Lime Icebox Pie

Coloring inside the lines was never for me. Perched at the sun bleached yellow formica table in my great-grandmother's kitchen I would scribble wildly, weaving in & out of well marked boundaries. Disney princesses, kittens & crossword puzzles wound up a dizzying array of Crayola's color cannon. Wild Strawberry & Macaroni & Cheese (Predictors of my future food obsession? Possibly? Okay, that's a stretch.) wound up in frayed nubs the quickest. While I busily set about deconstructing stacks of newsprint, my great-grandmother, or Mama as we called her, would hold court in front of the stove. Most often her time would result in one of three treats: chicken 'n' dumplings, homemade (warm!) chocolate pudding or lemon icebox pie. I can't claim that I have a favorite of the three, that just would be fair, but I will say that that pie pops up in my kitchen today more often than I can count. I have the recipe forever etched in my mind along with an emergency stash of Eagle Brand condensed milk.

When searching for a key lime pie recipe earlier this summer, I fell back on Mama's classic lemon icebox pie. Why not try it with lime? My suspicions proved true; it worked. With an extra egg yolk in tow this pie is rich, creamy & almost custard like with a bright citrus kick.

Head on over to Poor Girl Gourmet for the rest of my guest post & the full recipe. Here's the link!

Guest Post: Zucchini-Potato Soup with Potato Latkes

Amy McCoy's theory is "just because you want to save money doesn't mean that you have to skimp on taste" & her mission: "to eat the best food I can while spending as little as possible." Certainly a girl after my own heart. On her blog, Poor Girl Gourmet, she shares her tips on "hav[ing] a gourmet experience for less." And couldn't we all use a little more less?

Here's Amy's take on Zucchini-Potato Soup with Potato Latkes:

It’s been a slightly rough growing season here in New England where I live, and by “slightly rough”, I mean quite horrendous, actually. It started out innocently enough – rain every other day or so, lessening the nightly tender-seedlings watering load, and grateful was I for the gift, as the watering task frequently takes a half hour or more.

“We’d prefer it not rain, at least then we can control it,” my farmer neighbor said during one of my midsummer blueberry-hoarding visits to her front-yard farm stand. Twenty-three days of rain in June later, and half the month of July breaking precipitation records all over the Northeast, I begrudged that early rain, the rain that became the hallmark of our terribly short summer. My tomatoes, full and healthy one week, reduced to a pile of late-blighted writhing skeletons of themselves the next, followed by my onions, so wet so often that the bulk of them resemble shallots, their growth stunted so. And then the zucchini. Between the rain which begat powdery mildew, and the neglect – on those rain-soaked days – of my hand-picking bugs off of the plants, even the zucchini began to falter. But even with their early demise, there was still more than enough opportunity to bake, cook, grill, and even roast – it’s not been the warmest summer until just lately, and therefore, even roasting has had its time – copious amounts of zucchini.

A few summers back – when summer behaved like summer, and zucchini piled up in the garden seemingly daily - when pressed to come up with an answer to “whatever shall I do with all of the zucchini growing in my garden?” I would frequently make a zucchini-and-whatever-the-heck-else-is-ready-to-be-harvested soup. Despite the spectre of badness, this all-in approach usually resulted in a much better outcome than one might expect. And while I still enjoy a loosey-goosey approach to cooking every now and again, I find that some planning does, in fact, pay big dividends. As in the case of this soup. This year, we had harvested our small crop of slightly waterlogged potatoes just as the second harvest of zucchini came available, and using a dash of improvisation with just a touch more thought than employed in those early years of kitchen-garden cooking, this soup was conceived. I advise you to take the time to make the potato latke-style garnish – they’re French Fry shreds, in fact, yet the mere act of naming them latkes rather than fries makes them sound almost healthy.

Zucchini-Potato Soup with Potato Latkes
1 lb. zucchini, from approximately 2 medium or 1 large, ends trimmed off, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 lb. pancetta or bacon
1 medium shallot, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. parsley leaves, plus additional for garnish, coarsely chopped
4 c. vegetable broth
3/4 lb. russet potato, shredded on a box grater
vegetable oil for frying
1/4 c. sour cream for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the zucchini and potatoes with the olive oil to coat. Season them with salt and pepper, and transfer them to a 9 by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Roast on the middle rack until the potatoes are soft and easily pierced with a fork, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Cook the pancetta until just crisp in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove the pancetta and place it on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb any excess fat. Add the shallot to the rendered pancetta fat in the bottom of the pot, adding a tablespoon or two of olive oil if necessary – though I doubt it will be - and cook until the shallot is softened and translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the parsley, cook for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the roasted zucchini and potatoes, stir to combine, and then add the broth. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Allow the soup to cool slightly, as you will be pureeing it, and if you don’t know yet, I should tell you that hot liquid sure does not play well in the blender. In fact, be sure to blend only 1 cup of the soup at a time to avoid a blender explosion, which is a terribly unpleasant experience, I can assure you. Okay, so now that I’ve gotten that all out, proceed to puree the soup, that one cup at a time as we’ve just discussed, until all of the soup has been pureed. You’ll have about 6 cups of soup, which should now be returned to the saucepan.

Reheat the soup to your desired serving temperature, and while you do, heat at least two inches of oil for frying in a large, deep pot – one with plenty of room between its top edge and the top of those two inches of oil - until it registers 350 degrees on an oil thermometer – or until a potato shred tossed in sizzles immediately. It will take in the range of 10 to 12 minutes to get the oil to this point.

While the oil-heating is underway, form the potato shreds into potato chip-sized clumps, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and no more than 1/2-inch thick. Place the finished shred-clumps – a terribly unappetizing name for them, I realize, but I’m trying to be consistent here – onto a piece of waxed paper laid upon your counter or on a rimmed baking sheet – whichever is most convenient for you. Once the oil has reached 350 degrees or is clearly at instant sizzling heat, lower 3 or 4 shred-clumps into the oil and fry until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side. If you find that flipping them over, thin as they are, is a pain beyond any you have known, simply use a metal slotted spoon – a large one, not one you’d use to serve fruit salad – to submerge them in the oil. In that case, 1 to 2 minutes total is all the frying time you’ll require. Remove the former shreds that are now latkes from the oil and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel – to catch any excess oil, of course. Salt and pepper them to taste.

Now, salt and pepper the soup to taste, then ladle it out into bowls – you have enough for four adults here. Top each with a dollop of sour cream, place a latke atop the sour cream, crumble the pancetta and sprinkle it around the bowl, then toss a bit of the reserved chopped parsley over it all, and serve it forth.

Estimated cost for four: $10.07. The zucchini should just about be given away by anyone you know who happens to have a garden, but if you bought one pound, it would cost around $1.25. The potatoes should cost no more than 99¢, but we’ll call that a dollar for each use – the soup and the latkes, so $2.00. The olive oil for roasting is 48¢. The pancetta costs $8.29/pound, so 1/4 pound costs about $2.07. The shallot should cost around 25¢. The parsley should also be available from gardening friends or your very own garden, but if not, it would be about half of a bunch that costs around $1.99 at the grocery store, so $1.00 for that. The broth costs $2.39 for 4 cups (I use Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value store brand). The sour cream for the garnish costs around $2.19 for a container that holds 32 tablespoons. By “a dollop”, I mean a tablespoon, and so that adds 27¢ for four servings. The oil for frying should be recycled as you can use it again for a similar purpose. Just allow it to cool, then strain the solids out using a fine mesh colander or a colander lined with 100% cotton cheesecloth, be sure to discard those solids, and return the oil to its original bottle. You’ll get many a use out of it that way, though if we were to count the amount that would fry off, let’s call it a half cup, and that would cost us about 36¢ at $4.29 for a bottle containing 96 tablespoons.

Thanks Amy!

Simple Supper: Balsamic Brown Butter Ravioli

After the butter worship that was Julie & Julia I found myself in the mood for, of course, butter. As luck would have it, the next morning, while getting my Food Network fix, Giada popped on the tube & coaxed me into this recipe. It's not French, but it does boast 6, count 'em, 6 tablespoons of butter & I'm sure Julia would approve of that.

Balsamic Brown Butter Ravioli, for 2
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
1 package prepared ravioli (mushroom or cheese work best)
1/2 c. toasted walnuts
6 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. parmesan, grated
1/8 c. fresh basil, minced
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Bring a salted pot of water to boil. Cook the ravioli (about 4 - 5 minutes).

While the ravioli cooks, melt the butter over medium heat until the foam subsides & it turns a golden brown color (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat for 1 minute. Fair warning: if you get impatient & add the vinegar before the butter has cooled a bit it will splatter all over the place!! Stir in the balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper. At this point, the ravioli should be done. Drain them & toss them in. Add the walnuts, basil & parmesan. Toss to combine & serve.

Kitchen to table time: 15 - 20 minutes.

Virtual Cookbook: Best of the Food Blogs

C&C is featured in today's Virtual Cookbook: Best of the Food Blogs on Naples News. Despite her love of cooking, NN corespondent, Katy Bishop shares many folks' frustration in "find[ing] the energy and inspiration to turn the contents of [her] fridge and pantry into something fabulous" and admits that "in the last year or so, [she's] discovered a new guilty pleasure — and a solution to [her] occasional lack of inspiration: food blogs." Her latest guilty pleasure & Best of the Food Blogs is Cloves & Cream. Check out their feature on my peach & chicken kebabs here.

Image, unadorned.com

Molly's Winning Heats & Minds Cake

Oh. My. God. Yes. This cake truly does win heats & minds. Incredibly rich, silky smooth & intensely chocolaty, this is the last chocolate cake recipe you'll ever need; no joke. This isn't the first time I've rushed into the kitchen with Molly Wizenburg's A Homemade Life in hand & I'm sure it won't be the last. Her simple recipes spring from the pages & just beg to be made. This recipe, the final in the book & her wedding cake, incidentally, is no exception. Seeing as it was intended for love, it seemed fitting to bake this gem of a cake up in celebration of our first anniversary & boy was it. We could barely keep ourselves from polishing off the whole cake in one sitting! If winning heats & minds is on your agenda, or if you just have a serious hankering for chocolate, then this is it. The buck stops here. I'm not sure what else to tell you guys except this cake is delicious. Period. Go forth & bake!

The Winning Hearts & Minds Cake

7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (Scharffen Berger is my favorite.)

1 3/4 sticks (7 oz.) unsalted butter, cubed

1 c. sugar

5 large eggs

1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

crème fraîche or homemade whipped cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 375F & butter an 8" round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper & butter it as well.

Put the chocolate & butter in a microwave safe bowl & melt it in 30 second bursts, stirring often, until smooth. Once smooth, add the sugar, stir well to incorporate. Set the batter aside to cool for 5 minutes. Once cool, add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each egg. Add the flour & incorporate. The batter should be dark & silky.

Pout the batter into the pan & bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is crackley, the edges are puffed & the center looks set. Remove the cake from the oven & cool in the pan for 15 minutes. To remove, place a dinner plate over the cake pan & flip it over. The cake will be upside down at this point. Then put another plate on the "top" (which will ultimately be the bottom) of the cake & flip it once more.

Cool, slice & serve. Garnish with a drizzle of crème fraîche or homemade whipped cream.

Cloves & Cream + The Kitchn

Stay cool with The Kitchn this summer! Through the month of August, go to site for home cooks & food enthusiast, The Kitchn is featuring recipes to stay cool. Let's face it, "it's hot out there, & [they] are doing many things to stay cool: churning up ice cream, granita, and sorbet; shaking up frosty drinks, & getting out in the garden." Today The Kitchn featured my recipe for a cool cannellini bean salad, check it out here.

Simple Supper: Basil BLTs & Quick Roasted Tomato Gazpacho

There's an exchange between two budding love birds in Paper Hearts in a deserted little deli discussing the merits of the BLTs simplicity. They're like an implicit, understood code. Nice & easy, all you have to say is BLT & everyone knows just what you want: bacon, lettuce & tomato. With this ease in mind, I decided BLTs were in order. I added a bit of basil to dress up this classic, so BBLTs if you will. With easy 5 minute gazpacho as a sidekick, this soup & sandwich dinner is a perfect easy supper.

Basil BLTs, for 2

4 slices whole or sprouted grain bread

6 slices bacon

1 ripe roma tomato, sliced thinly

4 large romaine lettuce leaves

2 tbsp. soft goat cheese

4 - 6 large basil leaves

Cook the bacon until crisp in a skillet (or if you really want to shave some time off, in the microwave - on high for about 5 minutes). Let cool. If desired, toast the bread, then spread with goat cheese. Sandwich the bacon, basil, lettuce & tomatoes. Slice in half diagonally & enjoy!

Quick Roasted Tomato Gazpacho, for 2

1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 roasted red pepper

1 small cucumber, cut in chunks

1/3 of a red onion, cut in chunks

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/8 tsp. pimenton

1/4 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. fresh cilantro, minced

2 cloves garlic

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

In a food processor, puree all ingredients except the tomatoes. In a large bowl fold the vegetable puree into the diced tomatoes & their juice. Serve immediately or refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour to let flavors meld. Garnish with a thin cucumber slice or two.

Kitchen to table time: 15 minutes

Simple Supper: Cannellini Salad with Goat Cheese & Mint

I just picked up my phone & glanced at the weather for the week & heat is no where in sight. In the dead of August coastal California promises high temperatures below 70F. Not above. Below. That's nearly impossible for me to wrap my mind around. I will forever be tuned to the dog days to Texas summers. So, as I pulled a sweater over my head this morning I still anticipated a hash sun to peel it off of me later in the afternoon. Though I know it won't happen. If, for some strange twist of nature it were blisteringly hot, as August should be, I would dine on this little salad more. So, if you don't have a crisp Pacific breeze keeping you (unusually) cool this salad of cannellinis, tangy goat cheese & fresh crisp mint will certainly do the trick.

Cannellini Salad with Goat Cheese & Mint, for 2

1 16 oz. can cannellini beans

3 tbsp. goat cheese, crumbled (herbed goat cheese works nicely too)

1/2 tsp. lavender, minced finely

1/2 tsp. rosemary, minced finely

1 tsp. min, minced finely

1 tbsp. olive oil

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Toss all ingredients together. That's it!

Kitchen to table time: 10 minutes.

Asparagus, Fava Beans, & Andouille Sausage with Black Pepper Croutons

I think it's safe to say that I was raised by a couple of hippies. Not the bare foot, dreaded hair, crystals & ponchos type but the Dead Head, beat up Volvo driving, health food nut kind. So I guess they could be called reformed hippies or something like that. That olive green, air-conditioningless, smelly old car was a great source of personal humiliation growing up. Squirming out of the backseat of that thing instantly turned my cheeks a bright shade of scarlet. Why couldn't we drive a mini-van or better yet, one of those newfangled Suburbans? Those were normal.

Of course, now I swoon after that old green Volvo & dish up hippie food (or as Alicia of Bread + Honey would say, hippie chow) often. To me that means, bowls of various grains, nuts, veggies & all other things that you might find nestled comfortably on the shelves of a small dusty health food store. Think Mollie Katzen. Jacques Pépin has a classic take on hippie chow & Smitten Kitchen's approach is lovely too. This is my modest version of hippie chow.

Asparagus, Fava Beans, & Andouille Sausage with Black Pepper Croutons, for 2
2 andouille sausages, cut in chunks (can be substituted for soysage)
1 small bundle of asparagus, cut in 1" or so pieces
1 small bundle of fava beans, shelled
3/4 c. frozen pearl onions, thawed
3/4 c. frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 loaf of crusty bread, cubed
1/4 c. toasted sunflower seeds
1 tbsp. fresh black pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

In a sauce pan, simmer the shelled fava beans in salted water for about 20 minutes. Drain, rinse & set aside.

While the fava beans cook, warm half of the olive oil in a saute pan. Add the bread chunks & garlic. Pepper them heartily. Brown for about 5 minutes or until they're crisp. Remove from the pan & set aside to cool.

In the same pan, brown the sausage (about 4 minutes). Toss in the peas, onions, asparagus, thyme, oregano & sunflower seeds. Saute for 5 minutes or so or until the asparagus is tender. Salt to taste. Just before serving fold in the croutons & drizzle with a bit more olive oil.

Advertising with Cloves & Cream

Would you like to advertise on Cloves & Cream? I'm currently accepting ads for the rest of August & September. I have lots of lovely readers of all shapes, sizes & backgrounds & my rates are created with small businesses in mind. Click here to download a PDF with rates & a little more information about the site's readership. All ads will be featured in the left or right side bar & run for one month's time.

Contact C&C at laura [at] clovesandcream [dot] com for a customized quote. Many thanks!

Caprese Pork Chops with Crème Fraîche

Growing up I wasn't interested in tomatoes unless they were in the form of ketchup squirted generously over of a heap of fries. I didn't put up too much of a fuss if they were served, but I didn't seek them out either. I believe there was a brief period where I feigned tomato hatred, but I think that was just to be contrary. Well, somewhere along the way I changed my mind. It probably had something to do with home-grown tomatoes & simple summer salads. Regardless, I love 'em now. Can't get enough. One of my newly minted favorite ways to enjoy the modest fruit is roasted. The slow, dry heat almost caramelizes them & they become so much more, for lack of a better word, tomato-y. They're lovely with a hunk of crusty bread or in a salad, but they're really sublime nestled on top of a crisp parmesan pork chop & a bed a fresh basil.

Caprese Pork Chops with Crème Fraîche, for 2
Parmesan Pork Chop adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 c. italian style bread crumbs
1/2 - 1 c. grated parmesan
2 pork loin chops
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 ripe roma tomatoes, sliced in wedges
4 - 6 fresh basil leaves, whole
1 tbsp. or so crème fraîche
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet (such as a silpat) & arrange the tomato wedges on it. Drizzle them with about half of the olive oil & salt & pepper them to taste. Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until they become a deep shade of red & have lost most of their moisture.

The last 30 minutes or so that the tomatoes back, cook your pork chops. Begin by lightly beating an egg in a wide-mouthed bowl (or pie plate). Sprinkle the parmesan on a plate & the bread crumbs on another. You should have three plates (or bowls) to work from at this point. Begin by coating the chops, one at a time, with parmesan, then egg, then bread crumbs.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet & cook the chops about 7 minutes on each side, or until the outter crust is golden brown & the center of the chop registers 150F on a meat thermometer.

Top with a drizzle of crème fraîche, basil leaves & roasted tomato wedges. Sprinkle with a bit more parmesan if you like.

The Internet Food Association

The Internet Food Association, where the virtues of Kansas City versus Texas bar-b-q are hotly debated, bacon is wept over, food porn is ogled, restaurants are reviewed & all other things food are up for discussion, gave a, let's say, shout out to little ol' Cloves & Cream earlier this week. (Thanks guys!) Visit the IFA to see what they had to say about my chicken & peach kebabs among other things.

Image, Above is the group discussing the virtues of food activism with Tom Colicchio.

Spinach Twins Turnover

I spend a lot of time in a tiny dark office peering out a window. Now & then a gallery visitor pops in & I find myself shaking the silence off while grasping for small talk tidbits. We chit-chat, discuss the work on the walls, the weather, & the like, then, back to the cube for unending internet jaunts & tattered magazines. After meandering though the internet for hours on end one particularly mundane afternoon in the office I stumbled across a cache of Julia Child videos. Her sing-song voice lulling me into submission, I watched far more episodes of "The French Chef" than I'd like to admit. While everything to cross her lips sounded fantastically delicious, I couldn't shake the first recipe: flakey puff pastry stuffed to the gills with creamed spinach, mushrooms, salty ham & ooey gooey cheese. Taking a few liberties, I recreated it as soon as I got home. For Julia's classic recipe, go to PBS.com.

Spinach Twins Turnover, for 2 - 4

1 sheet prepared puff pastry, thawed

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 c. fresh spinach, minced (or 1 c. frozen spinach, thawed & thoroughly drained)

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 c. brown mushrooms, sliced

2 - 3 slices of prosciuto

6 or so slices manchego cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp. fresh thyme

1 tsp. coarse salt

a pinch of nutmeg, optional

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly oil a baking sheet & set aside. Over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Saute the onions until translucent, but not browned. Toss in the thyme, salt & pepper. Add the mushrooms & cook them until softened (about 4 - 5 minutes). Finally, add the spinach & cook until wilted. If you wish, add a pinch of nutmeg.

Layer prosciuto over half of the puff pastry leaving about a 1" border. Over that, spoon the spinach mixture. Finally, top every thing off with sliced manchego cheese. Paint the 1" border with the beaten egg. Fold the "empty" dough over making something of a pocket. Crimp the border together with a fork & brush the entire turnover with the remaining egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt & a bit more fresh thyme.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown & flakey. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing. Slice on the bias (diagonal) & serve. I like this as a meal with a light green salad, but sliced thinly this turnover would make a fantastic hors d'œuvress.

Anniversary

One year ago today I was saying 'I do' to a lifetime with my best friend. Thanks for such a wonderful year, Raym. I love you. Now let's pack up for Palm Springs & slurp down some piña coladas poolside!