Buttery Blue Corn Griddle cakes

Here is what you will need to create these comforting sweet southwestern morsels that will make your soul smile at any time of day:

-About 1.75 cups of blue cornmeal
- dash of baking soda
-dash of baking powder
-lots of butter
-generous quarter cup of maple syrup
-1/8 cup maple pecan syrup
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-2 eggs
-Milk (pour in to create desirable consistency)


Mix dry ingredients. Cut in about 4 tablespoons of butter with a pastry cutter.

Whisk eggs separately, ad to dry ingredients. Mix. Mix in the syrups.

Ad milk until consistency of the batter is pourable but not runny.

Heat a skillet on medium low-heat until a generous layer of butter is melted and covering the bottom. Do not let the butter burn, and if need be, at a bit of oil to prevent burning.

Pour quarter cup measurements at a time into pan, and fry/flip until just cooked through and golden on each side. Re-apply butter to pan and adjust heat as needed.

Enjoy plain or serve with Pine nuts, friend platanos and fresh greek yogurt whisked with cinnamon and raw sugar.

Love Sauce to Warm the Spirits

Essential for this recipe is: A warm, cozy, light and welcoming house filled with good friends, family, and love. When shared, this will only accentuate the goodness felt by the soul:

a quarter cup or so of Dagoba Xocolatl Spicy Mayan Hot cocoa
1 cicular bar of Abuelita dark baking chocolate
3 cups coconut milk
small small cube of butter and maybe some brown sugar to taste

Mix and melt ingredients together in saucepan over medium low heat until piping hot. Serve with iron or wooden ladle into hand made mugs. Sip and enjoy.

Fabulous Pan Pudding

I needed a dessert in 2 hours and with limited selection of ingredients in the house, here is what happened:

Ingredients (measure portions intuitively to texture and taste:
-half loaf home made Italian bread
-half stick butter
-half cup of half and half
-brown sugar
-sugar in the raw
-2 peaches
-cinnamon
-whiskey
-vanilla
-half cup Greek yogurt
-8 inch bar of bittersweet baking chocolate

chop the bread into quarter or half inch cubes and set aside. Whisk eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, a large dash of sugar, half the cream, and the greek yogurt together in bowl. Ad bread and mix. Slice peaches very thinly and soak in Buffalo Trace Whiskey. Layer 2/3 the bread mixture into a 9" round or square greased baking pan. layer the sliced peaches over, and finish with the rest of the bread mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until just slightly browned on top, but do not overcook and dry out. Cover with foil until 5 minutes before done. Drizzle the top with the sauce.

The sauce:
Melt together in saucepan: chocolate, remaining half and half, butter, brown sugar (quarter cup or so). Stir until well mixed and runny over medium low heat.

Enjoy!

Firey Zucchini Corn Cakes

A full box of fresh sweet corn, yellow patty pan summer squash, zucchini, poblanos, and jalepenos, all bursting with seasonal freshness called for a dish that prized their flavor. These cakes are great for a late summer's light dinner and satisfy with the spicy kick of southwestern food.

(judge amounts according to flavor, texture, and consistency):

one or two grated yellow patty pan summer squash
one large or two small grated zucchini
one or two finely diced jalepenos
one finely diced poblano chile
a cup or less of grated pepper jack cheese
at least a cup of bread crumbs
garlic salt
one or two ears of corn, cooked and cut off of the cob
one or two eggs

Mix ingredients together in large bowl. if mixture does not stick together when formed into patties with the hand, add more bread crumbs. Remember to add sufficient and relative seasonings to maintain flavor according to the amount of bread crumbs you ad. Start with one egg and mix thoroughly. If mixture does not lightly hold together ad bread crumbs and/or egg.

Form into small patties (They will barely stick together but will stick more as they cook). Fry in a light layer of olive oil in a heated skillet over medium to medium low heat, until patties hold together and are browned on each side. Serve plain or with hot sauce. Enjoy!

Farm Fresh Frittata

Eggs are a wonderful source of nutrition, highly versatile when it comes to their uses in cooking, and they are quick and easy to prepare. In addition, Grant Family Farms organic pasture raised eggs are tastier than just about any other egg you can find!

-12 Grant Family Farms Organic pastured eggs
-1/2 bunch Grant Family Farms organic sweet spinach
-1 bunch Grant Family Farms organic chives
-2 Grant Family Farms organic cippolini sweet onions
-2 Grant Family Farms organic garlic scapes
-handfull of Hazel Dell organic shitaki mushrooms
-salt and olive oil to taste
-mozzarella and/or cheddar cheese
-Morning Fresh Dairy whole milk (1/2 cup)

Whisk eggs and milk together, with salt and a few drops of oil. Set aside. Heat a frying pan to medium heat with olive oil coating the bottom. Ad diced onions, chives, garlic scapes, and mushrooms. Sautee until golden and crisped on the outside, and tender inside. Ad to egg mixture. Chop spinach and chives and ad to eggs. Whisk all ingredients together, sprinkle cheese on top, pour into oiled pie dish, and Bake for 50 minutes at 370 degrees, or until slightly golden on top and cooked through.

Enjoy!

Brandied Apple Pork Pastries

The idea came as a savory craving while drifting to sleep. The mission of the next day was to create the delectable little morsels, using ingredients almost all from the Farm!
These little pastries are the ultimate in comfort food; nothing short of incredibly buttery, rich, and piping hot!

You'll need:
-sweet onions
-apples
-brandy
-ground pork
-blue cheese
-salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, cloves, jalepeno pepper
-butter
-flour
-salt
-sugar
-white vinegar
-egg whites
-one egg


Sautee Grant Family Farms pastured organic ground pork in a skillet until cooked, with seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, onion, garlic, jalepeno). Set aside. Sautee in the pork grease sweet cipollini onions and garlic until slightly carmelized. In a separate pot, simmer diced apples in brandy and butter, with a dash of nutmeg, cloves, and cayenne. When tender and cooked through, mix with pork and sauteed onions. This is the filling.

In a bowl, cut 7/8 C butter into 2 C white pastry flour. Add 1.5 t white vinegar, 1.5 t salt, and 1 t sugar, and one egg. Mix / knead together. Form into a ball, cover with wax paper and cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Divide into 5 small, equal-sized balls. Roll each ball out onto the counter in a 1/8 inch thick circle with extra flour to prevent sticking. fill with the meat and apple filling, topping generously with blue cheese crumbles. Fold the corners of the dough up all at once, pinching them together in the center to create a little square pastry package look.

Brush the pastries with egg whites to gloss and keep moist. Bake at 375 until crust is done, and lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Cool Blue Mango Macademia Pie

A nice balance of popping flavors; comforting but not too sweet.

Filling:

Slice two mango's into small chunks. Mix in a bowl with a quarter cup of raw sugar, a half pint of blueberries, a couple tablespoons of corn start, an eight cup or so of sweetened lime juice, and a a fresh squeezed lime.

Crust:

cut in 7/8 cup butter into 2 cups flour. Add 1 egg, a teaspoon of salt, 1.5 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1.5 teaspoons of sugar, and 1/4 cup water. mix until pastry dough texture is achieved. wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pull the crust out of the fridge and roll out to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. spread on bottom of pie pan and shape into crust. Pour in filling.

Topping:

Before baking, top with a thin layer or Gorgonzola blue cheese crumbles followed by a layer of partly crushed macadamia nuts. When you bake it the cheese will melt into the surface of the pie, and the macadamia nuts will come out nice and toasted.

You may bake the crust without the filling halfway first to be sure it gets done, and /or glaze the whole pie with egg whites to keep it moist and shiny.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, or until crust is done and golden brown. Let set for an hour or so, serve and enjoy!