So with all that fruit we’ve been bringing home, we have been learning the hard way that we have to use it up fast. Tree-ripened, farm stand fruit can not sit around for a week like the stuff you get at the grocery store. It’s ready to eat, NOW.

We have ended up having to throw away more fruit than I would like to publicly admit, because we got too greedy and overbought and then are trying to change our habits to suit our new climate and season.

As a result, Bear has been baking like crazy. He made some ginger blueberry muffins, fresh fruit sauces to serve over angel food cake and chocolate decadence cake, and two big fat fruit cobblers.

Bear does all his baking by weight. Buying a little kitchen scale will save you hours and hours of baking that didn’t quite work out.

Strawberry Apricot Cobbler

Filling:
10 oz sugar
1 oz cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tso ground nutmeg
1/2 C water
24 oz strawberries and apricots, strawberries hulled, both washed and diced

Topping:
11 oz bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbs baking powder
2 oz cold butter, unsalted
1 1/2 C heavy cream

Combine the sugar, cornstarch and spices in a saucepan. Add the water slowly while stirring. Keep stirring until the mixture is boiling, then remove from the heat.

Put the washed and diced fruit into a cake pan, and pour the hot liquid over the top. Bake the fruit in a 400° oven for 10 minutes.

Make the cobbler crust by sifting together the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and cut into the flour with a pastry blender. Add the cream and stir by hand to form a soft dough. Shape the dough by hand on a floured surface until it’s a circle large enough to cover the fruit.

Remove the fruit from the oven and place the dough on top. Bake for about 15 minutes longer. Make sure to test the dough that it’s cooked all the way through.

This cobbler was so delicious. The crust is a little like a biscuit, so it’s like eating a really great homemade biscuit with fruit jam, but it’s hot and juicy and the little fruit pieces burst in your mouth. Plus you get to put ice cream on top. And it’s way way easier than a pie. I think we’ll be making cobblers of all kinds all summer long.

I’m not fully sold on the name, but I just can’t call this meatloaf. It’s too misleading. This has very little in common with regular old meatloaf.

When Bear and I first got married, I was a vegetarian and he couldn’t imagine a meal without red meat. It became apparent in a real hurry that we’d have to make some changes or one or both of us would starve. This was the first recipe I ever came up with. Meat and potatoes done in a way that offered me something I liked – a sharp tangy flavor. I opened my cupboard and started adding all my favorite things to it, but because I was making it up as I went along I didn’t add any kind of a bread crumb that traditionally binds it into a loaf shape, so when it’s cooked it crumbles apart all over your bed of mashed potatoes.

I once served this to a couple of missionaries – 19 year old boys who spend all day walking and riding bikes. One of them asked me if he could have some ketchup, took one bite, and said, “Nevermind.” Meatloaf with no condiments needed. Guaranteed.

2 lbs ground beef
1 egg
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 C ketchup
1/4 C lemon juice
1 T balsamic vinegar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried garlic salt
1/2 tsp dried chili powder

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and divide in two. Fill two ungreased bread pans with the mixture and bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes.

I never serve this without a big helping of mashed potatoes and an extra spoonful of pan juices on top. Then it almost becomes like a wicked flavorful upside down Shepherd’s Pie.

This was one of the little snacky dishes I made for my vegetarian dinner party a few weeks ago, and I’ve probably made it every other week since. It couldn’t be easier and SOOOOO yummy.

To make the sweet potato fries, I chopped the sweet potato up, tossed the fries in olive oil, salt and pepper and some cayenne, spread it out onto a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil, and stuck it in the oven until things looked soft in the middle and crispy on the outside. If you stick them under the broiler you get that delicious char on the outside from the burnt sugars that come to the surface, but baking them will work too.

I have spent the majority of my life avoiding ranch dressing. I tend to be sensitive to the taste of a lot of preservatives and artificial ingredients, so bottled dressings almost always just taste gross to me, and a vinaigrette is just so easy to make, so I never bothered to make a ranch. But it was necessary to dip the sweet potatoes, so I had to overcome my aversion. Now I’m a great big fan. Without that nasty chemical aftertaste, ranch dressing is just creamy and herby and wonderful.

Mix equal parts heavy cream or buttermilk with mayonnaise and whisk thoroughly. I do about 1/2 C of each for your average salad bowl. Add the juice of 1 lemon, around 1/2 tsp of salt (or more to taste) and a handful of minced herbs. My favorites are parsley, chives, oregano, and some marjoram. Chill for a couple of hours to let the flavors blend.

I’ve been working really hard lately to make good exercise and eating choices, and it has not been easy. The medication I’m on will give me days where I want to eat anything that crosses my eye-line, so I had to come up with a snack that was at least a little bit healthy and tasted like something besides carrots and celery.

For my birthday my friend Pela Via sent me a whole bunch of goodies, but one of them was this delicious nut blend from Harry & David. After polishing off the whole bag in one sitting, and forcing myself to not lick the bag clean, I thought I might want to try my hand at a recipe.

Orange and Cranberry Almonds

2 C raw almonds
1 C orange juice concentrate
1/2 C water
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 C dried cranberries

In a warm skillet, toss the almonds until they release their aroma. Transfer to another dish. Add orange juice, water, sugar and salt to the skillet and let melt together. Return the almonds to the pan, and add cranberries. Continuously toss the nuts in the sugar mixture, evenly coating the nuts but also ensuring they don’t burn. Once all the liquid has evaporated, remove the skillet from the heat, and transfer the nuts to a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake in the oven at a very low temp – 250 is good, but lower if your oven can – for around 45 minutes. Check frequently to make sure the sugar isn’t burning, but you want the glaze to dehydrate onto the nuts so they lose their stickiness while retaining the orange flavor.

I’ve made a few batches of these already. I just get the big bag of almonds and a big bag of cranberries from Costco, make up a whole bunch at once, and then keep it in a jar on my kitchen counter, waiting for me to grab a few whenever I need a little something.

We spent Thanksgiving with the big extended family, and with so many of us getting together, we all get assignments for food responsibilities. One of my jobs this year was to bring an appetizer, so I wanted to make something that people could grab and keep going as they were running between keeping up with kids and making their own food and trying to catch some time on the beach. I was watching the Barefoot Contessa and she made a savory palmier using a sun dried tomato pesto that looked absolutely fantastic. That sent me thinking about what fillings would be the most popular with the crowd I’d be feeding, and I came up with stuffing the puff pastry with spinach artichoke dip.

Whenever I embark on a recipe I haven’t tried before, I always start by consulting with Alton Brown. His recipe for the dip is just yummy, and I stuck right to it.

1 cup thawed, chopped frozen spinach
1 1/2 cups thawed, chopped frozen artichoke hearts (I used canned. It was easier and tasted great.)
6 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Boil spinach and artichokes in 1 cup of water until tender and drain. (I just defrosted in the microwave) Discard liquid. Heat cream cheese in microwave for 1 minute or until hot and soft. Stir in rest of ingredients and serve hot.

To turn this dip into puffs, you’ll also need:

Frozen puff pastry filo dough
butter
bread crumbs

There are a few different styles of puff pastry on the market. Follow the instructions on the box to defrost it. If the puff pastry is like a big sheet of dough, roll it out a little bit with a rolling pin and brush with melted butter. So apparently, there is a difference between puffy doughs. Thanks Siobhan! If the puff pastry comes in individual sheets, Filo dough comes in sheets, so take one sheet at a time and spread with melted butter and sprinkle a small handful of breadcrumbs over it. This is a tip I picked up from Ina Garten. The breadcrumbs keep the sheets from sealing together so it stays nice and puffy. Keep layering, pastry sheet, butter, breadcrumbs, until you have 6 sheets together. Brush the last sheet with butter.

Spread the dip onto your prepared dough. Roll the pastry up into a log, and slice rounds off the end. I found a serrated knife to work best for this. Place the rounds on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 350 for around 15 minutes, but check your dough box for how long they recommend. You just want the pastry to get puffy and crispy and the dip to get nice and hot.

Since Thanksgiving I’ve made these for nearly every get together I’ve attended. My friend EmaLee had a baby shower so I made a ton and the platter was nearly licked clean. It combines the yumminess of a traditional spinach and artichoke dip, but adds in the virtue of portability.