The Charmed Kitchen

Foraged salad

It is hard to me to believe it’s been almost 3 full months of not going to the grocery store. Entertaining is the most challenging. Friday night’s fish dinner is officially the last dinner for me during this moratorium on shopping.

First I have to thank Melanie and Bob Novak, Kathy and Randy Sposito, Carl Skalak, Sue Larick and Parker for making the evening great. Special thanks to Melanie and Kathy for doing the dishes. Thanks, too for the flowers!!

I have had fish dinners the last 3 Fridays and I must say this one was a grand finale. For appetizers we had Spinach quiches in phyllo cups and a pizza cheese dip. I managed to make a salad totally from plants harvested for m my yard.

The salad included hosta leaves, dandelion, lovage, fennel leaves, violet leaves and flowers, mint, lemon balm, chard, ramps and tulip petals. Yes, tulip petals. They taste a little like Bibb lettuce. I dressed the salad with chive blossom vinegar and olive oil. Hats off to my guests for being open enough to try it. They also enjoyed the salad!! We also had pickled beets, line caught Atlantic Cod and Haddock, scalloped potatoes with caramelized onions and purple asparagus fresh from Blue Pike Farm (thanks, Carl.)

Dessert was a cobbler made from apples and pears and a lemon cake decorated with candied violets. I’ll be posting recipes soon.

Thanks to all of the people who have been reading my blog and commenting on it.

I needed barbecue sauce for last night’s cooking class in Mentor. I decided to whip up a batch. It was a big hit and I got a number of requests for the recipe. I made it spur of the moment so I will try to put down what I did as best I can remember.

Easy Barbecue Sauce

1 (15oz.) can tomato sauce

1/2 c. cider vinegar

1/2 c. sugar

2 T. dried minced onion

1 t. dried minced garlic

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 T. molasses

2 T. honey

hot sauce to taste

1/2 t. cinnamon

Simmer all together until thickened.  Adjust seasonings to your taste. Makes 2 cups.

It is without a doubt one of my favorite vegetables. This beautiful variety of asparagus is purple and cooks to a dark green color. I was lucky enough to get some of the first of the season, no doubt in part due to warm weather. Carl Skalak from Blue Pike Farm gifted them to me when he came to dinner. Thanks Carl. These beauties were actually grown at Carl’s farm on E. 72nd Street in Cleveland. If this is any indication it is going to be a great year. For me just steamed for a few minutes is all I want to do with asparagus. What is your favorite recipe?

This is a great dessert when you don’t want to cook. Usually think of it as a Summer dessert but with all the warm weather lately it seemed like a good idea. I am having friends for dinner tonight and needed a dessert. Since I haven’t been going to the grocery store I have to use what I have. Back in January I froze whipping cream left over from the holidays. You aren’t really supposed to do that and I don’t recommend it but I thought it would be better then tossing it. For the recipe the cream has to be whipped. That’s the problem with freezing whipping cream. It breaks apart and won’t whip up.  I decided to try anyway. It did sort of whip. The flavor and texture were fine but the volume left a lot to be desired. So I decided to change the method for making the cheesecake. I whipped the cream as best I could then beat in the cream cheese and eventually the sweetened condensed milk. It worked! Since I assume you’ll be using fresh whipping cream just follow the recipe as written.

Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

1 ¼ c. chocolate cookie crumbs

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. butter or margarine, softened

8 oz. cream cheese

1 (14oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

2/3 c. chocolate syrup

2 T. instant coffee crystals

1 t. hot water

1 c. whipping cream, whipped

Combine crumbs, sugar and butter and press into 9-inch springform pan. Chill. Beat cheese until fluffy and beat in milk. Stir in syrup and dissolve coffee in water. Add to cheese mixture and fold in whipped cream. Pour into prepared crust and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours. Garnish with additional cookie crumbs if you like or with shaved chocolate. Keep leftovers frozen and use within a week for best flavor.

I got an email from a cousin in Columbus who had some issues with her scones. Marianne said they always come out heavy. I sent her some tips and found myself in the mood to make scones. I would have made one of my regular recipes this morning but yesterday afternoon I was cleaning the backroom. I had stored a couple of pumpkins there and checked on them frequently. Normally I keep the heat off in that room and the door shut so they store well. The recent string of warm days had changed things. When I went to check on them the big one was perfect but the smaller one had literally liquified!!! It put me in mind of an incident that had happened to a coworker years ago- but since it involved a dead body I’ll spare you the details.  I scooped up the pumpkin goo and checked on the small Hubbard squash that was also stored there. It was perfectly fine so I decided to cook it up and freeze it. Had some for dinner and froze the rest but decided to make scones with the rest. The result was a batch of super yummy scones. So in a way it all worked out quite well. I had not planned on making pumpkin scones at all but because of the liquid pumpkin I decided to cook the Hubbard squash which inspired me to make these scones.

Sat outside this morning with a friend and had some. Still have a lot so call if you want a few. Here is the recipe along with the tips I shared with Marianne.

Pumpkin Scones

4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t. each salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger

1/2 t. cloves

1 1/2 sticks cold butter

1 c. cooked pumpkin or winter squash

3 oz. milk

2 eggs

Vanilla glaze

2 c. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

4-6 T. milk

Cinnamon Glaze

2 c. powdered sugar

2 t. cinnamon

4 T. milk

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. Set aside. Combine flour with sugar, baking powder and spices and stir to blend. Cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Combine pumpkin or squash with the milk and eggs and stir into the flour mixture. Stir until well mixed. Dough should be just a little sticky. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop dough onto the prepared baking sheets- leaving a couple of inches between them. Hint: If you spray a little non-stick spray on the cookie scoop first the dough will pop out easier.  Bake for 15 minutes or until scones are browned on the bottom and just getting golden on the top. If you want to put both baking sheets in the oven at the same time- switch them half way through the baking time and allow a few extra minutes. Remove scones to cooling rack. Meanwhile make both glazes by combining ingredients and stirring until smooth. Drizzle with the vanilla glaze while still warm and allow scones to cool and glaze to harden before drizzling with the cinnamon glaze. Makes about 20-30 depending on the size of the scoop you use.

 My hints to Marianne:

Use all purpose flour- NOT unbleached as it will make a tougher scone.

Make sure your baking powder is fresh. The test is to put 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water is a cup. Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder. It should bubble like crazy for a few seconds. No bubbles means that your baking powder is too old.

Don’t over mix the dough. Often scone and biscuit recipes call for kneading dough . Unlike yeast doughs which you knead a lot to develop the gluten, biscuit and scone doughs should be kneaded only until the dough just holds together. You can also use the drop biscuit method like I did with the pumpkin scones to avoid kneading altogether.

Measure the flour carefully by spooning it into the cup and leveling off. Scooping the flour into the measuring cup might result in too much flour and heavy scones.

Well, I hope some of you try this recipe It is really good- or stop by for a few to eat and take home. 🙂

Scones ready to be baked

Fresh from the oven

This is a great recipe for St. Patrick’s Day – or any other day for that matter. Mine is in the oven now. Easy to make it will go great with lunch or dinner.

Irish Soda Bread

2 c. flour

½ t. each baking powder and baking soda

¼ t. salt

2 T. butter or margarine

¾ c. raisins

1 egg. Beaten

1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dust a baking sheet with a little flour. Combine dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Add raisins. Combine egg and milk and set 2 tablespoons of this mixture aside. Add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and combine just until dough forms into a ball. Place on baking sheet, brush with reserved egg mixture and cut a crisscross on top of loaf. Bake about 25 minutes or until bread sounds hollow. Makes 1.

I got a request from my nephew today for this recipe. Here it is Danny Morgner. Enjoy!!

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

20 slices bacon cut in half

40 water chestnuts, whole

Hot sauce

Maple syrup

Brown sugar

Roll ½ a slice of bacon around water chestnut and place rolls in a baking dish. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until rolls are well-browned. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Return rolls to baking dish. Drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle with brown sugar and hot sauce. Return to oven and bake until caramelized. Makes 40.