Creamy Coconut Barley with Peaches and Cardamom

Yipes! Its been such a busy summer for me, photographing weddings and people and my cat, and going to the beach and having visitors and getting outdoors as much as I can!

I promise, I have been cooking, and enjoy the bounty of summer produce. But if I have a free minute I'm usually lingering over heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella on the deck, not blogging about it at my computer!

But here's a delicious breakfast I've been enjoying this week with fresh peaches. Its so good. Healthy and satisfying.

Creamy Coconut Breakfast Barley with Peaches and Cardamom

serves 2

1/2 cup pearled barley

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1 peach

2 teaspoons coconut oil

a pinch of cardamom

agave syrup to taste

Rinse the barley in a fine mesh sieve. Cook in a small pot with the water, lid slightly ajar for 25 minutes or until water is absorbed and barley is soft. 

While barley is cooking, heat the coconut oil over low heat in a small heavy-bottomed pan. Slice the peach and saute in the coconut oil with a pinch or two of cardamom, until edges being to slightly brown.

Combine the cooked barley with the coconut milk and enough water to make it blendable with your handstick blender (or in your regular blender - with lid slightly ajar to let steam out while blending!). Barley cereal should be nice and creamy when done, but not too runny.

Pour the barley into two bowls add splash of milk, top with sauteed peaches and a drizzle of agave syrup.

Summer Cooking: "I'm Craving a Burger"

WHAT?!  Yes, I was craving a burger.  It's the end of summer and this just can't commit vegetarian wannabe hadn't eaten a single burger from the grill. So last night was the night.  And by burger, I meant turkey burger.

Turkey Burger
(based on the seasonings from this recipe)

1 lb. ground turkey
1 t dried or fresh parsley
1/2 small onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1-2 t cayenne pepper (adjust to your desired level of spice!)
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
salt and pepper

finely mince the onion and garlic in a food processor. 
mix meat, onion, garlic and seasonings together with your hands.
form into 4 to 6 patties.
grill!
suggested toppings:  plain yogurt mixed with cucumber and dill, garlic mayo, feta cheese... These are my preferred toppings for this burger but since we had none of these around it was plain mayo, pepper jack cheese and veggies. 

I also made some "fries" to grill.

1/4-1/2 lb. potatoes, chopped into small bite size pieces
2 t paprika
1 t cumin
1 t coriander seeds
salt and pepper
drizzle of olive oil (probably 1 T)
aluminum foil

spray foil with oil.
toss potatoes with oil and seasonings.
wrap in foil packet.
grill!  

Goes well with a craft brew! 

Summer Cooking: BLTs

I don't think I have to give you the recipe for this one... but thought a couple of nice photos would be fitting for a Summer blog post.  After the first taste of one of these crunchy, squishy bacon-y sandwiches, it appears on the Summer dinner table over and over again.  Viva la BLT!  

toasted wheat bread. sliced tomato. crisp lettuce. crispy bacon. mayo!

it MUST be cut on the diagonal. 

Summer Cooking: Grown Up Ice Cream Sandwihes

I love ice cream sandwiches, the plain old chocolate wafer and vanilla ice cream are one of my favorite  summertime treats.  But, with a bunch of peach ice cream in the freezer, it was time to get creative.  I was thinking the other day that a delicious cinammon and oatmeal cookie would make a good sandwich for that peach ice cream.  Yes, I fantasize and dream about food on a regular basis.  However it's been too hot to bake so my cookie plans were pushed to the back of my mind.  Then, Bon Appetit posted a delicious looking photo gallery of gourmet DIY ice cream sandwich recipes. 

My mouth watered just looking at the photos.  It had to happen.  I prefer and welcome the challenge to make things homemade when I can, but instead of heating up the house to bake cookies, I headed to my favorite locally owned grocery, Gateway Market.  They have a nice selection of baked goods including super delicious big cookies. I picked out the last two ginger cookies and Ryan opted for a cinammon cookie known as snickerdoodle (what a silly name!  even for a cookie!!). 

Here's how I constructed my grown up ice cream sandwiches. 

First I set out the ice cream so that it would soften up just a bit.
Then, using a mason jar, as a cookie cutter, I made cookie circles and saved the edges for later!

I placed the cookies flat side up and topped one side with a scoop of peach ice cream.

I then put the second cookie on top of the ice cream and gave it a little squish. 

I wrapped them up and placed them back in the freezer, hoping they'd firm up. After about 45 minutes, Ryan and I unwrapped and bit into our ice cream sandwiches. 

The dense, chewy cookies, now a bit cold, made for a very messy sandwich.  I had to handle it a little differently than the traditional thin chocolate wafer variety,  but the mess was well worth it for a Tuesday evening treat.

What is your favorite summertime treat? 

Have a great day! 
xoAllison

Peaches!

Peaches are my favorite fruit.  Over my birthday weekend, my husband and I took a road trip to a pick-your-own orchard to pick peaches.  The plan was to get enough peaches to make some jam (a hobby of ours... that oddly enough I haven't written about here yet), some deserts, and just have fresh peaches around to eat.  We love the fun of picking the fruit straight from the farm, where we know exactly where it came from.  A rare phenomenon these days. 

We set out early to make the scenic drive to St. Joseph Missouri.  There weren't any closer orchards that had peaches ready to pick.  We ended up at Schweizer Orchards in the near 100 degree heat in the early afternoon.  Pick-your-own peaches were $1.19 per pound and we planned to pick about 12 pounds.  When we got to the rows and rows of peach trees, we noticed that the air smelled sweetly of peaches.  It was incredible.  Rows were kindly marked with the name of the variety of peaches  and noted with blue ribbons if they were ready for picking. We began to survey the trees and feared that they had already been picked over for the day.  The ripe peaches were few and far between... or too high for us to reach.  Sooner or later we began to fill up our baskets with a few good peaches.  It was hard to resist, so we shared a sun warmed, perfectly ripe peach.  Wow.

After trying a few more rows, we got into the groove and found trees that hadn't been picked much at all.  Ryan developed a method for shaking the branches gently and when peaches began to tumble off, that meant they were ripe.  Though we had to be careful not to mix ours up with the peaches that had fallen to the ground.  There were so many!!  After a sweaty hour we realized that we had filled at least 4 baskets to overflowing and that we should stop... even though we were having fun.  All told, we left he farm with roughly 30 pounds of delicious peaches. 

our peach haul laid out on the table that evening

We made two dozen jars of peach jam... plain delicious peach, honey-peach, and my favorite ginger peach. 

We made this amazing peach cobbler.  And peach ice cream (ridiculously good).

We even mixed the peaches with bacon for this salad (it was so good it was gone before I got a picture).

Just before I sat down to write this, I salvaged the remainder of the peaches (it's been a week since they were picked... some were in bad shape) and sliced them for freezing. 

The day was a wonderful way to spend part of my birthday.  Whether you are going to get bushels of fruit for recipes or just want the experience of seeing fruit in its natural habitat, I highly recommending going to a pick-your-own farm.  Because you are providing the labor, the fruit is generally a lot cheaper than pre-picked fruits from a farmers' market and definitely cheaper than the supermarket.  Find more information about pick your own farms and orchards here. 

Seasonal Summer Cooking: Sweet Corn!

It's finally here.  Iowa Sweet Corn!  A few ears may be found early in the summer, but a sure sign that sweet corn is in its prime are the appearance of roadside stands and mountains of the beautiful ears in supermarkets.  Sweet corn is an Iowa icon... and from now until the end of sweet corn season, it will be eaten several times a week.  You better believe that when I get a good chunk of time, I'll buy an embarrassingly large quantity of corn to stash in the freezer!

A delicious, local summer traditional treat!! 

But what will I do with this mountain of corn?

While corn is great on its own as a side or a main dish ( and if its really good and fresh it doesn't even need butter or salt!) last night I used corn to dress up pasta dish.

1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
2 cups corn kernels
2 or 3 strips of bacon
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons fresh basil pesto
parmesan cheese

bring a large pot of water to boil.
meanwhile, cut the kernels off corncobs. (2 or 3 should make 2 cups)
cook the bacon in a skillet until brown, set aside on paper towels to drain.
wipe most of the bacon grease from the skillet, saving a very small amount in the pan for cooking in the next step.
hopefully your water will be boiling at this time.  add pasta.
while pasta cooks, grate or mince the garlic.
heat the skillet to medium and add corn and garlic.
chop the bacon into small pieces.
when pasta is finished, drain and bring pack to pot.
add corn and garlic mixture, bacon and the pesto.  mix well.
serve with generous amount of grated parmesan cheeese.

if you have extra corn, throw some in your side salad with fresh summer tomatoes!

Summer Cooking: Kohlrabi Slaw

Up until I became an enthusiastic home cook, I thought coleslaw was defined as that milky sweet stuff in a styrofoam cup from a certain fried chicken chain restaurant and only a few if any bites were eaten.  Now, I've got an all new take on "slaw".  I've made it a few times in the past and recently created a new recipe. While technically to be coleslaw it should contain cabbage, I  suppose, if asked, I'd (potentially incorrectly) broaden the definition to include earthy, grated vegetables such as beets, carrots, and now kohlrabi.

what IS this thing?! you may ask yourself...

This was my first time cooking with kohlrabi. I had never seen or heard of it until about five years ago.  I found one over the weekend at a farmstand for only 25 cents... so I decided to give it a whirl.

First, I looked for some information on it in my favorite reference cookbook for vegetables, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  While kohlrabi didn't have its own entry (surprisingly, because Madison's book is very thorough) it was found in the index among recipes for grated vegetable salads.  Which, if you are a purist, my recipe would be called rather than a slaw. Next, I went to my favorite visual internet resource, Foodgawker, to search for kohlrabi slaw recipes.

After searching for inspiration and some thinking about what would taste good for lunch, this is what I ended up with:

Kohlrabi Slaw aka "kohl slaw" 

or

Grated Kohlrabi, Carrot and Apple salad

2 cups raw kohlrabi, grated
2 medium sized carrots, grated
2 apples, grated
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 cup walnuts

1 teaspoon mustard
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
3-4 Tablespoons olive oil

grate kohlrabi, carrots and apples in food processor with the grating attachment, or box grater.
grate ginger using a finer grater, such as a microplane.
place vegetables, ginger and walnuts in a bowl. mix well... hands work best to get separate and combine the tiny match-stick pieces of vegetables.
in a separate bowl, mix mustard, vinegar and oil to make a dressing then add to salad.
serve right away at room temperature or cover and refrigerate until lunch time.