Simple Spring Strawberry Cake

This was one of those "let's make a special dinner so it should have dessert, but I don't want to do any food shopping" recipes. It is so simple and very similar to my famous blueberry nantucket pie. It's not too sweet. Which is great because anyone who knows me, knows that I love any excuse to eat cake for breakfast. It is best served with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Simple Spring Strawberry Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup splenda/sugar mix (or 1 cup of sugar)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp melted butter
3/4 lb of hulled strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, sugar. Add egg, milk, and vanilla extract.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Slowly add butter to flour mixture. Make sure to do this slowly or you will end up cooking the egg in the flour mixture.

3. In a cake pan or 10" pie pan pour cake batter. Slice strawberries in half and arrange on top of the cake batter in a single layer.

4. Bake for 1 hour and test with a toothpick - it should come out clean.

Baked French Toast

Wow! It's been a long time; for which I promise there are plenty of good (and not so good) excuses. But I won't bore you those and instead will offer a delicious and simply way to make breakfast special: Baked French Toast!

We recently started picking up a really nice bread at a local bakery and have slices with dinner, which is more satisfying than reason can explain. But even we often can't finish the loaf before it crosses the threshold from delightfully chewy to just plain too much work to chew. The recipe below is the perfect solution!

On a slightly unrelated note, there are two new - and very welcome - additions to my kitchen! Introducing ...
A beautiful and perfect in every way Le Creuset dutch oven, from my wonderful husband! I've already made carnitas in this bad boy and have plans for ribs in the near future! I think his gift was a little self-interested, no? :o)

And the red OXO cherry pitter from Williams-Sonoma that I have been eying literally for years. My wonderful friends (and amazingly talented wedding photographers) Justin & Mary sent me a W-S gift card, so I really made the best of it! In the past I have used a chopstick to pit cherries, which is fine. But sometimes, a job calls for the perfect tool and the messy business of pitting cherries is definitely one of those. I am armed and ready for this year's sour cherry season!

Baked French Toast
About 1/2 a loaf sliced (to your preferred thickness)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk (or skim milk plus a dash of half & half)
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
cinnamon

1. Butter a rectangular baking dish and line with bread slices, packing them in tightly.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk milk, eggs, sugar, salt, and almond extract. Pour over bread slices.

3. Sprinkle cinnamon over the bread and let everything sit for about 20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 425 F.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes, until puffy and delicious. Serve with warm maple syrup!

Brown Butter Shortbread

You may have noticed that I haven't posted a baked good in a while, which is pretty unlike me. I could blame the last vestiges of summer, the long summer associate interview process, that hurricane, or the start of the semester, but really the reason is the kitchen in our new apartment. But I took the words of a facebook friend ("gas is gas, temp is temp") to heart and bit the bullet.


The result? Deliciously yummy shortbread that will pair perfectly with my tea this evening and my yogurt tomorrow morning. So while my current stove is nothing like the stainless steel beauty PC Richards is waiting to deliver, it apparently works well enough to make cookies with. Which is pretty fabulous news!


Brown Butter Shortbread (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
I never miss an opportunity to brown butter in baked goods, but reading in the comments where the recipe was originally posted it was noted that browning the butter here leads to a "sandy" texture. I think that's true, but if you are diligent about cooling your dough and then the cookies once baked, it is not a cookie-killer and taste is certainly more complex and delicious. It's your call.

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted and browned (see note above)
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour

Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

1. Melt and brown your butter. In a medium bowl, mix butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla until combined. Add flour and stir until just combined.

2. Cover a small baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the mixture until even (your fingers are the perfect tool for this).

3. Let sit for 1 hour on the counter and then transfer for a 2nd hour in the fridge. Before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 300 F. Bake for 45 minutes.

4. Remove from oven, leaving your oven on. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Let cool for 10 minutes.

5. Carefully cut the shortbread into long "fingers" and then bake for another 15 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and cool completely before eating. Let them spend some time in the fridge for extra firmness.

Summery Orzo Salad with Shrimp & Easy Edamame Dip

"It's all part of the adventure" is something my mother always says when things don't go exactly as planned. Which is precisely what happened in the kitchen when she and I set out to make dinner on Friday night.

I was in Pennsylvania visiting my parents and it was hot. Very, very hot. So the thought of making anything on the "let's bake this" list that I had emailed a few days earlier was simply too ridiculous to entertain. We were sweating just sitting there sipping ice water, who could possibly turn the oven up to 350 for an extended period of time? So it was on to plan B. Except we didn't have one of those... oops.

As my mind wandered to what I wished I was eating, one of my favorite simple dishes from Kefi, a greek restaurant on the upper west side, popped into my head. Orzo, with some shrimp, feta cheese, a light tomato sauce and spinach. It's a perfect summer meal and I was determined. To supplement, we also decided to make this edamame dip that I've been dreaming about since eating it at my in-laws' 4th of July party.

At this point, with our newly minted plan, we went shopping. But quickly met more difficulties, when we realized that brown miso doesn't exist in Swarthmore, PA, nor apparently does chili paste. And when I discovered that the closest thing my mother has to a food processor is a food mill, I was basically ready to toss aside my apron and get a hamburger from Nifty Fifties.

But we persevered in the face of culinary adversity and were rewarded with a light, lemony and refreshing dinner and an evening cool enough to enjoy outside. This is a great summer meal with enough left over for lunch the next day. And as usual, my mother was right. "It's all part of the adventure."

Summery Orzo with Shrimp inspired by Kefi

1/2 lb Orzo
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 lbs Shrimp
4 scallions, chopped
2 tsps. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup spinach
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
3/4 lb. feta cheese, crumbled

1. Cook the orzo to package instructions, about 9 to 11 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Steam shrimp in a medium saucepan with the lid on until just pink. Do not overcook.

3. Meanwhile, add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to a medium bowl. Whisk to combine.

4. In a large bowl, combine orzo, dressing mixture, and shrimp. Mix to coat the pasta.

5. Gently steam spinach (about 3 minutes in a small pot with a lid), until just wilted.

6. Add the spinach, tomatoes, scallions, and feta to the pasta. Mix and set aside until cooled. Serve at room temperature.

Edamame Dip adapted (out of necessity) from Alton Brown

12 ounces shelled, cooked edamame
1/4 of a medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. red chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
5 tbsp. olive oil

1. Place edamame, onion, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, chili powder and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. (Here we used a food mill with the largest-holed blade. If you have a food processor, do yourself a favor and use it.)

2. Process for a total of 30 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.

3. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Once the oil has been added, scrape down the bowl and process for another 5 seconds.

4. Serve with toast points or crispy pita chips. Or do what I did and eat it with a spoon.

Super Simple Carnitas with Guacamole

If you were to judge a recipe based on simplicity and sheer deliciousness (which makes sense to me) this would top the list. The carnitas are made with four ingredients (one of which is water) and the guacamole is done in literally 3 minutes, not sure it gets much easier than that.

And the taste! The savory, fall-off-the-bone tender, juicy, succulent flavor of the pork and the silky, vibrant green avocados that are in abundance this time of year - it just doesn't get any better.

I used this carnitas recipe almost verbatim with two changes. I used pork shoulder with the bone in and, after I butchered it, I threw the bone in the pot too.* I also developed my own technique for slightly de-greasing the meat and for pulling the pork, the notes for which are in the recipe.

This is not a meal for someone on a diet or for someone who doesn't love pork in all its glory. But to everyone else, do yourself a favor. This authentic taste of Mexico couldn't be easier.


*Don't be afraid of butchering. While I'm sure there are some real butchers who would cringe at how I handled this pork shoulder, this recipe is incredibly forgiving since the meat cooks to the point of falling apart. Be brave, you won't be disappointed!

Super Simple Carnitas with Guacamole Adapted from The Homesick Texan

For the Carnitas:
3 pounds of pork shoulder
1 cup of orange juice
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt

For the Guacamole:
2 avocados, peeled and cubed
Juice from a lime
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1/2 handful of cilantro
pinch of coarse sea salt

Make the Carnitas
1. Butcher the meat. (I used a very sharp pair of scissors to cut the meat away from the bone and then sliced it). Cut pork into strips (three inches by one inch), add to a large pot with the liquids and the salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered on low for 2 hours. Leave the meat alone.

2. After two hours, turn the heat up to medium, and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the pork fat has rendered (about 45 minutes). Stir a few times, to keep pork from sticking to bottom of pan.

3. When pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready (there will still be liquid fat in the pan).

4. Prepare a surface with layered paper towels. Using a pair of tongs, remove the meat from the pot and place on the paper-toweled surface. Pat the meat with paper towel to remove excess grease.

5. Using a fork remove any unwanted fat (though it is all delicious) and place pork cubes in a large bowl.

6. Once all the pork is in the bowl, shred the meat. An easy method is to insert the fork into the pork pieces and to twist. Repeat this process until the carnitas are the desired consistency.

Make the Guacamole
1. Add all of the ingredients to a medium-sized bowl.

2. Using the back of a fork, mush the avocado and combine the ingredients.