Weekend Six in the Sweltering Northeast

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dawnnys

Well-known member
(Although my sympathies go out to Richard and those of you in the Midwest who have it worse!)

Friday we went out for dinner and ended up with haddock stuffed with crab meat "smothered in sauteed vegetables". A butter sauce with 4 tiny pieces of dice tomatoes :eek:( was disappointing but I saved it the next day by adding zucchini, carrots, jalapeno peppers, and a variety of herbs from the garden. I hate it when you have to "fix" restaurant food. Especially at the price they charged!

Saturday we went to the farmer's market, and I loaded up on avocados, cherries, magda squash, and green beans (mine aren't ready yet, but when they are, we will have a ton which I plan on donating most to the local food bank).

Sunday morning the heat (and humidity) finally broke so I made some Streusel-Topped Triple Berry Coffee Cake as suggested by Meryl. I vote for it to be put in the T&T if it isn't already.

Also made some Pennsylvania Dutch potato salad with maple and bacon this afternoon. I had found it in an old community cookbook and thought I'd give it a try. Very good, similar to German potato salad but sweeter.

Had a nice walk at the lake. Didn't swelter today, and the sailboats were all out at the marina. Pretty.

Tonight I am making sauteed Swiss chard and Parmesan-shrimp risotto with a touch of tomato sauce (saw something similar (jambalya?) on tv this a.m. but of course I had to tweak it and left out the sausage and chicken). Made double the recipe to take along to a luncheon on Tuesday. I wonder if reheating it will toughen the shrimp. Maybe I will remove the shrimp and add newly cooked shrimp just before going.

That's it!

 
Was sweltering here in DC too, yuck. But the storms last night seemed to

have ushered in some cooler air. Cyn and Dawn, hope you got those storms too. A supplier for work lives in PA and said he didn't get a drop of rain and they need it badly.

Weekend six:

1. We had picked buckets of blueberries on the 4th so I got one batch of jam made, blueberry mint jam. Still have another bucket left in the fridge. It might get turned into spiced blueberry jam.

2. Bought a bunch of little yellow plums at the farmers market so turned them into jam. I used orange juice as the liquid and it is too overwhelming for the delicate flavor of the yellow plums. Just tastes like orange jam. Tasty but not plum like.

3. Zucchini Feta pancakes with all the zucchini from the farmers market, a double batch. They are so good. Can't remember who posted the originally, maybe Janet in NC?? They are from Moosewood. For dinner we stacked them with some thick slices of tomato, toppped with some smoked salmon and a poached egg. I drizzled some balsamic syrup around the edges and tossed in some diced tomato and basil. Soooo goood.

4. Bowl of sourdough bread in the fridge waiting to be shaped and baked.

5. Annual Fig and Raspberry tart with figs from our tree. They are not the most flavorful figs but they grew in my yard!! For some reason the crust turned out particularly good last night and we ate half of the tart!

6. Big bowl of Asian Fusion Slaw to bring to work with lunch this week. I just love this salad and can't seem to get enough!

 
Oof. Ours was also steamy (and not in a good way). (Belated) Weekend Six:

I'm going in reverse chronological order, because it was only cool enough to do anything in the kitchen starting last night:

1. Halved a blueberry cake recipe and added a streusel topping. DELICIOUS. Here it is (based loosely on Epicurious's Blueberry-Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting).

(If you don't have cake flour, for every cup of cake flour, remove 2 tbsp. flour and replace w/ 2 tbsp. cornstarch. Sift multiple times.)

1 c. + 3 tbsp. cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 stick butter, room temp.
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs

Streusel (This was originally designed for 12 large muffins; it gives the cake a hearty topping, but if you want less, just halve it.)
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
3 tbsp. brown sugar, packed
Pinch of salt
½ cup plus 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Make streusel: Mix sugars, salt, and flour together in a medium-sized bowl . Melt butter; drizzle over sugars, salt, and flour. Mix together with a fork until sandy, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8" or 9" square glass baking dish (or equivalent size pie plate).
Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to large bowl. Add fresh blueberries to the large bowl and toss to coat. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.

Stir yogurt, vanilla extract, and grated lemon zest in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in another large bowl until light and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture alternately with yogurt mixture in 3 additions each, just until blended. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into buttered dish or pie plate. Scatter streusel over the cake.

Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool on a rack.


2. Made a small batch of chicken fajitas last night, with quesadillas on corn tortillas and spicy black-bean salad as a side dish. Husband attempted to put the fajitas on top of a quesadilla and then eat it like a taco. Okay...

3. Stumbled on a good salad combination: chopped peaches and chopped tomatoes.

4. Had a ridiculously good espresso brownie at a coffee place in Tribeca. Normally, I can't stand Tribeca, but this brownie would be worth going back and battling the thousand-dollar-stroller set for...

5. Ladurée is adding a second NYC store in September--a block from my doctor's office. This will not end well...

6. This place opened a summer pop-up store only a few blocks from us: L'arte del gelato. This will also not end well...

 
Dawn, I just read this - Glad you liked the Triple Berry Coffee Cake! It's already in T&T.

 
It was 102 here. The highlight was making peanut butter "cups." Addictive. I didn't

have the energy to do much more than that.

 
I did not know what Ladur

What a gorgeous site! If the food is as good as the web site, it must be the most dangerous place in the world. I wonder if I would actually eat the Peony and Poppy jelly, and the Jasmine jelly, or if I would just admire them.

Wow! It's on my List!

http://www.laduree.fr/

 
Delicious macarons flown in from France, mainly. smileys/wink.gif I've never tried anything else there!

 
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