Bacon-Fried Bananas

That's right. Good Sunday morning! I wanted bacon immediately following Mass this morning, and couldn't bring myself to eat only bacon for breakfast. I didn't want eggs, though, so i decided on the world's easiest and best instant grits. I ain't got time--or skills--for slow grits and Quaker does a pretty good job with instant! So I decided I'd do grits with a bit of bacon grease and a crumbled piece of bacon and that's when I remembered a post my step sister put on Instagram yesterday. A post that inspired this:

Beth, one of my crafty and talented step sisters, is constantly cooking up something amazing and unique. She manages to feed her family of four with whole, clean, yummy, and marvelously concocted meals and I want to take a cooking class at her house. I'd settle for a menu-planning and grocery shopping class at this point. Yesterday she put up a lovely picture of bananas fried in bacon grease. Whaaat? Yes, I'm trying that soon, I thought! It promptly left my head till this morning when my grits-and-grease plan came together.

look at that caramelized banana. sweet & salty goodness!

This is our at-home Sunday brunch. As much as I enjoy a Bloody Mary at such a meal, this morning I was great need of more coffee, so I added pumpkin pie spice to the Peet's in our Keurig filter basket and it was fantastic.

Now I'm ready for all the things I have to do today. What a list it is! But first I must burn off some of this calorie craziness!

Going for a run,

kt

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Apple Pie & Baseball

No, there is nothing more American!

These two proverbial pastimes made my afternoon. I got to listen to my Nationals shut out the Marlins (thereby also taking first place in the National League and winning home field advantage for the playoffs next week!) and bake with apples I picked with my good friend Kailey on Wednesday. There's a fantastic, tiny orchard around the corner from my neighborhood and I noticed they had a "U PICK!" sign out front. Then she invited me to visit the orchard and pick apples with the moms group she's in so I went, and we picked about 15 pounds each. We spent that morning in the honeycrisps, which are super yummy, and it was such a fun way to spend the morning. We definitely went back today. There's an apple extravaganza planned for next week--we have big plans for pies and apple butter and apple cocktails and anything else we can pin! Meanwhile, I had to try making something today.

I had originally planned to pickle my cucumbers, but I needed to run the jars through the dishwasher. So, while I waited on that to finish, I couldn't resist starting on some apple pie. A test run, if you will (or impatience, whatever. call it what you want). I also had some Pilsbury pie crust (don't judge me) in the fridge in its last days so I needed to get rid of it.

So I made pies. Plural, 'cause they're mini! I cut out dough with my Salty Dog Cafe glass and made tiny pies with tiny leaf cutouts made from extra dough.

 

I used this filling recipe from sugarywinzy.com which was simple and smelled amazing. I even made my own brown sugar (1 T of molasses to 1 cup of granulated sugar, then measure & use according to your brown sugar needs)! Since I didn't use her crust recipe I guessed and baked at 425 for 23 minutes. A taste test will tell if I need to post some adjustments. I shall let you know.

 

 

Picking apples reminded me of when we were kids and used to go in the fall. Being in the apple trees reminded me of being back in Virginia, where Winchester rivals the North West's apple growing. Orchards make me happy! Eating apple pie reminds me I do like Autumn!

Oh, and I did also finish making pickles. I'll post that later this weekend.

Off to do dishes,

kt

 

 

 

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Blackberry Morning

Good morning! In this indecisive season of March (65 tuesday, snow yesterday, cold today), I have had enough of winter mode. I found a muffin recipe a few weeks ago on Pinterest that I had to try. I started to make them last Saturday for breakfast, but ran out of time. How do I always think there's more time than there is? This morning there is plenty of time. It's my last weekday morning off and it's an off Friday for my fella (I love this schedule of every other Friday off!), so we get a free day together. Muffins that taste like summer are the best way to start such a day.

The recipe was for blueberry jam muffins, and their photo looks fantastic. They are blueberry with blueberry jam & lemon zesty sugar topping. This berry and citrus combination is something I've always enjoyed, and when I think of the colors of blueberry & lemon I have to smile. It's so so summery and fresh, no? I have been thinking about those muffins ever since I pinned them, but with no time to make them. I haven't baked since Christmas. What?!

Alas, I have no blueberries. Nor a lemon. But there is a handful of blackberries (frozen, but from the new Natural Grocers store that just opened in town! They'll do) and a handful of raspberries (frozen too, but I picked them at my friend Mary's house last summer to round out a super fun quintessential summer day). I rather enjoy when I find I have exactly the amount of something I need. I needed two cups and had a cup of each. So I made these muffins and just ate one with a full cup of hot, uninterrupted coffee and I'm a happy girl.

I adapted the recipe from Damn Delicious, and am looking forward to baking them just as she instructs in the very near future. In the meantime, my muffins have raspberries inside and blackberry jam on top. Sprinkled with a little bit of sugar, they've got such a good light crunch on the top. Yum.

You can find the original recipe for the blueberry muffins here. To make my Raspberry Muffins with Blackberry Jam Topping, I used one cup of blackberries for the first step (making the "jam") and one cup of raspberries for the batter.

And so I start my day with a tiny taste of summer. These muffins reminded me of a raspberry jam from last summer that I made. I am very, very much looking forward to doing that again soon. Not soon enough. I hope you have a fun Friday, and are staying warm wherever you are. Has it stopped snowing back East yet?!

 

With summery thoughts,

kt

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millions of peaches...

*um, an update of sorts.  this post is from THREE YEARS AGO!  i always wonder what happened to it when i'm hunting that recipe.  i just saw it with the word "draft" next to it in my blogger app.  hmmm...  so weird.  anyway, enjoy!*

...peaches for free.  anyone remember that song?  loved that band and have some fun memories of riding around in my best friend's Cutlass, listening to Presidents of the United States of America on a tape player.  

so, fast forward to these days, and i'm reminded of that song when my new friend Christina (also just moved here from Charleston, but i only met her once there--our husbands worked together and both transferred out here this summer) invited me over to help rescue what seemed like millions of peaches from a branch that had fallen from the peach tree in her new backyard.  i'm excited to have her here and really enjoy her company so i was thrilled to head over and visit.  when she opened the door to let me in, she began singing that song.  *grin*  we're going to get along really well.  


i left with a plastic grocery bag bulging with peaches and headed straight to my kitchen.  i had a pie in mind!  i found a ridiculously easy pie crust recipe a couple of months ago and had tried it once with success.  hand picked peaches and scratch-made pie crust?  yes please!  so i blanched, peeled, sliced and baked and ended up with this yumminess.  just in time for my first in-law visit, by the way.  good times!

the crust is so easy!  y'all, you mix it in the pie dish and bake it right away.  there is no chilling, no butter, no waiting.  i love a great, time-cosuming crust, but this one is great when you get a sudden craving and NEED a pie TONIGHT for dessert (or with lunch?)!  you can use olive oil and a little less salt/more sugar for a savory-ish crust, or leave it as is if you'd like.  i've also linked to the recipe above so you can  see recommendations and suggestions.  enjoy!

i found a recipe online for a rhubarb pie a few summers ago, and have NO idea where i found it, but i scribbled it down on a post-it and have used it every time i want a pie.  i usually use peaches & blackberries instead of rhubarb (i can never find it!) and keep the rest of the ingredients the same. i think it works out well.  

the easiest pie crust in the world

here they are if you'd like to try:

the crust:

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

2 T sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 T milk

mix all in a pie dish, then pat and poke across the bottom

and up the sides of the dish.  bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

peach filling

the filling:

4 C rhubard (or other fruit--

i've used peach/blackberry mix 

and just peaches before)

1 1/3 C honey

7 T flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp butter

mix the first four ingredients in a bowl, 

then pour into prepared crust.  

bake at 450 for 10 minutes, 

then put the butter on top and 

continue baking at 350 for 50 minutes.  

backyard peaches + scratch crust = fabulousness

and there you have it!  my first dessert for my in-laws.  they said they liked it!  *wink*