april showers

this morning's rain couldn't keep us from the first outdoor farmer's market of the season. cosmo got a honey straw, and made his traditional visit to the spiral fountain. since the water hasn't been turned on yet, it was actually nice to have the rain.



harmony school student's were having an art show next door, and i was quite impressed with a number of the pieces shown. these delicately crafted wire and paper structures were suspended from the ceiling with golden balloons and fine thread.



here's cosmo, slipping ever-so-carefully, between two configurations of paper airplanes, moments before getting scolded by one of the harmony teachers. i can see why he was concerned. it was a fragile piece, but cosmo understood that, and was passing through without touching anything. the gentle breeze he generated, actually enhanced the work, in my humble opinion. but then, i have always been a fan of art installations that invite interaction.



tomorrow is easter, and we are ready with dyed eggs, and anticipation of our neighbor's annual egg hunt and polka party. i wonder if the cops will be called again this year?

keep yer forks...there's pie!

one of cosmo's familiar favorite songs is "turkey in the straw." he once wrote his own version punkin' in the pie, which basically goes:
"punkin' in the pie...do do do doooo,"
i consider it his first song, and, of course, i love it.



i sing it to myself whenever i make pumpkin pie. like today. one of the best things about november (other than barak obama being elected president of the united states), is pumpkin pie. this one turned out as yummy as i remember from last year. i bake the pumpkins beforehand (or, carl sweetly bakes them for me), and then puree them. the crust gets pre-baked, with pie weights (i have a jar of dry chickpeas that i keep for just this purpose) so it doesn't get soggy.



today we were talking about stocking up on pumpkins while we can still find them at the farmer's market, and storing them in our garage-turned-workshop/studio-space. it's insulated. carl loves to bake pumpkin bread, and i do like me some pie!

update: the recipe
my notes:
i bake the pumpkin ahead of time. i simply cut a pumpkin in half, place it face down on a cookie sheet, and bake it at 350F, for an hour and 15 minutes, to an hour and a half. once it has cooled a bit, the peel comes off easily. then i puree it in the food processor, but you could also use a potato masher.
i sometimes make the crust the night before, stick it in the fridge, and make the pie in the morning.
this crust rocks. i use it for all sweet pies now. the little bit of sugar gives a lot of flavor, and helps with browning.

Flaky Crust
for any single curst pie, 8 to 10 inches in diameter. double the recipe for a two-crust pie.


Ingredients

	1⅛	cups (about 5 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting work surface
	½	tsp. salt
	1	tsp. sugar
	8	Tbsp. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into about 8 pieces
	~	About 3 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed

Steps

1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the container of a food processor; pulse once or twice. Add the butter and turn on the machine; process until the butter and flour are blended and the mixture looks like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.
2. Place the mixture in a bowl and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of water over it. Use a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to gradually gather the mixture into a ball; if the mixture seems dry, add another ½ tablespoon ice water. When you can make the mixture into a ball with your hands, do so. Wrap in plastic wrap, flatten into a small disk, and freeze the dough for 10 minutes (or refrigerate for 30 minutes); this will ease rolling. (You can also refrigerate the dough for a day or two, or freeze it almost indefinitely.)
3. You can roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, usually quite successfully; sprinkle both sides of it with a little more flour, then proceed. Or sprinkle a countertop or large board with flour. Unwrap the dough and place it on the work surface; sprinkle its top with flour. If the dough is hard, let it rest for a few minutes; it should give a little when you press your fingers into it.
4. Roll with light pressure, from the center out. (If the dough seems very sticky at first, add flour liberally; but if it becomes sticky only after you roll it for a few minutes, return it to the refrigerator for 10 minutes before proceeding.) Continue to roll, adding small amounts of flour as necessary, rotating the dough occasionally, and turning it over once or twice during the process. (Use ragged edges of dough to repair any tears, adding a drop of water while you press the patch into place.) When the dough is about 10 inches in diameter (it will be less than ¼-inch thick), place your pie plate upside down over it to check the size.
5. Move the dough into the pie plate by draping it over the rolling pin or by folding it into quarters, then moving it into the plate and unfolding it. When the dough is in the plate, press it firmly into the bottom, sides, and junction of bottom and sides. Trim the excess dough to about ½ inch all around, then tuck it under itself around the edge of the plate. Decorate the edges with a fork or your fingers. Freeze the dough for 10 minutes (or refrigerate it for 30 minutes).
6. When you’re ready to bake, prick it all over with a fork.
   

To pre-bake the crust

preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
tear off a piece of foil large enough to fit over the entire crust when folded in half. smear butter on one side of the foil, then press it into the crust. weight the foil with a pile of dried beans or pie weights or a tight fitting skillet or sauce pan--anything that will sit flat on the surface.
bake 12 minutes. remove from the oven, reduce the heat to 350 F, and carefully remove the weight and foil.
bake another 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is a beautiful shade of brown.

start the filling while the crust is baking

when crust is done, turn the oven to 375 F

filling:

3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
pinch salt
2 cups pureed pumpkin (can use canned, if you wish)
2 cups half-and-half, light cream or whole milk

Beat eggs with the sugar, then add the spices and salt. Stir in the pumpkin puree and the the half-and-half. While the curst is baking, warm this mixture in a medium saucepan over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until it is hot to the touch; do not boil.
Place the pie plate on a baking sheet. Pour this mixture into the still-hot crust and bake 30-40 minutes, until the mixture shakes like jell-o but is still quite moist. cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

from the book How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

shake shake...thud thud

the hoosier hotcakes (mentioned in the previous post) perform a number at the farmer's market called "way down yonder in the pawpaw patch." ever since we moved to indiana, we have wondered about pawpaws. maggie, who teaches cosmo's music class, told us they were yummy, and one of the first solid foods she offered to her baby. she recently hooked us up with a friend who knows where to find them. they are a native fruit, they mostly grow wild, and in clumps (or patches) of trees in the woods. after trying a few from a vendor at the farmer's market, we were intrigued, and wanted to gather some ourselves. we met andy at the park, and followed him out to lake monroe, where we met another family, and headed into the woods. when we came upon the first trees, andy shook their slender trunks, and we heard a couple of thuds. cosmo helped us find the yellowish-green, mango-shaped fruits scattered on the forest floor. they stood out like sore thumbs in all that brown, and remained, for the most part, intact. they fall easily off the tree when they are ripe, so this is typically how one harvests pawpaws.

we took home a sack-full, but were unsure about what to do with them. a pawpaw is very much like a tropical fruit. it is something between a mango and a banana, in both texture, and flavor, with a slightly astringent edge to it, especially near the peel. the seeds remind me most of loquats, and you'll find several of them in each fruit. carl loves them raw. i am a bit less enthused, because i suspect they give me a tummy ache. we made some cookies from a recipe we found online. the night we made them, i thought they were delicious, and ate way too many. my stomach hurt later that night, so maybe the key here is moderation. andy had made a bunch of fruit leather out of them. i tried it, and liked it a lot, but i don't have a dehydrator, and though i had some success with peach leather this summer, i think it would be easier if made in a proper dehydrator. i recently tried to dry some tomatoes in our shed, but it hasn't been hot enough lately, and most of them developed spots of mold before they dried thoroughly.

while the cookies were pretty good, they didn't keep well, and it seems to us that pawpaws are best if you use them uncooked. carl wanted to try ice cream, so we borrowed shawna's ice cream maker and used a recipe we found online. you basically make a regular ice cream custard, as if you were just making vanilla, then before you freeze it you add some cold cream and the pawpaw pulp (which is just the fruit run through the food mill--rather awkwardly since the seeds are so large) and pour it into the ice cream maker.

the results were fantastic.

now we know what to do with pawpaws.

carl has also been really excited about persimmons, which grow wild around here as well. they are nothing like the enormous, bright orange fuji ones that you can sometimes find in grocery stores. these are small, round and taste as though the spices have already been added. seriously, they smell and taste of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. but they do have a bitter bite to them, around the skin, especially if they are not quite ripe.

last year we just ate a few off the tree across the street, and cosmo would eat them whole--seeds and all. we attempted to make a pudding, but we didn't have a food mill at that time, and i think too much of the astringent peel got into the pulp, and it made my mouth pucker. this year, with the food mill, and plenty of fruit from the neighborhood, and malke's backyard, there's no end to what we can do with persimmons. especially since we found the book fading feast, which dedicates a chapter to the discussion of the town of gnaw bone, indiana, and the persimmon treats found there (we recently visited, and tried the cake-like pudding from the sorghum mill trading post). the book features several persimmon recipes, including an incredible tea cake that carl made last week. he is presently baking a second loaf, the aroma is wafting in from the kitchen.
gotta run, i hear the oven door opening.


indiana autumn delight: persimmon tea cake with pawpaw ice cream.

bringin' home the bronze

i didn't watch much of the olympics this time. i never do. but this year, i had an excuse. i was perfecting my salsa recipe. when we canned our first batch of salsa, i thought i might enter it in the annual salsa contest at the farmer's market (sponsored by our local co-op). just for fun. i'd never really made salsa before, other than a spontaneous pico de gallo now and then. so i had no idea how mine would compare. it was tasty, but nothing special. but i picked up a packet at the co-op anyway. when i read the instructions i discovered that home canning was not allowed. all salsas had to be prepared the day they were turned in for judging. so, i had to make a new batch. i was disappointed in our first effort, and the green salsa we made next, because no matter how many hot chiles we put in, the salsa still ranked a medium in terms of heat. our fingers were burning for days from handling chiles such as serranos and "the little worm," from our neighbor jack's garden, and cayennes from curtis at the farmer's market. the kitchen was filled with eye scorching steam, but the finished salsa was still medium.



i became determined to make a salsa with some serious heat this time. so, i got a pint basket of scotch bonnets, similar to habaneros, and two green ones from the chile woman's stall labeled "the hottest," plus a bunch of long yellow ones knows as "hot wax" and one "mr. purple" from our garden. i put them into the food processor, seeds and all, and chopped them finely. i added them towards the end of the cooking, along with the cilantro and fresh garlic. THIS salsa had some fire to it. it still had a nice flavor though--it didn't completely burn and numb the taste buds. i named it "bee in yr bonnet," due to the overwhelming number of scotch bonnet chiles, and the two squirts of honey. i transcribed the recipe, filled the provided containers, and took it down to bloomingfoods. the rest we canned later that night.



the salsa contest includes three categories: cooked, tomato based, raw, tomato based and specialty (non-tomato based). i was in the cooked, tomato based group. there were around 20 other entries. on the day of the contest, at the farmer's market, they had samples of all the entries for tasting, while supplies lasted. there were some yummy salsas. i couldn't really tell how mine ranked. it seemed rather simple compared to most, but one of the hottest. when they were announcing the winners, i was shocked to hear my name called for third place in the cooked salsas! i seriously did not expect to place, i did it for the fun of participating in a community, food related, event. carl was so proud of me and it really made my day. the prize was a gift bag of various items donated from local businesses, including a book called the farmer's market book, published last year, all about bloomington's beloved saturday market. it's a book i've wanted, but probably would not have shelled out the cash for. the perfect prize.

you can see my recipe, and the other winners here