Lemon-Berry Pudding Cakes

On Monday my friend Linda, Phil and I kicked off our bi-weekly family dinner night with an Italian theme. My adorable husband made us Chicken Marsala - delish! And Linda and I made Martha Stewart's Lemon-Berry Pudding Cakes for dessert. Let me tell you, they were little cups of pure HEAVEN! In fact, I may have had more than one little cup of heaven that night. And I've been dreaming about them ever since! I might have to break down and make them again this weekend for company :)

Lemon-Berry Pudding Cakes

Makes 6 individual cakes

Ingredients:

• 1 pint blackberries
• 1/2 cup (about 3 lemons) plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for ramekins
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 6 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Boiling water, for pan
• 4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) creme fraiche

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process 2 1/2 ounces blackberries (12 to 15 berries), 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons sugar in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pass mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl; discard solids. Set sauce aside.

Butter inner top inch of six 6-ounce ramekins; set aside. Whisk together egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk in flour and milk in two batches each, beginning with the flour. Whisk in remaining 1/2 cup lemon juice, the salt, and the melted butter, and set aside.

Put egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium-high speed until very frothy, about 1 1/2 minutes. With mixer running, add remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a slow, steady stream; beat until whites hold stiff (but not dry) peaks, about 2 minutes. Whisk half the whites into reserved lemon mixture until combined; gently fold in remaining whites with a rubber spatula.

Place the ramekins in a high-sided roasting pan or baking dish, and divide the batter among ramekins, filling each almost to the top. Spoon a few drops of berry sauce onto cakes, and use a toothpick or skewer to swirl sauce into batter. Transfer to oven; pour boiling water into pan, a bit more than halfway up sides of ramekins.

Bake until cakes are set and the tops are just starting to turn golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. With tongs, transfer the ramekins from pan to a wire rack, and let cool 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat creme fraiche in a clean mixing bowl until it holds soft peaks. Serve cakes warm with creme fraiche and remaining blackberries. Enjoy!

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Butternut Squash and Roasted Corn Tacos

Herb Box is one of my favorite restaurants, and my favorite dish there is their Butternut Squash and Corn Enchiladas. Lucky for me, my friend Michelle shared a similar recipe with me! Even though it's a vegetarian dish, you carnivores won't miss the meat. But if you want to bulk it up a bit, you can add some shredded chicken. Or try making these into enchiladas. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Roasted Corn Tacos
(serves 2-4)

1 packages frozen cubes butternut squash ($2 at Whole Foods, or you can bake your own.)
2 Tb evoo
½ cup diced onion
1 Tb minced garlic
1 cup fire roasted corn (Frozen section at Trader Joes $2)
Dash of cumin and chili powder
6 corn tortillas
½ cup feta cheese
1 jar tomatillo salsa
1-2 avocados (Diced)
black beans *optional
sour cream *optional

1. Saute garlic and onions. Mix in the warmed butternut squash and corn. Season with salt and pepper. Heat through. Remove from heat.
2. Put 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Put one corn tortilla in the hot oil and fold into a taco shell shape until it is browned. Remove and put on paper towels and repeat with remaining tortillas.
3. Fill tortillas with squash mixture, avocados, feta, salsa and sour cream.
4. Serve with black beans on the side.

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Perfect Summer Spritzer

If you know me and Philip well, you know that we consume a lot of wine at our house. But with the temperatures in Scottsdale hitting 110+, I was in need of a more refreshing option. Luckily my good friend Steph came to the rescue. She recently made me this tasty spritzer drink. It's easy, cheap, and super refreshing. And anything that combines wine with fruity tartness is wonderful in my book!

1 bottle of white wine (Try the Two Buck Chuck from Trader Joe's)
Equal amount of ginger ale
1 can of frozen pink lemonade concentrate

Mix together in a pitcher,  add a few frozen raspberries, and enjoy!

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Bountiful Baskets

Anyone who tries to eat healthy knows the frustration of having to pay more for fresh, good-for-you food. Therefore, I'm always super excited when I find ways to cut costs and still eat healthy. Enter Bountiful Baskets. Phil and I joined the co-op last fall and have been loving it ever since. Here's how it works:

1. Go to BountifulBaskets.org between noon on Tuesday and 10PM on Wednesday.

2. Create and account, return to the homepage, and select your state (currently serving Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming).

3. Select your pick-up location. These are usually in public parks.

4. Add a basket to your cart for $15.00. Each basket contains about 50% fruit and 50% vegetables. You won't know what you're getting till you pick it up, so you have to be pretty open. But all produce is high quality, fresh, in-season, and typically from local farmers.

5. Select any additional items you would like to add to your basket. These vary every week, but can include case fruit, bread, Italian pack, Mexican pack, tortillas, olive oil, granola, cookies, etc. All fresh with no preservatives. Prices vary, typically between $6 and $10.

6. Check out and pay for your basket by credit or debit card. $1.50 service charge will be added to each order. $3.00 will be added to your first order to join the co-op.

7. Pick up your basket at your selected location on Saturday morning. Be sure to check your specific pick-up time and arrive within 20 minutes of that time. All produce not picked up within the 20 minute window is donated to a local firehouse. Bring a laundry basket or bags to carry your produce home, as no containers are provided.

Here is sample of what we received in our basket the first week:

My friend Steph priced out all items at the grocery store last week and determined our $15 basket contained $35 of produce! Depending on each weeks offerings, I would estimate the baskets to be worth anywhere from $30 to $50. Now that's some real savings for eating healthy!

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Stuffed Peppers

A few weeks ago, Phil and I cooked dinner with some of our good friends. We decided to make stuffed peppers. If you've ever been to our house for dinner, you know that we put peppers in pretty much EVERY dish we make, but I surprisingly had never had a stuffed pepper. Luckily, our friend Karen had a great recipe she shared with us. We have made them a few times since then and have altered the original recipe a bit to our liking.  I have a feeling this is going to become a popular dish at the Ellerbroek household!

 

First, a little pepper education: All peppers grow on the same vine. The longer they're on the vine, the sweeter they are, which is also what gives them their different colors.  The green ones are most bitter, yellow is mild in flavor, orange is in the middle and red is very sweet.

4 Peppers

1 lb. Ground Turkey (or Ground Beef or Bison)

Breakfast Sausage (optional)

Onion

Garlic

Carrots

Mushrooms

Additional Pepper of Different Color

Seasoning - Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Garlic Salt, etc.

1 cup Brown Rice

8 oz. Tomato Sauce

1 Egg

1 cup Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup Cottage Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

 

Preheat oven to 350.

 

Brown the ground turkey. If you choose to, brown two breakfast sausage rounds and mix in with the meat.  

Chop the tops off of the peppers and gut them. Rinse out so the seeds and membrane are gone. Replace tops. Wrap peppers in aluminum foil and place in a baking pan. Place in oven for 15 minutes. Set aside.

 

In a skillet saute onions, garlic, diced carrots, mushrooms, and pepper in butter. Add meat mixture. Season with salt/pepper/oregeno/garlic salt.  

Cook brown rice.

Once the rice is done, mix in a bowl with tomato sauce, egg, ricotta cheese and cottage cheese. Add cooked meat to this mixture and stir up.

 

Stuff peppers with your meat mixture and replace tops. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in baking pan standing up. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

Remove from oven. If you desire, remove pepper top, add a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese on top of the meat mixture. Place in oven with pepper tops and broil for 5 minutes.

 

Remove from oven and top the peppers with the pepper tops to make them look pretty :)

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