Bird's Nest Bites

A Cook & Garden, Together In The Pacific Northwest

Italian Wedding Soup

 

We have now officially entered the ‘comfort food and soup eating’ phase of Fall weather.  I had heard about Italian Wedding Soup but never tasted it, so thought this might be a nice route to take.  In my recipe snooping research phase, I learned that this soup is not served at Italian weddings, despite its name.  The term ‘wedding’ comes from the combining of the meatballs, greens, and pasta.  So now you know and with that knowledge in hand, we can get on with making this big bowl of comfort.  First there’s a rich and flavorful chicken broth that has onion, yellow peppers, carrots and celery added.  Simmer that for a while and then add meatballs (I use turkey but if you have a favorite recipe, feel free to substitute), and acini pasta.  Acini pasta are those teensy little round shapes, that fit perfectly on a spoon. It’s always nice to add your favorite cheese and some nice crusty bread to complete the picture.  A nice big glass of wine wouldn’t hurt either.  After all, this is comfort food so let’s get comfortable.

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Pumpkin & Cranberry Bread with Pumpkin Seed Brittle and Cranberry Compote

 

I’ve adjusted my seasonal frame of mind to Fall mode, which translates to being all-in on my Fall baking routine.  On an expedition to the pantry, I grabbed a can of pumpkin and a package of dried cranberries which seemed like a good start, and the result was this Pumpkin & Cranberry Bread.  This recipe makes two generous loaves, is moist and rich with plenty of pumpkin and warm spices, and then gets a just-right little boost of sweet and tart with dried cranberries.  You can stop right there if you want, but there’s also a Cranberry Compote to spoon over your bread that is loaded with both fresh and dried cranberries.  And for the crunch factor, there’s a Salted Pumpkin Seed Brittle that is sweet and crunchy with an added welcome salty finish for balance.  All delicious on their own, but the three together makes for an exceptionally happy Fall memory.  Put a log on the fire, grab a good book and a hot beverage, and for Pete’s sake, don’t skimp on the Pumpkin Cranberry Bread.  Colder weather requires we keep our strength up.

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Skillet Cornbread with Honey Butter

When I was a kid, one of my favorite suppers was when Neeners would make cornbread and scrambled eggs for supper.  Need I tell you that I drenched the warm cornbread in Log Cabin Syrup after adding plenty of butter?  And yes, the syrup always made its way onto the scrambled eggs too.  Money was tight in those days, but when cornbread arrived, we felt like we were eating like royalty.  In fond remembrance of those days, here’s my own favorite cornbread recipe.  Butter is melted in a cast iron skillet, and the batter is poured in right before popping it into the oven.  Serve this warm with honey butter and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  But if you’d rather drench it in butter and syrup, I won’t blame you one bit.  This recipe is so easy; you won’t ever want to open a box of corn muffin mix again.  Plus, it’s made with lots of real butter – that’s pretty much all I need to hear.

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Roasted Pear Muffins with Pear Chips

Fall is in the air, which gets me thinking favorite about Fall foods (big shock).  As part of this mental excursion, I got to wondering about the fact that I had never seen a recipe for pear muffins before so did some recipe snooping and found such recipes exist, but not very many.  I think this might be because pears, all by themselves, are not really what you would call ‘flavor bombs’, and to my mind require roasting and some cinnamon to get the ball rolling.  Always up for a challenge, I set out to make a pear muffin that would be all about the pear and capitalize on that roasted pear taste that is irresistible.  First, we’ll roast up some diced pears in cinnamon sugar, then add them to a batter that has lots of brown sugar to enhance that roasted concept. When all was said and done, the experiment resulted in a super moist muffin that smacks you right in the face with nice little pieces of roasted pear.  If you want to get really crazy, you can make some pear chips to decorate the tops.  Not at all required, but kinda fun.

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Mexican Spoonbread with Poblano Chilis & Corn with Fresh Tomato Salsa

Do you ever have one of those recipes in your head you’ve heard about and that sounded droolingly delicious, but you’d never even tasted it before?  Such is the case with yours truly and Spoonbread.  Just the sound of the name made me think of something creamy and most likely irresistible.   Spoonbread is a classic dish in the South and is usually made by cooking some cornmeal and milk on the stove top, then adding some eggs and maybe some cheese and baking it into a soft, creamy side dish.  I started upon my quest by looking at several recipes, made my own tweaks and came up with this one. It’s my own spin on this Southern classic, with some amped up flavor from the Poblano Chilis and Corn.  I also snuck in plenty of jack cheddar cheese to ensure the gooey factor in the equation.  And since there are still good tomatoes to be found, stirred together this quick fresh salsa with some jalapeno, lime, and cilantro to top things off.  Bake your Spoonbread until it’s just set and prepare yourself…. this one will knock your socks off.

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Blackberry & Peach Crisp

Here we have the ultimate late summer dessert.  The one where you hide pieces of it in various places around the house, then excuse yourself for some lame reason, seek it out and go dig in.  There are currently two pieces in our refrigerator and they will soon mysteriously disappear.  That’s just the way it is with this dessert.  You take a bite.  Then another.  Then add a scoop of ice cream, and another.   With that warning in place, I say let’s get moving on making some just for you.

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Zucchini Noodle Lasagna with Fresh Cherry Tomato Sauce

 

I, like many others, am buried alive by garden zucchini, and it has reached the point where we can’t give them away fast enough.  I am getting the feeling friends and neighbors are closing their curtains and locking their doors when they see me appear with my little bag of garden treats in hand.  Add to the fact that while deliriously happy to see our first cherry tomato appear, I began to avert my eyes and guiltily ignore the little guys when the big tomatoes began to ripen. A person can handle only so much guilt, so this recipe was designed to alleviate any that was associated with excessive garden production.  The cherry tomatoes are picked, halved and quickly sautéed to develop rich flavor and to drive off excess moisture.  The zucchini are thinly sliced lengthwise, baked for a few minutes just to soften, formed into spirals and set down in that fresh tomato sauce.  After that, a rich, cheesy filling is spooned into the center of the spiral…top the whole business with a little more tomato sauce, cheese, and buttered breadcrumbs for crunch.  Rich, satisfying, remarkably good for you, and fun to make.  Besides that, I can now look those cherry tomatoes in the eye again.

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Zucchini & Lemon Bread with Lemon Sugar Topping

 

I recently read that Zucchini Bread was the most frequently made and the most ‘gifted’ away bread of any other variety….it is also the one most likely to be thrown out by the recipient of said ‘gift’.  This is likely due to the fact that zucchini all by itself is seriously lacking in the flavor department.  Zucchini can also contain a whole lot of moisture, and if we don’t address that issue our bread ends up looking, and tasting like a flavorless hunk of sea sponge. I know this from first hand experience while creating this recipe, which was not a good one.  The only person who would eat that first attempt was my mother, who said “Hey, you can’t be Martha Stewart every day – get over yourself”. That comment was enough to get me back to the drawing board, and the result is this Zucchini Lemon Bread is bursting with fresh, citrusy flavor. We squeeze the living daylights out of the grated zucchini, which goes a long way to eliminate that spongy element of my prior attempts, and then top the whole thing off with a generous crackling crust of lemon sugar.  It’s fun to make, it’s easy, and I guarantee nobody will be secretly tossing this out if you can make yourself give it away.

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Peach Cake and Peach Soft Serve Ice Cream

 

Last summer, some readers asked if I thought I could make up a peach cake recipe.  It’s been banging around in my mind since then and now that we are in the middle of peach season, it seemed like a good idea to try and put one together. First of all, it had to be a solid enough batter to stand up to a peach, and that presents a challenge.  Peaches are both heavy and juicy, which can spell disaster for a wimpy cake batter that can’t take the weight or the added moisture. Turns out I didn’t need to look any farther than my own family tree…Grandma Vanderzanden to the rescue!  I dug out her old Rhubarb Cake recipe, made a few tweaks here and there, and ended up with a firm, moist cake that has plenty of peaches and a topping that is buttery, sweet, and has just a touch of cinnamon.  Whew!!! And since this is peach season, I figured tossing in a quick, no churn, soft serve peach ice cream might be a good match up for the cake.  This ice cream is loaded with fruit and has just the right amount of sweetness.  It also has no fat, so if you freeze it and unthaw, it tastes more like a granita than an ice cream.  I’m not complaining…either way is pretty good if you ask me.

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Salmon Salad with Grilled Sweet Corn and Blackberry Vinaigrette

I was thinking back to summers of my childhood, when all of us kids wreaked havoc at home and my mom, Neeners, was at her wits end, often looking heavenward and muttering ‘Give me Strength’.  When Neeners was at this point, I got shipped off to spend the night with my grandparents and Aunt Margie, and it was always a huge treat. If I was there on a Saturday night, it meant popcorn and watching Portland wrestling.  If I was an overnight guest on a Monday night, that meant that I could horn in when Margie and grandma’s friend Gladys would come for lunch on Tuesdays.  Gladys worked downtown (two blocks from Margie’s house) at the hardware store.  I was not a fan of Gladys. She seemed pretty snooty and never smiled.  Also, she was not a fan of children and I could not understand why since I was undoubtedly charming and most likely a brilliant conversationalist at six years of age.  However, Glady’s arrival meant we got to have grandma’s Salmon Salad for lunch.  This was high living, and as a kid we never had such things at our own house.  Looking back, I think it was just canned salmon, shredded iceberg lettuce and a whole lot of Miracle Whip all stirred together and served on nice dishes.

I have such fond memories of those visits (without Gladys) and wanted to recreate Salmon Salad in my own style.  This salad is hearty enough for supper and takes advantage of all that is Summer.  We’ll start with fresh salmon, and you can either grill or bake it to suit your mood. Then comes the garden bounty. I went a little bit nuts here since I am currently in major panic mode due to our garden churning out more food than we can give away, so take what you like and leave the rest, for another time.  The salmon sits on a bed of rainbow chard, and is topped with fresh yellow and red beets, colorful sweet peppers, watermelon radish, purple carrots, scallions, grilled corn, fresh blackberries and steamed green beans.  Add some grilled bread with garlic butter and a not-too-tart vinaigrette made with blackberry jelly.  I’d like to think Margie and grandma would have enjoyed it, but even if they didn’t, they’d tell me they loved it, because that’s what aunts and grandmas do.

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