Cooking through the seasons for family & friends in my Colorado kitchen
This is the quick bread I make for breakfast almost once a week in the summer, when zucchini handouts are easy to come by (thank you, family and friends!) and we want something easy and sweet to munch on in the mornings. It also makes …
Last year, my mom probed me to dig through some of my Grandpa Norm’s old recipes to locate a peach pie recipe she remembered. I didn’t remember eating it before, but with a counter full of ripe Palisade peaches, it seemed like a worthy endeavor. I’m proud …
Grilled chicken and quinoa meet a colorful bunch of vegetables including radishes, cucumber, serrano peppers, carrots, green onions and avocado in this spicy and beautiful summer salad. The dressing for this spicy Banh Mi chicken & quinoa salad is bright, slightly sweet and ever so fresh with both cilantro and mint teaming up with fresh lime juice and honey.
Gardening has never been easy for me. It’s frustrating because it’s something I very much enjoy. So this year, when my husband, Matt, surprised me with a bunch of seed packets and proclaimed this was the year we would figure things out, I admit I was skeptical. Our best gardening efforts in years past had yielded very little, even with the advantage of purchasing the giant baby starter plants! The price tag was right on the seed versions, though, and I was motivated and intrigued by Matt’s optimism. Maybe I could do this!
Fast forward about 6 weeks…two-thirds or so of our seeds made it into the seedling stage, but, unfortunately, no more than half survived the “hardening off” phase and were actually transplanted into our yard or small raised bed successfully. It’s now late July, and we have yet to harvest our first tomato or pepper and have had ONE teeny tiny zucchini.
However, turns out, shelling peas and baby mesclun greens have been really successful for us (and they can be directly sowed into the garden), so successful that I’ll continue growing those from seed every year to come! The peas don’t make it out of the back yard after my kids harvest them multiple times a day (that doesn’t disappoint me too much!), but the pretty greens beckoned to be turned into something delicious and a colorful summer salad seemed just right. Best part? My older two girls were so proud of our crop, they ate a remarkable 4/5 and 1/3 of their Banh Mi Chicken & Quinoa salads when we sat down for dinner! The almost-two-year-old also loved the deconstructed version.
To simplify this some, I suggest making the dressing ahead of time, up to one day in advance, as well as cooking and refrigerating the quinoa. You can also save time by chopping up/grating a bunch of the sturdier veggies, and just store them in the fridge until it’s time to assemble. I used my spiralizer because I wanted pretty pink and orange spirals, but I also had time to spare. Next time, I may grate the radishes and carrots on a box grater. Lastly, we have the grill fired up most days of the summer and it’s easy to grill a few chicken breasts, but in a pinch, stove-top grill pan or a shredded rotisserie chicken would work well too!
1 cup cooked quinoa, seasoned with ¼ t. of kosher salt while cooking
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 t. salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 T olive oil
5 oz. baby mesclun greens (or baby kale)
½ cup cilantro, chopped
¼ cup fresh mint, chopped
1 cup carrots, sliced into matchsticks or grated
1 cup radish, sliced into matchsticks or grated, or spiralized!
1 avocado, sliced into ½ inch cubes
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced
4 t. sesame seeds, toasted
¼ cup lime juice (from about 2 limes), plus zest from one of the limes
1 T red chili paste
½ T chopped Serrano pepper
1 T low-sodium soy sauce (or tamari)
1 T fresh ginger, grated
1 T cilantro
1 ½ T honey
¼ cup olive oil
Cook quinoa according to package directions and season with ¼ t. of kosher salt. Set aside to cool.
Add all dressing ingredients except olive oil to a blender and pulse a few times. Stream in olive oil and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Preheat a grill to medium high, about 400-450 degrees or heat a grill pan to medium high. Brush chicken breasts with 1 T of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill chicken until cooked through, about 6 minutes on each side. Set aside to cool before thinly slicing.
Toss together mint, cilantro, baby greens and quinoa with half of the dressing in a large bowl. Divide between four bowls. Arrange prepared carrots, radish, cucumber, avocado, scallions and sliced chicken around the sides of dressed greens/quinoa.
Drizzle bowls with remaining dressing or serve extra dressing on the side. Top with sesame seeds and sliced serrano chilies.
Friday nights have become a weekly pizza and movie night around here. The tradition started with frozen Trader Joe’s pizzas interspersed with an occasional Friday night pizza pick-up, and a night “off” from cooking, but it’s morphed into all kinds of amazing homemade variations over the …
Banana peanut butter smoothie “milkshakes” are a staple in our house. They’re full of protein with yogurt and peanut butter, have no added sugar thanks to the magical sweetness of a banana, and my kids think they’re drinking a milkshake. It’s the recipe I go to …
My favorite summertime pie, blueberry streusel pie, is probably also my favorite blueberry recipe. Fresh, summer blueberries cook down to a gorgeous purple, jammy confection, studded with a generous amount of cinnamon-sugar streusel and balanced by a buttery, flaky crust. Soooooo good!
My grandma Tina spent a large portion of her childhood growing up in Maine. She used to describe the distinctive flavor of a Maine wild blueberry. “They’re smaller, and more intense in flavor,” she would tell us. Settling in Colorado, she resorted to frozen wild blueberries. Her favorite: Wyman’s. I’ve since discovered Trader Joe’s carries a delicious frozen wild variety too.
When I was in college, I had the chance to visit Stonington, Maine, my Grandma Tina’s special place, with my Dad and Grandma. It was full of all her favorites, which soon became mine: roadside lupine sightings, lobster rolls, quaint bed and breakfasts, Nervous Nellie’s Jams & Jellies, and… BLUEBERRY PIE!
Plain blueberries were never at the top of my list, as a kid, although I probably never admitted that to my Grandma. They were inconsistent in flavor, I thought. Some were sweet, some just predominately mushy, with little flavor. I don’t think I ever really knew what a blueberry was supposed to taste like. It wasn’t until I moved to Oregon and was doing my share of berry picking (oh how I miss the chance to do that every summer!) that I discovered my love for blueberries. There was no turning back after that. These days, I put them on and in everything.
For this pie, you’ll need 5 cups of fresh blueberries. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place with wild blueberries, use those! But, the plain old, regular ones are delicious in this recipe too, spiked with lemon zest and juice and just the right amount of thickener to ensure it sets up well. If you’re tempted to dig into the pie straight out of the oven, I get it, but I urge you to wait 3-4 hours after it comes out of the oven so it’s easy and pretty to slice. This one keeps very well overnight too (it may even be better on day two!) so feel free to make this a day ahead.
The most important thing to get right with this pie is the baking time. If you under-bake it, the blueberries will be too liquidy and won’t break down to their desired, jammy texture. You want to leave this in the oven for as long as you can, while trying to keep the top streusel and crust from over-browning. I place a thin strip of foil around the edges of the crust for the last 30 minutes or so, or, you can use the fancy pie shields if you have them. If the top streusel is browning too fast, you can set a loose piece of foil on top as well.
You’ll also want to make sure you refrigerate the streusel mixture (or throw it in the freezer if you’re in a hurry) until it’s nice and cold, so it holds up well in the oven. It’s the easiest streusel you’ll ever make because you melt the butter before mixing it with the brown sugar, white sugar, flour and cinnamon… no cutting it in required! Once it’s nice and firmed up in the fridge, it crumbles beautifully.
The filling is very straightforward. I like my blueberry filling on the less-sweet side, especially with the sugary streusel crumb topping, and, often, topped with ice cream too, but you can add up to a ½ cup more sugar if you want yours sweeter or if your blueberries are particularly tart.
1 recipe pâte brisée pie dough
1 recipe crumb streusel topping (recipe below)
5 cups fresh blueberries
juice and zest from 1 lemon
½ cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
1 cup (4 oz.) all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar (4 oz.)
¾ cup brown sugar (4 oz.)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
½ cup unsalted butter (4 oz.), melted
Find recipe here. Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes while you make the streusel crumb topping and the filling.
Make the crumb topping: stir together the flour, both sugars, cinnamon, and salt in a medium mixing bowl, and then add the melted butter and stir to fully combine. Pop into the fridge to chill while you assemble the filling and prepare the crust.
In a large mixing bowl, gently stir together the blueberries, lemon zest & juice, sugar, pinch of salt, cornstarch and flour. Let that sit for a few minutes at room temperature to release some juices.
**Set rack of oven to the lower-third and preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit**
Roll out your pie dough with a rolling pin on a lightly-floured work surface until it’s a large enough circle (about 12 inches in diameter) to fit into a 9-inch pie pan. Roll the dough up loosely around a rolling pin and unroll into pan. Press dough firmly into sides and corners of pie pan and trim excess dough around the edges to about 1-inch past the edge of the pan. Tuck the overhanging dough under itself, so the dough lines up with the edge of the pan. Flute with your fingers or use the tines of a fork to make a triangle pattern as pictured below.
Pour off any accumulated liquid from the filling and then pour the filling into the prepared piecrust. Using your hands, crumble the chilled streusel on top of the blueberries. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 30-40 minutes longer. Keep on eye on things. If the crust or topping starts getting too dark, remove from the oven and place a thin strip of foil around the edges of the crust and/or a big piece of foil loosely over the topping, before placing it back in the oven to finish cooking. You’ll know it’s done when the filling is bubbling and creeping out around the sides of the pie, into the crumble topping. Resist your instinct to under-bake, as you want the filling to fully set!
Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack for 3-4 hours before serving, or up to 24 hours. It’s delicious on it’s own and even better with a scoop of ice cream or homemade whipped cream.
Lemony quinoa salad with almonds and dried cherries is a wonderful make-ahead summer salad, perfect for backyard and picnic dinners alike. It’s best served at room temperature and packs well, which always makes things easy, plus, it’s gluten-free and vegan. The leftovers taste wonderful over …
Wondering what to make with all those ruby, ripe strawberries filling your garden or local farmer’s market? Look no further than these decadent chocolate strawberry shortcake sundaes! Chocolate strawberry shortcake sundaes have all the components of the classic you love, but with a chocolate-y twist. Buttery, not-too-sweet …
Time for some chocolate-coconut & fig popsicles. Summer break is officially here! Consuming a few more popsicles in the heat of the afternoon just feels like a good idea all around. After all, aren’t popsicles summer on a stick?
June is my favorite month, hands down. Flowers in bloom, kids out of school, birds still chirping… I could go on and on. This June hasn’t been in tune with summers past though with our intentions to avoid many of our favorite public summery locales. My goal this year is to be creative in how we find our fun at home. Homemade popsicles are an easy way to bring some fun to our hot afternoons in the backyard.
I admit it’s taken me years to pull the trigger on my own set of popsicle molds, but I plan to get my money’s worth now that I finally own a set. They’re seriously so easy! Plus, there’s only one tablespoon of honey in the entire batch. I’m counting these as a snack for my kids, so that’s important. But, they taste like dessert, and that’s important to them.
Chocolate and coconut is a delicious combination. Dried figs add sweetness and a sophisticated flair. I used coconut milk for a luscious, creamy base. They’re somewhere between the fudgesicle of our youth and a creamy coconut mousse. I hope you love these chocolate-coconut & fig popsicles as much as we do!
Fills four 4-ounce popsicle molds
Ingredients:
2 cups canned coconut milk
3 dried figs
1 T vanilla extract
¼ t. salt
1 T honey
1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3 T shredded, unsweetened coconut
Directions:
Three years ago, I tasted a deep-dish spinach quiche that has been beguiling me ever since. It was found at a quaint little French bakery in Pacific Grove, California called Patisserie Bechler. My husband and I were celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. Thanks to my mother and father-in-law, we …
Makes enough all-butter pie dough (Pâte Brisée) for one single pie crust Ingredients: 8 ounces all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)3-1/2 ounces unsalted butter (7 tablespoons), cut into small cubes1/2 t. salta few drops of lemon juice mixed with ice water to make …
Rhubarb lovers and haters! These brown butter rhubarb bars are delicious enough to convert even those certain they do not like rhubarb. In these bars, blood orange juice is reduced and then caramelized with rhubarb into a shiny, beautiful, dark pink jam. Next, that jam is sandwiched between two layers of brown butter pastry, one a shortbread, the other a gooey butter cake. You now know why I earmarked this recipe some eight years ago.
Memorial day weekend is always a turning point of so many fun milestones in our lives. We kick off the season with our anniversary being first, at the end of May, which gives way to Father’s Day, my husband’s birthday and finally, the three summer birthdays of my kids.
Scratch-made, insanely tasty brown butter rhubarb bars.
This year, things are different on so many levels. But, that makes it all the more appropriate to celebrate holiday number 1 in the line up: our anniversary… and celebrating with food is my love language. With both rhubarb and blood oranges finally showing up at our grocery store, I knew it was time to tackle a recipe I’ve been eyeing in The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant.
We visited Big Sur and Monterey, California for our honeymoon, and then again a few years ago to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. Sadly, the first time we were in Big Sur, we missed Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant entirely. My brother scoped it out for us while in town for a wedding a few years later, and purchased the cookbook for me. After cooking our way through a bunch of delicious seasonal recipes, we looked forward to the day we would get to visit. The 2017 landslides closed a 12-mile portion of the highway south of Monterey and completely cut off access to many businesses in Big Sur. Sadly, we missed another opportunity to check out the place for ourselves. Third time will be a charm, right?
In the meantime, the brown butter rhubarb bars are a perfect nod to our time together on the Big Sur coast. They are comprised of three delicious layers: a base of flakey, brown buttery shortbread, a rhubarb and blood orange jam, and lastly, a cake-like custard layer, flecked with orange zest and vanilla beans. Just think, these dreamy bars are cookie, cake and jam, all layered into one perfect package!
Brown Butter Rhubarb Bars
Makes 12 bars
Rhubarb Jam:
1 cup sugar
grated zest and juice of 2 blood oranges
½ vanilla bean
4 rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Crust:
1 cup salted butter
½ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Brown Butter Filling:
3 eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
grated zest of 2 oranges
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ vanilla bean
½ cup salted butter
Make the jam:
Make the crust:
–While the crust is chilling, adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
–Bake the crust for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Let it cool before assembling the bars (leave the oven on).
–While the crust is cooling, make the brown butter filling.
Make the brown butter filling:
Assemble the bars:
Recipe adapted from: The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant
