A Journey with Nectarines and Blueberries

While cleaning out my freezer recently I came across a large container of blueberries that had been there awhile.  I didn't have the heart to throw it away.  Then a few days later I saw a recipe online for a Blueberry-Nectarine Crisp.  That sounded so yummy and do-able!  But, then I procrastinated and didn't get the nectarines at the my local farmer's market.  Until this past Saturday when I did get some.  And I knew what I was going to do with them.

I found a recipe that I already had all the ingredients at home for except for one.  Slivered almonds.  That was do-able!  I could easily pick up a small bag of those and be making these shortly!  And that's what I did.

Blueberry-Nectarine Crisp

I've always liked the recipe websites that start out showing you all the ingredients in one place that you'll need.  The recipe actually calls for 1 pint of blueberries and 2 nectarines, but I had twice that, so I doubled the recipe.  More crisp!

Here are frozen blueberries (see the ones that look lighter than the others?  That's the light frost from the freezer.  Yum.  Or not.) I'm going to mix them with the sliced (not peeled) nectarines, zest and juice from 1 lemon.  The recipe calls for a Meyer lemon.  The tree in my back yard is NOT a Meyer lemon tree.  I used what I had.  Remember, I had all of this on hand except the almonds.

When you make this, mix the fruit and juice together before adding the other ingredients, as I've done here.  I didn't, but wished I had.  I think it would've been better for all the fruit to have been coated with the juice before incorporating the other ingredients.

Here I mixed them all together and set them aside.

Now for the dry ingredients.  Since I was doubling the wet ingredients I also doubled the dry ingredients.  This half is waiting since my food processor is small.  Turns out the bag of almonds I got was enough for 1 batch of crisp, not enough for the doubling I was doing.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll remember to pay attention to that sort of thing next time.

Here's the first batch in the food processor.  Flour, oats, salt, almonds and cold butter.

Here's what each batch looked like after a spin in the food processor.

The original recipe calls for the fruit to be put in individual ramekins.  I knew I had way more than would fit in ramekins, and I wanted a pan of the crisp, so I started to put the fruit in an 9x12 pan and realized it wasn't very thick, the fruit was quite spread out.  This was not what I wanted, so I transferred it to a smaller 11x7 pan and started to crumble the topping over the fruit.

Here's what it looked like all covered, before going into the oven.

A side shot.  You can see some of the topping has filled in the crevices around the fruit.  Yum!

And voila!  Out of the oven looking GBD!

Dessert that night was fantastic, despite the fact that I didn't do the sweetened mascarpone the recipe calls for!  Although, admittedly, Cub didn't care for it.  Not sweet enough for him (eye roll).  Perhaps that had to do with my eagerness to make it and not waiting long enough for the nectarines to ripen.  You'll wait long enough when you make it though, right?  They should be soft and juicy.  And my blueberries were old and frozen, not at their peak.  *sigh*  Oh well.  I will triumph and make this again sometime.  Or another crisp.  I actually didn't need to double the topping recipe.  I now have enough for another crisp.  So there's that.  I won't use every bowl and appliance in the kitchen next time around.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Anne Burrell at Food Network

Filling:
1 pint blueberries
2 large ripe nectarines, pitted and cut into thick slices
1/2 Meyer lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pinch Kosher salt

Topping:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into pea-sized pieces
1/2 cup almonds
Pinch Kosher salt
1 to 2 tablespoons cold water
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the filling: toss the blueberries and nectarines in a large bowl with the lemon zest and juice.  Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Divide the filling among 4 (6-ounce) ramekins.

For the topping: Combine all the ingredients in a food processor except the water.  Pulse until combined, this will take about 30 seconds.  Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is clumpy but crumbly.

Top each ramekin with the topping.  Be sure to loosely sprinkle the topping and not pack it down.  The idea is to look very crumbly and craggy.

Place the ramekins on a sheet tray and bake in the oven until the filling i hot and bubbly and the topping is brown and crispy, 20 to 25 minutes.

Sweeten the mascarpone with the sugar.  Onto a small sheet pan or plate, neatly spoon 4 small portions of the sweetened mascarpone and chill until ready to serve.

Top each crisp with a quenelle of cold mascarpone.  Serve the crisps warm.


Karin's Notes:

Next time I'll do the normal recipe size since no one in this house but me wants any and I guess I will use ramekins for easy portion control.  I'll also use riper, fresher fruit.  I'll also not completely cover the top of the fruit with the crumble mixture, allowing some of the fruit to peek through and bubble up.  I'll start earlier in the day, too.  I bumped right up against the time I needed to start dinner and felt rushed and hot.  But, all in all I'm really pleased with this one!

My journey today was one of incredible mess but a really nice reward.  I love summer fruit!

A Cottage Pie Journey

Whoo whee!  2 posts in one day.  I'm on fire!  Ha!  I told you I've been doing a lot of scratch cooking lately.

Tonight's dinner is a kicked up version of something I've been making since my bachlorette days.  Y'all have heard of Shepherd's Pie, right?  Well, technically that's made with lamb.  I don't cook lamb on a regular basis.  In fact, I don't think I've *ever* cooked lamb.  But, I do cook a lot of beef.  So I make what's called Cottage Pie, which is the same as Sherherd's Pie but instead of lamb you use beef.

In my bachlorette days I didn't want to make a whole casserole dish of it, so I'd bake a russet potato, dress it with butter and ranch dressing (for added flavor vs. sour cream) and put ground beef over that and top it with canned corn.

I kept making it this way for my family.  Until tonight.  I decided to make an actual casserole dish of Cottage Pie.  Ooo!  Ahhh!  But, I didn't want to just put ground beef in there, I wanted to transform it a little.  So after consulting food network dot com, I decided to take inspiration from a couple of different recipes and go my own way.  Here's what I ended up with.

Karin's Kottage Pie (ha, ha, ha.  See what I did there?)

I first boiled the Yukon Gold potatoes (I think they make smoother mashed potatoes than russets).  Of course, as I get more accustomed to this blogging thing I'll remember to take pictures of each step...

After browning the ground beef and draining off the grease I added beef broth, tomato paste and chopped garlic.

Then after combining those ingredients I added some flour to thicken the sauce.

I used a lot of butter and some cream in the mashed potatoes.

I began to build the casserole by layering the ground beef mixture in the bottom of an 8x8 pan.

Then I spread canned corn (drained) over the meat.

Then I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish before putting it in the oven.  *sigh*

Ta-da!  The finished dish after some time in the oven to heat through and brown the potatoes on top.

Here's a slice view after we cut into it.  I definitely need to up the ratio of meat mixture to potatoes, but again, I'm calling this a success as it was yummy, flavorful and Camera Guy liked it!  Cub liked the potatoes, as long as he didn't have to eat a brown part on top.  *sigh*  He's 7.5, what do you expect?

Here's the recipe:

Karin's Kottage Pie

Meat Mixture
1.25 lbs ground beef (80-20)
1 cup beef broth
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pepper to taste

Potatoes
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, diced
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream

1 can corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add potatoes to water.  Boil until tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, brown ground beef in skillet, remove grease when done.  Add broth and tomato paste.  Whisk til incorporated.  Add garlic.  Stir.  Sprinkle flour around pan.  Stir to coat.  Lower heat to simmer.

While the meat mixture is simmering, drain the potatoes and mash.  Add butter and mix in until smooth.  Add heavy cream until creamy.  Set aside.

Layer meat mixture in 8x8 glass ungreased casserole dish.  Drain canned corn and spread corn on top of meat mixture.  Add mashed potatoes on top of corn and meat mixture.  With a spatula gently spread around pan, covering entire layer of meat and corn.

Put on foil lined cookie sheet and put in oven for 20-30 mins.  Turn oven to broil until top has a few golden brown spots.  Take cookie sheet out of the oven and allow to rest for 15 mins. before cutting into it.

Enjoy!

Karin's Notes: next time I'll add diced onions while browning the ground beef.  I left them out because I thought there might be more of a chance of Cub eating it if he didn't see onions.  No go.  He didn't like it anyway.  If it's not sauce on a pizza or ketchup for fries, he wants nothing to do with anything remotely having to do with tomatoes.

I'd also add the garlic with the onions and beef, allowing it time to develop it's flavors.  I might even try a splash of Worchestshire, again I left it out this time because to Cub.

Tonight's journey was a fun one that I've been wanting to take for a while, but time always seemed to get the better of me.  Today I set the time aside to do this.  I had all the ingredients already and was pleased I didn't have to run to the store "for 1 thing".

I also learned tonight that a lot of the pictures I take on my phone are blurry.  I journied tonight to the realization that for blogging purposes, I need to wear my glasses while taking pictures so I can tell immediately if it's too blurry and I need to take it again.  *sigh*  Getting old ain't for wimps.

A Journey with Blueberry Scones

Wow.  It's been almost 2 years since my last post.  I knew I'd been busy, but wow.  I didn't realize it had been that long.  I hope to correct that now and keep it from happening again.

Y'all know mostly what my family and I have been up to by following me on Facebook, but I decided to start posting pics of my scratch made food here now, too.  I've been doing a lot of it lately and what I made today really made me proud and I wanted to share it it with the blogosphere.

It was overcast and drizzly when I took Cub to summer camp this AM and I was contemplating stopping for a latte on the way home.  I decided against it, remembering I wanted to make scones instead.

After the requisite cleaning of the kitchen (which didn't happen after dinner last night (*sigh*)), I was ready to get started.

(Very) Blueberry Scones (I added the "Very" part to the title because I used twice as many blueberries as the recipe calls for)

(recipe from Tyler Florence)

Here is the cold, cubed butter before I cut it into the already sifted, dry ingredients.

This is the mixture after I cut in the butter and after I folded in the blueberries and mixed in the heavy cream.  I added 2 cups of blueberries, whereas Tyler's recipe called for 1 cup.  I had a lot of blueberries that needed to be used, what can I say.  Also, if some blueberries are good, more are better, right?  Right.  I'm glad you think so, too.

Pictures 3 and 4 are after I pressed the dough together and cut the scones.  I forgot to take a picture of the dough before I cut the scones and put them on the cookie sheet.  (Sorry.  I'll try to remember to take pictures of ALL steps in the future.)  I need to remember when a recipe calls for the item to be put on a "ungreased cookie sheet" I need to use my Silpats.  I've not done a whole lot of baking, so this item isn't stuck in my brain yet.  I bet it will be after I have to scrub the backed-on blueberry goo off my cookie sheets.

Then I brushed the tops with more heavy cream and sprinkled them with sugar for a little extra sweetness and they turned out GBD (golden, brown and delicious)!

Next time I'll try and press the dough into a little more of a uniform thickness and edges as I got various sizes and thicknesses in this go 'round.  They're yummy, but I think I'd add a tad more sugar IN the dough next time.  I'm glad I put in the extra blueberries as the help lift the sweetness left lacking from the measly 2T called for in the recipe.

All in all, I'm calling this a success!  We'll see what Cub and Camera Guy think.  If they don't like them, all the more for me!  Ha!

I encourage you to try making them.  They're easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!  Which reminds me, Tyler also lists a lemon glaze to top the scones with, but I didn't do that, so that part of the recipe isn't shown or listed here.

Here's the recipe (courtesy of Tyler Florence):

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into chunks
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used 2 cups and am very pleased I did)
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, but in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour.  The mixture should look like course crumbs.  Fold the blueberries into the batter.  Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough.  Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream.  Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches.  Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares.  Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape.  Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown.


Karin's tips:

Use 2 cups of blueberries if you really like blueberries, or an extra tablespoon of sugar in the dough.  Use a Silpat or parchment paper to line the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle sugar on top of the scones after brushing them with cream.

Enjoy!

My journey today has been a pleasant one that let me get my hands floury, sticky dough under my nails and I expanded my repertoire of baked goods I feel comfortable making and that feels great!  Lunch with Camera Guy topped off a great morning!

Oh, and if you're new to reading my blog, the URL to read all the older posts, too, is journeyhalfthefun.blogspot.com.  If I recall there are some fun ones in there.