A Summer with Mochi Ice Cream and Men's Handwarmers

I was strolling through Whole Foods grocery store the other day and found this: Bubbies Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream! Well, I'd never had mochi ice cream before, but always wanted to try it, so into the basket it went.

The verdict: this stuff is awesome! Chewy, sweet and refreshing. Perfect thing to eat out on the patio during those long, warm summer evenings. The green tea flavor was nice and light, but I think I'll go with chocolate next time :)

While chewing my mochi ice cream I've been playing with some new yarn. I really want to make a bunch of men's handwarmers for the holidays and I love Rowan yarn .... so..... I bought 2 skeins of  "cashsoft" (who doesn't love the softness of cashmere?) and two of "felted tweed", which the store clerk assured me could stand up to whatever outdoorsy, rugged things the recipients might do. Both are DK weight so I should have enough to make 4 pairs of gloves. Now I just need to find a nice pattern for men with large hands! Any suggestions?

Breakfast Apple Tart Recipe

I have always admired the European, medieval-style fruit tarts I would sometimes see in upscale-bakery store windows. How different they were from traditional American pies! They never had a "top" crust and they were served room temperature, not hot. And they were always made of such wholesome, natural, seasonally-appropriate ingredients.

This holiday season I decided to try making a fruit tart inspired by those beautiful medieval-style tarts. I wasn't really keen on making a super sugary dessert though. I was thinking more of breakfast pastry type of thing. I wanted something tasty, healthy and low-sugar. Preferably 5 ingredients or less for a speedy dessert.

After a bit of experimentation, I came up with the recipe for the breakfast apple tart pictured above. It even ended up being mostly organic too! And how did it taste? Kids and adults both agreed .... really yummy!!

Breakfast Apple Tart
1 pre-made organic pie/tart crust
5 organic braeburn apples (or other apples good for baking)
4 T organic salted butter
1/4 c. raisins
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core and slice the apples very thinly. Line the bottom of the pie crust with apple slices, then continue to build up layers, wedging apple bits into the gaps to make a nice solid apple filling (adding raisin in as you go). Push lightly with your hands to compact the filling. Melt the butter and brush *all* of it evenly over the top. Bake for 45 minutes, then turn heat to 400 degrees for 15 minutes to brown the top (careful .. you don't want it to burn; please check on it as it is baking). Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Cool, then place in the refrigerator until **completely & absolutely chilled** (a few hours) before cutting and serving.

Time for High Tea: Best Family Friendly Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe

Ah..with Spring comes flowers, hummingbirds... and a new season of colds and flu. There's been a nasty bug going through our town and of course ... every member of my family (except my feline baby) has came down with it. When you're sick, you long for comfort foods. I thought I'd share one we've been making a lot of this week.

This is the best recipe for buttermilk biscuits: quick (I can get them in the oven in 7 minutes flat), easy, and perfect for little chef's assistants to help with. Like all buttermilk biscuits, they are best warm ... and with a liberal application of yummy jam!

Easy Family Friendly Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 12 biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F. Have an ungreased cookie sheet ready.

In large bowl, blend together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour in buttermilk. Using knife, cut/shred butter into rough fat slivers and blend into bowl with a fork (or you can knead it together in the bowl using your hands - it's much faster) until a crumbly, soft ragged dough forms. Important: you want the dough to hold it's shape: if your dough is too liquidy with standing water in the bowl, add a tiny bit of flour, if it's too dry with chunks falling off, add a tiny bit more buttermilk.

Turn out onto floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead gently until dough comes together. Pat out in a rough rectangle shape about 3/8 - 1/2 inch thick. You can use a floured cutter to cut shapes, or just cut the large rectangle into rough bar shapes. Place on prepared pan. Gather up scraps and repat dough; cut out more rounds, pressing remaining scraps into final (cook's) biscuit.

Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes.

The Bounty of Summer

Look at what our garden is starting to churn out! We were determined to get a veggie garden going this year and we did it!! My husband and I have two black thumbs and practically no gardening experience, but first we had peas, and now zuchinni, beans and tomatos! Granted it is more a novelty garden than something to help reduce bills at the grocery store as we had hoped, but next year we'll know exactly what to do .... and we plan on producing a veritable bounty of vegetable goodness! I so want to put in a blueberry bush too. How exciting!

One of the pleasures of late summer evenings is sitting out on our mossy patio with the scent of English lavender and lemon thyme in the air and watching the birds fly overhead and the wind whisper through the trees. Last night we took some plates of fresh baked rosemary potatoe bread dripping with preserves out onto the patio as the sun set. Ah bliss! If you haven't tried St. Dalfour preserves from France run, don't walk, to the store! Unlike American jams, they don't have any sugar added, just pure natural fruit and you can really taste the difference. They are a bit more expensive, but well worth it!

While sitting on the patio I thought I smelled the first whiff of Fall in the air. I couldn't say exactly what it was ... maybe the smell of the earth and reeds or a slight change in the evening light .... something that made me realize that summer is starting it's decline and that before we know it Fall will be here.

I'm supposed to taking a bloggie break, but I'm not doing a very good job of it am I ? :)

Sweet Treat Recipe Swap & a Giveaway

Summer is off to a busy start! I know it's not technically summer yet, but once summer vacation starts it sure seems like it! I have been super busy with graduations, birthdays, Father's Day, swim lessons and a bazillion other things. I was thinking that for the start of summer, it would be fun to do a virtual recipe swap and share some of our favorite sugary sweet recipes. So.... how about a Sweet Treat Recipe Swap! Yum, yum!!
Come and join in the fun and share your favorite "Sweet Treat Recipe"! To make it even sweeter, everyone who participates will not only get to share and find new yummy dessert recipes, they will also be entered in my giveaway!
I made a special bird's nest hairpin for this giveaway with sweet little freshwater pearls. Or, if you'd like something else, you can choose one of these......

So, post a recipe on your blog or in the comments [and no, you do not need to cook it or have photos of it :)] and leave a comment letting me know you're got a recipe to share and which item you'd like to win! I will pick at least one winner (probably more knowing me) on June 30th using ye olde random number generator.

A. Freshwater pearl bird's nest hairpin
B. Exotic peacock feather earrings
C. Fiesty felted ball earrings
D. Petite Treasure: handwrapped copper freshwater pearl and crystal earrings

I'll start it off with one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes:

Photo from allrecipes.com

7 Layer Cookie Bars
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 14 ounce can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 12 ounce package chocolate chips (you will only use half of the bag)
1 package of peanut butter chips (you will only use half of the bag)
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for a glass dish). Use a 13x9-inch baking pan. Melt butter and pour in pan. Sprinkle crumbs over the butter. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the crumbs. Use half of the bag of chocolate chips and half of the bag of peanut butter chips. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients. Press the bars down firmly with a spatula.

Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely. (although they are really good warm!) Cut into bars. Store loosely covered at room temperature. Eat and enjoy!!

I know everyone is probably as busy as I am, but this will just take a second and will be SO much fun! And you can win cool stuff!

Puttering Around the House

From freak hail storms that came magically come out of thin air about two weeks ago, we've suddenly snapped into 95 degree weather!!! Whoa! With the extreme heat and longer light at night, we've been cooking dinner much later and eating out on the patio long after the sun has set. Well, talented gourmet chef hubby has been cooking :) As most people know, I'm cooking challenged unless it's sugary baked goods :) Here's a recipe he created!Hot Ginger Soba Noodles
3 carrots
3 yellow squash
3 zucchini
6-8 spring onions
1 bag pea pods (about 4 cups)
1 white onion
9 oz. organic soba nooodles (we use Hakubaku noodles from Japan)
4 grated or very finely chopped tablespoons ginger (hubby didn't measure - but he thinks about 4 grated tablespoons - it's enough when you can smell ginger in the air when frying)
soy sauce

Chop all vegetables except pea pods. Stir fry vegetables and ginger until soft. Boil soba noodles for 3 minutes. Add well-strained boiled noodles straight to stir fry pan. Stir in soy sauce to taste. Serve hot.

While I was watching him cook, I was reflecting on our last lonely Happy Kitty bowl. We had bought two several years ago but one broke and the remaining kitty just hasn't seemed as happy since that day.

The inside of a Happy Kitty bowl. Isn't it cute?? I love Japanese contemporary pottery design!

So, thoughts of the Happy Kitty bowl were fresh in my mind when I went shopping in downtown Portland. And look what I found at the store Three Monkeys!!! It was a little bigger and a lot more expensive, but yes, it definitely was ... a Happy Kitty bowl!! Now what are the odds of that??? Of course I had to get it and the lone Happy Kitty is now happy again with it's sister bowl :)

The back of a Happy Kitty bowl.

Puttering around the house, I also realized that it was finally time to paint. Our children were young Monet's and expressed themselves on the walls but now that they are beyond that phase it's time! I have spent many years pondering and plastering paint chips to the walls in anticipation of this moment and I've finally settled on the color. The new color will be .... pumpkin!! I just got the new Martha Stewart magazine and a dyed paper lamp like this would look *fabulous* with my soon-to-be pumpkin walls!

Photo from Martha Stewart.

So, the family will be painting this week and maybe next week too! We've never painted walls before so wish us luck and an aesthetically pleasing finished product! Next blog post when we are done :) Can't wait to show you the cool new jewelry lines I've been working on!!!

It's a Half Done Party!

Some projects are progressing and need celebrating around here! First, after more than a year of blogger's standard two column blog, I have finally upgraded to a new three column format. With lots more room, and a header I can finally add a banner too (yeah!), expect lots of tinkering in the weeks to come leading to a new, richer blog!And, it's a half-done party for getting our patio half way finished! After some engineering setbacks, we are done with all the steps and have just the upper terrace to go. Let's have our party on this fabulous Moroccan terrace, complete with traditional mint tea and almond cookies!

Moroccan Mint Tea
2 tsp Chinese gunpowder tea (a Chinese green tea)
14 springs fresh mint (for boiling)
6 springs fresh mint (for decoration)
1/2 c sugar
6 cups boiling water

Fill teapot with all the above, stir, cover, and steep about 5 minutes. Place 1 spring of mint in each tea glass, pour hot tea over the mint, and serve.


One change here.... substituting lavender cookies for almond cookies, since I was supposed to post this back when we went to the lavender farm! This one is from All Recipes.

Lavender Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, mint and lemon zest. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt; mix into the batter until well blended. Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten to about 1inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 1hour. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Cookie stamps will work well on these too. Place on cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

*This makes a shortbread like cookie. Great with a strong cup of your favorite tea!*

Back to the garden to finish that patio! If you are wondering where the fabulous Moroccan pictures and tea recipe came from, they are out of stunning book on Moroccan style and cooking called New Moroccan Style. If you get a chance to look through it, do! It's a visual and culinary treat!