All content copyright Katrina Hall 2008 through 2025
What can I say? Still hot and muggy here in New Hampshire, and my appetite has been just as spotty as a cool breeze. Mornings are cooler, if you leave the windows open at night, so this morning I woke up hungry, first time in ages.
I was planning to make cookies ( which, in this humidity, instantly fall apart), but somehow segued to this tasty green pasta dish, which ended up being my breakfast. Brunch. Whatever. It was 11 am:) This also makes for a nice light supper, perhaps with raspberries and cream for dessert.
I had a little basil, but not enough for basil pesto. But I had lots of peppery arugula, so mais oui, that could work. No tahini, no pine nuts, so I stuck with garlic and a little parmesan and a nice new tube of goat cheese.
What a gorgeous brunch/supper , hope you enjoy!
Makes 2-3 servings.
First, boil up about 1 1/2 cups bow-tie pasta. Boiling salted water, about 8 minutes, then drain.
In your food processor add:
1/4 cup packed basil leaves
2 fat cloves of peeled garlic
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan
2 packed cups arugula
1/4 cup olive oil (mild is fine)
salt and pepper
Process the above and taste. Adjust salt and pepper, and if the arugula is just too strong, add:
Optional:
1/2 avocado
quick squeeze of lemon juice
Topping:
About 3 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
Place a heaping spoonful of green sauce on each plate, add the pasta, and a spoonful of goat cheese, top with a basil leaf and serve.
OR: you can twirl it all together and serve that way. Both are lovely.
Drier air tomorrow, I hear, and it can't come soon enough! Hope you have a sweet day.
Back in the 90's, I came across this wonderful paperback cookbook, called Picnic. In this marvelous little book, I found a recipe for boursin - a rich, sparkling herb cheese, loaded with flavor - garlic, tarragon, chives or scallions, sweet butter, cream cheese. At the time, I had a huge herb garden, and anything herb snagged my attention. So I tried it.
Wooooo. That was some recipe! I have made it over and over, mostly in the summer and why I do not know, because it's amazing anytime of the year. In the winter, I might stir it into a sauce, mash it into baked potatoes, or add just a wee bit to a nice spinach soup or melting on top of a nice poached fish or broiled steak.
In the summer - it's a dip with fresh summer vegetables from the garden - especially sugar snap peas or extravagant sandwiches. Winner.
When you keep it in the fridge and then quickly pile it into a ramekin for dips, it tends to be a bit cold and flaky, but if you let it sit, it becomes creamy and very spreadable.
I once actually bought boursin at a supermarket, and was shocked that it was so ...well, fluffy and bland. This boursin is nothing like that, but smooth and loaded with flavor.
To make 1 1/2 cups of boursin:
8 ounces soft cream cheese
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 - to 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. dry mustard (I use 1 t. Dijon prepared mustard)
2 T. minced fresh parsley ( I use flat leaf)
1 T. minced fresh chives or scallion greens
1 teaspoon dried tarragon, which has a stronger taste
1 minced or smashed garlic clove
salt to taste - I use kosher salt
She suggests putting it in a food processor, but I use a mixer. it comes out quite green if you use a food processor.
Place ingredients in a food processor or mixer and whiz or mix. Taste and add salt as needed.
Keep in fridge until ready to use. Let it warm to room temperature if you so desire.
A long, long time ago - probably at least 20 years, I tore out a blueberry muffin recipe in the Boston Globe from a little B&B in Maine called the Squire Tarbox Inn. I was so happy with the recipe, whether I used wild blueberries, cultivated blueberries, or even frozen blueberries in the midst of winter, I kept using it. I think the only change I made was to add a teaspoon of cinnamon and a little lemon zest to the batter. Since this is prime blueberry season, I thought I'd share it with you.
I make these Texas size - two scoops of batter to a muffin. They're tender and loaded with berries, soft, but not too crumbly and tough.
Makes 8 large muffins.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease two Texas size muffin tins very well, set aside.
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
3 cups King Arthur flour, all purpose
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a few scrapings of lemon zest
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, tossed in a tablespoon of flour
(if you use the tiny wild blueberries, you can use 1/2 cup less berries)
Beat eggs and sugar in mixer bowl briefly. Add the milk and melted butter , and stir.
Add the cinnamon and lemon zest, the flour and baking powder, and mix very briefly.
Fold in the blueberries by hand, and fill the muffin tins, two scoops per muffin, using a regular sized ice cream scoop.
Bake for 30 minutes if using room temperature berries - frozen berries take a little longer. They should be done when they are puffed and slightly firm to the touch if you touch the center of the muffin with a fingertip.
Remove the tins to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes. Use a dull knife to gently pry out the muffins - they usually pop right out. Let cool another few minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
It is still hot here, but not as bad as it was two days ago, thankfully. Rain clouds skitter across the sky, but no rain has fallen in days. If you leave the windows open at night, the house is lovely and cool in the morning - a big improvement! Wishing you happy swimming and blueberry picking!
Hot and humid, hot and humid with showers, hot and humid with thunderstorms - day after day, week after week, but when I remember January and February which were unusually cold for weeks and weeks, I'm not complaining.
I don't know about you, but hot and humid weather takes away my usual fierce appetite, good in some ways, but sometimes hard to find something really good to eat or drink. And I found it two weeks ago. Fresh chunks of watermelon whizzed in a blender. Pour, serve. Children like it with a ball of vanilla ice cream bobbing in that cold and pretty rosy juice, which then makes it a watermelon float. Freshly made, it's very thick, but it thins out a little when stored in the fridge for a few days. So far I've gone through two and a half "baby" seedless watermelons with no dampening of enthusiasm.
It's been a wonderful season for watermelons , and I hope it goes on for another month or so, because I've gotten used to this juice for breakfast , super chilled. Sweet and lacking the acidity of orange juice, I was happy to find out it really is healthy. Now I'm wondering if I can freeze some, though it won't last long in the freezer:) For now, I have two jars stashed in the fridge to help me get through pruning the hedges, which have grown at least 18 inches in the last few weeks - they love this weather, clearly.
Hope your summer is going swimmingly!
It has been sizzling here . My outside thermometer registers between 90 and 110 degrees with the sun beating down. I try my usual trick - opening windows at night, closing first thing in the morning. For two days, the house stays cool that way, but no longer. We are down to cold showers and tepid pond water - the windows stay open all the time.
So, of course, one doesn't think of baking, but instead I reach for chilled French potato salad, stuffed HB eggs, and lots of lemonade. One day I made Finnish cucumber salad and then wondered why I didn't just stash a jar of them as pickles in the fridge - they are cold, herby, and delicious on turkey wraps with fresh arugula. I simply sliced the cucumbers, increased the amount of dressing, and stuffed them in a jar for instant gratification and quick, chilly, snacking.
To Make:
1 large cucumber or two medium, scrubbed but not peeled, very finely sliced
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup de-stemmed, roughly chopped fresh dill
One large clean jar
Place the sugar, kosher salt, and white vinegar in a medium-sized ceramic bowl.
Stir the mixture until the sugar and salt have melted into the vinegar.
Add the dill, then add the cucumbers and toss well.
Spoon into the clean jar , cap, and store in fridge .
Stay cool, wherever you are!
Some months ago, I noticed I had completely lost my taste for beef in any form - not burgers, meatballs, steaks, even thinly sliced roast beef. I do love turkey, probably more than chicken, and I eat a lot of fish, so I don't seem to be missing it, but it is curious.
Now that summer is really here (!), I like to tour my garden patches, picking a few chives here, some rosemary sprigs there, and snipping off some sorrel leaves and turnip greens, celery leaves, and if I have blooming nasturtiums, those will go right in my basket, too. Sometimes they go into a salad, but often they end up in soup or something like these juicy, plump turkey meatballs. Sometimes the meatballs are tiny, but today I wanted big beefy diner-sized meatballs, two or three make the perfect lunch or dinner, nestled in a wedge of iceberg lettuce, just to be authentic - and OH! were they good!
I don't fry them up on high heat, but simmer them on middle heat, covered. They come out tender, juicy, and have enough herby flavor to be tasty, but not overpowering.
How's your weather? We are having thunderstorms and rain every late afternoon or evening and the plants ( and I) love it - no need to haul out the hoses, thanks to Mother Nature!
Ground Turkey Meatballs with chopped herbs
This made about 10 large meatballs.
1 one pound package ground turkey
About 3 loosely packed cups of various herbs and greens: I used:
4 scallions (green onions) trimmed and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 piece bread, torn up
1 large egg
1 medium red onion, quartered and sliced into chunks
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme ( which I prefer to fresh)
sliced sorrel leaves, stems are ok to use as well
rosemary sprigs
turnip or other greens, torn (spinach, tender kale, etc can be used, too)
nasturtium leaves and flowers
garlic scapes
radish leaves
celery leaves and some of the stalk, sliced
sprigs of oregano
chives
sea salt and pepper
about 4 T. salsa, divided ( I used Green Mountain Gringo hot salsa)
Place ground turkey in a large bowl.
In food processor add the herbs and greens, the red onion, the scallions , the bread, thyme, and 2 T. of the salsa. Pulse or chop by hand into a coarse mixture.
Scrape the mixture into the bowl with the turkey, and add the sea salt and the raw egg and mix well.
Pour a few tablespoons mild olive oil into a skillet and heat on medium.
Form the turkey mixture into large balls - a little smaller than a tennis ball.
Cook for 10 minutes on medium, covered, then flip the turkey patties over and cook another 5 minutes, covered.
Serve on iceberg wedges or hearty rolls, top with a little more salsa and serve. Now I'm thinking a little goat cheese crumbled on top would be fabulous - next time!
Enjoy!
Boy, it's hot. I mean 97 degrees hot, and that is not something those of us who live in the mountains of New Hampshire are used to. I have it down to a science: Wake up at 5 am, open all the windows, then a few hours later as it starts to heat up, close all the windows, put down the shades and go soak in a cool pond.
In this kind of heat, I do my baking early, too. With the windows open, the kitchen doesn't heat up as much. Why I get the baking urge on days like this is a mystery - maybe it's the Super Moon, which I didn't get to see because of the cloud cover. This morning I tackled those wonderful brownies of Maida Heatter's( using toasted pecans instead of walnuts) washed the bowls, then whipped up some big banana muffins, mild and slightly sweet; spongy but nicely filling. I like to add a little rolled oats and lemon zest and cinnamon , which makes them a lot more interesting than just using mashed bananas.
Stay cool, wherever you are!
Big Banana Muffins
Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease one Texas size muffin tin, set aside.
2 large bananas, mashed in mixer bowl
1 t. lemon zest
1 extra large egg
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 T. canola or mild olive oil
1 cup buttermilk
Mix the wet ingredients well, then add:
2 cups King Arthur all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (not instant oats)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups about 3/4ths full ( I use two scoops of batter, using a normal size ice cream scoop).
Set muffins in upper third of the hot oven, bake for 25 minutes, or until tops spring back when gently pressed.
Enjoy!
