Boston Takes on Cheese

The Question you have to ask yourself before you look at this recipe is...

Does the cheese Stand alone? Hi Ho The Derry Oh, not it our case!

Our take on a cheese sandwich involved a few other ingredients, but it is SOOO good, you won't want to pass it up!
This recipe is called Open-Faced Turkey Sandwich with Apple and... (wait for it, wait for it)...HAVARTI.

I found this recipe in our Elementary School cookbook.

Our list of players:
4 slices good bread
4 teaspoons mayonnaise
4 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 cup trimmed arugula
4 slices red onion
12 oz. sliced turkey
2 Fuji apples, cored and cut corsswise into 8 slices
1/2 cup grated Havarti Cheese

Logan did the photography for me!

Spread each bread slice with 1 teaspoon mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon mustard.

Layer each slice with 1/4 cup arugula (oops, that's my cute little hand in the picture!)

Layer each slice with 1 red onion slice.

Measure 3 oz. sliced turkey per slice of bread.

Layer each slice with 3 slices turkey

Layer each slice with 4 apple slices

Top each slice with 1 very liberal Tablespoon of Havarti Cheese.

Place sandwiches on a baking sheet and broil 4 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly. Remove from heat.

Serve immediately. 4 Servings. 1 sandwich each.

And amazingly enough, amongst my picky eaters, EVERYONE likes this--even with Arugula and onions, and dijon mustard. They all like it.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and Short Cake

Fresh cut rhubarb out in the garden--well, actually the flower bed--I think it's a very attractive plant and belongs there---besides the tractor can't "accidentally" dig it up there either. It will grow happily for years in the same spot. The leaves are poisonous so I cut them off outside and leave them for mulch.

Main ingredients for a strawberry rhubarb pie. It takes 3 cups of rhubarb cut in 1/2 inch pieces and 1 cup sliced strawberries.

Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Toss the cut fruit in the sugar mixture and let it sit for 20 minutes while you prepare the crust. Prepare your favorite pie crust recipe, and put the bottom crust in a 9 inch pie pan. Add the mixed fruit, and top with 1 Tbs butter cut in small pieces. Put on the top crust. Crimp the edges and brush top with a little milk, then sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. It's a good idea to put a cookie sheet under it the last 10 minutes or so as it might run over in the oven. (This one sure did!)

I love this pie--it's seems to welcome summer!

Another favorite way for us to enjoy strawberries is on short cake.

Here is my favorite recipe for a sponge type short cake:

Economical Sponge Cake
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla or 1/2 tsp lemon extract

Beat eggs at high speed until very light. beat in sugar gradually, then combined water and flavoring. Sift flour with baking powder and slat. Fold flour mixture into eggs, carefully--don't beat, jsut fold with a spatula.
Bake in dripper pan, about 20 minutes for short cake or trifle; or in two round pans--check them in 15 minutes.

Top Chef Masters on Bravo

Janessa steered me towards this fun cooking show. I've only seen one episode so far, but thought it was definitely worth sharing.

In this "Masters" cooking show, the judges from the Top Chef cooking show (all professional highly acclaimed chefs themselves) compete against each other to earn money for a charity of their choice.

In the episode I saw, their "quickfire challenge" was to create a dessert (the biggest challenge for them--they usually leave that to the pastry chefs). And their judges? 4 young girl scouts.

Here is the winning dessert.

The 2nd challenge was "dorm room cooking." They had the 4 competing judges cook 3 course meals of their choosing IN an inhabited dorm room. They also gave them only 3 tools to cook with--a toaster oven, a microwave, and a hot plate. None of these judges even owned a microwave at home, so they didn't know how to use it. More adverntures ensued when the judges had to do their own grocery shopping on a budget for the meal. Most do food orders over the phone and the food is delivered to their restaraunt, so they didn't have a realistic sense of what you could find in the grocery store, nor where it would be. And one of the chefs I really liked accidentally put all of his food and produce in the freezer over night, rather than the fridge. Ouch!

The judges for this challenge were a mixed bag. First of all they had to pass the critical palates of the 4 students whose bedrooms they had cooked in. And secondly, they had 4 highly acclaimed food critics judging those same dishes. Hard to please a college palate AND a foodie?

I like watching how the chefs think outside the box when they are in a tight spot, which happened really frequently.

Click here to go to the Top Chef Master website.

Click here to see the photos of the food creations from the episode I just described.

A book to drool over...

I have to recommend this cookbook to you all. Check it out from the library and peruse it. It's all about using fresh, flavorful organic foods, right out of your garden. No chemicals, no additives, no processed foods--just real live food.

The pictures have all been taken out of doors, or using natural light and they are the reason you should pick this book up. Just looking at the photos will make your mouth water.

Plus, the whole first chapter is just about raspberries and raspberry recipes.

What's not to love?!

Herb Grilled Cheese and the bestest tomato soup EVER!

I love this idea mom - I think any chance to make a bunch of different kinds of grilled cheese is ideal. I know it is getting/or is hot for most people reading this. But this last month it has been raining cats and dogs in Idaho. Matt loves it because it makes his grass really green (but then he starts talking about fungus...man...grass is never happy) - and I love it because I am already burning up hot! And we are too cheap to turn on the air conditioning!

Anyway - there is nothing better than grilled cheese and tomato soup on a rainy spring/fall/winter/ day.

This tomato soup recipe comes from the lady who use to run the snack shop at the golf course I worked at in college (in American Fork). It is absolutely to die for! Super substantial, chunky, flavorful and filling. Matt will even eat it - and he hates soup!

Bestest Tomato soup:

1 can of Campbell's tomato soup

1 can full of milk (if you are feeling really evil, do a can of half and half)

1 can of diced tomatoes WITH (and make sure you buy the right can) basil, oregano and garlic mixed in (see the picture above).

Cheese/croutons (optional) to put on top

Mix all together (except the cheese and croutons if you so decide) and heat on the stove. Then devour with your grilled cheese.

This cheese sandwich I found is super easy to make and makes a huge difference in taste. I use the sandwich maker just like mom does (ignore the chicken stew in the picture - it is not as good as just serving these with tomato soup). I actually dont have dried parsley - so I just use Italian seasoning and garlic powder...but it is all green, right?

Herb Grilled Cheese (from Simple and Delicious magazine)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
8 ounces sliced Colby cheese
8 slices white bread
Directions: In a small bowl, combine the butter, parsley, oregano and garlic powder. Cover and refrigerate 2 tablespoons for another use. Place cheese on four slices of bread; top with remaining bread. Spread outside of each sandwich with remaining butter mixture. In a skillet over medium heat, toast sandwiches for 4-5 minutes on each side or until bread is lightly browned and cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.

How cooking begins

This may not look like it should be on a cooking blog---but it's the garden we grow so we have lots of yummy fresh things to cook with. This is the top or south end of the garden and contains onions (which we are beginning to harvest now), leeks ( my first time growing them), beans, flowers, corn, peppers, eggplants, and tomatollos.

The rest of the garden and the second terrace. We are growing our tomatoes on black plastic this year, also our melons, cucumbers, and melons. You can see potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, etc. On the lower terrace we have a new variety of strawberries (on the black plastic), raspberries and blackberries--plus some of our melons, squash etc. We are beginning to eat some of the sugar snap peas this week, and we are picking a few strawberries--not from thsi patch, but from others scattered around the yard. We are also harvesting our rhubarb--it's in a flower bed. I made a rhubarb crisp the other day that was a big hit at the Primary party. I also planted a small herb garden this year, but we also have herbs among the flowers all over the yard. The mower belongs to a neighbor boy who mowed the grass by the pond. The fish in the pond are now between 8 and 12 pounds. The little trees are a cherry and a plum--both loaded with fruit this year--we also have apricots, apples, peaches and pears.

A Simple Pleasure. Should I feel guilty?

While I can--and will--make more exotic cheese sandwiches this is one of my favorite lunches when I'm eating alone. I learned to love grilled cheese sandwiches when they used to serve them at the hot lunch at school. Tomato soup is very good to accompany the sandwich, or sliced apple.

I love this little plug-in sandwich cooker--it melts the cheese and makes the bread nice and crisp--and it's fast.

I like to use homemade wheat bread and colby-jack cheese--or cheddar.

Elizabeth's chicken meal

We cooked Liz's meal last week. It was a success and would have been more successful had I not used such thick chicken and then kind of burned the sauce. The chicken came out too chewy because I had to cook it so long. I also only had Panko bread crumbs on hand but thought that fit the Asian bill. I did like the flavor of the peanut and soy sauce. I did feel a little sodiumed out so I probably wouldn't use the ramen flavorings and may use my own noodles next time around. All in all we quite liked it and it was quite easy to prepare. We haven't yet done the cookies but I have everything for Lily to make them for us. Thanks for sharing Liz. I also liked learning how you and Matt cook and share in the responsibilities. It's nice to see how other families work that all out.
Taylors out!