Smoked Salmon Spread

 

Years ago, I worked in advertising, so I have an idea as to the power of the written word. Visual images are of equal importance, both of which were certainly used to advantage by New Yorker bagels, from where I purchased a dozen of their bagels, baked and shipped fresh from Brooklyn via two day FedEx. Mine, alas, took three days, but you never would have known it because they were so fresh and delicious that I couldn’t believe it. I am not affiliated by the way, I am just completely in love with their bagels.

I bought one six-pack of Kalamata olive bagels and another six-pack of everything bagels, liking them equally well. Next time, I’m going to try sweet bagels, but I’m wandering from my point that is to say that when you have bagels, you need schmear, and there is none so good as Ina Garten’s Smoked Salmon Spread, the perfect combination of lox and schmear. It is absolutely delicious! These bagels are so good, reheat so beautifully, and are so large that one of them with this smoked salmon spread constitutes a meal. You will be more satisfied eating this than almost anything else.

Smoked Salmon Spread

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1⁄2 c. sour cream

1 T. fresh lemon juice

1 T. freshly minced fresh dill

1 t. prepared horseradish, drained

1⁄2 t. kosher salt

1⁄4 t. freshly ground black pepper

1⁄4 lb. smoked salmon, minced

 Cream the cheese in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until just smooth.

Add the sour cream, lemon juice, dill, horseradish, salt, and pepper, and mix.

Add the smoked salmon and mix well. 

Chill and serve with crudités or crackers.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Guinness Brownies from Llywelyn's Pub

 

If you ever find yourself in the St. Louis metro area, you owe it to yourself to visit neighboring city, Saint Charles, the historical district in particular, and dine at a delightful Celtic pub called Llywelyn's. There are two locations in the area, but the most unique is the one located at 100 North Main Street in St. Charles, MO. Once a bank, though now quite obviously an eatery, vaults and other banking aspects remain, adding to the already abundance of charm and atmosphere.

 

A former bank vault, the door is open and ready for guests.This vault was occupied by a table of enthusiastic diners who were “locked in” behind the barred door. 

I chose the pub curry for my lunch and was not disappointed. A pub tradition, it is yellow curry with a choice of chicken or shrimp, sautéed with onions, carrots, cabbage, and sweet peas served on a bed of basmati rice or fries.  I chose the shrimp...and the rice.

When it came to dessert there were two choices, the Guinness Brownies and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.  Both are known to be deliciously decadent, but I went for the brownie. Heaven!

 As luck would have it the recipe for the brownies is available thanks to Llywelyn's and the St. Louis-Post Dispatch's SPECIAL REQUESTS Cookbook. Here it is so that you can enjoy them too.

Guinness Brownies from Llywelyn's Pub

 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, cut into chunks

¾ c. (1-1/2 sticks) butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 c. Guinness stout

¾ c. flour

Llywelyn's Guinness Fudge Sauce (recipe below)

Ice cream or whipped cream

 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9” x 13” baking pan with Baker’s Joy.

 Gradually melt chocolate and butter together in the top of a double-boiler, stir to blend, remove from heat; stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and Guinness. Stir in flour. Batter will be thin.

 Pour into baking pan; bake until almost set, about 35 minutes. Do not overbake.

Let cool, then slice into 16 bars. Serve with Guinness Fudge Sauce and ice cream or whipped cream.

 Llywelyn's Guinness Fudge Sauce

1 (12-oz.) jar hot fudge sauce

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1½ c.)

1/3 c. Guinness stout

Heat hot fudge sauce in a double-boiler until pourable. In a pot over very low heat, heat chocolate chips and Guinness together until chocolate has melted, then stir into hot fudge sauce. Mix well. Pour into a serving dish.

 Refrigerate leftovers; reheat before servings.

Yield: About 2¼ cups

 Treat yourself to this dark deliciousness on this Friday the 13th.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cream Cheese Nut Bread

 

It seems that, lately, I have had no time for baking or cooking. Today I had a hankering (I tend to hanker a lot) for a comforting quick bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.  I pulled out a recipe for an old favorite, warming and deliciously scenting the kitchen in the going. This is an easy recipe to make, and you probably have all of the ingredients on hand.  It does take up a number of bowls, but the end result is well worth it.

This moist, dense, nutty loaf is made all the better with an almond-flavored ribbon of cream cheese running right through the center. This cream cheese filling can be used with almost any of your favorite quick bread recipes, by the way, but do give this one a try, and then experiment by adding it to other favorites.  It makes an already delicious quick loaf all the better.  As an added note, this bread gets better every day. Cream Cheese Nutbread

 To make filling:

 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 c. sugar

½ t. almond extract

1 large egg, room temperature

 Beat the above ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl on high speed until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

To make bread:

 2 large eggs, room temperature

½ c. canola oil

½ c. whole milk

1 t. freshly grated lemon peel

2¼ c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 t. kosher salt

1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with PAM and dust thoroughly with granulated sugar (or, a cinnamon-sugar mixture, if you prefer).  Set aside.

Beat eggs until frothy and lemon colored.  Slowly add oil, milk, and lemon rind, mixing until well blended.

 In separate bowl, stir together flour, sugars, soda, salt, and nuts.  Add this dry mixture, all at once, to the wet mixture and mix until just moistened.  Do not over mix.  Spoon half of bread batter into loaf pan, smoothing as you go.  Top with all of the cream cheese mixture, then spoon the remaining half of the dough on top, spreading to cover as well as you can.  Bake for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Chewy Salted Peanut Bars

 

Years ago, my parents had a large house at the lake. I used to love going there when we had it packed with company. The house had five bedrooms, so it could hold a lot of people. My cousin, only a year older than me, was one of my favorite people to have at the lake. She was a night owl like I was, and after everyone had gone to sleep, we would get up and raid the cookie jar. One night after we consumed a good amount of oatmeal raisin cookies, she went back to get some potato chips. I asked her why she got those and she said, “Sweet calls for salty, salty calls for sweet.”  She wasn’t wrong. How many times have you had a sweet snack, and then needed a touch of salty thereafter? Conversely, how many times have you had something salty, and then longed for something sweet? This is the best of both worlds. They are easy to make, reminiscent of Payday bars, and can be quite addicting. 

They’re the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

Chewy Salted Peanut Bars

1½ c. flour

¾ c. packed brown sugar

½ c. cold butter, cubed

2 c. salted dry roasted peanuts

1 c. butterscotch chips

½ c. light corn syrup

2 T. butter

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil, letting ends extend up and over the sides to facilitate lifting; spray foil with PAM.

Place flour, brown sugar, and butter into the work bowl of a food processor; pulse until crumbly. Empty into prepared pan, patting down. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle peanuts over crust.

While crust is baking, place a small saucepan over medium heat and melt butterscotch chips, corn syrup, and butter; stirring occasionally. Bring mixture to a high simmer/low boil*, remove from heat, and immediately drizzle over peanuts. Bake until bubbly, 6-8 minutes longer.

 

 Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Lifting with foil, remove from pan. Cut into bars.

 *The mixture should be simmering and puffing up all around the perimeter of the pan, wanting to work its way into the center. That’s when you want to remove it from the heat.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Bacon Mushroom Caps

 

These are wonderful appetizers, easy to make and delicious. I have served them both at brunches and cocktail parties with equal success, and I always get requests for the recipe. Recipients are continually surprised by one of the ingredients - corn chips!

 Bacon Mushroom Caps

40 medium button mushrooms

½ lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled

1 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

½ c. butter, softened

½ c. finely crushed corn chips

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 T. finely chopped onion

1 T. dry red wine

 Remove stems from cleaned mushrooms; chop stems. Combine stems with remaining ingredients. Fill mushroom caps. Place an inch apart on baking sheets and broil 5 to 7 minutes until lightly browned and bubbly. Serve hot.

 

Crush corn chips very fine. I used an ice cream scoop.The recipe calls for Monterrey Jack, but I used Fontina.Cook bacon until well done and crispy, and then chop with a sharp knife.Stir ingredients together well. I cubed the butter in order to allow it to more quickly incorporate.Rolling the filling into loose ball shapes makes it easy to fill each cap.

These are a MUST TRY!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Deck Garden, End of the Year Assessment

 

Summer has nearly come to an end, and it is time to recap how well things went in my deck garden this year. For the most part, I consider this year to be a bit on the mediocre side. After all of my efforts, loving care, not to mention expense, I was underwhelmed by the lack of production.

My inability to grow peppers, other than jalapeños, has become quite frustrating. Year after year I plant pepper seeds, all kinds, all colors, they will reach a height of between 3 and 4 inches, and stop right there and never do a thing.

On the plus side, I got loads of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, so much so that I was giving them away. That’s a good thing because there’s nothing more delicious than a summer tomato warm from the vine. On the downside, despite vines crawling all over the deck, I didn’t get a single cucumber. That puzzles me because generally, as with cherry tomatoes, I am giving those away.

  Another plus (and I am thrilled beyond words at this) is that the seeds I had harvested from a black heirloom tomato that Melissa’s Produce had sent me, germinated and produced! I planted this late, so I wasn’t really expecting anything, even though I got a couple of blossoms. There are two tomatoes here; one is small and obviously pecked by a bird, unfortunately. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the other one makes it to the ripening stage. It should. Generally, I don’t have a need to pull up tomatoes until mid October, although the shorter days do impede their growth. I’m going to keep a careful watch on this, and photograph it weekly, so that I can capture the point when it begins to turn black. I’m so excited! 

The charentais melon seeds that I planted did quite well. I got 100% germination from all six of the seeds that I had harvested from an organic melon that I got from Melissa's Produce, and, like the cucumbers, those vines crawled all over the deck. Also, like the cucumbers, I didn’t get any melons… or so I thought. When I went out to pull up the vines, I got three of them pulled up, but when I pulled up the fourth, I heard a clunking sound. Upon examination, I noticed that there were six tiny melons on that vine. I cursed myself for having not been more patient. I did find another melon on one of the remaining vines, and I have been babying it ever since. I doubt, at this late stage, that it will be big enough to use, but I have been encouraged by this, and will certainly plant melons again next year.When I went out to water this morning, I saw yet another one on the way. It’s probably too late to actually turn into anything edible, but it’s exciting nonetheless. Clearly, I can grow melons. Noted for next year.Speaking of melons, this little mystery melon started growing in one of my window boxes. It’s not the same as the charentais melon because each striation is actually an indentation. This may just be a pumpkin! I have no idea where this came from. The only thing I can figure is that the neighbors have pumpkin seeds in the mixture they use to feed the birds, and one of the birds dropped it in my window box.

The scallions did well, my cash crop was jalapeños (I couldn’t give those away), the basil bolted way too soon, and I didn’t get one batch of pesto out of it. The Alstroemeria did quite well, and I am very pleased with the result of that bit of experimentation. I am going to dig it up, bring it into the house, and attempt to overwinter it. The petunias put on a very colorful fuchsia show, I’m also going to try to overwinter them; the zinnias were their usual beautiful self.

They attracted loads of hummingbirds that are always a delight to watch, as well as goldfinches that love to hang onto the branches, and painstakingly pull out the pedals, in order to get to those delicious fresh seeds. They’re so cute that I just let them. I’m already in the planning stages for next year.

What were your successes and failures this year?

I’ll see you in the spring for more garden talk.

How 'bout Them Apples? TABLESCAPE

 

I had big plans for lots of table settings this summer, but sadly, did very few of them. But, I am beginning to emerge from the heat and humidity, am truly embracing September, and today felt like celebrating fall with this apple table.

I don’t often use my dough bowl — I’m not quite sure why — but it proved the perfect vessel for this beautiful combination of Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples from Melissa’s Produce. Interspersed among the apples for a little bit of pattern are the Tennessee Dancing gourds that I grew this year. It is on these colors that I based this table.

 The stack of ceramic apple bowls belonged to my mother, as did the wire basket holding Fuji apples, and vibrant red flatware. The smoky stemware belonged to my mother as well.

The tin chargers come from a favorite local shop, The White Rabbit; the glass crescent salad dishes are vintage, and one of the first things I purchased after graduating from college. I had a small table, and reasoned that these would take up less room than the traditional round salad plates, and I was right. I still love them after all these years.

Number two son gave me the bright green appetizer plates and cocottes; I love that color with the red.

Woven placemats, black plaid plates, and green plaid napkins are all from Pier One.

The cups are vintage, and a part of a bigger set of Galloping Gourmet (Remember Graham Kerr?) cookware that was given away, piece by piece, for free with a $10 or more purchase back in grocery stores in the ‘70s.

 I always find a transitional table appropriate for this time of the year. I don’t generally bring out the rusty reds and burnt oranges until October, but look out when I do!

 

Get the look:

Amber Stemware

Tin Chargers

Green Plaid Napkins

Green Cocotte

Red Flatware

Woven Placemats

Faux Apples (red)

Faux Apples (green)

 

 This post is linked to: Tablescape Thursday
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Summer Garden Pasta

 

To me, September is always bittersweet. I love that it is a harbinger of fall, and yet it also means the end of the garden that I labored over all summer long, as well as the fresh produce. Today I went out and picked what will no doubt be the last of the cherry tomatoes, and snipped off a few basil leaves to use in my supper. It was up near 100° again today, so I wanted something light.

 

Ina Garten’s summer garden pasta seemed just the thing. It’s very easy to make, particularly considering most of the ingredients are assembled four hours before use. When dinnertime rolls around, all you need do is to cook the pasta, toss everything together, and enjoy.  Summer Garden Pasta

4 pts. cherry tomatoes, halved

½ c. Good olive oil

2 T. minced garlic (6 cloves)

18 large basil leaves, julienned, plus extra for serving

   ½ t. crushed red pepper flakes

1 t. kosher salt

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

   1 lb. angel hair pasta

1½ c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving 

Combine the cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, red pepper flakes, salt, and the pepper in a large bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature for about 4 hours.

Just before you’re ready to serve, bring a large pot of water with a splash of olive oil and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil and add the pasta.  Cook al dente according to the directions on the package (be careful – it only takes 2 to 3 minutes!).  Drain the pasta well and add to the bowl with the cherry tomatoes.  Add the cheese and some extra fresh basil leaves and toss well.  Serve in big bowls with extra cheese on each serving.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.