Now THAT's more like it...

I *knew* my success with last summer's Dorie-licious blueberry pie was a fluke!

When I make pie dough, *this* is what it really looks like.

Thankfully John came to the rescue, added another couple drops of water, and as you'll soon see, my TWD Thanksgiving Two-Fer Pie wasn't a complete bust.

But first, the side story. It's sort of fitting that this one emerge during our anniversary month...

Very early in "us", John and I discovered a shared love of cooking and baking. And since I was living with my parents at the time, their oven got quite a workout in our early months. Ironically, I have no idea *what* we were planning on baking in it on the day in question. Just that I set the oven temperature to 350 without opening the oven first to ensure it was empty.

This was NOT a good idea in my father's kitchen. He used everything with a door save the dishwasher as potential storage space. And on this fateful afternoon, he'd stashed a jumbo pecan pie he'd purchased at Costco, one wedge missing. Which we noticed when we smelled the pecans burning. Since it wasn't salvageable, we pitched it in the trash. And when my father returned after the long weekend and wanted to know the whereabouts of his pie, I fibbed "John finished it. He LOVES pecan pie".

Ooops.

John HATES pecan pie. Loves the sweetness. Not fond of the nuts. In pie. He loves them raw. You figure it out.

Lucky for me, my dad never got around to baking him one of his favorite desserts.

So since I really don't want to eat 38,000 calories worth of pie this weekend, I placed a ring of pecans around the outside edge of the pie to stay true to the recipe without making it inedible for John.

The end result? Not my favorite Dorie recipe, but I'm betting some of that was operator error and that true holiday pie fans would adore it. In my case, the crust shrunk in pre-baking, and having nowhere else to go, the pecan sugar filling sort of lined the *outside* of the pie. Not unpleasant, but kind of ugly. And odd.

And it took *forever* to bake. I pulled it out of the oven after the requisite fifty minutes and dashed off to the gym. On my return I had pie soup. So back it went into the oven for five minutes. Fifteen minutes. Another 30 minutes before it was anything resembling slice-able. Not sure where I went wrong there, but it was gratifying to read the "Problems and Questions" on the TWD website and know I wasn't the ONLY one struggling with getting it to set.

Thanks to Vibi of La Casserole Carree for choosing this fitting ending to the traditional American Thanksgiving feast. The recipe can be found (thoughtfully translated to English at the end of the post) on her site. For far more photogenic versions of Dorie's masterpiece, check out the blog roll at Tuesdays with Dorie.

From the archives...
In 2006 I was playing with sugar and calling it "healthy"
In 2007 we made turkey stock that's still occupying a corner of my freezer.

Alton Brown inspires a Frugal Friday

It's been a while since I've contributed to a Frugal Friday. Hell, it's been a busy fall season, and it's been a while since I've contributed to *anything* in the food blog world.

I actually made this Alton Brown inspired entree in early October with every intention of sharing it here. And I am. Just two four almost eight weeks after the fact.

So sue me. Good things are worth waiting for.

The dish? Alton Brown's Tuna Croquette with some fried okra from our CSA on the side. At a little over $2 per serving, less than ten minutes from pantry to table and far more nutritional value than your average happy meal, this is my favorite kind of fast food.

Thirteen Years and Counting...

I saw this celebration of love over time back in March and bookmarked it for reference on *our* special day. It's also given me the advantage of over 6 months to get some of his answers; it's amazing what you can go over a decade not knowing.

Who am I kidding, I got the majority of his answers about thirty seconds before I pushed the "publish post" button...

I love you honey.

Movie—
His: Casablanca
Hers: The Lion King, Gone with the Wind, Auntie Mame, The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap

Season—
His: Summer
Hers: Fall

Music—
His: Classic Country, 80's Pop
Hers: Country, 80's Pop

Radio station—
His: KGO (News Talk), KOIT (easy listening)
Hers: KRTY (Country)

Snack—
His: peanuts
Hers: salted buttered popcorn, marcona almonds

Book—
His: Tom Clancy
Hers: Anything by Jodi Picoult or Christopher Moore

Dessert—
His: chocolate mousse when it's done right
Her: rich and creamy and highly caloric

Candy—
His: dark chocolate
Her: milk chocolate

Fruit—
His: nectarine
Her: mango

Bath or Shower—
His: shower
Her: shower

Type of food—
His: sushi
Her: sushi

TV show—
His: Dancing with the Stars, Good Eats, Top Chef
Her: Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, Good Eats, Biggest Loser, Boston Legal, Buffy

Holiday—
His: Not really fond of most of them.
Her: Thanksgiving

Magazine—
His: Reader's Digest
Her: Fine Cooking, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Eating Well

The flavors of Celebrity Infinity

We were surprised that we really enjoyed the food served on our Caribbean cruise with Holland America back in 2006; we expected it would be hard to find excellence in mass-produced food. So when talking with our more cruise-savvy friends, we were pleased to learn that a cruise with Celebrity would be a couple notches above that, that many of them considered Celebrity's food "phenomenal."

Ten days into our thirteen day adventure, I'm convinced that our friends define phenomenal differently than we do.

There have certainly been some hits over the course of our journey. A chilled apricot soup was worth repeating. The beef tenderloin was excellent. Our dining experience at the SS United States (an adventure worthy of its own post) was a definite home run. And the service was certainly first rate. But the food overall? Meh.

Once we readjusted our expectations in the main dining room (skip the fish; it will be dry. Ditto the pasta; it's rarely more than mediocre) we enjoyed the experience. It was with some amusement that I observed that with two years as a Daring Baker and several months spending Tuesdays with Dorie, I could have made every one of the desserts -- and several of them far better.

On the positive side, while we've indulged we haven't gone nuts calorically. This vacation isn't an excuse to eat our body weights in buffet food. We've done some really wonderful, very active shore excursions and tasted some sensational local foods along the way(again another post). We haven't stepped on an elevator (opting for the stairs instead), and we've actually seen the inside of the gym on this ship. A quick trip to visit the scale in the ship doctor's office indicates no gain, no loss.

From the archives...
In 2006 we were headed home from the Caribbean
In 2007 we made ravioli Aunt Lena style

Pizza. It's Italian for leftovers...

Or at least that's what I thought growing up. I didn't learn until late in high school that for most of America, pizza came out of a cardboard box, ordered over the phone and delivered by a teenager. Or that sadly the box often had more flavor.

In our household, Nona's yeast-based, hand-tossed pizza dough was a receptacle for whatever was leftover from the bounty of garden vegetables in the summer, root vegetables in the winter, sprinkled with anchovies during Lent and a couple of generous handfuls of Papa's homemade sausage, salami "e pro-shoot" the rest of the year.

I never got to toss the pizza dough as a kid, so when Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums chose Peter Reinhart's Pizza Napoletana from the Bread Baker's Apprentice as our Daring Baker challenge for October and made hand-tossing the dough an integral part of the challenge, I knew my grandmother'd be smiling down on me from *somewhere*. And as luck would have it, I had some leftover CSA veggies and a couple of Italian sausages in the fridge needing to be used up before we head out on vacation.

Unfortunately it was a busy week for John, so I don't have any images of the pizza-tossing experience. Rest assured it was every bit as much fun as my grandmother made it look thirty-some years ago. And the end result every bit as tasty.

For thousands of other takes on the pizza challenge, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll.

From the archives...
In 2007 the Daring Baker challenge was all about the Bostini.

Remember me?

Um... hello? Is this thing on?

Where did September go? And October?

Several of you have sent email inquiring what I've been up to. I wish I had more exciting news to share. I didn't win the lottery and quit my day job. We're not pregnant. We've been busy, but not with anything interesting enough to write about here. And although I *have* been cooking and baking as time allows, the time necessary to draft a post and the muse required to make it readable haven't converged recently. But I've got pictures, and there'll be posts coming soon.

In good-if-not-interesting news, things are beginning to lighten up a bit. My project at work has reached another milestone and there's a light at the end of that tunnel. We're about to embark on my first two week vacation in 23 years -- we'll be sailing through the Panama Canal on Celebrity's Infinity starting Sunday. The food looks promising, and I will certainly share it here.

First up, the Daring Bakers do Italian...

Lists... more lists...

Brought to you by the friendly folks at SlashFood, today we play The American Omnivore's Hundred

By now you know the drill. Bold means I've tried it. Strike means I'd never try it. Bold italic bright red means nutritional value notwithstanding I could build my diet around it...

1. New York pizza
2. Hoppin' John
3. New Mexico green chile
4. Homemade buttermilk biscuits
5. Tasso
6. Whole Maine lobster
7. Calabash-style shrimp and hushpuppies
8. Kansas City barbecue ribs
9. Hot glazed Krispy Kreme
10. San Diego fish tacos
11. Cheese curds
12. Key lime pie
13. Philly cheese steak
14. Memphis pork barbecue sandwich
15. Lowcountry boil
16. Huckleberry pie
17. New England clam chowder
18. Boiled peanuts
19. Buffalo burger
20. Eggs Benedict
21. Pastrami on rye
22. Corned beef and cabbage
23. Pancakes with maple syrup
24. Everything bagel with cream cheese and tomato
25. Thin Mints (preferably frozen)
26. Frito pie
27. Potato knish with mustard
28. Silver Queen corn on the cob
29. Soft pretzel from a street cart
30. Fresh-picked blueberries
31. Sourwood honey
32. State fair funnel cake
33. Chesapeake crab cakes
34. Candied yams
35. Oyster dressing
36. Snow cone or snowball
37. Wild Alaskan salmon
38. Sautéed morels
39. Persimmon pudding
40. General Tso's Chicken
41. Frozen custard
42. Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a hoagie bun
43. Chili dog - 'lergic to beans
44. Buffalo wings with blue cheese
45. Spam musubi
46. Saltwater taffy
47. Fluffernutter sandwich on Wonder Bread
48. Black and white cookie
49. Frybread
50. BLT with thick-cut applewood bacon
51. Baked beans (see #43)
52. Pumpkin pie
53. Collards with vinegar and Tabasco
54. Tex-Mex fajitas with skirt steak and sautéed peppers
55. Fried green tomatoes
56. Succotash
57. Shrimp and grits
58. Hot water cornbread
59. Barbecue chicken pizza with red onions
60. Chicken fried steak
61. Carnitas burrito
62. Apple butter
63. Geoduck
64. Soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in chocolate shell (especially Dairy Queen)
65. Pecan pie
66. Catfish supper at a church or fire station
67. Oysters Rockefeller
68. Homemade cranberry sauce
69. Pimiento cheese
70. MoonPie washed down with R.C. Cola - summers in Steger, IL
71. Pickled watermelon rind
72. Cracker Jacks at the ball game
73. Smithfield ham
74. Meatloaf and mashed potato blue plate special at diner
75. Chicken and waffles
76. Po'Boy
77. Green bean casserole with French's fried onions
78. Stuffed sopaipillas
79. Turducken
80. Shad roe on toast
81. Sweet potato casserole with or without marshmallows
82. Cioppino
83. New York cheesecake
84. Pan-fried river trout
85. Jambalaya
86. North Carolina pig pickin'
87. California rolls
88. Burgoo
89. Penuche fudge
90. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich (the Elvis)
91. Scrapple or livermush
92. Elk medallions in red wine reduction
93. Muscadine grapes
94. Cheeseburger at backyard barbecue
95. Open-face turkey sandwich
96. Chicago deep dish pizza
97. Cobb salad
98. Peach pie a la mode
99. Macaroni and cheese with Tillamook sharp cheddar
100. Root beer float

and a couple I think are missing from the list:

101. San Francisco sourdough bread
102. a soda fountain chocolate malt
103. a Chicago-style hotdog
104. Hostess Twinkies, Ho Ho's or Ding Dongs

From the archives...
In 2007 I was mesmerized by a link.

And our flag was still there...

In honor and remembrance, as we continue to rebuild let us never forget.

A different kind of campaign...

Some of you will remember that at some point in the middle of the Reagan administration, a fast food election erupted and if you believe the Burger King paid pundits, the Whopper beat the Big Mac...

Well in early September 2008, Dorie's Whopper Drops -- Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart's selection of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie -- beats the pants off BOTH of them! (At least according to my tasting panel)

Another week, another candy-inspired confection. I love the way Dorie thinks. And Rachel, I've got about 2 dozen tasters asking for your email address so they can thank you personally for this pick.

With a popular vote of confidence like that, they're the lead candidate for this month's round of Operation Baking GALs.

Omnivore's Hundred

You've seen it all over the food blog world. You know how it works:

Bold means I've tried it.
Strike means I would never try it.
and I've added a twist. Bold italic bright red means I could live on it.

Special thanks to my parents, John, Koji, Kelly, Kevin and Daniel for continuously expanding my horizons...

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Phở
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/€80/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Spreading the word and sharing the love: Operation Baking GALs Round 2

I could easily have subtitled this post "be careful what you ask for."

Galvanized by the clear success of Operation Baking GALs round one and the fun I had with my small contribution to it, I decided to enlist some assistance in round two. So I turned to our Wednesday night square dance group, the Rockin' Jokers.

With members in early forties to late eighties, our club has among its members veterans of virtually every branch of United States military service, men and women who served in times of peace and war throughout the 2oth century. I had no problem recruiting many members eager to pitch in and bake a box of goodies for the collection of servicemen selected for Operation Baking GALs round 2.

We baked eleven varieties of cookies and contributed lots of other sweet and savory goodies for six young men serving overseas:

Originally from New York state, Lt. Eric Olson is currently serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and was hosted this month by Stephanie over at Steph Chows.

Colin Price is a graduate of the Naval Academy currently stationed in Afghanistan and was hosted by his childhood friend and one of his biggest fans, Kara of What's Kookin' in Kara's Kitchen.

US Air Force Staff Sergeant Daryl Harper and his merry band of 22 airmen are currently serving in Iraq. Daryl celebrated a birthday in mid-August, and we had fun decorating his box in celebration. Daryl was hosted this month by his mother in law Debbie of At the Table with the Hungry Fox.

After several stints in Iraq, Air Guard member Joe Maker and his buddies are over in Afghanistan. He was hosted by his aunt Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch.

Army Sergeant John "Russ" Murray hails from Georgia and currently serves in Terwa. He was hosted by his sister in law Mary Ann of Meet me in the Kitchen.

We filled 11 boxes with goodies and treats, and several of our members included personal messages of faith, love and encouragement. We're a diverse group politically and we hold a wide variety of opinions about the war and the upcoming election. But we all know that these men and thousands of others make hundreds of sacrifices every day, and we want them to know we support them and we appreciate their service.

Number 5 just cries...

This is where I unearth the closet country music fans... How many of you out there remember SheDaisy's late 90's breakup anthem?

You always said that I have multiple personalities
I bounce around somewhere between my dreams and reality
So where'd you dig up the audacity to ask me
How we've all been doing
Since you broke our hearts
(Well, so far)

Number 5 just cries a river a minute
7 wants to tie you up and drown you in it
Yeah, 14 just wants to say so long, bygones
32 wants to do things to you that'll make you blush
10 would key the El Camino that you love so much
And there ain't nobody wants to mess with 23
Oh, lucky 4 you tonight I'm just me

As I assembled the ingredients for Dorie's Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick from Stephany over at Proceed with Caution, I couldn't get the ode to the failed relationship out of my head. The ingredient list read like a collection of multiple personalities. And the end result would be the perfect antidote to a wounded heart.

Because I'm not currently a woman with a wounded heart and too many chipsters make way too much me, I shared them with friends at Thursday night's bocce gathering over at St. Francis Cabrini. And because I didn't take pictures before the crowd descended, this is all I have to show for my effort...

Stay tuned, next week we convert a movie theater favorite into a cookie with Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops.

Roll Call: Present!

Hello there, long time no see...

Looking for chocolate eclairs?

Tamales?

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters?

My contribution to Taste & Create?

a Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte?

Operation Baking GALS?

Granola Grabbers?

All I can say in my defense is that August's been a busy month. I've been cooking and baking, but not blogging. Hang tight, I've got a lot to share in the next couple of days.

From the archives...
In 2006 I took a nostalgic look at one of my favorite kitchen tools.
In 2007, I got a package of goodies from down under.

Remember the summer reading list?

Another list of 100 (this time books to read in a lifetime) from Ashley at The HamiHarri Update:

1) Bold those you have read.
2) Put an asterisk next to those you started but didn't finish.
3) Italicize those you intend to read (or have started and intend to finish).
4) Red the books you LOVE
5) Reprint this list in your own blog.

A few words of warning: I minored in classic literature in college.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling *
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien *
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy *
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams *
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding *
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel *
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (part of the complete works?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

It's official. I was wrong...

After last month's culinary revelation, I had to know. Was it a fluke? Or had I found a new love in rhubarb?

I found my answer in Fine Cooking Magazine's Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins.

Yum.

You were right Mo. And this muffin's for you.

Celebrating summer's sun

Okay, I'm probably revealing my age here, but who remembers Sun In?

In 1970-something, you sprayed it in damp hair, slathered the rest of your body in coconut-scented Coppertone and headed out onto the back porch with your BFFs, knowing you'd emerge an hour later tan and blonde.

Unless you were me and Charity, in which case you emerged pink, with odd orange streaks running through your auburn hair...

The summer sun showed far more kindness to my father's tomato garden than it ever did to me.

Fast forward thirty-0dd years to 2008...

Sun-sweetened early girl tomatoes from John's parents' garden...

A handful of rapidly growing basil from my aerogarden (more on that soon)...

A hunk of leftover puff pastry in the freezer...

And this eye-catching recipe in my blog reader...

I may have outgrown my fascination with daylight savings time, running through the sprinklers and the searing sensation of bare feet on hot pavement and Sun In (which a Google search indicates is still widely available), but tomatoes will *always* remain the hallmark of late summer sunshine in my world.

Others who've experimented with this recipe:
Carmen of Carmen Cooks employed garden tomatoes and made from-scratch puff pastry in her adaptation.

Blueberry Bliss

After nearly six months of anticipation, it's my turn to "host" this week's episode of Tuesdays with Dorie. Back in June I counted the weeks and figured out I'd be in the hot seat in mid August and I flipped through the book in search of a couple of recipes I might choose from. I liked the sound of Dorie's Corn and Herb Muffins and I knew corn would be plentiful in August (at least in the northern hemisphere). The Brown Sugar Bundt Cake sounded simple and satisfying.

But something kept drawing me back to the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream. Blueberries are plentiful in our local markets in August and fairly easy to find frozen in other climates. Oh, and they're healty superfoods. And we haven't done an ice cream yet. What better time for what Dorie dubs the "summeriest of summertime ice creams"?

The timing turned out perfect. My nephew's in town this week from Texas and the young man won't eat much that's not white... but he adores blueberries and he was excited about helping me out with the recipe. The result: a creamy tangy bowl of blueberry bliss.

What... you want photographs? As soon as my camera battery's done charging...

For now, here's the recipe for those of you who want to try it. And go check out the blog roll to see what 200-some other Doristas have to say about my choice.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream
as published in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup blueberries - fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
1/3 cup sugar (or more to taste)
pinch of salt
grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon (or lime as you prefer) or more juice to taste
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice into a medium nonreactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a blender and whir until you have a fairly homogeneous puree, about one minute. (It will never be completely smooth, and that's just fine.) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and, if you'd like, add a squirt more lemon juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

From the archives...
In 2006 we crossed the bay to check out the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in celebration of farmer's market week.

Natural Highs

I saw this list of have and have-nots over at Dancing Around the House and it reminded me of a poster of "Natural Highs" that decorated the north facing wall of my bedroom in high school. Funny what triggers memories.

I've boldfaced the things I've experienced, proving that (as Stephanie so eloquently put it) I've lived a pretty amazing forty years and I've still got a fair amount of life left to experience:

If it's bold, I have...

1. Touched an iceberg
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby's diaper
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a tarantula
10. Said "I love you" and meant it
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Bet on a winning horse
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Taken an ice cold bath
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar (a homeless man handed me a bag of hershey kisses on the breast cancer 3-Day in 2002)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Ridden a roller coaster
31 hit a home run
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
33. Adopted an accent for fun
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited India
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow
47. Alphabetized your personal files
48. Ever worn a superhero costume
49. Sung karaoke - one video tape exists, and it's very heavily guarded. :)
50. Lounged around in bed all day
51. Gone scuba diving
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Done something you should regret, but don't
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Been in a movie
60. Gone without food for 3 days
61. Made cookies from scratch
62. Won first prize in a costume contest
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
67. Bounced a check
68. Read - and understood - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
73. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
74. Helped an animal give birth
75. Been fired or laid off from a job
76. Won money
77. Broken a bone
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
81. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi - Religiously!
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read The Bible cover to cover
86. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school
89. Changed your name
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
99. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair
103 Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Ever dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all fours
106. Raked your carpet
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people
109. Worn a mood ring
110. Ridden a horse
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Prepared a dish where four people asked for the recipe
113. Buried a child
114. Gone to a Broadway play
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band
119. Shot a bird
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone
122. Ridden a train
123. Brought an old fad back into style
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn’t need
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant
127. Published a book
128. Pieced a quilt
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage
131. Asked for a raise
132. Made a hole-in-one
133. Gone deep sea fishing
134. Gone roller skating
135. Run a marathon
136. Learned to surf
137. Invented something
138. Flown first class
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite
140. Flown in a helicopter
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo
143. Gone spelunking
144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story
146. Seen Michelangelo’s David
147. Had your portrait painted
148. Written a fan letter
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away
152. Learned to juggle
153. Been a boss
154. Sat on a jury
155. Lied about your weight
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget
158. Written a poem
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks
164. Gone to the opera
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine
168. Attended the Olympics
169. Can hula or waltz and polka.
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books
171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert
175. Saved someone’s life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to tat, smock or do needlepoint
178. Laughed till your side hurt
179. Straddled the equator
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival
182. Sent a message in a bottle
183. Spent the night in a hostel
184. Been a cashier
185. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
186. Joined a union
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had hives
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation
193. Taken a Hunter’s Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen
195. Conquered the Rubik’s cube
196. Know CPR
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible
198. Found a long lost friend
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Responded to a NJP newsletter

From the archives...
In 2006 I discovered bitter melon at Bautista Farms.

Lost My Marbles: A TWD tragedy narrowly averted

Well it was bound to happen.

To be honest, I expected it weeks ago, with the pie crust.

But no. I wait until the quick bread, one of the (presumably) *easiest* recipes I've encountered in my tenure with TWD to fail with a Dorie recipe.

It's my fault. I took a short cut, and tried to melt the chocolate in the microwave even though I know that method almost always gives me grief. I didn't want to be bothered with the water bath. As happens about 50% of the time, my chocolate started to seize. I *thought* I'd salvaged it.

But when I tried to free my banana bread from the pan it was pretty clear I hadn't. The chocolate sections separated from the pure banana sections so perfectly you'd have thought I *planned* it that way.

Sigh, not a pretty picture, but it made tasty parfaits with a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Other people fared far better than I did with Dorie's Black and White Banana Bread, this week's pick from Ashlee over at A Year in the Kitchen. Go check them out!

From the archives...
In 2006 I kicked off National Farmers' Market Week announcing a week long field trip to the bay area's best markets.
In 2007 we found comfort in Sicily with Jamie Oliver's Italy.

Operation: Baking GALS

A week or so ago, fellow Dorista and Daring Baker Susan over at She's Becoming DoughMessTic put out a call to action I couldn't ignore.

A new daddy, her cousin Jason is stationed in Iraq. The problem? In addition to his young family, he's missing the tastes and smells of home. He knows Susan bakes, and he's hoping she'll send a treat or two his way.

Susan did one better. She sent out an email asking a few of her friends to bake up some treats and send them Jason's way. As often happens with brilliant ideas, her email request ballooned quickly into Operation Baking GALS, a growing group of baking bloggers, family and friends hoping to make a small difference in the lives of our service men and women with what we do best: a bit of flour, sugar, butter and eggs.

When I read Susan's request, I knew exactly what I was going to contribute to the cause. These are the cookies I blogged about over on Blake Bakes, my grandmother's icebox cookies. This recipe has a little military history of its own. Several of my uncles served in World War II and later in Korea, and these cookies were a regular feature in the care packages my grandmother sent overseas. I hope Jason and his friends enjoy them as much as my uncles did.

Interested in contributing something of your own to the next shipment? Head on over to Operation Baking GALS... round two is starting soon!