Tis the season to be baking. Fa La La La La… This past week both my wife and I got off our butts and did some holiday baking and candy making. I really didn’t have much of a choice as I had committed to providing some items for a Holiday Bake Sale benefiting “Cookies for Kid’s Cancer.” Not that I’m complaining. It got me off of my butt and hopefully helped to jump start our holiday baking.

BTW, if you find yourself in the Milwaukee area on Saturday, Dec. 10th (that’s tomorrow as I write this) anytime between 12pm and 4pm, stop by The Best Place at The Historic Pabst Brewery, at 901 W. Juneau Ave. There will be numerous treats from area bloggers, bakers and businesses. Coffee and tea will also be provided along with a Cookie Decorating table, for the kids. Stop by, treat yourself to some yummy snacks and help benefit a very worthy cause. mkefoodies hosted one of these benefits back in May and did quite well. We’re hoping that this one will do even better!!!

One of the items I am providing are these tasty little Pistachio Bonbons. I love these things, but you really have to like pistachios to enjoy these candies. The filling is an intense pistachio “marzipan” that seems to concentrate the pure essence of pistachio making these things little flavor bombs.

This recipe is a little more “advanced” and time consuming than many of my recipes, but then again serious candy making is often a multi step process and can often require attention to detail. The filling itself (the pistachio marzipan) is very simple, but to do the chocolate right can be a little tricky as we will be tempering it. If this is too much for then by all means you can do it the easy way. Once the filling is made just roll it into small balls and dip them into melted chocolate. Shake off any excess as you remove the enrobed marzipan and allow to cool on a tray covered in wax paper. The downside to doing it this way is that you will never get a truly hard, shiny coating like you would using tempered chocolate and it is best to store these in the fridge to keep them from getting soft. Tempering is not difficult, but you do need to pay attention to the details for it to come out right. It is not absolutely necessary though if you are just planning on dipping your candies. But, if you want to mold them then you must temper your chocolate or you will have difficulties in removing the candies from the molds. Give it a try, the worse that can happen is that your candies will develop white streaks as it dries. It doesn’t affect the taste at all and if you’re too embarrassed to give them away then you have a tasty treat, for yourself, for the next few days!!!

I guess I should mention what tempering is, in case there are some people out there unfamiliar with the term. You know when you buy a Hershey’s bar, how it is nice and shiny and has that satisfying snap when you break it, well that is tempered chocolate. Untempered chocolate usually has a dull look to it and always seems somewhat soft when you bite into it. Untempered chocolate can also develop a white “bloom” to it. While the chocolate is still fine to eat it may not look nearly as appetizing. Just so you know, once you melt “bloomed” chocolate that whiteness goes away. This is because chocolate contains a number of different fats that melt and solidify at different temperatures. Tempering gets those fats in line, so to speak, getting them all to to their thing at the same time. That’s a simplified explanation but pretty much sums it up.

Pistachio Bonbons
makes about 50-60 candies

2 cups Pistachios, shelled
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
Water
Green Food Coloring (optional)
1 pound Dark Chocolate, cut into small pieces is not using chips or disks

In a medium sized pot bring to a boil 5 cups of water. Add the pistachios and boil for 8 minutes. Drain and lay out on a towel to dry. This step does 2 things it helps to remove some of the salt on the pistachios since in most parts of this country it is hard to find pistachios that are not salted and roasted, and it serves to loosen the skins. Once the pistachios are mostly dry gather up the edges of the towel and give the pistachios a good hard rub. This will loosen the skins even further. Remove the skins from the nuts. Don’t worry, they don’t need to be perfect. You just want to remove the majority of the skins. Place nuts in a food processor and process until finely ground, scraping down the sides of the processor occasionally. Add the powdered sugar and continue to process for a total time of approximately 8-10 minutes. The mixture should look dry at first glance but if you squeeze a bit together it should compact into a nice dense ball. If not add just a bit of water. It shouldn’t take more than a few drops to 1 tsp. max. At this point the mixture will probably be more brown than green. If you like the natural color then the “marzipan” is done, but people often assume that pistachio accented foods should be green so go ahead and add some green food coloring until you get the color you like. I added about 10-12 drops to the recipe myself. Roll into balls about the size of a garbanzo bean (about 2/3′s the size of a marble) and set aside.

Now to melt and temper our chocolate. Place a medium sized pan, filled with no more than 1-2″ of water, over medium heat and bring to a simmer (not a full boil). Wipe out the inside of a metal bowl ensuring that there is no moisture in it whatsoever. Place 2/3′s of the chocolate in the bowl and place the bowl over the simmering water. Stir continually to make sure the chocolate, along the sides doesn’t burn and try not to allow the chocolate to get hotter than 115°F. Once fully melted you need to cool the chocolate down to the low 80′s (between 81°-84°). Do this by adding the remaining chocolate to the melted stuff. As you stir the remaining chocolate will should melt completely. Once you reach this lower temperature you need to bring the chocolate back up to a temperature where it is easy to work with again. Bring it up to 90°F but do not let it get past 91°-92°F or it will go out of temper and you will need to bring back down to the lower 80′s again and back up. Once you have achieved temper, take a clean brush (I use paint brushes that I use only for pastry and/or candy work) and paint a thick layer of chocolate on the inside of your candy molds. Place in the fridge and all to cool for 10 minutes. While this is happening you will want to keep your tempered chocolate warm, at the right temperature. You can do this by placing the bowl on a heating pad set to the lowest temperature and stirring the chocolate often. Just watch that temperature. Keep it between 90°-91°F. Once chilled remove the molds from the fridge. Add the pistachio marzipan, gently pressing it into the molds. There should be a gap of about 1/8″ between the top of the filling and the top of the mold. Cover with a layer of chocolate, making sure it fills all the empty spaces in the mold and scrape it flush with the top of the mold ensuring a level bottom. Return to the fridge for another 10-12 minutes to set. If you have tempered the chocolate correctly at this time you should see some air space between the molds and the chocolate as properly tempered chocolate should shrink slightly, pulling away from the molds. A couple of light taps on the molds, as they are upside down should release the candies. They are ready to serve immediately or to box up as gifts. If molded properly and there are no air holes then the candy should easily last a few weeks, stored at room temperature.

The Christmas season is in full swing, and at our house one of the things that means is the drinking of copious amounts of hot, spiced cider. For as long as I can remember the holidays, both Christmas and Thanksgiving…and many of the days inbetween, were accompanied by the the sweet, heady smells of a pot of spiced cider warming away on the stove top. To this day, it just doesn’t seem like the Christmas season without having brewed up a gallon or two of one of my favorite drinks.

While we’re on the subject of cider, I want to rant just a little (and I think I’ve voiced this rant before so I’ll make it short). It drives me nuts, walking through the grocery store and seeing bottles of clear, amber liquid that companies are passing off as cider. Sorry, but it looks and tastes like ordinary apple juice and has about as much in common with real cider as does Grape juice. Cider should be brown and cloudy with a body and mouth feel that apple juice can only wish it could attain to. I even have a problem with “pastuerized” cider, but I understand that some people are concerned about food borne illnesses. But please, if you have never tasted fresh, unpastuerized cider before, check it out. You’re in for a treat. The real stuff, when made properly has a complexity that is totally lost in the pastuerization process.

It’s the holidays so enough ranting and more holiday cheer! You’ll notice, in the picture, that there is a distinctive red hue to that mug of cider. Don’t adjust your computer monitors, it’s supposed to be that way. I often like to add “Red Hots” candies (you know, those little, red, firery, cinnamon candies). They add a nice festive hue to the cider and help bump up the cinnamon in the drink. If you don’t want to use the candies, and sometimes I don’t, just up the number of cinnamon sticks you add to the cider to compensate for the lack of cinnamon flavoring.

Once made, you can ladel it into mugs and serve as is, for the children and teetotallers in your group or you can do as most of the members of my family do and spice with a shot of bourbon or dark rum. A few of those and I guarentee that you’ll get a party started!

This recipe uses a gallon of cider as I find that it can go pretty quickly, but you can easily adjust to make the amount you need. Also I just toss in all the spices. If you’d rather not fish around trying not to ladel up allspice berries and cloves you can tie them up in a coffee filter and just remove the whole thing after about 30-60 minutes.

Hot Spiced Cider
makes just over 1 gallon

1 gallon Cider
4 each Cinnamon sticks
1 Tbl. Whole Cloves
2 Tbl. Whole Allspice Berries
1 (12oz.) can Orange Juice Concentrate
3-4 oz. Red Hots candies (the little red cinnamon candies)

Place all ingredients in a nonreactive pot and simmer, without boiling for, at least, 30 minutes. Ladel into mugs and serve. Feel free to add a shot of bourbon or rum for a more adult beverage, or experiment with any of the various flavored alcohols out there. If you come across a really great combination let me know. If so desired, garnish the mugs with an orange wheel and a cinnamon stick for stirring.

Tonight we picked up our last box, of the season, from our CSA. Well, technically the last regular season box was delivered a few weeks ago, but we had also opted for the late season storage share. I can’t wait to eat my way through all the killer produce that was delivered. But, before I go on, I really should thank Nicole and Joe, and family, of Good Earth Farm. Through their hard work and tremendous efforts my family was supplied with a bounty of produce all summer and fall long. It was truly a pleasure to get to meet some of the people that supply us with our food. It’s heartwarming to see and meet people with such a passion about the food they raise and their impact on the environment. I look forward to next season and seeing what Good Earth Farm has in store.

Back to the cauliflower; in this box we received both the standard white variety and a beautiful orange variety. Knowing that I was hungry for caramelized cauliflower I decided to skip the orange variety for now as I wasn’t sure how it would look once caramelized. But hey, that leaves me with some cauliflower for another day, not a bad thing in my book.

The spicing I use in this recipe is quite subtle, almost to the point of not realizing its there, but I selected these spices to help play up the earthy quality of the cauliflower while the cinnamon helps to elevate the inherent sweetness of the vegetable. Feel free to leave them out if you choose, but I think they really help to make this dish.

If you aren’t a fan of cauliflower this dish won’t change your mind, but if you’re kind of on the fence out this vegetable, try it this way, it might just make a fan out of you yet.

Caramelized Cauliflower
serves 4

1 large head cauliflower
3 Tbl. butter, melted, divided
12 each Ritz crackers
1 pinch nutmeg, freshly ground
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground coriander
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 475°F. Crush the Ritz crackers and add 1 Tbl. of the melted butter. Stir until well mixed. Cut the cauliflower in half, cut out the core and split into 1-2 bite florets. Mix the cinnamon, cumin and coriander with the remaining butter and drizzle over cauliflower to evenly coat all pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Place in an oven proof skillet and put into the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, stir and cook for 8 minutes longer. Stir again and sprinkle the crushed crackers over top. Return to the oven and cook another 4-5 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and I can’t wait!! I love Thanksgiving; a day of cooking, eating, chilling in front of the TV, eating, playing board games, eating, hanging with family and/or friends, and eating. This year we are making the 5 hour trek to my parent’s house in Indiana which means I won’t have to do much of the cooking (a wonderful break, as any chef will tell you). I’ll still be involved and will gladly help out as part of the joy of Thanksgiving is having the whole family in the kitchen helping out, but I’ll also have a chance to chill in front of the TV watching the Macy’s T-Day parade, yes, cheesy I know, but it’s tradition although I can only handle about 30 minutes at a time, with breaks for helping out in the kitchen.

If you’ve followed this blog over the last couple of years you’ll know that I don’t really do much for Thanksgiving. Many bloggers I know will do “fake” Thanksgiving at the beginning of November so that they have fodder for blogging. Sorry, but for me, that just seems to lessen the excitement of the actual holiday. But I’m trying to get into the spirit of things a bit and hope to have, at least, a couple of Thanksgiving inspired posts.

Our family, probably like most families serve our meal family style with large platters of food gracing our table. But I have been involved (mostly in restaurants) with plated Thanksgiving meals. This recipe is perfect for doing plated meals although you could easily platter these and have people serve themselves.

Corn Bread Stuffing Stuffed Squash
serves 8

8 Acorn Squash (or similar squash)
9 cups corn bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and dried
3 ribs celery, diced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
4 Tbl. butter
2 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 1/2-4 cups turkey broth
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries, chopped
3/4 cup pecan pieces, toasted
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced

Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice a small bit off of the bottom of each squash so that it stands upright. Remove about 1/4 of the squash from the stem end and scoop out all the seeds and membrane. Place in 2 baking dishes with 1/4 cup of water in each. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat turkey broth to a simmer. In a skillet melt butter and saute onion and celery until tender, about 5-6 minutes. Place remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Add the onion and celery mixture and finally 3 1/2 cups of the turkey broth. Mix until well combined and the bread is moistened. If stuffing is not moist enough add the remaining broth. Stuff the cavity of each squash, mounding it up above the squash. If you have extra stuffing place in a greased pan and bake along side the stuff squash. Recover the squash and bake for 20 minutes longer. Remove foil and continue to bake until squash is tender and stuffing is nicely browned. Serve 1 squash to each person.

When my wife and I first started dating the very first meal she made for me was her Chicken Paprikash. Being of Hungarian descent (her Dad’s family escaped Hungary in the 1950′s) this was a dish she was very familiar with and felt confident serving to her chef boyfriend (me). Of course, I loved it (and would have never told her otherwise if I hadn’t) and it has been a staple in our house since then as we both consider this comfort food of the highest order. I mean, what’s not to love; chicken slowly simmered in a sauce of onions and paprika, all finished with a healthy (and when I say healthy I really mean unhealthy!) dose of sour cream and served over egg noodles or better yet thick, chewy homemade dumplings-another item my wife excels at!

Up until earlier this year, Paprikash always meant chicken, for us, but earlier this summer we had some pork that we needed to use up so my wife used that instead of the normal chicken. We fell in love with the dish all over again and now seem to make it more with pork than with chicken.

Like with many family recipes handed down from generation to generation, my wife learned how to cook this one by “eye.” Until today I don’t think she ever measured any of the ingredients that went into the pot. It was kind of eye opening to see how much onion and how much paprika this dish actually uses! Talking of paprika, this dish requires good, “fresh” paprika. If the stuff you have sitting in your cupboard is over 6 months old please trash it and buy new stuff for this recipe as it plays a significant role in not only coloring but flavoring the dish.

Pork Paprikash
serves 8-10

3 1/2 pounds pork shoulder (or other tougher cut of pork)
6 cups onion, peeled and diced (small dice)
3 Tbl. vegetable oil
1 Tbl. salt
5 bay leaves
1/4 cup paprika
2 cups water
2 Tbl. corn starch
8oz sour cream

Dice pork into 1″ cubes. Heat a large pot over high heat and add the oil. Add pork and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Remove from pot and add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes until starting to turn translucent. Return the pork to the pot and add the salt, bay leaves, paprika, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook at a slow simmer for about 3 hours or until the pork is tender and the onions have mostly disintgrated.Dissolve the corn starch in a bit of cold water and add, a bit at a time until thickened to your liking (it should be the consistency of a loose stew). Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Serve over egg noodles or homemade dumplings.

Well, it’s November 1st and I survived another Halloween, which is getting more difficult as my daughter gets older and becomes more of a force to reckon with when she’s hopped up on massive quanitites of sugar. She turned 5 on Halloween (and yes, sometimes I think she truly is the spawn of the devil!) and I’m glad I wasn’t her teachers that day. She must have told me 20 times that morning that it was her birthday and that she was a big girl now. I can’t imagine how many times her teachers had to hear that line. More power to them, as a full day of that would have driven me crazy, and we all know that I’m on the edge as it is! But I’m not out of the woods just yet. We didn’t have time for her birthday party this past weekend so we are having it next weekend. That means 20 kids running around hopped up on cake, ice cream and soda. My only consolation is fact that I can then send them all home to unsuspecting parents who will then have to deal with the sugar crash. And yes, I know I’m evil! It’s part of my charm. Just ask my wife.

While we were out this weekend, we stopped by the farmer’s market here in town as it was the last one of the season. I wanted to make sure we stocked up on winter squashes as I love playing around with them, and they make great, hearty, Autumn time meals. I picked up a few Butternut squash perfect for soup making. Adding just a bit of curry powder to the mix gives the soup a nice complexity but doesn’t overpower the flavor of the squash.

There are many ways to garnish this soup; bacon is one garnish I use regularly, but today I wanted to change it up a bit. We had gotten a loaf of pumpernickel bread with our last CSA share of the season so I diced them up into 1/4 inch cubes and sauteed them slowly, in butter, over medium heat until crispy. I also peeled and diced an apple which I dusted with a mixture of 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. ground chipotle pepper, but plain diced apple works well also.

Curried Squash Soup
serve 8-10

2 medium Butternut squash (about 4-5 pounds)
2 ribs celery
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup half and half
1 tsp. curry powder
1 Tbl. honey
salt
pepper

Peel, seed and dice the squash. Chop the celery. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the garlic. Place all the vegetables in a large pot. Add the half and half and then add water to just barely cover the vegatables. Add the curry powder and honey and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Puree the soup either in batches, in a blender, or in the pot using a stick (emersion) blender. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste. This version doesn’t have much sweetness which is the way I like it when using the curry powder. If you want it sweeter just add more honey. Garnish with your choice of toppings or see above for suggestions.

Okay, one more post about beets, and I promise I will be done for awhile. As a kid I wasn’t fond of beets, to say the least. The first time I really enjoyed beets is when I finally gave in and tried my parents pickled beets. They were a revelation. I couldn’t believe that I had disdained these bright red root vegetables for so long, although I don’t think at age 10 I actually used the word disdained. I doubt I even knew the definition of that word at the time. Well, for the first time in my life my parents did not have to force me to eat my beets. Since then, I’ve come a long way. I love beets, and find many ways in spring and fall to incorporate them into my cooking often.

Back in October 2009 I posted a recipe for Pickled Golden Beets. You can use the same exact recipe to pickle red beets if you want. The recipe I offer up today is almost the same as that older recipe with a few small changes. Use either recipe.

Pickled Beets
makes 1 quart

1 1/2 pounds Beets
1 cup Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tsp. Canning Salt or Kosher Salt (do not use table salt)
1 each Cinnamon Stick
10 each Cloves, whole
1 1/2 tsp. Allspice, whole
1/2 tsp. Yellow Mustard Seed
2 each Bay Leaf
1 each Onion, small

Place beets in a deep baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover with aluminum foil and bake, at 375°F for 45-60 minutes or until just barely tender. Allow the beets to cool. Peel the beets and remove any stems. The skin should slip right off the beets. Slice or dice the beets to your liking. Personally I like to cut them into larger chunks about 3/4 – 1 inch in size. Peel and slice the onion into 1/4 inch rings. Toss with the beets and place into a sterilized glass canning jar. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a nonreactive sauce pot and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Strain, return to the pot and bring to a boil. Pour boiling liquid over beets and onions, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Top with sterilized lid and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in fridge and allow to mature for at least 2 weeks before eating.

While I usually just make these and refrigerate them, these beets can be easily and safely canned for long term storage. Follow the same directions as above, but leave the beets slightly undercooked. Once you have covered the beets with the pickling liquid, place the lids on the jars and place in a boiling water bath and process for 15 minutes. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch, and don’t start timing until the water returns to a boil. After 15 minutes remove the jars from the water and allow to cool to room temperature. Immediately refrigerate any jars on which the lids did not seal properly. Store the rest in a cool, dark place and they should last a year.

It’s been a long, hard couple of weeks the last few weeks. Work has been difficult as I’ve had supervisor out sick so I’ve been covering her shift, along with all of my work. It finally culminated on Friday when I had to let go of one of my supervisors. While normally I have no problems firing someone (because most often it has been because they weren’t doing the job and I have no tolerance for that kind of thing) this one was different as she had been doing a good job. Unfortunately, a drop in revenue made it necessary to eliminate a position. While the rational side of me knows I had no choice as I had to do what was best for the company, and for my remaining staff (if I didn’t lay off one then they would all have had to go to part time) the emotional side of me was wrecked over this difficult task. Unfortunately, this scenario has been playing out way too often in the recent years. Too many people I know have lost jobs due to downsizing or loss of revenue. I feel lucky that I still have a job, but my heart goes out to the many that have been unemployed for months and months. It is my hope that our elected officals can come together, put their petty partisan politics aside and come up with a solution to help the economy and the American people get back on their feet.

While I could go on and on about politics and the crappy weeks I’ve had, that’s not what you are here for so I should probably bring it back around to food. In my last post I promised a number of beet inspired dishes so today’s offering is a wonderful Autumn time side dish, Roasted Beets. Add to those beets some onion and a few cloves of garlic and you have a dish that delights both the sense of taste and smell.

While this recipe works well with red beets, I prefer to use golden, Chioggia, or candy stripe beets. These beets tend to bleed off less color than your standard red beets, keeping the onions and garlic from taking on a pinkish hue. If that doesn’t bother you or you can’t find anything other than red beets go ahead and use the red.

Roasted Beets with Garlic and Onions
serves 4

2 pounds beets (I used a mixture of golden and Chioggia beets)
1 large onion
8-12 cloves garlic
3-4 small sprigs rosemary
3 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Peel the beets and cut into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes. Place in a baking dish. Peel the cloves of garlic and place in a bowl. Peel the onion and cut into bite sized wedges and add to the garlic. Add the olive oil to the garlic and onions and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper then pour over the beets. Add the sprigs of rosemary to the baking dish then cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake. After 45 minutes minutes remove the foil, increase the temperature to 400°F and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender and slightly browned (approximately another 20-30 minutes). Serve immediately.

It’s Fall and that means that our CSA box is starting to fill with root vegetables. Onions, potatoes, celery, and beets have all made appearances in recent weeks. Hopefully they will continue to show up in our boxes along with other root vegetables such as rutabagas, parsnips, and turnips. Take well to all sorts of cooking techniques, from frying and sauteing, to boiling, roasting, braising and pickling. Raw they can often have a sharp, but pleasant bite, but cooking them slowly oftentimes draws out their intrinsic sweetness, mellowing them and lending a deep, rich earthiness to many dishes.

As a kid I hated beets, and even as an adult they were probably the last root vegetable for me to imbrace, but now that I have I love them and look forward to both the Spring and Fall crops when beets can be found fresh, locally. Luckily for me, our CSA farm did produce both a Spring crop which was quickly used up and a Fall crop which has been showing up in our boxes the last couple of weeks. The first week was a nice large bunch of typical red beets, but the other week saw a mix of golden and Chioggia (red and white striped) beets.

Hopefully, you like beets as much as I do. If not, your out of luck as the next 3-5 posts will all be revolving around beets. I hope you enjoy these brightly colored, gifts of nature as much as I do.

Beet and Blue Cheese Spread
adapted from Cooking Light Feb. 2008

1 pound beets, medium sized
2 apples (any tart variety will work well)
1/3 cup blue cheese, crumbled (I used Gorgonzola)
1 1/2 Tbl. horseradish

Trim beets of any greens, rinse well, removing all dirt and place in a baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 1 hour, or until the beets feel tender when pricked with a knife. Allow to cool then trim off root and stem ends and peel. Roughly chop and place in a food processor. Peel, core and chop the apples, placing them in the processor along with the blue cheese and horseradish. Process until well blended and somewhat smooth. Serve with crackers or toasted pita chips.

Well, I’m finally back up and running. What a pain that was. If you read my previous post you know that my computer got hit with a major virus that left me without a computer for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, this little nasty buried itself in my root directory which means that even though they would get it cleaned up each time the computer was rebooted the virus reinstalled itself. This meant a complete wipe of my hard drive and a reinstall of my operating system. This in turn meant reinstalling all my programs, finding all my data on the backup they created and basically reconfiguring everything the way I had. But everything is good now…I hope. I’m sure there will be more work to do, but at least I have enough done to get a new post up.

I was really excited about this recipe when I first made it. Unfortunately it is now a bit past both peach and corn season although you can still find them in the stores and markets. And with the new round of warm weather we’re having here in Wisconsin this dish feels right at home.

Peach Salsa

2 peaches
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
2 Tbl. cilantro, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 Tbl. sugar
salt

Peel the peach by cutting a shallow “X” in the blossom end of the peach, dipping it in boiling water for 30 seconds then plunging it into an ice bath. Once it cools down the skin should slip right off. Pit the peach and cut it into a small dice. Combine with remaining ingredients and stir to mix. Set aside.

Corn Fritters
serves 4 as a first course

2 cups corn, cut fresh from the cob (frozen will work also if you can’t get fresh)
1/3 cup red pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup green onion, minced
3 slices bacon, thick cut
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbl. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk

Chop and fry the bacon, reserving rendered fat in skillet. In a large bowl combine the bacon with the corn, pepper, and onion. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the egg and milk and mix to form a batter. Add batter to the corn mixture. There should be just enough to bind all the ingredients with not too much batter.

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to the bacon fat in the skillet and reheat. Make fritters by placing a scant 1/4 cup of batter into the hot oil, spreading it slightly.

Fry for 1-2 minutes or until starting to brown around the edges. Flip and fry another 2-3 minutes.

Drain briefly on paper towel and serve, topping with peach salsa.

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