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Fennel Pesto – a Twist on Your Favorite Pasta Sauce
I’ve been loving our local Farmer’s Markets lately. Our growing season here in Northern Minnesota is short, so it’s especially exciting when we start to see fresh veggies at the market. I feel the need to use and preserve as many of them as possible while I can. My newest love is this Fennel Pesto. I’ve eaten my fair share of fennel bulb – I usually roast it until caramelized and toss it on a salad. But I’ve never utilized the lovely green fronds before. The fronds on the fennel I’ve gotten at the farmer’s market lately have been so lush that I couldn’t bear to toss them out, so…
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Biscotti – A Cookie Made for Dunking
I’m a dunker. I love dunking a crispy cookie into a steaming cup of coffee (or better yet, espresso!). When I bake cookies and inevitably leave a batch in the oven too long, I don’t consider them ruined – they’re perfect for dunking. Are you a dunker? If so, you probably already love biscotti. But if you haven’t made your own at home yet, you’ll want to keep reading. Biscotti is one of my favorite treats to dunk. These crispy Italian cookies are sort of like the crouton of the dessert world. They’re supposed to be REALLY crunchy – to the point where it’s hard to bite into them without…
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Sour Cherry Galette
Summer is full of amazing flavors and seasonal fruits, veggies, and flowers. Since I live in a place where the growing season is extremely short, I am frantic to capture these flavors before they’re gone. For me that means a bevy of jams, sauces, cakes, and my personal favorite – PIES. This Sour Cherry Galette is a prime example. It’s not quite sour cherry season here in Duluth (I think that comes in a few weeks) but I had some in the back of my freezer that needed to be used up. That’s one problem with trying to preserve all of those seasonal fruits – my freezer ends up full…
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Buckwheat Rhubarb Muffins with Pecan Streusel
Back this week with another rhubarb recipe for you guys – break out your muffin tin, because you’re going to love these Buckwheat Rhubarb Muffins! Earthy, musky buckwheat combines with tart rhubarb and a sweet, nutty streusel to create the breakfast of your dreams. Am I overstating how delicious these are? Maybe. Guess you’ll have to find out for yourself! Rhubarb grows plentifully here in northern Minnesota. I’m always a little baffled when I see it in the grocery store. Never in my life have I had to buy rhubarb – it basically grows like a weed here (not in the sense that it grows in the wild, just in…
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Rhubarb Custard Pie
It’s finally rhubarb season here in northern Minnesota, and the rhubarb is plentiful. While I love all things rhubarb, I think it’s at its best and most beautiful in a pie. This rhubarb custard pie is by far my favorite treat of the season – tart, tangy rhubarb enveloped in a sweet nutmeg-laced custard and enclosed in the flakiest, buttery pie crust. It’s heaven. This recipe isn’t my own. I got it several years ago from a customer while working at a local kitchen store (shout out to Duluth Kitchen Co! Also, I don’t remember exactly who that customer was, so if you’re reading this and it was you, please…
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Cinnamon Toasted Flax Seed
Have you watched the show “Psych”? I recently watched all 8 seasons (thank you Amazon Prime), and in the last episode Shawn discovers a tasty treat that he calls “the only healthy thing that has ever tasted good, ever” – spiced flax seed. Now, this recipe isn’t that flax seed exactly, but it’s definitely what I imagined while I was watching the show. This Cinnamon Toasted Flax Seed is sweet, cinnamon-y, crunchy, so delicious, and yes, healthy(ish). If you’ve ever made spiced toasted nuts of any kind, this is the same concept. In fact, to create it I adapted this recipe for Cinnamon Roasted Almonds by Two Peas and Their…
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Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Crema
I love tacos (who doesn’t?). Any type of taco will do, really – especially if it has lots of delicious toppings. (Ok, maybe I eat tacos primarily for the toppings – so sue me.) And though I’m not a vegetarian, I do love veggies, and am always looking for new ways to eat them. Recently I stumbled on the idea of buffalo cauliflower (cauliflower smothered in buffalo sauce? Yes please!), and even more importantly, buffalo cauliflower IN TACOS. I found a great-looking recipe on thissavoryvegan.com, and decided to try it out. Of course I had to make a few tweaks, because that’s just what I do. I added Poblano peppers…
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Mini Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mascarpone Frosting
Holidays are such a great excuse to make your favorite desserts (like you need an excuse, but still). With Easter coming up, it seemed like a great time to share my favorite lemon cake with you. This time around I made it in mini form, with an update to my favorite cream cheese frosting. Enter Mini Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mascarpone Frosting! This makes the fluffiest lemon cake ever, and topped with creamy mascarpone frosting it’s a show-stopping dessert. It will ruin you for all other cakes. It’s also adaptable – it works wonderfully as mini cupcakes, full-sized cupcakes and as a 9-inch layer cake. So, choose your own adventure…
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Dark Chocolate S’mores Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt
Spring has sprung in Duluth, though we’re not quite out of the woods for snowstorms yet (we often get blizzards in April!). Still, I’m already dreaming of summer – sunshine, green grass, sandy beaches, long wooded walks, and s’mores around the campfire. I love a perfectly toasted marshmallow (or even a burnt one, I’m not that picky). On its own it’s delicious enough, but add some melty chocolate and graham crackers and I’m in heaven! Since it’s not quite campfire season, I decided to create these dark chocolate s’mores cookies to tide me over until summer. And oh boy, are they good! These cookies are rich and fudgy with chocolate…
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Classic Banoffee Pie
Banoffee Pie is a classic British dessert, first invented at a pub in East Sussex in 1971. Even so, I always think of it around St. Patty’s Day (probably because the first time I tried Banoffee was while visiting Northern Ireland). So even though it isn’t technically Irish, I still think it makes the most delightful St. Patty’s Day treat. Plus, Pi day happens a few days before St. Patty’s Day (3.14, get it?), so this pie can pull double duty. If you’re not familiar with Banoffee Pie, it’s made with layers of bananas, dulce de leche, and whipped cream, all inside a buttery graham cracker crust. In other words,…
Recipes and Musings from the Zenith City
