Fruit of the Month: July & August

The time has come to talk about my "Fruit of the Month" arrivals that I mentioned in my farmer's market post!  I told you about all the fun things I did for Greg's birthday, but he got me some great gifts as well.  The main gift being a monthly shipment of fruit from Harry & David for a year... the original "Fruit of the Month" club.  At first I was like "aw man, fruit for my birthday... the most important day of the year (haha) and I got something healthy?"... and then I thought, "yes! fruit for my birthday... and for so long... oh, the things I can make... oh, the things I can blog" because coincidentally I started this blog right around my birthday... and sometimes I think like Dr. Seuss!

My first fruit, Cherry-Oh! cherries, arrived on July 19th... right around the time I had a ton of things going on.  Although I had hoped to make some amazing cherry things, I did not make anything super exciting.

First we made a cherry "sangria"...

...with a cherry wine we got from Nashoba Valley Winery in Massachusetts,  black cherry flavored sparkling water, and chopped up Cherry-Oh! cherries... served in Mason jars of course! Delicious summer beverage... that would have been even better with some brandy and other fruits... next time...

Then I made a cherry salmon dish for dinner:

I used a recipe I found quickly online, but I did not have tarragon, so I substituted with anise seed because Google told me it was a good idea.  Anise seed tastes like black licorice... it kind of went well with the cherries (I'm being nice), but I will not make this again.

On August 10th I got my second fruit; mangoes!

did you know mangoes can be spelled with or without an "e"?

I was worried I wouldn't like mangoes because I tried a mango rum runner in college and didn't like the taste (such a good reason to be worried, right?)

Greg just had to cut open a mango right away to taste it (I think he bought this present for himself too).  I wasn't in love with the texture or taste, so the remaining 3 mangoes stayed in the box for a while.  Then, about a week later, I decided to do some mango research and saw a lot of recipes for mango salsa and mango cupcakes.  And so, my mango day started.  I cut, chopped, measured, mixed, melted, sauteed, pureed, baked, piped, blended, and taste tested that day.  And voila! I found a way to like mangoes!

I made mango salsa with fresh veggies from the farmer's market:

The mango salsa was SO GOOD... the saltiness of the chips with the sweetness of the mango and orange juice was delicious... until... I remembered that I forgot (hehe) to add the cilantro.  The cilantro altered the taste of the salsa completely and made it taste soapy, which is why I did not include it in my ingredients... we were so sad :(

Don't worry, the delicious mango cupcakes made up for it.  This is one of my favorite cupcakes that I have ever made.  The sweetness of the butter cream frosting paired so well with the subtle sweetness of the vanilla cupcakes.   I tweaked a recipe I found on Dessarts and made it my own. 

Even Greg loved the cupcakes... and he thinks hes a food and wine critic ;).  I used part of an apple corer to make the holes in the cupcakes, and I piped the filling into the cupcakes and then the frosting right on top... I had fun with 2 different piping tips too.  In the future I'll be writing a post on a super easy way to fill a piping bag that makes swirled frosting a lot easier!

Just don't leave your first batch of cupcakes in the oven for too long!

Now its time for me to start my nectarine research... yesterday I got my September shipment:

Any suggestions on what I should make?!

Farmer's Market Finds...

It's getting dark earlier, school has started, and there are Halloween decorations at the stores... fall is coming!  Fall is my favorite season, but there are some things I am going to miss about summer... beach days, no class, eating outside, and farmers' markets.  This was my first year actually going to farmer's markets, and I fell in love!  There's just something about shopping for fresh fruits and veggies outside.

After our cooking class back in July, Greg and I looked for somethings to do before we went home.  Our hotel was in Windsor and we were able to find the Rosedale Farm and Winery near by in Simsbury.  We went for a wine tasting, but when we got there we realized they had a great farmer's market as well.

The colors of the fruits and vegetables were so beautiful, I just had to take pictures.  At the Rosedale farmer's market we got corn, peppers, onions, mushrooms, plums, cucumbers, zucchini, a yellow watermelon, and the best balsamic vinegar that I have ever tasted... and of course wine! We used the fruits and veggies as part of our lunches and dinners.

We had heard that our home town had a farmer's market too, and a few weekends ago we went to our local farmer's market in Shelton.  This time we got fresh mozzarella, cider donuts, basil, banana peppers, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, nectarines, pears, and kale.  

This time I got creative and used the basil to make pesto to top a caprese salad made with the fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and kale chips with the kale (they are as yummy as everyone says)!

I made 3 different kinds of kale chips (as noted in the picture above).  The truffle oil was delicious, but I think the garlic salt would have been my favorite if I hadn't added the salt to the Ziploc bag I mixed everything in.  Instead, I should have sprinkled the salt on the kale when it was laid out on the parchment paper so to avoid GIANT clumps of salt.  I am sad to say the Bayou Blast, although amazing on practically everything... (not kidding), did not taste that great on the kale chips.

Hopefully I will make a few more farmer's market trips before they are done (good news, some last until November).. and don't worry friends, I have one more recipe that I used vegetables from the farmer's market and my July "fruit of the month" shipment to make.  What is the fruit of the month shipment, you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait until my next post to find out! ;)

Check out this website for Connecticut farmers' markets information.


What do you think about farmers' markets?

We Cooked, We Ate, We Laughed...

Hey friends! I have been a bit busy lately... lots of shopping and organizing for student teaching... LOTS of shopping ;) , but I am back to reminisce about mine and Greg's fun date night this summer.  I mentioned that I surprised Greg with a cooking class for his birthday in my post about a DIY ticket shadow box... well we went, we cooked, we ate... and we laughed at the snooty serious people in the class (luckily we found another couple with the same sense of humor as us)! So, what did we cook?

Our Menu:
Appetizer: Grilled Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp Skewers
Main Course: Rosemary-Stuffed Flank Steak with Shaved Parmesan
Side: Grilled Zucchini with Parsley- Almond Pesto
Dessert: Caramel Apple Grilled Pizza

The class was held at Sur La Table in Canton, CT.  There were about 16 participants and we all worked together in groups of 8 to create the meal... and of course we brought wine (wish they provided the drinks).  If I were to ever do this again I would want to go with friends because, as I said, some of the people were just too serious... I think cooking and date nights should be fun!  The food was really yummy... I will definitely be cooking flank steak, making pesto, and working with skewers again!  Here are the recipes so you can try them at home.

All recipes are courtesy of Sur La Table.

FREEBIE TIME!! Want your own 4x6 recipe cards to fill in?  Download a free printable recipe card template here ... just make sure you let people know where you got them from... ENJOY! :) 

Have you ever been to a cooking class?

Break Fast for Breakfast : Egg Muffins

The way I eat throughout the day usually depends on what my morning breakfast is.  I have that little voice in my head that will either say, "Whelp, you've already had that Bruegger's for breakfast, why not Chili's for lunch... I can eat the lunch I packed tomorrow" or "You had a good breakfast, let's keep it going... eat the healthy lunch you packed".  So why would I even consider DD or Bruegger's?  I don't always have time in the morning to make a good breakfast (if I know I can sleep a little longer, I am going to sleep a little longer... this is why morning workouts never happen), and there are only so many Chobanis I can eat a week.

Don't worry! Pinterest and Google have enhanced my life again!  I researched easy breakfasts and found a ton of variations on egg muffins!  These little guys can be made ahead of time in a muffin pan and packed like BAM! in the morning.  The thing that I really like about these is how customizable they are!  So far I have made 3 different variations... 2 with turkey sausage on the bottom (peppers & onion and mushroom, onion, & hot sauce) and one with turkey bacon (kalamata olive, feta, & tomato).  

These muffins have been a bit of a trial and error.  The first batch I sprayed the muffin pan with cooking spray and they came out well... there weren't any big pieces in the pan, but it left a layer of egg that was so hard to clean off.  The second batch I used muffin liners and they came out of the pan fine, without leaving anything behind, but the egg stuck to the liner a bit.  The next batch I make I will use muffin liners sprayed with cooking spray and hopefully they will be perfect.

Put the turkey sausage in the bottom of the muffins and pour the egg on top.

For the turkey bacon muffins, I cut each piece of bacon in half, criss-crossed it on the bottom of the muffin liners and poured the eggs on top of that (I didn't take pictures while I was preparing the turkey bacon muffins). I cooked both batches at 350 and just kept an eye on them.  When they are done they won't look gooey anymore, they'll look like cooked eggs (duh).  I kept them in a container in the fridge and heated them up in the microwave.

I have kept these for 4 days in the refrigerator and they tasted great.  I haven't tried freezing these, but I think it's good idea if you plan to make more than one tray at a time. 

These are some egg muffins I plan to make in the future:

• black bean, corn, & salsa
• spinach, tomato, onion, & feta
• broccoli, cheddar, & onion

 What kind of egg muffins would you make?