Author Archives: Laurie

It’s Scorching Hot: Is it the Weather or the Peppers?

Posted on by Laurie

It is scorching hot in Manhattan, Kansas today. It was 97 degrees by noon and 107 in our yard at 5 pm (According to the weather service our official high was 101). So who could ask for a better day to write about hot peppers? In the little container garden on my “back porch”, I grow  Chenzo and Burning Bush Habañero peppers.  Chenzos have a rating of 45,000 scoville heat units (which is quite hot) while Habañeros are even hotter at 100,000 – 350,000 s.h.u. To put this in perspective, jalapeños rate  2,500 – 8,000 s.h.u.

Chenzo Peppers Ripening

Chenzo Peppers Ready to Pick

Burning Bush Habañero Peppers

When I picked my first bunch of Chenzos a few weeks ago, I tied them into a small ristra and hung them off the back porch to dry. It took about two and a half weeks for them to be ready to bring in. Of course, we were having cooler nights then. With our current temperatures, they would probably dry more quickly. I will use the dried peppers in chilis and rubs for grilling.

Chenzo Pepper Ristra

I decided to do  something different with the peppers that I picked today, so I made several bottles of Garlic Chili Lemon Oil. This can be used as a dipping oil with bread or tortillas, can be added to chilis, soups, pasta dishes, and salad dressing. If you decide to make your own flavored oils, be sure to sterilize fresh ingredients such as garlic either by heating them or acidifying them as the oil seals out oxygen and can easily lead to botulism growth. We want everyone to be able to eat safely!

What are your favorite ways to use hot chili peppers? It would be great to hear from you!

Getting Ready for the 4th: Wild Blueberry Cupcakes

Posted on by Laurie

I have very fond memories of the 4th of July from growing up. Every year the town – think very small town, here – would have a parade, followed by a variety show on the town beach, then fireworks over the lake. It was really something to look forward to. Even though I now live 1,800 miles from where I grew up, I still try to make the holiday special.

Wild Blueberry Cupcakes

makes 24

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour (stir before measuring)

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 c. unsalted butter, softened

2 c. granulated white sugar

4 lg. eggs

1 1/2 t. lemon extract

1 c. whole milk

3/4 c. dried wild blueberries*

* If the blueberries seem hard, then place them in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over berries. Cover bowl with a plate. Let sit for 15 minutes, then drain well. Liquid can be reserved for another use.

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 standard muffin cups with muffin papers or foils.

(2) Place flour in a medium bowl. Whisk in baking powder and salt. Set aside.

(3) Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time and then lemon extract. Scrape down sides as needed.

(4) Gradually beat 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the milk, then the remaining 1/3 of the flour into butter mixture.  Fold in berries.

(5) Carefully scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Once done, place on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups and allow to cool completely before frosting. Decorate with your favorite lemon, almond, vanilla or cream cheese frosting recipe or with Nicole’s 2-Step Buttercream.

Nicole’s 2-Step Buttercream

requires a large food processor and a stand mixer

1 lb. unsalted butter, completely softened

5 c. confectioner’s sugar

3 c. heavy whipping cream

2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. almond extract

(1) Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a large food processor. Start to combine. While food processor is running, add cream and extracts. Process until completely smooth. You may need to pause your food processor now and then.

(2) Once completely smooth, transfer to a large stand mixer and beat until fluffy and white.

Thanks, Nicole, for letting me share your recipe!

Prairie, Bright

Posted on by Laurie

This is a watercolor that I painted a few years ago. It is an abstract landscape called Prairie, Bright. I gave it to my friend Carolyn, as a thank you for her help in printing my first cookbook. I used to do watercolor, watercolor-and-ink, and watercolor mixed media paintings – that is until I took up food photography for the book. Since then, whenever I have ten minutes to spare, I am off photographing something or another. One of these days, I’ll get back to painting.  I had thought about entering this image into the Weekly Photography Challenge since the theme this week is to take a picture of something you have created. The painting itself, though, is more interesting than the photo of it. So, the challenge is still on. Will I be able to come up with an idea and an image?

A Walkway

Posted on by Laurie

Twelve years ago, when we bought our  house to turn it into a bed and breakfast, the yard was a mess … almost entirely weeds and dirt. We had originally opened the B&B in a house across the street from Manhattan City Park four years earlier. So when we moved, I wanted our new yard to feel like a miniature park.  I got out my graph paper, measured the yard, and came up with a landscape design. Central to the design was a fountain surrounded by a stone walkway.  My husband Bill and our friend Jason went to a local quarry and brought back three pick-up truck loads of limestone to build the path. Once it was done, we planted several flats of creeping thyme between the stones. I was so excited. I thought that the walkway looked like it could have been in a magazine.

As Robert Burns wrote, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. The creeping thyme could not hold back weeds. Dandelions, crabgrass, and a whole host of undesirables grew right up through the thyme. In weeding, we always wound up pulling up the ground cover, separating the weeds, then replanting what of the thyme we could – and then planting new thyme the next season. I finally got tired of that cycle and gave up on the interplantings all together. That left us with a stone pathway with just dirt between the rocks.  Moreover, the rocks hadn’t weathered well, and many were broken and uneven. The walkway looked antique, as though it could have been constructed when the house was built in 1902; but it was not as attractive as I wished it were and I was always stubbing my toes on it.

It took a couple of years for me to work up the courage to make the call – the stone walkway had to go! This past week, my helper Benjamin dug up the limestone, used it to fortify the border around our central flower bed and to build stone walls on the sides of the property. He then laid down cedar bark mulch which, at least for now, is lovely and so soft to walk on. It gives me happy feet!

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I’ve Been Inspired by …. Fennel

Posted on by Laurie

A few days ago, I was reading a recipe for Fennel & Basil Chickpea Salad on Becca’s Green Kitchen – a wonderful blog for vegetarian cooking – and I was surprised to see that it called for sauteing the fennel. I have only used raw fennel in salads. I have used cooked fennel in soups, but not in ages; and I actually had forgotten about doing so until I read Becca’s blog. When I commented on this, Becca encouraged me to give cooked fennel a new try. So this morning – as part of my Let The Inspiration In Challenge – our breakfast special was a Bacon, Mushroom and Fennel Omelette served with a side of fresh fruit and a strawberry buttermilk muffin. I hope that Becca isn’t cringing over my having used bacon, but for the group of guests that I had this morning, I thought that would be an appealing special. The guests who ordered the omelette gave it two thumbs up and  told me that they liked the texture and flavor of the fennel with the mushrooms and bacon. Having now tried cooked fennel for the first time in a long while, I have a greater appreciation for this vegetable’s versatility. Raw fennel is quite crunchy and has a strong licorice flavor which I enjoy. Cooked, it has a subtle herbaceous flavor and, I think, is not recognizable as the same vegetable. Becca said that she caramelizes hers so that it gets almost a charred flavor. To cook the fennel this morning, I sauteed it in olive oil until crisp-tender and seasoned it with sea salt and fresh ground green and pink peppercorns. (While it was cooking, I sauteed mushrooms and cooked bacon, then tossed them together for the omelette filling before topping the filling with cheese.) Having new found appreciation for fennel, I can imagine sauteing it for use in pasta dishes and risottos as well as in Becca’s chickpea salad – which I am definitely going to make, just not for breakfast. Thanks for the inspiration, Becca and forgive me for the bacon!

96 and Going to Havana

Posted on by Laurie

Officially, the high in Manhattan (Kansas) yesterday was 96 degrees F; but the official temperature is taken at the airport outside of town, and is always lower than what you’ll find recorded on any thermometer in town. According to ours, it was 101. Downtown, we experience heat reflected off streets and buildings and generated by equipment. In fact, different neighborhoods, even different properties can seem to have their own miniature climate zones. The back yard of the house on the corner near us, for example, is always a few degrees warmer than ours because it receives more reflected heat from the brick of Seven Dolors Church.

With the hot summer temperatures – though not as hot as they are likely to get later in the summer – one of our return guests surprised us yesterday with a bottle of Cuban Havana Club rum. When someone shows up at your door with such a gift, and it is so very hot, what can you do but make Havanas, sit on the front porch, and relax?

Havana

recipe from The Art of The Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics, by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz

1 1/2 oz. Gosling’s rum

3/4 oz. Cointreau

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

Splash fresh orange juice

Dash of Orange bitters

Edible Flower for garnish

Line the rim of a cocktail glass with sugar. Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake, and then strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with flower.

(As you can tell from my photos, I was too tired yesterday to strain the cocktails, but I enjoy the pulp from the fresh fruit anyway … and it was so hot, we really wanted ice. And obviously, we substituted rums.)

Hydrangeas Living on the Edge

Posted on by Laurie

At the edge of our next door neighbor’s property, just touching ours, are two hydrangeas. Jean – a previous owner of that property  and the woman who planted these bushes – told me that they are Nikko Blues.*  To show their intended color, Nikko Blues require applications of acidic fertilizer when they are grown in alkaline soils such as we have in Kansas. Unless the ph of the soil is lowered, the color of Nikko Blues is unstable, ranging all the way over to dark pink. No one fertilizes the bushes next door anymore. Nevertheless, they have a beauty of their own. Unlike their showy true blue relations, these are subtle and sweet-looking, blooming away in the shade. The photos below are ones that I took yesterday. They are all of flower clusters on the same bush.

* To be honest, I am not certain that these are Nikko Blue Hydrangea bushes, though I am inclined to trust Jean. I have been reading up on the subject on hydrangea identification and am thoroughly confused. These are most definitely not Oakleaf, Lacecap or Annabelle Hydrangeas – which leaves Mopheads and Paniculatas. (Nikko Blues are Mopheads.) The leaf formation rules out the Paniculata family; but the flowers open white and then turn a pale pink or blue, which would seem to rule out the Mophead family. Plus they don’t seem to have a full “mophead” – though I suppose this could be due to growing conditions. If anyone has any thoughts on identifying these bushes, I would be happy to know them. We have 6 hydrangeas in our yard, but I don’t consider myself an expert hydrangeas at large. Whether Nikko Blues or something else, I am always happy to see these bushes in bloom.

The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get: Thank you to Beyond the Green Door

Posted on by Laurie

Kenley and “L” from Beyond The Green Door have nominated me for an Illuminating Blogger Award. Thank you! I am so very pleased with the positive response that A Taste of Morning has received. I work hard on the blog and yet sometimes am amazed that anyone has discovered it. There are so many wonderful bloggers out there with interesting ideas and beautiful images. I am delighted to be a part of this community. I learn much both from putting together my posts and from those of the blogs (such as Beyond the Green Door) that I follow. Thank you again, Kenley and L, for your support in nominating me for this award.

The rules: (1) thank the person who nominated you for the award; (2) share one random thing about yourself; (3) nominate five other bloggers that you think deserve this award.

One Random Thing About Me:

My favorite color is aqua.

Five Illuminating Bloggers:

For the Love of the South

Acorn in the Kitchen

Small House Big Garden

Tea Foodie

Bebe’s Kitchen

Thank you to these bloggers for your efforts and for sharing your ideas and images! And thank you again to Kenley and L!

Maneki-neko (good luck figurine) image.

Crape Myrtles After the Rain

Posted on by Laurie

Along with almost everything else in the garden this year, our Crape Myrtles have now started blooming about a month early. After the mild winter that we had in Kansas, the die-back on the Crape Myrtles was almost non-existent. Some years the die-back is quite severe and we have to cut the trees/bushes to the ground. We received 1.27″ of rain last night. This as made everyone happy, especially the farmers, as prior to that we had received only .01″ of precipitation this month. With the garden all wet this morning, I tried to get a couple of pictures. These are of are buds and blooms on Crape Myrtle “Royalty” – one of my favorite plantings.

I’ve Been Inspired By … Blueberry Gin

Posted on by Laurie

For those of you who haven’t yet discovered it, Boozed + Infused is a wonderful and creative blog by two sisters – Alicia and Eileen. Its theme is preserving seasonal flavors by infusing them in alcohol and, of course, tasty ways to then enjoy those infusions. Alicia’s Blueberry Gin inspired me to give it a try  and to try it out in some original cocktails.  Thank you, Alicia, for letting me share! (Alicia, by the way, says that she got some of her inspiration from Post Prohibition. Isn’t it great how inspiration works?) I tried several recipes made with the Blueberry Gin. I loved Alicia’s Blueberry Pieball cocktail. Of the cocktails that I created, my favorite was Blueberry Gin & Tonic which, by the way, would make an excellent cocktail for the 4th of July. Have you any 4th of July favorites?

Blueberry Gin: Two Methods. 

Boozed + Infused’s Method

2 c. frozen blueberries

2 c. gin

granulated white sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1/2-inch cinnamon stick

2 whole cloves

Cook blueberries in a saucepan for 5 minutes, lightly crushing them as they cook. Pour into a 1-qt. jar, add the other ingredients, screw on the lid to the jar, and shake well. Let sit for 1 month, shaking occasionally. (I got impatient and tried the gin in cocktails after a week and a half. It was already very tasty.) Strain and filter. (Alicia says to use a colander, cheesecloth, jellybag and coffee filter. I just used a fine mesh tea filter, but maybe after the gin sits for a whole month more aggressive filtering is needed.)

A Shortcut Which  Will Do in a Pinch to Make Cocktails.

1 c. 100% Blueberry Juice Concentrate (I used Dynamic Health Laboratories brand, which I had bought to make the ice cubes called for by Alicia’s Blueberry Pieball recipe – because I couldn’t find plain blueberry juice.)

5 c. gin

2 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a glass jar. Shake well. Chill until serving.

Blueberry Gin & Tonic

4 oz. blueberry gin

3 oz. tonic water

1/2 oz. lime juice

slice of lime

Fill a tall glass with ice. Add gin, tonic water, and lime juice. Stir. Garnish with slice of lime. Enjoy!