I’d like us all to observe a moment of silence for the baking ignitor in my oven.  (Silence from me, but not the children.)

Yes, that means my oven isn’t working.  We’ve had the most glorious stretch of fall-like summer weather in my memory and I can’t bake a loaf of bread in the oven.  But I’m not bitter. 

Well, alright, maybe I am a little bitter.  But I’m also creative and stubborn.  I wanted fresh bread, dang it, and I was going to make it happen.  My husband, the Evil Genius, recently added a toaster oven and a large electric griddle to our kitchen.  I’ve not yet ‘connected’ with the toaster oven.  I have some sort of bias against it.  Maybe some day I’ll grow to love it.  But the griddle?  Where has it been all my life?  I can cook enough pancakes for everyone, a full pound of bacon, make French toast for a crowd, or make sausage and eggs for the whole family at the same time!  I decided, after a suggestion from the Evil Genius, that I could make English Muffins on the griddle.  (**This will be the subject of tomorrow’s post!  Please come back for the skinny.)  The English muffins were so good, so great, that I thought I just might give griddle cornbread- NOT griddle johnnycakes- a whirl.

**I now interrupt my already rambling programme with a couple brief observations on cornbread.  It should be moist, and not at all sweet.  It should only be fit for stuffing after one day.  If there is any left after one day.  And most importantly?  My Grandma’s cornbread is the best cornbread in the whole world.  There is no discussion on that point.  It is so good that it could possibly save the world somehow.

Since I’m obviously partial to my Grandma’s cornbread recipe, I naturally turned to it in order to try out these griddle mini corn breads.  And unsurprisingly, they were delicious!  The griddle and my English muffin rings tag-teamed to make the most gorgeous, golden-brown crusty, moist, individual sized cornbreads.  With a little sliced cheese and some homemade pickles on the side it made a lunch fit for 5 kings and 2 queens (referring to my baby sister and myself.)   And since my Grandma is a kind, generous, recipe sharing individual (don’t take my word for it- see for yourself), I know she won’t mind if I share the recipe with you all.  After all, when your cornbread can improve humanity it’d be a crime to keep it secret.

There is a chance I might receive a Nobel Prize for passing this cornbread recipe along to you.  I won’t let it go to my head.

Despite having eaten several of these within the past two hours I am getting hungry again looking at the picture.  These were so tasty.

The crust on the bottoms of these turned out so perfectly it was almost, just almost a shame to eat them.  I got over that feeling pretty quickly.

If I tell you that I was holding 7 people back, including me-self, from eating these long enough to take a picture would you be impressed?

Grandma’s Buttermilk Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups stoneground cornmeal- be sure not to use self-rising cornmeal, here.
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or soured milk)

Preheat griddle or frying pan to 375°F.  Liberally grease muffin rings (or their designated hitters) and set on griddle or frying pan to preheat as well.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, soda, powder, salt and sugar with a whisk.  In a medium sized bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, melted butter and buttermilk.  Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir well.  (Grandma’s notes specify to use a whisk.  I do what Grandma says.  It’s always for the best.) 

Use a ladle or large spoon to scoop scant 1/2 cups of the cornbread batter into the hot muffin rings.  Allow the mini-breads to cook until you the cornbread is dark golden brown to medium brown on the bottom.  If you’re in doubt as to whether the time has come to flip them, examine the surface of the batter.  It should still be moist looking, but you should be able to slide the ring up without any batter pouring down the sides.  Slip a spatula under the ring and cornbread, slide the ring up and off the bread, and carefully flip over. 

Continue to cook until the second side reaches a nice crispy brown.  Remove to a cooling rack for a couple minutes.  You don’t have to cool it for long, but you might want to leave it there long enough to prevent traumatic burns to the roof of your mouth.  Resist the temptation.  Trust me.

How did we like this recipe?

Well, all I can say is it was Grandma’s cornbread.  14 thumbs up out of 14.  If my husband had been home it would’ve been 16 out of 16 (as I said, my baby sister is here.)  And did I mention these are CHEAP to make?  

 If, in some alternate universe, you should happen to have leftovers of these they should keep well wrapped in plastic at room temperature for a day or so.  You could conceivably store these in the freezer, but that’s uncharted territory for me.  There are never leftovers.  Ever.

You may remember my recurring glass breakage problem this summer.  It strikes again.  Sunday, after making a beautiful batch of cheese from fresh raw goat milk (obtained as a gift from a friend who keeps goats) I was walking back to the countertop with my bowl of cheese in my slippery hands.  To condense the story, I tripped, the bowl fell and shattered into millions of microscopic pieces all around my feet.  My feet that were clad in hole-dotted Crocs.  I had to stay put while one son yelled out the window to his Dad who was on a two-story, fully-extended ladder.  Hubby arrived to save the day, the glass cleanup took over an hour and I spent about another 30 minutes throughout the day removing bits of glass from my feet.  ‘Cause who knew broken glass might make it’s way in through holes in your shoes?

Stylish, no?  Rainbow bright tie-dye socks and black orthopaedic Crocs?  I am on the cutting edge I tell you.

At least I wasn’t wearing these!when the bowl shattered into a billion smithereens.  And those feet belong to my devastatingly cute almost 16 year old competitive gymnast sister.  Let’s just say you should be thankful she’s in the flip flops and I’m in the hiking sock/Croc ensemble.

…And we come to today.  More glass, more shattering, more sweeping and gingerly gathering shards- some big and some tiny- to carefully remove from the area where it can harm feet.  I had an epiphany that I thought I could share.  And be patient with me.  This is some pretty deep thinkng for someone who prides herself on being able to see the shallow side of every important conundrum…

Everyone gets the occasional scraped knee…

Sometimes things just break.  And sometimes it’s not a big deal, but sometimes you feel like you’re teetering on a really sharp edge.

But it’s not the end of the world.  We clean the wounds, carefully remove the glass and let things heal.  This is not news to any of us.  But what struck me was that the shattered glass was truly beautiful.  And here’s where my deep thought came in to play.

The glass is still usable.  Maybe not in the form it took before.  Maybe not in the way the glass maker intended it to be used.  But it’s still salvagable, and maybe it’ll even be better than it was before it broke.  You can melt it down and remake it a million different ways.  It could take on almost as many forms as the number of shards that were scattered around the floor or ground.  Even something that was broken to the point that it caused harm can still be a wonderful and lovely thing.  Isn’t that comforting? 

The secret  is this:  Almost everything is improved by the presence of Nutella.  You know the stuff, right?

I was first introduced to the creamy, hazelnutty, chocolately heaven-in-a-bottle way back in the day when I was an exchange student in La Belle France.  There was a bakery where you could actually bring your bread and have them spread it with Nutella for the equivalent of about fifty cents.  I loved France.

My kids, for better or for worse, are growing up with the omnipresent monster-sized jar of Nutella in the house.  Thankfully, our local(ish) warehouse store carries cranium sized jars of my favorite fix-it-all ingredient. 

I think Nutella really can fix it all.  Got a cake or bowl of ice cream that needs pizzazz?  Warm a little Nutella up and drizzle over the top.  Oh my yes!  Out of butter, jam or marmalade for your toast?  Do I even need to say it?  Are you going somewhere last minute or having an impromptu play group at your house or having last minute company? 

Try this quick frozen dessert that I make around here.  It’s not fancy.  It’s not polished.  But all that taken into account, I have never had someone refuse one of these.  I’ve also never had someone fail to nicely ask for seconds and/or eyeball the one their kid was eating and ask several times whether they really wanted to finish it.  Please try these.  I think you might even thank me.

Okie dokie.  The recipe below is for the Nutella Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Sandwiches, but you can see that I used vanilla wafer cookies for some of them.  I’m crazy like that.  Use whatever cookies you have on hand and it’ll still be delicious.

Ice Box Nutella Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• One box graham crackers, any flavor
• One jar Nutella (I don’t recommend any Nutella substitutes.  They’re specifically not so good.)
• Natural peanut butter (None of the corn syrup in my p.b. please.)  You can use crunchy or smooth!

This couldn’t be simpler.  Spread Nutella on one whole graham cracker.  Spread peanut butter on another cracker.  The thickness is up to you.  Just remember you’ll be attempting to put your teeth through the frozen version of this and plan accordingly!  Gently sandwich together and set in a freezer safe container with a lid.  Continue on until you’ve run out of crackers, Nutella or peanut butter. 

Now comes the hard part.  Do not eat them immediately. Put the lid on it and stick it in the freezer for at least an hour.  Longer is fine, not necessary, but fine. 

How do we like this recipe?

An emphatic 14 thumbs up out of a possible 14.  If the dogs had opposable thumbs they’d hike them for this, too.  They’re snuck more than their share out of the hands of kids who were momentarily distracted.  Danged dogs.  I’ll just say one more thing about this dessert.  We NEVER have any leftovers.  No matter how many I make.  You’ve been forewarned.

I had a golden opportunity yesterday.  My four eldest boys went fishing with my husband and I took the baby -just the baby- to the grocery store.  Since the opportunity for food shopping sans five crazy craving machines comes infrequently I decided to drive to a real grocery store (the Wegman’s that is 40 minutes away) to indulge myself during that brief spell of relative freedom.  We stopped at stuffmart and stocked up on canning jars as many of my jars have not resurfaced since our grand and chaotic move last year. 

Rowan and I scooted over to Wegman’s afterward and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through my favorite grocery store in these parts.  (Not my favorite Wegman’s but there are almost no bad Weggies.  My favorite has to be the international one in Pittsford!)  It was in Wegman’s that I found something that made me very, very happy.

But first I will interrupt myself with a brief harangue against High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Am I the only one who is getting irritated/freaked out/depressed at the fact that it’s nearly impossible to find items without HFCS in them?  Campbell’s Tomato Soup, Hunt’s Ketchup, Viva Italian Dressing, Dr. Pepper (oh why?  why?), and many others have gone down the HFCS road.  Without getting into the wheres and whyfores of why I avoid HFCS like the plague  (I trust you to google it and make up your own mind on the subject) you’ll agree, I’m sure, that once you start watching for it you’re shocked at how frequently it pops up on product ingredient lists.  For instance; BREAD!  Sweet crappy pappy- why does this need to be in bread?  Don’t tell me it’s cheap.  Have you seen the price of corn these days?

I usually make all of our bread, hot dog and hamburg buns included.  I find this to be the best way to avoid weird additives (like the above mentioned HFCS) and it just plain tastes better.  Yesterday I was feeling flush with my “no one hanging off my thighs or ramming fragile looking elderly people accidentally with the cart when rounding the corner on two wheels” shopping experience.  I decided to look at the baked goods to see if I could find some hot dog rolls that were HFCS free.  I won’t go into the list of them that HAD the gunk in it, because it is exhaustive.  But, lo and behold, Wegman’s Brand Wheat Hot Dog Rolls were clean!  Glory, hallelujah!  They were reasonably priced (and by reasonably I mean less than $2.00 a package) and best yet?  They actually tasted great.

Thank you Wegman’s for once again providing amazing food at a price families can afford.  (Did that sound like a politician’s commercial or what?)

I dislike clowns.  I really do.  They creep me out massively.  But if I were to hire a clown for my children’s birthday parties I would hire ’Homey D. Clown’  from ‘In Living Color’.  Without further adieu:

Okay.  I said without further adieu, but I have to say that my husband has been laughing so hard he’s actually having an asthma attack and he’s wheezing behind my left elbow as I type this…  Wheeze.  Wheeze.  Laugh.  (”Stop it,” he says…)

I am aware that my kids may be the exception here, but they live for vichyssoise.  Seriously.  When we were planting potatoes this summer the kids looked at me blanky until I explained that we could make almost endless vichyssoise and homefries.  That got their attention and they got their hands in the dirt, STAT! 

I can’t explain their fascination with cold potato and leek soup logically.  My eldest and second born eat anything I put in front of them.  My third born, not so much with most veggies, but he’s coming around.  My fourth born has a nearly clinical paranoia of all foods vege and green.  The only exceptions are green grapes and Granny Smith apples.  My fifth born dislikes anything he decides to dislike whenever he feels like it with no pattern whatsoever.  Naturally, any food they all like predicably gets shoved into the rotation as frequently as possible.

We are, however, being overrun by man eating zucchini right now.  We have zucchini the size of femurs that seemingly grow overnight in our garden.  Obviously, once the skin gets thick they get tossed to the chickens (and NOT on them as some people around here seem to think is the best way to get their attention.)  Miraculously, some of these gargantuan zukes still have delicate skin and very few seeds.  That makes it human fare!

I have grown somewhat weary of three versions of “I don’t like zucchini” at our dinner table so I employed subterfuge to great effect last night.  A beam of light came down from heaven and illuminated my zucchini and blender.  It was divine inspiration.  I made zucchini-ssoise.  Or faux-chyssoise.  Or whatever you want to call it.  This soup is also good warm, but really people, it’s August…  If you want warm soup go for it.  Just not here.

Faux (a.k.a.) Zucchini Vichyssoise.  Delicious no matter what you call it!

Faux-chyssoise

 Ingredients:

• 3 TB chopped onion  

• 3 TB butter  

• 3 TB flour  

• 2 C milk  

• 1 C water  

• 1 tsp chicken bouillon granules  

• 1/2 tsp salt  

• 1/4 tsp. pepper  

• 4 cups shredded zucchini (approximately 1 large zucchini)  

•  1 c. (4 oz.) cheddar cheese, shredded 

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in milk, water, bouillon, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thick. Add zucchini. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Stir in cheese until melted.

Puree in your blender in two batches, making sure to remove the center part of your blender lid and cover with a tea towel. This is important because it allows the steam to escape the blender without blowing the lid off the whole shebang! 

This yields 4 servings, so my advice is to double this because you’re going to want leftovers.  Serve hot or super chilled.  So, so good.  Please try this!

…And a reminder!  You have 6 days left to enter our Cheesy Giveaway. 

I’ve received quite a bit of email about my “Blessed Are the Cheesemakers” post.  Many people have seen the citric acid in their local markets or health food stores but can’t seem to locate rennet.  I decided, not because I’m altruistic and generous, but because I want everyone to enjoy doing what I enjoy doing (namely cheesemaking in this instance), to give away some cheesemaking supplies.

Homemade mozzarella balls marinated in pesto on garden fresh tomatoes.  Mmmmmm…

So, we come to the strings.  Because I listened in senior Economics class.  Yes, Mr. Griswold, I remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch (or free cheese.)  Just answer the following questions and on Wednesday the 20th of August I will do a random drawing (or figure out how to use that random.org thingie) to determine the winner.

1. Please tell me why you would like cheesemaking supplies.  The more pun laden, the better.
2. We need your email address so we can figure out how to get you the goodies.
3. I’m really interested in hearing your favorite ways of using fresh mozzarella.  This doesn’t have to be creative.  I won’t cry myself to sleep on my huge pillow if there is a collective ‘caprese’ in the comments column.
4. (This is not a question, but it’s one of those extra-credit jobbies)  If you’d like an extra entry, just mention the giveaway on your blog. 

And the boring bit… Er, I’m unclear on the legal ramifications of shipping cheesemaking cultures worldwide, so for now, can we just keep this stuff shipping to the U.S. or Canada?

Now the fun part!  Let me tell you what I’m giving a-whey.  I just couldn’t help myself!  All of these items require only the addition of milk or cream and a little bit of your time to make amazing cheese or dairy products!

• Fromage Blanc culture.  This will yield about a pound of fresh fromage blanc.  If you’ve never had the pleasure of eating fromage blanc, click here for information on how to use it. 
• Direct set yogurt culture.  This will yield between 1 and 2 quarts of fresh plain yogurt, depending on how thick you like it.
• Sour Cream culture.  Talk about simple.  You mix it into a quart of light cream or half and half, leave it at room temp for 12 hours and then refrigerate.  We love easy.
• Crème Fraiche culture.  I’m giving you enough to set 1 quart of light cream of half and half.  This is as easy as sour cream with one additional step.  You hang the set curd in butter muslin for 12 hours.  I’ll provide you with the muslin, too!
• Vegetable Rennet and Citric Acid.  There will be enough rennet and citric acid in the goody box to yield about 8 pounds of fresh mozzarella.  Bring on the basil!!!!
• The recipes for all of the above.
• An instant read cheesemaking thermometer.
• Feel free to take or leave this part of the prize.  I’m offering my over the phone or email assistance if you run into problems with your cheesemaking. 

Most days I feel like a kitchen superstar.  Last week I canned 50 quarts of garlic dills, catered an event for 50 attendees 1-1/2 hours away with all five of my kids in tow (major thanks to my Mom for coming along and riding herd…), made three- count ‘em- three premium cheesecakes (two for the event, one for my visiting sister and her new boyfriend!), made mozzarella cheese and pesto enough to feed the Italian army, experimented with a couple recipes, made several loaves of bread and managed to put three meals a day on the table for my family of seven.  I did it… 

But as I worked my way through last week one dish (or sometimes several dishes) at a time I had a few moments of frustration.  I had an epiphany (and yes, Dad, it hurt.)  While I undoubtedly love cooking and am thrilled to have the opportunities for both captive audiences (husband and kid) and paying audiences (newspaper column and catering/cheesecake customers) there are still things that I just don’t like to do in the kitchen.

This epiphany came as a shock to me.  A shock as big as when I realized that although I loved my children, there were some things I just didn’t like doing with/for them**.  I can hear a collective ‘duh’ rising from the blogosphere, but to me this was news.

**Changing befouled diapers, listening to them practice the same sound effect four hundred times behind my head while I’m trying to decorate a customer’s cheesecake, eating goulash (HOW can they all love it so?), the laundry (I hates the laundry.  Wicked.  Tricksy.  It increases when no one is looking.), etc…

Back to the kitchen grievances, though, since that was my original point.  While peeling several dozen eggs for deviled eggs, I compiled a mental list of the things I don’t like to do in the kitchen:

1. Washing leafy greens.  Whether they be salad greens or mustard/turnip/spinach/collard greens it still irks me.  What irks me more, though, is gritty dirt in my greens, so I soldier on…
2. Breaking up ground meat in a skillet as it’s browning.  Puh-leeze.  I have better things to do.  But, once again, I dislike turning out a meal that is sub-par, and so I continue to break the stuff into fabulously even little meaty bits.
3. Losing count when I’m measuring flour.  ‘Aw, geeze.  Was I on 12 cups or 13?’  Can you feel my pain?
4. Peeling rutabagas.  If you’re not a Yooper or a pasty (pronounced pass-tee… Pase-tees are things that you stick on your, er, never mind) lover this may not affect you quite as profoundly as it does those of us who peel the recalcitrant little beasties weekly.  I swear the things try to jump off of my cutting board.
5. Cleaning leeks (see the ‘washing leafy greens’ entry above.)
6. Cleaning bacon grease.  But oh, how I love bacon.  I can only save so much grease, though, and the rest has to go somewhere.  Has anyone else melted a hole in their garbage bag when trying to be rid of bacon grease too hastily?  Please can someone else admit they’ve done this?
7. Throwing away things that weren’t eaten in time.  Oh, this really, really chaps my hide.  I have an immensely hard time throwing away food.  This is why we started our Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Event.   Food waste bothers me because it is so unnecessary if I plan properly.

(QUICK REMINDER:  You have one more day to get your submissions in for this event.  Prizes, prizes, prizes.  Is that bribery?  How ’bout I beg?  Is that more effective?) 

All of this griping does lead to a point.  I’m curious.  What are the things that really annoy you in the kitchen?  Does you share any quirks with me on this or is your list totally different?  I’m itching to know!

My boys have always enjoyed cooking with me.  I have daily “cooking buddies”.  The kids take turns (with the help of a wheel that keeps track of whose turn it is) helping me prepare dinner.  There is much weeping, gnashing of teeth and rending of hair when someone’s turn is missed or Mom exerts executive privilege on a meal (no deep frying with small fry, if you know what I mean…)

Lately, however, they’ve been wanting to do their own kitchen projects.  On my birthday last week my eldest snuck into the kitchen (and that takes some doing- he’s not a subtle kid.)  He quietly prepared this as an “afternoon refresher” for me.   Look at his plating!  He takes after his Mama.

Mama’s birthday iced coffee with fancy plating by Liam.

My second-born, Aidan, caught wind of what was going on and did not want to be left out of the “doing something for Mom’s birthday” trend and banished me to the porch.  In short order he presented me with this masterpiece.  How about that interplay of flavors and textures?  What a guy!

Granny Smith apple with chocolate sauce, almonds and blueberries- a light afternoon birthday snack for Mama by Aidan.

Buoyed by his success and the amount of huggy thanks offered by Mom, Liam woke up early a couple days ago and made me this!  Love the use of edible flowers and demerara sugar in the plating…

A nice surprise morning cuppa Earl Grey with lovely plating by Liam.  Note the straw- ‘”because straws make everything more fun.”

This kind of stuff is my paycheck right now.  Parenting can be tough slogging, but it’s sweet little gestures like this that renew my spirit and make me smooch my kids until they run away.

First- another quick reminder about  The Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Event.  You have 6 more days to get us your submissions.  Pretty please?!?  We can’t wait to be inspired by how you’re re-purposing your leftovers and reducing kitchen waste.   No blog?  No problem.  Just email us the details and we’ll add you in.  Shall I remind you that we have a yummy prize?

In keeping with this week’s theme of brevity I’m going to give you a quick tease of things to come…   I’ll give you the recipe for these now, but check back in to see what I did with them.  Believe me, it’s worth it!

 Homemade goat’s milk mozzarella bocconcini marinated in fresh pesto!

Homemade Mozzarella Bocconcini

The process of making these is so easy that you’ll be hard press to fork out the mad cash needed to purchase fresh mozzarella balls at most stores.  This simple method takes 30 minutes or less and is insanely easy.  There are a couple specialty ingredients needed to make them, but they’re easily acquired via the internet or mail order.  Once you have the items in your pantry and freezer you can make mozzarella on a whim.  …And I speak the truth when I say that you will have those whims once you taste these!

(If you want the most super-duper authentic fresh mozzarella, you can move up to this kind of recipe after perfecting the fast mozzarella.)  **Also- do not, under any circumstances, use ultra-pasteurized milk for this cheese.  It will not work.  Trust me.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid powder dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water.  Available here.
• 1 gallon whole milk**- see note above (you can use skim, but why?) You can use goat milk or cow milk.  Whatever floats your boat.
• 1/4 teaspoon regular strength rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water (or 1/8 teaspoon double strength rennet OR 1/4 tablet vegetable rennet, crushed and dissolved in the 1/4 cup water.) Available here.
• 1 teaspoon cheese salt, optional (cheese salt is just any salt that is not iodized or flavored.)

Method:

Pour the gallon of milk into a large stainless steel or other non-reactive stockpot.  Sprinkle the citric acid over the top and stir in gently.  Heat milk to 88°F. Don’t panic when the milk starts to curdle.  That’s the idea!

While pot is still over heat, stir the diluted rennet in gently making sure to stir all of the milk (don’t just top-stir!)  Once the milk reaches between 100-105ºF, kill the heat.    WALK AWAY FROM THE PAN for about 5 minutes.  I mean it.  Do not touch that pan. 

When you come back, the curds (the white part) should’ve pulled away from the sides of the pot and you should see lots of whey (yellowish clear liquid) on top and around the sides.  If the whey is still milky looking, wait a couple more minutes.  This is not a bad thing… All milk is different.

Now comes the fun part.  Scoop the curds out of the pot with a slotted spoon and put them into a microwave safe 2 quart or larger sized bowl.  Gently press the curd together against the side of the bowl with your hand.  You’ll probably have lots of whey coming off the curd.  Drain the whey off back into the stockpot and DON’T  THROW IT AWHEY, er, AWAY, that is!***

***Whey is incredibly healthy for you.  Use it in place of milk when baking bread to really improve both the health quotient and the texture of your loaves.  I’ve heard it said that chilled whey, mixed with fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar makes a refreshing drink.  Um, sure.  I’m not quite there yet, but I do use it in my bread when it’s available and it is wonderful!

Put the bowl of curds into the microwave and nuke on high for 1 minute.  Use your hands to hold the cheese in the bowl, and drain the extra whey back into the stockpot.  Make like you’re kneading delicate bread dough and use your impeccably clean hands to gently fold the cheese back on itself over and over.  Again, drain any excess whey back into the pot.

Return the bowl to the microwave and zap it for 35 seconds more.  Knead the curds and drain the whey again.

Return once more to the microwave and give it 25 more seconds.  Drain off the whey, add salt, if using, and knead until the curds are shiny and stretchy like taffy.  You can continue to microwave it in small 10-20 second bursts if the curds cool down to the point where they’re snapping or breaking rather than stretching.  At this point you can either stretch it into a smooth ball and eat it warm, drop the ball in ice water to cool the curd quickly for storage OR…

Pull off little pieces of mozzarella, between walnut size and golf ball size and stretch and roll it to form little balls.  Drop little balls into an ice water bath and repeat with the remaining curd.  While the bocconcini (’cause that’s what they are now) cool, move on to prepare the pesto.

Gorgeous Basil Toasted Almond Pesto

This came about because I was out of pinenuts. (Read: too cheap to buy them at the closest grocery store to carry them.)  It was really delicious.  Delicious enough to remain too cheap to buy pinenuts and use this regularly!  And again, halve this if you need to but this is the quantity I make.  One can never have too much pesto.  This recipe assumes you have a blender or a food processor.  Feel free to make it if you don’t have those tools, but be prepared to do some hard-core chopping!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh basil leaves (washed and drained), packed
• 5 cloves lightly smashed, peeled garlic
• 1/2 cup almonds
• Kosher or sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 1/3 cups extra virgin olive oil (This is a good time to use the good stuff!)
• 1 1/4 cups fresh grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesano cheese
• zest of one lemon, optional

To toast almonds, add them to a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.  Keep agitating them until they smell toasty and nutty and they’re taking on a delicate brown color. 

Remove the almonds from the heat immediately and throw into the food processor with the garlic, basil, salt and pepper.  Pulse until the basil leaves are torn very small and the nuts and garlic have been minced.  With food processor running, pour the olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube. 

When olive oil is fully added, turn off food processor and add the grated cheese and lemon zest, if using.  Pulse four or so more times to mix in the cheese and zest.  Now you can use it for pasta, or as a filling in bread rolls OR…

My new favorite summer staple:  Basil almond pesto marinated fresh mozzarella bocconcini.

Basil Almond Pesto Marinated Mozzarella Bocconcini

I think it’s funny that bocconcini means ‘little mouthful’.  It’s a little mouthful of a word.  I dare you to try to eat just one of these.  Really.  I don’t think it can be done.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb small fresh mozzarella balls
• 1 batch basil almond pesto
• 1 large container with a tight fitting lid (not technically an ingredient, but very necessary…)

Transfer pesto into the container.  I use, unsurprisingly, a quart jar with a tight fitting lid.  Add mozzarella balls a few at a time, shaking gently to coat.  When all mozzarella is added, cap the container tightly and stash in the fridge for a couple days to let the pesto do its work. 

Serve as part of an antipasti tray, eat on a fork by itself, OR…

Come back later this week to see what I did with it!

How did we like this recipe?

Both of the components of this dish -the cheese and the pesto- got a resounding 14 thumbs up out of 14 possible.  This included the “no cheese” guy and the “no green stuff in my food” guy.  These inconsistencies in food preferences are a ray of hope for me.  Some day I may not have to microscopically mince my onions (or leave them large enough to pick back out…)  Ahhh.  A girl can dream.  In the meantime, I’ll serve this as often as possible to get some green stuff in ‘em all.