Baklava

No this post is not about the decadent Greek dessert, but it was the last thing I ate so drool on.  I have never really had a sweet tooth. I would always prefer salt to sweet any day. Yes, I can singlehandedly demolish a bag of chips in ____ minutes flat. I try to make them last at least two days now. Usually sweets are too sweet for me…cliché, but true. Fudge, ice cream, candy, candy bars, cakes, icing, whipped cream, lollipops, cookies, all these things are especially easy for me to pass on, or have one bite and be perfectly content, even though I always search for something salty after.  The sweet things in my diet are usually just fresh fruit. I love to make desserts, but usually when I make them I only have one bite, one piece, or one fresh cookie, then I give them away or make all the visitors of the house eat them. As always though, there is an exception to the rule when it comes to my sweet tooth. When it comes to the land of sweets and desserts, my favorites are fresh fruit cobblers and pies. Any kind really; blackberry, blueberry, peach, apricot, strawberry rhubarb, pears, absolutely tasty! This past weekend I exchanged a jar of freshly pickled beets from the garden in the yard, for a bag of fresh handpicked peaches. And of course I made, a fresh Peach Cobbler. I found an awesome and simple recipe from a cookbook I found in someone’s basement called San Francisco a la Carte Cookbook.   The cobbler was gone in one evening. Seven people got a piece, and I bought ice cream for everyone else to enjoy with the cobbler. (I do not eat ice cream.)   Last week, a friend brought by a handpicked gallon size bag of blackberries that I promptly made into a cobbler. That was gone in about twelve hours solely eaten by the tutor and myself (I think I ate a lot more though). Recently I have begun to appreciate more sweets, but still in very small quantities. The piece of Baklava I just ate was at my work, and I thought I would try it now that my appreciation for sweet is growing. I really enjoy the texture of Baklava, because I really enjoy pastries. I have almost always preferred the savory varieties, but a twice-baked almond croissant will send me places that I-would-die-for-chocolate eaters frequent.
The dangers of non-homemade desserts come from the highly processed sugars and preservatives added to your favorite desserts. It is harder for your body to break down those super processed sugars, as opposed to sugar in its raw form. I know plenty of people who say, “I just can’t resist” when it comes to desserts. If you have a sweet tooth, chances are it is hard for you to muster the will power to not have a serving, or two. But, as an exercise, try eating only the sweets you make yourself. Chances are you will eat less because you have to go through the process of making the dessert. And, making a batch of cookies is much better if you share them, I promise. Oh, and I just finished making and had a piece of  another, yes a second Peach Cobbler.

Don’t bring me chocolate unless is it 86% cacao.
Don’t make me a cake, bake me a croissant instead.
Don’t bring me fudge because a bag of chips will do. 
Bring me fresh fruit, and I will make it into a cobbler.
Guaranteed.

~ Now here is the recipe for the Peach Cobbler ~

Peach Cobbler

3 cups sliced fresh peaches                         1 cup all-purpose flour, unsifted
½ cup sugar                                                  1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon mace (sub.nutmeg)                1 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter
¾ cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, gently toss peach slices with sugar and mace and set aside. In the meantime, melt butter in an ovenproof rectangular baking dish. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and baking powder, stir in the milk. Pout this mixture into the baking dish on top of the butter, and then add the peaches. Bake for 1 hour. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Let get back to the basics and simplicity

It is a balmy 65degrees, low humidity, and I am sitting on the back porch of a beautiful farm in Pennsylvania settled in the middle of nowhere sipping my morning coffee, honey and cream added. (The only thing polluting the scene would be gas and water trucks coming from the natural gas well drilling around here, going 20mph along the shale gravel roads.)
I have been absent from blogging because I have been drained of creating, and too busy in the taking-care-of-things mode. It is already July and I am realizing how quickly time flies when you remain busy. It is day 4 of my vacation, and I am finally slipping into the relaxed mode and realizing that it is more important to be here, in the present, then to be wondering about my past and future here on my mental vacation. Morning yoga with wind chimes in the background, I couldn’t ask for a better way to begin my day.
I have decided to change up the pace of this blog for a little bit. I am going to write, and not concern myself so much if everyone can follow the tangential writing style and just write. Recently with being so busy, and wanting summer simplicity, I have not been cooking, but eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, still cooking for the house and the children I take care of, but for myself, I have been craving simple foods. Cut up cucumber slices, maybe some salt and pepper on them. A handful of grapes, peeling a grapefruit like an orange and trying not to let any juices escape all over me, a banana here, almonds there, eating consistently throughout the day, but eating slowly trying to detect the slightest subtleties in each thing I eat.
Last night the friends that we are staying with took us out to a really excellent little restaurant in a neighboring town called Cast and Crew. The menu was gloriously laid out with six full pages of food split up into Acts. Act I–Appetizers, Act II-Salads, and so on and so forth with the Encore being Desserts. The amazing thing about this place is that it couldn’t hold more than 40 people, and there were only 2 chefs, a dishwasher, and 2 servers. And let me assure you there were more food choices on this menu than any restaurant I have been to before, and what a variety!  Italian classics, American staples, Greek flairs, dumplings, mousses, salads with all homemade dressings, the special butter spread that changes weekly, seafood, pork, beef, chicken, tenderloins, tips, pastas, wraps, cordon bleu, and Dare to Dine, letting the chef create on the top of his head for you. My tutor commented that the secret to their ability to serve all this food is prep work. Again I state: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  In that situation of having so much variety on a menu, the key really is preparation. That way the shift runs smoothly and you are not crazed having to cut things to order, and you have a few certain time buyers. Such as a salad comes with every entrée, and preparing a salad takes no time at all, buying you the chef at least 15mins for each dish ordered with salad. Also a lot of the entrees came with sautéed vegetables, potatoes, pasta, or bread, making those easy things to pile on the plate, already prepared en masse. Realizing these few things can create a successful kitchen with so much variety.
There was no mystery to the food I ate last night, I could taste the ingredients in the dish, and was not guessing about the burger-in-the-box so to speak.  Each dish looked different, even if it was the same dish, and I constantly noticed customers leaning towards others tables trying to guess what they ordered. Instead of the uniform fries, you could tell these fries were cut with care and by human hands. Chances are when you find food like this; it will probably be better for you. Cooked by humans, not a machine. My comments though would be these. The food, while exceptional, was very rich. A lot of that I know is because I have been eating very simplistically, but sometimes the sauces would have too much of the rich flavor almost drowning your taste buds in overload.  Too much bourbon, Dijon, orange, wine, maybe just eased back a smidge and it would have been perfectly balanced. (And yes I acknowledge this is solely my opinion and subjective perspective.) I really enjoyed what I ate, and everyone leaving took a box home with them because it was so good and a pleasant treat. I enjoy eating these meals every once in a while, being prepared by others, but still enjoy eating the simple foods that make up the majority of my day-to-day diet. I like the feeling of lightness that comes from a fresh foods emphasis.
That is enough for today. I wish you all a wonderful week, and now it is time to get back to my vacation. And one side note: the tutor made this amazing salsa before we left from the tomatoes in our garden! We are preserving already…it makes me very happy.