Fruit jam, pancakes

Another use for fruits:
In a saucepan, heat fruit(s) till boiling (raspberries,strawberries,lemon juice, a bit of cornstarch, sugar, salt, to taste) .
Make pancakes.
Skim the boiling fruit, now over medium heat often to remove slime.
Put a plate in the fridge to get cold, as the fruit cooks, see how it coats back of a spoon. Place a small amount of the hot fruit mix on the cold plate and return the plate to the fridge for several minutes. Check the consistency of the mixture on the plate for proper thickness as desired. This could also be determined by a thermometer. The idea is to get the fruit to a proper thickness as desired for jam WHEN COOLED ! Yes, as I have done before I ended up with fruit hard candy instead of jam when cooled.

When the jam is of the proper consistency, put the pan in the back of the freezer, the permafrost region, for rapid cooling.

Pancakes ready…..

t
Jar up the jam…

Plate up the pancakes with jelly, again a splash of heavy cream (or whipped if you prefer)…

You can fancy it up with a drizzle of liquor…

Fruit tart/pizza

Utilise fruit, in this case frozen raspberries from the garden, strawberries, leftover pizza dough.
Foil lined baking pan, using the toaster oven for this breakfast recipe.

Spread out the dough….

Add the fruit…

Put on a crumble type topping, sugar, butter,nuts ,flour etc.

Let the dough rise……

Bake, let cool..

Plate it up, a splash of heavy cream.. As good as pastry !!!

Simply pizza

Not to be repetitive, but garden tomatoes are available.
No need for words here:

A family member bought the Bragg organic sprinkles, a good item for quick herbs for recipes.

Toolbox table

While some home food bloggers lament how to serve a different and varied home cooked meal, a lunch box meal can be just as challenging. Most recipes for brown baggers are geared for school age children.
The lunch box meal has to be designed to be eaten in a limited time frame and pack a satisfying punch and be cost effective. Usually my lunches are a carry over from the leftovers of dinner the night before.

Here’s a starter, since fresh tomatoes are available,
Ratios are your preference:

Diced tomatoes
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Onion, diced
Garlic, diced
Cheese would be good too !
Combine the above in a container, shake, by the time lunch arrives, the flavours will have melded.
Fresh baked (if possible), Day old slightly crusty bread ,cut into finger size pieces.

At lunch, dip or pile the marinated tomato on the bread, consume, It’s like a fresh pizza.

Other items to outfit your lunch box,
Knife, fork and spoon.
Plenty of napkins
Frozen freezer packs, those packaged sealed gel packs, better than ice.
DIY Energy drink, fruit juice, (orange, lemon, etc) water, sugar, salt
Extreme hot days, freeze drink in freezer and let thaw and drink while working for a supply of a cold beverage at your workstation.
Cookies, cake etc, a batch of cookies will last several days, so will a cake recipe. Good for fast power food at break time. Also a recipe of home made granola type cookie bars will last several days , incorporate cereal , honey, sugar, chocolate etc.
A container of salad greens, with small containers of olive oil, vinegar, grated cheese, hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
Fresh or containers of frozen fruit.
If you want take out fast food once and while and don’t have a runner, buy the item the night before ,refrigerate ,and place in lunch box with a freezer pack.

You can still have a quality meal at work, it has to be designed and packaged for fast consumption.

Fudgy Walnut Toffee Cookies

Recipe is modified from Fudgy Pecan Toffee Cookies ,www.chow.com

1cup flour
6 tablespoons cocoa
1/2teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
6 tablespoon brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped toffee, maybe less
1 cup course chopped walnuts, maybe less
Roasted or toasted cocoa nibs

Oven at 350
Combine dry ingredients (flour -salt)
Combine butter and sugars in a bowl with a paddle mixer
Add the eggs and vanilla
At low speed add flour mixture, add nuts and toffee.
Scoop 1inch apart on cookie sheet

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Blend the butter….

And the sugars…..

Till fluffy…. Ya know standard cookie dough procedure.
After that add the egg..

Fluff it up again..

Add in the dry ingredients…

Mix slowly… Add add the nuts , toffee bits,and cocoa nibs, the cocoa nibs give extra choco power without the added sweetness, they are pure chocolate in raw form, slightly toasted to bring out the flavour.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes, set on the edges and soft in the centre.
Allow to cool 10to 15 minutes remove from baking sheet

Fellow work persons agree “these are real, real good”. I agree, Chocolate cookies at it’s finest.

Smokin’ it

After a bit of yard and garden cleaning , time to light up the smoker! This time with oak pellets added to the charcoal. Several small dishes to smoke , seasoned rubbed chicken breast, meatballs, and salmon.

Finally cut the lawn in the back yard, garden upper left hand corner.

One side of the garden, I let the weeds grow out with the tomatoes and broccoli.

The other side of the garden , cleaned out a lot of weeds, and spent tomato plants.

Extra bonus, when cleaning out the garden found that the huckleberries have returned from last year.!!! With the heat we have had and the thunderstorms they seemed to have sprung up overnight.Yea!

Starting the coals in the grille , the charcoal starter barely visible through the smoke.

Smoked chicken breast, meatballs, grilled corn, salmon, salad greens with balsamic and olive oil, garden tomatoes

Garden fresh tomato sauce with bread

The weather had cooled off enough to start the oven and bake bread, and one of the best ways to taste garden fresh tomato sauce is not using a spoon ,but bread. While a loaf of your favourite bread is baking, get some tomatoes from the garden.
As in other recipes, this time of year, when tomatoes are plentiful of different grades,
I used garden tomatoes that were not perfectly ripened and /or formed for this recipe. Dice garden tomatoes into chunks into a blender, cutting away the the imperfect areas (reserve in freezer for stock or discard). Blend and strain into a sauce pan, Heat to boil and simmer, skimming foam if necessary. Add your favourite herbs preferably from the garden. Oregano and sage in this recipe.
Add as preferred, sugar, salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes, vinegar, to make the sauce to to your liking. Also if the sauce is a bit too watered either simmer to reduce or add a small amount of cornstarch blended in cold water.

Bulgar Wheat with Sautéed Vegetables in Tomato Sauce .

I used garden tomatoes that were not perfectly ripened and /or formed for this recipe. Dice garden tomatoes into chunks into a blender, cutting away the the imperfect areas (reserve in freezer for stock or discard). Blend and strain into a sauce pan to yield at least 3 cups. Heat to boil and simmer, skimming foam if necessary.

Dice vegetables in a mini processor, in this case, onion,garlic,carrot and broccoli stalks. Sauté, in a skillet ,the diced vegetables in olive oil and season with salt and pepper and or/herbs and spices. This step give more flavour rather than just adding the vegetables plain to the bulgar. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add one cup of bulgar wheat to the skillet with butter and over medium high heat slightly toast the bulgar.

Put the bulgar into a saucepan, with a tight fitting lid .

with the sautéed vegetables

and 3 cups of tomato sauce.

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Bring to a boil, cover and simmer

for about 20 minutes, then let stand several minutes.

Fluff and serve

A small get together

A small get together Sunday, some of the regular dishes were made. This time the burgers were made full size and sliders. By using a cookie/pastry circular cutter, regular burgers rolls were made smaller and by making smaller size hamburgers, presto, you have sliders.

Condiments, chips , dips and salads.

Vegetables with bulgar wheat

Preferable in a skillet, sauté a combination of vegetables.

Remove them from the pan and set aside.
Add bulgar wheat and oil, sauté till slightly brown. Add seasonings as desired.

Add water ,bring to a boil, and cover and simmer bout 20 minutes..

When the bulgar is cooked return the veggies to the pan.