Food Odyssey: Spring/Summer 2022

Well, it has been a little while since I last posted something. A lot of things happened in my life this year, mainly finishing up school and moving. Praise God. I know a lot of things have been happening in your lives too and around the world. Whatever changes or events that are going on in your life, I am praying you all stay encouraged and in faith that the Lord is absolutely good. Let’s revisit Psalms 23 before we talk about food:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

I chose that scripture because it shows that even when it seems you are surrounded by the enemy and there is no way out, God has not abandoned you and you do not have to live in fear. Even in the midst of darkness, the Lord will preserve you, restore you and bless you abundantly. Do not accept the enemy’s plans for your life, my dear friends. Declare that in the midst of inflation, your cup runneth over. Then give God a shout of praise because His word never returns void. What a good God we serve!

I assure you that this blog has not turned into solely a random food blog with bible verses strewn about. We will continue to dive into some more interesting topics and those posts are in the works. In the meantime, spring and summer have come and gone, so let’s discuss food we tried over the warm weather seasons before we get too far into fall.

I think I have told you all that I do not enjoy hot weather, but I love the produce that comes with it. In the spring and summer months, while I am being tortured by the sun and relentless heat, I hang on to the moments that I can enjoy fresh berries, cherries, watermelon, peaches and plums. No joke, I probably consumed ten 15-20 pound watermelons by myself this summer. I know it’s ridiculous and I don’t care. But enough about things I need to work out in therapy. Let’s talk baked goods.

So I tried these strawberry shortcake cookies because I thought they looked and sounded fantastic. They are enormous (6-oz cookies!) and are loaded with strawberry flavor, golden oreos and white chocolate chips. However, I think out of all the things I will share with you in this post, this was my least favorite because the strawberry flavor tastes very artificial. That is mostly because the recipe calls for you to use strawberry emulsion. I had never used this before, so I was curious, but I did not care for it very much. If you’re ok with an artificial tasting strawberry flavor, then I would say to go ahead and try these. It has 4.8/5 stars out of 58 reviews on the website, so people like them. Personally, I would give these a 3/5 and probably wouldn’t make them again unless I modified it somehow. If you’re like me and like the taste of fresh berries in your desserts, you may want to try this next recipe.

I made these raspberry-white chocolate cheesecake cookie bars for a club meeting at school. Everyone loved them. They really appreciated the fresh raspberries in the recipe and I agree that it really made these pop with flavor. For me, the combination of fresh raspberries and white chocolate is amazing. Then, of course, you have that layer of cheesecake in between the buttery cookie layers and it’s heaven…or perhaps you see heaven right after your heart attack. Either way, I recommend these. It’s a 9X13 pan of rich cookie bars, so maybe make them for a crowd or make room in your freezer.

I kept seeing the picture of this cherry cobbler pop up in my Pinterest feed and I finally gave in because I remembered I had cherries to get rid of in the freezer. This picture is not the best – look at the recipe on the Half Baked Harvest blog and you’ll be convinced too. But I am always amazed at how well her dessert recipes turn out with the use of honey or coconut sugar in place of granulated sugar. I mean, it’s a cobbler so I’m sure the recipe is a bit forgiving when it comes to substitutions, but however you decide to make it, I think you’ll enjoy it too. Make sure to serve with a big scoop of ice cream. If you’re dairy-free, “oat-milk” based ice cream is the way to go in my opinion.

Whenever I have leftover egg yolks from a different recipe, I look for something custard-y to make. I had six egg yolks to use and, wouldn’t you know it, this recipe uses six egg yolks. I had never had any version of pots de creme before so this was all new territory. I caramelized white chocolate for the first time using the oven. I know there is a way to do it in the microwave (search Cupcake Jemma YouTube channel for a tutorial), but the oven way wasn’t too bad. It takes about 40-50 minutes, so you’ll need to make sure you set aside some time. If you’ve made or are familiar with making creme brulee, I think making this will be a similar process. I really enjoyed this dessert with fresh berries and whipped cream. It is sooo creamy. I look forward to making a dark chocolate version of this at some point in the future.

Speaking of creamy, I made this butterscotch pudding with salted caramel sauce and it was divine. This was probably another case of using leftover egg yolks (the ultimate excuse to make custard and pudding) and it was worth the effort. When you make the butterscotch and are waiting for the brown sugar to get to a certain point of caramelization, I would recommend whipping out your food thermometer. There was a point that I thought it might be done, but it really wasn’t. The temperature along with her description of the visuals helped me to get it right. Another note is that if you do not plan to serve all the pudding right away, do not pour the caramel on top before storing. This wasn’t really spring-y or summer-y, but you know, I shared it and now you can make it this fall.

I know what you’re thinking, “No way she has another pudding/custard recipe. Do my eyes deceive me?!” Oh yeah, we’re not done yet. We did pots de creme, pudding and now rice pudding. As I was buying some spices for this at World Market (you can get the spices elsewhere), the cashier told me that she didn’t like rice pudding because of the texture. I mean, that’s fair. It is a weird texture. My brother tried it and said it was like a mix between grits and oatmeal. I think that sounds about right. If that doesn’t bother you, then I think you should try this. If you’ve NEVER had rice pudding before, you can try a more basic one. I like America’s Test Kitchen rice pudding a lot (and I have tried quite a few recipes). It’s incredibly creamy and uses like six cups of whole milk. If you’re all about rice pudding, this recipe will be a warm welcome for you. The stewed peaches and the warm spices were such a nice accompaniment to the pudding.

Maybe you’re sitting here thinking, “Skip your leftover egg yolk recipes! I want something that uses the entire egg!” I gotchu fam! Right here. This key lime mousse uses six whole eggs…separated. You basically make a key lime curd and then combine it with whipped cream and a meringue. If you could inject the essence of a key lime pie into a cloud and eat it, that would be this recipe. It is so light and so very key lime-y. In fact, I would even reduce the amount of key lime zest used in the recipe. I would also say that I enjoyed this dessert the most on the first day, but then didn’t care for it much the next day. Since it makes so much mousse, I recommend whipping this up to share with friends the day you make it.

So while I was in the process of emptying out my fridge before I moved, I was trying to find a way to use up my goat cheese and found this blueberry flatbread with goat cheese recipe. I thought it was interesting, but I was also a little skeptical. I thought the combination of peach jam, blueberries and honey would be too sweet, but the sweetness level was actually not too bad. Putting this together is ridiculously easy because you can just use your favorite store-bought flatbread or naan and throw the toppings on there. Of course, you can always adjust this recipe to your liking by using different jams, cheeses and fruits. I’m sure you can get creative with fall and winter produce.

This recipe is not summer themed, but MAN is it good. While I lived in Madison, WI, every time I went to the farmer’s market, the Stella’s bakery stand was surrounded by masses of people trying to get their hands on the spicy cheese bread. America’s test kitchen has a copycat recipe (I think in several of their cookbooks including The Savory Baker) and it is probably the closest you will get to the real thing. It’s buttery, spicy and filled with cheese – the ultimate comfort food. I made this loaf for my friend and her husband and they absolutely loved it. I really think you will too.

Ok, so I have another non-spring/summer dessert to share with you. I made kouign-amann for the first time. If you have never had it, it is laminated pastry that consists of five ingredients: yeast, flour, salt, butter and sugar. I went with this recipe from Flour, too because it used room temperature butter for the lamination. I am still working on my pastry lamination with a butter block. Anyway, these turned out fabulous and you don’t even need any fancy cookware. Just a muffin pan. Making this does take a while because there are two rises and a few turns in the lamination process, so I would recommend attempting on a day when you have minimum obligations.

We are going to end on a summer-y note. I received 5-lbs of peaches from a co-worker because a peach tree in her backyard was producing a ton of fruit. They were some of the best tasting peaches I have ever had. And with those beautiful, juicy peaches, I made this white pizza with peach, pancetta and chile. The peaches may sound like an odd addition to a pizza, but it really wasn’t as crazy as you would think. I think pineapples on pizza are a much sweeter addition. The taste of the peaches were a bit more subtle. The flavors worked together pretty well. What would probably be even better is if I was able to grill the peaches before putting it on the pizza to add another dimension of flavor. Also, I am obsessed with getting crispy-bottomed pizzas, so I have been baking them at 500 F with a pizza stone in the lower half of my oven. It usually works out.

Alright, that concludes my spring and summer food adventures. I hope you all are inspired to bake and cook something new. I am so excited it’s fall. It’s my favorite season and I already went apple picking and picked ~20-lbs of apples. You already know we are going to go crazy with apple recipes in the next Food Odyssey. Ok, skip your pumpkin and pumpkin spice trends. Apples is where it’s at. Until next time my friends. Enjoy this picture of Hunter on your way to the comments section.