Favorite Photo Friday is Back!

Quote of the Day:  Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present. - Buddha

In other words, live in the moment. Not always an easy thing to do. However, it will give you a sense of peace, help you enjoy where you are and the people who are with you.

My little sister flew in from Portland, OR on Wednesday. As soon as I picked her up, we started visiting people and reconnecting. The most important part of life is people and relationships.

Kay showing Joy her fridge full of family photos.

The next day, lunch with old friends, creative spirits and colleagues at

Bugaboo Bay in Alexandria, MN.

A stop at Carlos Creek Winery to visit with another friend who brought gifts and ideas.

One book he gave me is Truth in Comedy. He's been studying acting and theatre and emphasized that no matter what is going on in the scene, the most important thing is the relationship between the characters.

And, a stop at the Beilke farm for a delicious snack, a chance to share photos and stories, and time to look around.

We had one more stop at my friend's house to drop off borrowed items from graduation, do a quick catch-up, and watch her grandson love up the farm kittens, nearly to death! Wow. Talk about tame kitties.

That's all just the first 24 hours. I wonder what today will bring?

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Make your best effort to live in the moment today, this weekend, or whenever you are with important people in your life. What did you do, where did you go, what did you talk about?

Revisiting favorite places and familiar faces is also a reason to Ride off the Page! Check out whose there.

Inspiring Story of Hope in Guatemala

Quote of the Day:  I realized there's so much more going on in the world to be aware of and learn about. Brianna Jensen who spent a year in Guatemala working for Common Hope and helping fight the battle against poverty.

Hello, Fellow Blog Friends,
I know I've been MIA for a while. I've been off exploring the world in leather, as a friend commented, on the back of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. You can read all about those adventures at my new travel blog: Ride off the Page!

In the meantime, the newest edition of Her Voice is out, a local magazine that focuses on interesting, successful, and adventurous women in and from the Brainerd lakes area of Minnesota.  My latest article is about Brianna Jensen, a young woman who spent a year of her life volunteering for a program called Common Hope in Guatemala. She made a difference in the lives of many people, made great connections, and learned so much from her experiences in a third world country. The article, Living with Less, Finding More, can be found at the Her Voice site of the Brainerd Dispatch.

Here's a teaser from my motorcycle travles. This sign represents where I've been, but doesn't tell you where I am when I took it. Do you know where this sign hangs? To find out the answer, go to Ride off the Page!

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever gone far from home to do mission work or help in some other capacity? Do you support any local organizations that help others?

Choffee Chip Chunk Ice Cream . . . (Coffee Ice Cream with Chunks of Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies)

Let's have a show of hands. Of all you folks out there, who among you likes ice cream, likes coffee, and also likes chocolate chip cookies? Please keep 'em up while I count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . um . . . . . . . . . . okay . . . still counting . . . . . . still counting . . . whew . . . lots of hands . . .

Just as I thought. You can put your hands down. I'm gonna go ahead and round the total up to about a zillion people or we'll be here all day. Clearly, the vast majority of us are of the same mind on this issue. After all, what's not to like?

About this recipe . . .

If you are a fan of that flavor trio, you'll love this. Adapted from the formula for Black Coffee Ice Cream in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, a compact book by Jeni Britton Bauer (that I first mentioned to you in this post, on vanilla mascarpone ice cream with roasted cherries, several weeks ago), this is another recipe that's too good to ignore. Expect an absolute premium result, and prepare to experience superb creaminess.

As for the cookie chunks, I recommend using this fail-safe chocolate chip cookie recipe, using all milk chocolate chips/chunks instead of an assortment of chocolate. I suggest baking the cookies slightly longer than normal, so they'll be crispier and will easily break into small pieces. You'll need about eight, thin 3" cookies to add into the ice cream. This is an excellent chocolate chip cookie recipe for any purpose, and one that I've made dozens of times over the years. (My kids are crazy-cuckoo-nuts for these cookies.)

So, love coffee? Love ice cream? Love chocolate chip cookies? Yes? Then it's settled. You've got to try this. That's all there is to it.

Choffee Chip Chunk Ice Cream (Coffee Ice Cream 
with Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie Chunks)

(For a printable copy of this recipe, click here!)

Yield: Slightly less than one quart

2 and 1/2 cups whole milk (I didn't have whole milk, so I used 2 cups 2 percent milk, and 1/2 cup half & half instead.)
1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) cream cheese, softened (I used Philadelphia brand.)
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup of coffee beans, ground coarsely (I used French roast beans.)
About 8 thin and crispy milk-chocolate chip cookies, approximately 3" in diameter,
       broken into small pieces and frozen

In a very small bowl, stir together two tablespoons of milk with all of the cornstarch until smooth (this is the "slurry").

In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese and the salt. Set aside.

Fit a piece of cheesecloth into a strainer and place that atop a medium size bowl (this will be used to strain the coffee-bean particles out of the still-in-process hot liquid). Set aside.

Fill a large bowl about halfway with ice cubes and cold water. Set aside. Place a large, clean Ziploc bag, opened and ready, near the bowl (you'll pour the finished hot liquid into it, then place the closed bag into the ice water to cool).

In a large saucepan, combine the rest of the milk, the heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup. Over medium high heat bring the mixture to a steady low boil. Boil for four minutes. Take the pan off the burner and pour in the ground coffee beans. Let it steep for five minutes. Pour the liquid through the cheesecloth-lined strainer into the medium bowl. Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the beans, wrapped in the cheesecloth, then discard the beans and cloth.

Pour the liquid back into the saucepan and whisk the cornstarch in slowly. Return the liquid to a boil over medium high heat and cook just until it's slightly thickened, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom and sides with a heat-proof spatula. Take the pan off the heat.

Slowly pour the hot liquid into the bowl with the cream cheese and salt, whisking as you do so until it looks quite smooth.

Pour all of this into the Ziploc bag, zip it closed tightly, and place that into the bowl of ice water for about half an hour or until decidedly cold, adding more ice to the bowl as needed.

Remove your frozen cookie pieces from the freezer. Have the container into which you will put your churned ice cream close at hand. Following the manufacturer's directions for your own ice cream freezer, churn the ice cream until it thickens. (I use the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and usually need to churn ice cream for about 20 minutes or longer.)

Quickly layer the churned ice cream into its container along with the broken cookie pieces; don't stir the cookies in, just sprinkle them over the ice cream more or less evenly, remembering to sprinkle some atop the last layer.

Seal your container well, and freeze your ice cream until very firm (I let it freeze for about 16 hours before trying it, but you don't have to wait that long!). Enjoy!

(If you'd like to comment on this post, or to read any existing comments, please click on the purple COMMENTS below.)

Shrimp Fritters (Crocchette di Gamberi)

I found some Frozen, large cocktail shrimp in my freezer, about 10.  Yes, you can use fresh Shrimp if you like.  The texture will be different.  Starting off with cooked shrimp (thawed), yields a better cake or fritter texture   I had just a few roasted red peppers that I needed to use up in a jar.  Just not enough to serve, but enough to add to a recipe.  A good Home-cook is a creative one.  Making the most out of very little.  I was craving something similar to a crab cake, so why not use Shrimp cake?  These cook in a hurry.  It will be hard to resist just one.   I must admit, a little tomato Compote is the perfect little dipping sauce.  I am not sure the infatuation with dipping sauces in this Country, but it works for these fritters, so why not?   Truth be told,  you can eat them,  once cooled,  without anything at all,  just pick one up with your hands.
Ingredients: 
About 10-12 Large, cooked shrimp, peeled, tails off, cut into a small dice (they should be tiny pieces)

1/2 cup plain bread crumb (plus extra for your plate before frying)

1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons diced parsley plus more for garnish

One egg

Method:  In bowl combine all your ingredients.  You should see a thick paste.  Roll each 2 inch spoonful  into your hand, then into a little ball and flatten.  Pass each fritter in additional bread crumbs and lay on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Keep going until they are all done.

Makes 12 small appetizers:

At this point they can either be placed in the refrigerator to harden and set some.  Otherwise just put them in a container into the freezer for a later date.   They didn't last very long in my freezer at all. 

You can pan saute or fry.  I elected to pan saute until golden in a little sunflower oil.  They cooked in a hurry.  Just a few minutes in hot oil,  on each side until golden.  

For the sauce: 

Ingredients:  1/2 cup diced Spanish onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped fresh Roma tomatoes and all the juice

1/2 cup white wine

1 teaspoons of salt

Optional basil for garnish

Pepper to taste

In a medium saute pan, heat your oil and  cook your onion until fragrant and almost golden.  (Just like you would any tomato sauce for pasta).  Add your tomatoes and cook.  Add your white wine and let boil away.  Add your salt and pepper and let cook for about 8 minutes until thick and the oil separates from the pan.   Pour into a small serving cup and serve beside your fritters.  Enjoy!

Buon Appetito!

Big-Top Nectarine Muffins . . . with Salted Marcona Almonds and Turbinado Sugar: Get Under the Big Top!

Over 25 years ago I landed my first real job at a publishing company in downtown Detroit. It was an interesting place, filled with smart, witty, and sometimes eccentric people, most of whom were recently graduated English majors like me. As entry-level research/editorial workers we had much in common--an insatiable love for reading, a constant yen to discuss books and authors, and the fact that we were all pathetically underpaid.

Despite our paltry wages, we did have unique company benefits. For example, employees could get free copies of any book they worked on and, typically, each person had a hand in several books each year, so that was potentially a lot of books. Since our names appeared on the credits page of each such book, that was a nice perk. In those early days, it was a thrill to open up a spanking new volume and show parents or friends your name in print. Another benefit was a policy requiring us to take rigidly scheduled breaks twice a day. Mandatory breaks. Just like recess in elementary school, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. A cute idea, at least in theory. You weren't supposed to work through a break, even if you were smack in the middle of a meeting or an involved task. That was the rule.

The break allowed enough time for a cup of coffee and chit-chat, but not much else. That, however, rarely deterred the famished among us from trekking out of our historic high-rise and heading down West Fort Street in search of nourishment. We'd dash half a block and duck into Britt's Cafe, a cafeteria/bakery that was bizarrely sequestered in the back of a high-end office supply store. (I know I reminisced here about Britt's once before, but please indulge me as I simply must do it again.) A best-kept-secret kind of place, Britt's produced fabulous baked goods, along with fantastic sandwiches, soups, and salads. Their roughly-constructed scones were to die for, and their fresh muffins sported the most colossal tops I'd ever seen. Once pulled from the oven, the muffins were cut apart and hoisted out of the pans. They were hearty, deeply golden, and packed with chunks of ripe fruit, toasted nuts, tangy dried berries. Sprinkled with coarse sugar, each was a glittering spectacle, a muffin-meal in and of itself. Well worth the risk of making it back to work a few minutes late.

I was reminded of Britt's muffins as I made these yesterday morning. My batter was really thick, there was a lot of it, and I wondered for a moment if I'd need two 12-cup pans versus just one. As I greased the cups with a pastry brush, I decided it would be fun to engineer a similar  top-heavy result. I loaded the cups with batter, rounding them above capacity with my ice cream scoop, dusted the tops with nuts and sugar, then slid them into the oven.

These big-tops are in honor of Britt's, a great Detroit food spot that no longer exists but, happily, still persists in memory.

About this recipe . . . 

This is an original, unadapted recipe. It contains a small amount of whole wheat pastry flour, which you can leave out if you wish (use white or regular whole wheat instead), along with small pieces of sliced, peeled nectarines (feel free to use peaches, or apples, instead). Coarsely chopped, salted, unblanched, Marcona almonds (oh, they're so, so good--I buy them from Trader Joe's) and turbinado sugar crystals are sprinkled on top. This recipe produces a hearty muffin that's not what I'd call cakey, nor too sweet.

Hearty Big-Top Nectarine Muffins with Marcona Almonds

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Yield: 12 very generous standard size muffins

1 and 1/3 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt (stir in a tablespoon or so of milk if it's thick yogurt)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons canola oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 XL (or 2 medium size) ripe nectarine, peeled, and cut into very small chunks (you'll need about one generous cup of chunks)
3 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (if you omit this, add in the same amount of another flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon of sea salt or coarse kosher salt
2 pinches of ground cinnamon
A few scrapings of fresh nutmeg, or about 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

For the top of the muffins:
1/2 cup salted, unblanched, Marcona almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (if you don't have this, you can instead use Demerara sugar, sanding/coarse sugar, or regular granulated sugar)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Liberally grease a 12-cup standard size non-stick muffin pan, and also grease the top of the pan (I even use baking spray on top of all this, whenever I'm not using paper liners); or use paper liners and grease just the top of the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices.

In another large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, yogurt, lemon juice, oil, and eggs. Stir until well combined, then add in the nectarine chunks.

Make a well in the center of the bowl of dry ingredients, pour in all of the wet ingredients, and stir just until combined. It's okay if a few small streaks of flour are visible. Using a portion scoop, distribute the batter equally into the muffin cups, heaping them high. Sprinkle the tops first with chopped almonds, and then with turbinado sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, the muffins are golden brown, and a finger pressed gently on the top of a muffin springs back. Check the muffins after about 15 minutes and if they're browning too quickly, lightly cover them with a sheet of foil. Let the muffins cool for about five minutes in the pan on a rack, then cut them apart to remove them from the pan and let them cool further on the rack.

(If you'd like to comment on this post, or to read any existing comments, please click on the purple COMMENTS below!)

Pasta con Piselli alla Napoletana

I had a wonderful visit today from my youngest student.  Emily is 11 years old now and eager to learn all there is about cooking and the garden.  We had so much fun.   It's so important that we teach our children all there is to know about good, wholesome ingredients right out of our own backyard and how to apply their knowledge in the recipes they create.  Good practices in the kitchen are essential learning tools for so much that they will encounter in their lifetime.   I am so happy to share in this experience with all of my students.  To see the smile on her face from something so simple and so beautiful.  I hope this puts a smile on your face too.   Notice how there is no need for Pancetta.   However if you like, you can add some to the saute.  As they say in Italy "Lu bonu sopra lu bonu sempre bonu e' ."  Good, on top of good, is always good!

Saluti! Barbara

Ingredients for 6 people:  One pound tubular pasta of your choice ( you want to use something that will catch the sauce)

 We used 12 Roma tomatoes, blanched and peeled.  You may use a 14 oz can,  if fresh is not available!  The Tomatoes will disintegrate when cooked and a lovely sauce will form.  You may add a little tomato paste (tablespoon), to the saute if you like for added flavor.

One red onion (medium), peeled and diced

3 cloves of garlic diced

4 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cups of fresh peas, blanched (I had some from my garden that were blanched and frozen in Spring)

Method:  In a large saute pan heat your oil.  Saute your onion and garlic until fragrant.    Place your blanched tomatoes in a food processor and crush.   Mix until well combined.   Add your tomatoes to your saute and cook.  Add one cup of white wine and let reduce.  After about 10 minutes of cooking, add your blanched peas.  Cook until your sauce has a ring of oil on the edges of the pan and your sauce seems like its about to stick.  If it's to dry add some water, several tablespoons at a time.   Add 2 teaspoons of salt, one of pepper and cook until a ring of oil forms around the edges of the pan.  Your peas should be bright green.  You don't want to over cook!

In the meantime, cook your pasta until al dente.   Drain and toss right in the sauce.

Buon Appetito!

Don't forget the Parmigiano Reggiano!

Engine Failure!

Quote of the Day:  The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul. Sir Walter Raleigh

Keeping with that analogy, the right ventricle, engine, on our American Eagle Airlines flight #2344, August 1, 2012, failed. (Click on the link to read the details.) We had just taken off when we heard a loud thunk. It was right by Zach's head (my son), so we really heard and felt it, sounded like we hit something, or it fell off or exploded. Yay, a little freaky. We had to circle back to the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport and wait for a substitute plane. My son, Bobby, said that the woman next to him grabbed his hand and said she didn't like flying in the first place. She and her husband were not on the substitute plane. I also grabbed the arm of the guy, Tim, sitting next to me. Loud thunks and dead engines are not things you like to hear about while airborn. I confess, I had a few tears. Zach looked at me and said, "You get a little scared?" The boys were cool cucumbers.

I was unable to write my Insecure Writers Support Group post because of these travel delays. (Click on the badge on the sidebar for more info on the IWSG, hosted by Alex Cavanaugh.) We were two hours late at our next stop, Chicago, and assumed we missed the flight. The ticket agent gave us new passes for the 8:30 flight. Then, we saw that our original flight was delayed until 4:30, and thought, what luck, we'll get on that one. But, they gave our seats away, and we couldn't get them back. So, we spent another five hours at O'hare. This, after spending our original four plus two more hours at DFW. Also, there was no water in the bathrooms those last couple hours at DFW. Ya, not pretty.

So, all this is to demonstrate how hard it is to keep a writing schedule, or stick to a plan of any kind. Detours happen. I decided I needed to give myself some grace in my creative world. The real world is rather time consuming right now. Let me explain.

The reason we were in Texas in the first place was for my oldest son's college orientation at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He's had delays coming and going there now, which I pointed out were there to show him how hard it will be to travel from central Minnesota to Lubbock, Texas. He was undaunted. He really wants to go there, for the big, new adventure, the quality education, the engineering program, and the milder winters. It's a hot dessert right now, however!

The other reason for all my writing detours is a new relationship. I'm riding off to the wild west with the Biker Chef, tomorrow! I'll be documenting that experience, and other rides, I hope, at my new blog, Ride off the Page.

So, are those good enough excuses for being tardy on my IWSG post, my lack of blogging this summer, and the non-existent play writing?

I hope you're all having exciting adventures.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever had delays or issues at the airport? (ha! who hasn't?) How's your summer going with your creative life?