Summertime Sweets

Tonight's dinner was super simple...we threw some steaks on the grill and mixed up a simple salad (for those of you at home playing the 2 Hungry Hearts drinking game, take a drink every time we make a simple salad) of green leaf lettuce and sliced fennel...all items from our share.  We topped the salad with some toasted walnuts, and dressed it with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, some thyme and fennel fronds.  The sweetness of the white balsamic balanced out the fennel quite nicely.

But let's get on to the main event.  If you thought the salad and steak were easy, wait till you feast your eyes on this dessert.  It couldn't be simpler!

We only had 2 stalks of rhubarb, so we tossed in some quartered strawberries too.  Strawberries and rhubarb are a winning combination; the sweetness of strawberries balancing out the tartness of rhubarb.  Since we had the strawberries, we just cut out some of the sugar the recipe called for.  Anyway...just chop up the rhubarb and strawberries, and toss with a bit of lemon juice and sugar.

In a separate bowl you'll make the topping.  Rather than just use panko, as the recipe calls for, we also threw in some oats, along with cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and some Chinese five spice, since we didn't have allspice on hand.

Butter the bottom of your baking dish, and spread some of your topping on the bottom to make a nice little crust.  Then layer on your strawberries and rhubarb so they're evenly distributed.  Top it off with the rest of your topping, along with your chopped almonds.  Then cube up some butter and dot the top.  Make sure the butter is spread out evenly too, so it melts over the whole dish.

Then just pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  You want the filling to start to bubble, and the top to be golden brown and crisp.  Let it cool for a few minutes, and then dig in! As our friend Jeffrey Zakarian would say, "Yummy!"

CSA Recap

Who's ready for a recap?

• Lamb Chops & Roasted Asparagus
• asparagus
• Sausage & Ramp Risotto w/ Salad
• ramps
• oyster mushrooms
• bibb lettuce
• Grilled Lobster & Ramps
• ramps
• Beer Can Chicken w/ Butter Braised Radishes
• chicken
• radishes
• Strawberry Shortcake
• strawberries
• Cod w/ Lemon Dill Beurre Blanc & Sauteed Spinach
• dill
• spinach

Strawberry Shortcake

When it comes to desserts, I'm much more apt to choose a fruit-based dessert over some decadent chocolate delight.  For one, chocolate, especially rich, dark chocolate, makes me sneeze.  And I just prefer a lighter, less sweet dessert.  So what better way to use our quart of strawberries, than to make a strawberry shortcake?

It was perfect timing because Justin received an email from Food & Wine with their 20 top strawberry recipes, which included a shortcake recipe.  It came together pretty quickly, and in no time, we were chowing down on dessert.

Justin took care of the strawberries, slicing them in half, and macerating them with some sugar, orange zest, and grated ginger.  The orange and ginger were our added twists, and added some brightness to our strawberries.

As for the shortcakes, mix the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Using your fingers (or a pastry blender if you have one), mix in the cold butter.  Once the butter is incorporated, add in your cream, and mix with a knife until the dough clumps together.

At this point, the recipe has you pat the dough into a round cake pan, but we decided to make individual little shortcakes.  Once you form them to your desired size, place them on a baking sheet, brush on a bit of cream, and sprinkle a little sugar on top.  Then just pop 'em in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown on top.

While your shortcakes are cooking, you can make your whipped cream.  In a bowl you'll need your cream, some vanilla, and some sugar.  If you want a good arm workout, you can whip it by hand, but we opted for the hand mixer.  In less than 5 minutes, we had some delicious, homemade whipped cream.

Once the shortcakes have cooled a bit, slice them in half horizontally, spoon on some strawberries and whipped cream, and top with your shortcake cap.  We also added a bit or orange zest to garnish.

It was so easy, and so delicious.  It's the perfect summer dessert!  The hardest part was waiting for the shortcakes to cool!

CSA Day!

We're back to our normal bi-weekly share pick ups, and couldn't be more excited with the goodies we picked up today.

I know Justin is most excited about the ramps, especially since we've been seeing them everywhere.  And we've got big plans for the chicken.

We made quick work of the asparagus, simply roasting them with salt and pepper, and giving them a little squeeze of lemon juice to finish them off.  They were paired with grilled lamb chops, with the curry cream sauce we made at Easter.

Soup & Salad Snowquester

For those of you living outside the District, the meteorologists/media dubbed today's storm, "Snowquester".  To our dismay, snowquester was more of a rain-quester, but Justin had the day off, and I was able to work from home, so it wasn't all a loss.  But with the cold, windy rain, it was a perfect day for a big bowl of soup and a nice fresh salad.

Since we picked up a ginormous butternut squash from yesterday's share, we turned him into soup, using the recipe we posted about here.  Rather than crumble bacon on top, we seared up a couple pieces of pork terrine.  These went on the bottom of each bowl, and we ladeled the soup over it.  That way, when you dug in for a spoonful, you'd get a bit of the terrine.

The real star of tonight's meal though was the salad with a strawberry balsamic reduction.  We started by toasting up some walnuts and pecans, and by crisping up some pancetta.

 Then we chopped up a granny smith apple, and some radishes we had on hand.

Then it was time to make the dressing.  We chopped up about 6 strawberries and threw them into a saucepan with enough balsamic vinegar to cover them.

As the vinegar reduced, and the strawberries broke down from the heat, it started to thicken, and the sweetness of the strawberries started to come through.  It developed a smell, much like strawberry jam, but still had a bit of a tang from the vinegar.  Once it had reduced down to a thick syrup consistency, we whisked in a bit of olive oil.

Then it was time to build the salad.  We used the bibb lettuce from the share as our base.  Then layered in the apple and radishes.  The panchetta and nuts were sprinkled on top, along with some crumbled goat cheese.  Then we drizzled the dressing on.

All of the components worked really well together.  The apple was tart and crunchy, while the radishes added a bit of peppery spice.  The nuts also added a nice crunch, and the panchetta added some saltiness.  There was the nice tang and creaminess of the goat cheese, balanced out by the sweetness of the strawberries and reduced balsamic.

All in all, it was a great, hearty meal to warm us up through the rain/snow-quester!