome and I’m happy to heat the oven for baking. As cool mornings arrive, give these scones a try. I am a real pushover for the steamy aroma and flavor of almonds and cherries, and you may find that you are, too!

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Almond Cherry Scones

Prep Time30

Cook Time18

Total Time48

Course: Bread

Servings: 10

Ingredients

1- cup white whole-wheat flour
1- cup whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter cut into small cubes
1 ounce almond paste
1/3 cup tart dried cherries lightly chopped
2 tablespoons slivered toasted almonds
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1- teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
milk or cream for brushing the tops
coarse sugar for the tops

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Prepare a baking sheet either by lining with parchment paper or lightly spraying with pan spray.
Combine the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl or food processor. Cut in the butter and almond paste until the size of rice grains. Stir in the cherries and almonds.
Combine the wet ingredients well and pour into the dry mix. Extra buttermilk can be added a tablespoon at a time if the mix appears dry, but only until the mixture can be gathered together.
Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly several times and form into a firm ball. Press or roll into a circle about an inch in thickness.
Cut into 8-10 wedges, depending on the preferred size of scone. Place the wedges onto the baking sheet, at least ½-inch apart. Brush each scone lightly with milk or cream, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, til beginning to brown on top and edges. Remove to a cooling rack. Serve warm with butter. Leftovers freeze well.

Citrus Breakfast Cheesecake

I figured that “Citrus: Part Two” wouldn’t be near as appealing as cheesecake…

Fruit curds are scrumptious-thick, rich spreads made from fruit, sugar, eggs and butter. And no, they most certainly are not health food! But like jam, a little bit can add amazing flavor. I played with making curd all winter, given the non-stop zest and juice from our various citrus fruits. The best ones combined sweet tangerine juice with the more tart tangelo juice. I actually have to confess, though, that my lazy self has been trying to perfect a reliable microwave recipe for it, and while all the experiments have been tasty, they haven’t all been curds, and certainly haven’t been reliable. I’ve discovered just this week that with slightly more effort, involving creaming the ingredients before stovetop cooking, my lemon curd was perfect. I use my frozen citrus curds to flavor numerous simple dishes and the good news for cooks everywhere is that beautifully bottled lemon curd is available in most grocery stores. Which means that you can leave all my kitchen experimentation behind and just make delectable dishes easily!

Plain, tart whole milk yogurt is one of my go-tos for breakfast. Sometimes I just spoon on the curd and top with toasted nuts. Or make layered parfaits with Greek yogurt, citrus curd and granola. Either way the sweet acidity of the curd balances the tartness of the yogurt beautifully. One of my mom’s easy desserts was what she called jelly tarts. These consisted of pie dough, rolled and cut into circles, with a cutout in half of them. Once baked, she would simply fill them with jam. I like to fill them with a combination of blueberry jam and citrus curd, the flavors of which are natural partners. But my favorite way to use citrus curd is in cheesecake.

Now Mom made a fabulous New York style cheesecake, dense and rich with just enough sugar, vanilla and a tinge of lemon. It was a large cake, made in a spring form pan with graham cracker crust. Mind you, she didn’t make it often, I suspect for the same reasons that I don’t make it. Even sliced into very small servings, it’s calorific to the max and easily serves a big crowd. If I don’t have a crowd to eat all those petite little pieces, you can imagine who will… me. Which I do not need. BUT, what if I could make a lighter version and call it breakfast? That’s a win in my book.

The first time I experienced such a thing was in Boston, roaming the aisles of Faneuil Hall in search of something to accompany my morning cappuccino. What I discovered at an Italian stall was a slice of creamy ricotta cake with a buttery cookie crust. Not a major improvement on Mom’s cheesecake in terms of fat and calories, but delicious beyond belief. Once home, I set about making one that inspired just a bit less guilt. The ricotta is higher in protein and lower in fat and carbs than cream cheese, which made for a good start. Replacing the buttery cookie base with crushed granola provided just enough crust to satisfy while still feeling somewhat virtuous. And while I used whole milk ricotta, I suppose one could use part-skim to really push the virtuosity, but how much fun will it be if it isn’t a tad bit naughty? Balancing dietary virtue with naughtiness; story of my life. Citrus zest, juice, curd and vanilla provide the flavor and balance sweetness. Baked in an 8-inch pie tin, the recipe makes 6 to 8 servings, depending on your morning appetite, but let us not forget that this pie has to fuel your body for the whole morning…

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Citrus Breakfast Cheesecake

Prep Time45

Cook Time30

Total Time1 15

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 6 slices

Ingredients

1 ½- tablespoons soft butter
1 cup crushed granola divided
1/3- cup milk
2 eggs
1 lb. ricotta cheese
1- teaspoon vanilla
1- teaspoon citrus zest of choice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3- cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour I use spelt, but all purpose or GF blend is fine
2 tablespoons citrus curd of choice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the butter thickly over the bottom and side of an 8-inch pie tin. Sprinkle 2/3 of the granola over the butter and roll the pan around to evenly distribute, forming a “crust.” It’s fine if the layer on the bottom is thicker than the side.
Place the remaining ingredients in the order listed into a blender. Blend on medium speed to thoroughly combine. Pour evenly into the prepared pie tin. Bake for 15 minutes to allow the edges to set. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining 1/3-cup of granola around the edges. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until mostly set; it may be soft in the center but will fully set upon cooling. I like to top each slice with a dollop of citrus curd.

Fig Frozen Yogurt

We interrupt the planned posting about citrus, part two, to bring you a post about a currently fresher fruit known as…

FIGS.

Seasonal foods were the rule on the farm; if you wanted to eat, they were what showed up on your plate. Out of season it had better be cellared, canned or frozen, because the selection at the grocery was slim by today’s standards. I have to admit that my mother, the adventurous cook, did go a bit hog wild when a selection of more international ingredients began showing up in the produce bin, but for the most part we happily ate what we produced or found locally.

I continue to prioritize purchase of foods produced locally. However, a few years ago a small carton of tiny, pear shaped purple fruit beckoned to me at the store. “Hey, come ‘ere,” it whispered. “Remember those highly seductive recipes in which I am the star ingredient? You know you want to take me home…” Gosh darn it, that fruit was totally persuasive and ultimately won the argument. Thus was born my relationship with fresh figs.

I doubt that either of my parents ever tried a fresh fig. Given that figs grow in Mediterranean climates we certainly didn’t grow them on the farm, and they seldom made an appearance at our local grocery, if ever. In our world, figs were these dark, gooey, sticky, seedy things that somehow inexplicably lived between two layers of thin cookie pastry, found occasionally in the school lunchbox.

I simply refuse to believe that fresh figs are in any way related to those dried figs I knew from my childhood. Fresh figs are juicy and lush, with a sumptuous texture and flavor that somehow combines berries, honey and port. If you have never tried one, put that experience on your bucket list because you are missing out. Alas, once tried I wanted figs all the time, but most weeks those fickle fruits were nowhere to be found. Just like a fruit to draw me in then just… disappear from the bin.

So when contemplating a move to the desert southwest, the obvious priorities were things like climate, housing, transition to a new community, etc., etc. But if I’m honest, there was a tiny niggling thought deep in my mind that figs are local seasonal fruit in southern Arizona. Perhaps I could have a FIG TREE growing inconspicuously somewhere…Fast-forwarding to now, I am happy to report that really fresh organic figs are for sale every week in season at the farmer’s market. Even better, we met a neighbor with a fig tree that produces more than he could possibly use. Could we help him out? Yeah, we could probably do that.

We typically eat figs out of hand as fresh unprocessed fruit. I serve them for dessert with a scoop of ricotta or Greek yogurt, a drizzle of honey and a few chopped pistachios-YUM. It’s just possible that I might have wrapped them in bacon and baked ‘til crisp one time, but that certainly sounds unhealthy doesn’t it? We won’t go any further into detail about that!

But here we are in high fig season and we have them coming out our ears. I am not going to turn these figs into their evil alias by drying them, so finally decide to turn them into creamy frozen yogurt. This fro-yo makes that elusive flavor combination available whenever I want by simply walking to the freezer. My mom would like that, along with the ease of my tabletop ice cream freezer!

Now in case the fickle fig is not to be found in your locale, other fruits make delicious frozen yogurt, too. Strawberries could easily stand in for the figs with no changes to the recipe. Peaches would be delicious as well; omit the cinnamon and balsamic vinegar, and add a few drops of almond extract. Whatever the fruit you choose, this frozen yogurt should definitely be part of your summer eating.

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Big Fig Flavor

Prep Time20

Total Time20

Course: Dessert

Servings: 3 pints

Ingredients

8 large figs stemmed
½ cup sugar
2 cups plain full-fat Greek yogurt
2 cups plain full-fat yogurt
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons good quality balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup chopped toasted pistachio nuts

Instructions

Cut the figs into quarters and place in the work bowl of food processor. Pulse to puree. Add the remaining ingredients except the pistachios, and process to blend thoroughly. Freeze in a tabletop ice cream maker by following the directions specific to your freezer. Once frozen, fold in the chopped pistachios and spoon into containers. Cover and place in the refrigerator freezer compartment until solidly frozen, several hours.

Farro Salad with Moroccan Spices

Moving to the desert southwest, we expected a few Saguaro, prickly pear, and Palo Verde trees. A few agave, teddy bear cacti-the typical palate of Sonoran flora and fauna. We did in fact have all those plants on our property. What we did not expect was a full grove of seven mature citrus trees. Other than watering and fertilizing, we somehow ignored the rapidly growing golden globes until last November. Then the harvest started, we were drowning in tangerines, and the old farm ethos kicked in…

Everything we grew on the farm was either eaten or preserved. While weeding, picking and preparing vegetables for the table was often my responsibility, the preserving of the harvest was a daily job throughout the summer for my mother and me. Most of the produce had to be cleaned, shucked, blanched and shocked before freezing in stackable boxes. Tomatoes and their juice had to be steam peeled, cooked and strained before pouring into freshly sterilized jars and going into the canner.

These steamy activities took place in a big old non-air conditioned kitchen, accompanied by average heat in the upper eighties with humidity to match. While others might attribute their lovely skin to avoiding the sun and not smoking, I know better. My skin has remained relatively smooth well into my…well, let’s call it “advanced middle age,” because I lived in a steam bath all summer for the first two decades of my life.

So now my husband is proudly carting basket upon basket of citrus fruit into our new kitchen, just as my dad did with vegetables years ago on the farm. I was dubious about the pride, for this fruit had basically grown itself, but the piles of citrus remained all the same. He was also expecting with great anticipation that I would know what to do with all of it. Uh, yeah. Our friends quickly realized that while an invitation to dinner at our house might mean a delicious meal, the exit ticket would be grabbing a bag of citrus fruit on their way out the door…

Eventually we had to face the preservation of all this fruit. We zested and juiced abundant amounts, which we froze for later use. I tested recipes and made jars of freezer citrus curd. The husband continues the quest for the perfect limoncello. And then there were the preserved lemons… The harvest ended around April, so now we are enjoying the fruits of our labor, so to speak.

Preserved lemons are a unique product, perhaps new to many Westerners. They are typically used in Middle Eastern dishes such as tagines. Classically combined in long braises with meat, chickpeas and olives, they lend a deep lemony umami that is both unfamiliar and delicious. Their production is basically a fermentation process using salt, lemons and seasonings. While I would not have made them myself had I not been wrestling with bushels of lemons, you are welcome to have at it should you be so inclined. (Let it be noted that I have purchased them in the past at Trader Joes…)

The process I used can be found at: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016212-preserved-lemons

Now deep umami braises are just peachy in the desert in January. In July?At 108° F.? Not so much. Which is how a lunchtime salad was born this week. Whole grains, vegetables, and maximum flavor with none of the hot steaminess, thank the heavens above.

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Farro Salad with Moroccan Spices

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Salad

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

¾ cup farro
2-¼ water or broth
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons diced preserved lemon peel
6 grape tomatoes
¼ cup chopped green olives
¼ cup sliced celery
½ cup sliced green onion
½ cup chopped parsley
2 cups cubed cooked chicken or drained chickpeas for a vegetarian version
Dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil I use garlic infused oil for one of the three
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon each of:
Cumin
Coriander
Cayenne
Leaf thyme
Grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Rinse the farro grains, then add to the water or broth in a saucepan along with the salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for approximately 30 minutes, or until tender but still chewy. Drain and turn into a large mixing bowl. Cool slightly. Add the remaining salad ingredients and combine gently.
Whisk the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Stir gently to coat with dressing. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

To make gluten-free: substitute brown or forbidden black rice for the farro.

Mom’s Buckwheat Cakes

Hotcake, flapjack, griddlecake, battercake…

The light, fluffy, even puffy all-American pancake has been a coveted breakfast dish for decades, both in homes and especially in restaurants. Tall stacks featured on menus and on boxes, dripping with butter and syrup… irresistible!

Sadly, for my childhood self, such pancakes were not exactly health food. Each cake is basically a piece of white bread, enriched with additional sugar, eggs and fat. It should come as no surprise that these would not be on our breakfast table on the farm. While my grandmother was usually my processed food savior, pancakes weren’t even served on her table. Turns out this wasn’t really much of a problem, though.

Because my mother made incredibly delicious dishes that she called pancakes. Most often these were actually crepes, rich in eggs and milk with just a smidge of flour, fried up in ultra-thin cakes with crisp, lacy edges. She spread them lightly with butter, poured the briefest of syrup drizzles, and then rolled them up into cylinders on the plate. There were no complaints, no fluffy pancake envy.

Every now and again though, she would make her yeast raised buckwheat cakes. These were a bit thicker, a tad fluffier than her crepes, with a deeply nutty, earthy flavor that married perfectly with real maple syrup. In retrospect, she probably was not able to obtain buckwheat flour very easily, thus these were an occasional treat. Lucky for me buckwheat flour is easily found within a five minute drive at any number of my local grocers!

Mom’s buckwheat cakes began with a yeast starter prepared the night before, and her recipe used no flours but buckwheat. As a dedicated sourdough baker, I prepare a starter using my sourdough leaven and include a small amount of spelt flour to thicken the batter slightly. If you use sourdough on a regular basis for other baked goods, this is a great recipe to use up your leftover when feeding the starter. This is an incredibly simple and flexible recipe, which can also be prepared with yeast and is easily made gluten free. The pancakes freeze beautifully and make a very quick breakfast when thawed and heated.

In her later years, Mom lived in a retirement community. While she had meals available in the dining room, she missed her especially loved dishes; however, cooking had become a challenge for her. On one visit, she asked me if I could help her get a sourdough leaven started and then stealthily opened her small refrigerator and produced a bag of buckwheat flour. Sensing potential disaster growing in her fridge, I suggested that it might be best if I made and delivered the cakes to her, which I did for her remaining years. Yes, that’s just how addictive these buckwheat cakes can be…

While Mom served them with bacon, fresh blueberries, toasted pecans and maple syrup usually accompany mine. No matter what you choose to serve with them, these pancakes are a delicious start to the day!

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Mom's Buckwheat Cakes

Prep Time30

Cook Time15

Total Time45

Course: Bread

Servings: 15 pancakes

Ingredients

The night before you want to make pancakes mix together:
½ cup sourdough leaven
1- cup buckwheat flour
¼ cup spelt or whole-wheat flour
¼ cup water
¾ cup almond milk
Cover with saran and let sit at room temperature overnight. In the morning it will have risen and will be quite bubbly. To the starter add:
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil I use coconut
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

Allow to sit for about 5 minutes while the griddle heats to 350° F. Lightly grease, then scoop batter by scant ¼ cup full and pour onto the griddle. When the top appears to dry around the edges and bubbles appear, flip the pancakes and bake for about 30 seconds longer. Remove from griddle to serving plate.
Makes 12-15 pancakes
To make using yeast, substitute the following for the sourdough starter:
½ tsp. bread machine/instant yeast
½ cup warm water
¾ cup milk
½ cup spelt or whole-wheat flour
-cup buckwheat flour
The recipe can be made gluten free by following the yeast directions and substituting ½ cup all-purpose gluten free flour mix for the spelt or whole-wheat flour.
Proceed as above with the “in the morning” directions.