Pickled Red Onions

On burgers, sandwiches, salads...pickled onions add a tartness and subtle crunch! You can play around with seasonings, but here's the basics.

Ingredients

2 red onions

1 C vinegar (white or apple cider typically)

1 T sugar (white or brown)

1 T salt

Optional seasonings (NOT all at once): 2-3 T lime juice, ¼ C orange juice, 1-2 garlic cloves, half a dozen black peppercorns, half a dozen allspice berries or cloves, a bay leaf or two, a few sprigs of thyme, a slice or two of lemon...

Directions

Slice the onions as thin as you can. Fill glass jars or any other heat-proof containers if you'll be using your pickled onions in a week or two with sliced onions. (If you plan to keep your onions longer than 2-3 weeks, use sterile canning jars to seal them air-tight.)

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt other seasonings in a saucepan; heat to boiling. Pour over pickled onions.

You can serve them as soon as they cool, but the longer they soak, the more pickled they get. Store in the refrigerator 2-3 weeks.

Cheese Toast

Do you really need a recipe? Probably not. But posting this is a good reminder -- for myself! -- when I'm looking for a bread or starch to round out a meal. And I had half a baguette that I wanted to use before it went stale...

Cut it thick or thin, as you like and slather it with butter. I used garlic butter and sprinkled on some Italian herbs (optional) before adding a layer of grated cheese. Parmesan is wonderful; here, I used white cheddar. Throw them under the broiler or even on the grill until the cheese is nice and melty and the bread is toasted.

So easy, so delicious!

Drizzle with a balsamic glaze to dress it up a little, or add a little bowl of marinara for dipping.

Couscous with Peppers & Onion

Here's another way to dress up couscous. I got this mix of ingredients and flavors from Cooking Light. However, their instructions -- sauteing AND then cooking the peppers & onions with the couscous -- leaves the veggies soft and soggy (and I'd bet good money the veggies pictured on their recipe page were not cooked that way!). So here's my spin on it...amounts below will serve 2 or 3 as a hot side or cold salad.

Ingredients

1½ C chicken broth (or water)

¾ C Israeli (pearl) couscous

1 T olive oil

½ red bell pepper, small diced

½ jalepeno pepper, very finely diced

¼ red onion, small diced

2 T lime juice

1 T chopped fresh cilantro*

s & p to taste

* I am not a cilantro fan! But I did have some flat leaf parsley and it adds a nice freshness and pop of green to the finished dish.

Directions

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan; add couscous and reduce heat to simmer. Cover, simmer 8-10 minutes until couscous is al dente.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a fry pan and sauté peppers and onions over high heat briefly; it's nice if they still have good texture, but a little char adds flavor!  Optional: I wish I would have gotten more char on mine, but I didn't want to overcook them -- should have had the pan hotter. But, you could completely skip this step if you're going to serve it cold...leave the veggies fresh and crunchy.

When the couscous is finished, stir in the peppers & onions along with lime juice. Garnish with chopped cilantro (or parsley) to serve.

If you're craving some protein, dice up some chicken, pork or even ham, which is what I had on hand. Sauté it with the onions and peppers, and throw it into the mix!

Tomato Jam

Oh my YUM!! It's like ketchup grew up and became a mature condiment. I've most often seen tomato jam served with cheese and crackers (Food Network did that again in its current magazine, July/August 2020). I was sampling my just-made jam on a clover roll (my photo @ right) since I baked some fresh just yesterday, but I can't wait to spread this on a burger or sandwich!

Ingredients

1 lb cherry tomatoes*

¼ C + 3 T brown sugar

¼ C + 1 T red wine vinegar

3 T fish sauce*

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 T minced jalepeno*

pinch each cumin, coriander, black pepper

* NOTES: Certainly wouldn't have to be cherry tomatoes, but that's what I have growing in my garden just now -- or, to be more accurate, in a large pot on my deck. I think almost any tomato would work - you'd just want to chop larger tomatoes before boiling. The sweetness of your tomato variety might make you want to adjust the amount of sugar; some recipes call for quite a bit more than this! If you don't have fish sauce, you can use soy sauce; it's not the same but most tomato jam recipes I've seen don't call for fish sauce. Still, it might just be why I love this stuff so much...the fish sauce, garlic and ginger all together give it a slightly Asian flavor profile. Also, feel free to add more or less jalepeno depending on how spicy you'd like it to be.

Directions

Combine everything in a large pot (or skillet) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low boil and continue cooking until the mixture thickens into a loose jam or thick syrup-y consistency -- it will thicken as it cools.

Store refrigerated in sealed containers. Use sterile canning jars for an airtight seal if you plan to store this for longer than 3 weeks.

Clover Rolls

You wouldn't really HAVE to shape them this way...but it's fun to pull them apart!

Ingredients

1¾ C whole milk, room temp

½ C sugar

2¼ tsp yeast

¾ C butter, softened

½ C butter, melted

6¼ C flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg

coarse sea salt for topping

Directions
Heat ° cup of the milk to 105-110° F. Combine warmed milk, sugar and yeast in stand mixer; let stand 5 minutes until foamy. Add softened butter, egg, half of flour and half of remaining milk; mix on medium speed until combined. Add remaining flour, milk and 1 teaspoon salt. Knead until dough is smooth, elastic and pulls away from sides of bowl.

Place in large bowl lightly coated with oil (or non-stick cooking spray), cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1½-2 hours, until doubled in size.

Brush muffin tins with melted butter. Divide dough in half; divide each half into 12, divide each 12th into three (do the same with the other half; you should have 24 rolls -- 72 little chunks of dough, 3 for each roll). Roll into balls, placing three in each muffin tin. Brush generously with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.

Remove rolls from refrigerator 1 hour before baking; remove plastic wrap. Preheat oven to 375° F.  Bake 20-25 minutes. Brush again with melted butter; sprinkle lightly again with coarse sea salt.

Zucchini Slaw

I've never been a coleslaw fan, though I'll eat a bit if it's a vinaigrette style dressing rather than creamy dressing. I'm not a huge zucchini fan either, unless it's in chocolate cake; but I do have some zucchini recipes I like. I made one recently, and had one small zucchini leftover...about 6 inches long and an inch & a half in diameter; about a cup grated.

And I've always, only had zucchini cooked. But I knew somewhere I had zucchini slaw recipe. It's an older one from Cooking Light (May 2017). The honey-dijon chicken looks delicious too, but I was just in it for the slaw this time around. I reduced the oil a bit and threw in a pinch of onion powder so it's not just straight oil+vinegar. And no raw tomato for me, thank you! Though it would have added a nice pop of color!

Ingredients

1 small zucchini, grated

1 T olive oil

1 1/2 T red wine vinegar

pinch onion powder

s & p to taste

Directions

Toss everything together in a bowl. The longer it sits, the more the zucchini soaks up the flavor (and will eventually loose some of it's texture too), but it's fine to serve right away.

Blackberry Oatmeal Bars

It's August, and that means blackberries!  They grow wild all over the place here in the PNW, sometimes aggressively and invasively! They grew all along the edge of the yard when I was a kid and my brother and sister and I would pick bowls of them so my mom could make jelly. Blackberry jelly is still my favorite!

It is still early; depending on the weather the first week of August could be pushing it. But I had one half-full quart-sized bag of frozen blackberries from last year in my freezer (I ration them out over the winter months!) to use up now that a new crop is imminent...not quite enough for a half-recipe of oatmeal bars.

So, I grabbed a stainless steel bowl, threw on some long sleeves and was heading across the field to search out enough early berries to make up the difference. I didn't need to cross the field...the scraggly patch along side my driveway provided plenty of ripe berries to fill out the recipe. WooHoo! Maybe I'll head out to really pick more tomorrow; today I just grabbed enough to make these: Blackberry Oatmeal Bars.

It's basically a riff on my Strawberry-Rhubarb Oatmeal Bar recipe. I reduced it by half and baked it in a 9-inch square pan, so they're thicker and baked a little longer (about 40 minutes in my convection oven...so it would be 50+ without convection). Blackberries are also sweeter than rhubarb (!) so I reduced the sugar, and used lemon instead of orange -- mostly because I had a lemon and no orange. Below is the full recipe (not halved, enough for a half sheet pan, 18x13").

Ingredients, oatmeal base:
1 C butter
2 C brown sugar
2 eggs 
½ tsp vanilla
3 C oats
2½ C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Ingredients, strawberry-rhubarb layer:
6 C blackberries
½ C sugar
zest of one lemon (approx 2 tsp zest)
¼ C lemon juice
2 T cornstarch

Crumble Topping Ingredients
¾ C flour
1 C rolled oats
¼ C sugar
½ C brown sugar
½  tsp salt
¾ C butter, diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚.  Line a 13x18 jelly roll pan (baking sheet with a 'lip') with parchment paper and coat lightly with non-stick cooking spray. (The parchment's not mandatory, but the bars come out a lot easier and its easier to clean up!)

Make oatmeal base...   Cream together butter and brown sugar; beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in oats. Add flour, soda and salt all at once, stirring until well combined. Spread evenly over a jelly roll baking sheet (baking sheet with a 'lip'), and just slightly up the edge. Bake 12 minutes; remove and cool slightly while you prepare filling and topping.

Make the fruit filling...   In a large bowl, combine blackberries, sugar and zest. Dissolve cornstarch in lemon juice; add to blackberry mixture and gently stir to combine. Spoon or pour mixture over oatmeal base.

Make the topping...   In a large bowl, stir together first 5 ingredients of crumble topping to evenly distribute. Cut in butter and continue mixing until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle generously over berry layer. Bake 30-40 minutes until fruit is bubbling and crumble topping is golden brown.

Cool completely. Slice into bars to serve.

Great with Blackberry Vanilla Bean Ice Cream!

Quick-pickled Strawberries

Saw pickled strawberries as a salad topper recently - something I'd never had or even heard of before. But I'm a fan of most things pickled! The amounts below are approximate; adjust to suit your taste (and relative sweetness of strawberries, etc.). Great on green salads...

Ingredients
1 lb strawberries
1-2 C white balsamic vinegar
¾-1 C water
½ C sugar
1 T salt

Directions
Hull strawberries; halve or quarter depending on size. Place strawberries in canning jar (or other container if you'll use them fairly soon...this is a "quick" pickle). Combine vinegar, water, sugar and salt in saucepan; heat, stirring, until sugar and salt dissolve. Pour over strawberries. Let cool; cover and chill.

Here's a bonus...

This is a quick pickle. Leave the berries in too long, and they won't taste of strawberry anymore, just...pickley (vinegar). They only need to be in the brine until it cools. BUT...don't waste that brine! It's basically the same ingredients as a shrub (maybe add a bit more sugar). Pour an inch or more into the bottom of glass and top it off with seltzer (or prosecco, or gingerale, 7-Up, etc.) for a tart and refreshing beverage!

Chocolate Souffle

Surprisingly, I've made very few sweet recipes this month. So I'll finish off with this chocolate souffle. After experimenting a bit with a few different recipes and combining what, to me, is the best of all of them ...things like preserving high quality taste and texture, but not having an extra egg yolk left over or having TOO many steps. I also adjusted the size -- this recipe makes just 2-3 servings, though you can easily double it (or more) as needed).

Ingredients
softened butter & granulated white sugar - as needed to grease & dust ramekins
2 oz dark chocolate
1 T butter
1 T flour
¼ C milk
pinch salt
¼ tsp instant coffee
2 eggs, separated
pinch cream of tartar
2 T sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Coat 2 large (8-oz) ramekins (or 3 5-oz ramekins) with softened butter, all the way up the sides. Put a tablespoon sugar in each ramekin, tilting and rotating them to coat all sides; tap out excess sugar. Place ramekins on a baking sheet.

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over low heat. Sprinkle in flour, whisking to combine; continue stirring as mixture thickens to form a roux. Whisk in milk until mixture is smooth and thickens (2-3 minutes). Remove from heat.

Chop chocolate into small pieces. Gently stir into thickened milk; let sit to melt chocolate.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine egg whites and cream of tartar, whipping until very frothy. Add 1 tablespoon sugar, continue whipping until opaque. Add remaining sugar, continue whipping to soft peaks.

Stir chocolate mixture -- chocolate should be fully melted. Stir in egg yolks, salt and instant coffee.

Gently stir about one third of egg whites into chocolate mixture until completely incorporated. Fold in another third. Finally, gently fold in final third...just until fully combined.

Divide evenly amoung ramekins. Bake 18-28 minutes until souffles have risen beyond the ramekin rims and are set in the centers.

Best served immediately...souffles do fall and settle (though they are still delicious even after they've cooled!) -- mine had already fallen sightly even before I coud take a photo.

Chive & Cheese 'Crackers'

This is a recipe from Eating Well. I'm a carb junkie -- bread and crackers are much more of a weakness than candies and sweets. Except maybe chocolate. But even then, I can eat, like...FIVE M&Ms and be happy; but with bread and crackers, one is never enough!

So when this recipe started with a 5 ounce Boursin cheese and was self-proclaiming they they are "can't-stop-at-one crackers...like cheesy shortbread cookies" I figured I should definitely give them a try!

They're good. The flavor is really good, but the texture is more cookie-like. I wouldn't call them a cracker. Even less 'crisp' than a shortbread cookie (lots of cheese and no sugar, a softer texure is not surprising!). So it's like...a savory cookie. Which isn't what I was hoping for.

Still, I'm posting this -- partly to remind myself to maybe play with the idea and see if I can't come up with something more cracker like, crisper, in texture.

But probably not right away...it's supposed to be 90°+ tomorrow and I don't want to be baking multiple batches of anything this afternoon. I'm more likely to whip up a cool drink for a hot summer day.

Saffron Cream Sauce

Saffron + lemon + vanilla + paremsan + chives...  I do like trying new and different flavor combinations; but I wasn't sure about this -- particularly with the vanilla. But saffron (as pricey as it can be) always sounds so very "gourmet"! 

This was...okay. Truly, it may simply need a little salt! Might depend on the variety & saltiness of your parm. I have some leftovers in the frig, so I'll give it a second chance, but my initial reaction was pretty ho-hum.

Food Network - Pappardelle* in Saffron Cream

* For those of you who know your noodles, those are not pappardelle in my photo. I had these wide egg noodles on hand already, an easy and very reasonable substitute.

Israeli (Pearl) Couscous with Nectarines

Most often with couscous, I go savory (parmesan or gruyere with some fresh herbs is a favorite). Israeli (or "pearl") couscous is wonderful as a savory side, but between the two, I prefer pearl couscous when the preparation is sweet -- with apricots and warm spices makes a great breakfast alternative to oatmeal.  The slightly chewy texture, relatively quick cooking time and bland mild flavor that goes with anything...it's great! And although the smaller, standard variety of couscous works just fine, I also personally prefer pearl couscous for most cold salad recipes...similar to other pasta salads. Here's a mix that can go hot or cold:

Ingredients
2 C cooked pearl couscous (prepare according to package directions - super easy)
½ sweet onion, small diced
1 nectarine, small diced
¼ C orange juice
1 T melted butter
salt to taste
¼ C fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn

Directions

Gently stir together all ingredients - reserving a little of the basil leaves for garnishing. If you're preparing this hot the butter doesn't have to be melted in advance, just mix it in with the hot prepared couscous and it'll melt as it mixes. Garnis with remaining basil just before serving.