9″ tart crust, make more and cut into shapes like I did, if you like
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup sugar (more if you prefer it on the sweeter side)
1/3 cup almond pulp
4 cups fruit: sliced if rhubarb, plum, peach, or nectarine; whole if cherry, raspberry, or blueberry
2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 9″ tart pan with crust, cut out shapes with remaining dough, if you have any. Refrigerate until ready to fill.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, sugar, almond pulp, and optional vanilla or almond extract. Stir until well combined. Pour into lined tart pan. Add fruit, making a fun pattern with slices and topping with the optional shaped pie dough, if you like. Bake, 30-60 minutes, until nicely browned.
Enjoy!
Variations:
Combine blueberry or raspberry with peaches or nectarines. Combine blueberry with the zest of a lemon, omit vanilla or almond extract.
Hello there! I hope your summer is a splendid one. We are quite well. We decided not to travel this year, and honestly, it’s been kind of nice. We’ve enjoyed long lounge sessions on the patio, enjoying the burble of the fountain whilst puzzling, sipping coffee and cool drinks, mostly the bubbly variety, sometimes with alcohol. We’ve also got a spa day planned, some restaurant adventures, and started some maintenance projects: cutting wood, redoing the raised bed borders, and general upkeep and trimming.
Two almond pulp soups! I am always so jazzed when I realize another way to use the bounty from milk-making. The top has chicken and pinto beans, the bottom, roasted bell pepper and tomato, both quite excellent. If you are a frequent flyer here, you will soon experience double vision, as I’ll post about these again, with their recipes!
We had ugly bananas, so I whipped up a delicious little cake with walnut frosting – using both liqueur and the toasted variety on top. It was most delicious! Plus, how cute is our butter dish?
As per usual, we shared our cherries with the birds and squirrels, finding heaps of pits littered on the ground. Also, as usual, there was still plenty for a human pie!
I was in the mood for something different, so I adapted a rhubarb custard pie recipe, and this vision of sweetness it it. It is also an almond pulp recipe, so I’ll be sharing it later. I believe it would work great with stone fruits or blueberries (maybe both!), too, so here’s to versatility.
Two firsts: An Oregon institution, McMenamins are a collection of brewpubs, restaurants, theaters, and boutique hotels located all around the state, often in formerly underused buildings, like former schools, even a reformatory and old folks home . They tend to have pretty wild and fantastical murals, an eccentric staff, and very good food and drink. At the first McMenamins we visited in Portland, the Ringler’s Annex, not too far from Powell’s on Burnside, I had a spinach salad with pickled red onion on it. They used red wine vinegar that was really dark, and I was eating in a dark restaurant, so I honestly didn’t know what I was tasting, at first. Boy, was it delicious, with this great crisp texture, and I have loved it ever since.
No surprise, I have decided that keeping a jar of pickled onion in the fridge is a must do, as it really does complement so many dishes. They’re also ridiculously easy to make: pint jar full of sliced red onion; add 2/3 cup of water and 2/3 cup white or red vinegar that’s been brought to boiling with 2 tablespoons or so of sugar (more or less to your taste); pour over sliced onion; cool and refrigerate. This taco plate is just one way we enjoy them, in which we also used the bottom of the jar of last year’s ultra-fiery cowboy candy, too. I do love a pickle!
I’ve also been buying bags of avocados at Costco, making a giant batch of guacamole and freezing half. I didn’t even know this was possible until recently, so what a pleasant surprise that was! Now to get in the territory of too much information, has anyone else, after hitting fifty (male or female), found that avocados create quite the burp fest? I used to think it was my gallbladder or the the fresh garlic (I’ve only been able to tolerate dried for probably five years, wah!), but I still had problems, so now I (and Greg) eat it in much smaller quantities and early in the day. Aging is so weird.
And now, to my friendliest friend of all friends, my best Buddy, and forever partner in loving, joking, and dreaming ~ GREG! He celebrated his birthday recently, and since it is Greg, of course the cake I made was chocolate. I filled it with a ridiculously good marshmallow frosting, and we ate it up in no time at all.
Hope you are having some fun eating adventures, wherever you may be…
Thankfully, it wasn’t long (two hours) before our vacuum was filled with this spectacularly studded sofa! Only eleven months in the making, but them’s the breaks when you order a custom, made in the USA, couch from Roger & Chris. It is called Howdy (in case you are both looking and patient), quite firm and equally comfortable, with, super bonus, leather not viciously subject to Juniper claws. I love it. We love it. It complements the room and has since acquired a nice wool blanket to prevent drool stains, Juniper’s not ours. Picking the battles.
Now is the time we dance…well, not really, but feel free. I was simply in need of a segue way to the food portion of our program.
I shared some rhubarb with our neighbor, Nancy, and she shared two slices of delicious custard pie made with it. I, in turn, made scones (dried blueberry and gouda & green onion) in order to avoid returning an empty plate. A marvelously tasty circle, dear reader.
We bought a couple of ridiculously sour grapefruits and decided they would be better served in margaritas. I substituted the lime juice in my recipe for 1.5 grapefruits – membranes, seeds, and pith removed, 1/2 cup tequila, 1/4 cup Grand Gala, 2 tablespoons agave nectar, and a generous pinch of salt, whirred in the Vitamix, before adding one 12 oz can of bubbly water, which just so happened to be pink grapefruit. So very good.
Finally, this is a tiny teaser for a future blog post. We went to New Mexico, mostly lazing about in a house overlooking the Pecos River. Anyhoo, if you’ve ever driven south on I-25 from Colorado Springs over the past decade, you’ve probably spied the white panel van on the side of the road advertising Ringo’s Grocery. My Grandma Esquipula Maes (1827-1905) is buried in Aguilar, so we first popped in for a hello at her grave before ambling to Ringo’s. It is a surprise of a market for such a small town, with a very nice deli and house made sausage. We bought a green chile and spicy Italian links. You’ll never guess which I used here, LOL. Since I had no hankering for pasta, I made a quickety-quick flatbread. Boy, was it tasty!
Teeny tiny wild rose: blossoms 1.5 inches across with crazy fragrant flowers. So cute!
iris
serviceberry
ladybug interlude
orange horned poppy after the rain
snowball
Teeny tiny mushroom – can you tell the rain has been abundant, as of late?
Juniper interlude
coral charm peony
sage
sculpit
evening primrose
ninebark
Oregon grape
pavement rose
callirhoe
Jupiter’s beard
orange horned poppy
bartzella peony
And that, my friends is everything currently blooming in the garden! Oh, wait, I just glanced out the window to marvel and realized I missed a purple penstemon. Picture it in your beautiful brain. I’m off…
These are so lovely and very tender. If there are only two of you, I recommend making a half batch, unless you are gunning for a little over indulgence, tee-hee.
1/4 C golden syrup – Lyle’s is what I use, but you could substitute corn syrup for a less tasty result
Dough: Put one cup of warm water into a large bowl, and add the yeast and a big pinch of the sugar. Let sit until it gets foamy. If it doesn’t get foamy, your water may have been too hot, or your yeast is dead.
Meanwhile, put the almond pulp, milk, and butter into a small pot, and heat until everything is warm but not hot (no killing the yeast!), and the butter is melted. Add the eggs, and mix until combined. Add to the yeast mixture, along with three cups (450g) of flour, and stir until combined. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead on a floured surface until it is smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover with a tea towel or loose fitting lid, and let rest for about an hour, until doubled in size.
Filling: With the exception of the butter, combine the ingredients in a bowl, stir until well mixed. Set aside.
Divide dough in half, and roll each piece on a lightly floured counter. Depending on how you like your rolls, go really long and thin, which is what I do, or a 14″ square for a more typical style. Brush half of the melted butter on the rolled dough. Spread half of the filling over top. Roll up jelly-roll style. Repeat with second half of dough and filling.
Using a very sharp knife, cut each roll into six-ten even slices. Place in greased 13×9″ pan(s). Cover loosely, and let rise for 30 minutes. Or, you can do this entire process in the evening, and put your sliced rolls in the fridge to rise overnight. If you do this, let them get to room temperature for about an hour before putting them into the preheated oven in the morning.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until golden. If you like, drizzle with a powdered sugar and whipping cream/milk glaze once cool enough to touch. Enjoy!
Hello freezing January! We are in an unfortunate slump of bitter cold and very few dog walks, wah. What better means of consolation than a little pizza? As I am very much invested in using the almond pulp, I scoured books, the interwebs, and my own memory to create my take on a cauliflower crust. Ages ago, I made one with zucchini (the memory), and not gonna lie, it tasted great but required so much zucchini and sweat equity that I only did it once. This gives the same feel for a lot less effort!
Thankfully, there aren’t many ingredients, either: Cauliflower, almond pulp, parmesan cheese, and eggs (guess how many?!).
Unlike most crusts, you must parbake! This is the first crust, I let the second one brown a bit more.
The final product! It was really, really good. It definitely isn’t the same as wheat, but when you’re off gluten, it definitely makes for a best of both worlds situation.
One large head of cauliflower, in chunks (1 lb 5 oz, 600g)
3/4 cup almond pulp (3 oz, 90g)
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (3/4 ounce, 21g)
3 eggs
parchment paper
Preheat oven to 400. Whiz your cauliflower to oblivion, in batches, if need be. If it is really wet, squeeze out some of the moisture by wrapping in a clean dish towel, or, perhaps, your nut milk bag! Put in a large bowl, and add the almond pulp, parmesan,and eggs. Beat until well incorporated.
Cover a large baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper. Take half of dough mixture, and with clean hands, spread evenly over the surface. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or so, until the bottom is nicely browned.
Top however you like! Bake until the cheese is super melty. Repeat with the second half of the cauliflower mixture. Enjoy!
