Traffic Light Fruit Salad

This fruit salad is basically the most refreshing fruit salad you'll ever find. (iiiif I may say so myself.. ;)) Mom is leaving for 2 months give or take a few days, so I've had to turn the button to the culinary side of my brain on for now. And of course.. you can't cook without creativity. Well you can.. you'll just be a really boring cook. Anyway. I had to put a shopping list and meal plan together for the week, and decided on a fruit salad for part of Sunday lunch today. I hate the typical fruit salads. I've rarely tasted a fruit salad I liked. So this time I thought of the 3 fruits that I think would blend together the best, and that I actually really like. (and fruits that would actually really work well in fruit salad, unlike citrus..) and here's what I came up with.

2 fresh peaches
2 fresh kiwi
Roughly 2 cups of fresh cherries
1/2 a lime squeezed over the top
About 2 tablespoons of fresh mint

I know everybody hates halving and pitting cherries, because it takes forever, but stop being lazy, find a good sermon to listen to, and just do it. Using a grapefruit spoon for the cherry pits, it only took me about 15 minutes to halve and pit about 2 cups of cherries. NOTICE! for best turnout, do the cherries the night before, and then refrigerate them! They are nice and cold that way, and it makes it much easier.
Cut up 2 fresh peaches (unpeeled of course) into bite sizes similar the size of the halved cherries.
PEEL the 2 fresh kiwi, and then cut them into bite sizes also similar to the size of the halved cherries.
Chop about 2 tablespoons of mint finely and then stir it all in a bowl.
Squeeze half a lime (or more, if you like it really tangy) over the top, add a couple whole mint leaves for garnish, and there ya go.

Now if you want it EXTRA refreshing. Prepare the whole thing a few hours before eating, and refrigerate. I had the leftover fruit salad from lunch just now, and it was cold and amazing, and the mint was even stronger. 

(oh yeah.. you're welcome for how awesome your lives just got.. ;) ;) )

Mrs. Downing's Avocado Sunburst Salad

Two weeks ago during the Waldo Canyon fire that burned homes in Colorado Springs, we read an article that mentioned an old friend of ours. It reminded me of the salad his wife served us for dinner when we were newlyweds (Cal working for The Navigators) in probably the same home threatened in the fire. I ran to my old recipe box and found the recipe. I think her name was Maureen. We served it again tonight, having the makings leftover from Sunday dinner, and Kipper made such an exclamation of delight with it (he wasn't here for Sunday dinner) that I figured I'd better post the recipe.


Blend ingredients and chill:
1/2 to 1 cup oil
1 T grated orange peel
3/4 c orange juice
1/3 c honey
1 T toasted sesame seed
1 T lemon juice
1 t paprika
1/2 t salt

3 oranges, peeled, cut into cartwheels (we made smaller chunks tonight, much nicer)
1 large avocado or 3 small avocados, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 large head lettuce (I prefer romaine, sliced thinly)

Pour dressing over salad, arranged however you like!

Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza

Okay, Kilby sent me this link and I have to post it here so I can come back to it as soon as I can make it. Reports to follow.

Caramelized Apple and Goat Cheese Tartines

This is a little snack perfect for afternoon tea or a very informal dessert. I concocted it on a cloudy Sunday evening for Paul and me to share. It will have been the first of many times it appears in my snack rotation. I used lavender (which my neighbor grows whole bushes of) and thyme with the apples, and although you could substitute different herbs or spices, I highly recommend this combination. So go get yourself some lavender and goat cheese and make this right now.

• baguette
• soft goat cheese
• 2 large apples
• <1/4 t lavender
• <1/4 t thyme
• 1 T butter
• 2 T sugar
• 1 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 450º with the rack in the top third of the oven.

Slice 6 diagonal pieces of the baguette (I used French, but I think whole grain bread would be nicer) and spread each slice with a generous smear of goat cheese. Set aside.

Peel, core, and finely chop the apples. The herbs should be finely chopped as well. Heat the butter in a medium skillet until browning, then add the apples and herbs. Toss over medium-high heat until the apples begin to brown.

At this point, place the bread in the oven, either on a baking sheet or directly on the rack. Keep an eye on it, but it should take about 10 minutes to toast and for the cheese to melt.

Add the sugar and cider vinegar to the apples and turn the heat down to medium-low. Toss occasionally until the vinegar is cooked off, the sugar is melted, and some of the apples have a dark brown edge.

When the toast is done, remove from the oven and top each slice with a spoonful of the apples. Serve warm.

Makes 6 tartines.

Coffee Banana Muffins

My sister, Sarah, just sent this which usesd leftover coffee and banana to make incredible coffee banana walnut muffins:

1 pkg Krusteaz Crumb Cake Mix
1 egg
2/3 c strong!!! Coffee
1 over ripe banana
Butter softened
Walnuts (optional)

Mix first three ingredients until lumpy and moistened. Add soft banana with fork and mash into lumpy batter.

Line muffin tin with paper cups. Spoon 1/3 batter into cup, top with some cinnamon topping (from box mix). Add pinch-1/8 t soft butter, chopped walnuts, layer with more batter, top with cinnamon topping and walnuts to fill cup.

Bake 350 for 23 minutes.

Fruit Dip

• • • • 1 can Marshmallow Creme

    2 packages Cream Cheese

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Blend together until smoothy and creamy. Chill. Goes great with any type of fruit.

Kilby Austin's Accidental Chocolate Banana Cake with Cheating Chocolate Ganache

The story of my kitchen is much like the story of my life: "Ooh, that would be interesting, I'll try that." Thankfully, as my life has thus far not run into too many irrevocable misfortunes, my palate has not yet been utterly ruined by the continual stream of accidents coming from my oven. (Though I can remember a few brick breads in the recent past…)

Today, it was my failure to look at a recipe first while attempting to cook from a recipe. And now you know why I hate cooking from recipes. I had seven black bananas to use up before we leave on holiday in a week, and the obvious choice was banana bread--lovely, moist banana bread, ideally, flecked with chocolate chips, but here I've found that I can simply split the batter, add cocoa powder to half, and marble it. Well, to make a long story short, let's just say I didn't look at the recipe and wound up with slightly off proportions…slightly off…with a slightly loose definition of slightly…

So my next thought was brownies, but it was too late: I'd already added the baking powder. When it came out of the oven, it had puffed into the loveliest, softest chocolate cake you've ever seen, but nothing even anywhere near akin to brownies, in all their gooey glory. I despaired.

But suddenly I remembered the four guests coming for dinner and the lame plan I had concocted of serving them the last stale oatmeal cookies for a farcical dessert in a thinly veiled attempt to use up the rest of the food I've got stored in the house before leaving. By a trick of imagination, the failed banana-bread-turned-banana-brownies-turned-banana-cake became chocolate cake simply by the addition of icing.

Here's where it gets good: I also had a little tub of sweetened condensed milk in the fridge, too little to use for any decent recipe, too much to just eat up with a spoon. Well, for any normal human being to eat up with a spoon. Anyway, I decided maybe I could just add cocoa powder to that caramelly sludge…

And miraculously, it worked. It took two tablespoons of cocoa, thirty seconds in the microwave, and my banana chocolate cake is covered with thick, creamy chocolate ganache, the biggest cheat in the history of cooking.

So here's what I'm pretty sure is the recipe.


Chocolate Banana Cake
7 ripe or overripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
.5 cup butter, softened or melted
4 eggs
.25 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 cups flour
Preheat oven to 400º and grease or butter a 9x13 casserole or cake pan. Mix together bananas, sugar, butter, and eggs till well combined; stir in cocoa powder. Sift together dry ingredients, then add. Pour batter into pan, bake for 30 minutes, or until risen and set.


Chocolate Ganache
6-12 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Microwave the sweetened condensed milk on high for thirty seconds, then stir in cocoa powder with a spoon. Spread over the top of any cake for quick frosting.

Orange-Mint Fruit Salad

I don’t know/remember how to post to Mom’s recipe blog so I thought I’d put this here and she can copy and paste it. This is probably my favorite recipe discovery from 2010, and that’s saying something, since it was my first year of marriage!

1/2 small honeydew melon, seeded
2 plums, pitted
1 nectarine or peach, pitted
1 kiwifruit, peeled
2 c strawberries, stems removed
1 c blueberries
1/3 c finely shredded fresh mint leaves

For the dressing:

1/4 c fresh lime juice
1/4 c honey
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
1/2 tsp peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional) Trust me, you want this!

To make the dressing, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the lime juice, honey, orange and lime zests, ginger, salt, and cayenne, if using. Whisk until warm and well blended. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Using a melon baller, scoop out the melon flesh and place it in a large bowl. Slice the plums and nectarine lengthwise into wedges 1/2 inch wide. Add them to the bowl with the melon balls. Cut the kiwifruit flesh lengthwise into quarters, and then cut the quarters crosswise into chunks 1 inch wide. Add to the bowl. Finally, cut the strawberries lengthwise into quarters and add them to the bowl, along with the whole blueberries.

Drizzle the dressing over the fruit. Toss gently to combine. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour or up to 6 hours. Just before serving, add the mint and toss to combine.

There’s a trick to making the thin strips of fresh herbs, called a chiffonade, sometimes asked for in dessert recipes. Pick off large fresh mint leaves from 1 or more fresh sprigs. Try to use same-sized leaves and preferably larger ones, which are easier to manage. Stack the leaves on the work surface and roll them up lengthwise like a cigar. Hold the roll of leaves with your fingertips to keep it tight, then cut the roll crosswise into very thin shreds with a sharp knife.

Makes 8 servings.

My addition: You really should serve this beauty in a clear glass bowl. I swear it makes it taste better.

Of course, I didn’t exactly follow the recipe the last couple times, and have used orange juice instead of lime juice, and probably use a lot more ginger than they say. My fruit amounts also looked more like 1 honeydew, 5 plums, 3 nectarines, 4 kiwifruit, 1 pint strawberries, 1 c blueberries. You gotta have enough for seconds of this.