Confiture 🍓

​♥️Find Your Little Friday♥️

confiture-french for a preserve of fruit

It all started with a jar....many years ago. I find that when spring rolls around I pull this jar out of the cupboard and I begin to fill it with whatever seasonal varietal combination I’m inspired by at that moment. I only love a few store bought brands of jam, finding many to be overly sweet. Making my own is not only easy, but fun for me. The jar I use to hold my jams is a little bit kitschy, but reminds me of something my grandmothers would have had and it was a gift from my mom.

The ingredient list is short and the jam is ready in no time. Fruit is coming into it's own best flavors in these months ahead so they don’t require much sweetener. I typically use honey for the floral notes but maple syrup adds a nice caramel flavor. Sometimes I need a tablespoon of sugar if the fruit is not yielding the sweetness I want, but I only add it in when necessary. I find that most fruit flavor combinations or just one fruit on it's own is wonderful. Using a little citrus always helps brighten and balance the flavors. I typically leave the citrus out or only use a little bit when using a combination that has a more bitter fruit like rhubarb.

Try different combinations, put it on yogurt, toast or just on a spoon. I’m certain it will lead you to some little delights/#FindYourLittleFriday ♥️

1 cup of cleaned raspberries

1 cup of strawberries cleaned, hulled and quartered

3/4 cup of honey

1 tbsp of sugar(optional)

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 cup of water

Yields 2 cups of jam

In a bowl combine the fruit and with the back of a metal fork begin to mash the fruit together. Once the ingredients are a nice consistency of mashed fruit, toss in honey/sugar and lemon into the mixture. Place the mixture into a saucepan with a cup of already boiling water. Slowly add it in so it doesn’t splatter and then bring it to a boil, stirring consistently until it’s starts to bubble. Reduce the mixture to a low simmer continuing to occasionally stir and cook at this temperature for about 30 minutes. The mixture will be slightly runny still but will stiffen up as it cools to room temperature. For good measure, I set it in the fridge after for a few hours. 🍓

An Olive Oil Cake For All Your Celebrations ♥️

♥️Find Your Little Friday♥️​

Happy holiday weekend for everyone celebrating Easter or Passover. This recipe is one that I’ve been making for so many years and have thrown together at the last minute more times than I could count. I typically have all of these ingredients in my house and swap them when need be. If you’re celebrating Passover this weekend, swap out the all purpose flour for almond flour(or another nut flour of your choice)and you’re all set! The olive oil is the fat in this cake so you don’t have to worry about substitution to make this a kosher dish either!

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I have a very hard time not eating this entire cake after I bake it. I love it so much that I find myself cutting a slice and trying to get it out of my house as fast as possible. It is so delicious, moist and easy to make. I recommend this cake to anyone looking to bake something but maybe they don’t always trust their skills in the kitchen. Be sure to not bake it for too long, you don't want it to be dry. You can also substitute the orange for lemon and the vanilla for the almond.

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Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the pan
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
Juice and zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons juice, 1 tablespoon zest)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Confectioners sugar for dusting

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Mix together the sugar and eggs in a medium bowl with a whisk until blended and light. Drizzle in the olive oil and almond and mix until light and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in another medium bowl. Add the flour mixture half at a time to the wet ingredients and mix on low just to incorporate. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cake cool 15 minutes, dust with confectioners sugar and serve.

Enjoy making this dish and celebrating together with those near and dear! #FindYourLittleFriday

Fishmarket Bisque Soup 🦀

♥️Find Your Little Friday♥️

I have stacks of tabbed magazines, newspaper clippings, index cards and open tabs on my Google Chrome of recipes. Recipes have always intrigued me most and they lay scattered throughout my life. I used to have a notorious habit of falling asleep while reading cookbooks, it’s just always been my thing. Recipes for me are like stories. What are you leaving in, leaving out or adding in? Why are you making something, attempting something or changing everything about a recipe to make it digestible for you? I feel a sense of sentiment and connection with recipes, especially when they are passed on. The real work can also come when you have to interpret or translate the missing parts of a recipe so it makes sense to you.

Five years ago I received my first handwritten recipe from mom. I have cooked next to her many times learning recipes thru osmosis or transcribed her tricks over the phone. When I got this specific recipe I didn’t feel compelled to make it at the time. I stumbled across it as I was spring cleaning last week and it just spoke to me. I called her upon its rediscovery and began to ask many questions.

Where did this recipe come from? Did you make it often? When did you feel like making it most? Why did you share it with me?

Are you ready for the responses?

“This recipe is from 80's and came from a friend in the furniture industry. He had it on good authority that this was one of the most popular recipes served at the home of the founders of Crate and Barrel.”.....ok mom, lead with that! “I made it when I felt like impressing people but didn’t have a lot of time. This recipe comes together quickly which is nice. It’s price tag is high though because it comes from luxury.”

She is right, the crab meat alone is a high ticket value! “ I shared it with you because I knew you would appreciate it.”

Again she was right and I did/do appreciate it so very much! You can follow along on her index card but I will share a couple tweaks I added since I have to put my little twist on it! Like her notes read, you must serve this with a butter lettuce salad topped with a tangy mustard and sherry vinaigrette. Also, a little grated gruyere on the greens just to give it even more love.  I sliced some yummy bread and spread a pat of butter over the slices like she suggested too! Check out some of my tweaks below

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• add the zest from the entire lemon as well as the juice

• I used fresh tarragon because it is my favorite 

• I used high quality packaged crab meat since I couldn't find snow crab legs

• I used fish sauce instead of Worcestershire, a perfect swap here since one of the lead ingredients in Worcestershire is anchovies

• I couldn't imagine using all heavy cream, half and half is the way to go

• the index recipe doesn't call for brandy but the recipe steps say to add some in, I used dry vermouth instead which rounded out the flavor nicely

I hope you enjoy this recipe and find yourself inspired to make it on your own. Who knows, you might even find another tweak or improvement yourself? All I ask is that you kindly help a lady out and share any and all insight. Enjoy and I hope this helps you #findyourlittlefriday

Strawberry Rhubarb Crostata

 ♥️Find Your Little Friday♥️

My heritage comes out in so many areas of my life but it is the most pronounced with food. I will discover a recipe, technique or cuisine and follow the trace back to my family history of where that love, curiosity and awareness came from. If my love of desserts/pastries is from my family, then pie is the midwestern homage to that love and also the place I grew up. This pie flavor combination is my most beloved and was also my maternal grandfather’s favorite. Let the traditions keep flowing.

In honor of the first few days of spring I offer up my favorite pie recipe for strawberry rhubarb. This has been a favorite pie of mine since I was a little girl and I was over the moon to see the first bits of rhubarb appear in the market this past week.  Depending on where you live delicious and sweet strawberries may be already available. If not, wait a couple more weeks and your combination will be perfect. This is a perfect flavor combination for me, sweet & tart and of course a lovely buttery crust to compliment the flavors. This variatiion is known as a crostata in Italy, a galette in France and hand pie Stateside

Pie crust:

Yields six 3" crostatas

•2 1/2 cups a.p. flour

•2 sticks of chilled unsalted butter cut into cubes

•1/4 cup of brown sugar

•1 tsp of salt

•6-8 tbsp of cold water

Sift together flour, sugars and salt. Add the cubed butter into the mixture either using a pastry cutter to incorporate or your hands. Working quickly, mix all ingredients together until the butter starts to become pearl sized as it gets combined with the dry ingredients. Slowly add a few tbsp of cold water and mix together. Add more water till the mixture begins to be moistened through but not overly wet.  Separate the dough into two equal parts, wrap in plastic and refrigerate each disk for at least an hour

While the dough rests make the filling

•1 quart of strawberries cleaned, stemmed and quartered

•3 stalks of rhubarb cleaned and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

•1/4 cup of sugar

•1/4 cup of brown sugar

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and place in the fridge for half an hour to allow the fruit to macerate. 

Preheat your oven to 375º. Take one disk of dough out of the fridge and flour a clean surface. Using a long chef knife or pastry cutter, split the dough into thirds, then reform each piece into a ball, giving you three balls. Starting from the center of each, use a floured rolling pin and work out towards the corners.  Once you get the dough to a desired thickness, (about a 1/4 inch) move onto the next until you have three. Then move to a parchment lined sheet tray, a half sheet holds three. Then take out the remaining half and follow the same steps as the first piece of dough, finishing by placing the last three pieces onto another half sheet tray.

Divide the filling evenly amongst the six discs, about 1/3 of a cup into each, focusing on placing the filling in the center of each, leaving a little less than an inch border. Begin by folding the edges of the dough over the filling, moving counter clockwise as you overlap the dough onto itself, like you’re tucking the filling in. Pinch the dough at the top if any cracks form. Sprinkle with demerara sugar/raw sugar.

Place in the oven and and bake for about 35 minutes, until the fruit juices start bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Cool for about thirty minutes, enjoy!