Quick. It’s not too late. In fact, don’t rush – you still have time – this recipe is fast and easy.

I am having such a hard time believing that 4th of July is this weekend already. Excuse me one moment – MY BABY GIRL IS GOING TO BE HERE SO SOON! WAHHOOOEEE!! Okay thanks.

With only three days until the day packed with picnics and *boom* *boom*s is here there is still have time to make these incredible quick pickled red onions. If burgers are on the menu then really I see no choice but to make these. They add the perfect, crunch, tang and snap to your grilled burger. They add an instant “tres chic” quality that will make party goers think you are just the bees knees.

If burgers aren’t your thing these onions are great in potato salad, on sandwiches, hot dogs, green salad or just eaten with a fork. If your pregnant you may even like them with ice cream – non for me though thanks.

I have made these onions several times and each time I double the recipe. They last for weeks – so they say – ours haven’t seen the inside of a fridge for more than a few days.

Feel free to play around with the spices. Speaking of spices, you can find most of them in the ethnic aisle at your local supermarket. Instead of paying upwards of $10.00 for a jar of cloves get a bag of them in the Mexican aisle for a fraction of the cost. That handy tip is brought to you by my savvy shopper husband. Thanks dear!

Quick Pickled Red Onions

adapted from David Lebovitz

3/4 cup white vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

5 allspice berries

5 whole cloves

1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/4 teaspoon coriander

a small, dried chile pepper

1 large red onion, peeled, and thinly sliced into rings

In a small, non-reactive saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar, salt, seasonings and chile until boiling.  Add the onion slices and lower heat, then simmer gently for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and let cool completely. Transfer the onions and the liquid into a jar then refrigerate until ready to use.

Storage: The onions will keep for several months but they are good to go the day they are made.

Print PDF

I recently found myself in a bit of a produce dilemma. A fridge full of beets and a family that thinks “they taste like dirt”. Being Dutch I am not able to let anything go to waste. Another solution was in order.

I began my search for a beet recipe that might entice my otherwise resistant family. The search came to an instant hault when I saw a photo of beet hummus. The magenta hue instantly caught my eye and my heart. I was sold. I know you aren’t supposed to judge on appearance but I did and I am not ashamed. What was found inside this stunning color was just as enticing as its outward beauty.

A creamy spread with tang, sweetness and a touch of heat from the raw garlic. I smothered my pieces of juicy roast chicken in it. I slathered it on my homemade pizza bianca (pizza crust simply baked with olive oil and salt). And I dunked a spoon right into the bowl when all my dipping devices were gone.

While my husband still labeled the flavor as “earthy” – and I don’t think he was saying this in a very good way – it was the most beets I’ve seen him consume in a long time. That’s all the reassurance I needed.

Beet Hummus

3 medium beets, cleaned, roasted, peeled then cut into chunks (stick whole beets in oven at 375* then roast until a knife inserts easily)

2 Tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

salt to taste

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Tasted and adjust seasoning. Serve with a hefty drizzle of olive oil.

As if this hummus wasn’t enough – I have more for you today. The kind people at ChicoBag recently sent me a sample of their new, “produce stand collection” and they want to send it to you too!

From their site: The ChicoBag™ Company is introducing the new Produce Stand Collection! The new collection offers three different bags, each constructed from a different fabric designed to optimize freshness. Each starter kit includes three bags that all serve a unique purpose when paired with the right produce. The Hemp-Cotton blend is perfect for leafy greens, grains and green beans. The rePETe™ Mesh is great for apples, oranges and potatoes. The rePETe™ will keep your squash, broccoli and carrots fresh. All bags stuff into an apple pouch when not in use, making them easy to carry and store. The apple pouch features an attached carabiner, truly making this produce bag set unforgettable.

This company is so wonderfully passionate about getting rid of single use plastic bags. We recently took the bags out for a test drive at the Farmer’s Market and as you can see they were well loved. Since then I’ve been keeping my produce in them while taking a chill in the fridge and guess what? My lettuce is still crisp and my vegetables look just as fresh as the day I purchased them – which was now several days ago.

In my desperate search for snack bags to take with us in the car I reached for these bags which did the job quite nicely. I love the simple design and ease. Since having them in the house I haven’t found the need to purchase plastic bags.

I try to use reusable bags whenever possible but I so often forget to bring them with me to the store. I don’t know how many times I’ve told myself that I just need to leave my collection of cloth bags in the car – I still forget. But the apple pouch that comes with the “produce stand collection” makes carrying these bags around so easy. My boys were fighting over who got to carry the apple. I’m sure they won’t let me forget to take these bags with us.

Okay so now to the part where you can win your own.

Win your own Produce Stand Collection by ChicoBag™!
ChicoBag™ is hosting a Produce Stand giveaway and will be selecting 10 winners to receive the new Produce Stand Collection. Contest ends June 4th 2010. Click here to enter to win!

Good luck!

Print PDF

I realize that it has been weeks and quite possibly longer  since I’ve posted something savory. ‘Tis the Season! But don’t worry mom, I have been eating my vegetables  – it’s just so fun to talk about sugar.

That changes today. Sort of. There is still sugar in the recipe but there is also an ingredient that you may be unfamiliar with – fennel pollen.

Thanks to the lovely Jennifer Perillo from “In Jennie’s Kitchen”, I was gifted a generous supply of this sweet spice.

Peggy Knickbocker wrote, in an article for Saveur, “If angels sprinkled a spice from their wings, this would be it.” I couldn’t agree more. Anything that resembles fennel in its sweet anise flavor is a winner in my book but fennel pollen goes above and beyond anise. It’s as if it takes all that is good with that subtley sweet licorice essence and makes it a thousand times better. The aroma is floral and intoxicating.  One smell and I suddenly wish I was a bee so I could cover myself in it. I guess I don’t have to be a bee to do that but it would be quite expensive as fennel pollen is nearly as costly as saffron.

The recipe for these fennel pollen cookies is nearly the same as yesterday’s chocolate chip shortbread with a touch more salt and minus the vanilla. I served them with a tart and sweet onion jam and a smokey blue cheese from Rogue River Creamery and let me just tell you the angels were singing. In one bite I tasted sweet, salty, smokey and a soft vinegar bite. The finishing taste was the fennel pollen as it lingered on my tongue, hanging there for a bit – I begged it not to go but once it did I popped another one in my mouth.

If time allows I hope to give all those I love dearly a little jar of onion jam and package of the fennel pollen shortbread. They will be happy.

Continue along for the recipes.

Onion Jam

adapted from Food & Wine

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 medium sweet onions, julienned 

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup dry red wine

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/3 cup grenadine

Salt

Melt the butter in a medium skillet. Add the onions and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until soft and just translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the sugar, wine, vinegar, grenadine and a pinch of salt. Cook over low heat, stirring, until the liquid thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 35 minutes. Transfer the onion jam to a bowl and let cool.

Note: I doubled the recipe and it worked beautifully. The cooking time was 45 minutes to 1hour.

Fennel Pollen Shortbread
Wild Fennel Pollen can be ordered online. Besides shortbread, fennel pollen, makes an incredible rub on lamb and pork. Sprinkle on salads or roasted vegetables to give an intriguing floral-anise flavor.

adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients

3/4 pound butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon fennel pollen, plus more for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the fennel pollen. In a medium bowl, sift together, with a whisk, flour and salt; then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Roll into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle a generous amount of fennel pollen to cover the the log. Cover in wax paper or parchment. Chill until firm.

Carefully slice the log into 1/4″ cookies. Place the cookies on an sheet pan covered with parchment. Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Print PDF

We haven’t known each other very long but I am already in love. We met last Summer. It was a beautiful day in June – a Tuesday actually. I always anticipated Tuesdays as a heaping box of fresh produce landed on my door step around noon every other week. This week was no different except when I removed the lid to reveal the glorious contents I found an item that looked quite odd. Citron green, slender stalks wildly curly with a small bud near the top.

I soon discovered that this – new – to – me ingredient was a Garlic Scape, the stem of a hardneck garlic. While the bulbs are busy maturing below the surface the young and mischievous flower stem curls.  Young garlic scapes are tender and delicious. I often describe the texture to that of a green bean but the flavor is unmistakable – similar to mature garlic but much more mellow.

Last season I chopped my scapes in one inch pieces, sauteed in brown butter and added fresh sweet corn. Before I finished licking my plate the garlic scape season was over and I spent the cold winter months dreaming of that sweet garlicky taste that I didn’t get enough of.

This year is different. When Dorie posted a recipe for Garlic Scape pesto I nearly dropped the computer and began hunting them down for myself. I held off for a few days – in the meantime anticipating what I was going to do with my little mischievous curls.

The Farmer’s market was teaming with scapes. I grabbed three large bunches and headed home, munching on a pint of incredibly red and sweet strawberries to tide me over.

In a matter of a few hours the scapes were transformed into Pesto, pickles and pizza.

The first bunch I tossed in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt. They sizzled on a very hot grill pan then finished in the oven on a bed of mozzarella cheese and whole wheat crust.

The second bunch was chopped up, tossed in a blender with lemon juice, roasted and chopped almonds, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and salt – making the most incredible pesto I have ever tasted. I followed Dorie’s recipe here.

And finally – the third bunch is sitting on the pantry shelf pickling as we speak. This little project I am quite proud of as it was my first attempt at canning and so far I see no scary creatures growing in the jar. I call that a success.

Pickled Garlic Scapes

1       pound or more of scapes, whole

3       cups vinegar

5       cups water

¼     cup kosher salt

Fresh Basil Leaves

Chili Flakes

Boil the water, vinegar & salt solution. Pack hot jars with whole scapes, 1 fresh basil leaf, a pinch of chili flakes (depending on your spice tolerance) and then the brine. Put on lids, place in a hot water canner and boil for 45 minutes. Leave at least 2 weeks before serving to get best flavor.

I adapted the recipe from EverGreen Farms. With one bunch of scape I made 2 8 oz. jars and have an abundance of pickling liquid left ready and waiting for more scapes.

I hope to have many more scape experiments this season but I must act quickly as the season is very brief.

How do you eat your Garlic Scapes?

More Scape-tastic recipes:

White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip from zested

The inspiration for my pizza from Herbivoracious

Another version of pesto from Kayln’s Kitchen

Garlic Scape Soup from Going Local

Print PDF

I do enjoy this time of the year with all the excitement of the holidays and the need to bundle up when exiting our warm haven. The hours that are spent indoors baking sugary sweets and coming in from the cold to have the brisk chill be washed away with a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

Even still there are times when I long for the t-shirt wearing days of Summer. I anticipate the coming warm months (in my case, being from the Seattle area, it is probably more accurate to say weeks) filled with long walks, digging in the dirt and eating fresh picked raspberries by the bucket loads.

The most anticipated event of the Summer for me is the Saturday mornings spent perusing the produce loaded Farmer’s Market. Wondering what lovely items will be destined for dinner this week, filling the empty crevices of the stroller with local, cheese and butter and picking out a warm baguette with the best intentions to save it for dinner which inevitably is eaten before we are back home. And of course for us no trip to the market would be complete without treating ourselves to a heaping bag of fresh-made kettle corn.

I am a sucker for all things sweet and salty. Really. Could there be anything better? The sugar ever so slightly adhears to the perfectly popped kernal of corn. A thin blanket of sweetness covering what’s underneath from the gentle sprinkling of salt. We savor our snack as we soak up the sun, select our produce and walk home satisfied until next Saturday.

Recently, while feeling the bone inhabiting chill, I longed for this sweet taste of Summer and to my surprise it suddenly dawned on me that I can recreate it quite easily in my very own kitchen. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of making it myself before. I guess the guy wearing something similar to a gas mask standing over a huge kettle stirring the kernels with what appears to be an ore didn’t seem translatable in my own kitchen. But let me tell you it can be done and I am going to even go so far as to say that it can be done better!

The ingredients are extremely simple but it can be a bit tricky as once the popping begins it goes rather quickly and the line between delicious and burnt is very fine. But please don’t let that disclaimer scare you off, I have made this several times since my happy discovery and although there was some smoke and the need to scrub the pan with a bit more than elbow grease, the results were always worth the small amount of trouble and danger.

Kettle Corn

adapted from Hillbilly Housewife

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• Salt to taste (I recommend Fleur de Sel)

Over a medium-high flame, heat the canola oil in the bottom of a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Sprinkle in 2 or 3 popcorn kernels. When the kernels pop add the sugar, and then the remaining popcorn. Cover with a good lid. Shake the pan over the heat while the popcorn pops. When the popping stops, remove the pan from the heat. Immediately pour the hot popcorn into a bowl.  The popcorn will be hot and sticky so be very careful not to burn yourself. The popcorn should be lightly coated with a beautiful amber caramel. Salt the kettle corn to taste and serve. Makes a large bowlful that doesn’t stick around long.

Kettle corn is even more enjoyable when you wash it down with a Cuba Libre.

Print PDF