Recipes, Sweet But Not Chocolate
January 29, 2007
It's a Date
You know how people make yummy treats and share them at Christmas time? This recipe for date caramels was the best such treat I've encountered in a long, long time. I made a batch a few weeks ago and ate the whole thing myself--it stores well enough that you can do that, just eat all the candy yourself over a week or two.
In large saucepan, mix together
3/4 cups butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped dates
Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and cook ten minutes at low boil, stirring constantly to avoid scorching. Remove from heat and stir in
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup coconut
1 tsp vanilla
Pour into buttered 9x9 glass baking dish. Sprinkle more coconut on top.
Posted by Holly at 9:48 AM | Comments (6)
July 25, 2006
Blueberries Are Good
Fresh blueberries have been on sale in my grocery store for the past few weeks, which makes me happy because I love love love love LOVE blueberries. I think they're among the cuter fruits the planet produces: OK, they're not big, prickly and imposing like a pineapple or a drag queen, but their tiny round vulnerable neatness appeals to me, as does the delicate little crown on the bottom (I wonder what purpose it serves), and I also love that blueberries really truly are blue! How many other naturally blue foods exist in the world? And they taste good. I like them fresh, but I especially like them cooked, so that they burst open and the insides turn purple from the juice in the skin and the sugar in them caramelizes a bit.
I didn't know I loved blueberries when I was little; I thought they were only OK, and this is entirely my mother's fault. The only way she fed us blueberries when I was growing up was in blueberry muffins--made, of course, from a mix that included canned blueberries. (I asked her about this recently; she said they were too expensive to buy fresh in Arizona, and it never occurred to her to buy them frozen.) I have compensated for this mistake by making blueberry muffins a grand total of once in my adult life: a few weeks ago I got to thinking about how I'd never made blueberry muffins and decided to try it, but I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to spiff up the recipe with cream cheese and chocolate chips, and the results were edible but not worth repeating.
But I love blueberry crumble--I LOVE it. I especially love it for breakfast, smothered with Stonyfield Farms Full Cream French Vanilla yogurt. YUM! I also love blueberry sorbet. Both recipes are below.
Blueberry Crumble
3-4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tbs lemon juice
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened or partially melted
3/4 cup flour
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Put blueberries in the bottom of a 9x9 ungreased glass baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice. In mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar, then add remaining ingredients. Sprinkle on top of blueberries.
Bake at 375 degrees until topping is brown and blueberries are hot, about 30-40 minutes.
Blueberry Sorbet
8 cups fresh blueberries, washed and dried
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup water
Puree blueberries in blender. Transfer to large pot.
Add other ingredients. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.
Strain into a bowl and allow to cool. Then pour into an airtight container and freeze.
Makes six cups.
Posted by Holly at 10:44 AM | Comments (12)
July 3, 2006
More on Avocados
In the comments on my guacomole recipe, Juti (thanks, Juti!) provided a link to this recipe for an avocado milkshilk on this very cool blog, the Traveler's Lunchbox, written by a gastronome named Melissa.
I just tried the recipe. I can't decide whether it is more aptly described as "heavenly" or "obscenely delicious."
It was also ridiculously easy.
I'm posting the recipe here the way I made it, because I want easy access to it. But you should follow the links and read Melissa's essay about "the secret life of avocados" and check out the rest of her entries as well.
Holly's ever-so-slightly-modified Avocado Milkshake
1 ripe Haas (dark-skinned) avocado, peeled and pitted
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup cold milk, more or less depending on thickness desired
several handfuls of ice
a splash of amaretto (Melissa recommends a few drops orange extract, or some vanilla, rum or coffee, but as I didn't have rum or orange extract or brewed coffee and wanted something more exotic than vanilla, I tried a substitution, which worked OK)
Put everything in a blender and blend on high until the ice is chopped fine. Pour in a glass and enjoy.
Posted by Holly at 5:48 PM | Comments (5)