After many days struggling with this….
Followed by evenings like this…
finally… our lab is starting to shape up!
I promise a more detailed post about our lab move soon… for now let’s say we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully in one more week we can resume our experiments… yeah!!!! 😉
Last week a colleague from our new department in KSU stopped by my office and asked if I liked raspberries. No need to think much about the answer! It turns out that he is an amazing gardener, and a very active member of the Manhattan Community Garden, a project that started in 1974 and never stopped growing. Small plots of land are rented to whoever wants to grow fruits or vegetables. The city provides the water, tools, and a lot of advice. You can read more about it here. Maybe one day Phil and I can join and become better gardeners… 😉
Back to berries. A few hours later, our colleague comes back with a big box of raspberries, still warm from the sun! I know, I know, everyone should be so lucky! I wanted to put them to good use, so I made a delicious raspberry sorbet. Phil and I bravely fought over the last spoonful a few evenings later. 😉
RASPBERRY SORBET
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)
4 to 5 cups raspberries
1 cup fresh blueberries (optional, see comments)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Make a simple syrup by heating the sugar with the water in a saucepan (or microwave) until the sugar is fully dissolved. Allow it to cool, no need to refrigerate.
Place the raspberries in the bowl of a food processor and process until very smooth, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl once or twice. Pour the puree through a fine-mesh strainer and strain the mixture, pressing down and scraping the inside of the strainer with a silicone spatula. You will need a little more than 2 cups of smooth puree. If you don’t have enough, you can use blueberries to bring the volume up.
Whisk the simple syrup and the lemon juice into the raspberry purée. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours. Pour the mixture in your ice cream maker and process it according to the instructions of your machine. Once the sorbet is ready, place it in a container and freeze for a few hours before serving.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: Making the puree of raspberries is very easy using a food processor, but I went through three sizes of strainers to find the one that allowed me to separate the seeds from the pulp without too much grievance. It is not a pleasant job, but it ensures a smooth sorbet, so Keep Calm and Carry On. I added a little bit of blueberries (simply processed, no need to strain them), to make a volume of puree that would work in my ice cream maker, but if you have enough raspberry pulp, you can get by without any other fruit. Add 3/4 of the simple syrup to begin with, once you have the base all ready, taste it and decide if you need more. Raspberries have different degrees of tartness, and if you add other berries (strawberries could work well too) you will need less sugar. I cannot think of a better way to close the season…
ONE YEAR AGO: When three is better than two
TWO YEARS AGO: Grating Tomatoes (and loving it!)
THREE YEARS AGO: A Peachy Salad for a Sunny Day
Big lunch celebration in Sao Paulo, a few friends and family members. We are missing all the fun, but they framed Mom’s favorite photo of our recent trip to Hawaii, so in a way, we are there!
FELIZ ANIVERSARIO, MAMAE!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONA FILOCA! 😉
It was a trip that started with this sunset on the beach behind our backyard, at the North Shore of Oahu…
Can it get any better… ? We awakened the next morning to the great news that my stepson and his girlfriend were engaged! He invited her that morning (her birthday!) for a walk on the beach, and when they reached a beautiful spot near some rocks overlooking the ocean, he popped the question! How cool is that, folks? We were thrilled!
Phil made margaritas at sunset to celebrate the double happy event: the birthday and the engagement… Afterwards we kept our momentum with a nice dinner at the Turtle Bay Resort. Yeap, the one from that movie, remember? 😉
So the festivities began!
The beautiful house we were fortunate to find (VRBO) and the incredible beach in our backyard….
The owners of the house have two gorgeous Golden Retrievers, quite likely the happiest dogs in the known universe! They often dropped by the beach in the morning, hung out the whole day with the regulars for occasional quick swims, then came back to lay on the sand or the cool grass in the backyard. Tough life! One of them assumed the “belly rub” position at the sight of any willing human being, and stayed like that forever. Patiently waiting…
Who could resist that belly? None of us did!
We went for long walks, marveled at nature, relaxed on the beach, and took stand-up paddleboard lessons (harder than I anticipated, folks!). The strong swimmers followed sea turtles underwater.
We were impressed by the little Go Pro camera my other stepson had. The tiny thing is a workhorse! You can take it under water, clip it to helmets, to surfboards, to bikes, and make videos or serial time frames that are amazing! Take a look at this one, of the chase of a sea turtle under water (make sure to watch to the point the turtle goes up for air, it’s beautiful). He also made several time lapses of sunsets, like this one, while some other folks were preparing to camp for the night on the beach, and lit a fire at sunset.
To close the week we had a farewell dinner at Tiki’s Grill on Waikiki, with the best Mai Tais, great food and wonderful ambiance, particularly if you arrive before sunset, as we made sure we did! 😉
UNTIL NEXT TIME, ALOHA OAHU, and MAHALO!
ONE YEAR AGO: Feijoada, the Ultimate Brazilian Feast
TWO YEARS AGO: Vegetable Milhojas
THREE YEARS AGO: Italian Bread
The Secret Recipe Club is a fun monthly event in which bloggers are assigned in secret to make a recipe from another blog, and then post about it at exactly the same time on reveal day. The group is now so popular that new members must wait in a long line for a chance to join. This popularity also explains one of the rules: if you mess up and don’t post on reveal day, you are out of the game, leaving an opening for someone else to take your place. It’s only fair, after all: it’s very disappointing to have your blog “orphaned” on reveal day.
This month was a bit of a stretch to participate, but I’m sure glad I did. My assigned blog was Baking and Creating with Avril. Did you notice the “Baking” in the title? I have a slight suspicion that the SRC organizers like to have a little fun at my expense… How else could it be that I’ve been matched with serious bakers for months in a row? 😉 Still, I love a challenge, and as soon as I got the assignment I jumped into Avril’s cool site, in full “blog stalking mode”. After narrowing a long list of tasty options, I could not decide between the blueberry galette or the white chocolate cranberry bars. You see, she’s got some seriously delicious stuff posted. Phil, the blueberry-addict, made the choice for me. Blueberry galette it would be.
RUSTIC BLUEBERRY GALETTE
(from Baking and Creating with Avril)
for the crust
1 + 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 + 1/2 sticks unsalted butter {ice cold}
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons apricot preserves, warmed
for the filling:
3 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
a pinch of salt
Make the crust: In a bowl of a food processor add the flour, sugar and salt, process to combine. Drop the cold butter pieces and pulse until small pea size crumbles appear. In a small bowl combine egg yolk and milk. Pour into food processor and pulse just until combined. Take dough mixture out of food processor and put onto a piece of parchment paper. Form dough into a large disk, wrap parchment paper around it and place in refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.
Make the filling by mixing in a large bowl the blueberries, flour, brown sugar, pinch of salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface roll out the chilled pie crust to about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer to a parchment lined large baking sheet. Place the filling in the center of the pie crust, then fold up the sides pleating every now and then. Brush with warmed apricot preserves. Place in preheated oven to bake for 50-60 minutes. Rotating the pan halfway through. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: As far as taste goes, I hit the nail in the head. I could eat the filling of the galette by the spoonful over some nice, thick yogurt. But, let’s be honest: my product wouldn’t make the finals of the 2012 Galette Beauty Pageant. In my defense, I made this recipe in one of the busiest weekends ever, preceded by a full day flying back to OK and a lab move that began the next morning (Friday) at 5am! That weekend found me like a zombie trying to finish countless tasks at the same time.
But, I won’t sugar-coat the pill: frantic times or not, pie crust is always tricky for me. Usually Phil comes to the rescue, but the poor guy had enough on his plate. My pie dough was not as smooth as I hoped for, so I couldn’t make the beautiful pleats, trademarks of a nice galette. Oh, well… It gives me the opportunity to improve my baking skills, right? Alternatively, I can stand by the title and profess my galette as the most rustic ever! 😉
Don’t let my boo-boos prevent you from making it. Avril is right, the galette is incredibly tasty, and you should also consider making the original recipe (link is in Avril’s blog), that includes a mixture of fresh peaches and blueberries. Oh, my….
Avril, it was nice to “meet” you through The Secret Recipe Club! I hope you had a lot of fun finding your assigned blog and cooking from it!
ONE YEAR AGO: In My Kitchen, August 2011
TWO YEARS AGO: Journey to a New Home
THREE YEARS AGO: Friday Night Dinner (very tasty pork medallions)
