Memorial Day Weekend, Part Two:Farmer's Market and Strawberry Pickin'

Day two of our long weekend started off bright and early at our local farmer's market. This is the first weekend of the season for some open-air markets, but ours has been open since April.

We bought kettle corn for the drive and left to go berry pickin' at Belvedere Plantation. The weather was perfect: slightly overcast with a breeze and enough sunshine to put you in the pickin' mood.

Photo Credit: Anne Marley

And pick we did. Our two flats of juicy, red berries weighed in at 20 pounds. That's even after the Sprout's tasting spree.

I wouldn't say he feasted on berries fresh from the vines, but...

...the berry stains speak for themselves.

For Sprout, tractors working the farm are every bit (bite?)
as good as the berries.

If it wasn't the tractor pulling the hay wagon or the tractor team removing round bails from the next field over, it was "'Tain, ma ma! Choo choo tain. Over dair!" when he heard the train whistle blowing faintly in the distance.

Sprout did enjoy some spirited jumping on the moon bounce.

He also found a pen of miniature goats that were eager to be fed.

In counterpoint to morning events, late afternoon naps were at the top of our itinerary after we got home. What's a three-day weekend without some good R & R? Imagine the whole house, dogs and all, sacked out in slumber for a few hours before supper. It was heaven.

Tomorrow is a "do nothing" day. (Of course, "do nothing" means endless piles of laundry and other chores to prepare for the week ahead.) But that doesn't mean we won't pay respect to those who have, or are now serving, our country.

If you find yourself at a cookout, lift your glasses (or grill forks)
in honor of those lost. Wave a handheld flag during your local parade. Spend a few moments in conversation with a service member. Whatever you do, seize the day and enjoy it.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part One:Barbeque to Baby Ducks

The unofficial beginning of summer at Silly Hat Central looked something like this.

Big Daddy fired up the grill and made kicked-up veggie kebabs for lunch. He also steamed a redonkulously large spaghetti squash. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and it was a feast fit for kings.

But the day started with an early morning trip to IKEA for $49 Expedit bookcases. We scored two of these birch-stained beauties, plus Dröna fabric baskets for each cubbyhole. As you can see, Silly Hat Central was in desperate need of a storage solution for the Sprout's toys.

Now we have plenty of storage space for the trains, tracks, trucks, plastic food items, play kitchen utensils, power tools, and stray Matchbox^® cars that have routinely littered the floor. A big win.

After supper, Big Daddy took Sprout down to the lake in his covered wagon to feed the "ducks," (Sprout-speak for geese) including four "baby ducks" (goslings). He must have been pretty worn out from such a full day of excitement.

The unofficial ending of the first day of Memorial Day weekend looked something like this.

Here's hoping your day was as eventful and enjoyable!

Tomorrow — strawberry picking at Belvedere Plantation. And a scrapbook page Big Daddy created to record the Sprout's 2007 visit. Oh, ha, ha, ha! Look at that sweet, berry-pickin' bunny!

Nigella Lawson — Banana Bread†Scrumptious Banana Bread Pudding

The other day I went on a baking spree, resulting in a loaf of banana bread and 6 1/2 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The cookies turned out great. The banana bread did not.

My apologies to Nigella Lawson. Her banana bread recipe has been my go-to gold standard since I started feeding bananas to Little Sprout sometime last spring. But I got overconfident.

Attempting to execute her recipe from memory, I added a whole stick of vegetable shortening (1 cup) instead of the ½ cup of butter called for in the recipe. Remarkably, the baked loaf held together. (Just barely.) It had a light crumb but an oily texture.

I'm not afraid to admit when I screw up. What I like even better is turning a failure into a success! So the greasy banana bread got a makeover into a dessert pudding.

Banana Bread Pudding ^‡
⅛ cup apricot brandy
½ cup raisins
1 loaf banana bread
½ cup graham cracker crumbs
½ bag (6 oz.) mini morsels chocolate chips
2 cups milk
½ cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
4 eggs

Put the raisins and the brandy in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and leave for an hour, or until the raisins have absorbed most of the liquid. Drain remaining liquid into a mixing bowl.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 2 quart baking dish with non-stick baking spray.

Crumble banana bread into baking dish. Add graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips and drained raisins. Mix thoroughly.

Combine milk, butter, vanilla, and eggs into the bowl with drained off brandy. Beat until blended. Pour over bread mixture, soaking thoroughly. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until set.
____________________________________
† Link to original post about Nigella Lawson — Banana Bread and the Banana Bread Bake Off contest sponsored at Not Quite Nigella

‡ Special thanks to the incredible cooks in my dinner group for their advice on how to salvage a greasy loaf of banana bread.
You are my foodie heroes.

For examples of mouth-watering dishes my dinner group has made in the past year, read Food, Glorious Food

Let Me Have My Words and Eat Them Too

I love words.

So when Clothilde at Chocolate & Zucchini added an Edible Idiom feature to her website I almost fell out of my chair in glee.

What is an edible idiom? It is Clothilde's series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food.

This series is such a treat for me. The culinary-inspired phrases she serves up feed my French-starved soul. And the black & white photographs aren't bad either.

Want to play but ne parlent pas français?
Take this English food idiom quiz.
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Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames
Clothilde's Edible Idioms reminded me of a delightfully diverting 1967 French tome entitled Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames by Louis d'Antin van Rooten.

At first glance, Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames is a collection of poems. But these funny little verses are not what they seem. Intended to be read aloud, they are a cleverly transcribed collection of nursery rhymes.

The best way to experience the richness of this silly collection is to uncork a bottle of wine (preferably red) and read it in your best French accent. Several times, until you get it. Try this one:

Chacun Gille Houer ne taupe de hile Tôt-fait, j'appelle au boiteur Chaque fêle dans un broc, est-ce crosne? Un Gille qu'aime tant berline à fêtard.

It's the Mother Goose rhyme Jack & Jill.

For two more excerpts, click here.

On February 2, 2005, Andrew Hearst wrote about this book on his cultural surveillance blog, Panopticist . I swear his experience was identical to mine, except that I was older than 15 out of college when my friend turned me on to The d'Antin Manuscript.

Like Mr. Hearst, the book was out of print when I first learned of it. So I photocopied my friend's book. All 40 pages. Over the years I have hung on to those woefully tattered and faded, binder-clipped pages. Flipping through them once again, the rhymes have not lost their appeal.

Un petit d'un petit
S'etonne au Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! Degres te fallent....

Oh, ha, ha, ha! Such silly fun.

Silly Hot Dog Humor

Dean over at Varmint Bites has such a rich sense of humor. (Maybe it is a Southern thing?) When I saw these two video clips about Wienerschnitzel I nearly woke up my sleeping family with noisy chuckles.

Dean deserves all the credit for finding these, so go on over and send him some comment love. Tell him Is'Dihara sent ya!

VarmintBites: Slightly Inappropriate Food Video of the Day

Roasting Pineapple

Have you ever roasted a pineapple?

I needed to make a "welcome to the neighborhood" pie for new neighbors. The new family suggested pineapple pie. So after a bit of research, I decided to make a roasted pineapple tart. Here is a photo of the finished tart. Please pardon the poor image quality. I was having trouble with my flash.


As banal as this sounds, eating roasted pineapple is stunningly delicious. Roasting fresh pineapple results in succulent fruit that is less sweet than canned pineapple, but with more concentrated flavor and a heady, luscious aroma.

And it is surprisingly easy. First, preheat your oven to 350°F.

Mix a sugar syrup of 1 2/3 cup sugar and ½ cup water in heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from 2 vanilla beans. If you don't have vanilla beans you can substitute an equivalent amount of vanilla extract.

Boil your sugar syrup until it is an amber color, swirling the pan occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup water (syrup will bubble, see photo below), then ¼ cup dark rum. Stir over very low heat for 2-3 minutes. Let syrup cool for 15 minutes.



Cut the skin off the pineapple. Place it in a roasting vessel.


I used a 9x9 square glass baking dish. Pour your syrup over the fruit and turn pineapple to coat.


Roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until tender. Baste often with sauce. Normally I hate basting (I don't even baste my Thanksgiving turkey.) and I basted this every fifteen minutes.

The fruity scent fills your kitchen and your senses with aromas that are so good they border on debauchery, so you'll be lingering around your oven anyway. Basting won't be a hardship.

Slice your roasted pineapple crosswise as thickly or as thinly as you desire. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself standing over your kitchen counter devouring the pieces of supple pineapple flesh and shivering with delight.

Nigella Lawson — Banana Bread from How to be a Domestic Goddess

What to do when you have overripe bananas lying around?
Make banana bread, of course.

I wanted to share some comfort food since the weather outside is so dreary. There is no better way to warm up a damp, rainy day than with homey aromas and sumptuous flavors. And Nigella does homey and sumptuous so well!

Nigella soaks golden raisins (also known as Sultanas) in bourbon or dark rum for this recipe. Apple or orange juice may be substituted if you’re looking for a non-alcoholic alternative. However, Nigella writes:

If you’re thinking about giving this cake to children, don’t worry, the alcohol doesn’t pervade: you just end up with stickily, aromatically swollen fruit. – Nigella Lawson, from How to be a Domestic Goddess

I can personally attest to the aromatic qualities of this sweet bread and must confess that the plump, juicy raisins were my favorite part. It tasted delectably rich and oh, so satisfying.


Don’t you just want to carve off a slice, slather on some butter and take a bite? Click on the Banana Bread Bake-Off event link below for the recipe, plus photos of Lorraine's loaf. (Loaves, actually. She baked four different ones!)

I found this Banana Bread Bake-Off event on the Not Quite Nigella website.

Click on the links to see how Nigella’s recipe fared against three competitors or send in your own banana bread entry.

This cupcake-lovin' blogger even has a recipe for Meatloaf and Mash Cupcakes!


Not Quote Nigella is my kind of creative baker! You go, girl!