Summer Supper: Inspiration

Whenever I get into a food funk I try to reflect on past sources of inspiration to light my cooking fire again. These days, my sources of inspiration are mostly blogs and food websites, and of course, cooking shows (which incidentally, I watch while I'm working out - go figure).

Of course, this hasn't always been the case. The internet was just taking off when I was a teenager and we didn't have a home computer until I was in my sophomore year of high school. Growing up, my earliest influence was cooking with my mother. I worked alongside her nearly every evening, preparing dinner. When I was younger my mother was what you might call a "homestyle" cook so under her direction I learned the basics - sauteing, searing, frying, baking, all that good stuff.

However, it was travel that sparked my interest in becoming more exploratory and experimenting with unfamiliar ingredients. My dad traveled internationally for work and I often tagged along. After each trip I strove to recreate the flavors that I'd experienced abroad in my family's kitchen.

The first "gourmet" dish that I ever made was a Honey Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Fennel from the book, Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Both the fennel and the Mascarpone cheese that the recipe called for were virtually unexplored ingredients in our household. It was a much richer dish than my family was used to eating but it was deemed a success. I started tinkering with the ingredients and eventually transformed it into something that became a regular stand-by recipe for potlucks and family gatherings.

I would say that experience defines my approach to food which is a blend of trying out the creations of others, and then tinkering with my own additions and adaptations.

One of my recent inspirations is David Lebovitz, who I discovered when I was searching for a recipe for spanakopita. I stumbled across his and gave it a shot - it was a fabulous pairing of simple ingredients. The only thing that I left out was the nutmeg.



I served it alongside a marinated bean salad. The twangy, slightly sweet Mediterranean flavors complimented the earthy flavors of the feta and spinach in the spanakopita.

Marinated Bean Salad

3 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
2 tbs. honey
2 tbs. chopped, fresh mint
1/4 c. parsley
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
2 tbs. olives, minced
1 can of white/Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed well
squeeze of lemon juice, about 1-2 tsp.
salt and pepper, to taste
feta (option, for topping)

Whisk together oil, vinegar, and honey. Add all other ingredients, through salt/pepper and toss gently. Allow to marinate at least one hour (longer is better) in the refrigerator. Sprinkle individual portions with feta cheese, if desired.

WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?

Barefoot Bloggers Meets Summer Supper

The BB pick for this month is Scalloped Tomatoes, but when I checked the episode guide I decided to make everything from that show in one meal. The episode was entitled Farm Stand Food and also included Zucchini Pancakes and Cape Codd Chopped Salad.

I must admit that while the scalloped tomatoes were pretty good, I enjoyed the zucchini pancakes and chopped salad more. The scalloped tomatoes were a wee bit too sweet for me and if I make them again, I'll be sure to put 1 tbs. of sugar instead of 2 - perhaps even less. I also think that the bread chunks are sufficient if the entire portion is eaten at once. However, this is almost never the case at my house as I'm only feeding my husband and myself. I typically cook 4 nights per week and the days in-between are leftover nights. When we reheated the scalloped tomatoes the second night, the bread chunks didn't hold up, and kind of dissolved into the dish. I'm glad that I tried this dish but I think I will stick with my stand-by stewed tomatoes which I prepare similar to chicken n' dumplings, by cooking mounds of dough in boiling tomatoes. All said, it was a great Summer Supper!



The zucchini pancakes were quite tasty and the Cape Cod Chopped Salad was excellent! It has the blend of flavors that I most love in a salad with the saltiness from the bacon, the sweetness of the cranberries, and the slight tang from the dressing. It is definitely one that I will make again and again.

I'm including the recipes for the Zucchini Pancakes and Cobb Salad with my minor adaptations. (I've included a link for the scalloped tomatoes but I'm not posting the recipe here since I didn't make any changes.) Of course, you can click the links to see the original recipes.
Zucchini Pancakes



2 med. zucchini
2 medium shallots, minced
2 eggs, beaten
6 tbs. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
olive oil

Grate the zucchini and then transfer to a strainer. Press zucchini with a cloth to release some of the water. Stir in shallots and eggs, then flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat then brush with olive oil. Spoon 1/3 c. pancake mixture onto pan and flatten with spatula or spoon. Note: Ina's recipe said to cook for 2 min on each side but mine took way longer than that - I'd estimate about 5-6 min. per side. I just kept checking them until they were sufficiently brown.

Pancakes can be kept warm in a 250 - 300 degree oven. I have an electric skillet so I simply threw all the pancakes back on the skillet for a few seconds to crispen them up before serving.
Cape Cod Chopped Salad



8 oz. Canadian bacon, sliced thick and cubed
1 apple, peeled and diced
1/2 c. walnut pieces
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1 bag of Italian Salad mix with herbs

Dressing:

3 tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. grated orange zest
juice from 1 orange
3 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbs. maple syrup
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1/3 c. olive oil

In a large bowl, toss together the bacon, apple, walnuts, and cranberries. Whisk together ingredients for the dressing then pour over the chopped mixture. When ready to serve, spoon the mixture over Italian salad mix.


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Barefoot Bloggers: Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Oh my goodness, these cookies are so very, very delicious.

They came out so much better than I thought they would. When I first started to prepare them yesterday, I intended to make a half-batch. Then as I was mixing together the flour with the other dry ingredients I had a change of heart and decided to make the full batch and give some of them away. Later, after all the ingredients were mixed together I turned the dough out onto the carving board and attempted to bring it all together in the disc that was to go into the refrigerator. The dough kept crumbling and would not come together! I was beginning to get worried and thought that possibly in my decision to make a full batch I had miscounted the cups of flour and dumped in too much. So I divided the dough in half in order to make it easier to work with and kept at it until I finally formed two cohesive discs.

I remained unconvinced, however, that my little cookies were going to be okay. In fact, I was so sure that they were irreversibly wrecked, that while they baked in the oven, I composed a whole post in my head about kitchen failures and what that does to my inner chef (or in this case, my inner baker).

So you can imagine my delight when I pulled them out of the oven looking all sweet and dainty. I could barely allow them enough time to cool before I bit into them. They were soft and scrumptious; not at all the dry, crumbly mess that I had envisioned. In retrospect, I think my blunder may have been, in my haste, not waiting for the butter to fully come to room temperature. Thankfully, it ended up being just a tiny mistake that didn't affect the outcome.

I really think that the quality of the jam makes or breaks this cookie. Use an ordinary jam and you will have an ordinary cookie. Use a quality jam and you will have a fabulous cookie!

For about 1/4 of the cookies I used this seedless raspberry jam from West Virginia. I love that this jam does not contain corn syrup. It's hard to find store-bought jams and jellies that aren't made with corn syrup.

For most of the cookies, I used this orange marmalade that my parents brought back for me from Florida. They were so good that when I made the second disc of cookies I used only the marmalade.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies - a Barefoot Contessa Recipe



Ingredients nocoupons

• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
• 7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
• Raspberry and/or apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Separately, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. (If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.) Dip each ball into the egg wash and then roll it in coconut. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown. Cool and serve.

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Barefoot Bloggers: Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

The Barefoot Blogger pick for this week was Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. The timing of this recipe could not have worked out better for me. 1) My mom recently gave me a ton of toasted pecans and I had no idea what I was going to do with them all. 2) I'm going out of town tomorrow to visit the in-laws and had yet to think up something to bring. I always bring with me a little hospitality gift - usually a quick loaf of some sort but I wanted to do something different this time. This fit the bill. I also had the added bonus of already having all the ingredients in my pantry.


I thought these cookies were a success. I left out the raisins because my hubby is not a big fan. Otherwise, I did everything according to the recipe. They seemed to retain quite a bit of their chewiness after cooling completely, which is nice. I loved the simplicity of this recipe. The measurements are standard and easy to remember. I can imagine making these another time or two and then never having to look at the recipe again. It's that simple.

Also, this is the first time I've ever baked with parchment paper. There's no turning back now.


For the in-laws, I put about a dozen cookies in two large treat bags (there are two because my husband's parents are divorced) and whipped up a couple of little tags to adorn them. They're sure to bring smiles tomorrow.

Future Note: This would be a good recipe to revisit this summer as an ice cream sandwich with some homemade vanilla ice cream.