Something a little different today: a Blueberry Lemon Soufra. What is a soufra, you ask? It’s a Greek and Middle Eastern filo souffle pie. You fill the pie dish with buttered filo dough layers, folded or ruffled together, toast in the oven before pouring/ladling on custard. They can be savory (skip the sugar and vanilla in the custard) with spinach and feta or walnuts for example, or sweet as in this one with lemon and blueberries, or dates and walnuts, or any fruit or even chocolate chips. I made it for brunch (and truth be told, added some maple syrup over the top), but also would be a nice breakfast or lunch. Tastes best right out of the oven, and eaten the same day for sure.
fruits-and-berries
Thought I’d start off my “cookie year” here in January with something at least semi-healthy with oatmeal cookies. Of course, there is lots of butter, toffee bits, jammie bits and chocolate chips, so that takes away most anything healthy about these, but they are delicious, so there is that. Thin, very crisp, with a bit of a crunch. If you like “thin and crispy” these are definitely for you.
As we get closer to Thanksgiving, I usually find myself wanted to make a variation on the “cranberry sauce” theme, and this is the 5th variation of a “sauce”, “preserve” or”chutney” that I have made. It’s not really like “the stuff from the can” but is very fresh, very flavorful and is a great combo of cranberries, apples and rhubarb. Yes, rhubarb. It’s nearly impossible to find right now and definitely not “in season” but I had stashed some in my freezer, for occasions just like this. It’s got a little bit of a kick with hot pepper flakes and a little bit of warmth from just a smidge of clove. Quite nice, actually. Will keep in the fridge probably through Christmas.
Honey Crisp Apples are my favorite apples. Pink Ladies are a close second, but I do like Honey Crisps the best. The dilemma with that is that often Honey Crisp Apples are HUGE — I’ve seen them the size of grapefruit and that is not so much fun. My solution is that I go apple picking, like I did this past weekend, and seek out the really small ones. IMO opinion, they are better for pies and in this case, jam. The jam is partially made of unpasteurized, from-the-farm cider, which was also mostly honey crisps, so double the goodness!





