Wonky Pie

A Bear In the Woods

Yesterday’s soggy weather presented me with the opportunity to do one of my favorite things.  No, not kayak, but run!  Normally, running is one of my least favorite activities, something I glumly tackle as I know the pay-off is worth it.  However, when it is 90+ degrees and the skies open up, I gladly head to the trails to slog through the mud.  If I were a race horse, I’d be a mudder.

I headed out to the park for an hour.  The trails I run are fairly steep, rocky, and amazingly secluded considering their location in the fifth largest city in the US.  Due to the inclement weather, I was one of the only souls on the trails.  It takes me a few miles to warm up, and I was just hitting my stride when I spied a few fellow joggers, non-descript twenty-something young men in basketball shorts and sleeveless T’s.  They had that youthful bouncy tippy-toe run and seemed fairly athletic.

Now to say I have a bit of a competitive streak is an understatement.  I can be so competitive, I don’t even know that I am competing.  I saw those young men, and I decided I needed to beat them.  So, I quickened my pace, but alas our paths diverged as I headed uphill on a different path and they remained on the flat.

I resumed my pace and zoned out for another mile or so when I saw a flash of blue in the woods ahead just disappearing around a corner.  The joggers, let’s name them John and Kyle, had cheated and surpassed me by taking an easier route up into the woods.  Now I really needed to beat them. 

My pace quickened again.  I could feel my heartbeat in my ear drums.  As I rounded each corner I would see another flash of John’s blue shirt and Kyle’s green mesh shorts, still ahead, but getting closer and closer.  I felt the twinge of a cramp starting in my side, but I pushed on.  I knew there was a downhill coming.  My long legs make me untouchable on a downhill…. I could go streaking by them.

The rain was muffling my approach.  Finally, I was so close I could have reached out and tapped Kyle on the back.  I was just about to announce my presence and say ’on your right’, when Kyle sensed me turned and….screamed.  Like a girl. 

Poor Kyle!  I had terrified him!  So, I had to make things right so I apologized by saying

“I AM A BEAR”

What?  Oh yes, I announced that I was a bear and kept hurtling, rain soaked and muddy, straight past them and downhill as they stood in silence on the side of the trail staring blankly at the crazy woman that had just blown past them.

I think I meant to say “I am sorry to scare you.  I am not a bear”.  Or possibly, “Don’t worry, I’m not a bear”.  However, in my anaerobically induced mental state, I professed that I was indeed a bear.  A giant, smelly bear. 

So, there are redheaded she-bears prowling the woods in Philadelphia in search of unsuspecting joggers.  Everyone watch out!

Hoots Hibbert

I would like to introduce “Hoots Hibbert”.  He is fresh off the crochet hook and just in time for my friend, Courtney’s, bouncing baby (?) that is due in August.  I learned a great crocodile stitch to make the feathers.  It is much easier than it looks.  You can find the stitch here for those of you that like to crochet.

Once again, I don’t have a pattern!  He was made up on the fly, no pun intended!  But feel free to contact me for general instructions!

Hope everyone is surviving the heat! Now to go to work on the Maytals!  Hope Court doesn’t see this and ruin the surprise!

My CSA is making me fat and how to eat sweet corn

I found myself looking at pressure canners/cookers on Amazon the other day.  Yeah, that’s right.  Its not that I have a burning desire to spend all my spare time sweating in the kitchen canning, it’s that I don’t know what to do with all my food from my CSA!  I find myself forcing food down my gullet, eating twice as much as usual, cancelling dinners with my friends, and even skipping work-outs so that I can tackle my ever increasing refrigerator full of nature’s bounty!

My CSA is making me fat!

Alright, I exaggerate.  I only have a half share, but it is more food than a single gal can eat during the week.  So, maybe a canner is in order.  I can bestow gifts of canned vegetables, jams, stocks, and pie filling to my friends before I lose interest (usually in about a month’s time) and move on to my next project.   Remember soap-making?  Although, a pressure canner/cooker can cook dry beans in a half hour!  I do like that idea….

I think I’ll hold off on the canner for a bit.

Joking aside, I find myself just eating the produce plain without much fanfare.  What can beat a fresh peach?  Fresh sweet corn! 

Every year, my father heads out to his weed patchvegetable garden, to check if the corn is “knee high by the fourth of July”.  This is standard Michigan operating procedure.  The farmer can check to see if the crop is on schedule for harvest if it past knee height.  The picture on this post is of my father’s Fourth of July text.  I receive great texts (usually of deer or snow with the occasional scarecrow) now that he is technologically savy!

So, while in Michigan the corn was barely knee high, I had fresh corn July 6th in my CSA.  I was surprised, but thrilled, to have fresh sweet corn so early in the season.  It must be the fact that the growing season really starts about a month earlier here on the East Coast that contributed to 4th of July corn!  A friend of mine asked me, rather disdainfully, if I was going “to get all fancy” with my sweet corn, and here is how I answer that:

How to Eat Sweet Corn

The taste of sweet corn brings me back to my Michigan roots, and more specifically, my family’s epic battle against nature.  Most of our phone calls involve the recounting of tails of terror from devastating wind sheers, to ice storms, to hail, to marauding creatures, and swarming bees.  But the most destructive and vile culprit of all is none other than the brown-eyed monster, Bambi.  And Bambi’s family, friends, and neighbors. 

My parents have tried everything to stop Bambi in his tracks from destroying the corn harvest and gardens.  My mother has a starter pistol that she fires in the air to scare deer off.  They don’t even blink.  My father whizzes BB’s past their ears.  Nada.  The last scheme I heard about was creating an electrical force field around the garden and somehow electrifying metal plates and putting peanut butter on them.  Bambi comes along for a lick of peanut butter, and Zap!  He gets a jolt and learns his lesson.  Animal lovers, don’t worry.  I don’t think this ever came to fruition, but you get the drift. *

Bambi’s penchant for corn, combined with early/late frosts, and damaging winds made it so that sweet corn, from our gardens, rarely made it to the table.  Due to its high production costs, mostly the mental toll from the endless battle, corn from our field was special.  Like gold.

I can remember one time that our own sweet corn did make it to the table.  Our family made quite a production and tried to set the speed record.  First, we set the pot of water and salt to boil.  Once it got going, my father RAN outside, picked the corn, ran back in, and we frantically shucked the corn and threw it in the pot of boiling water for a few minutes.  We got the old stopwatch out and had the corn from stalk to table in less than 10 minutes.  Now that’s fresh!

So that’s the answer on whether or not I am going to make my corn “fancy”.  Nope.  I’m going to get it, shuck it, cook it, eat it.

Salt. Pepper. Butter. Cayenne. Period.

*My sister just reminded me of the time that my father lit my brother-in-law on fire as they were outside shooting bottle rockets at Bambi and Co. on Christmas burning a hole through Mike’s new Christmas sweater.  It is laughingly referred to as “the sweater incident”.  Sad, but true.

The ARMY has gone soft….. and Rhubarb Muffins

Well, my sister still holds the record for longest pauses between posts, but I am coming in at a close second.  This summer has been going along at warp speed.  With beach weekends, camping weekends, visits from family, getting a new job (hooray)and trying to enjoy every last minute of daylight, I haven’t been too compelled to blog!

Also, my hands have been busy in my spare time making not baking. My 7 (almost) year old nephew requested a crocheted ARMY tank, and I have been busily designing it in time for his b-day.  Go figure, there are not any patterns out there for such a vehicle.  So, I made this little number, complete with tiny crocheted American flag.  I ran out of time to hand bead tiny stars on the flag, and at some point you need to know when you are bordering ridiculous. 

The tank is in the mail rolling its way to South Carolina.  Happy Birthday, Mitch!  I can now resume my cooking endeavors.  One quick recipe from my CSA I can share is for Rhubarb Muffins.  I used Alton Brown’s recipe for Blueberry Muffins.  However, I substituted diced Rhubarb for the Blueberries.  They were delicious, and I find that Alton’s recipe is a good base for any fruit, nut, chocolate combo you can dream of in muffin form.  I sprinkled the tops with a little demura sugar to add sparkle and to balance the tartness of the rhubarb.  The recipe calls for yogurt, and I had greek yogurt on hand.  It worked really well.

I was also inspired by my amazing friend, Kelly, to make a Rhubarb sauce.  Kelly is many things-she is an amazing athlete, true-blue friend, and, goodie for me, an excellent cook AND baker!  She told me she often makes a sauce from leftover rhubarb.  I gave it a go:

Rhubarb-Blueberry Sauce

2 cups diced rhubarb

1 cup blueberries

1/2 to 3/4 cup brown sugar

Bring all ingredients to boil is a saucepan.  Boil for 15 minutes (or so) until all ingredients are soft.  Cool slightly, and puree in blender.

I served the sauce over the warm rhubarb muffins with a smear of pecan/fig cream cheese (from Whole Foods).  The sauce, but not the muffins, made the way to my friend’s family home in Quogue, where it was enjoyed with these thin, almost crepe-like, blueberry pancakes my friend Alex made from a family recipe. Yummo.  It also adorned a rhubarb-strawberry pie from a bakery in NYC.  I’ll have to post more about my Quogue trip-a beachy weekend with some pretty powerful creative minds!  Artists make such wonderful chefs!  But, that’s all for now!  Happy summer!

South Carolina and Back Again

I tend to be a vacation day hoarder.  I hold on to my precious time off, and then I have all my vacation to take in one month, June, before I lose it.  It’s a compulsion of mine.  So, June has been a grueling month of 2 day work weeks!  Whew!  With all this time off, I thought I would have a lot of time to cook and blog.  Not so much.

I spent the first portion of June in South Carolina visiting my amazing sister, brilliant brother-in-law, and “the hooligans”, my nephews.  I was also able to meet up with my good and very pregnant friend, Courtney, and her lovely husband.  She makes a mean buttermilk biscuit and you’ve never seen such a beautiful mother-to-be!  It was a wonderful visit.

I had the pleasure of watching my nephews, 4 and 6, for a few days.  I relish my alone time with them.  Between visits to Chuck-E-Cheese, Waffle House, Red Robin and Walmart, most of my time was spent either competing in various “competitions” or in warfare.  Aunt Meme (phonetically spelled by the 6 year old) was given the left-over toys for warfare.  My dinosaurs were no match for hordes of army men, battleships, pirate ships, fighter jets, and one unfortunate centipede caught up in the crossfire.   

Well, my younger nephew turns 5 on Friday, and as he has every toy known to man, I thought I would crochet him something special.  He requested a zebra and a pirate ship.  A little short on time, I split the difference and created Captain Zack Sparrow.  New to crochet, I picked up a book Amigurumi-Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty to get a general sense of how to create a pattern for a 3-D crochet piece.  It was amazingly helpful, and I easily adapted a zebra from her general patterns.  I added a removable eye patch, some earrings, and an authentic head scarf, and viola!  Zack Sparrow.  Don’t ask me for the pattern because I couldn’t tell you if I tried!

I’ll be back to posting recipes shortly!

Itty-Bitty Pea Tendrils

Pea tendrils are so adorable!  As my CSA adventure continues, I get to sample vegetables that I have never before encountered and research ways to enjoy them.  I am a bit of a purist-when you have really fresh ingredients, less is best.  I stuck with that philosophy for this recipe.  Pea tendrils are delicate and taste like a cross between spinach and peas!  Here’s how I treated my tendrils:

Itty Bitty Pea Tendrils Piled on a Sweet Potato

• 4 cups pea tendrils
• 1 garlic clove diced
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil or butter
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
• 2 sweet potatoes
• Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Scrub your sweet potatoes and rinse well.  Cut out any strange “eyes” or blemishes.  Leave the skin on (it is super delicious).  Rub a light coating of canola oil on the skin and prick with a fork to allow steam to escape.  Do not cover with foil.  Bake for 45-55 minutes depending on potato’s size and shape.  After the potatoes are baked, rinse and drain the pea tendrils.  Remove any of the curly-Q portions of the vine as they have a tendency to be tough.  Heat oil or butter with brown sugar.  Add garlic.  When garlic begins to brown, toss in the tendrils and saute briefly and season to taste.

Cut your potatoes open and pile high with pea tendrils.  An omnivore’s confession- I crumbled a nitrate-free slice of bacon on top of my potato.  Yummo!

Radish Salad with Sliced Steak

Hooray for the darling Easter Egg Radish!  I received a beautiful bunch of these magenta, purple, and pale pink globes in my last CSA drop as well as gorgeous red scallions.  So, I decided to throw together a gingery radish salad to top some spring greens I had also received. 

The radishes were young and did not pack too much of a punch.  I immediately removed the greens and saved them for another delicious radish recipe. 

Radish Salad with Sliced Steak (or Shrimp or Tofu)

• 8 Easter egg radishes sliced paper thin
• One small shallot thinly sliced
• Two scallions coursely chopped
• Mixed greens

For Dressing:

• 2 tbsp. brown rice syrup
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. brown rice vinegar
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tsp. pureed ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. tamari
• Lime zest

In a mortar, mash the garlic clove with a tiny pinch of salt-just enough to use the grit to mash the garlic.  Add the paste to the other ingredients and whisk together.  I recommend making this ahead as it will give time for the flavors to marry.

Once you are ready to serve, pile greens with the slided radishes, shallot, and scallions.  I also topped my salad with a tiny bit of sliced steak for protein (I indulge every now and then).  Shrimp would also be a great choice!  Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.

Welcome to Wonky Pie!

Welcome to my new blog!  I joined a CSA for the first time this summer, and I am totally excited about the bounty of nature that is heading my way!  Armed with a salad spinner (excellent for de-bugging natural produce) and a few recipe ideas, I thought I might create this site to share some of my recipes with the blogosphere.

Now, I don’t pretend to be a trained professional, so please read my recipes with that in mind.  I am open to any positive suggestions.  The information I share has been gleaned from reading cookbooks (a favorite way to kill time), sharing with friends, or reading on the Internet.  I will always try to give credit where credit is due.

Accompanying my recipes, I intend to share some original illustrations based off of the fruits of my labors!  Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoy!

Please check out the link for my CSA which serves Eastern Pennsylvania, New York, and the tri-state area!  What a great way to eat healthy and support local agriculture!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 

I received a beautiful bunch of rhubarb in my first CSA.  Rhubarb has always been a bit of an enigma for me as it looks like celery but goes in pie.  In fact, I must confess that I had never even tried rhubarb until I created this recipe.  For some reason, rhubarb really frightened me as a child, and I stuck with my childhood conviction that adults had created rhubarb “pie” to try to trick vegetables into my rather selective diet (hot dogs and Spagetti-O’s). 

Since then, I have either killed all my taste buds or acquired a taste for vegetables. Thus, I ventured forth into the realm of rhubarb pie.  With a little bit of research, I developed my own pie recipe as follows.  Unlike many of the conventional recipes out there, I opted for a less sugary version with a hint of orange zest to bring out the natural tartness of the rhubarb.

When selecting rhubarb, try to find stalks that are smaller than your thumb as they will be the sweetest.  If you can only find larger stalks, you may need to add more sugar to the filling to balance out the tartness.

For the crust, I used Julia Child’s Pate Brisee recipe.  Follow the proportions outlined under the recipe using 3 cups of flour or substitute your favorite recipe.  I try to stear clear of store bought crust as they are usually sodium laden and tend to taste, well… gross.

Pie Filling:

• 2 1/2 cups rhubarb-diced
• 2 1/2 cups slices strawberries (use fresh if possible-but frozen will do)
• 3/4 cup demura sugar
• 2 tbsp. organic molasses
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. orange zest
• 1/4 cup cornstarch

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.  Mix all ingredients well and add to pie crust.  Make sure to vent the top crust!  After filling the crust, pop the completed pie back in the refrigerator for a few minutes to chill completely before placing in the oven. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then change oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for 50-60 minutes until bubbly.