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III.
A cup of Bavarian Wild Berry with cream and sugar
Poem: Maya Angelou's "Passing Time"
Passing Time
Your skin like dawn
Mine like dusk.
-
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
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The other, the end of a
sure beginning.
Cucumber-Honeydew Salad with Feta
Green is one of my favorite colors this time of year. Isn't it so fresh and bright!?
This monochromatic green salad with a dash of purple is definitely an extension of my love for this beautiful hue. I was photographing a series of Autumn recipes for a magazine last week and was having a little bit of a tough time breaking away from bright summer-like colors. So I snuck in this salad as an avenue for my desiring of greens!
I was able to get fresh dill, arugula and these delicious red onions at the farmers market in Union Square. While the original recipe doesn't actually call for arugula I thought it added a nice texture to make it more of a hearty salad and it can withstand the tangy lemon/honey dressing. Picking types of arugula to use was a bit tricky...have you ever noticed how many different kinds there are? I opted for a combination of wild arugula which has a little bit of a more peppery taste and funny enough the second kind I chose is simply called arugula (that's the one with the rounder leaves).
At first glance you might think honeydew in a salad with cucumbers and onion is a bit odd but trust me, it somehow works together really well. Especially with the feta, poppy seed and lemon-y dressing, it's such a refreshing taste. This is a great summer salad to serve at your 4th of July BBQs!
Cucumber-Honeydew Salad with Feta
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon poppyseed
1 medium honeydew melon, seeded and balled (about 5 cups)
1 cucumber unpeeled and thinly sliced or peeled into ribbons (about 2 cups)
1/3 cup very finely chopped red onion
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
Arugula, desired amount
Pour lemon juice into a large bowl and whisk in olive oil in a slow, steady stream until completely incorporated. Whisk in honey, salt and pepper. Add melon, cucumber, onion, dill and arugula. Toss to combine. Just before serving top with feta cheese and sprinkle with poppy seed. Makes 10 servings.
Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens mag.
Tea Poetry II
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II.
A cup of chamomile, spritz of lemon & squeeze of honey
Poem: Edith Sitwell's "Spring"
Spring
When spring begins, the maids in flocks
Walk in soft fields, and their sheepskin locks
-
Fall shadowless, soft as music, round
Their jonquil eyelids, and reach the ground.
-
Where the small fruit-buds begin to harden
Into sweet tunes in the palace garden,
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They peck at the fruit-buds' hairy herds
With their lips like the gentle bills of birds.
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But King Midas heard the swan-bosomed sky
Say 'All is surface, and so must die.'
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And he said: 'It is spring; I will have a feast
To woo eternity; for my least
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Palace is like a berg of ice;
And the spring winds, for birds of paradise,
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With the leaping goat-footed waterfalls-cold,
Shall be served for me on a dish of gold
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By a maiden fair as an almond-tree,
With hair like the waterfalls' goat-locks; she
-
Has lips like that jangling harsh pink rain,
The flower-bells that spirt on trees again.'
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In Midas' garden the simple flowers
Laugh, and the tulips are bright as the showers,
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For spring is here; the auriculas,
And the Emily-coloured primulas
-
Bob in their pinafores on the grass
As they watch the gardener's daughter pass.
-
Then King Midas said, 'At last I feel
Eternity conquered beneath my heel
-
Like the flittering snake of paradise-
And you are my Eve!'- but the maiden flies,
-
Like the leaping goat-footed waterfalls
Singing their cold, forlorn madrigals.
Let's make some cheese…
I grew up next to this quaint little working farm in the Hudson Valley. I spent many days here as a child making bread and mint jelly, getting my shoes nibbled on by goats and watching baby pigs run around chasing each other.
And many years later, I still try and visit as often as I can. But it has changed and grown quite a bit since those days...they have tons of summer camps and programs now, some new animals and a big beautiful creamery. The cheese maker, Colin, is a wonderful guy who can rock a plastic hair net better than most. He loves cheese more than any other person I've ever met and really, it's amazing. Seeing someone as passionate as him about their job is so refreshing.
Colin let me come in and photograph him make their award winning cheese. How lucky am I?
Cheese making is truly an incredible process that requires so much more than we think. And if there's one thing that I learned from this...it's that in many many ways, more so than one...cheese making is NOT for the weak, you guys. I came home reeking of aging cheese and milk with my pants soaked up to my knees...and I didn't even do any of the cleaning or vigorous work that requires those cheese making muscles. But don't get me wrong, it's all still awesome!
To read more about the process, how awesome Colin is, get the recipes below and learn more about Sprout Creek Farm check out my story in the Spring issue of FOLK Magazine.
Colin's Mac n Cheese:
Savory Goat Cheesecake:
Happy Spring!!
Lemon Herb Marinated Chicken Kebabs
My computer is all fixed and has finally been returned to me. After a quick little trip to the beach and some serious, anxiety-induced cleaning and reorganizing of my house I am back to work! I've been wanting to share these lemon herb marinated chicken kebabs with you for a while. Lemon, thyme and basil is my favorite marinade combination. I used it to marinate chicken because lemon and chicken is another favorite combination of mine but this also works great for fish.
If you've never had grilled lemons I have to tell you that you are truly missing out. They hold such a magically sweet, refreshing and slightly tart flavor when you stick them on the grill. Between bites of the chicken I found myself sucking on the grilled lemons, something I could never do with a regular one, my sour tolerance isn't so high. But these were just so good that I couldn't waste any of their juices!
These chicken kebabs make for a lovely, light appetizer at a party, a delicious Sunday lunch with wine or a perfect summer BBQ dish. This lemon herb marinade has lots of tangy, bold flavor, especially if you marinate your meat overnight to really let the flavors infuse.
Fourth of July Berries & Cream Tartlets
The fourth of July is my favorite holiday. The BBQs, fireworks, sparklers, s'mores, red white & blue desserts...all of it, I love. It happens to be my favorite time of year as well and I have such fond memories of fourth of Julys from the past.
Each year my family makes a different red, white & blue dessert. This year we made these little, patriotic berries & cream tartlets. It's my second recipe that I've made from my new Martha Stewart pies & tarts cookbook (here's the first). Being the chocolate lover that I am, I simply had to make a chocolate version of the crust by substituting a 1/4 cup of the flour for a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. The cocoa tastes so good with the berries, and it's not too overpowering-ly sweet. The vanilla cream filling is just the same, a perfect hint of vanilla with a creaminess that marries the crust and berries in perfect harmony.
You can use any berries that you desire and if you're like me, you can go crazy designing different berry combinations and patterns for each tartlet!
I wrote all about my love for the fourth of July in the July/August issue of FOLK Magazine (which you can pick up here) and included another favorite red, white & blue recipe of mine. I have a couple of big blog posts coming from the past weekend and a new project I'm working on. But first, I have to send out my computer to be worked on, so while that's happening I'm off to the beach for an extra long weekend where I will be catching up on my reading and fitting in one shoot of a beach house! I hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July and get to see some fireworks!
Fudgesicles
I couldn't remember the last time I had a fudgesicle. Awful, right? So the other day I had to do something about it. I went searching for a good recipe and wasn't really satisfied with anything that I was finding. If I was going to make fudgesicles from scratch I wanted them to be better than the store bought ones. They had to be extremely fudgy and creamy... no watery or icy fudgesicles allowed. I didn't want chocolate flavored ice pops. I wanted chocolate in the form of an ice pop. Am I making any sense?
Maybe not, but I am happy to say that after experimenting and taking random bits from countless other fudgesicle recipes I finally put together one that is exactly what I wanted! These are fudgy, creamy, extremely chocolate-y and best of all...irresistible.
These are by far one of my favorite sweet snacks of the summer (second to s'mores of course) and they're so easy to make. Stirring in mini chocolate chips after the mixture has cooled adds an extra surprise to these fudgesicles.
Go have a fudgesicle, you deserve it!