Jam it, pickle it.

This past weekend was a culinarily exciting one, to be sure. Hook and I tried two new recipes, both from Eating Well. The first -- a salad of small potatoes, green beans, and sirloin in a creamy, horseradish-based dressing -- was good enough to warrant a repeat preparation. The second, a wheatberry & veggie salad, was not. I actually expected to like the wheatberry salad more, being a huge wheatberry fan (and not so much a fan of potatoes), but the dish ended up being too oily, the proportion of vegetables to grain out of whack. If I were to prepare it again (and "prepare it again" is a generous classification: what I mean is, if I were to use this recipe as a starting point for another wheatberry-centric salad), I'd use half the amount of oil and would add a more diverse mixture of vegetables: broccoli florets, lightly-sauteed mushrooms, maybe some fresh corn. Who knows?

More exciting is the fact that Hook and I made refrigerator pickles(!) This activity was also inspired by an article in Eating Well -- Hook was so excited about the prospect of homemade pickles that 1) could be eaten within 24 hours of preparation; and 2) would not require the use of proper canning techniques that he went out the same day and got a set of canning jars. We pickled cucumbers, beets, and jalapenos, all purchased at the Civic Center farmers' market (save the golden beets, which I got at Haight St. Produce); we prepared a sour brine and used a variety of spice blends, including a traditional pickling blend, cinnamon/clove, curry/ginger (for some beets), and fresh herbs from our small, new herb garden: thyme, oregano, basil. I know I run the risk of tooting my own horn, but the pickled goods turned out phenomenally well. The curry ginger beets are my favorite: the curry flavor is less dominant, and the ginger adds a kick. YUM. Be advised that, if you are in the SF area this summer, you will be goaded to try 27 varieties of homemade pickles. Just saying.

More baking!

One of the best parts of summer is all the free time available for baking. We had a bunch of strawberries just sittin' in the fridge, getting mushy (perhaps that 4-lb. clamshell was ill-advised?), and I wanted to find a creative way to use them. Voila! Strawberry buttermilk muffins. Here's the recipe, copied & pasted from the Body and Soul website. (The recipe originally appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Body and Soul, which I found lying on the coffee table. Just so you know.) It is true that I posted this link on my facebook page, but I am so enthusiastic about these muffins that I thought the recipe deserved two postings. In all honesty, these delightful muffs will change the way you think about strawberries, and buttermilk. The end. 

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Using a potato masher, lightly mash berries; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Here it is, a fine Monday almost-noon, and I'm posting from work! (Indeed, there is no work for me to do - I keep asking my boss for assignments, but he has none - so this internet time won't be held against me.) A few tidbits, then:

1) My dad called this weekend to wish me a happy fourth, but also to notify me about this guy, who allegedly killed (among other people) an elderly man behind one of the Galesburg Hy-Vee locations. (Interesting that my dad specified "Hy-Vee," because the grocery store isn't named in the article.)

2) The humidity here has been brutual for the past few weeks, but these resolve the issue of having either 1) to eat out all the time, or 2) to munch on cheese and crackers night after night. Cheers for keeping the kitchen [relatively] cool.

3) Watched Episode One of the HBO John Adams movie last night. Am enjoying it, so far - especially one angry Bostonian's outcry against the British taxation of "the lead in our paint" - but somehow, I can't imagine Abigail Adams as Laura Linney (or vice versa). Maybe I've just seen Linney in too many other, non-historical roles, but I can't wrap my head around the portrayal.