Roasted Tomato and Herb Bread

Ingredients:

1 small-medium tomatoes, roasted & pureed

1/2 TBS Yeast, active dry

¼ cup water, warm + more if needed

¼ tsp sugar

1 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

½ cup wheat flour

¾ tsp salt

½ TBS olive oil

¼ + cups chopped herbs (whatever you may have or like)

*you can also use 2-3 TBS dried herbs

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2. Line a small baking dish and place de-stemmed tomatoes inside. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes before placing in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes, or until the skins have split and appear to be pulling away from the fruit.

3. While letting the tomatoes cool slightly, add yeast and sugar to a small bowl or cup. Pour ½ c.

warm water over yeast and stir for a moment before letting sit for 5 minutes to let the yeast

activate. It should be frothy

4. Remove skins from tomatoes and puree/pulverize in blender, food processor, or with whisk

attachment of stand mixer. Fish out any chunks or skin pieces

5. Add yeast, salt, and olive oil to tomato puree

6. Add flour in parts, combining with dough hook or your hands. If mixture does not come together

or appears too dry, add more warm water slowly, 1 TBS at time

7. Add herbs

8. Knead with stand mixer or by hand for 10 minutes

9. Let rest in warm place for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size

10. Press down gently and form dough into a ball, let rest 10 minutes in baking dish/sheet. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

11. Score top, bake @ 425 degrees for 24 - 27 minutes, or until the top is hard and sounds hollow when you knock on it

Guinness Stout Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

Landscaping

There is a part of wedding planning that no one talks about. It’s not on any checklist. It’s not on the supposed wedding “timelines” or in the unnecessarily-large bridal guides. Yet, it consumes most of my time!

It’s preparing your house for everyone you know (and some you don’t!) to visit (and judge you!).

Sure, maybe this is not relevant to you for any number of reasons. Maybe you have your sh*t together! But we moved into our house over a year ago and sometimes I look around and think it still looks like we haven’t unpacked. Not like we’re not trying (Ethan’s trying). But I generally exist in a spinning-vortex of chaos and general disaster and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for what Ethan would call “completion” of projects.

However, in this case I’m feeling some pressure.

This isn’t like Thanksgiving when you can put all your junk in the closet for the day. No - this is Summer! This is clean-the-basement kind of cleaning! Mulching! Tree-trimming! Weeding! (yuck)

For me, weeding is right up there with dishwashing, on the list of chores I’d rather not be doing. Also on that list is laundry. If you want clean clothes to wear and forks to eat with, you better be prepared to wash them yourself. I’ll help. Sometimes.

So here is what i’m doing if I’m not working:

painting

painting

weeding

painting

mulching

decoration-making

planting

weeding

weeding

painting

reorganizing (for the thirtieth time)

cooking

weeding

And there is still more to do!

A few examples:

Here are some incredibly oversized stones that make up a pathway that I 25% deconstructed and left for unknowing guests to trip over… I did eventually finish that...

My beautiful shade-loving coleus with their overgrown rhododendron counterparts… I should rip those out.

Dusty Miller with baby Zinnias and my solar pathway lights which are crooked and do not work anymore...

Still a work in progress, but the pathway does look better with all the stones in place… Also check out those Astilbe… so cute. Also you can just make out my Gladiolas which are growing in quite nicely, if not a little late....

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

Doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?

Is there a more perfect combination than Guinness, butter, and chocolate? No. The answer is no.

There are a lot of these recipes out there. You obviously don’t need to use Guinness, you could use any good stout beer. This particular recipe is modified from Smitten Kitchen, Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes. I’ve left out the chocolate filling (to save time, mostly - I’m making 5 dozen).

Add beer and butter to a saucepan or pot over medium heat

Add cocoa… definitely sift the cocoa...unlike me

Mix with dry ingredients

Line or spray a cupcake tray and fill ⅔ full. Bake 15-17 minutes

Frost with Bailey’s Irish Cream Buttercream and sprinkle with cocoa

Cupcakes:

(makes ~24 standard cupcakes)

Ingredients

2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

2 eggs

¾ c. sour cream

1 c. guinness (~half a bottle, you’ll have to drink the rest - oh no!)

2 sticks butter

¾ c. cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Whisk sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Add sour cream and combine
4. In a saucepan or pot, heat guinness and butter until all butter is melted
5. Sift cocoa powder into saucepan. Whisk furiously until mixture is smooth. (If it’s not all that smooth, don’t worry). Let mixture cool
6. Add chocolate mixture to egg mixture and combine
7. Add dry mixture and combine.
8. Scoop into lined cupcake tray, ⅔ full
9. Bake 15 - 17 minutes or until toothpick inserted, comes out clean

Bailey’s Buttercream

Ingredients

1 stick butter, room temperature

3 - 4 c. confectioner’s sugar

4 TBS Bailey’s Irish Cream or Cream or a combination

1. Beat 1 stick butter until fluffy
2. Add confectioner’s sugar, 1 heaping TBS at a time - until the desired consistency is achieved. Allow sugar to completely combine before adding another scoop. It should appear fairly stiff because you still need to add the liquid ingredients
• Allowing the sugar to fully combine after each addition will prevent you from using too-much sugar
3. Add Bailey’s 1 TBS at a time. If you use all Bailey’s, you will be able to taste it. It’s fine with just cream, but it’s not as good.

Is there a more perfect combination than Guinness, butter, and chocolate? No. The answer is no.

There are a lot of these recipes out there. You obviously don’t need to use Guinness, you could use any good stout beer. This particular recipe is modified from Smitten Kitchen, Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes. I’ve left out the chocolate filling (to save time, mostly - I’m making 5 dozen).

Add beer and butter to a saucepan or pot over medium heat

Add cocoa… definitely sift the cocoa...unlike me

Mix with dry ingredients

Line or spray a cupcake tray and fill ⅔ full. Bake 15-17 minutes

Frost with Bailey’s Irish Cream Buttercream and sprinkle with cocoa

Cupcakes:

(makes ~24 standard cupcakes)

Ingredients

2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

2 eggs

¾ c. sour cream

1 c. guinness (~half a bottle, you’ll have to drink the rest - oh no!)

2 sticks butter

¾ c. cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Whisk sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Add sour cream and combine
4. In a saucepan or pot, heat guinness and butter until all butter is melted
5. Sift cocoa powder into saucepan. Whisk furiously until mixture is smooth. (If it’s not all that smooth, don’t worry). Let mixture cool
6. Add chocolate mixture to egg mixture and combine
7. Add dry mixture and combine.
8. Scoop into lined cupcake tray, ⅔ full
9. Bake 15 - 17 minutes or until toothpick inserted, comes out clean

Bailey’s Buttercream

Ingredients

1 stick butter, room temperature

3 - 4 c. confectioner’s sugar

4 TBS Bailey’s Irish Cream or Cream or a combination

1. Beat 1 stick butter until fluffy
2. Add confectioner’s sugar, 1 heaping TBS at a time - until the desired consistency is achieved. Allow sugar to completely combine before adding another scoop. It should appear fairly stiff because you still need to add the liquid ingredients
• Allowing the sugar to fully combine after each addition will prevent you from using too-much sugar
3. Add Bailey’s 1 TBS at a time. If you use all Bailey’s, you will be able to taste it. It’s fine with just cream, but it’s not as good.

Spring Planting & Summer Gardening & Fresh Peach Scones

Spring planting & Summer gardening

Unfortunately for those of us who still live in New England, Spring planting season barely heats up by the first days of summer. I feel particularly jealous of other bloggers who post armloads of fresh produce in May. Flats of Ball jars start appearing at the end of aisles in the grocery stores; meanwhile, I still consider turning the heat on overnight.

 

Lucky for us, Summer has finally arrived and my babies are finally in the ground, thriving or dying depending on their reaction to the current monsoon season we have had

 

Happy Sun Gold Tomatoes

 

Monster Celery!

 

 

Cute baby suga’ pumpkins

 

 

Fresh Peach Scones

Do you know who makes very good scones? Panera.

If you’re feeling like a decadent breakfast (which you may be more days than not, when you work across the street from one), give them a try.

Or give these a try!

You can really use this scone recipe with any fresh fruit you may have - strawberries are another favorite, or blueberries, mixed berries, the possibilities… jalapeno cheddar! I’ve got to remember to try that...

 

Start with two very ripe peaches. (Wine not necessary but strongly encouraged)

 

 

Blanch these peaches - thinking boiling a whole pot of water to get the skins off isn’t worth it? Think again! For the five minutes of extra work, the skins will slide right off. And it will be SO satisfying

 

 

Dice

Whisk dry ingredients. Add peaches and cream

Mix to combine with as few movements as humanly possible. (I probably could have combined a little more than I did)

Shape your dough into a square on the counter

 

Slice with a sharp knife on the diagonal to create 8 triangles. If I was making these again, I would then cut them in half again to create 16 mini-scones for easier eating (and more scones).

Other shapes to consider - squares or circles using a biscuit cutter or the top of a 3” water glass.

Place on lined cookie sheet

Bake 15 minutes

Aren’t they beautiful?

Ingredients:

2 ¼ c. flour

1 TBS baking powder

¼ cup sugar**

½ tsp salt

6 TBS chilled butter

1 cup fresh diced peaches (~ 2 ripe peaches)

1 cup cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Blanch peaches by placing them in a pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and dunk in ice water bath
3. Slide the skins off and finely (or not so finely) dice
4. Whisk dry ingredients
5. Grate chilled butter into mixture, or use a paddle attachment on stand mixture. Blend until crumbly
6. Add peaches and cream. Mix only until just fully combined with as few motions as possible. Be gentle
7. Set on floured counter and form a square
8. Cut out or slice into desired shapes
9. Bake 15 minutes or until bottoms are browned and tops are firm

**If you like sweet scones, increase sugar to ½ c.