A quick and easy peach pie that tastes like you spent hours on it (although it may not look like it!) Sometimes I break out my best pie making skills. I carefully prepare a pie crust, peel the fruit and chop it into equal sized pieces, make a decorative arrangement out of the crust, brush it with an egg wash and put it in the oven. Fingers crossed it comes out as beautiful as it went in. And then there are other times. Times when I am more interested in being with the people who are here and less concerned with what the pie looks like. Times when my grandchildren are taking a nap and ...
TOMATO TART TATIN
If you are looking for a great big punch of tomato flavor, look no further. In this tart there is no question that tomatoes are the star of the dish. Meaty tomatoes are oven roasted in a vinegar syrup, then topped with pastry for a final cooking, before being turned out onto a plate with the tomatoes back on top! Tart Tatin originated in France. It started as an apple tart in which the apples were caramelized in butter and sugar before being topped with pastry and turned into a tart. Needless to say this technique is easily adaptable to other fruits, including the tomato ...
KEY LIME PIE: IT’S MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS
There are people who like Key Lime Pie and there are people who LOVE Key Lime Pie. Silky smooth, just a little tart in flavor, with buttery graham cracker crust, what's not to love? Down on the southern coast of North Carolina, just across the bridge from the Island of Sunset Beach, there is a fish market which has been there for 40 years: Bill's Seafood. Everything there is fresh. The shrimp boats we see offshore bring their catch to Bill that same day. And once you have tasted shrimp that fresh, which has never been frozen, you will understand my foodie heart. If you are like my ...
TOMATO PIE: IT’S A SOUTHERN THING
Recently I asked my Instagram followers (@awomancooks) what they would make with a big tomato harvest, and I got a resounding chorus of “Tomato Pie!”. Tomato pie is not something I am very familiar with. I am purist when it comes to home grown tomatoes. I eat them sliced with a little salt, in a Caprese salad, or in a sandwich (tomato or BLT only!). The idea of layering them in a pie crust and cooking them with a mixture of cheese, mayonnaise and fresh herbs seemed a sure way to hide the flavor of the tomatoes. But I was wrong. After a lot of research I made some tweaks ...
APRICOT ORANGE ZUCCHINI BREAD (SORRY!)
I told myself I wasn’t going to give you yet another recipe for zucchini bread. Until I made this one. Filled with dried apricots and flavored with orange, it reminds me of my mother’s long lost banana bread recipe that I have been unable to replicate. When my daughter Abby came home and raved about this bread I knew I had to share it. It starts with my basic Olive Oil Zucchini Bread Recipe . Olive oil, maple syrup and brown sugar are beaten together in a bowl until they are mixed. Add eggs, vanilla and orange extract and beat it together until it is emulsified (it ...
LEMON ROSEMARY SHORTBREAD COOKIES (THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN CHOCOLATE CHIP)
I read a lot about pie this weekend : about how it’s fast becoming a lost tradition because Americans don’t want to spend time making a pie crust and about how, without putting in the time to make pastry over and over again, you will never really get it right. In the opinion of some, store-bought ready-to-roll pie crust is crap. (Full disclaimer: I am not entirely in that camp. I will use a pre-made crust and enjoy my pie all the same when I don’t have time to make a crust.) I thought about that as I set about making these little bites of Rosemary and Lemon deliciousness baked in a ...
PEAS AND PASTA or PASTA AND PEAS?
When I told my daughter about this dish, I called it a Pea Dish. She laughed and said, “Mom, that’s a pasta dish.” Peas and Pasta or Pasta and Peas, it is delicious. Tender fresh peas are tossed with pasta, cheese and basil then topped with crispy bits of bacon for a light meal or side dish. It’s easy, quick and delicious—the trifecta of recipes. I was gifted with a bumper crop of peas this year, but you can use frozen ones if fresh peas are unavailable. The pasta is similarly a matter of choice. The only requirement is that it be a small pasta, close to the size of the ...
SAUTEED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH FRESH BLUEBERRY SAUCE
About halfway through my 2 quart basket of blueberries I decided that any true exploration of the ingredient required exploring its use in savory dishes as well as sweet baked ones. I looked to chicken for this. Americans have been pairing poultry with berries since the Civil War when General Grant served cranberry sauce to his soldiers along with turkey for their Thanksgiving dinner. Like the cranberry, blueberries are native to North America, making Chicken and Blueberry Sauce a close cousin of our Thanksgiving favorite. The blueberries bring a subtle sweetness to the dish which is ...
BLUEBERRIES! BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
Get ready for it. I am doing blueberries this month. While I am not a huge fan of raw blueberries there is something about a blueberry cooked into a pie, buckle, cobbler, crisp, muffin, Danish pastry, jam, sauce, or whatever I can cook it into, that I just love. I went to the market yesterday and they had baskets of blueberries. Not the overlarge, relatively tasteless blueberries that have regrettably become common lately. But real blueberries: small, sweet, delicious. And now I have two quarts of blueberries to use up! I am starting simple and classic: ...
LEMON RASPBERRY QUICK BREAD
Once I have successfully tried a new method I like to see if it works well in other dishes. In this case I am using the "reverse creaming method" to make a moist, and densely crumbed quickbread flavored with lemon and filled with raspberries! "Pop it in the oven!" "Toss it in the oven!" "Throw that in the oven and give it a quick bake!" Why are TV chefs so violent with their cooking? After I have spent good time carefully putting together a dish the last thing I am going to do is carelessly pop, toss, or throw it anywhere! What am I going to do is to think about how the ...
