Today is Mr. RK's birthday. Our family tradition is that you get the dinner and dessert of your choosing and he chose tamale pie (no surprise there, he picks that every year) and German chocolate cake. I doubled my German chocolate cupcake recipe but used shredded coconut instead of wide chip.
I saw this recipe on a blog, The Best Remedy, and thought it was a wonderful combination of flavors. Since I had all of the ingredients on hand, I felt compelled to "veganize" the it and bake up a batch. I have tons of blackberries ripening in my garden, most of which I'm freezing for use later, because there is no way we can eat them all now. I also have most of that container of Tofutti non-dairy ricotta sitting in my fridge as well as an ear of corn.
I picked our first ripe tomatoes of the season. Just a handful of cherry tomatoes and one little Roma, but still it's exciting, at least for a gardening geek like me. The first tomatoes always taste amazing, probably because you've been waiting so long for them to ripen...but more likely it's that they ripen on the vine. Last year was such a disaster, most of our plants died from some sort of mold.
This is a thieving squirrel. He wasn't always bad. Two years ago he lived across the street in an oak tree with his friends and relatives eating acorns. Then, the oak tree died and my neighbors cut it down. That's when this squirrel and his friends and relatives moved into my back yard to live in my oak tree. That's when he discovered my almond tree. That's when he decided he liked almonds better than acorns. The thieving squirrel started to eat my almonds before they were ripe. Apparently, he doesn't really like unripe almonds, so he threw them on the ground and tried another and another and another. Isn't that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results? So, what I really have is an insane thieving squirrel.
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.
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.
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.
