Recently my family gathered to celebrate my cousins birthday, it was a significant one ( lordy, lordy). We do not often get together for birthdays, but it was great seeing my family.

Amy, the birthday girl, requested carrot cake, so I made my normal recipe but the Maple Cream Cheese frosting was courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.

I also made Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting, which is similar to the cake I have made for Steve before and it ws part of my very first blog post (Here We Go!).

Chilly weather makes me want to bake, make soups, and curl up on the couch, so this weekend, I did all of these. I was looking for a new cookie recipe and kept seeing Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies, brownies, cupcakes, so I decided to try them. They were a hit.

I did use 1/2 whole wheat flour and the cocoa and chips were were dark chocolate

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

(adapted from MarthaStewart.com)

• 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/1/8 cup while wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon + 1/4 tsp for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon chile powder (optional) + 1/4 tsp for rolling
• pinch of cayenne (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, cinnamon, chili powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combine.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and chili powder (if using). Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in the sugar/spice mixture. Bake on parchment/silpat-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through

I feel/know, I haven’t blogged in a while. The summer has been a blur. Work was very busy, a friends wedding that wasn’t, vacation, and honestly, a lot of great intentions of posting that I didn’t get around to.

A quick recap; I did a little canning, ate delicious tomatoes from my garden, waited patiently for my fig tree to bear fruit, made 2 types of lemon chess pie that were quickly devoured at a fire pit/beer party/pig roast, drank lots of rose and had a pretty good summer.

Fall is here, so soups and heartier things will abound, along with working on more Gluten Free recipes ( lucky me, I found out I have a wheat allergy), and maybe a little talking about exercise and eating well.

Grilled okra, surprisingly delicious and easy

Lovely beets to be roasted for refrigerator pickled beets

Sungolds from the garden, we had so many

fresh corn, sungolds, tomatoes and basil for a picnic salad

first try at canning peaches, peaches from Carter Mountain orchard (Thanks Jess!)

2 types of lemon chess pie

a quick beach vacation

Figs! from my very own fig tree

In our Dominion Harvest box last Wednesday we received a lovely bunch of fresh collard greens. Nornally I would fix these pretty traditionally, cooked down with vegetable broth and lots of garlic, red pepper and onions; but that didn’t seem very fresh and “summery” (that’s a word, right?). So off to  my favorite site for pretty food pictures and recipe ideas, Tastespotting. I came across this recipe from The Right Recipe for Overnight Marinated Collard Greens Salad.  With a few adjustments, it was the perfect salad for our Memorial Day cookout.

Overnight Marinated Collard Green Salad

(original recipe serves 8, I made about 1/2 )

1/4-1/3 lb (approximately) pound fresh collard greens, washed

4 grated grated carrots

1 bell pepper (I had a yellow one on hand, but orange or red would be fine as well), cored and thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced (purple or white)

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tablespoons maple syrup (original recipe used sugar)

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 -2 tsp brown mustard

1 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

“Cut the thick center vein out of the collard green leaves then stack several leaves together, roll into a cylinder, hold together and thinly slice to make narrow strips.  Repeat with remaining leaves and transfer to a large bowl.  Stir in carrots, bell pepper, and onion. In a small sauce pan, whisk together vinegar,  maple syrup, oil,  mustard,  celery seed,  salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat well.  Season with salt and pepper if desired. ”

The recipe called for placing all the ingredients in a large ziploc bag and letting it marinate over night. I forgot to start this the night before, so I started it in the morning, let it sit in a covered bowl in the fridge for 6-7 hours and it turned out well

Spring has sprung and summer is fast approaching and that means farmers markets and CSA boxes. We are doing Dominion Harvest  right now, and I really like it. You can choose weekly or every other week deliveries (we do every 2 weeks right now). On Wednesday’s a  red box full of veggies, eggs, cheese and sometimes a little surprise (we got jam our first week) are delivered.

Our first weeks bounty, kale, bok choy, strawberries, shitake mushrooms, lettuce, spring onions, cheese and eggs

This week our box contained collards (recipe for a salad coming next week) more eggs and cheese, shitakes, strawberries, rainbow chard, spring onions and radishes. Now I was excited about everything except the radishes. What to do? I am not a fan of raw radishes so it was off to the oracle of ideas, twitter. A few ideas to quick pickle them, slice and eat with fresh butter and salt and then a suggestion to roast  them. Roasted veggies, yes.

Roasted Radishes with Spring Onion

1 bunch radishes, washed, tops trimmed off (save those and add them to a salad) and quartered

1 large spring onion, sliced

oil

salt and pepper

italian seasoning

rep pepper flakes (optional)

Toss the radishes and onion with oil, salt, pepper, italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Spread on a sheet pan, roast at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, stirring half way through. Delicious! Roasting takes the “bite” out of the radishes, if you are not a fan, this recipe should change your mind.

Enjoy! Next up, Overnight Marinated Collard Salad