aji dulce

This is the aji dulce pepper. It's also known as the sweet habanero, and it's delicious! It's not at all hot, and it's very crispy, sweet and firm. It's my current favorite pepper, and next year I am going to plant at least 10! Here in Florida, they are still growing and ripening for us.

My favorite way to enjoy these peppers is sauteed with shiitake mushrooms. I cook the mushrooms down a lot before adding the peppers, because I like my mushrooms crispy, and the peppers are best when they are mostly still raw, just scorched in a few places. Tonight we're having them on a pizza, which is in the oven right now! We have pizza night once a week, on our busiest night, and it's something I look forward to on the other six days.

yummmm.

I finally got around to making these cookies. The dough gave me fits when I rolled it out and there may have been some cursing involved-- but it's Florida in the hottest summer I can remember, what did I expect? The end result is decidedly worth it. These are very very good. It was my first time using quinoa flour, and I love the nutty-wholesomeness it lends to the flavor of the cookies. I'll be making these again.

back yard scenes and a recipe

Those are our chickens up there-- Honey and Petunia. We've been thinking about getting a couple more, but I'm not sure about disrupting the order these girls have in the yard right now. They seem pretty happy to be the only girls out there. We got these as adult birds and so they are most definitely not pets. As in, they don't want us to touch them. They do come running when we go in the back yard, though, because we like to bring them treats. One day I wouldn't mind raising some from chicks so that I could hold them....There's something really nice about petting those feathers.

The last photo is Ruben's smoker. He's been smoking cookie ingredients lately, with good results. At first he was smoking the butter, which involved freezing it first and keeping it on a bed of ice in the smoker, so as not to melt it. That worked pretty well, but the resulting cookies had only a very faint smokiness. Our chef friend suggested smoking the flour instead, and that has been great. MUCH more smoky and delicious! Ruben usually uses some cherry charcoal that his friend makes, but you could try it with other wood types and I bet it would be fun to do a taste test and compare them.

To smoke the flour you just immerse a bowl of flour in a smoky environment for a while -- you could make a homemade smoker like ours (just an overturned metal tub on the grill, over smoldering coals) or use a real smoker. You may want to stir the flour a few times, to increase the smokiness.

Here's the recipe we've been using and loving. Our families request these cookies pretty often.

Smoky and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe slightly adapted from this recipe from Not Without Salt.

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup turbinado sugar

1 3/4 cups light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups smoked all purpose flour

1 lb high quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2" chunks

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

fluer de sel, for sprinkling

Cream butter and sugars until light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Continue mixing while adding the eggs, one at time, being sure to mix well between each egg. Add vanilla. Scrape down the bowl again. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. With mixer on low, slowly add the flour, mixing just until combined-- take care not to over-mix. Fold in the chocolate with the rubber spatula.

Place spoonfuls of dough on parchment-lined cookie sheets, sprinkle each with fluer de sel, and bake at 360 degrees for about 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden but still look a bit wet. Cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes, and then move to cooling racks. Enjoy!

Olive Oil Cake from Good to the Grain

When I read about this cake a few weeks ago on The Wednesday Chef I knew I had to make it. Olive oil, rosemary, dark chocolate and CAKE? Yes please. I finally got around to it this weekend and was not disappointed! Next time I might cook it a tad longer, but I like my baked goods moist. When I first tasted it-- straight of the oven because I couldn't wait-- I thought I should use a less robust (read: expensive) olive oil (I used this one). But this morning it has mellowed out a lot. I will be making it again, even though R is not a huge fan and that means I will be eating the whole thing. Oh well.

face wash and other treasures

On this fine Memorial Day I'm forgoing all the barbecues and swimming pool parties and getting some stuff done around the house-- and feeling very satisfied with myself. I made a batch of deodorant for a friend, and a batch of my favorite face wash-- the Miracle Grains in Rosemary Gladstar's book, which I do not own. It must be out of print. Luckily, my library has it. This is such a great face wash! It is the closest I've found to my favorite Dr. Hauschka face wash, and so much more affordable.

While cleaning out boxes of stuff in my sewing room, I've come across lots of little treasures. For example, a thrifted dish, a cross-stitch dollhouse pillow my mom made, and a tag for a dog named FANCY.

warming my heart and hands

Ever since reading about how to make chai on the Small Measure blog (delicious recipe here) I have been making it almost daily. Well, I make a big pot and then sip off of it for a couple of days. I added turmeric to the mix (about 1-2 teaspoons, fresh) because we have a lot of it growing around here right now. I add extra ginger because we have lots of that too! Plus, it's warming, helps with stomach troubles and headaches, and is delicious of course!

I've also been putting grated turmeric in things like stir fry and chili. I've read that it has anti-inflamatory properties, and speeds healing. How do you use turmeric?

canoe and camp

We just got back from a music-filled camping trip to Bear Creek, where R's band played on Saturday. I cooked up a big batch of stir-fried greens, radishes and turnips, and roasted a bunch of sweet potatoes ahead of time, and we ate off those (plus a whole lot of eggs and english muffins) all weekend. My favorite part was getting up early (when, frankly, a lot of folks were just hitting the sack) and taking a walk to get a cup of coffee from one of the food vendors and then sitting in the sun knitting or reading for a while. I sure do need my quiet time.

our conestoga wagon

Transitioning back to work on Monday was a bit rough. Ever since the time change it is dark when I leave for work, and dark when I get home-- and I've always been a dark-means-sleep type of girl, so it's a real struggle for me to be productive. To counteract the frustration this brings, I've definitely been taking lots of mini breaks during my work day to do fun things like plan the dishes I'm going to make at our family's meal next week: Flageolet gratin (from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook--amazing!), these biscuits, and Aunt Harriet's sweet potatoes (involving lots of cream and chipotle peppers). And I've already been making (and eating) cranberry sauce for weeks now. I love fall!

Scuppernong Pie

Muscadines are one of my favorite parts of summer. Growing up, though, I never appreciated them. I was spoiled on grocery store grapes, the seedless kind, and wasn't too sure about these tough-skinned, robust, seed-bearing scuppernongs. These days, I've changed my tune a bit and look forward to picking (and eating) them each year-- and here's why: Muscadine Pie. If you have muscadines (or scuppernongs, same thing) where you live too, please do everyone a favor and make. this. pie.

4 C purple scuppernongs
2/3 C sugar*
Pastry for 2-crust pie (9")
2 T cornstarch
3 T butter
Cinnamon or Apple Pie Spice

*Adjust to your taste.

Preheat oven 300 degrees F.
Wash grapes. Using two medium sized enamel pans, squeeze grape pulp into one and use the other for the hulls. Cover hulls with water and cook until tender. Drain.
Cook pulp until soft enough to run through a sieve to remove seeds. Add to hulls. Mix sugar, cornstarch and spice. Add to grapes. Pour into bottom pie shell, dot with butter, cover with strips of pastry (I use the cookie cutter method usually, and roll out the top pie crust, then cut out little shapes with a cookie cutter-- to mimic a lattice without the extra effort). Bake until filling bubbles and pastry browns. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.