Daring Bakers' Challenge: Crackers

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers' Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers!  Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged us to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

When I read this challenge, my mind went immediately to Ritz crackers and wheat thins, the classics.  As a kid, Ritz, my cat, and I used to hang out together after school.  My cat and I could eat a whole tube of those crackers watching television.  I believe that cat liked them just as much as I did.  Today I would never eat them.  Partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil is not something anyone should be eating, not to mention all of the other GMO ingredients.  

Kale Quinoa Salad with Hazelnuts Pesto

My daughter sent me a text the other day telling me about a new food truck in Union Square (NYC) that serves primarily raw organic food.  She raved about their quinoa kale salad that she described as "literally the best thing I've ever had".  Very high praise, so I offered to try and deconstruct it for her and come up with a recipe that she could make at home.  

Today's Harvest

The very warm weather we've been experiencing over the last week is wonderful for the berries.  This is what I harvested today along with a few blueberries.  The raspberries and blackberries are producing more than we can eat in a day so I may start freezing the excess.  Berries will be expensive this winter, if you can find them, and love knowing I will have fruit in my freezer for cobblers and tarts.  

Fresh Fruit Tartlets

I made these tasty little fresh fruit tartlets for our 4th of July BBQ dinner.  Fresh strawberries and blueberries on a shortbread crust with a cashew frangipane filling.  I would have used a more traditional almond filling if I was going to top them with peaches or apricots but because I used berries, I felt that cashews would be a better fit.


These are, of course, dairy, egg, and cholesterol free.  An almost guilt free dessert.  I didn't cook the fruit in the frangipane, which is more traditional.  The strawberries and blueberry were fresh from my garden and I just couldn't do it.  After the tartlets cooled, I filled them with fruit and dusted them, very lightly, with a little powdered sugar.  No cooked sugary glaze here.

Roasted Artichokes with Lemon & Garlic

We've been eating lots of artichokes from our garden lately.  I steamed the first and second harvests and we ate them with a lemon aioli.  The third set was the smallest and I decided to roast them with lemon and garlic.  I've never eaten artichokes this way but I was inspired by a Sunset Magazine recipe and they were delicious.  

Growing Artichokes

Last year we planted a perennial artichoke plant and this year we harvested 9 tender delicious artichokes.  Annual plants will produce the first year but you'll need to plant them each year.  I think it's worth the wait.

For those of you not familiar with the artichoke, it's actually the flower bud of a perennial thistle in the sunflower family, native to the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.  They were first written about by greek philosophers around 300 B.C.  They were brought to Louisiana by the French immigrants in the early 1800's and to California by the Spanish immigrants.  Today, 100% of the commercial crop in the United States is produced in California.

Happy Blog Birthday

June is the birth month for My Recession Kitchen.  I started this blog three years ago when I was unemployed and wanted to keep busy.  I also wanted a way to document my recipes for my daughter, T.C. who is admittedly, kitchen challenged.  She used to keep shoes in her little NYC oven.