Berlin's Whimsy

Basil Butter Spread for Grilled Corn

This time of year, our grill gets a lot of use and since corn on the cob is plentiful, cheap, and GOOD, we often serve it alongside our other favorites.

Sometimes, though, the usual butter & salt treatment gets a little boring.

I'm fairly certain this way of serving corn on the cob comes from my brother & his soon-to-be wife--- both chefs. It's surprisingly good and very easy, too. Just the right thing on a busy summer evening!

Basil Butter Spread for Corn

This is more of technique than a recipe...

Into a blender, add equal parts melted butter, olive oil, and fresh basil leaves. Throw in a couple peeled garlic cloves & a tsp chili powder. Blend until smooth.

Grill ears of corn over a medium-high grill. For great grilled corn, don't overdo it. You want the kernels to carmelize just a bit (brown) but if they overcook, they will be tough and dry. I always error on the side of less time (even if I'm boiling corn the traditional way--- less is more).

When corn is done, brush with the basil butter and serve. YUM!

Pimento Cheese Dip & 17-year olds

It's been a very busy week around here.

This happened.

And he is growing up too quickly. This post was just yesterday, right? And yet, in many ways, he is still that same kid. Now, I'm very much enjoy his developing intellect--- we have interesting discussions (GMO foods, politics, poetry, philosophy). I'm amazed at his thought processes and he's an excellent debater---- kind, and willing to listen to other opinions.

My daughter is growing up fast, too. Chunks of my time are spent wondering how she will cope when my son goes off to college. In the meantime, she is always ready to help me in the kitchen and it's very welcome (including greasing the cake pan--- above. Ha)!

And after 17 years, birthday celebrations are pretty routine around here: the same friends, the same party, the same German Chocolate Cake. It might seem boring, but after all the changes my kids have gone through these past few years, I believe routines are welcome.

One of our snacks was this version of Pimento Cheese Dip. I make it with this homemade Mayo that I always have in the frig. Made with that mayo, this dip is SOOOO good! Tastes much more complex than the ingredient list would make you think! And if you have the mayo already made up, this dip comes together in minutes. It's excellent.

Pimento Cheese Dip

1/2 C. grated extra- sharp cheddar

heaping 1/3 C. green olives stuffed with pimento, coarsely chopped

1/2 C. this Garlicky Mayo

1/8 tsp. paprika

A couple grinds of black pepper

Method:

Into the bowl of a food processor, place all the ingredients. Pulse just a couple times until mixed but still coarse in texture. Refrigerate for an hour to allow flavors to develop. Enjoy!

Tomatillo-Tomato Salsa perfected.

Ah, fall... I've been waiting for you all summer long. With your warm-hued sunsets and crisp time-to-wake-up mornings. I feel I can relax again after an extremely busy and tiring summer.

I'd like to say that I've been away from this space perfecting salsa recipes, but unfortunately, it hasn't been all fun and cooking. School and life were quite hectic and busy this summer. That said, I have spent quite a bit of time making this salsa. Repeatedly.

My garden's tomatillo harvest is robust once again this year and they're finding their way into many of our meals. I've also grown fond of pealing them straight from the garden and eating them right then and there---- they're that good this year. So much better than the store-bought ones.

This has become my favorite salsa this summer. It's like my previous favorite salsa, only better.

It's sweet (from the tomatillos), salty, tangy, and it can be hot if you want to add hot chili peppers. As always, onions aren't welcome in these parts (sigh), so I make up for it with garlic. Go ahead and add onions if that's your pleasure.

 
The ingredients are typical, but do read through the method! I blend up a portion of the salsa to add a sweet-tart background to the chunks and to blend up the garlic so as to avoid any big chunks of raw garlic.

As with many salsas, I don't so much follow a recipe per se, but taste as I go. I encourage you to do the same. Frankly, this salsa is so yummy, I could blend the whole thing and drink it like a smoothie!

 
Tomatillo-Tomato Salsa

10 Tomatillos, husked, washed, and diced small

10 Roma Tomatoes, diced small (or whatever fresh tomatoes you have on hand!)

Handful fresh cilantro, chopped

Juice of 2 limes

2-3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 T. sea salt, or to taste

Optional add-ins: hot chili peppers, diced very small or white onions, diced and rinsed under cold water before adding.

Method: Dice the tomatillos and tomatoes. Stir them together in a big bowl.

 
Into a blender, add the garlic, lime juice, and about 1/4 of the tomato-tomatillo mixture. Blend until smooth. Add this mixture back to the chunky tomatoes and tomatillos and add the finely minced cilantro and salt to taste. Stir thoroughly.

 
Enjoy!

 

Summer Vegan links

This summer (as in summer's past), I'm eating more vegan meals. My pursuit of vegan inspiration has led me to some vegan recipes worth passing along...

 
This buckwheat porridge is amazingly good! Yeah, it looks a little like paste, but it does taste much better than it looks---- I promise! For the non-dairy milk, I used some hemp milk I made yesterday.

 
Do pop over to the blog Oh She Glows for beautiful photos and lots of other great recipes. In fact, her 15-minute Creamy Avocado Pasta is another discovery from her blog that I want to share. I was a little skeptical at first, but it is definitely worth trying. It's done in minutes, making it a great weeknight recipe. 

A few nights this week, we had grilled pizza for dinner. I made the regular fixings for the rest of the family and I made mine vegan. Here's how...

 
Vegan Cheese Sauce...

1 C. raw cashews, soaked

1 head of garlic

1 lemon, juiced

salt to taste

Method: Roast the garlic. Cut the top off and drizzle with olive oil (you might as well roast a few!). Roast in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes. I used my toaster oven to avoid heating up the kitchen! When they're roasted, pop the cloves out of the peels.

In a blender or food processor, blend the ingredients. Taste for seasoning--- it's a little sweet from the roasted garlic. This sauce can be used for not only pizza, but as a pasta sauce or a ravioli filling.

For the Pizza... I slathered the dough with the sauce and for an extra layer of flavor, I chopped up some kalamata olives, some fresh rosemary, and a handful of basil in the food processor and added a thin layer of that, too. It was so yummy, I didn't miss the cheese.

***If you're considering trying more vegan recipes this summer, you might be interested in the 30-Day Vegan Online Workshop at Beauty that Moves. She's offering a 2-for-1 special enrollment and I'd love to find another participant to share the enrollment fee! Let me know if you're interested...

 

 

Cucumber Agua Fresca

 
Oh, thank goodness we are not suffering from the heat wave that hovered around part of the country recently. (Knock on wood). I swear on scout's honor that I reveled in each and every day that we enjoyed lovely temperatures around 80-degrees. Perfect days. Beautiful evenings.

But yesterday, the temps climbed up into the 90s and it was time for some refreshment....

 
This drink is absolutely perfect for a hot summer day. It's a fairly common recipe, but this is the blend I like the best---- an excellent balance of sweet and savory. Be sure to include the salt in the recipe (unless you're concerned about sodium--- though, it's not much). I find that the salt really adds an extra flavor layer.

 
I've been blending it up and storing it in the refrigerator to drink throughout the day.

And of course, you could splash in some gin or vodka, if the occasion warrants. Either way, it's delicious.

 
Cucumber Agua Fresca

~1 large cucumber, peeled

~juice of 2 limes

~3 C. cold water

~1/8 tsp. sea salt

~2 T. agave nectar (or other type of sweetener)

~8 ice cubes

Blend it all up until very smooth. Serve in a chilled glass and enjoy the summer!

 

 

Simplest Summer Smoothie. Watermelon. That's all.

 
We bought a watermelon the size of a small country. And not only was it seeded, but it seemed that this watermelon grew more than its fair share. The kids all discussed what to do with the seeds. Do you chew them up? Do you spit them out?

 
Well, I blend them up. They are edible and the blender just grinds them in. So simple. So refreshing.

I've started my day with a glass of watermelon for the last couple days. It's oh so refreshing on the hot days we've been experiencing and it's packed with vitamins.

 
If you really want to become fanciful, you can dice up the watermelon and freeze it for an hour or so before blending up your own natural slushie. Or blend in other flavors, such as blueberry, or a hint of mint.

Chocolate Cookies from my Mom.

 
 
My Mom has knack for throwing a bunch of ingredients together and making something perfect. As I'm a meticulous baker at heart (weighing ingredients out--- leery of diverging from the original recipe), her success with this technique surprises me. And inspires me, for sometimes I gather inspiration from my Mom's wing-it approach.

I tried some of these cookies at her house awhile back, and I had to ask her for the recipe. I wasn't surprised when she casually listed the ingredients off the top of her head.

 
These cookies are both hearty and perfectly chocolately, with the addition of both melted chocolate, chocolate chips, and flaxmeal! Even better, they're quick and simple to make. The butter is melted with the chocolate----no need for dirtying the electric mixer, which is another of my Mom's characteristic traits: she seldom uses electric kitchen appliances. 

So, whip some up and see what you think!

My Mom's Hearty Chocolate Cookies

Print Recipe

8 T. butter (1 stick)

2 squares of unsweetened chocolate (I use Baker's) 

1 C. brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 T. flaxmeal

1/2 C. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Melt the butter with the chocolate either gently (being careful not to burn the chocolate) in the microwave, or over low heat on the stove. When melted, stir in the sugar and allow to cool a bit. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Stir the wet & dry ingredients together just until combined and add the chocolate chips.

Drop by the 1 1/2 T. full (I use a #30 disher) and bake for approximately 15-minutes; until crisp around the edges but still soft in the middle. Makes approximately 16 cookies.

Whole-Grain Cornbread Recipe

 
Wow, this cornbread tastes so much like a childhood favorite of mine: that B&W bread in a can. I remember those days of slathering the dark rounds of sweet bread with cream cheese... mmm. I don't want to imagine what the ingredients are in that bread, though...

As it is, this recipe is vegan; however, I suspect you could use regular whole milk and it would be fine.

The recipe is adapted from a new (to me) cookbook, 'The Kind Diet.' I tend to shy away from celebrity cookbooks (this one is written by Alicia Silverstone), but I grabbed this one at the library to look through while waiting for my kids. I found many recipes I wanted to try. This was one of them. I've changed it up a bit because as it was, I don't think the dry to wet ingredient ratio was correct. I also use a different sweetener than the original, and for mine, I used freshly ground grains.

It turned out wonderfully! The sweeteners carmelize and brown the cornbread as it bakes, rendering it scrumptious!

This cornbread has so many possibilities. It's just calling out for an addition of dried blueberries. As reminiscent as it is to cake, I used it on my own healthy version of strawberry shortcake: cornbread, fresh strawberries, and cottage cheese.

And of course, I enjoyed it with the perfectly satisfying lunch I had yesterday (photographed above): sauteed collards with lots of garlic, a splash of ume vinegar, and a drizzle of tahini. The salty greens with the sweet cornbread was oh so good!  

 

Whole-Grain Cornbread

**Printer-friendly**

1/2 C. grade B maple syrup

1/2 C. brown rice syrup

1 1/4 C. soy milk (or other type of milk)

1/4 C. vegetable oil

1 1/2 C. cornmeal

1 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Method: Preheat oven to 400-degrees and oil a 9x9 baking dish. Combine the syrups, milk, and oil. Whisk until smooth. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and only stir until just combined. The mixture will be fairly wet, like a thin pancake batter.

Pour the mixture into the greased pan and bake for approximately 30-minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. They will turn a deep golden brown. Enjoy!

Playing with Albino Squishy Brains.

 
This post's title comes directly from P's mouth upon seeing Kefir Grains.

 
They're often described as looking like "cauliflower" but they do sort of look like brains. Have I turned you off? Read on... 

 
After reading so much information about how beneficial Kefir is to good digestion and happy belly flora, I decided to try making my own. It's amazingly simple. So simple, I think everyone should do it. I've went through phases of making yogurt for our family, but even that simple task pales in comparison of Kefir's simplicity. Same with Kombucha. Making kefir is easy. And even better, making your own Kefir is so much cheaper than purchasing the prepared stuff. You'll be amazed. Just don't think of them as Albino Squishy Brains.

I've found that making kefir requires 5 simple steps:

1.) Obtain Kefir Grains  

2) Pour kefir grains into milk (or even coconut milk--- video tutorial).

 
3) Let the Kefir Grains (aka. Albino Squishy Brains) swim around in the milk, spreading their healthy charms. Cover them with a coffee filter or cheesecloth and let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

4) Strain out the Kefir Grains & add them to new milk.

5) Drink the strained Kefir. 

...Of course, there is a lot of room for experimentation. You can shorten or lengthen the culturing time to increase or reduce the tang and the effervescent qualities of the Kefir. I'm using "dairy grains," but there are also water grains for use with sweetened water or apple juice.

 
There are many uses for Kefir but our favorite is adding Kefir to smoothies. It tastes like the store-bought stuff and we also get a good dose of fruit, too. My favorite (so far) is a simple smoothie of strawberries, bananas, Kefir, and a little maple syrup.

Your Kefir Grains will grow and multiply like any happy creature does, and at that point you can either give them away or dehydrate them. In fact, your Kefir Grains will start to make a daily appearance in your life because they accomplish their task every 12-24 hours. But when you want a little break, you can put the whole mixture in the refrigerator to slow it down. They'll be happy to see you when you invite them back. 

And lastly, there are many, many health claims regarding Kefir, from increased immunity to reducing the risk of colon cancer. I don't know the validity of many of the claims, but it seems to me that when one's belly is happy, so goes the rest of one's body...

Post 70's Carob Action. Health Nut Nibbles.

 
Maybe it was the crowd my family hung with, but carob made many apprearances in my life as a youngster growing up in the newly health conscious 70's. Along with thick, mystery-ingredient smoothies that required the unique talent of both drinking and chewing at the same time and morning breakfasts of raw milk and wheat germ, carob was slipped into anything that called for chocolate as a healthy addition to our diets.

 
My brother & I would spy a sinfully dense, chocolatey cookie only to bite into something that tasted to us... well, healthy! The carob bait-and-switch was such a frequent trick not only at my house but neighbors who must have read about carob's health benefits, too, that I loathed the mere mention of carob. It conjured up spoonfuls of cod liver oil and the aforementioned wheat germ. Ah, children. Alas, I was one, too.

 
But there was a time in the 90's when I came to appreciate carob on its own merit. You see, carob is not chocolate. Yes, it has a deep and perhaps decadent taste but if you try to switch out carob on a chocolate lover, well poor carob often falls short.

Not that it should. Carob adds a unique and complimentary flavor to many items. One of my favorite evening sips is a warm mug of the coffee-like Teeccino, which lists carob as its first ingredient. Paired with dates and honey, carob is scrumptious. And that's where this little snack/treat comes in. It features all of carob's BFFs in one yummy bite. Plus a few throwback ingredients to the 70s (wheat germ & hemp protein powder---hemp in a different form!). It's very adaptable and it's inspired by HEAB's Carob balls. Give it a try and tell me what you think of carob!

 
Health Nut Nibbles

13 large Medjool dates, soaked for a couple hours

1/4 C. Almond Butter

1 T. Carob Powder

1/4 C. Hazelnuts (or substitute another kind)

1 T. Raw Honey

1/2 C. Rolled Oats

1 T. Wheat Germ

1 T. Hemp Protein Powder

To make: Set up either a dehydrator, or preheat your oven to 200-degrees. Drain the dates and place them in a Vitamix or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients except the rolled oats, wheat germ & protein powder. Grind the ingredients until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Stir in the rolled oats, wheat germ, and protein powder until thoroughly combined. By the tablespoonful, place on either a dehydrator tray or lined baking sheet. If dehydrating, set your dehydrator to 115-degrees and dehydrate until dense (about 8 hours). If baking, check them after an hour.

And whatever you do, don't tell your kids they're chocolate!