Several times this year I’ve expected to come across a fig tree loaded with fruit ready for picking and preserving, but each time I’ve been met with an almost bare tree or painfully under-ripe fruit, and come away with just a few handfuls. This is a serious problem for me, because I have a deep and unending love for fresh figs and the many things you can do with them. There is no other jam I love more than fig jam (quince paste is a paste not a jam, so I feel okay saying this…), and there is no fruit I would rather have fresh than figs. When you get the perfect, gooey, slightly firm fig… there is just nothing like it. So when I have only a handful, I end up hoarding them, foolishly and indecisively, until one day I open the refrigerator and they are dried out, lonely, and about to mold. This week I got a handful of green figs from my grandmother’s tree and determined not to let this happen. After reading Edward Schneider’s article about the Tarte Tartin, I couldn’t get the idea of caramelized figs out of my mind. Then I saw Nate’s post about the Boy Bait Cake, and suddenly it just all came together: Fig Upside Down (or Skillet) Cake. I have never made an upside down cake until today, and as I’ve mentioned before I’m really not a baker, but I love my iron skillet and I was determined to caramelize these figs, so I went for it. The result was unparalleled, delicious, and one more thing to add to my “things I love to do with figs” list.
Fig Skillet Cake
(Adapted from the Joy of Cooking Skillet Cake)
The basic process is to create a syrup for the figs to sit in then pour a batter on top and bake. The syrup cooks the figs until they candy, and caramelizes as it cools after you remove it from the pan. This results in a delicious, moist cake with a slightly chewy and very figgy top. This adaptation includes some of my favorite fig compliments, plus sea salt (I love salt in a caramel!) and a little extra instruction in places where the anti-baker in me needed them. I found this recipe especially fun because you get to use a lot of bowls- a set of 4 nesting bowels is perfect.
Ingredients:
basket or handful of figs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup dark brown or muscovado sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 orange
pinch sea salt
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup all purpose or cake flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Equipment:
9-10 inch iron skillet
egg beaters
heat proof or durable plate
set of nesting bowls (or 4 bowls)
Method
preheat the oven to 350 F
melt the butter in the iron skillet and set 1 tablespoon aside for later
zest the orange and set aside
juice the orange into the iron skillet and add 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar and a pinch of sea salt (a pinch is less than a 1/8th of a teaspoon, just sprinkle a little in the pan). Heat on low until the sugar is well dissolved.
remove the tough tips and cut the figs in half. Place them flat side down in the skillet with the narrow tips pointing inward. If you don’t have an abundance of figs, start on opposite sides until you can see how it will fill out the pan. If you have enough, you can place a second ring on the inside, but they might move around as you pour in the batter later.
take the largest and smallest bowl, separate the egg whites into the largest, and the yolks into the smallest.
add the zest and reserved butter, and the seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean to the yolks by cutting the bean in half length from tip to tip and scrapping them out with the dull side of a knife. Lightly beat the yolks until the vanilla is well distributed and set aside
in the smaller of the two medium bowls sift one cup of sugar, in the larger sift 1 cup of flour and 1 teaspoon of double-acting baking powder
beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. This means you want to see peaks beginning to form, but smaller rounded peaks instead of stiff, tall thin peaks. “Peaks” are what form when you turn off the beaters and lift them out of the egg whites.
now you will fold in the rest of the ingredients into the egg whites one at a time. Folding basically means you are very very gently and slowly adding something to something else, usually the something else has air beat into it that you are trying not to deflate. So as you do this, try your best to be patient, and gentle. Pay less attention to how even it is, and more attention to how careful you can be. By the time you get to the flour it will be more batter like and less fragile, so you will be able to stir it a little more thoroughly at the end.
fold in the sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time by sprinkling it over the egg whites and gently turning it over on itself.
next fold in the egg yolks
last, fold in the flour, still being as gentle as possible, but making sure everything is well distributed
pour the batter over the fruit slowly and evenly so you don’t disturb the way you laid them out earlier
place the skillet in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the top is slightly browned and the center springs back when touched gently. I got a little nervous as this was making because I could smell the sugars caramelizing. When I checked on it, there was a lot of chaos going on around the edges of the skillet, but that seems to be perfectly normal. Don’t fret! It will all look lovely at the end.
immediate remove from the oven and flip it over onto a plate- to do this, use oven mitts and place the plate on top of the skillet, holding it together, then flip it over and set it down. Let the skillet rest for a couple minutes before removing it to help coat the cake. Remove the pan and serve!
It is easy for me to recommend My Bread because I have been using Jim Lahey’s recipe for no knead bread ever since it was published in the New York Times almost 3 years ago. It is a flawlessly simple recipe as well as versatile. It is based on the idea that modern bread recipes are all about saving time, putting your own labor into the bread to get what would normally take a day in a matter of hours. Instead, Lahey’s method lets time and yeast do the work. I have recommended his basic recipe to countless friends and acquaintances, and rarely have been met with anything less than extreme enthusiasm. And let me just say. I am not a baker. I preserve, I cook, I make everything I can from scratch, from tomato sauce to pesto, to jams and pickles to yogurt and kombucha. But I very rarely bake. Cookies, cakes, pies, breads, unless it’s a casserole I usually leave it to my boyfriend, so it’s no surprise that he is the one who initially discovered this recipe; but over the years I have learned to love this one particular baking project, and to make it my own. It’s what I have always called a Fougasse (due to the shaping and haphazard baking method I use), and Jim Lahey has perfected into a Pizza Bianca. His book includes 40+ bread variations, recipes for sandwich ingredients from meats to spreads to vegetable preparation, recipes for his classic panini, and what to do with left over stale bread. In my eyes, this is the bread book to end all bread books.
As part of my recommendation for this book, I’d like to share my enthusiasm for it’s publication by posting my adaptation for the Fougasse.
Introduction: A Fougasse is a traditional French hearth bread shaped into an ear of wheat. A hearth bread, is a bread used to tell the temperature of an oven. They are simple breads that rarely fail, and can be cooked at a variety of temperatures, making them perfect finicky ovens and spacey bakers. The full time for this recipe from start to finish is anywhere from 6-18 hours depending on the weather. Most of this will be resting time, with only about 15-20 minutes for baking, and about 10 minutes of work.
Ingredients
3 cups of all purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast (instant is fine)
1 1/4 teaspoons of sea salt
olive oil
1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt
1-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
Method
in a large bowl combine all ingredients, adding almost all of the water- reserve a little just in case the air is damp, and if you use it all and need a little more that’s okay too. It should be shaggy and sticky but not particularly wet or well formed.
cover with plastic wrap until bubbles form along the surface, anywhere from 6-18 hours.
SIDE NOTE: To give you an idea here, living in Philadelphia where we see some extremes from dry cold weather to damp hot weather, we would let the bread rest for around 18 hours in the dead of winter when we kept our house very cool and dry, and 6 hours in the middle of summer when it was extremely humid and our average house temperature was about 85-90. In my experience, during lesser extremes you usually end up waiting about 10-12 hours.
when the top of the dough is flat and dappled with bubbles, dump it onto a well floured work surface and fold it over on itself twice, covering it again with the same piece of plastic, and let it rest 15 minutes.
in the mean time, get out a baking sheet and line it with parchment, or oil a cookie sheet generously with olive oil.
after the dough has rested, begin stretching it into a giant triangular shape and place it on the parchment or oiled baking pan. you may find it easier to stretch it once it is on the pan
dust it lightly with flour and cover it again with plastic, allowing it to rest until well risen (usually about 1-2 hours). It will look puffy when it is ready
preheat your oven to 475 F
remove the plastic (don’t worry if it sticks!) and drizzle generously with olive oil, and sprinkle liberally with a coarse sea salt
remove the leaves from a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary, and sprinkle them around the dough
with a sharp knife, slice upwards from the center, starting at the wide edge and working up
bake 15-20 minutes or until golden
serve immediately
Available in Town At Logosand other independent bookstores in your area My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method
by Jim Layhey with Rick Flaste Founder of the Sullivan Street Bakery
$29.95
I should preface this by saying I am not a fan of canning sauce. Tomato sauce is so easy to make from canned tomatoes I really don’t see the need to make it early. I only ever keep whole canned tomatoes in my kitchen, so I only ever make whole canned tomatoes. This leaves me with endless last minute options (soups, stews, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, spicy sauce, garlic sauce, basil sauce, onion sauce, vodka sauce! etc). Not to mention, I can really only handle eating so many of the same thing. I like variety!
So I am on my third year of canning tomatoes, and each year I learn a little something new. My first year, the most important thing I learned is that raw packing is not awesome or time saving. First, you can’t fit as many tomatoes in one jar when you raw pack, they are too stiff and filled with air, leaving them floating in more than half a jar of water. Not only does it look a little sad, but it takes up more room than necessary and you need to use more than one jar for just about any recipe. Second, it is extremely easy to break a jar when doing raw pack. You can’t place them in hot water, you have to water process them in cold water, which takes forever to heat up, and ends up not being a time saver at all. I also learned that bottled lemon juice tastes like chemicals, even it’s organic with no additives, and that non-sauce tomatoes do not hold their texture after being processed. So my second year I felt I was going into it well informed with everything sorted and ready to go. I bought a variety of tomatoes (heirloom seconds that were bruised or split) and about 20 lbs of sauce tomatoes. I used citric acid (sour salt!) instead of lemon juice to preserve the flavor, and I cooked and blended the heirlooms which I strained for juice and used to pack the sauce tomatoes. It was especially lovely since many of the heirlooms were Purple Russians. Unfortunately, I had a lot of extra juice left. Fortunately, I saved it and used it to pack a bunch of cherry tomatoes, but I sort of made the decision then that this was not the best way to go. It is potentially very wasteful. What I realized is that I ultimately want stewed tomatoes packed in nothing but themselves. My favorite can of tomatoes has always been San Marzano, not just because the variety of tomato is fantastic, but also because they are packed in nothing but juice, salt, and citric acid; so this year when Mariquita Farm said they would be in Capitola, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I ordered 40lbs of tomatoes and set to work finding a recipe that would work for me.
Let me explain a little bit about canning tomatoes. I don’t often work from recipes, but certain things require at least a point of reference if for no other reason than to be safe. In the 80s, the USDA revised their standards for canning tomatoes based on new varieties which were bred to be more meaty and less acidic. This means that the safe level of acidity you need to process tomatoes as “high acid canning” in a water bath was no longer standard or certain. According to new standards, when water processing any sort of canned tomato product, you are required to boost the acid levels to a safe standard of 4.6 PH or lower (I know that sounds weird, but higher acid content means lower PH). The NDSU extension service researched this and found that not a single variety of tomato they tested had sufficient acid levels to defeat the growth of clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism. Botulism freaks me out. I don’t mind admitting it, and I think even people in the Slow Food movement (see Eugenia Bone’s comment about old Brandied Peaches recipes in the New York Times last month) can agree that going back to older methods on this are not necessarily the best. It is true, that many people have had great results using family recipes that have been passed down for generations. It is also true that many of these people are also using seeds and growing methods that have been passed down just as long. I am not that fortunate. I also know that the way a person grows their tomatoes greatly effects the flavor and acid levels of their tomatoes. Variety isn’t enough. Think about dry farm vs standard tomatoes, or how heirlooms split after a hard rain. It is important to find a recipe that has had it’s acid levels tested on a wide variety of tomatoes. This is why there are very few variations on the methods for canning tomatoes. What I was hoping to find was a recipe that took into account hot packing tomatoes in their own juice, and possibly find one that called for reducing it to a safe level where I would not longer need to add citric acid or I could add less. I found nothing. As far as canning whole tomatoes, there are only the standard recipes: hot pack in water, raw pack in water, raw pack in juice, and stewed tomatoes with onions, garlic, and peppers. I ended up using the raw pack in juice recipe for my acid levels since it is the most similar. My gut feeling is that you could probably reduce it for about 20 minutes and add less or no citric acid, but since I couldn’t find anything to confirm this, and I’m afraid of botulism I went with the standard 1/2 teaspoon per quart. Below is the recipe I created accompanied by a LOT of photographs. You can see the recipe without the essay here if you are familiar with canning already.
Stewed Tomatoes Packed In Their Own Juice
A couple things to keep in mind before we get started. You can can any tomatoes using this method, though it has been my experience that sauce or paste tomatoes will hold their form best and blanch easiest. I have had the best luck using Striped Roman Tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes, though I can say without hesitation that San Marzano tomatoes have a superior flavor in any circumstance. Also, in the interest of being safe, do not adjust the citric acid levels in this recipe for any reason, and do not replace the juice, or top of the jars, with water. Maintaining a low PH is extremely important for safe preserving.
What You Need
20 lbs of tomatoes
citric acid (you can buy this at your local home brew store)
salt
ice
canning pot or other 5 gallon pot
canning rack or appropriately sized cake rack
canning tongs (seriously, you have to have them)
large soup or stock pot (stainless steel, enameled, or otherwise coated – do not use aluminum or copper)
slotted spoon (recommended but optional)
ladle
canning funnel (recommended but optional)
8-10 quart jars
Process Summary
start your water bath
start your blanching pot
wash tomatoes
make your cold water bath
blanch tomatoes
stew tomatoes and prepare jars
pack tomatoes
process jars
Start your water baths
Before you do anything else, you should start your water baths. You will need one large bath (5 gallons or larger is recommended) to process the quart jars, and one smaller bath to blanch your tomatoes. By the time your blanching bath is ready you will be ready to use it, but the water bath for processing your jars can either be turned off or set to simmer depending on how fast you work. These are the three pots I used. The left most pot is my caner, the stainless steel pot I used to cook the tomatoes, and the smaller pot (about 8 quarts) I used to blanch the tomatoes.
Wash your tomatoes and make your cold water bath
You may not need to wash your tomatoes, but if they are covered in dirt, or have mold on them you should. Blanching them will definitely remove any dirt and kill any mold, but it will also get in your tomatoes if they split. The way blanching works is by heating the outer most part of your fruit which softens the flesh under the skin. The flesh releases juice that helps to separate the skin from the flesh. When you toss them into cold or icy water, it simultaneously stops the tomato from cooking further and shocks the skin into releasing the flesh entirely. You’ll notice as you go when you have done this exactly right because you will lose the least amount of flesh from the tomato while still being able to slide the skin off effortlessly. You do not need to have a cold water bath, but you should have at least a room temperature bath to cool the tomatoes enough to handle. Set up a bowl and your stock pot next to the sink to catch the tomatoes and discard the skins.
Blanching the tomatoes
Removing the skin is an important culinary part of canning tomatoes. The skin will make any sauce or soup you make astringent, meaning it will have a sharper bite and very likely curdle milk, making your tomatoes less versatile. I have met a lot of people over the years who go out of their way to skip this part (even so far as blend their sauce in lieu of blanching or milling). To me, this is the most fun of the entire process. It is incredibly satisfying to slip the skin of a softened warm tomato. Maybe it’s because I know it’s the closest I get to cleaning or trimming meat, or maybe there is just something satisfying about removing thin membranes (elmer’s glue anyone?). The bottom line is that this is an incredibly easy process, and you have to wait for your water bath to heat up anyway. You really might as well.
You start by heating your blanching bath to a rolling boil and slipping in (gently! no splashes!) about 10 tomatoes. Cover them and let them simmer for about 30 seconds (don’t worry if you don’t want to set a timer, nothing terrible will happen if its too long). Remove them with a slotted spoon and dump them into your cold water bath, covering the lid until it reaches a rolling boil again. Now you can begin slipping the skin off. Using a sharp paring knife nick the stem end of your tomato and, either using your finger nails or the knife tip, lift up a part of the skin and peel it away. Now you should be able to pinch the rest of the skin off, or at least remove it quickly by peeling it away. Toss the tomato in the pot you plan to cook them in and the skin in a bowl. Add more tomatoes as the water heats, and continue until every tomato is blanched. Don’t worry too much about working quickly, you can always do all the peeling at once at the end. Below is a video of me removing the skin:
Stew the tomatoes and prepare your jars
Once the tomatoes are peeled you can begin cooking them on low heat until they begin to release some juice. Stir them occasionally to make sure they aren’t sticking, and if your pot isn’t large enough to make this easy, separate them into two batches. When enough juice has released you can turn the temperature up, cooking until they are covered with juice and slowing boiling.
While your tomatoes are cooking, wash and prepare your jars. Remove the bands and place them over a beer bottle for easy grabbing. Remove the lids and place them in a bowl or pan to be filled with warm water.
NOTA BENE: any canning site that tells you to boil your lids should be blacklisted. I mean it. Boiling lids destroys the seals and causes them to rust. Anyone who instructs you to do so is an amateur and likely using unsafe methods. It is the number one sure fire way to know if you can trust an author or recipe. Keep your lids in hot water, think warmer than bath water but not scalding, and don’t bother heating them until just before you begin ladling. The idea is to soften the seals so they fit properly against the glass, but also easily allow air to escape in the water bath processing so they don’t explode from the expansion. Later, as the jars cool, the seals begin to firm up and help create the vacuum seal.
If you have a dishwasher, you can put jars through a wash cycle and let them sit in the hot steam. This is ideal, but I haven’t lived some place with a dishwasher in at least 10 years, so if you are like me, just wash them by hand and set them on a rack to dry. Then, just before you begin ladling you will add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid to the bottom of each quart jar (half that for pints). The salt is optional, you do not need it for preserving, but I can guarantee you that adding salt while cooking is always better for flavor than adding it afterward.
I used gray Celtic sea salt, which I love so much so I lick it off my fingertips. Even if you don’t like a lot of salt, at least use some. Trust me, it will make a difference. You will want to set your jars up next to the stove. Get everything ready so you don’t surprise yourself. Place a rag across the gap between your stove and the counter to catch drips. Get the ladle out, place your canning funnel in the first jar, pour warm water over the lids, and keep the rings close by.
Packing your jars
This section is pretty straight forward. The only confusion tends to be how full to pack your jars. When working with whole fruits or vegetables, you will want to leave more head space to allow for expansion. Whole fruits and vegetables like canning tomatoes or making pickles (as opposed to jams, jellies, or juices) contain a lot of air in them that will expand in the water bath processor. If you don’t leave sufficient head space liquid will be forced out of your jars and possibly compromise your seals. To be perfectly honest, I have never had a seal fail and I have definitely over filled my jars. The worst that has happened is that my jars smell like vinegar or come out with a thin sticky film. Still, both of those things are annoying enough to warrant a little care in this area. For whole (or halved or pieces of) tomatoes, as well as pickles or whole fruits in syrups you will want to leave at least 1 inch of head space. It should look something like this:
Any higher and you are risking sticky smelly jars and possibly a failed seal. Still, don’t worry so much about it that you stop enjoying the process. Don’t spend so much time trying to even it out that your jars cool off! At this point, you will want to make sure your water bath is simmering again. Ladle the stewed tomatoes into your jars on top of the 1/2 t. of citric acid and 1 t. salt. Place the lids on top and screw the bands on firmly, but without wrenching them super tight. You should have between 8-10 jars depending on your tomatoes and your head space. If you have a short jar, you can set it aside in your refrigerator for later, or use a pint jar instead.
Processing your jars
If you are using a traditional caner and rack, let me be the first to warn you if it is your first time. DON’T LOAD IT UNEVENLY. IT WILL TIP OVER. Be careful! Try to load two jars at a time, opposite each other. Place one in the center first. Use the rack handles over the sides of your caner so you don’t have to place them fully in the water. You can use pot holders to place them in the rack if the lids are hot. Lower them into the water and bring the water to a soft boil (this usually means turning the heat down a tiny bit and cracking the lid off, you don’t want a rolling boil or your jars will knock around). Process for 1 hour and 25 minutes (85 minutes). Use this chart to adjust for altitude. Do not adjust the process time without consulting the chart, this is a standard chart as issued by USDA in accordance with safe preserving methods. NOTA BENE: it is my experience that this recipe will make more than 7 jars, which is the number of jars you can fit in a standard caner. You have two options: either start two baths at once, or do it in two batches. If you do it in two batches, your jars will have cooled significantly after 85 minutes of wait time. You must dump out your water and start the jars in cool water. If you do not, your jars will crack. After 85 minutes at a steady boil, turn the heat off and remove the jars from the water, using your canning tongs, and place them on a wooden cutting board or towel. Do not place them on a cold hard surface or you risk cracking them (this has only happened to me once, but it was awful!) During their time in the caner, the pulp in the juice will have separated, and the tomatoes will have floated to the top because of the air in them. They will look funny, like this:
Don’t despair! It seems that people’s first instinct is to think water some how got into their jars. It didn’t. This is just how it works. Wait for the jars to cool enough to handle then tip them upside down a couple times. The air will start to settle out of the tomatoes, and everything will normalize a little bit. In the end, they will look like this:
Beautiful, ready to store, and waiting to be opened.
Assuming you are familiar with canning, here is the condensed version of my photo essay. I’m writing this this way I wish all recipes were written when I already know what I’m doing and just want the basic information. If you find this to be a little too short, you can always check the photo essay for a better explanation of specific processes.
Stewed Tomatoes Packed In Their Own Juice (makes 8 quarts)
wash and blanch your tomatoes, remove the skin and place the tomatoes in a large stock pot for stewing
heat on low until juicy, heat on high until covered with juice, stir occasionally
wash your jars soaking the lids in hot but not boiling water
in each pint jar add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid
in each quart jar add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid
ladle contents into the jars leaving at least 1″ of head space
process jars in a water bath canner for 85 minutes
I did a fried egg sandwich brunch a while back with a soft boiled egg which was incredibly delicious. I’ve yet to post the pictures from any of those brunches, but I will get to it after I catch up on recipes. Or maybe before as a recipe procrastination…. Anyway, the soft boiled egg sandwich wasn’t really meant as a substitute for the classic fried egg sandwich, but what I’ve been making recently is. Every since watching Harvy years ago, I’ve wanted to find a way to enjoy a fried egg sandwich, but I don’t actually like the classic sandwich: fried egg on bread with mayonnaise cheese and onion. They sell them at all the food trucks in the mornings in Philadelphia, and I had tried making them myself and tried ones from numerous food trucks, but they were always just kind of… gross. Even now I can call up the taste of the food truck onions and mayonaise… So, on occasion Patrick and I find ourselves without real breakfast food (only one egg, sick of porridge, no cereal, no baking powder for pancakes, not the right bread for french toast etc.) which is where this new egg sandwich came from. It’s perfect timing that this recipe is next, since I found myself in this exact situation this morning. The one thing that has made all the difference is that I’ve switched from using mayonnaise to using sour cream. After that, it’s a mix of whatever you have in your fridge. For the recipe below, I used mushrooms, asparagus, and pea shoots, but this morning I used sunflower sprouts, and broccolini.
Fried Egg Sandwich
Fried Egg Sandwich Ingredients:
broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, or some other vegetable you can sauté
1 egg
splash of milk
chives, scallions, or onion, thinly sliced
garlic, pressed or chopped
sour cream or butter
cheese (grated or sliced thin)
olive oil, fresh black pepper, salt (for seasoning)
greens that will hold up with heat (pea shoots, sunflower sprouts, spinach, arugula, radicchio)
tomatoes
bread
Fried Egg Sandwich Instructions:
clean and cut your vegetables. Heat the salt, fresh pepper and olive oil in a skillet until hot enough that water splatters when tossed in. Add your vegetables and sauté until they begin to stick. Turn the heat down and add a small amount of water shaking or stirring immediately. Let it simmer until the vegetables are firm but tender, and bright green. Set aside.
begin toasting or frying your bread. When I first made this sandwich, we had just moved and I didn’t have a toaster yet. I used a rosemary sourdough and toasted it with a small amount of butter in a large iron skillet. Either way, if you are making more than one serving you will want to start this before you start your eggs.
in a bowl combine the chopped scallions or chives with a splash of milk, salt, pepper, and 1 egg (depending on how much egg you want, 1 egg can serve two people)
pour into a well oiled hot skillet, turn once the edges start to cook through add cheese to the top and cover with the heat off.
about this time your bread should be ready, slather one side (or both!) with sour cream and begin layering on your greens, veggies, tomatoes, and onions. Remember, the idea is to make that ONE egg count, so put as much tasty crap on your sandwich as you can muster
at this point, the cheese should be melted. Slap it onto your bread, top it off with a little more stuff fold it up and you’re done!
So it’s been a while. There is a lot to write about as I sort through a few months worth of pictures. Luckily I know where to start.
After we gorged ourselves on many burritos, enchiladas, tamales, etc, we realized that we were broke, and couldn’t continue the HOORAY WE ARE IN CALIFORNIA Mexican food indulgence any longer, so we had our first home meal. We missed the farmers market for several weeks in a row, but were able to supplement nicely from Shoppers Corner (which we love!) and my aunt’s garden. Her vegetables had only recently been planted, but her lavender was going crazy and her nasturtiums had taken over wildly in her compost heap.
I also found $19 Frantoia Olive Oil which made me so excited I even sent people messages about it.
I was originally thinking of making a pesto, but my aunt didn’t have a blender, and I was too lazy to use a mortar and pestle, so I went for using the lavender to make an infusion in the oil before cooking the vegetables, and then chopped the nasturtiums and added them at the end for color and a peppery taste. I also made some potatoes, my favorite way, just slow cooked with olive oil, pepper, and salt. We found some small fingerlings that were just right. Here are some pictures of the process.
After cooking them on the stove for a little bit, I tossed them in the oven at 375F until the dinner was ready.
bramblings started when patrick and I decided to move back to California. From January to May of 2009 we hosted an open brunch every Sunday. Most of the archives are menus and recipes from that that time. We had a great time and miss our Philly friends very very much. Now, bramblings is a place for me to log my adventures with food. There are a lot of recipes, so enjoy!
