Blueberry pancetta flatbread

When I think of blueberries and pie in the same sentence, this recipe isn't ordinarily what comes to mind. It struck me as just odd enough to work either really well or not at all. Luckily, it's still blueberry season in Bayfield by way of the Midtown Farmers Market.

Blueberry flatbread

Adapted from a recipe in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, in turn adapted from the blueberrycouncil.org

Ingredients

Pizza dough to make one large rectangular crust, about a pound

1 cup grated mozzarella, divided (smoked is nice, if you’ve got it)

¼ cup crumbled Gorgonzola or other blueish cheese

4 ounces diced pancetta, cooked and drained (can substitute bacon)

½ red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped, divided

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Shape dough into a large rectangle and place on a baking stone that’s been sprinkled with cornmeal.

Sprinkle half the mozzarella over the crust, then sprinkle on Gorgonzola, pancetta and scatter red onion over the top. Bake for 12-15 minutes until crust is cooked and nearly golden. Remove from oven. Sprinkle blueberries over the top and half the rosemary. Scatter remaining mozzarella over the top and return to the oven for about 2 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with remaining rosemary. Serve warm.

Rating: This totally worked for us. Really nice mix of savory with those nearly pie-in-a-berry blueberries. And, well, pancetta. Super fun way to make sure the blueberries don't got to waste.

Savory oatmeal with mushrooms, ginger and charred onions

Who says oats have to be for breakfast? In the time of the pandemic pantry, it's time to rethink some staple stereotypes.

Sesame-ginger oats with mushrooms and charred green onions

From Better Homes & Gardens, October 2016. The recipe notes that you could sub in other grainish-type items in this recipe, such as buckwheat, barley or quinoa.

Note: As written, this recipe would serve 1 as a main dish, or 2 somewhat skimpily as a side dish, so you may well want to double it from the get-go.

Ingredients

1 cup chicken broth (or slightly more, if you like creamier oats)

½ cup steel cut oats

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, divided

1 cup chopped assorted mushrooms

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

2 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Crushed red pepper flakes

Method

In a small saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Stir in oats. Cook, uncovered on medium low heat for 25 to 30 minutes until oats are tender, thickened and creamy, stirring as needed.

Meanwhile, in a skillet heat 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms and ginger and cook 3 to 4 minutes until tender. Remove from pan to a small bowl.

In same skillet, heat remaining oil. Cook green onions a few minutes over medium high heat or until slightly charred. Remove from heat.

Stir mushrooms into cooked oats. Serve topped with green onions, soy sauce and crushed red pepper.

Rating: You wind up with something that’s risotto-like in texture, with considerably less hands-on monitoring. A quick fix, and one you can readily imagine modifying as needed. Basically, it's a blank slate for flavors. The sesame-ginger flavoring works well, but any flavor profile you like could work.

Summer garden tour at home

Thalita roselilies have a pleasant fragrance. Just be prepared to dodge hungry bumblebees if you want a whiff.

Summer at home has its compensations. But honestly, I thought I would have more time to weed now. Cue derisive laughter. I just squint at the blooms instead.

Some 25 years ago, Sonja brought us a "shrubbery' as a housewarming present. It has stayed bought.

These lilies have been in the same pot since the lat 1990s. I just keep adding more dirt as needed.

Pinks!

Daylilies are so reliable. Bless them.

I have a bit of a clematis obsession. Can a gal have too many trellises? Don't answer that.

This guy so doesn't fit the color scheme. But he was here when we moved in, so he gets to stay.

Chicken thighs with burst tomato harissa sauce and feta

There's a point in the summer when we finally get our first taste of truly ripe tomatoes where it seems like sacrilege to do anything but just eat them raw. We spend a few weeks in a rotation of fresh tomato pasta sauce, salad Caprese along side corn on the cob, and of course BLTs. Heaven.

But eventually, I'm willing to cook them, and now that I'm starting to get a daily harvest of cherry tomatoes from the garden, it was time to try this recipe.

It called for oregano, but my herb plant shopping was a little disrupted by the pandemic this year, and for once, I didn't have any volunteer oregano or marjoram. But I did have volunteer lemon basil, and that worked perfectly in this recipe.

Chicken thighs with tomatoes and feta

Adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2020

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on)

½ teaspoon plus of salt

2 pints cherry tomatoes

¼ cup harissa paste

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 sprigs oregano or basil, divided

4 ounces  feta, cut into rough chunks

1 tablespoon red or white wine, optional

Method

Pat chicken thighs dry. Sprinkle with salt. Place skin-side down in a large cast-iron skillet or other pan that allows you to get a good brown crispy skin. Cook over medium heat until well browned, about 15 minutes, leaving chicken undisturbed, but rotating pan for even browning.  Transfer to a plate, skin-side up.

 In same skillet, combine tomatoes, harissa, vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 herb sprig. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes burst. Nestle chicken among the tomatoes, skin-side up, and cook over medium low heat until chicken is cooked through (165 degrees at the bone) and sauce is thickened. Depending on how juicy your tomatoes are, you might need a tablespoon of wine to make the proper sauce consistency.

Let rest for a few minutes off the heat. Sprinkle with feta and the leaves from the remaining herb sprigs.

Rating: Super simple, super good, super popular with the in-house taste tester. Good weeknight family supper, but fine enough for house-guest company, too. Harissa gives it a nice, but mild kick.This one is going in the rotation.

Overnight blueberry streusel coffee cake

 

I have this memory of there being some place or cookbook called Blueberry Mornings. Maybe in Two Harbors? Can't find any reference to it, and it would make a great cookbook title. 

It's also a good describer of our week Up North, which started and ended with blueberry-stuffed breakfasts. I hadn't exactly intended that when I set out to prep cabin breakfasts, but it being blueberry season both in my yard and at the farmers market, it just happened that way.

I made this recipe to have in the morning before our long, non-stop, intensely socially distant drive, and to reheat up on the final day of our stay so we had time for a walk down Croftville Road before leaving. I'm a fan of sour cream coffee cakes and overnight cakes, so I went looking for a recipe that incorporated blueberries. The touch of whole wheat intrigued me to try this one.

Overnight blueberry streusel coffee cake

Adapted from Webmd.com, which naturally used low-fat versions of everything.

Ingredients

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons cake flour, divided

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or more cake flour)

1¼ cups sugar, divided

2½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons canola oil

5 tablespoons sour cream, divided

¾ cup milk

1 large egg

2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Method

Grease a 9-by-9 pan.

Mix 1 cup cake flour, whole wheat pastry flour, ¾ cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix oil, 3 tablespoons sour cream, milk and egg. Beat wet ingredients into dry for about 30 seconds until blended. Fold in blueberries and spread into prepared pan.

In a separate bowl, combine 6 tablespoons cake flour, 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, butter and 2 tablespoons sour cream. Mix with pastry blender until blended into crumbs. Sprinkle over cake batter. Cover dish tightly and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375, uncover cake and bake about 45 minutes until cake tests done.

Rating: The whole wheat doesn't drag down the texture too much, so it's still pretty moist. It was perfectly fine, but not quite as sumptuous as cakes heavier on the sour cream side, so I might keep looking for my perfect overnight blueberry coffee cake. But waking up to this at bookends of the vacation was just fine.

Also more than fine: blueberry turnovers, and I made one of my favorite scones with blueberries instead of cranberries. Fabulous. Both of them bake straight from the freezer so you don't have to decide/remember to thaw the night before. All that and a view of kayakers, paddle boarders, hummingbirds at the feeder and the odd biplane. And time for that walk:

 

Cheese scones and Italiano rolls

The only thing possibly better than homemade bread fresh from the oven with butter on it? Homemade bread products with cheese built in.

These recipes run the gamut from the super fast, to the really pretty reasonably fast, to one suggestion with a serious time commitment. But they are all so very tasty you'll wonder where they've been all your life.



Cheddar-Parmesan scones

Adapted from “Simply Scones” by Leslie Weiner and Barbara Albright, my go-to source for scone recipes sweet or savory. Now that we're working from home, you can whip these up in the time it takes for your spouse's noon hour run.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Generous dash of cayenne pepper

1½ cup grated Cheddar cheese

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

⅓ cup milk

2 eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne. Mix in cheeses. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix milk with eggs and stir into flour-butter mixture, just until combined.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board shape into a circle about 8 inches around. Cut into 8 wedges. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until golden and a cake tester comes out mostly clean.

Rating: Delightful. Nice texture, moist but not at all dense. Excellent carrier for a number of cheese options.

Pan rolls Italiano

Adapted from the Red Star “Centennial Bread Sampler.” This recipe was called One Hour Pan Rolls Italiano, but I’ve never made it in that little time, and I’ve always had better results if I at least doubled the rising time compared to the original recipe. But it’s still a pretty fast fix as yeast rolls go, and a huge return on flavor vs. time investment.

Ingredients

1 cup milk

½ cup water

4 tablespoons butter, divided

3½ to 4½ cups flour

2 packages dry yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons garlic salt (or 1½ teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon garlic powder)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 egg, lightly beaten

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Method

Preheat oven on lowest setting for 1 minute and then turn it off while you prepare the dough.

In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and 2 tablespoons butter until it reaches 120 to 130 degrees. Butter does not need to melt, and keep a close eye on it since otherwise you’re going to have to waste time letting it cool down. Grease a large bowl for rising the bread.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine 1½ cup flour, yeast, sugar, garlic salt and Italian seasoning. When liquids are warmed, add to flour mixture along with egg. Mix on low speed until moistened, then at medium speed for 3 minutes. By hand, stir in ½ cup cheese and enough flour to make a firm dough. Avoid adding more flour than needed, reserving ½ cup in case you need it for kneading.

Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes or so. This is where that last ½ cup flour may come in to play.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in the still warm oven for at least 15 minutes, and preferably 30. Meanwhile, melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Set remaining ¼ cup Parmesan into a small bowl. Grease a 13-by-9 pan.

Punch down dough. Divide dough into fourths, and then each fourth into 4 parts. (The recipe makes 16.) Shape each ball of dough into smooth ball. Dip top of rolls in melted butter and then into Parmesan. Place rolls into prepared pan. Cover and let rise about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 and bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. 

Rating: These are so freaking good it's amazing.I've been making these for years and never tire of them. 

 
Savory cinnamon rolls
Also worth trying in the savory bread department: Savory "cinnamon" rolls. I tried this one from the Candid Appetite. This is one for when you've got plenty of time. I found I needed to allow far more rising time than the recipe suggested, although if you have a proofing box it could speed things up. I need to work on perfecting it before posting about it, but it's a really great idea:
https://www.thecandidappetite.com/garlic-bread-cinnamon-rolls/