I have to admit to you all, I’m having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I feel as though I’ve said this before, and when I look back at posts from past years, I see similar sentiments. It’s a busy time of year, and I’m struggling to be excited and engaged instead of just feeling kind of run down. I think the underlying problem is that so much of what I do every day feels like another item on my checklist, and not enough is spontaneous or just for fun. I’m hoping that this feeling starts to go away once I get some major things off my plate: my economics final next week, and a few big client deadlines coming up. And starting now, I’m going to try and focus on building more relaxation and spontaneity into my day-to-day.

I am trying to get in the spirit, though – to be thoughtful, and joyous, and rested. We’ve been cranking up the Christmas carols when we’re cooking, we put up and decorated our tree this week, I made the first batch of Christmas cookies and shared them at work, and I tried to go to Mass last weekend (it turned out that it was not actually Mass but a caroling concert put on by the Harvard Catholic choir – I still get credit for that, right?). I’m also sitting by the tree to write this post, hoping maybe it’s sweet smell and calming lights will wear off on me (it’s kind of working, too). So with two weeks to go, I think there’s still hope for me and Christmas this year.

Although this post itself may not be very Christmasy, I assure you that these cookies will make up for it. The cookie is dark, soft, and a little spicy, based more on a molasses chew than traditional gingerbread men. I chose cherry jam because I’ve been a little bit obsessed with the Bonne Maman cherry preserves we bought for this Chocolate Cherry Crepe Cake, and I’ve been putting it on pretty much everything, but other jams or jellies would work well too. Most thumbprint cookie recipes have you bake the thumbprints with the jam already in them, but since these cookies will rise and flatten quite a bit, I chose to repeat the indentation process immediately after taking them out of the oven, and then fill them with hot jam. The jam will dry thick and shiny, and these will still be very transportable. Plus they’ll look much neater than if you filled them pre-baking. I also thought these pictures needed a little oomph, so I whipped up a batch of one of my very favorite holiday indulgences – European-style hot chocolate – and spiked it with Cointreau for good measure. If anything will help put you in the Christmas spirit, it’s thick and boozy melted chocolate served steaming hot. In fact, maybe I better go make another batch right now and get this weekend started off right.

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Gingerbread Thumbprints with Cherry Jam

Cookie base adapted loosely from Bon Appetit and America’s Test Kitchen. Makes ~30 cookies.

• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. dark molasses
• 10 TBS butter, melted
• 1/2 c turbinado sugar, for rolling
• 1/2 c. cherry jam

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt until evenly combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolk, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the molasses and melted butter and whisk until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together just until combined. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the turbinado sugar onto a plate or small bowl. Break off ping pong ball sized pieces of the cookie dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls through the turbinado sugar and place on the baking sheet. Use your thumb or forefinger to make a deep imprint in the center of each cookie. Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes. When you take them out, immediately reinforce the imprints (which will have risen slightly) by using the back of a teaspoon to press the circle back into them.
3. Heat the cherry jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is simmering gently. Simmer for 1 minutes, then remove from heat and spoon 1 teaspoon of the hot jam into the center of each cookie. Let cookies cool completely.

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With Thanksgiving so late in the month and the early onset of wintry weather in much of the US, it feels like we’re hurtling into the Christmas season even faster than we usually do. December begins tomorrow and with it a flurry of excitement – holiday parties, decorating, baking, shopping, spending time with family and friends, and otherwise celebrating the season. While it may seem overwhelming to stick to a budget at this time of year, it’s not impossible, and even entertaining can be done in a way that’s frugal without feeling cheap. When Albertsons tasked me with coming up with a few recipes for throwing a holiday party on a budget, I was up for the challenge. Although my days of scrimping on every purchase (read: college) are getting further behind me, I still tend to entertain with a close eye on my wallet. But that doesn’t mean that the parties I throw can’t still be fun and elegant! When planning a party, I tend to rely on a few tips for keeping both my stress levels and my total expenses low:

• Choose recipes that can serve a crowd. Much of the cost for shopping for a recipe is in the ingredients that you only need a small amount of. If you’re doubling or tripling a recipe to serve a large group, you’re less likely to waste money in the form of lots of little bits and bobs that will be difficult to use up later. Besides, it’s much easier for you as the host to set out a large casserole or serving platter than to concern yourself with lots of small plated dishes!
• Look for ways to extend fancy ingredients. You don’t need to completely avoid luxurious ingredients to stick to a budget, just look for recipes that extend the main ingredient. Dying to serve steak? Slice it thin and serve steak sandwiches with blue cheese and caramelized onions. Want to serve candied nuts but worried about how many you’ll need for a large group? Toss them with homemade popcorn and there’s more for everyone (see below!).
• Cook from scratch. Wherever possible, make recipes from scratch to save money and keep things healthy. An example: making your own pizza dough is easy and requires only a little flour and water – much cheaper than buying one pre-made. Of course, there’s a trade-off here for how much of your time you’re willing to spend doing prep work, so don’t try to do everything by yourself.

With these tips in mind, I came up with the following four recipes. The ingredients would be easy to find at your local Albertsons or Shaws, and for a party of 8 should come in well under $100.

Pomegranate Mojito Punch: Punch is one of my favorite things to serve at a party, especially during the holidays. It’s the easiest way to serve a crowd a festive cocktail, and allows guests to serve themselves quickly and easily throughout the night. Adding a pomegranate and mint leaf studded ice ring to the punch bowl ups the elegance factor, with the added benefit of keeping the punch cool for longer than single ice cubes. Plus, if there will be kids at your party, they’ll love the non-alcoholic version of this, and you only have to make one recipe to please all ages!

Popcorn with Rosemary Butter and Honey-Chipotle Almonds: Candied or spiced nuts are always a hit at holiday parties, but they can be hard hitting on both your waistline and your wallet if you rely on them as an appetizer. Extend them by mixing with freshly popped popcorn, seasoned with fresh rosemary butter. Individual newspaper cones make for a cute presentation, and also allow your guests to help themselves, wandering around with their own personal appetizer without worrying about making a mess or finding a place to put their plate when they’re done. The almonds themselves are glazed with a honey and chipotle sauce – just slightly sweet with a deep savoriness from the chipotle powder, they are completely addictive.

Blue Cheese, Ham, and Fig Jam Stromboli: Similar to a calzone, a stromboli is like the jelly-roll of pizza. It feels slightly fancier than just serving a pizza, but is just as economical when you need to serve a crowd. It also allows easy and mess-free serving, and can be customized to use whatever fillings you have on hand. This one combines fig jam, blue cheese, and ham for a sophisticated and rich flavor combination.

Chocolate-Cherry Crepe Cake: Crepe cakes are similar in concept to a layer cake, except the layers are made from crepes instead of cake – good for those who are intimidated by baking cake from scratch. Assembling this neatly takes a bit of patience, but overall I find it easier than baking and decorating a layer cake. Plus, you get a much better ratio of whipped cream to “cake” then you do with a traditional cake. This crepe cake uses chocolate crepes, espresso whipped cream, and cherry jam.

More like this…

Homemade Eggnog

Rum-and-Pomegranate Glazed Duck

Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream Sundae

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Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Albertsons. All opinions are honest and my own.

Pomegranate Mojito Punch

Serves 8-10. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 pomegranate
• 1 bunch mint, divided
• Ice cubes
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 ½ c. pomegranate juice
• ½ c. lime juice, preferably freshly squeezed (from 4-5 limes)
• 2 c. white rum (optional)
• 2 c. lime seltzer, chilled

1. To make the ice ring: remove the arils from the pomegranate. One way to do this is to cut the pomegranate in quarters and peel away as much of the white skin as possible, then gently rub the seeds to release. Place the pomegranate arils in the bottom of a bundt pan. Place 10-12 fresh mint leaves on top of the pomegranate, then cover with a handful of ice cubes (the ice cubes will keep the pomegranate from floating when you add water). Cover the pomegranate arils with water – you should have water about 1 inch deep in the bundt pan. Place in the freezer and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours.
2. Roughly chop the remaining mint leaves. Add to a small saucepan along with the sugar and 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes, allowing the mint leaves to further flavor the syrup. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and set aside, discarding the mint leaves.
3. Pour the mint syrup, pomegranate juice, lime juice, and rum, if using, into a large bowl. Stir, then cover and chill until very cold, at least 1 hour. Just before serving, take the punch out of the fridge and add the seltzer. Remove the ice ring from the freezer and briefly run the outside under hot water to loosen the ring from the pan, then invert the ice ring to remove from the pan and carefully add to the punch bowl. Serve immediately.

Popcorn with Rosemary Butter and Honey-Chipotle Almonds

Serves 8 as an appetizer. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 3 TBS canola oil
• ½ c. unpopped plain popcorn
• 4 TBS salted butter, divided
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped (about 1 ½ tsp chopped)
• 1 ¼ tsp coarse sea salt, divided
• 2 TBS honey
• ¼ tsp chipotle powder
• 1 c. whole unblanched almonds

1. Place the canola oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot with a lid. Heat over medium heat until shimmering, then pour the popcorn kernels on the bottom of the pot in an even layer. Cover with the lid and place over heat until you start to hear the kernels pop. Wearing oven mitts, shake the pot gently from side to side over the heat as the popcorn pops (to prevent kernels from sticking to the bottom and burning). Do this until the pops slow to 1 or 2 per second, then remove from the heat, and shake for another 30 seconds. Once the pops have completely subsided, remove the lid and give the popcorn a few stirs, then cover and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 300° In a small saucepan, place 3 TBS of the butter and the chopped rosemary. Melt over low heat, then pour over the popcorn and stir. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the sea salt over the popcorn and stir.
3. Place the remaining 1 TBS of butter, ¼ tsp of salt, the honey, and the chipotle powder in the small saucepan. Melt over medium heat, then add the almonds and stir to coat. Cook until the honey sauce has thickened and is bubbling, about 3-4 minutes, then spread the almonds out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool. Use a fork to break apart any clusters, then stir into the popcorn. Serve the popcorn in individual paper cones for guests to pick up and carry around with themselves.

Blue Cheese, Ham, and Fig Jam Stromboli

Serves 8-10. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 large pizza dough, room temperature (store bought or homemade)
• ½ c. of fig jam
• 2 TBS balsamic vinegar
• ½ lb. ham, thinly sliced
• 2 c. shredded mozzarella
• ¾ c. crumbled blue cheese (about 3 oz.)
• 2 c. baby spinach
• 1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the fig jam and balsamic vinegar in a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth.
2. Roll the pizza dough out into a large rectangle, about 14 inches wide by 20 inches long. Carefully lift the dough and transfer to a large square of parchment paper placed on a rimmed baking sheet (dough will hang over the edges before you stuff it). Spread the jam in a thin layer over the middle of the dough, leaving 1-2 inches of space from all four edges. Place the ham slices over the jam in an even layer. Sprinkle the mozzarella and the blue cheese evenly over the ham, then top with a layer of spinach.
3. Prepare an egg wash by whisking the egg vigorously with 1 teaspoon of water. Set aside. Fold the short sides of the dough over by about 1 inch, just to cover the edge of the filling. Brush the top of the folded edge with egg wash. Fold one of the long edges over the filling to cover it by one third. Brush the remaining exposed edge with egg wash (to create a better seal when you fold it). Fold the other long edge so that it covers the previously folded portion, pinching along all edges to seal – you should have a long loaf with three layers inside, folded as you would fold a letter. Brush the entire top and sides with egg wash. Using a sharp knife, make a series of diagonal slits on the top to act as steam vents. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Let rest 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Chocolate-Cherry Crepe Cake

Serves 8. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 4 large eggs
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1 TBS butter, plus extra for cooking the crepes
• 1 oz. dark chocolate chips
• ¾ c. flour, sifted
• 3 TBS cocoa powder, sifted
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ c. heavy cream
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS freshly brewed espresso or 2 tsp espresso powder
• 6 TBS cherry jam
• 1 TBS kirsch, grand marnier, or other fruity liqueur

1. Put the eggs and milk in a blender and blend on high until smooth, about 30 seconds. Melt the chocolate chips and the butter together, either in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave (heat on half power for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, to avoid scorching the chocolate). Turn the blender back on and carefully drizzle the melted chocolate mixture into the batter, just until incorporated. Turn off the blender. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Add to the batter and blend until smooth, another 30-60 seconds. Refrigerate the batter for at least 1 hour.
2. In a medium frying pan, heat a small pat of butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted. Pour about ¼ cup of the crepe batter into the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter evenly fills the bottom of the pan. Cook until the visible side of the crepe begins to look tacky, about 60-90 seconds, then flip and cook the other side of the crepe for 30 seconds. Remove to a pan to cool. Repeat until you have used all the batter. Depending on the size of your pan, you should have 12-18 crepes. Chill the crepes until cool to the touch, about 30 minutes.
3. Add the heavy cream to a large bowl and beat on high until soft peaks have formed. Add the sugar and espresso or espresso powder and beat until stiff peaks have formed, then chill the whipped cream until you are ready to assemble the cake.
4. When you are ready to assemble the cake, place the cherry jam and the fruit liqueur in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer (you are just trying to thin the jam to a consistency where it is easily spreadable). Remove from the heat. Place a small dollop of whipped cream on your serving platter or cake stand, then place a crepe on the whipped cream to stabilize the cake. Brush a small amount (about 2 teaspoons) of the cherry jam mixture on top of the crepe, then spread a thin layer of the espresso whipped cream evenly on top of the jam. Top with another crepe, pressing very gently. Repeat the process with another layer of jam and whipped cream. Do this until you have used all of your crepes. Chill the cake for at least 45 minutes before serving – this will make it much easier to cut into the layers neatly. Serve chilled.

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Picking blackberries is not for the impatient or easily deterred. Our blackberry patch has grown into a monstrous tangle of canes, 10 foot stalks that shoot up then topple to the ground in early summer, heavy with juicy black fruit. This year in particular, the berries are gorgeous – fat and sweet from just the right combination of rain and sun. The berries on the edges of the patch are easy to get to – as long as you refrain from grabbing the canes you can pick plenty of berries scratch-free. But the berries that beckon from the center of the patch are too numerous to waste, so we go after them despite the maze of thorns between us and them. As we cut paths into the center of the bramble and carefully weave our way in, our focus increases, and I find myself thinking only two things. Get the berries. Don’t touch the thorns. At the peak of the season, it can take the two of us over an hour to fully pick the patch, but there’s something I love about the concentration and straightforwardness of the task, moving slowly and precisely through the canes. And the reward – buckets of delicious berries – is always worth the inevitable scrapes and mosquito bites.

Our patch is generous: so far this year we’ve picked 11 pounds of fruit, and I have a feeling we’ll have a last, small batch to pick tomorrow. Like cherries, my favorite way to consume blackberries is fresh, preferably just-picked, when they’re still firm and warm from the sun. But when you have 11 pounds of berries, there’s plenty of room to experiment with recipes and still be able to eat your fill of fresh fruit. This summer I’ve made blackberry clafoutis, blackberry crumble, and a big batch of blackberry jam, all of which were good, but my favorite by a mile was this pie, an intense mix of blackberries, wild Maine blueberries, cherries, and maple syrup.

I love pie – in my book, it’s far superior to cake – and I have a particular weakness for berry pies. Juicy and summery, the berries break down to completely fill the space between the crusts, with no gaps like apple pies tend to have. And because I like berry pie so much, I have high standards for it, so I thought long and hard about exactly how to achieve the pie I was envisioning. I started with blackberry-maple, but thought the blackberries needed extra dimension, so cherries and blueberries got added to the mix. The ratio of cornstarch to fruit is just enough to have the pie hold it’s shape, but not so much that it loses its juiciness. And the crust utilizes a little extra butter and my new favorite pastry method, frozen butter grating, for extra flakiness. To top it all off (quite literally), I used a cute little leaf cookie cutter to decorate the top and make it all foresty and picturesque. Basically, I love this pie. I love it so much that I ate five slices in three days, bookending my Monday and Tuesday with pie: a slice with my morning latte, and a slice after dinner with ice cream. It’s probably good that there’s only a short window during which we get enough berries to make pie. Otherwise, I would be doing a lot more running.

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Maple Mixed Berry Pie

Serves 8-12.

• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBS sugar
• 12 TBS salted butter, frozen
• 6-8 TBS ice water
• 1 1/2 c. wild Maine blueberries
• 2 c. blackberries
• 2 c. pitted sweet cherries, torn in half
• 3/4 c. maple syrup
• 4 TBS cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 TBS lemon juice

1. Whisk together flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Remove butter from the freezer and grate over the large holes on a box grater, working quickly to keep the butter from melting. Add the cold grated butter to the flour and toss with your fingers to coat the butter with flour. Add ice water to the mixture 1 TBS at a time, using a fork to swirl the ice water through the flour after each addition. Add ice water until the dough just comes together when pressed with your fingers. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
2. Mix the blueberries, blackberries, and cherries together in a large bowl. Pour half of the fruit into a large saucepan, and add the maple syrup to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until berries have broken down and released their juices, and liquid has reduced by about half. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cinnamon. Whisk the lemon juice into the cornstarch. If it is still very thick, add a few tablespoons of the juices from the room temperature berries, whisking until you have a pourable mixture. At this stage, scrape the cornstarch mixture into the bowl with the chilled fruit and stir to combine, then add the cooked fruit and stir until thoroughly mixed. Set the filling aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the pie dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. On a lightly floured surface, roll the larger piece of dough out into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Carefully lift and place into a pie plate, pressing dough gently down onto bottom. Trim the edges, leaving about 1/4 inch of overhang. Poke the bottom of the crust with a fork to allow air to vent, then bake the crust for 10 minutes in the oven, until just golden. Remove from the oven and add the prepared filling, then return the pie to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roll out the remaining piece of dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out a number of small shapes. After the pie has baked for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and cover the surface of the pie with overlapping pieces of the dough shapes (I used small leaves). Return the pie to the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the top crust is golden brown, another 25-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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I think maybe I overdid it on cherries this year. For me, cherries are the epitome of the “get ’em while you can” mentality that comes over me every time some new type of produce comes into season. Cherries just seem so fleeting, and they’re really at their best eaten fresh, unadultered. They can be expensive, but usually there’s a week or two when stores are trying to clear out their supplies before they go bad when you can get better prices. Long story short, a few weeks back, when Wholefoods announced a one-day sale on cherries for $1.99 a pound, I went a little crazy and bought 7 pounds. On top of that, I still had 3 pounds in the fridge from a previous grocery store shopping spree. I can tell you from personal experience, 10 pounds is a lot of cherries, even for the most rabid cherry consumer.

So I got out my cherry pitter and went to work. Plenty of the cherries got put aside for eating fresh and several pounds got simmered in brandy and red wine and packed away in jars for holiday eating. After this, I had about 2 pounds of cherries left, all of them a little sadder and more bruised than their fresh-eating counterparts. I toyed with the idea of making more jam to add to the pile of newly-filled ball jars that has been slowly building on our shelves, but really, the thing I couldn’t get out of my mind was fresh cherry soda. So I turned to my copy of True Brews and quickly whipped up a batch of Cherry-Vanilla Soda. If you have cherries to spare, please make this soda – it is so sweet and fizzy and refreshing, and it’s a gorgeous clear cherry-red color. Just a little glass feels like a special treat. And it’s even more of a special treat if you add a dash of bourbon and chocolate extract, like we did for this cocktail. The mixture of cherries and bourbon and chocolate feels very Southern and indulgent, a drink for sipping slowly on your porch at twilight, when the heat finally begins to fade.

Ingredient note: I’m not sure you can still buy the Taza Mexican chocolate extract we used for flavoring – I looked for a link to direct you all to, but learned that it was only produced from 2010-2013. You can read about it here, but I couldn’t find any online vendors selling it. It’s more similar to a chocolate baking extract than a chocolate bitters – something like this might work in its place.

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Cherry-Chocolate Bourbon Soda

Serves 1.

• 3/4 c. homemade cherry-vanilla soda (recipe below) or other cherry soda
• 15 drops Taza Mexican chocolate extract
• 1 oz. Bourbon

1. Add the soda, chocolate extract, and bourbon to a glass with several ice cubes in it. Stir gently, then serve immediately.

Homemade Cherry Vanilla Soda

Recipe adapted from True Brews. Makes 8 cups.

• 2 lbs. of pitted fresh cherries
• 4 limes
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. water, plus more to fill the bottles
• 9 TBS sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp dry champagne yeast

1. Place the cherries, lime juice, and vanilla in a large bowl. Bring the cup of water to a boil, then stir in the sugar and salt until dissolved. Pour the mixture over the cherries and let macerate for 10 minutes.
2. Place the cherries and their liquid in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer, catching the juice in a bowl. Pour the cherry juice through a funnel into a clean 2-liter soda bottle (do not use glass, as it may break under the pressure of the fermentation process). Add water to the bottle to fill almost to the top, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace between the top of the juice and the cap. Taste and add more lime juice, sugar, or vanilla as desired.
3. Add the yeast to the bottle. Screw on the cap and shake to distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight until the bottle feels rock solid when you press against the sides. This carbonation process usually takes 12 to 48 hours: check the bottle periodically to avoid overcarbonation and a potentially bursted bottle. Once the soda is carbonated, place it in the fridge to slow the carbonation process. Open very slowly over a sink the first time you serve it, to avoid bubble-ups. Serve cold. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been loving the fall weather we’ve been having in New England. Every day seems to start with a clear blue sky, air so crisp and fresh you feel like you’re really breathing for the first time in months. I’ve been breaking out the cashmere, scarves, leg warmers, and boots pretty much every day, and indulging in hot cider and donuts at the farmer’s market. And when I come home at night, before falling into bed, where I’ve been actively reveling in just how cozy a pile of comforters and pillows can be, I’ve been craving richer, meatier flavors.

With the falling temperatures, dinner has become something to look forward to, especially with super-easy, satisfying meals like this one-pan roast. It takes all of 5 minutes to throw together and 20 minutes in the oven, and the flavors are perfect – spicy Italian sausage, earthy acorn squash, sweet roasted onion, salty parmesan cheese and a few sweet-sour dried cherries to brighten the whole thing. It has quickly become a favorite for us this month, and I’ve already forwarded the recipe on to my family, so I figured it was one that would be worth sharing with you all, too.

Acorn squash is one of the few squash that did well in our garden this year, so I’ve been on the lookout for good uses for the pile of softball-sized squash we have sitting in the kitchen. I love this recipe, but I don’t know if it’s going to get us through all of our squash. In the past, the most adventurous I’ve gotten with winter squash is smooth bisques and roasted squash cubes tossed with pasta, but I want to move beyond that. So, I’m turning to you. What are your favorite ways to prepare acorn squash? I’d love more ideas.

Sausages with Acorn Squash and Onions

Adapted very slightly from Martha Stewart. Serves 4.

• 1 large acorn squash, halved, seeds scooped out and discarded, and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
• 1 large red onion, peeled and cut into thick wedges
• 3 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. of hot Italian sausage (4 links)
• 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 TBS minced fresh sage leaves
• 1/2 c. dried cherries

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Place the squash slices and the onion wedges on a large baking sheet with sides, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then carefully flip and stir with a spatula to evenly coat all the squash. Spread the veggies out into an even layer (a single layer is ideal). Add the sausages to the pan, and roast for 20 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese, sage, and cherries, tossing to coat. Return to oven for 5 minutes, until cheese is melted, then serve immediately.

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How great is July?  Coming back to a garden that has doubled in size in a week, walking through the Copley Square farmer’s market that’s just bursting with produce, eating meals composed entirely of vegetables because they’re just that good – it’s definitely a season of plenty.  In fact it’s so plentiful that I’m torn between the natural inclination to eat smaller, lighter meals in this hot weather and the desire to eat as many eggplants, tomatoes, beans, cherries, peaches, plums, and berries as I can during their short season.

In particular, I can’t get enough of stone fruit.  Sweet cherries eaten ice cold from the fridge, plums so perfect that the juice dribbles down your chin with every bite, peaches baked until hot and bubbly under a buttery crumble – these fruits of summer are so fleeting that in my opinion, it’s worth eating as many of them as you can while they’re around.  There are many great single fruit recipes for each type of fruit, but they also marry well with one another, whether in a luscious cobbler or a simple but addictive fruit salad like this one.

I don’t know about you, but for me, the words “fruit salad” conjure up an image of a sad, not quite cold enough bowl of mushy bananas and unwanted cantaloupe, with a straggling strawberry or two that the pickers left behind.  You know, the kind of fruit salad you used to find at every picnic, bbq, and pool party; the one that played second fiddle to the hamburgers and dirt cake.  This salad is an entirely different story.  Elegant, colorful, and slightly floral, with no filler fruits that get left behind, everyone in my family had at least 3 servings at dinner, even after eating these turkey cobb sandwiches, which were easily the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever made.  Inspired by the just-blossoming lavender plants in my mom’s Maine garden, I decided to drizzle the fruit with a lemon lavender syrup, which truly tied the whole dish together.  You can use whatever stone fruits you have lying around – just make sure the salad is served cold, and give it an hour or two to soak in the lavender flavor.

Head on over to Greatist for the full recipe!

Other stone fruit recipes to celebrate July:

Spiced plum butter

Cafe Sperl plum squares

Boozy cherry brownies

Cherry cream cheese danishes

Cherry chocolate ice cream

Spiced apricot couscous

The post Greatist Collaboration: Stone Fruit Salad with Lemon-Lavender Syrup appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Now that it’s officially summer and my nutso-busy project is (fingers-crossed) winding down (although I could be headed back to Spain in July), it’s time to get serious about summer.  It’s only for a few months a year, people!  This will be my first summer as a real person, meaning no vacation and no play-with-little-kids-in-the-sun-all-day summer job, and I’m already missing the dog-day boredom of waking up late, lying about in the sun and drinking lemonade, but I’m determined to make every weekend count.  So, I’m making a list (because, let’s face it, if you’re a list person you’ll always be a list person) of the 10 things I have to do this summer:

1. Go to the Cape.  I grew up spending summers in Falmouth and man do I miss the breeze, the foggy sea glass walks with my mom, the marshes, the seashells on the roads, and so many other tiny details.
2. Pick strawberries berries of some kind.  I think I may have missed strawberry picking season, but I certainly ate my fill.  I’ve got plenty of time for raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries though.
3. Learn to start the grill.  Or at least grill one thing.  I’m fairly certain I put this on my summer list last year but it appears I never actually published that list, so you can’t hold me accountable for not doing it.  I’m super jumpy around hot things, but Trevor can probably bully me into learning.
4. Make Cassis!  I searched everywhere for some fresh black currants last year with no luck.  This year I’m 100% determined to find them.
5. Visit the Harbor Islands.  I meant to do this all summer last year and never got around to it.
6. Ride my bike!  I just need to bite the bullet and buy a helmet… Man, I hate helmets.
7. Train for a half marathon.  I put this on here dubiously, given that I’m currently at about 5 miles max… and have been for the past 5 years.  But I told my mom I’d do one in October, and my knees aren’t bothering me anymore (knock on wood), and my metabolism seems to have abandoned me, so… I’ll do it.
8. Do a producer interview.  This is an idea I’ve been toying with for a long time – meeting and interviewing some of the super-committed food professionals in the area, but haven’t gotten around to.  I’d love to do it, and summer is the perfect time.
9. Plan a trip for this fall.  Now is the time to travel, and I keep putting it off for this reason or that reason.  This year has gone by so incredibly quickly, and I never managed to plan more than a weekend away.  I’m young, employed, and relatively free – I’ve got to start doing the things I dream about!
10. Make at least 3 kinds of ice cream…

… starting with this one.  Because it’s been really hot, and I just finished eating my first batch of ice cream (from March!  Who knew I had such self-control?)  Plus, I’m trying to work my way through at least a few of my bookmarked recipes for each super-seasonal fruit or veggie this summer, and cherries are in now.  Of course, cherries are pretty perfect straight from the fridge, but as the new owner of a cherry pitter (yes it’s a super-specific gadget, but it’s super easy to use and I’m totally happy with the $8 I spent on it), I’ve been using them other ways as well.

This ice cream, adapted from Technicolor Kitchen, is my favorite that I’ve made so far.  Of course, I’ve only made 3 others – meyer lemon buttermilk, roasted cinnamon, and lemon-basil sorbet – but this one was the most like one that I’d order at an ice cream shop.  I never seem to be able to get my homemade ice cream as solid as I want to (any tips on that?), but this froze fairly well.  The cherry flavor is sweet and intense, and the white and dark chocolate chunks add a little texture.  The addition of cassis just before freezing gives it a lovely floral, slightly boozy layer that really makes it shine.  It reminds me very much of the black raspberry ice cream my mom always ordered at Benson’s when we were on the way home from the beach (p.s. if you’re ever in Eastern Mass, you must try Benson’s – pair it with a trip to Crane’s Beach and a stop at the Clam Box for a true New England experience).  I never really liked that flavor as a kid, but I think it’s more of an adult thing – a little bit more intense and musky.

I’ll keep you posted on my summer activities, especially the food-related ones.  Hope you all are getting started on whatever summer activities you’re dreaming of!

Cherry and Two-Chocolate Ice Cream

Adapted from Technicolor Kitchen.  Makes 1 quart.

• 1 1/2 c. pitted ripe sweet cherries (from about 3/4 lb. cherries)
• 3/4 c. whole milk
• 1 3/4 c. heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 TBS creme de cassis
• 3/4 c. chocolate chunks – mix of dark chocolate and white chocolate

1. Add pitted cherries, milk, sugar, salt and 1 c. of the heavy cream to a large saucepan.  Heat over medium-low heat just until it begins to steam, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat to the lowest sitting and let sit for 15 minutes, crushing the cherries gently against the side of the pot with the back of a wooden spoon about halfway through.  After the 15 minutes is up, remove from heat.
2. Pour the hot mixture into a blender and blend (always be careful blending hot liquids) until smooth.  Pour into a large glass bowl, and stir in remaining 3/4 c. heavy cream.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight until completely chilled.
3. Before assembling the ice cream maker (if your ice cream maker is like mine, the bowl should have been sitting in the freezer for at least 12 hours), remove the cherry cream from the fridge and stir in the lemon juice and cassis.  Set up ice cream maker, and process cherry cream according to directions.  About 1-2 minutes before the ice cream is done, pour in the chocolate chunks and let mix in.  Remove the ice cream from the ice cream maker and freeze for another 1-2 hours before serving, to let it harden up a bit.  This is delicious served with an extra drizzle of cassis.

The post Summer Bucket List & Cherry-Chocolate Ice Cream appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Everyone has different first-of-the-month traditions.  A lot of people make sure the first thing they say is “rabbit, rabbit,” to bring good luck all month. A harmless, fun tradition, right?  Well in my family, on the first of the month, we physically abuse each other.  I.e. we wake up, sprint into each other’s rooms, yell “pinch and a punch, first day of the month” while brutally delivering the requisite pinch and the punch, then run out of the room to get everyone else.  The ultimate goal is to get everyone before anyone gets you, which can be challenging in a family of 5. Family agreement used to state that you had to wait until someone was awake before you got them, but now that my brother is in college mode and sleeps till noon when he’s home, the rules have changed such that jumping on someone while they’re asleep is fair game.  Needless to say, Ryan hates this game.  It’s not something you can escape by leaving home either – this morning, my Dad called at 7:10.  Now, I’m always awake at 7:10, but I usually haven’t spoken to anyone yet, nor am I in the mood too.  Additionally, getting phone calls at strange hours always puts me on the alert -something must be wrong if you want to talk that early in the morning and I know you’re not trying to make breakfast plans with me.  So I answer, slightly nervous, only to hear the whole gang on speaker phone, virtually pinching and punching me and delighting in their victory.  I actually just grunted and hung up (which made me feel a lot like my brother).  Later in the day, I received several emails from aunts across the country, all claiming their own victory.  Ah, family :-).  I’ve never actually met anyone else who does “pinch and a punch,” but a quick wikipedia search reveals that it is an old British tradition, so we can’t be the only crazy ones still doing it.

So, now that it’s December, there are going to be two types of food on everyone’s mind: 1) decadent, delicious holiday treats to celebrate the season, and 2) crash-diet-type meals to make up for all the over-indulging.  I wish I could say I was going to break the mold and don’t feel the need to either lose weight or indulge in excessive baking around the holidays, but I can’t.  I’m just like everyone else – simultaneously writing my Christmas cookie list and planning how to lose 15 pounds.  This is blog is going to reflect that over the next month.  And let’s be serious – who wants to start with healthy?  Healthy is for when you feel guilty about unhealthy.  We’re starting with cookies.  These chocolate-covered-cherry cookies from lolfoodie are probably the best cookies I’ve made all year.  Possibly ever.  My parents thought they were good.  My roommate declared them incredible (he just walked in and said they might have been “the single best cookies he’s ever had in his life.”  Wow.)  I loved them.  We finished the first batch in 48 hours, and as I type, Trevor is making another batch for me to bring in to work tomorrow.  (OK, secret’s out.  Trevor does my blog baking occasionally.  But usually it’s me.  Honest.)  They’re definitely going on the annual Christmas cookie list.  The only possible improvement?  Soaking the cherries in brandy for a few days first.  Try it.

Chocolate-Covered-Cherry Cookies

Recipe from Lolfoodie.  Makes 18 cookies.

• 1 stick butter, well softened (partially melted)
• 2/3 c. white sugar
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 (10-0z) jar maraschino cherries
• 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
• 1 TBS juice from maraschino cherries
• 2/3 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and sugars, beating vigorously until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the salt, egg, and vanilla, and beat well to incorporate.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder until evenly combined – be sure to break up any clumps of cocoa powder to the best of your ability.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together.  The mixture will be very dry at first, with an almost sandy texture.  Keep mixing it – the dough will come together into a very thick, moist mixture that stays together easily when formed into balls.
3. Pinch off 1 inch balls from the dough and roll into balls, then flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet.  Use your finger to make a small indent in the center of each cookie, then place a maraschino cherry in the indentation.  Bake the cookies for 12 minutes – they should be just beginning to crack around the edges, then remove and let cool completely on a rack.
4. In a small saucepan, heat the condensed milk, cherry juice, and chocolate chips over very low heat, stirring continuously, until the chocolate has melted and formed a smooth frosting with the condensed milk.  If you are worried about seizing the chocolate, this step can be done in a double boiler.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly before placing a 1/2 TBS of frosting over the tops of each cookie, hiding the cherry underneath.

The post Chocolate-Covered-Cherry Cookies appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

First and foremost,  a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for my entry in round 2!  And a special shout out to my dad and all his soccer buddies, who showed tremendous and immediate support when called upon.  With 94 wonderful people voting for me, I came in 3rd place, solidly placing me in the top 15, meaning that I get to continue with the Ridiculously Delicious competition by re-making one of the other competitor’s dishes using 3 of my previously unused ingredients: grains of paradise, dried tepin peppers, juniper berries, coconut sugar, dried cherries, and saffron threads.

Many of the round 2 recipes looked delicious, with desserts making up about half of the entries.  Since I went savory in round 2, I decided to go sweet with my round 3 entry.  From the sweet recipes, Big Apple Nosh’s spicy cherry truffles really jumped out at me.  The most important part to me in the reinterpretation of the dish was to keep the same flavor profile and idea – rich, dense chocolate; tart, bright cherry, and spicy peppercorns.  The integrity and combination of the flavors should stay the same.  The form, however, was up for consideration.  I decided to invert the truffle so that the chocolate was on the inside and the cherry was on the outside – to be more specific, a rich chocolate souffle with a spicy cherry sauce on top.

I was surprised by how well this came together.  Usually, the recipes I create myself are good, edible, but lacking finesse, and I’ve only created a handful of dishes that caused me to reach for the leftovers with enthusiasm.  This sauce, however, was complex, flavorful, and much better balanced than most sauces I throw together.  I had decided to replace the Szechuan peppercorns in the original truffle recipe with grains of paradise to give the spicy component an earthy, herbal note, and they complemented the tart cherries and the slightly coconuty rum quite well.  My only complaint was that the sauce wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked it to be, but I think this is mostly the result of having dull blender blades.  This souffle recipe – my go-to for a quick, intensely chocolatey dessert – is fast to throw together and difficult to mess up.  I replaced the granulated sugar with coconut sugar to increase the flavor depth and cut the sweetness, as well as to complement the coconut rum in the cherry sauce.  All in all, a success.  Hopefully the folks over at Marx Foods think so too!

A last note: in order for the contest to work, we were all asked to pick a second choice makeover recipe.  Mine is Cookistry’s shallow braised lamb steaks with red wine reduction – I’ve already imagined a wonderful warm red-wine braised lamb salad with saffron and cherry couscous!

Spicy Cherry-Chocolate Souffles

Makes 4 souffles.  Souffle recipe adapted from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet via Fresh Tart.

• 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 tsp. salted butter
• 3 TBS whole milk
• 2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
• 2 TBS coconut sugar
• extra butter and sugar for ramekins

• 3/4 c. dried tart cherries
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 3/4 tsp. freshly ground grains of paradise
• 2 TBS coconut sugar
• 1 1/2 TBS coconut rum or regular rum

1. In a small saucepan, bring the dried cherries and the water to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 8-10 minutes, until cherries are falling apart.  Blend until smooth in a blender and return to low heat.  Stir in coconut sugar, grains of paradise, and rum, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Lightly butter four 6-oz. ramekins.  Tap a small amount of granulated sugar into each ramekin, and gently shake so that the sugar coats all edges.  Tap out extra sugar.
3. In a double boiler, melt chocolate, butter, and milk over gently simmering water, stirring constantly.  When smooth, remove from heat and quickly whisk in 2 egg yolks.  Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Slowly add the coconut sugar, beating all the while.  Beat until stiff but not dry.
5. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture in two batches.  Gently spoon batter into each of the ramekins, filling about 3/4 of the way full.  Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 16 minutes.  When they are done they will have risen to the edge of the ramekin or above it, the tops will be beginning to crack, and the centers will still be very moist.  Serve warm with cooled cherry sauce and fresh whipped cream.

The post RD #3 – Spicy Cherry-Chocolate Souffles appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Four of my best girlfriends have their birthdays in between mid-September and the end of October.  For each of them, I am making cupcakes, because that is the best way that I can think of to show my love. And also because who doesn’t love things that are small, pink, delicate, and, most importantly, edible?  I’m of the opinion that everyone should have something both cute and slightly indulgent on their birthday.  Because each of my friends is lovely and wonderful and unique, each of them clearly had to have their own highly-personalized batch of cupcakes.  Here’s what I made, for whom, and why.

Becky. Shirley Temple Cupcakes. Becky and I have been friends for an extremely long time.  In fact, I think she might be the oldest friend I have whom I’m still in touch with, besides like, my baby brother.  And my mom.  You know.  We used to jump rope together and write stupid ridiculously girly letters to boys while at the beach.  We used to have a fake joint AIM account we used to harass our crushes.  I went to her bat mitzvah.  She threw me an incredible surprise birthday party in 8th grade.  I have some really epic pictures of us in our awkward stages.  We ended up at the same high school, where we grew apart a little, but would still go on long, long walks once every few weeks to catch up and then we would get cold and it would be gray and we would continue talking in long uninterrupted streams in Starbucks.  We both got accepted at Duke, and by complete chance ended up two doors apart from each other in our freshman year.  We got close again, made the same friends, dressed in matching outfits to go to parties, had a few drunken adventures.  We started an excellent tradition of girl talk with Megan and Phoebe.  And now we’re seniors, we live a few buildings apart, and we’ve officially been friends for 11 years.  Wow.

It’s because of all this… past, that I decided to make shirley temple cupcakes for Becky.  Because we were already close when we were young enough to get excited about ordering shirley temples out at dinner.  And I seem to have a very vague memory of some chicken fingers and shirley temples and something that felt unbearably funny late at night during a jump rope trip.  And they are just innocent and sweet and their appeal is enduring, and it seemed appropriate.  The cupcakes have a grenadine based cake batter topped with a lemon-lime cream cheese frosting.  They came out well – a lovely color, fluffy texture that reminded me of the box mix texture that can be hard to achieve from scratch, very sweet, and a simple flavor.

Shirley Temple Cupcakes

Recipe from The Cupcake Project. Makes 15.

• 1/2 c. lemon-lime soda
• 1/2 c. grenadine
• 1 tsp vinegar (cider, white wine, or white will all work)
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1 1/3 c. flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 oz. neufchatel cheese, room temperature
• 3 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 15 maraschino cherries with stems

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together soda, grenadine, and vinegar.  Let stand for a few minutes, then add sugar and canola oil and whisk until frothy.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and stir to combine.
4. Add flour mixture to liquid.  Stir together just to combine fully; do not overmix.  Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling half way (they will rise a lot).  Bake for 17 minutes.  Let cool completely.
5. In a medium bowl, beat cheese until smooth.  Add lemon and lime juices (a small amount of lemon and lime extracts might work better here, but I couldn’t find them in my local grocery store) and beat to combine.  Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating to incorporate fully.  Continue adding powdered sugar until taste and consistency are as desired – you may need more or less than 3 cups of sugar, and you may need to add more lemon or lime juice to achieve the desired flavor.  Refrigerate the finished frosting for half an hour.
6. Frost the cooled cupcakes.  Top with a maraschino cherry.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Phoebe.  Strawberry-Lemonade Angel Cakes. Phoebe and I were hall neighbors freshman year.  I don’t really remember when we went from awkwardly saying hi in the hallway to having intense late night conversations sitting on the bathroom floor, but it happened, and I’m glad.  Now, although we don’t see each other very frequently, she is one of my absolute favorite people to talk with.  We both spent the summer trapped in Durham and we spent a significant part of every week sitting in the library chatting and debating and laughing while she pretended to study for orgo and I pretended to do research.  Although I’m pretty sure she actually did accomplish learning orgo while the achievements I made in my research this summer were minimal.  Not that I didn’t try.  I think frustration is the point of research.  Anyway.  One of the things I love about Phoebe is her respect for people’s individuality.  She always makes me feel good about what makes me me – loving to be outside, wanting to take care of people, being mellow when it comes to my social life – and she shows equal dedication to and respect for friends that are completely different from me.  And also she’s intelligent and focused and way cooler than me and beautiful.

I made Phoebe lemon-based angel food cupcakes because she loves them.  The first time I made a similar batch we ate them sitting out on the dock by the scummy Belmont pond, and she told me how her mom used to make angel food cake for her birthday every year, and so how could I not make them?  This version of the recipe was super good, at least in my opinion.  The cake had a true lemonade tang and the fresh strawberries really shone through in the frosting.  They were zippy.  I could eat a lot of them.

Strawberry-Lemonade Angel Cakes

Makes 12.

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. cake flour
• 5 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 tsp lemonade mix powder
• 4 oz. neufchatel cheese, room temperature
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 5-8 fresh strawberries, diced
• 3 c. powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, sift together 1/4 c. sugar with cake flour.  Set aside.
3. Beat egg whites until they begin to foam.  Add cream of tartar and continue beating until they are white and fairly fluffy.  Add salt, incorporate.  While continuing to beat egg whites vigorously, slowly add remaining 1/2 c. of sugar in a slow stream.  Beat until egg whites form soft peaks.
4. Fold flour mixture into egg whites, mixing just to incorporate flour fully.  Add lemonade powder (I used 2 packets of crystal light to go) and fold in.
5. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling 3/4 of the way.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool completely.
6. In a medium bowl, beat neufchatel cheese until smooth.  Add lemon juice and strawberries and stir to incorporate.  Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.  You may need more or less than 3 cups of sugar.

So happy birthday September girls!  And Megan, Margie, get excited.   Start leaving me hints about your favorite flavors.  Or, better yet, start trying to get me to associate your personality with the type of cupcake you want.  That could be a fun experiment.

Want some more?

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

The post Cupcake Lovin’, Part One appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Remember this?

Yeah, I’m still really excited about it.  And I’ve had my heart set on those danishes all week.  It’s just taken me a while to get to them, because, you see, I’ve been really busy acting like a college student.  Which is actually something of a rarity for me.  I had a wild and crazy freshman year, and then, I retreated.  I like being with people, I like going on adventures, I like dinner parties, and girl’s night in.  I like drinking wine and giggling, I like drinking beer and eating burgers, and I like taking tequila shots with my mother.  Yes, my mother.  But the whole “boot’n’rally” mentality of freshman year has sort of turned me off the party-hard scene.  I go out, sometimes.  But I’m kind of tame.  And for the most part, I consider this a good thing.  A really, really good thing.

However, this past week, a new dimension has been added to the college student life – a pool.  A pool with no rules about alcohol, in a state that averages a high of 98° around this time of year.  This pool is very different from the kid-friendly campus pool we frequented before this pool opened.  That pool is crowded, noisy, splashy, multicultural, and kind of awesome.  I get to play like a little kid there, there’s no shortage of cute baby sightings, and I occasionally brush up on my Czech or Russian because I swear, no one on a research university campus in the summer speaks English.  The new pool is quiet, lethargic, boozy, and kind of awesome.  Bros arrive on the scene as early as 9am with their cases of Busch light, and they sit, and flex their pecs, and concentrate on looking tan, muscular, and uninterested in any life forms that are smaller than them.  Occasionally the bros get in the pool and throw something around, then they return to their babe-watching perches on the side.  The babes, on the other hand, lie draped, completely motionless, over the sunchairs, glistening, skinny, coozie within reach.  It’s kind of disturbing, but it’s kind of the sweet life too.

So all this pool talk is relevant for the following reason: I was going to make pastry dough Wednesday afternoon, but then Trevor got a case of beer and we went to a Kooley High concert and then had to sit in the pool and drink the beer… to cool off from the concert.  Then I was going to make pastry dough Thursday afternoon, but we had to go eat Lo-Yo with Max and then … drink beer in the pool, to warm up from the Lo-Yo.  Then Friday I was definitely, definitely going to make pastry dough, because I really, really wanted danishes Saturday morning, but then we had to go to a BBQ and drink just a little bit more beer.  And then Marc dropped the burgers in the trash accidentally so we had to go back to his apartment.  And then he had a box of Franzia in his fridge so we had to bring it to the pool.  And then we had to spend 4 hours in the pool having chicken fights and slapping the bag and polishing off the entire box, because Trevor and Marc made a pact.  And pacts are very important.  I’m allowed to tell you all this because I’m 21 now, and these activities are entirely legal and responsible.

So Saturday morning, danishless, completely dehydrated, I dragged myself to the grocery store, stumbled through my shopping, literally whimpering the entire time (ohhhh, this is why I stopped acting like a college student) and got everything I needed for the stupid danishes.  Then I went back and I made that dough, damn-it, spending the entire 3 hours it requires inside, not in the pool, and not drinking beer.  Thank God.

And so, now that it is Sunday, I have my danishes.  They are delicious.  They are worth the mental strife I suffered while I was not making them.  And the physical strife I suffered while I was making them.  But really, it’s been a good week.  Time for another one.

[Note:  The pastry dough recipe I used was the “Danish Pastry Dough” from “The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.”  Previews of the book are not available online, so I decided against posting the exact recipe – I do recommend the book if you’re interested in really learning the basics of pastry baking.  The link included below has an almost identical recipe to the one in the book.  Suggestions to make it more authentic would be to use half cake flour and half bread flour, as well as to add a pinch of ground cardamom, which makes a huge difference in the flavor!  To save time, you could also use frozen puff pastry with equally good results!]

Cherry-Cream Cheese Danishes

Makes 8 danishes

• 1 recipe Danish Pastry Dough (add a pinch of cardamom!), or 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, see headnote.
• 1/2 package Neufchatel cheese or cream cheese
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 cup Grown-up Cherry Puree
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Line two baking trays with parchment paper.  Lightly flour a counter and rolling pin.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and almond extract until smooth.  Set aside.
3. Take half of the pastry dough out of the fridge (leave the other half in the fridge until you finish the first 4 pastries so that the dough does not get too soft).  Roll out into an 8×16 inch rectangle, or to about an eighth of an inch thickness.  Cut pastry rectangle lengthwise four times, so that you have four 4×8 inch rectangles.  Cut 4-5 inch long strips on either side of each rectangle.  See this website for a great photo tutorial on making crossovers.  Place two tablespoons of cream cheese filling in center of danish.  Top with two tablespoons of cherry puree.  Cross bottom right strip over filling, then bottom left strip over that, continuing this pattern until you have used all of the strips.  Press top of pastry gently with your rolling pin and transfer to baking sheet.  Brush with egg yolk wash.
4. Continue with second half of dough when first batch of danishes is formed.  Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown on the top.  These are best straight out of the oven!

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I read recently that cherries are one of the only foods that are hard to enhance beyond their natural form.  Specifically, the comment was that  “nothing captures the essence of a cherry like a cherry.”  (See Ideas in Food, one of the coolest, most inspirational sites I’ve found.)  And it’s so true, isn’t it?  Their texture and flavor are really best when eaten straight out of the fridge, and when I think of cherries, that’s what I think of – how refreshing a cold cherry is in the middle of the summer.  For weeks I’ve been thinking about this and eyeing the piles of beautiful red cherries, and last week, when I saw the $1.99/lb sign, I finally bought some.  (Although they initially rang up at $7 a pound.  Seven dollars?  Per pound?!  Thank you very much but I’d rather have two pounds of steak at that price.)  And as I ran through things I might do with them in my mind, they slowly disappeared, one after the other, into my mouth.  I mean, come on, they’re fun to eat – you get to daintily pluck them off the stems with your teeth and roll them around in your mouth before fully biting into them.  Then your mouth is full of sweet juice, and you get to undecorously spit out the pits.  And your lips and fingers get all stained with cherry juice.  And maybe it’s a little bit sexual.  I digress.

So the cherries remained in their perfect, natural form for several days.  But two pounds is a lot of cherries for one person to eat alone, and those beautiful, perfect cherries were beginning to get soft.  They needed to be used, and so I began to think.  Key to my musing was the fact that I wanted to share the goodness of cherries with Trevor, who, although he continues to eat them rebelliously, is allergic to most fruits with pits unless they’re cooked.  So I wanted to go against my better judgment and achieve the impossible – to cook the cherries while maintaining their integrity, and also enhancing their flavor.

As I browsed through cherry recipes, I found that I kept clicking recipes with titles like “Boozy Cherry Molasses,” “Red Wine and Cherry Soup,” and “Kirsch-Soaked Cherry Sauce.”  Hmmm.  There was a trend.  And just like that, I knew what I wanted. I closed all of those recipes, and I just started inventing.  Into a saucepan went stemmed and pitted cherries, then some rum, some red wine, some lemon juice, sugar, corn-starch.  I almost added black pepper but I didn’t want to push it.  I think it might work though.  I’m trying it soon.  Then the cherries, robbed of their integrity despite my best efforts, went into the blender, and back into the pan.  I tasted it – the flavor had been enhanced, decidedly.  It was one of those rare times when tinkering in the kitchen goes completely right.

Now I had a pot full of delicious, boozy, fragrant cherry puree, and it needed a stage.  What I really wanted was danish.  Cherry, cream cheese, and almond danish, but grown-up, elegant, subtle.  I was all ready to go, cherries simmering, cream cheese softening, philo sheets defrosting on the counter, when Trevor reminded me, again, that philo and puff pastry are not the same thing.  Having never used either, I get confused.  Frequently.  So the philo went back in the freezer, the cream cheese went back in the fridge, and the cherries continued to simmer.  Now what?

The answer came to me quickly – brownies.  Ever since I saw these brownies on 101 cookbooks, I’ve been continuously craving a cherry-chocolate brownie.  My original plan was to wait until I got around to getting some dried cherries and kirsch, and do the whole soaking thing, but I decided that this puree would have exactly the effect I wanted.  So brownies, tinged with almond flavor and swirled with cherry puree, were created.  And they were chewy, moist, chocolatey, nutty, fruity, boozy, goodness.  Things in the kitchen are going right.

P.S. I haven’t given up on the idea of the cherry danish.  As soon as I get the time to make some puff pastry it will be here.  Hopefully on Friday.  Stay tuned.

Grown-Up Cherry Puree

Makes 1 1/2 cups

• 1 lb cherries, washed and pitted (yields around 3 cups)
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 6 TBS red wine
• 4 TBS rum
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 4 tsp water

1. In a medium pot, combine cherries, sugar, wine, rum, and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring and pressing the cherries apart with the back of the spoon.
2. Remove the cherries from the heat and carefully pour into blender.  Pulse 3 or 4 times, just enough to break the cherries up into small pieces.  (You want the puree to have some texture, and the fruit will break down more as it continues to cook).
3. Return the cherries to the stove, and continue cooking over medium heat.  In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water until cornstarch is fully dissolved.  Slowly pour the cornstarch into the hot cherries, stirring constantly.  Cook the cherries for another 5-10 minutes, stirring continuously, until they have started to thicken.  Depending on the desired consistency of the cherries, you may need to use more or less cornstarch.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Keep cherry puree in airtight container in fridge.

Grown-up Cherry Brownies

• 3/4 c. + 2 TBS cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (2/3 c. chocolate chips)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/3 c. grown-up cherry puree

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour an 8×8 baking pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together cake flour, salt, and baking powder, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine butter and chocolate.  Microwave for 15 second intervals, stirring vigorously in between, until chocolate and butter form a thick, completely smooth, mixture.  Do not over-microwave or you will burn the chocolate.  This step can also be done in a double boiler.
4. Whisk sugar into chocolate mixture.  Incorporate eggs one at a time.  Whisk in almond extract.
5. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture in 3 batches, gently stirring with a spatula in between additions.  When flour is fully incorporated and batter is smooth, pour into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula.  Spoon cherry puree on top of brownies and drag your spatula through the puree and brownies, swirling in large motions, as you would to marble a batter.  Smooth top as best you can.  Bake for 40-50 minutes.

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The weather patterns in North Carolina have been pretty consistent so far this summer: sunny, 97°, humid, with an occasional switch to sunny, 100°, and humid.  I don’t mind that much – we have air conditioning, and there’s a rumor that the apartment complex I live in might actually open the pool now that it’s July.  However, the past few days have been a beautiful gift: it’s kinda cold.  I sat outside the other day and got goosebumps on my arms.  It’s 73°, clear, and dry, with a breeze that is so cool and strong and refreshing it must have come all the way from Canada.  So thank you, Canada.  I want to bathe in this weather.  I want to roll around outside and revel in the fact that not a single part of me is sweating.  That I don’t have to bury myself in a corner of the library next to an AC vent.  That I don’t have to unstick my pants from my legs when I get home.  I’m so, so pleased.

This weather doesn’t really make me want to eat anything in particular.  Well, except maybe a bowl of fresh cherries and seven ears of corn on the cob.  Mostly what it makes me want to do is skip.  Explore.  Swim.  Go on adventures.  Dance.  And take on huge kitchen projects like making my own mozzarella cheese.  Which is what I was going to write about… but then it didn’t really work.  I mean, the final product is definitely something more than milk, but I’m not sure as I would go so far as to call it cheese.  We’re gonna try again though, so once we find the secret, get ready for some delicious homemade cheese recipes.  Until then, I have something far simpler to share.

This is my absolute favorite summer drink.  I invented it myself and it’s infinitely refreshing.  I’ve been wanting to share it for a while, but was waiting for the perfect weather, and this is totally the perfect weather.  It’s limeade and grenadine and flavored seltzer.  Vanilla seltzer is the best, peach seltzer a close second.  Simple, bright, refreshing, beautiful.  Also, Happy Fourth of July!  I hope you’re doing something wonderful.  We’re going on a bruschetta picnic at my new favorite place in North Carolina (more on that soon…) and then to the drive-in to watch Toy Story 3 and Twilight.  Too good.  Anyway, enjoy this drink, enjoy today!

Sparkling Cherry Limeade

• 1 1/2 c. limeade, homemade or store bought
• 2-3 TBS grenadine
• 1/3 c. vanilla seltzer
• limes and cherries for garnish

Pour into a glass in the order listed for best appearance.  Drink. :-)

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