Tomato and Cucumber Salad

While I was growing up, Mom always had a small backyard garden. Although much of her current backyard is occupied by a trampoline for the grandkids, she still manages to keep a nice garden. Every year, she always has a lot of tomatoes. Her tomato plants usually produce lots of tomatoes from August through October. Lucky for me, Mom is happy to let me harvest vegetables from her garden. So far this year I have enjoyed tomato, zucchini, lettuce, and basil.

I wish I had taken a before photo of the tomatoes that I used for this recipe. One tomato was a perfectly shaped roma tomato. The other tomato so large and unusually shaped with some small blemishes that you could not find one like it in a store. But, just cut around the blemishes and there is delicious tomato waiting to be included in this salad. This recipe is quite adjustable to fit the amount of tomato and cucumber that you have available. Also, you can adjust the seasoning to suit your taste.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

• 1 large cucumber
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. chopped mint

Chop the cucumber into one-half inch cubes. Lay out the cucumber in a strainer or on a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt to drain excess moisture from the cucumber for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the tomato into similar size pieces. Place the cucumber and tomato in a bowl. Toss with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Sprinkle with mint. Enjoy!

Chocolate Pizzelles

Pizzelles are a great summertime cookie because they do not require the use of the oven. With so many possible flavor options, there is no end to the potential pizzelles that can be enjoyed. I have made standard vanilla and anise. I have even used pizzelles to make stroopwafel. Come back to this site in the future to see other flavors, such as coffee, chocolate mint, orange, among others.

I brought these chocolate pizzelles to Mom's for a standard Saturday night. They were delicious. In the picture to the left, Patrick is enjoying a pizzelle while Ava is having a cake pop that she made. The cake pops were an extra treat and they were delicious. Ava explained how she made them, so you may see cake pops on this site someday. Or, maybe I'll recruit Ava to be a guest blogger to post on cake pops. In the picture below, Jenny is enjoying a pizzelles.

Chocolate Pizzelles 

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add butter and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder. The batter will be stiff. Preheat the pizzelle iron. Drop batter by the spoonful into each pizzelle pattern. Close pizzelle iron and allow about bake about one minute. Remove the pizzelles with a spatula and allow to cool on a flat surface. Sprinkle pizzelles with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

For MDS's Birthday (still 39!), I made this cake. It was delicious. Although the recipe call for sprinkling it with confectioner's sugar, I decided to frost it with cream cheese frosting. Why should carrot cake get the best frosting? Chocolate cake deserves the cream cheese frosting, too. But, I am sure that this cake would be delicious with any frosting or confectioner's sugar.

I am sure Mom made this cake when I was young. True to its name, it is a deep dark chocolate taste. When I made this cake, I halved the recipe and used a 9X9 square pan with a shortened baking time. The recipe below makes a 13X9 inch pan cake or a layer cake. Because the cake was so good, I wish I had made the larger size so we would have more leftover cake.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake 

• 4 squares bakers chocolate
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• confectioner's sugar

Melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add sugar and mix well. blend in the egg yolks and 1 cup of milk. Sift flour with salt; add to chocolate mixture. Mix until dry ingredients are just dampened. Beat for one minute at low speed with an electric mixer or 150 strokes by hand. Add vanilla and 1/2 cup more milk; mix until smooth. Dissolve soda in remaining 1/4 cup milk and quickly stir into batter. Pour into a paper lined 13X9 inch pan. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until cake springs back. Cool. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar or frost. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Nut Ring

Mom is a fan of coffee cakes, so I am not surprised to find recipes for various types of coffee cakes in her recipe box. I remember Mom making coffee cakes like this one, but I do not specifically recall this cake. A coffee cake is intended to be served with coffee or tea and is usually served with breakfast or brunch. But this tasty coffee cake is delicious any time of day. I made this ring to bring to a friend's house for brunch. But the resulting ring was much larger than I anticipated, I had to cut it into pieces to transport it. So of course MDS and I had to taste test it before to make sure it was safe to eat. It was, and, we had to force ourselves to stop eating it, otherwise there would have been none left for our friends.

The recipe uses yeast giving it more of a bread texture and flavor. The dough has eggs and more butter and sugar than most breads so the coffee cake is richer and sweeter than regular bread. I used a little more chopped pecans than the recipe called for and I wish I had used more, so I increased the amount in the recipe listing below.

Brown Sugar Nut Ring 

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 package yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (about 120 degrees)
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• melted butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• About 2 cups cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• water

Scald milk. Add butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until sugar dissolves; cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water; combine with milk mixture. Stir in half the flour; add eggs and beat well. Add enough of the remaining flour to make soft dough. Turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Put in a greased bowl and turn over to coat. Cover and let rise until double in size, about one to two hours.

Turn out dough on a floured surface. Roll dough into a 8X12 rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Roll up like a jelly roll. Shape the roll into a ring on a greased baking sheet. From the outside, make cuts into the ring toward the center, about one inch apart. Turn each cut piece slightly to one side. Brush with butter. Let rise for about 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. While still warm, spread with thin confectioner's sugar frosting made from confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and water. Enjoy!

Carrot Hummus

Every year, Mom and I go to St. Louis for opera weekend. The picture here is in front of the set of Madame Butterfly this year. While there, we see four operas in three days and eat lots of good food. One place that we always visit is Big Sky in Webster Groves because it has amazing food and is just down the street from the opera. Big Sky features creative and delicious food. Instead of bread and butter, Big Sky serves up carrot hummus and crackers. I have not made hummus before, but I figured I should give this a try. The recipe made a lot, and I thought I would be eating it for a week. But, it was gone within a day.

The nice thing about hummus is that you could easily change it up to suit your tastes. But try this version. The use of carrots gives this hummus just a slightly sweet taste. Otherwise, the recipe is relatively standard. When I made this, I used three cloves of garlic, but I will use a bit more next time. If the chick peas are dry, you may need to use a bit of water. I ended up having to prepare the hummus in batches using my Magic Bullet blender.

Carrot Hummus 

• 4 carrots, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 15 ounce can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. tahini
• 1/2 tsp. ground red pepper

Place a tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan and saute the carrots and garlic until tender, about fifteen minutes. Allow the carrots to cool. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and puree until smooth. Use more or less liquid (lemon juice or olive oil), if needed. Serve with veggies or crackers. Enjoy!

Anise Pizzelles

I have previously posted about pizzelles, but because there are many potential flavors, here is another recipe. You can expect to see more in the future, such as chocolate, mocha, orange, and many more. Pizzelles are made using a pizzelle press, which is a lot like a waffle iron. Pizzelles are great to make in the summer when you would rather not turn on the oven.

Anise is somewhat common in Italian baking. For this recipe, I used anise seed, but anise extract or ground anise is more common. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the seeds in the cookies. Anise tastes like licorice. I used just enough anise seed to give these pizzelles a sweet and light flavor. If you really like anise, you could easily use more in the recipe.

Anise Pizzelles 

• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. anise seed
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add butter, vanilla, and anise. Blend in flour and baking powder. The batter will be stiff. Preheat the pizzelle iron. Drop batter by the spoonful into each pizzelle pattern. Close pizzelle iron and allow about bake about one minute. Remove the pizzelles with a spatula and allow to cool on a flat surface. Sprinkle pizzelles with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Sauteed Asparagus

When I was a kid, Mom frequently boiled vegetables to cook them. But now, Mom regularly sautes fresh vegetables such as asparagus, Brussels sprouts or broccoli. So, many Saturday nights at Mom's now include freshly sauteed vegetables. The younger nieces and nephews are not that interested in the veggies at all, but the older nieces and nephews are starting to like these veggies.

For this batch, I found purple and green asparagus at the farmer's market. Frozen asparagus works just fine, too. The recipe here is simple and can be modified in many ways. There is no need to add any seasoning, but if you like, you could add just about any seasoning. When I made this batch, I used paprika and oregano. If you use fresh garlic, add it to the olive oil for a minute or so before adding the asparagus.

Sauteed Asparagus 

• Aspargus
• olive oil
• seasoning, if desired

Wash the asparagus. Trim each stalk and cut into about two-inch segments. Add the olive oil to a  large skillet and heat over medium-low heat. Add asparagus and seasoning. Saute, while occasionally stirring, for about 10 to 15 minutes, until tender. Enjoy!