Strawberry Picking Time Travel at Ward's Berry Farm

As soon as the weather turned nice (ok, better) back at the beginning of May, I've been all about fresh fruits and veggies. I've been growing some of the best lettuce I've ever tasted and some insanely fast-growing radishes, along with a whole slew of other things that won't be ready for a while. To do this, I had to pull up all the strawberry plants in our yard.

I know, I can practically hear you screaming "WHYYYY?!?" already. These were strawberries we had planted I don't know how long ago, and how many ripened fruits have I ever eaten from them? Exactly zero. They only grew the tiniest of berries that seemed to take forever to ripen, at which point they would go from green to vibrant red overnight and some pesky animal would beat me to them in the morning. It began to be such a constant disappointment that I had no problem ripping them up to make room for things like eggplant and tomatoes, which actually produce things that the animals don't care about.

Anyway, all that garden shuffling has left me wanting. Strawberry season is quick and short around here (although this year, it seems like lots of crops were ready early thanks to our warm spring). My friends and I had planned on berry picking a week ago, but we were beat out by a rainstorm, and we had to postpone to last weekend. With absolutely no rain in the forecast, we piled into the car and headed south on 95.

Ward's Berry Farm is all of 30 seconds off the highway in Sharon, less than half an hour from Boston. Their prices are reasonable for fresh and local produce ($3 for a pint, or $6 for a larger handle basket, above). The strawberry patch is huge, and we each had a couple rows to ourselves, although we stuck close together so we could chat while we picked. Strawberry picking is harder than, say, raspberry picking because the plants are all so close to the ground, and at times I felt like I was playing Twister in an attempt to not faceplant into the berries.

One thing about strawberry picking that I kind of loved and that also freaked me out at the same time? There are a lot of berries on those plants, and they don't all get picked. When they start to rot, they turn into these powdery, dessicated, zombie versions of real berries, and they tend to explode if you pick one by accident. Yeah, what's the good part, you're asking. Because they were rotting in the sun, the sugar was fermenting, and occasionally I'd get a whiff of strawberry liqueur. Every time I got a hint of the scent, I was thrown back in time to a trip to Italy, where my friends and I stayed in a terribly crappy hostel in Sorrento and bought a bottle of liquore di fragola, a supersweet liqueur made from local strawberries (the berries were still in the bottle, and you know we ate them all). I had to fight to not yell out "Strongberry!", which is what we called the drink (and which we used to yell at each other often after that). I could have stood in that strawberry patch, smelling the breeze, all day.

Cucumber Mojito Salad Redux

We all have those recipes that we go back to time and time again. They're perfect for a specific time of year, or they're often requested by friends and family, or they're a comfort food that we couldn't live without. Over time, though, those recipes can get a little stale and in need of freshening up.

So last week, when I went to make the first cucumber mojito salad of the summer, I looked at the recipe (one of the very first I posted on this site, over 3 years ago) and decided it needed a little change. At the time, the only thing that the recipe had in common with a mojito was the mint and sugar - no lime, no rum. How hard could it be to include all those ingredients and actually have the title be correct? Not hard at all.

This new version is very similar to the old version, but it's a little more refreshing in the Happy Hour sense of the word. The rum isn't overpowering, just present enough to give the dressing a tiny hint of zing. I couldn't stop snacking on these as I prepared dinner, so I must have done something right with this recipe!

Have you overhauled a favorite recipe?

Cucumber Mojito Salad Redux
1 English cucumber
20-25 fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup sugar (I actually prefer Splenda for this)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup white rum (or 1 nip bottle)
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1-inch fresh ginger, chopped
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Slice the cucumber into paper-thin slices (a mandoline works perfectly). Put slices in a large bowl and set aside.

In a blender or food processor, puree the rest of the ingredients. Pour over the cucumbers, tossing to cover with the dressing. Refrigerate for at least half an hour to let the flavors meld.

Oh, and don't throw away the cucumber juice at the bottom of the bowl. Add it to more rum or some gin for a light cocktail!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you follow me on Twitter, you've noticed that I've been talking a lot about my garden in the past few months. Since I live in the suburbs, I have a little more room to play than my neighbors in the city. After living in a basement in Brookline for two years, where we couldn't even get herbs to grow on the windowsill, my small garden in Lexington seems like acres. Last summer, I didn't really know what I was doing, but I still ended up with a bounty of tomatoes, eggplants, and herbs. It taught me a lot, so I'm back this year, bigger and better.

The most important thing I learned last summer? Rabbits can (and will) chew through a plastic fence. Putting a big rock in front of the hole they chewed means that they will just chew another one right next to the first. So far, with my new metal fence, I have yet to see a rabbit in the garden, although they live under our deck and run through the rest of the yard all the time.

Second, even if you have the room to plant things in the ground, it may not be the best thing to do. Some perennial herbs, especially mint, will completely take over an area if you let it. Keeping it in a pot means it doesn't get the chance. My mint is CRAZY right now - it's probably the thing that's growing the best.

I've had a hard time growing things like lettuce in the ground, and yet it has completely flourished in its pot this year. This is some of the best lettuce I've ever eaten (planted from a seed packet that included seeds for three types of lettuce, which they called the "salad bowl mix") - it's so tender and soft that I don't know if I'll be able to eat lettuce during the winter anymore. Did you know that lettuce regrows from the root after you cut it? The lettuce pictured above was cut on Sunday night and it's already grown more than an inch!

Overall, I think I have a good variety of things that will grown throughout the season. I've already picked my first round of radishes and planted the second batch, which should be ready by July. Garden radishes are fantastic, so easy, and amazingly quick! I have a few peas, above, ready to pick, which I'll do for dinner tonight (with more salad) to encourage the plant to grow.

Cucumbers, eggplants, red peppers, 5 kinds of tomatoes (not counting the ones I started from seed, way too late), zucchini (more than I need, which means I'll get to eat the flowers too!), pumpkins (both jack o'lantern and mini pumpkins), butternut squash (which doesn't look too promising), parsley, basil, cilantro, dill, lavender, rosemary, chives, scallions, red onions, carrots, kale, arugula, rhubarb, and potatoes round out the garden. Am I missing anything?

So tell me, how does your garden grow? (This post inspired by similar posts by Erin Cooks and Hungry Bruno.)

Springtime Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries are the first local fruit to roll out in the spring, and there is truly nothing like a strawberry right off the vine. I'm dying to go strawberry picking, but for the meantime, pints of berries from the farmers markets that are just starting to open are just as good. And the perfect showcase for perfect strawberries is strawberry shortcake.

The best part of these strawberry shortcakes, though, was the whipped cream. It was the first time I had made whipped cream since getting my KitchenAid Mixer, and it was the easiest process ever. In the past, whipped cream would take upwards of 15 minutes, although it always felt more like 30, listening to the beaters of the hand mixer whapping against the side of the bowl. That cream was always underwhipped until it was suddenly curdled, never hitting that magical "stiff peaks" stage that's always spoken of. But this whipped cream? Three minutes from start to finish, and the addition of vanilla made it utterly heavenly. I could (and did) just eat it with a spoon.

Strawberry Shortcakes

Cream Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 450°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl and stir to combine. Pour in cream and mix until just incorporated. Turn out onto a piece of wax paper. Knead dough lightly, folding it in on itself to create layers. Using wax paper will allow you to knead the dough without adding extra flour. Pat dough into a rectangle about an inch thick and cut into 8 equal pieces.

Arrange biscuits evenly on the baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Rotate pan halfway through. Cool biscuits on a wire rack.

Vanilla Whipped Cream
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

Combine cream, sugar, and vanilla paste in a stand mixer. Mix together on medium-low for about a minute until frothy. Whip on high for 2-3 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. Do not overwhip or you'll get butter.

Strawberries
1 quart (about 1 1/2 pounds) fresh strawberries
1-2 Tbsp sugar

Wash strawberries and pat dry. Slice berries thinly. In a mixing bowl, sprinkle strawberries with 1 Tbsp sugar and stir. Add additional sugar if berries are tart. Refrigerate for at least an hour before use to allow a syrup to form.

Assembly
Split biscuits in half and place bottoms on dessert plates. Top with a big dollop of whipped cream. Divide strawberries between the biscuits. Place tops of biscuits on the strawberries, then add another big dollop of whipped cream.

Spanakopita Burgers with Tzatziki

It began with yet another email. Fans of Lamb, the promotional arm of the American Lamb Board, was offering to send me more lamb as part of a burger contest they are holding. (I don't have a video camera, so I won't be entering, but you can here!) I had just made tons of manti using ground lamb and was anxious to try other ways to use it.

For some reason, I couldn't get a Greek theme out of my head for these burgers. I really wanted to pair it with tzatziki, and my mind kept bringing up spanakopita too. Luckily, all those ingredients go very well together, and the spanakopita burger was born.

I'm very happy with these burgers. The lamb adds a different flavor than beef, but there are enough other ingredients that it never tastes gamey, like ground lamb sometimes can after a while. My friend found the amount of feta I used a little overwhelming, but I didn't agree - if you're not a big fan of feta, you can cut back on the amount. The addition of so much spinach and cheese is also a great way to stretch the meat a little bit further.

Spanakopita Lamb Burgers
1 lb ground lamb
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
3-4 ounces of feta, crumbled
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands until everything is well combined. Shape into 4 patties and refrigerate until ready to cook. Grill (or use an indoor panini press like we did) for 4-5 minutes per side. Serve on a bun of your choice with a large helping of tzatziki.

Tzatziki
1 English cucumber (long cucumber wrapped in plastic)
2 cups Greek-style yogurt (I used fat-free, but use whatever you like)
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
1/2 bunch dill, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper

Grate cucumber. Line a colander with paper towels and add cucumber. Sprinkle on some salt and let stand in the sink for 1-2 hours. Squeeze cucumber as dry as possible and add to a mixing bowl. Add yogurt, garlic, dill, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and mix until well combined. Add more lemon and salt and pepper if needed. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before use to let the flavors meld.

Friday I'm In Love... with Brie de Lyon

Brie is probably my favorite cheese (I know, there are so many, it's hard to pick just one!). For years, I was accustomed to the stuff from the supermarket, and I loved it because it was creamy and decadent. Oh, I had no idea what I was thinking.

When I was a teenager, on a visit to France, I had some amazing, runny brie that was miles above (streets ahead?) what I'd had at home, but I chalked it up to foods being better in their countries of origin (after a similar trip to Greece, I wouldn't eat feta at home for months).

So when my friend Ann picked up this brie, I figured it would be just like any of the other creamy but indistinguisable cheeses out there. But no, this stuff is completely different - even creamier, with just enough bite to make it interesting and just a little bit of nuttiness. We've taken to calling it "crack brie", because we all crave it like crazy and will go through a piece like piranhas going at a cow.

But where does this magical brie come from? Wasik's in Wellesley, a fantastic cheese shop with a staff that knows more about the selections in the store than anyone should ever know about cheese. This brie, called "Brie" de Lyon (in apostrophes because real brie comes from Brie, while this is from Lyon), is a little more than what you get in the supermarket but well worth the money. It goes especially well on slices of baguette with a little bit of fig jam (don't worry, you can get all of this at Wasik's), but it's just as tasty without any accompaniment.

Fruity Oaty Bars Make A Man Out Of A Mouse

Around the time that we were planning our Dollhouse party, our friend April, who lives in LA but visits Boston every year around her birthday, said that she wanted a Whedon-verse themed party for her birthday. We spent the intervening months brainstorming party ideas based not just on Dollhouse, but also Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and my beloved Firefly.


I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to make Fruity Oaty Bars, which has a commercial (above) that unlocks seemingly-crazy River's potential in Serenity. I brainstormed ideas for ages - I didn't want to just dye something with colors to make it match the commercial. I ended up combining a few recipes to include both fruit and oats, as well as to keep the colorful look.

The resulting Fruity Oaty Bars are pretty tasty and would make a great breakfast snack. The texture is similar to a muffin, and it's not terribly sweet. The blueberry and strawberry sections had the strongest taste, while the mango and kiwi sections just tasted vaguely fruity. I would make this again (probably with just a single fruit) just to have on hand for breakfast.

Of course, I had to wrap them individually to make them look like something shiny you would buy in the Core planets. I wanted to wrap them in gold foil, which I thought I had on hand but didn't. I opted, instead, for a copy of the local Chinese newspaper, which I grabbed from a newspaper box on my corner, and added a picture of the Fruity Oaty Bar Girls that I grabbed off the internet.

Fruity Oaty Bars
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
6 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups fruit puree (your choice - I used 1/3 cup strawberry, 1/3 cup blueberry, 1/3 cup kiwi, and 1/3 cup mango)
food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a glass baking dish with parchment paper, letting the edges overhang so you can remove the baked bars easily. I used a 7x12 baking dish, which seems like an odd size, so use something that is relatively long and narrow.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and oats and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and sugar and mix well. Place each fruit puree in a different mixing bowl and divide butter/eggs/sugar mixture evenly between them; mix well (and add food coloring if you want the colors to be bold after baking). Divide flour/oat mixture evenly amongst the bowls and mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened.

Arrange the colored batters in long, thin stripes down the baking dish. The batter will be thick, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get the colors to line up next to each other. Make for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely before cutting.

To serve, cut into slices, making sure to include some of each fruit.

Of course, there was more to the Whedon-verse party than Fruity Oaty Bars. Everyone came in costume - we had Inara, Kaylee, Simon, River, Jayne, Drusilla, Faith trapped in Buffy's body, Faith, and the Man himself, Joss Whedon. We enjoyed Some Kind of Hot Cheese, burgers from Double Meat Palace, and Simon's birthday cake (in miniature, above). We also had tons of themed drinks: Kaylee's Gussied-Up Engine Wine Coolers (strawberry juice, vodka, and riesling), Lorne's Seabreezes (grapefruit juice, vodka, cranberry juice, wedge of lime), Mudder's Milk (depending on who was drinking, it was either beer or Baileys), Wonderflonium (bright greet kiwi strawberry fruit punch and gin, although any bright green juice would work), and my favorite, Badger's Finest (iced tea, applejack, and slices of green apple).

What would you include for a Joss-themed party?