SPRING EATS

Seasonal eating is turning into a favorite habit in our household. We love how incredible the flavors are when you buy in season and enjoy that we can support small local farms.

Asparagus and Russian Cheese Tart

1 package of puff pastry, thawed and rolled to 10"x18"
1 bunch of young asparagus
2 slices Russian cheese (Swiss will also work)
2 T. Trader Joes aioli garlic mustard sauce
2 T. sour cream
Parmesan cheese
Pepper

Preheat oven to 400°
Cut your rolled pastry in half to make 2 10 x 9 sheets and dock the center with fork to withing a 1/2" of the edge.
Place on lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. 
Blanch asparagus in boiling salted water for 1 minute and move to an ice bath.
Mix the aioli and sour cream and add a few grinds of pepper.
Dry the asparagus well.
Remove pastry from the oven and press the center down with a spoon to make a well.
Place on slice of cheese into each pastry well and top with aioli mix.
Arrange the asparagus in well and top with a few grates of Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 12 minutes more.
Serve hot, cold, or room temp.

15 MINUTE DINNER

Carbonara is one of those amazingly flavorful and quick dinners with ingredients you most likely already have on hand. Make it your own by adding veggies or substituting cream for the butter.


4 slices of bacon
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 small onion
2 Tbsp of butter
¼ Cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 Tsp garlic powder
2 eggs
8 oz pasta
Pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add your pasta of choice.
Chop your bacon roughly the same size as your pasta and place in a large sided pan on med high heat with olive oil.
Chop onion and add to pan when bacon starts to render cooking until bacon is crisp and onion is golden.
Turn off heat and remove from stove, add butter and parmesan.
Whisk eggs and pepper and set aside.
When pasta is done drain and pour into bacon pan.
Add egg to pasta and stir quickly! We don't want scrambled eggs.

LIME AND POMEGRANATE POPSICLE

A sweet frozen treat for what is most likely going to be a very hot summer.

1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups water
Mix  ingredients and let sit stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
OR go to Wegmans and buy some organic limeade. ;)
Pour into your molds.
Empty the arils from a pomegranate.
Drop about a tablespoon of arils in each pop mold and insert the sticks.
Set a timer for and hour and a half.
Take out the mold and mix up the pop with the stick so all the arils aren't collected at the bottom and you mash a few for some color.
Freeze for eight more hours.

I emptied the molds today and put these into individual bags so I could make some with fresh peaches and orange juice.

Get creative and enjoy!

SUBSTITUTIONS PLEASE

Whenever I go to make a recipe it is inevitable I am missing something so I try and find a suitable substitution. Thankfully the internet is wealth of knowledge, but many times you just get the facts and miss out on the tricks to make them work out right. Making flours like cake flour is one of those cases. Sure it's easy to replace two tablespoons of flour with corn starch, but most of the time they don't mention that you need to sift them together. Another good reason to make your own flours is the cost savings, which in some stores can be half. Here are a few hacks for flour I have accumulated.

Self rising flour - For each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and sift five times.

Bread flour - Add 1 tablespoon of wheat gluten for every cup of white flour and sift once.

Cake flour - For every cup of flour you use, take out 2 tablespoons of the flour and
replace the 2 tablespoons of flour that you took out with two tablespoons of cornstarch.
Sift the cornstarch and flour at least five times.

Happy baking!

CHIVE VINEGAR

2 - 3 cups of chive blossoms soaked, rinsed, and well dried (I used my salad spinner, but you can place them on a towel for a few hours)
a sterilized mason jar and lid
Any vinegar you like or a mix.
Place dry blossoms in jar cover with vinegar and screw on lid.
Leave in a cupboard for 4 - 6 weeks depending how strong you like your vinegar
Strain the liquid from the blossoms
Now go make some amazing dressing or sprinkle it on your french fries!