Strawberry Shortcake

Boston's Strawberry Dessert Festival may be over, but strawberry season is still in full force. So, when my sister asked me to bring a dessert to her house last weekend and my mom suggested strawberry shortcake, I knew it would be perfect. We were heading down the night before so I wanted to make something that would either stay nice or that I could easily assemble there. So, I made the biscuits for the dessert ahead of time and did the rest there. Of course we picked up some super fresh farm-stand strawberries while we were in Rhode Island doing some wine tastings for the day.

Strawberry Shortcake (serves 8)

• 1 3/4 lbs (6 C) strawberries, cleaned, hulled, and chopped into quarters
• 1 1/4 C plus 2 T sugar
• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 4 t baking powder
• 3/4 t salt
• 12 T butter, unsalted and cold, cut into small pieces
• 2 C heavy cream
• 2 large eggs
• 2 T vanilla extract

I did things in a bit of a backward order since I made the biscuits at home and bought the strawberries later. But assuming you have all your ingredients and are making the dessert all at once, you'll want to prepare your strawberries first.

Put them in a medium bowl and toss with 3/4 C of sugar. You'll want to let them sit while you finish the dessert so all the juices come out. If your kitchen is warm, you can put them in the fridge for a bit.

Now start on the biscuits. Put the flour, baking powder, 1/2 C sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. This dough was reason # 8493 I need a larger food processor. I had to do mine in 2 batches!

Now add the pieces of butter in and pulse about 10-12 times until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some pea-sized pieces of butter mixed in. In a bowl, whisk together 1/2 C cream with the 2 eggs and 1 T vanilla. Pour this over the flour mixture and pulse until large clumps begin to appear, about 25-30 times.

Gently pack the dough into a 1/2 C measuring cup, invert and tap onto a baking sheet. The dough should make 8 biscuits.

Bake the biscuits at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until they're lightly golden. Let them cool for at least 15 minutes.

Now, make the whipped cream. If you've never whipped your own cream, you have to! It's SO much better than whipped cream from the can. I know it's crazy, but I really don't like whipped cream (it's pretty much the only food I won't eat), but I don't mind it as much at all if it's homemade. And you don't even need a hand mixer! My sister and her fiance didn't have one since they're in their house temporarily and I forgot mine, so we did it by hand with a whisk. Actually, my mom did it. It takes a bit of time, but it's so worth it.

Just put the remaining 1 1/2 C of cream in a big bowl and beat like crazy with a whisk.

Once soft peaks form, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar with the tablespoon of vanilla and beat a bit more.

Now, cut the biscuits in half horizontally.

Do this very gently with a serrated knife, so the biscuit doesn't crumble.

Spoon the strawberries and some of their liquid over the biscuit.

And then add some whipped cream.

Seriously the perfect summer dessert.

The strawberry shortcake was such a nice ending to a wonderful seafood dinner. It's perfect for a warm night when you want desert, but can't handle anything heavy. I could probably eat this all year round, winter included.

[Sues]

Our Favorite Things #1

In an effort to keep things positive, we have decided that every Friday we're going to share a few of our favorite things of the week. It will be a way for us to recap and reflect on the days past and a way for you all to see what we've been up to... and what we love! Enjoy!

Chels's Favorite Things this week:

Washington, DC - I actually went to DC the previous weekend, but I'm sharing it with you this week ;)

I went to visit my little brother, who's not so little anymore. He's working on Capitol Hill for the Summer and is pretty much a grown a man, as he wears suits everyday to the office... impressed! Where does time go? I flew down to our nation's capitol for a long weekend and enjoyed some great food, lots of jazz, and of course scenery!

Us at Jazz in the Garden...live Jazz every Friday. Perfect way to end a week!

At Art & Soul, Chef Art Smith's restaurant. Probably some of the best Eggs Benedict I've had in a while! Country biscuit, Virginia Ham, and a gorgeous egg. How tasty!

My brother in front of the Capitol, this is one of my favorite pictures, he looks so smooooth!

And then me in front of the Capitol...
I'm not nearly as cool as my brother and my arms are really long... sheesh!! :P

I loved being able to spend time with my awesome brother and enjoy a really great city where it actually feels like Summer still exists... 'twas lovely!

Indiana Popcorn

Let me start by saying I brought a bag of this to my parent's house once and my mother told me never to bring it there again... basically because we ate the majority of it in one day. This popcorn is beyond addicting (in the best way possible!)

Whole Foods was having a deal this week (2/$6) so I, of course, bought 2 bags... why wouldn't I??? My favorite kinds are Aged White Cheddar and Original Kettle Corn. Their slogan sums up the wonderful flavors of each kernel: "Crunchy and Crispy, Sharp and Savory." Indiana, Popcorn also won "Best Snack Award 2008" from Shape Magazine... which only makes me want to eat more of it ;) Let me know if you try it or have ever had it!


A forced sign of Summer

As many of you probably already know, we're in a bit of a (massive) rut, weather wise, here in New England. With temperatures in the 60s and semi-monsoon like rains it feels more like April or October, not the beginning of July. I'm expecting to wake up tomorrow morning and see snow on the ground... it really wouldn't even surprise me at this point! So the cure to all this gloom? Buy yourself some flowers and put them right next to something you love... in my case my KitchenAid Mixer ;) At least there's something bright to look at whenever I step into my kitchen!



Sues's Favorite Things this week:

Magazines

They say print publishing is dying and that makes me cry. So, I'm single-handedly trying to save the industry by subscribing to every single magazine known to man. Seriously though, I went to grad school for publishing and have been obsessed with magazines for as long as I can remember. Way back to the days of Ranger Rick and World then onto American Girl and Teen and YM. Now I'm obviously a big fan of cooking magazines (and anything with Martha Stewart or Chris Kimball's name on it). As well as Business-type magazines, The New Yorker, with a Glamour and Lucky thrown in for good measure.

The sad thing is, I don't have enough time to read my magazines EVER, so my floor constantly looks like this. But I am determined to save the publishing industry, so don't try to stop me.

New England Seafood (and bacon)

Last weekend I went to my sister and future brother-in-law's house in Fairhaven and they made us an absolutely amazing dinner. And it greater confirmed my love of New England seafood. They grilled kabobs consisting of shrimp, swordfish, and scallops. With bacon weaved in. Yes, bacon weaved into the kabob. Um, heaven. On a stick. Literally. Can you believe a few short years ago I wouldn't go near a scallop? And as a child up until high school, my parents had to cook me a separate meal every time they made fish. So basically I was missing out on stuff like this:

The whole delicious meal

I'll tell you about the strawberry shortcake we had for dessert soon. Oh, and the amazing wine tastings we went on! Because wine is another one of my favorite things. And my family is another. But yes, New England seafood is up there, especially when family is making it and enjoying it with me.

Oh, also, I spent 15 years of my life not eating lobster. And I call myself a Boston Girl. Ugh.

Tassimo

Whenever anyone even says "favorite thing" one word immediately pops into my head. Tassimo. My Tassimo is definitely one of my favorite things in life. See, I love coffee. But I'm horrible at making it. And since I work at home, having a full pot of coffee around is never a good thing for me. Because I will be drinking it allll day long (what? I never said I had self control). With my Tassimo, I get one perfect cup of coffee every day. And if I want another, I can always make another, but it's not sitting right in front of me.

Hi, pretty.

Tassimo has tons of different coffee brands like Starbucks (whee!!) and Maxwell House and Gevallia and Seattle's Best. Now they just need to get Dunkin' Donuts. And steal Green Mountain away from Keurig. OK, my point is, Tassimo saved my life. And I'm major fan of it.

We're off to enjoy our 4th of July weekends now. We hope you all have a fabulous holiday filled with all your favorite things!

[Chels and Suess]

Scallion Pancakes

Any time I get Chinese food, I always need to get scallion pancakes. They're pretty much my favorite Chinese food and I've loved them for as long as I can remember. And yes, I know they're not exactly the healthiest thing you can order (by far), but sometimes you need to splurge, especially when it comes to Chinese food. And I figured my own homemade version would at least allow me to control what goes in them, right?

I really had no clue about how to make a scallion pancake but I looked at probably a dozen different recipes and gave it a shot. It might look a bit tedious, but it really wasn't bat ad all (and SO worth it). The only really annoying part is that some of the steps require waiting in between them.

Scallion Pancakes (makes about 12 pancakes or 48 pieces):

• 2 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 T olive oil
• 3/4 C boiling water
• 4 T vegetable oil
• 1 C sliced scallion

In a medium bowl, I mixed the flour and salt together and then mixed in the olive oil and boiling water, which turned it into dough. I kneaded the dough for a few minutes and formed it into a ball. I covered the bowl with saran wrap and let it sit for about 20 minutes (I hate waiting!).

Then I formed the ball into a log and cut that log into about 12 pieces. I took each piece and flattened it into a round pancake shape. With a pastry brush, I brushed a bit of the vegetable oil on top and sprinkled scallions around.

I rolled each piece of dough into a cylinder.

And then sort of coiled the cylinder into a snail shape.

It was a little bit tedious, but not as bad as I thought it would be. These have to be covered and then must sit for 20 minutes. Yup, more waiting.

I took each little snail-shaped dough and flattened it with my hand and used a rolling pin to roll it out a bit.

I brushed some more olive oil into a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and placed a few of the pancakes in the pan.

I kept a careful eye on the pan and turned the pancakes when they started browning. With each new batch, I added a bit more vegetable oil, but didn't end up using the entire 4 tablespoons.

As I took them out of the pan, I placed them on a paper towel-lined plate to soak up some of the excess oil.

I used a cookie cutter to cut the pancakes into little triangles and served with a special sauce. OK, so it wasn't that special. It's really just soy sauce, sriracha, and some more scallions.

Verdict? They were really delicious, though not quite as delicious as what you'd get at a Chinese food eatery. But I'm pretty sure that's because they weren't half as greasy, so I'm going to go ahead and say I'd much rather eat these. For my health's sake! Plus, you know what? They have no MSG! I just like saying that.

I will definitely make these again, maybe for a little gathering where finger food is appropriate. I have a feeling they'd be a party favorite!

[Sues]

Cherry Vanilla Granola

One of my favorite food blogs is No Recipes. Mark Matsumoto, the brilliant brain behind the blog, does a great job of explaining each step there is to recipes that he creates on his own. He takes beautiful photos (after all, he is a photographer) that seriously leave me starving at times.

Since I'm at home more now than I ever have been, I've been really interested in making things in bulk. Things I that will last throughout the week that I can easily have for breakfast and that can be translated into snacks throughout the day as well. I saw this recipe for Cherry Vanilla Granola on norecipes.com and decided it would be perfect to store and enjoy all week. It's really simple to make and is a great snack. It helped that I had the majority of the ingredients on hand too!

Here's what you'll need:


• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick cook oats)
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 C almonds (I opted not to use this since I'm allergic)
• 1/2 C coconut flakes
• 2 Tbs butter (or canola oil if you want a healthier version... I chose butter)
• 2 Tbs dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 C chopped dried cherries (found these at Whole Foods)

Here's what you do:

• Heat oven to 275 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

• In a large bowl, mix together oats, wheat germ, almonds (if you're using them), and coconut.



• Microwave butter and brown sugar until the butter has melted. Add the maple syrup and vanilla and stir, making sure everything is mixed together well. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined and the granola starts to clump together.



• Spread mixture evenly over parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.


• Open oven, stir granola, making sure to break up any large clumps of granola, and then evenly distribute cherries on baking sheet.


• Return to the oven for another 15 minutes or until the granola is nice and golden brown.

I decided to follow Mark's lead and enjoy the Cherry Vanilla Granola as a cereal with sliced bananas and soy milk. The crunchy granola and semi sweetness of the cherries made for a great breakfast that left me nice and satisfied and ready to start the day!



I decided to store the remaining granola so I could enjoy it in yogurt or just by itself. Normally when I have yogurt I toss in some crunchy cereal to make it a more filling snack, but now that I have this recipe I'm pretty sure I'll be making this more often! These plastic containers that you get at the deli are great to hold on to for times just like this.


Enjoy!

[Chels]

The Taste of Allston

On Sunday afternoon I attended the Taste of Allston with Sara, where she was manning the Yelp booth. The event wasn't as superb as I had hoped, but the rain stayed away and I discovered a few Allston restaurants I'll definitely be stopping by. I live close to Allston but typically only go there when I'm craving Sunset Bar and Grill's nachos and amazing beer selection. So it's good to have a couple reasons to go back now.

I'm always looking for good Indian food in the city and though I've heard of Grain and Salt, I didn't know anything about it. The food was pretty good and it's possible I'd go try their restaurant since I'm pretty close to it, though I am quite partial to Rani in Coolidge Corner.

And Grain and Salt does have pretty mixed Yelp reviews, so I'm while the food was good at the Taste of Allston, I wonder if it's worth the cost at the restaurant. Their Chicken Tika Masala had great flavor, but could have used a bit more of a kick, but I'm thinking you could probably ask for that in a restaurant setting.

I thought I knew most good sushi places in the Boston-area, so how have I never heard of the Fish Market in Allston? They brought with them a huge and awesome selection of sushi, unbelievable for a little outdoor festival. I think the Fish market is actually pretty new to Allston and what a fabulous way for them to introduce themselves to us!

And they have 4.5 stars on Yelp with absolutely amazing reviews. I wanted to try everything, but they limited attendees to 2 pieces of sushi for obvious reasons.

I really liked the unique spicy tuna sushi. The unagi-avo (eel and avocado) wasn't the best I've had, but then again, I feel like it's probably pretty hard to serve sushi in a non-restaurant setting.

I'll be visiting the Fish market very soon to try everything else they have to offer!

YoMa was definitely another of my favorite Allston discoveries and Sara and I already have plans to go for dinner late this week. We LOVE discovering new ethnic food and had never tried Burmese food before.

The dish we tried was called JinnThot and was a ginger salad. Seeing that ginger is one thing Sara and I can't get enough of, we were pretty obsessed with this salad. It's shredded sweet and sour ginger mixed with fresh shallot, grounded peanut, roasted sesame seeds, crispy peas, and grounded dried shrimp. It was super spicy and delicious. Almost all of YoMa's dishes contain ginger, making me wonder why we haven't discovered this place yet.

Of course there were some samples of alcohol at the Taste of Allston as well. I was impressed with the selection of Sam Adams beer and especially enjoyed the Cherry Wheat.

Presidente Beer was also there. And Pearl Vodka made some awesome "healthy" pina coladas with their coconut vodka and pineapple juice. Such a good idea!

Overall, I'm glad I attended the Taste of Allston for the few new restaurants I did discover and I can't wait to go try them. What's your favorite Allston-area restaurant?

[Sues]

Grilled Eggplant & Tomato Open Faced Sandwich with Basil Mayo

So here's a great idea... instead of making a traditional ham and cheese sandwich, make a sandwich that is an actual meal, will actual satisfy you, and is beyond delicious! I saw Bobby Flay (love!) on Ellen Degeneres' show somewhat recently. He was promoting the work he has been doing with Hellmann's Mayo creating affordable solutions to hearty sandwiches, and showed a quick recipe for Grilled Eggplant & Tomato Open Faced Sandwiches with Basil Pesto Mayonnaise (I chose to leave the pesto part out since I'm allergic). This makes a perfect weekend lunch!

Here's what you'll need:

For the Basil Pesto Aioli:

• 1/2 cup Hellmann's Mayo

• 3 tablespoons of prepared basil pesto (I adjusted this by using fresh chopped basil instead of the pesto)

• salt and pepper

For the Sandwich:

• 2 eggplants, sliced lengthwise into 1-inch thick slices.

• 1 lb tomatoes, finely diced

• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar

• salt and pepper

• 4 (3/4 inch thick) slices country style bread (from an 8-inch round loaf), I just used the best sourdough bread ever from When Pigs Fly.

Here's what you do:

For the Basil Aioli:

• Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl... simple enough!

For the Sandwich:

• Mix tomatoes, parsley, 2 tablespoons of the oil and the vinegar in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Let this sit at room temperature while you complete the rest.

• Preheat a grill (or grill pan, which is what I used) to high heat. Brush the eggplant with some of the remaining oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper. Grill both sides until nice and golden brown for approximately 4 minutes per side.

• Brush the bread on both sides with the remaining oil, season with salt and pepper and grill until lightly toasted on both sides (about 30-50 seconds per side).

• Spread a tablespoon of the prepared mayo on each slice of bread.

• Top each slice of bread with a slice of grilled eggplant

• And top with a few heaping spoonfuls of the tomato relish.

Literally bursting with tons of fresh flavors!

I had some leftover mayo remaining, which was fantastic, so instead of tossing it I put the remaining in a hermetic storage jar... love these. You can buy them in all different sizes and for great prices at The Container Store and they're great to store things like mayo and jams in. Just put your favorite treat or candy in and it would also make a great gift for a shower or favor!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

[Chels]

Strawberry Souffle

What do you do when you have a bunch of strawberries that are almost going bad and you're too lazy to go to the grocery store? Make some strawberry souffle? Sounds a little ambitious for someone who's too lazy to go the grocery store, right? But I was checking out Closet Cook's website and I saw the recipe with only 4 ingredients involved (4! And 2 are optional!). And I swear it really wasn't as hard as everyone makes souffles out to be. Maybe it's because I made a bunch of little ones. Or maybe it's because it was a desserty, not-very-complicated-souffle. But it actually came out quite well, so don't be afraid! And seriously??? Look how few ingredients there are!! No grocery store trip required, which is my dream come true.

Strawberry Souffle (for 4 personal-size souffles):

• 1 C strawberries, hulled and pureed
• 1 T sugar
• 1/4 T vanilla extract
• 3 egg whites, room temperature

Make sure your strawberries are hulled (stems cut off) and put them in a food processor or blender and puree them! I love my Cuisinart and for some strange reasons, I own 2 mini Cuisinarts. I think I need a full-sized one! And a kitchen about 10 times the size of mine.

Puree about 3/4 of a pint of strawberries to make a cup of the puree. I added in sugar and vanilla, which are optional ingredients. My strawberries weren't quite sweet enough so I just did a tablespoon of sugar.

Then crack 3 eggs and separate the the whites from the yolks. You're going to want to beat the eggs until soft peak forms. If you have a hand mixer definitely use it. It is possible to do it by hand with a whisk, but will take a bit longer.

Once you have soft peaks, you can fold in the strawberry puree. It will start looking really pretty!

Fill 4 greased ramekins with the mixture and put them on a tray so you can easily place them in the oven.

Keep them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

The souffles will rise like souffles should. They'll also brown a bit on top.

You'll know they're ready because you can stick a toothpick in them and make sure it comes out clean.

Once you take them out of the oven, it's likely they'll fall fast. Mine thankfully didn't fall before I could take photos of them. But these souffles are something you'll want to serve right away.

I'm pretty thrilled with how these came out. They were light and fluffy (obviously) and the perfect light dessert that's actually not so bad nutrition-wise. I really want to try this again for some sort of dinner party. Just pop them in the oven 15 minutes before you're ready for dessert and serve them right away.

And I still can't believe I didn't even have to go to the grocery store! I think I'll also have to attempt some more complicated souffles in my near future. Do you have any favorites?

Don't forget, Boston's Strawberry Dessert Festival goes until June 28!

[Sues]