The baking-est weekend

So I thought I'd share the things I made this weekend since all I've done with myself is bake and cook!

(this is actually from Thursday night but it's close enough...)

I made Blackberry buckle courtesy of Bless her heart's blog--I just found this blog that a woman, also in Austin, writes and I love her simple, impassioned dishes that use lots of fresh, local ingredients.


What inspired this endeavor is the wild blackberry bush I discovered today on my walk back to the apartment. On the edge of a vacant lot sits a massive, winding, spiky blackberry bramble with so many delicious berries. I scraped up my legs pretty nicely but after picking a few cups of berries I knew I had to bake them into something. Needless to say, it's all gone. It was delicious and came together so quickly that I honestly thought I screwed it up because it took not even 5 minutes to throw together!


Yesterday really was all food all day. I woke up, walked the dog (Rupert) to the farmer's market. In between the time that people gawked and petted and asked about Rupert I managed to pick up some banana peppers and turnips and I ran into Ben who said he'd come cook with us when he was done working. The plan for the day was pickling some cucumbers I got Friday through Conway Locally Grown. Although, I was originally inspired to pickle from this recipe at Smitten Kitchen I couldn't find it for some reason and used another. After some alterations and halving the found recipe it ended up looking a lot like this recipe anyway though. I ran out of white sugar so I topped off with brown (which I prefer anyways, hopefully it won't screw anything up too monumentally). I also have found very mixed opinions on when to eat the pickles. One source told me 6 weeks, another 1 week and another just a few hours! As much as I'd like to go with the latter I think I'll try to wait it out--if I can!

We braised the leftover pickling cucumbers, just like Julia Child, but they weren't all that so I chalked it up to being the wrong kind of cucumber which was pretty accurate since we tried it again at dinner with some cucumbers picked from the Hendrix garden and they definitely were all that.

For dinner, a friend came over with a backpack full of ingredients. Ben had instructed him to bring whatever he wanted but not to think about an endpoint, just bring whatever he felt like bringing. We decided upon assessing the situation (and with an added request (to use the casserole dish you gave me last year) to make a tortilla casserole. We stir-fried squash, onion, leftover sliced veggies (carrots, cucumber), with spices (cumin, paprika, red pepper), garbanzo beans (that had been seared in a separate pan). Then we layered tortillas, the stir-fry, local jalapeno cheddar cheese and slices of heirloom tomatoes from Ben's farm. Baked for 15 minutes in 350 degree oven. SO DELICIOUS.

Right now I'm waiting for my Foccacia bread to rise.

I think that about wraps it up. I highly recommend the buckle and I'll let you know how the pickles turn out in a week!

Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe

Ingredients

3 medium, firm green tomatoes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs or cornmeal
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method

1 Cut unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt and pepper. Let tomato slices stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place flour, milk, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow dishes.
2 Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Dip tomato slices in milk, then flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 4-6 minutes on each side or until brown. As you cook the rest of the tomatoes, add olive oil as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

found at simply recipes

Summer Squash And Red Pepper Tarta With Basil Crust

courtesy of NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126911529#126911836
Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon ice water, plus more if needed

Filling

2 large red bell peppers

2 large summer squash

Olive oil for drizzling

Salt and pepper to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh basil as garnish

2 large eggs

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the butter with a pastry blender, food processor or your hands until the dough looks like coarse crumbs. Once it reaches the desired consistency, add the egg yolk and ice water, working it into the mixture. Pinch a section of the dough together between your fingers: If the dough is still crumbly and does not bind, add more ice water, a small amount at a time. You want the dough to bind without being too damp or sticky. When the dough has reached the right consistency, roll it into a ball and flatten it into a disk (this will help the dough cool faster). Then wrap the disk and place it in the refigerator for at least 30 minutes, ideally one hour.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice the bell peppers into quadrants and the squash into rounds 1/4 inch thick. Cover a baking sheet with foil and lightly drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper. Spread cut vegetables on top of seasoned foil. Drizzle again with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften, turning them over halfway.

While the vegetables roast, take the dough from the refrigerator. Lightly flour a kitchen board and roll out the dough into a 10-inch round. Drape the dough over a rolling pin and transfer it to a 9-by-9-inch baking or pie pan. Press the dough into the pan and trim the edges.

When the vegetables are done, lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees Prick the bottom of the tart crust with a fork and place it in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crust begins to brown. If it begins to puff, cover with foil and add pie weights, dried beans or rice to hold it down (or just push it down with an oven mitt or kitchen towel!).

Pile the vegetables into the pre-cooked tart crust, beginning with the red peppers, breaking the curled edges to let the pepper lie flat. Once the red peppers are arranged, whisk 1 egg and pour evenly over tart. Then place the squash slices and whisk the other egg and pour over the tart. Place the tart in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. If the edges of the tart begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil. Once the egg is cooked through, the tart is done. Cool on a rack and garnish with basil before serving.

**I actually added roasted onion, banana pepper and sprinkled chard over the top--oh and rolled the leftover dough out very thin and baked it on top of the tart! Also, only threw in 1/2 of a bell pepper because that's all I had. This was so good though, very filling. (Also, I ate it for dinner...but will have leftovers for breakfast!) Not as eggy as a quiche but that may be due to my tiny local eggs...cute, but tiny.

Cosmo cupcake!

This week at a cupcakery in Seattle: "Cosmopolitan", Orange cake filled with cranberry curd spiked with vodka topped with cranberry italian buttercream with more vodka... just in time for the opening of "Sex in the City"

http://www.theyellowleafcupcake.com/

Pasta Recipe

Equal parts eggs to flour (use 2 eggs and 2 cups for a reasonable amount of pasta). Use olive oil or water to hold dough together.