icebox pie

Better late then never. As promised, the recipe for the strawberry icebox pie. I changed the original recipe a bit by taking out some of the sugar. If you want the original recipe, you can find it here.

Strawberry Icebox Pie
Adapted from Food Everyday

10 graham crackers (2 1/2 by 5 inches)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 apple juice
2 quarts strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced (a few whole berries reserved for garnish)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend graham crackers with 2 tablespoons sugar until finely ground; add butter and pulse until crumbs are moistened. Press mixture into the bottom and up the side of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake until crust is lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, apple juice, 2 cups strawberries, cornstarch, and salt. Using a potato masher, gently mash strawberries. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until very thick, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Stir in remaining strawberries. Pour into cooled pie crust. Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours (or up to 1 day).

In a large bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Sprinkle 1 tablespoons sugar over cream and continue to beat until soft peaks return (do not overbeat). Spread whipped cream over pie, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border around edge. Garnish with whole berries.

week two

We went to the farm to pick up our share today. We got three different heads of lettuce, 2 quarts of pick-your-own strawberries and a half pint of snap peas. For dinner I used one of the heads of lettuce and made a grilled chicken ceasar salad.

beauty...

...in the everyday. I could not resist a photo of the beet.

win

I caught the bike bug while in Amsterdam. I spotted these great bikes while browsing online today and now want one. You and I can try to win one, just click the madsen cycles banner on the right.
Good Luck!

summer dessert

I made the perfect summer dessert to serve for dessert tonight, an icebox strawberry pie (very retro). It is from the june 2009 issue of Food Everyday. I changed the recipe a bit, so I will try to post it tomorrow.

berries

I saw a post on smitten kitchen for raspberry buttermilk cake and thought that my husband and the kids might like it. I figured I could make it when the berries looked good and when I stopped at the fruit market on Friday I picked up some raspberries and blackberries and decided to make one of each.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, June 2009

Makes one thin 9-inch cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cupplus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large (57 grams) egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz) or any other berry

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup (146 grams) sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter (see Note) raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

field day

Go black!

week one

Our csa started today. My friend and I went to the farm to pick up our first share. I took home two beautiful heads of leafy green lettuce, snap peas, strawberries and some herbs. I knew that we had some greens coming so I decided to serve a salad for dinner along with a pizza bianca.

For the salad use one head of lettuce, about 1/4 cup of grated pecorino cheese, 2 beets cut into small cubes and roasted, about 1/4 pound of pancetta that has been cubed and fried until crisp, and balsamic vinaigrette. Toss together and serve. It made enough (along with the pizza bianca) to serve 5 for dinner.

For the pizza bianca you will need some pizza dough (I make my own, but you can use store bought. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Divide the dough in half and roll out the first piece. Brush a cookie sheet with olive oil (yo should use your good olive oil for this). Put the dough in the pan and brush the top with olive oil and hen sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until golden. Repeat with the next piece.

Enjoy!

posts

It is hard to believe that it has been over a week since I lasted posted. It has been a busy week outside (I'll post about that soon). I have been in a blog rut for awhile now, not knowing what to post about and not really reading any blogs so it was not difficult to skip posting.

It has been awhile since I made fresh pasta but I made it today. My parents have a pasta roller that attached to the kitchen aid stand mixer (a very good investment) so I borrowed that and made a batch for dinner tonight. Not much is needed to make a great pasta dish if you have good fresh pasta so I just cooked it for four minutes, drained and tossed it with some really good olive oil (six table spoons), pecorino (2/3 cup), arugula (2 cups), a little bit of the hot pasta water, salt and lots of black pepper. It was a big hit.

snapshot of amsterdam 06

When we lived in Philadelhia there was a great flower market that I passed on my way to work depending on the route that I took. I would often stop on my way home and pick up flowers for the house. In Amsterdam the flower market was amazing. The colors were stunning and the assortment was mind blowing. Stuck in the suburbs, one often craves a nice flower market!

snapshot of amsterdam 05

Boat rides on the canal are a popular attraction in Amsterdam, but not my cup of tea. I am much happier sitting outside watching the over crowded boats go by. Needless to say we did not take a canal ride.

snapshot of amsterdam 04

It is hard to believe that we just got back one week ago, it feels like it was a lifetime ago. While we where there we started to plan our next trip, which if we keep up our current rate of travel will be in exactly ten years (I hope not!).

happy mother's day

snapshot of amsterdam 03

During our stay we rented bikes for two of the days. The city is very bike friendly and it helped us cover almost the whole city. I had the best bike, a green cruiser with tulips, I was wishing that I could take it home.

snapshot of amsterdam 02

The arhitecture of Amsterdam is amazing. Like most of the other european cities that I have been to it is hard to compare it to anything that we have here in the states.

snapshot of amsterdam 01

After almost missing our flight to Amsterdam the rest of the weekends was stress free and lots of fun. We ate tons of great food, walked forever and rode rode bikes all over the city.