Here we are, another variation on Strawberry Jam. It seems that every year, I try something new. Sometimes with lemon and thyme, sometimes with port, sometimes mized with other fruit, always yummy. This year, I decided to add blood orange juice (a little bit of a clean, citrus-y note) and freshly grated ginger. The ginger isn’t overwhelming, just a nice warm after taste. Seriously delicious this time. Perfect for gift giving too.
As is usual in later June, usually the first weekend after the summer solstice, I went PYO Strawberry picking today. It wasn’t great weather, and I picked less berries that usual because they seemed smaller, there were less of them, and the impending rain. As usual, I have plans for the berries, so stay tuned. Here is my first recipe: a crumble bar stand-by: Strawberry Almond Crumble Bars. Bursting with fresh strawberry flavor!
Last Weekend, I went on a picnic to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. In typical me fashion, I volunteered to bring the food, and decided to make a few salads, in addition to wraps and fruit and cookies. I’m going to combine them all here into one blog post. The types are:
Walnut Pesto Ditalini Pasta Salad
Springtime Potato Salad
Cucumber Radish and Feta Salad, and
Middle Eastern Barley Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachios
They were all a big hit and I would definitely recommend them for any picnic or BBQ potluck that you might be having this summer. None have mayo, so no chance of them going off, although the Cucumber Radish and Feta Salad does wilt fairly quickly. The Middle Eastern Barley Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachios is a very unique one and may not be to everyone’s taste but we all thought it was yummy.
As I have mentioned before, every once in a while, I make something that is Gluten Free. Not because I have to eat GF, but because I like the idea of a recipe, it sounds yummy and it is accidently without flour. Enter these cookies. As with many of my GF creations, they are made of a nut butter (in this case, almond butter) so if you have a nut allergy, this one isn’t for you. In the recipe, I wrote 1 cup each of the mini-chips and the toffee crunch, but in the actual cookies I eye-balled it, so it’s kind of more than that. I will definitely recommend using mini-chips for these cookies though, as the bigger chips don’t incorporate very well.
Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. Not just for me, but it definitely felt like the entire circle of friends around me had an elevated stress day. It wasn’t good. But you know me with particularly hard days, that usually means that I end up baking something. That “something” this time was cupcakes, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes to be exact. It started with Trish musing about chocolate cake and morphed from there. So, in essence, it’s all Trish’s fault. 😛 For now, though, enjoy the cupcakes: dark chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. While it didn’t make the day less stressful, I was in a better state after making them.