Cocktails on a Friday! And beautiful weather to boot! This is a bit of a riff on both mint tea (which I love any time of the year, but I find very refreshing cold in the summertime … err, I guess it isn’t summer yet) and a mojito (yum!), plus the addition of my favorite spice, cardamom. Inspired by The Bonjon Gourmet. Drink up and cheers!
Things to do with Ramps, Part 4: Make hummus. Yes, still stuck on my ramps (ransoms, Bärlauch) kick and here is a quick and simple recipe that pulls out some of the suble garlicy flavor of the ramps. The grilled lemons add both acidity and sweetness. Comes together in 2-30 minutes and is a great addition to the usual pia chips or veggies. Note: I grilled the whole ramps but then only used the bulbs in the hummus, eating the greens on the side. You can use the whole ramps (bulbs and greens) in the hummus, but when I made it like that the first time, I thought that the greens actually made the hummus too green.
All of a sudden, it seems to be spring. After this winter here in Boston, I never thought that we’d be saying “Gosh, it’s hot!” again, but here we are on May 7 … and it’s downright hot. So, in celebration thereof, I made this here cake. I actually have a bit of a philosophy that I have broken with this cake — which is that I think that a cake should look like a cake, not like something else — but eh, rules are meant to be broken sometimes and I ended up with this cutsie little cake. It’s just a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, chocolate butter cream frosting and lots of mini-M&Ms.
I woke up this morning with a craving for cinnamon toast. Actually, I should say that I woke up at 3 AM with a craving for cinnamon toast, but managed to convince myself that I should probably not wake up the other tenants in the building by running the KitchenAid at 3 AM. I’m considerate like that [grin].
Cinnamon Swirl Bread has a long story in my life. My best-friend-forever’s mother has always made great Cinnamon Bread. Back in high school, I think that I begged her for the recipe at least once per week. Twenty five years later, I still have never gotten that recipe, but my own baking skills have gotten much better so that I grokked my own. This time I added cardamom as well. Cardamom always reminds me of a Swedish friend of the family, who makes this amazing cardamom cake. So between the two things (cinnamon and cardamom), this bread is one of those walks down memory lane.
Things to do with Ramps, Part 3: Make butter. And not just any butter … butter that you will be looking for any and every excuse to use. It’s sort of like garlic herb butter, but lots and lots better, very mild and incredibly good. I just made four rolls of this and have stashed them in the freezer to use all summer long (if I have enough will power to make it last that long). Try it, you soooo won’t be disappointed!