Today's fun in the kitchen

[Babble64]

Well, it wasn't a baking project for today, but I still had time to create something yummy. My husband and I are going to some friends' for dinner tomorrow night and I'm taking the dessert. Earlier in the week it was a toss up between German Chocolate Cake, which I've been wanting to make for a couple of weeks now, and ice cream cake. Since our weather for several days was hot and humid, and I don't have air conditioning, I purchased the ingredients for the ice cream cake. That's what I put together today, even though it's rainy and much cooler, and I could easily have had the oven going without making the house uncomfortable. (Now I will wait at least a week before making the other cake, because if I have too many sweets around I either eat them or they get wasted.)

I also processed and froze 4 1/2 quarts of fresh strawberries. We went picking yesterday and I don't want them to spoil. Since I've already eaten 1/2 a quart I decided the freezer was a good plan. Our local stores carry strawberries year round, and they are actually not bad, considering how far they have to travel and how early they have to be picked, but man, oh, man there is NOTHING like the juice of a local, freshly picked strawberry!! YUM-O!

What things are other folks creating this week?

 

[Happyflowerlady]

With the hot weather here, too, we are not going to be asking anything, and will probably just BBQ or picnic our way through the holiday weekend. I dot like traffic, so we are going to hide out here at home, and no company, so no need to fix anything special.
Probably a chicken and potato salad would be about right for us, and fresh watermelon for dessert, or snacks.

 

[Babble64]

With the hot weather here, too, we are not going to be asking anything, and will probably just BBQ or picnic our way through the holiday weekend. I dot like traffic, so we are going to hide out here at home, and no company, so no need to fix anything special.
Probably a chicken and potato salad would be about right for us, and fresh watermelon for dessert, or snacks.

I think hanging out at home sounds like a pleasurable way to spend the holiday! The crowds can get crazy and can easily steal the fun from any celebration. When we do something like that (for a holiday or even just a Saturday night) my husband and I enjoy whatever simple pleasure we create together in the kitchen. For us, it's about the time spent together without having to rush, both while creating and eating. And that fresh watermelon sounds fantastic! I was actually thinking I should have gotten some of that as well!!

 

[epliu]

Today I made Brown Butter Peach Bars to take to a lunch in the countryside tomorrow. I used the recipe published by the New York Times from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. It is very time-consuming, but actually not very difficult. I had to make a peach jam first, then brown some butter for the shortbread crust, and leave it in the fridge till it is solid, then make a brown butter "custard" filling which requires browning some more butter. It took me basically the whole day, but I took my time with it and incorporated in with my chores for the day. BUT alas, my 16-month old was bored and clingy and tired towards the afternoon and I forgot to bake off the crust. With my daughter in one arm and a large spoon in the other, I was topping it off with the last spoonful of jam and it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten to bake off the crust. It was too late so I just decided to go through with it. Result is not bad, the peach bars are very fragile, but the crust was still cooked. Relief!!

 

[Babble64]

Today I made Brown Butter Peach Bars to take to a lunch in the countryside tomorrow. I used the recipe published by the New York Times from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. It is very time-consuming, but actually not very difficult. I had to make a peach jam first, then brown some butter for the shortbread crust, and leave it in the fridge till it is solid, then make a brown butter "custard" filling which requires browning some more butter. It took me basically the whole day, but I took my time with it and incorporated in with my chores for the day. BUT alas, my 16-month old was bored and clingy and tired towards the afternoon and I forgot to bake off the crust. With my daughter in one arm and a large spoon in the other, I was topping it off with the last spoonful of jam and it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten to bake off the crust. It was too late so I just decided to go through with it. Result is not bad, the peach bars are very fragile, but the crust was still cooked. Relief!!

I love recipes like this....when I have the time I find it a joy to create something that takes steps with "walk aways" in between. I can get my cleaning or other work done in between and not feel guilty for spending all day in the kitchen. One of my favorite kinds of days is a day like this, at home, no schedule. It was a whole lot different when I had kids at home....distractions (that sounds mean toward kids but I don't mean it to be.) make cooking challenging for me. I'd likely have missed a step myself. Bet it was a lovely touch to your meal today!