Even with our state re-opening we’re continuing to utilize local businesses for as much food as we can. We have a plethora of vegetables and it’s been so much fun to try and use them up.
I have so many great cookbooks and a few that have really been great for what’s available right now. One of my favorites is Sharing the Table at Garland’s Lodge. Everything I’ve tried from this book has been worth making.
This week we made a meal of the mixed greens with parmesan, croutons, bacon and red onions in vinaigrette and MTK’s tortilla soup.
We started out the day before making some croutons.
Anyone else ever seen Adam’s rib? I’m starting to feel like Scott and I are getting into a Pinky and Pinkie rhythm in the kitchen.
We picked up some bacon at a local butcher shop the other week and once that and the croutons were baked up there wasn’t much to putting this together.
Simple salad that’s both satisfying and light.
While putting our salads together I started with a trinity of flavors to get the tortilla soup started.
This recipe doesn’t use a stock starter so the flavors really build as you go.
Once the tomatoes and spices have settled in some water gets added. After that zucchini, sweet potato and jalapeño get added and cooked until the sweet potato is soft. Orange juice (blood orange in our case), like juice and cilantro get added at the very end.
Soup is topped with tortilla strips and cheese. We added avocado to the recipe.
We really enjoyed making and eating both of these. Both could easily be made both vegetarian and vegan. I’m hoping the produce boxes continue for the foreseeable future and we can continue to find new favorites recipes.
-Christie
My cream is in a fun container because we’ve been utilizing local shops that have turned into mini markets. Thank goodness my chickens are still producing on the heat. Hopefully everyone is able to find eggs right now-this needed quite a bit.
This tea is so pretty and it smells amazing. I’m not much of a milk drinker these days but this was a little tempting.
Lots of egg yolks for this. I’m going to have to look for another recipe for the whites.
After mixing up the egg mixture and I slowly poured in the cream and proceeded to splash a small but painful amount on my hand. Scott was right there so he grabbed a towel and got my hand and somehow I didn’t spill the rest of the cream. Everything ended up mixed without scrambling and made it into the water bath and oven. They turned out so green!
My roses are in full bloom right now so the flavor seemed right. I used half the called for rose extract because my tea was fairly strong. The combination of honey and rose is nice.
The sablés were great in their simplicity and short ingredient list. I chose my favorite green tea from 
The tea leaves are so pretty with little bits of roses. This tea also has a few chunks of cherries but I didn’t use any since I wasn’t sure it would grind well.
Once the tea was rubbed into the sugar and salt my kitchen had a lovely rose smell. A little flour and butter later and the dough was ready to be rubbed together.
I’ve always hated rubbing in butter for some reason and probably should have worked with this dough just a minute or two more. I made one log using hand forming and one using Dorie’s wax paper trick. 
The cookies cut from the trick log had much better density and form and I would definitely use that technique in the future. Hopefully I get better with practice.
The sablés turned out lovely and delicate with the perfect amount of tea and rose flavor. I would love to play around with some of the other tea flavors that I have and see how those turn out.
This was a breeze to put together. The toughest part was pre-baking the crust. 
Sometimes it’s nice to try something a little different and Dorie’s spiced honey cake seemed to fit that bill. I had all the ingredients called for either in my cupboards or growing on a tree but I can’t say that I’ve ever put them together before.
Boiling all the spices together made my house smell pretty great. I’m tempted to try a similar blend for some mulled wine in the future.
Straining and blending the liquid, melted butter and honey was interesting. It reminded me of a molasses bread recipe I love.
This recipe really reminded me more of bread than a cake. 
This reminded me quite a bit of a lot of older American recipes I have. Something about the reliance on baking powder, dried fruit and small amounts of sugar.
The cake came out looking beautiful if still homey. The taste is definitely something I refer to as Old World. Dense and flavorful without the richness of eggs. I liked it but I’m not sure I loved it. I have a few similar recipes that I might like just a smidge better. I did really love the unusual combination of spices and will definitely be looking for a way to utilize the flavor combination in the future.
The oranges were a little small so I upped the amount called for. They were perfectly ripe and sweet with sun kissed peels.
I was surprised the recipe called for the pith and a little flesh since all the other recipes I’ve tried had me scraping pith to get just peel. This was so, so much easier.
A couple boils to remove bitterness and then a very long bath that turned the peels to candy and the sugar water to syrup and these were done.
Absolutely thrilled with how these turned out and I can’t wait to try this method to candy some of the other citrus we have right now.
Fruit, nuts and chocolate, pretty basic stuff. I made a nut mixture of slightly salted cashews, pistachios, and smoked and salted almonds. The fruit consisted of Turkish figs, Turkish apricots, tart cherries and candied peel all fixed fairly small. I pieced together leftover bits of semi and bitter sweet chocolate. A little dried coconut and cocoa powder and that was it.
A little roasting of the nuts, chopping of the fruit and melting of the chocolate and the mix was good to go.
Everything was mixed and put in a pan. Didn’t look all that amazing but it was super easy.
The resulting bars were so dang good. Something about the mixture of salty, sweet and savory with crunch and chew just hits the spot. These are dangerous little things. Such a surprise, I just didn’t see the resulting pleasure of this combination coming. Possibly one of my favorite recipes in the book. It really showcases what I’ve loved about cooking through this book.
in a lot of ways this recipe really encompasses what I love about this book. Simple ingredients transformed through technique to create something new and surprising. 
I got some nice blackened bottoms on these although my sides probably could have been a little darker. These have such a great combo of texture and flavor. I’ve also come to appreciate the deep bakes on a lot of these recipes and the more complex flavors that it brings. Fun to make these again.
I really wanted to try this with ciabatta from Noble Bakery but they were down to country loaves. The bread is really what makes this recipe so special.
I’m not feeling 100% so I had a major assist from Scott with this one. I cut my bread pretty tiny to begin with. The little roasts are made by browning with butter and then caramelizing with sugar. Afterwards they go into a cinnamon and cocoa dry bath. My house still smells amazing.
Once the tarts were baked and the toast was chopped up the only thing left was making a simple cream cheese filling. 
I couldn’t find actually mini tart pans so I used mini pie pans which weren’t quite as cute but worked out ok. Such a unique and interesting dessert. The little toasts really add interest and elevate the dish. I can see how they could be used in a variety of ways.
GoldenLifePHX 