CrankyCakes

Oh, it’s summer, green and wet and if not exactly sunny, then still with beautiful days for the beach and camping and adventure seeking.  The boys are covered with dirt and mosquito bites and scraped knees, whirling around in a perpetual cloud of brotherly violence/love, worlds of pirates and griffin-hunting and trucks and dinosaurs, pleas for more ice cream, for just five more minutes at the beach, in the water, under a tree.

“Be here,” I keep telling myself.  Just be here with them, in the streams of light through pine trees while we’re camping.  With the smells of leaves and the sounds of their laughs as they run to the far side of the pond to capture a frog or tackle a friend.

And I’m trying, I’m trying.  To be here, to breathe deep of this beautiful life, my wild and wonderful boys.  To keep the joy in balance with all the worry, my fears about taking a brave plunge, about money, work, how I’m going to deal with fixing my bathroom floor, all of it.

In the midst of it, it was still my turn to make a cohousing community dinner last week.  And what else is there to do but use the what we have at hand to celebrate, even sanctify these full moments?   So though I was packing to go camping, and in a full-scale anxiety attack over the rest of it, we grabbed vegetables from the garden, and Vermont cheeses and cream and eggs from our co-op and off we went to cook and feast together on this beautiful, thrifty, simple and custard-y Vermont Bastille Day meal.

Rolling Out the Piecrust

Summer Quiche
4 – 6 servings

Preheat oven to 375.

Gather and prepare ingredients:

• Your favorite 9 1/2″ flaky piecrust, pre-baked until lightly golden (I made Cook’s Illustrated’s Foolproof crust)

• 3/4 c. sauteed or steamed vegetables, well-drained.  (This amount is the yield you want after it’s cooked, so make sure to start with more!)  We made two combinations:  1.  Broccoli, mushroom, basil and sage.  2.  Swiss chard, lacinata kale, zucchini, garlic scapes.  We sauteed each combo in a large pan with butter and olive oil.

Beat together:

• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups cream, whole milk, or creme fraiche
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch freshly ground nutmeg

Arrange vegetables on bottom of crust, then sprinkle over them:

• 2 oz. grated cheese (we used Vermont’s Cabot cheddar)

Pour the egg mixture over the top.  Bake until the filling is browned and well set, 25 – 35 minutes.

Clafouti Egg Breakin'

Nectarine & Strawberry Clafouti
6 servings

Preheat oven to 375.  Butter a 10-inch deep-dish pie pan.

Beat until very frothy:

• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 c. sugar

Add and beat until smooth:

• 1 c. milk
• 1 T. cognac or rum (optional), or
• 2 t. vanilla

Stir in:

• 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt

Arrange evenly over bottom of pie pan:

• 1 lb. mixed nectarines, cut into 1″ cubes, and halved strawberries, rinsed and dried

Pour batter over the fruit and place the pie pan on a baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake until puffy and well-set, about 35 minutes.  Cool on a rack for about 20 minutes, then dust with:

• Powdered sugar.

Serve in wedges, or sloppy scoops, whatever seems to come out of the pan.

Zucchini-Greens Quiche

Finished Clafouti, Ready to Serve

Leftover clafouti batter, mixed with strawberry jam and baked into a dutch-baby style pancake for breakfast the next morning. Yes, that's a Blue's Clues plate. What of it?

The harvest is coming in and I’m determined to preserve everything I can this year.

Must not compost more vegetables.
Must not compost more vegetables.
Must not compost more vegetables.

This weekend, I took all of the greens from the crisper – chard, kale, lamb’s quarters, broccoli raab and more from our CSA share- chopped it small, steamed it, cooled it, froze it in ice cube trays, and then popped ‘em out into a plastic container to keep in the freezer so I can take it out in small portions to add to soup and baked goods and whatever all winter long.

And this morning was my first foray into pickles, and I used Ball’s Home Preserving Book to make Refrigerator Pickles with a mix of zucchini and cucumbers.

I could have sworn I had seen dill growing here in the cohousing garden, but I was out of luck, so they became:

Pickled Coriander Zuke & Cuke Spears
About 5 pints

• 8 1/4 c. of cucumber and zucchini, scrubbed with a gentle brush, each end cut off, cut lengthwise into quarters (or 8ths if too thick), and cut in half horizontally to fit into jars if needed
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 6 T. pickling or canning salt
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 2 T. pickling spice
• 5 flower heads from cilantro plants
• 7 1/2 t. coriander seeds
• 1 1/4 t. whole black peppercorns
• 5 t. mustard seeds (I only had brown on hand)
• 5 cloves of garlic (optional – I was out of the fresh stuff and left it out)

• Place cucumber/zucchini slices in a large glass, stainless steel or ceramic bowl, and set aside.
• Combine vinegar, water, pickling salt, sugar and pickling spice in a medium stainless steel saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Pour pickling liquid over sliced vegetables.  Cover with a plate (the recipe says to use waxed paper but why waste something disposable?) and set aside until cooled to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• While waiting, distribute the cilantro flowers, coriander seeds (why do we call the fresh parts one thing and the seeds another, anyway?), mustard seeds, peppercorns, and garlic (if using) among the 5 jars.  When vegetables and liquid have cooled sufficiently, use tongs to put spears into jars.  Ladle liquid into each jar to cover, leaving “generous” 1/2″ of headspace at the top.  Apply lids.
• Let marinate for at least 2 weeks, and use within 3 months.

Oh, and when I moved the canning book from the top of the refrigerator, my eagle-eyed little wildmen spied their nine month old Halloween treats.  I’ll let the remains of their morning snack provide my shameful confession:

You know, just in case I started feeling smug and overly natural and the like.