Johnnycake

Combine in medium bowl:

   1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
   3/4 tsp salt
   2 tsp sugar

Heat to rolling boil in small saucepan:

   1 cup water
   2 T. butter
   1/4 cup milk

Immediately pour hot water/butter over cornmeal mixture in a slow trickle stirring constantly. When all liquid has been absorbed, add milk. Mixture should be fairly thick.

Heat some butter and oil in equal quantities in a skillet and coat bottom. Drop batter by large tablespoons onto griddle, forming 4" cakes. Fry till crisp and golden on both sides. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Cream Scones

2 cups of ap flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

5 1/3 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 whipping cream

Glaze:

1 egg

1 tablespoon cream

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Add cream, egg and vanilla. Mix until just moistened. Press the dough into a circle and cut into eighths. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Strawberry shortcake!

Obsessively Good Avocado Cucumber Salad

       This salad is gluten-free, dairy-free, chametz-free and vegetarian… but you should make it anyway, heh, because it’s fresh and green and totally hits the spot. It also takes about 5 minutes, tops, to put together which means that you can make as much of a habit of it as we have.

3/4 lb. or 3-4 small seedless cucumber, washed and chopped into bite size chunks
1 avocado, pitted and diced
1 T sour cream
1/4 chopped cilantro, stems and all
2 tsp  lemon juice, plus more to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
A dash of Tabasco

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat everything. Adjusting seasoning to taste.  Repeat again tomorrow.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Spaetzle

Simplest Homemade Spaetzle
Recipe from The Balthazar Cookbook, technique from trial and error via smittenkitchen

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
7 large eggs
1/4 cup (59 ml) milk

Combine the flour, eggs and milk in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.*

Prepare an ice bath. Bring a large pot of well salted water to boil. If you’ve got aspaetzle maker, use it. Otherwise, I put the batter in a bag and snipped out bits of dough with scissors. It make more gnocchi sized dumplings, but was very easy with no clean up required. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes then use a slotted spoon to fish spaetzle out and drop it in the ice bath. Continue with remaining batter in 3 batches. 

When you’re done with the batter, drain the spaetzle well and toss it with a small amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking. You can use it right away, or keep it in the fridge for a day until needed.

* The rest really does make nicer batter

I tossed my dumplings with pea vine pesto from the CSA basket.

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

9 chicken legs or thighs, fresh or frozen
salt 

  For the sauce:
1 1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c.+ 3 T apple cider vinegar (preferably with the mother)
4 cloves of garlic,
1/2 c. fine diced onion
1/4 c. ketchup
2 T tomato paste
1/4 c. red wine
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T sweet thick soy sauce (if you don't have this use normal soy sauce and add 1 tsp brown sugar)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp berbere (see separate post for recipe)
1 tsp tumuric
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder

Put the dried cranberries and cider vinegar in a microwave safe bowl and nuke for 1 min. Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a blend and blend until you have a smooth puree. Turn your crock pot on high and sprinkle the onions and garlic on the bottom. Season the onions with a little salt and then put in about half the sauce. Sprinkle some salt on the chicken and then lay that on top of the sauce. Put the rest of the sauce on top of the chicken and then cover. If you chicken is frozen, cook on high for 1 hour and then low for about 6 hours or until fall apart tender. If your chicken is fresh you can cook on low for about 9 hours and it will be nice and tender, or if you want you can cook on high for and hour and then low just keep an eye on it cus it will cook fast then if it were frozen.

Berbere spice blend

2 tsp cumin seed
2 tsp corriander seed
1 tsp fenugreek seed
1/2 tsp pepper corns
1/4 tsp allscipe berries
6 cardamon pods
4 whole cloves
2 dried hot chilles
3 T paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Toast all the whole spices and then grind in a coffee blender. add to already ground spices and store in an air tight container.

Baker's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1 egg
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. a.p flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder (totally optional)
1 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped nuts (for those who won't eat them with out nuts, or feel free to omit them depending on your strategy)

Beat butter, egg, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients, blend well. Stir in chips and nuts (if using). Bake at 375 for 8-10 min. Take them out a little before they look done, they'll set up while they cool. Devour, preferably with a large glass of milk. Adding 1/2 tsp of espresso powder would be nice since these are fairly sweet.

Best Chocolate Pudding/Fudgesicle

5 oz dark chocolate, chopped fine 

4 cups half and half 

6-10 egg yolks ( depending on how thick you want it or how many eggs you're trying to get rid of)

3 T sugar 

2 tsp cocoa

1 1/2 tsp espresso powder 

1 T vanilla extract 

1/4 tsp salt

Heat dairy, espresso powder, cocoa powder and salt in a saucepan until scalding and than take off the heat. Beat sugar with egg yolks until thick and pale yellow. Temper egg yolks into dairy (see note). Turn off heat, add chocolate a handful at a time, stirring slowly until all the chocolate is melted. Add vanilla extract. Strain through a mesh sieve. Eat warm or cold. Freeze in ice cube trays to make the best fudgesicel ever.

Sweet Potato Flapjacks

4 eggs, beaten well
2 c mashed cooked sweet potato
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbls baking powder
1 tbls brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Stir potato into eggs to blend well. Add buttermilk and smooth. Combine all remain ingredients in a bowl, mix and gently stir into batter until just smooth.

Fry and consume immediately. Makes a lot, but you'll eat them all anyway.

Colorado Posole

Inspired by Hatch Green Chili

3 lb pork loin or shoulder, roasted and chopped or shredded
1 large onion, diced
2 tbls chopped garlic
3 cans of fire roasted green peppers (20-24 oz)
1 can Rotel (or 1 can petite diced tomatoes and 1/4 cup chopped pickled jalapenos)
2 cups salsa verde (lacking this, add lime juice and cilantro to taste)
12 oz of light - medium beer
3 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
1 can of hominy
1 tbls chilli powder
1 tbls Mexican oregano
Gr. chili pepper to taste (~ 1 tsp can make it pretty hot)
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of cornstarch

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Simply season the pork roast with salt and pepper. Place in a large Dutch oven, cover and roast in a 350 degree oven until done. About 3 hours. Remove the roast from the pan and let cool and then shred the meat with two forks. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil and the bacon drippings in the same Dutch oven. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes . Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except the water and cornstarch. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 2 hours.
4. In a bowl combine water and cornstarch and stir until combined. Towards the end, add a little of this to thicken the soup.
5. Serve with warm flour tortillas and sour cream. Makes a full large crock pot full.