Lemon Cupcakes Make Even the First Day of School Bearable

School: we're two weeks in - how's it going for you?  Frankly, I'm happy to be back on a schedule again - Every spring I'm thrilled that school is over thinking that my summer will stretch into long lazy days, reading down the pile of books on my nightstand, taking my children to amusement parks and beaches, wandering the halls of cool museums - the reality?  Driving.  I spend my summer driving.  I drive the girls to camps, and summer classes, and pick up their friends, and drive for take out food and driving to the mall and when I'm not doing those things, I'm doing my usual errands, groceries, dry cleaners, dog food.  This year I was hired as an adjunct at the very last minute by Temple, which is "yay" but also "holy #@% I have to prepare!"  So, it's been hectic.  Good hectic, but, you know.

Anyway - to deal with the anxiety of the start of school, Mads and I made a batch of yummy lemony cupcakes with vanilla pudding in the middle.

 I admit, I used a boxed pudding which I had kicking around in my pantry (I intended to use it for a cake which I never made..) but the cupcakes we made from scratch.

They were so good - I didn't frost them - we thought that it would be overkill what with the pudding inside and all, so we made a little glaze with lemon juice, confectioners sugar and a teaspoon of heavy cream.  Spectacular, if Mad's and I may brag a bit.

We doctored a basic yellow cupcake recipe from a sweet little book called Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans - you can get it from Amazon here

Lemon and Pudding Cupcakes

3/4 cup of unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup of unbleached cake flour

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter at room temp (if you haven't taken the butter out of the fridge in time - which Mad's and I hadn't - shred your butter on a box grater, spread it out on a plate and let it sit out while you get everything else together - it will come to room temp fairly quickly.
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp of lemon zest
1 Tblsp lemon juice (or to taste)
1/2 cup milk


Lemon Glaze:
3 TBLSP of Lemon juice
3 TBLSP of confectioners sugar
1 TBLSP of heavy cream


Preheat oven to 350


Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.  Beat in the eggs.  Stop mixer and scrape down the sides.  Add the  lemon juice, zest, vanilla and beat for a bit.
Add the flour and milk

alternating between the 2
and finishing with the flour.  Mix until just incorporated.

Fill your muffin tin with paper cups, and then, using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, scoop your batter into each cup.  Lick the bowl - it's worth it.

Bake your cupcakes on the middle rack of your oven for 20 - 23 min - or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the middle cupcake comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool on a rack - while you make the pudding and the glaze.

I made pudding from a box - but this is how I made the glaze:

sift the confectioners sugar into a shallow bowl,  using a whisk - whisk in the lemon juice until the glaze is runny.  Then add just a small amount of heavy cream - up to 1 TBLSP- which cuts the acidity of the lemon a bit (you can leave this out if you want).  

Once the pudding is made, and cooled and your cupcakes are cooled, 

dip the tops of your cupcakes in the glaze.  Wait a few minuets for the glaze 

to set - then carefully cut the top off the cupcake, dig out a little well for the pudding and spoon about a teaspoon of the pudding into your well before replacing the top. 

You have to store these in the fridge where they will last about 3-4 days.  Or, you and your family can greedily eat them up all at once for the back-to-school comfort only a sweetly tart cupcake like this can bring...

Basil

I have planter of basil in my yard.  One.  And even though I have an enormous amount of pesto in my fridge, and the plant still looks like this:

You can see how dry it's been - I watered this this morning

I cut it back almost every day, and over night it grows back to frightening heights, and I just want to say that plants like this scare me.  It's all a little alien - like if we don't pay close attention they might just take over.  Grass is like this; grass grows through blacktop.  Freaky.  Let's just say I'm looking forward to the winter months when things are dormant.  In the meantime, I'm making pesto as fast as I can.  Since my daughter can't eat pine nuts, I usually mash the basil up with garlic and oil and call it a day.  Sometimes I add cheese, sometimes I don't - however the other day, I added lemon and it was a revelation.

I've been using my little crock of lemon/basil pesto on EVERYTHING - from turkey sandwiches to scrambled eggs.


But the best thing, so far was slathering a tablespoon or so on these beautiful pork chops I picked up at the Farmer's Market and marinated.  Then I grilled them and heavens they were good!

Look at em:

I just ate lunch, and these still make me hungry

Aren't they beautiful?





Lemon Basil Pesto


Start with a fistful of basil from your yard (or the farmer's market) and strip all the leaves from the stems. Jam it all in your blender or food processor, or if you have one in the bowl of a stone mortar.  Add at least one clove of raw garlic, and about a tablespoon of lemon zest (I used one large lemon).  Blend, pulse or pound all this together until it makes a paste.  Then squeeze the lemon into the basil paste and blend, pulse or stir.  Finally add about 1/4 cup of very very good extra virgin olive oil to the whole thing.  If you are blending or pulsing, add it slowly through the feed tube.  If you used a mortar then whisk it in until combined.  Taste the whole thing.  You can add some parmesan here if you like, about 1/4 cup grated, or, just sea salt.  Both are good.  Sometimes I just like just to add the salt - especially if I'm going to let it sit in the fridge for a while because the parmesan can kind of take over.  Always add a bit of pepper.  If you like a little zing - add about a 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes to the mixture before you blend, pulse or pound.  This keeps in the fridge for about 3 weeks or so.  You can also freeze this: put tablespoons of the pesto into ice cube trays, freeze for a couple of hours, then pop them out and put the cubes of pesto in a freezer bag.  Very yummy in the dead of winter when all you want is a shot of something really really green.

Pork Chops and Basil Pesto


So go get yourself some pork chops or lamb chops - they're good too with this. (Although I always feel like I have to sell a kidney or something to afford enough lamb for the 4 of us.)  Slather them with the pesto at least 2 hours before you grill them, or over night.

Heat the grill - I have a new charcoal grill that I'm in love with - I like to pile all the hot coals on one side of the grill so I have a really hot side (for searing) and a cooler side for the cooking.

By the way - if you make a small slit in the fat around the outer edge of the chop, your pork chops won't curl up when you grill them.  (I stole this tip from Cook's Illustrated).

Out of the Freezer and Into the Frying Pan

You know how you come home after a frustrating day, and you open the fridge and there's nothing, absolutely nothing in there to cook and your kids are whiney because they're hungry and they are starting to pick on each other and your husband is tired, too tired to pick up take out on the way home, and you yank open the freezer hoping there's a frozen pizza in there, but there isn't, all that's in there are some turkey burgers you froze last week when your daughter gave you a hard time about having turkey burgers AGAIN and she hates turkey burgers and so you said "FINE we'll have pizza" and she said, "I hate pizza we always have pizza" and you said, "fine we'll just not eat," and your husband got all prince charming and made you one of his new amazing drinks with gin and lemon; and you know how when you have a little gin you go to your happy place where cooking is really not an option and so you wrapped up all those turkey burgers and threw them in the freezer for another day, and your daughter came downstairs and allowed as how she could have pizza after all, so you ordered one, and turned on a movie and, now, flash forward in time and here we are with all those turkey burgers after a long day, but you never defrosted them and every one knows you should always defrost meat before your cook it it, because, because, well, why - why not, why not just throw it in a pan, frozen, on a very low heat, and cook it slowly and see what happens because there is nothing else in the house and what the heck.  You know how that happens?

Well, that was my day the other day and I took a chance.

I took four turkey burgers straight from the freezer and stuck them in a pan over very low heat, and covered the pan.  It did take a long time, but they cooked through, and you know what?  They were really really good: not dried out, not bacteria filled, and in fact BOTH my girls ate them and pronounced them yummy.  My theory is this: 1)the turkey was a mixture of light and dark meat.  2) I had also mixed them with shredded zucchini in an effort to use some of the enormous amounts of that vegetable I suddenly seemed to have and that kept them moist because zucchini is really water.  3) I have a tendency to squish my burgers very flat, because that's the way the kids like 'em, and I do what my kids like.  And, most importantly, 4) I think the very fact that they started our frozen was the very thing that kept them from drying out.  I do.

So, friends, fear not.  Drag your burgers still frozen from the deep freeze and toss them on into the frying pan.  And if you have frozen buns, stick those in the toaster.  Or, do as I did, and use plain old white bread toast and slap on a pice of lettuce and a slice of tomato (a nice heirloom from the farmer's market). I believe at the last minute I also added a couple pieces of cheddar.

My Recipe (but feel free to use your own - I think the key is to make the burgers fairly flat)
yielded 6 burgers

1/2 lb white meat ground turkey (more or less - )
1/2 lb dark meat ground turkey (very important, or your burgers will be dry and tasteless)
1 large zucchini shredded
A splash or two of Worcestershire Sauce
1-2 tsp of sea salt
ground pepper, as much as you like


Mix all of this in a bowl with your hands.  Form into 4-6 flat patties - I have girls so I make smallish burgers and give Smith 2 if he's really hungry.  Get into a big fight with your kid, drink gin, throw the burgers onto a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer.  After an hour, take them out and wrap in parchment and put each into a ziploc freezer bag.

To Cook:
Set a skillet on the stove.  Wipe the skillet with an olive oil drenched paper towel - you don't want too much oil or it will get greasy, but you don't want the meat to totally stick either.  Add the burgers, turn the flame on LOW.  Cover.  Resist the urge to check until about 10 min have passed.  Then check, if the burgers look less frozen, flip them.  Keep the flame on low for at least 7 minutes.  Then check your burgers, mine looked pretty juicy, and they gave a bit when I pressed them gently.  Then I turned the heat up a lot, took the cover off, and let each side sear a minute.  Take them out and let them rest covered in foil for 10 min.  Serve!  You will thank me for this, you really will.

OH - by the way, thanks for reading to the end of this post, and because you put up with me and my rambling on for so long about turkey burgers and teenagers I'm now going to give you Smith's recipe for his amazing summer gin cocktail, which, I promise you will kick your butt - so make sure you drink it in a small glass, like I do.  Smith got this recipe from his former boss who is now a friend, and who has a confusing last name, and who my children have called Mr. Guacamole since they were little, so I am calling this awesome cocktail, the

"Frank Guacamole"


1.5 oz gin 
.25 oz of Campari
.25 of Cointreau
.75 oz lemon juice


Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake.  Strain into martini glasses.  This is supposed to be enough for one cocktail, but I usually split this with Smith - then he'll make himself another later...

With Figs Like These...

Well, my old high-school friend Marc is back from Uganda- and in honor of his return I decided to do something with some figs I picked up because his post on figs had me salivating.  Plus, I had this gorgeous goat's milk ricotta I bought at the farmer's market in my fridge that I really needed to do something with.  On top of all of this excitement, we were going over to Mark and Barry's for a pre-vacation send off dinner (their vacation, not ours -  we, sadly, are going exactly nowhere this summer) and Smith was bringing mojitos and I wanted to bring an appetizer that would go well - something spicy and salty and a little bit sweetish.

I have to admit I never used to be much of a fig fan, unless they were surrounded in a soft cookie were titled "Newton".  When I was a kid, fig Newtons were my second favorite after school snack, following slightly stale and soft graham crackers dipped in milk until they fell apart.  After which you quickly drink the milk before the crumbs hit the bottom of the glass.  Mmmmm.  But, oddly, tastes change even as adults.  For instance, a year or so ago, I was out with my olive-despising friend Caroline - we hadn't seen each other in a while - so when she ordered the hummus/warm olive appetizer I almost fell off my chair.  I felt I didn't know who she WAS anymore - you know?  We've known each other since the late '80's and in all that time, I never once saw her eat an olive, mostly saw her gag in the vicinity of olives, yet suddenly there she was slurping them down.  And so it is with me and figs.  Where the raw fruit once kind of skeeved me out (perhaps because of a music video involving plates of fruit greasy haired men and women in leather that MTV played incessantly my freshman year of college...), now, I love them, especially warm from the grill or the broiler.  They are fantastic.  So, for dessert, make them Marc's way (delicious!), but for an appetizer, follow my little recipe here, because they were simply and just sublime:


Figs with Bacon and Ricotta

*(of COURSE there was bacon - ! - had to use up the last 2 thick slices in the freezer)

2 thick slices of bacon cut up into small pieces
1 nice little pint of figs - I think there were about 8 in the one I picked up from the store - sliced in half length wise
1/4 - 1/2 cup of goats milk ricotta - or any fresh ricotta
a few dashes of Tabasco, or any hot sauce of your choice
a pinch of fleur de sel, or other really tasty sea salt

First, haul out your cast iron, or stainless steel skillet, heat it up and toss in your bacon.  Cook until crispy then take it out and let it drain on some paper towels.  Pour out all but a tablespoon or so of bacon fat out of the pan, reheat, and put in the figs, cut side down.  Cook over medium heat until just fragrant.  Meanwhile preheat the broiler (I use my toaster oven broiler because it doesn't take a lifetime to hit 500 degrees).  Place your figs on a cookie sheet covered in parchment, spoon a little ricotta in the center of each fig, hit each ricotta filled fig with a dash of hot sauce and a tiny pinch of sea salt, then place the sheet into the broiler and broil until the ricotta turns a nice golden color.  Just before serving place small piece of bacon on top.  Serve immediately.

So Much Zucchini, So Few Recipes ( or, In a Pickle)

Last week, I was back at the farmer's market, and bought zucchini, cucumbers and these nifty little yellow peppers that look like a cross between a banana pepper and and a jalapeno.  Then some friends of mine went off to England for a few weeks and asked me to pick vegetables while they were away, which I did.   Sadly, the tomatoes were still too green to take home, though I nabbed a few eggplants.  However, what my friends had was a preponderance of zucchini.  There was so much zucchini, and the zucchini were so large, I found myself looking nervously around for Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams.  Seriously, do not fall asleep near a patch of zucchini.  I am only half joking about this.

Anyway, suddenly I had pounds and pounds of zucchini - I made a batch of zucchini bread, I shredded some up and mixed this into some turkey burgers along with an egg and a splash of Worcestershire Sauce (very similar to the turkey meatloaf I made a while ago) which was pretty good, but I still had about 5 1lb zucchini (ies? - how does one plural zucchini) to do something with and that was the moment I thought: pickle.

Who doesn't love a pickle?  And aren't zucchini rather close in essence to the ubiquitous cucumber?  What's more, I have a new favorite cookbook, Simple Fresh Southern by the Lee Brothers which has a neat recipe for zucchini pickles and in the snacks and appetizers section.

Using their recipe as a base, I whipped up a batch of pickles, and have been obsessed with pickles ever since.  So far I have pickled (Using the recipe below as a base for experimentation) the zucchini, cucumbers, onions, fresh cherry tomatoes (surprisingly wonderful) the yellow peppers and some radishes.  I am NOT boiling jars and using sealing wax, however, so if you use my recipe, be aware that you should use up these pickles within 2 or so weeks.  Smith and I have been eating them at dinner, with a little swirl of this outstanding olive oil I picked up when we dropped Mads at camp.  Amazing.

Pickles


First, find yourself a pile of jars.  I used old jam jars as well as a couple of pyrex bowls with lids.  I am on the prowl for more jars, however.  Any friends in my neighborhood interested in dropping empty glass jars with lids off at my house will receive pickles in return...

1lb of zucchini (or cucumbers, or peppers or, well, whatever it is you want to pickle)
1 onion (or a couple of shallots, or a handful of green onions with the roots cut off, or sweet red spring onions - which will turn your pickles pink however)
A handful of your hardier herbs: dill, or parsley or cilantro tough stems cut off (depending on what you think will taste good with what you are pickling) (P.S. basil just turns brown, don't use it I don't care how rampant your basil is in the back yard.  It become unappealing over time in the vinegar)
1/2 cup of champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 cup of water
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 tsp kosher salt
1-2 tsp of sugar
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 bay leaf


Slice your vegetables they way you want to eat them.  The Lee Bros. like em sliced on the diagonal, but if your zucchini is the size of a T-ball bat, you might need to half it before cutting it on the diagonal.  Cut any onions thickly.  I didn't cut the tomatoes at all.  OH - didn't use the lemon juice with the tomatoes, just used a whole cup of vinegar - but I think lemon juice would be fine.  Shove your veggies in the jar.

Heat the rest of the ingredients in a non-reactive sauce pot - and let it come to a simmer.  When it is just simmering pour it all over the veggies in the jar.  Let the jar sit open until it comes to room temperature, then seal it up and put it in the fridge.  Finish off within two weeks.