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 ...
Baking
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 ...
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 ...
STRAWBERRY RHUBARB BARS
Fresh strawberries and diced rhubarb are baked into a traybake or "bar cookie" filled with the flavors of Spring. For an extra pop of flavor, freeze dried strawberries are ground up and added to the crust. It's a quick and easy early Summer treat. I spent three weeks perfecting this recipe, taking it from "Okay" to "Yes!" And now I have procrastinated writing about it for another week. Honestly if I take any longer on this the strawberry and rhubarb season will have passed! Perfection is like that. Sometimes searching for perfection gets in the way. You need to step back and relax. ...
MEMORIES OF SPRING WITH STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
Memories of Spring and Strawberry Shortcake lead to a 2 layer Strawberry Shortcake made using the reverse creaming method for a cake that is soft and tightly crumbed. Food is inextricably intertwined with our selves. It is energy for our bodies, carrier and creator of our deepest emotions. A smell can send us back to places, times, and events long past. Isn’t it odd though how that memory road only goes one way? With no effort at all the smell of a food or dish will transport me back to the past and the memories so strongly bound to it. All too often, however, I can remember a ...
OLD BAY AND CHEDDAR BISCUITS: STAND BACK RED LOBSTER!
According to my daughter, these light and flyffy biscuits overloaded with cheese and richly flavored with Old Bay Spice Seasoning give the Biscuits from Red Lobster some serious competition! What do you think? When we moved to Singapore in 1999, my oldest daughter was 13. Over the course of the next 11 years I watched all three of my girls transistion from childhood through high school to young adults. There were many milestones and many traditions, one of the most memorable of which revolved around suitcases. Sometime in May, every year, we would board a plane home to the United States ...
LEMONGRASS AND GINGER YOGURT CAKE
Here I am mismashing all the different flavors and baking influences of my life together again. This is really where “fusion” cooking comes from. Once you have lived somewhere the flavors become a part of your life as much as pieces of the culture become a part of your person. In this case, pound cake (American) met Yogurt Cake (French) and they asked Lemongrass and Ginger (Southeast Asian) to join the party! This is not an overly sweet cake, and the flavors are subtle. It makes a wonderful afternoon snack, pairs well with ice cream or, do what I do and, eat it for ...
