Fresh berries with a custard sauce! Yum!!

Tweet

Happy 1 month Birthday!

Thank you for being such a supportive audience! My blog is one month old today! I am flabbergasted at the response. Everyday, someone asks, where is your audience coming from? I tell them; I have friends all over the world, those friends recommend to their friends and so on and so on. Sewwhatscookingwithjoan is reaching nearly every continent, over 1500 viewers! I have lots of requests, and will honor those requests in order. I love getting your e-mails, comments on blog and Facebook comments. Comments on the blog, go directly to my e-mail, and I will respond! And yes, Wee Bear seems to be a favorite!! Wee Bear is my biggest fan, so much so, look what he bought me, with help from TT and Sweet One!

TT and Amy researched and with my needs in mind, here it is! Expect better quality pictures in the future!!

Taken with the new camera! We are at Newcastle Country Club near Seattle. Wee Bear, me, Amy and Dustin(TT)!!

Fresh berries with custard sauce. (the old camera took this one)

I am offering an extra recipe this week! A light, easy dessert for Easter! Pick out your favorite fruit, wash and arrange into a pretty vessel. Drizzle custard sauce over the top and add a couple of mint leaves. 

Custard Sauce

1 c. milk

1 c. heavy cream

1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. vanilla

5 egg yolks

1/2 c. sugar

in a heavy saucepan, bring milk,cream and the split vanilla bean to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 4 minutes. Open up the vanilla bean and scape.

Beat egg yolks and sugar until light in color and thick. Beat in 1/2 c. of the hot milk and cream mixture.

Pour mixture back into saucepan with remaining milk and cook, over low heat, until custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.

Strain and cool. 

*The scraped vanilla bean pod, can be put into sugar for two weeks, to make vanilla sugar or into your ground coffee, to flavor it gently with vanilla.

*The vanilla bean is the cured dried fruit of the rare and exotic vanilla orchid - the only orchid that bears fruit. Vanilla is the most labor intensive of all agricultural products. It is the second most expensive spice in the world, next to saffron.The entire process of vanilla cultivation, pollination and harvesting is done by hand, without using machinery, chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Gifts for the host/hostess:

  If you are fortunate enough to be invited to someones home for dinner or even appetizers and drinks, remember, they have gone to a lot of work to have you. From cleaning the house, picking out your favorite drink and making a delicious meal! Giving a little thoughtful gift is appreciated....plus you will be thought of again, when another event is planned! Here are some ideas for gifts. I have ordered towels and aprons, had them personalized and sent to me. I then deliver a nice bottle of wine with a towel wrapped around it and in a beautiful bag with ribbons or tissue, to my host/hostess. They are delighted!! One of my friends was so thrilled, her husband and her bought a embroidery machine and started making t-shirts, etc. for their grandchildren and children!! I hooked them up with Fawn, for direction in their new endeavor! hahaha!

Beautiful embroidered towels by Fawn. Sweet One bought this for me yesterday for Easter, I love it!!

Some personalized towels made for me by Fawn.

Beautiful apron personalized for me.

*All available at the Mercer Island Florist or 
Embroidery by Fawn 






                              
 Cheers! JJ

Sweet One Makes the Salt Crescents!

Tweet

Sweet One (Amy) and her Salt Crescents for Easter Dinner!

This Easter, Amy sent out an invitation to the entire family and we have 9 or 10 attending Easter dinner at her and TT's (my son) beautiful new home. We have a complicated blended family, as most do these days!

Amy has been planning her first Easter dinner and I am excited to be a part of it. She decided on a menu of:

Holly's Stuffed mushrooms

My Brie and Artichoke dip 

My Parmesan Asparagus with garlic aioli

Crown Roast of Pork stuffed with apricot basmati rice

Scalloped potatoes

Green beans with bacon and slivered almonds

Salt Crescents

Carrot Cake

I can hardly wait! 

 She and TT invited us to dinner last night and she allowed me to photograph her making the Salt Crescents. She has already started setting her table and it is beautiful! She chose a beautiful Easter runner from Williams and Sonoma with matching little bird salt and pepper shakers, from Pottery Barn. She purchased a beautiful long, low, hand blown, rectangular vase, (Crate and Barrel)  to put the daffodils into jelly beans, as per my blog "Hop to it".  I will post pictures as her table is transformed into a vision of Spring!

Salt Crescents

adapted from Eva Kenly

2 T yeast (Amy used the quick rise variety, it was quick!!)

1 c. warm water (110F-115F)

1/4 tsp. sugar (this helps the yeast to quickly proof)

Dissolve yeast and sugar in the water and allow to proof. About 5 minutes.

1/2 c. evaporated milk, warm

1/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. salt

3 T. olive oil

3 1/2 c. flour

Glaze: 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Topping: 2 T coarse salt

              2 T Caraway, poppy or sesame seeds

In a large bowl, mix the milk, sugar, salt, and oil. Beat in 1 c. of the flour, then add the yeast mixture.

Add 2 c. flour and beat well. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and no longer sticky, adding more flour if necessary.

Place the dough in a buttered bowl, turning to coat the top. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise, until double in bulk.

Punch down and let the dough rest for five minutes, then divide into equal four parts.

Working with 1 part at a time (keeping remainder covered), shape into ball. Roll on a floured surface into a 9 inch circle. Cut circle into 8 wedges. 

Roll up each wedge, starting from the wide end and rolling towards the point. Shape into a crescent and place on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.

Brush crescents with beaten egg whites and sprinkle with salt and/or your choice of seeds. Brush again with egg white. Let rise again, until double, about 30 minutes. (Eva taught to cover lightly, but, the cover sticks to the top of the crescents and rip's the top off) 

Pre heat oven to 400F

Bake crescents for 15 minutes or until golden brown on rack in middle of oven. Unless you are using a convection oven, bake one sheet of crescents at a time, for perfect browning.

*Makes 32 crescents

* I freeze them in freezer bags, and take them out, as needed.

Wee Bear wanted in on the action and just loves "Sweet One"! 

                                                         ~

Mountain Man made it back to his home in Oroville, Washington, his dog "Lucky" by his side! Lucky is lucky for several reason's. One he was rescued by my brother from a litter of 8, and he was the only one to be rescued :-( Lucky is a 60 pound puppy!! Mountain Man left him with his daughter's while he visited in the Southwest, and from what I understand, he was really being a puppy!! He was passed from one daughter to the other and created havoc everywhere he went!! 

This video was shot at the dance we went to at Harold's. Mongollan was playing inside and Young Country played outside!

My brother and I. He is a GREAT brother, I am the lucky one!!

Cheers!
JJ

Stalking Asparagus!

Tweet

When I was growing up, my father, brothers and I would go fishing every Spring on "Opening Day" weekend. We would stop along side the road, and find asparagus, just snap it off and take it home to Mom, to cook it for us, with our fresh trout. We found it in ditches along side the roads. When I was in my late teens, my brother married his sweetheart, my sister-in-law, Kay, she knew all the right places to find baskets full of this Spring time vegetable. I so enjoyed hunting for this edible spear with her!

When I first see the large display come into the markets, I smile, as I know Spring is here! Asparagus is a member of the Lily family, did you know that?

When buying asparagus, look for a supplier who stores it upright in water and keeps it refrigerated. Hard to find these days. However, if the turnover is rapid, the sugar loss would be negligible. Look for tight budded spears with smooth, tender skin. Fresh asparagus should not be withered, brown, or flabby. Try to find even-size spears at least 1/2 inch in diameter. Avoid any spears with large, woody, hard, white bases, which will be nothing but waste. The spears should be at least two-thirds green.

It wasn't until I started using Julia Child's method of peeling the asparagus, that I realized peeling the asparagus doubles your harvest, actually providing up to 50% additional edible flesh. If you aren't peeling you'll marvel at he the quantity of tender flesh hidden underneath a tough exterior.

A small, sharp paring knife works better than a vegetable peeler, because it allows maximum control gradating the cut. Insert the knife under the thicker skin at the base, and work it up toward the tip, making the cut shallower as the skin becomes thinner. About 2-3 inches from the tip, the peel tapers off completely.

My technique to cook is simple: Just blanch in a large pot of salted water, and after a few minutes when barely tender, stop the cooking and put into ice water, this also preserve's it brilliant color. I find that steaming peeled asparagus, reduces much of it's handsome green color. Microwave 1 pound of peeled asparagus placed in a covered dish with 1/4 cup water, takes about 7 minutes, of course, it depends on power of your microwave.

My Pineapple Buerre Blanc

2 lb. asparagus
1 pineapple
1/2 lb. butter, cold, and cut into 1 T pieces
4 shallots minced
1/8c. vinegar 
1/2 c. fresh pineapple juice
3/4 tsp. salt

Peel asparagus and cut into even lengths. Either boil in large pot of salted water or microwave.

Cut pineapple into quarters. Core and cut 2 of the wedges into 1/4" small wedges.

Toss small wedges, in a saute pan, over high heat, for 3-4 minutes. Juices will evaporate and wedges will be lightly brown. Set aside.

The Sauce:

Pour hot water into a wide mouthed thermos.

Place shallots, vinegar, pineapple juice and salt into a 4 quart saucepan.

Cook over high heat, until liquid has reduced to 2 T. Reduce heat to medium and add three or four T. of the butter, whisking as you go, as they melt add more, continuing to whisk, until the butter has formed the emulsion and is smooth.

Pour water out of the thermos and pour in the sauce. It will stay warm until serving time. 

*This sauce will not reheat. It will separate, as it is an emulsion sauce.

To serve:

Reheat the asparagus and pineapple wedges. Add the pineapple to the sauce. And serve.

                                                         ~

More on Mountain Man in the Southwest!

Harold's in Cave Creek on Saturday night! It was two bands, one outside and one in. This is Young Country outside.

                                     A little mechanical bull riding!

     A thousand people, a lot of cowboys! We danced inside and out! Mountain man was noticing how the southwestern cowboy hats are lower in profile, than the cowboy hats here, in the Pacific Northwest. 

Tomorrow a video of the band inside, awesome! Mongollan!!

 

Quick as a bunny~ Scalloped Potatoes

Tweet

 Easy Scalloped Potatoes

4 T unsalted butter, room temp, cut into  a dice

6 large Russet potatoes, peeled and VERY thinly sliced

1 yellow onion, diced

2 c. cream ~ or can go with 1/2 and 1/2 (in most recipes, you can go up one or down one; in other words, if the recipe calls for whole milk, you can go to 1/2 &1/2 or down to 2% milk)

Just before going into oven

Spread  1 T. butter to cover the pan interior. spread a layer of potatoes, then sprinkle with onion, salt and pepper then a few dice of butter, repeat in layers. Pour the cream in to cover the potatoes, then salt and pepper. Bake at 350 F, for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I have perfected my recipe, to perfection! This is YUUUMMMMMMYY!

YIKES! I forgot to get the picture as soon as it came out of the oven!! Take my word for it! It was beautiful golden in color! This is the aftermath, so, YOU KNOW IT'S YUM YUM YUMMY!! Hahaha! My guests went back for seconds, as did Wee Bear!!

                                                        ~

Mountain Mania! More pictures from our action packed weekend......now you know why I went with weekends off!!

                         This is Cindy, our friend, ......LIMBO ROCK!!

                         She won the contest!!

More fun with Mountain Man! It wouldn't be complete without my signature "DIP"!

Today, we are thrilled to be flying to Seattle, to spend Easter with our beautiful  family. Mountain man declared he's not leaving!! He loves it here in the Southwest!

I will be posting more pictures from our second night of dancing at "Harold's" in Cave Creek and Fiesta Days as the week progresses. I also, will feature my beautiful daughter-in-law, making the Salt Crescent dinner rolls for Easter dinner at their home on Sunday, in the days to come!

Cheers!
JJ