Naptime Everyday: Recipes for Everyday Cooking and Baking

To wrap up my week of canning I am showcasing a wonderful recipe I made from Marisa’s new book, Food in Jars. I’ve actually made several of her recipes (the Sweet Cherry Butter is amazing!) but I am only giving up one because I want you all to buy the book! I made this immediately following my strawberry picking expedition in early June. With the huge mound of strawberries on hand I had to think of quite a few things to make and this was near the top of my list.

I told my daughter what we were having for dinner and she asked “what is gremo-wa-wa?” I nearly died laughing. It is definitely an unusual word when you take the time to think about it. The whole idea of making it on this particular day was my fresh batch of breadcrumbs (from the remainder of an enormous baguette nobody ended up finishing) and, of course, the booming basil plant on our porch. I swear, if I didn’t know any better I’d suspect someone was slipping it steroids when I wasn’t looking.

Once again, the summer herb pot is exploding. I don’t want to give myself too much credit, but man, I know how to manage an herb pot. The only problem is that lately it has been growing a little too well and now instead of tiny plants I have enormous bushes of fresh healthy herbs! Taking advantage of all this flavor goes beyond flavoring soups and salads. It means adding large amounts of big dishes which is why for our first day of summer vacation my daughter and I decided to make homemade basil linguine.

Every year my husband and I like to come up with a new burger recipe or two. A juicy grilled burger is our personal version of summer comfort food. Last weekend we were enjoying a little downtime and decided to start thinking of a new variation for summer 2012. After all, it is just around the corner and we would hate to start Memorial Day without at least one new burger recipe in hand! This year we drew inspiration from a Cinco de Mayo celebrate we’d attended and decided to try deconstructing our favorite guacamole dip and presenting it as a burger topping instead.

You know you live in the Northeast when the first day of grilling is a family event. My husband and I are grilling fanatics and although we technically could grill all year long (frostbite is no biggy, right?), we save our tried and true grilling days for summer. This year our first grilling feast happened to coincide with the beginning of asparagus season so we decided to combine two of our favorite spring food events for a little grilled experiment.

Tomorrow we are off in a blaze of glory for our annual trip to Charleston. This year we are driving (!) which ought to be an adventure. My challenge for this venture is, of course, packing food suitable for a road trip. I have all the ingredients for my favorite summer sandwich all set to go as well as a huge bag of Trader Joe’s snacks. I also am going to try and pack a cake to share with my parents when we arrive. They are so nice to host us (and babysit!) while we visit it is the least I can do. Also, they won’t be home for Easter this year so I want to bring a taste of Easter to them.

As a native Cooperstonian it is a little embarrassing it took me this long to write about The Beekman Boys of Beekman 1802. I was born and raised two hills over from the Beekman Mansion. In fact, my parents once looked at it when it was for sale a long time ago. Needless to say they didn’t buy it, my Dad had no interest in renovating a farm and especially didn’t like the fact that a seasonal stream ran through the basement. I keep meaning to jaunt over when I am there in the summer but for some reason I always get distracted at The Black Cat and The American Hotel and never seem to make it. This summer I will! I swear! (It make a great travel episode for The Naptime Chef Cooking Show don’t you think?!)

I’ll admit, these days my daytime cooking time is being eaten up preparing for book events. I don’t mind it though, I had planned this would be the case. As a result I’ve been focusing on enjoying my time cooking, just in smaller increments. With the flavors of Thailand fresh on my palate post-Sea Cuisine adventure I’ve been leaning toward spicy foods as of late. I’m the first to admit I usually don’t gravitate toward sweaty-brow inducing dishes, but I’ve been seduced by the mild sweet heat that comes from peppers and chili paste.

Right before I left for Thailand I was invited to celebrate National Cherry Pie day with King Arthur Flour. Any chance I have to work with my baking mecca is a priority for me! I adore everything about their products and am a huge fan of The Baking Sheet, their bimonthly baking newsletter. The Editor in Chief of the publication, Susan Reid (a fellow bobcat!), is incredibly talented. Every recipe printed has been tested over and over by her skilled team until it is just right. Trust me, I bake a lot from that publication and everything always turns out brilliantly.

Until recently my daughter would finish her substantial plate of cinnamon waffles while I was still clutching hot tea and waiting for my oatmeal to cook. I’ve recently remedied this problem by preparing my steel cut oats in the slow-cooker the night before after my daughter was asleep, enabling us to eat breakfast together every morning. Prepping steel cut oats in the slow cooker overnight is an extremely popular winter breakfast, but I hadn’t tried it myself until this month. Once I realized how well the method works I started doing it weekly, piling in the oats after bedtime and digging into my hot cereal alongside my daughter the next morning. The leftovers of each batch were stored in a loaf pan so all week I could cut out a big slice and warm it up in an instant each morning.

Next up on my list of Slow Cooker Challenge dishes to try was a grain-based dish. Given my love of baking risotto I had to wonder, could it be slow-cooked? The principal of the dish, rice slowly absorbing moisture and flavors, seemed to lend itself perfectly to the idea. I also thought this might be true of polenta and couscous, but risotto is one of our favorite meals and felt like the right place to start on a busy Monday afternoon. Plus, I had suggested risotto to my husband as he walked out the door that morning and he smiled so wide so I knew my experiment would be right up his alley.

2011 was the year I finally became comfortable working with yeast breads. In the past I’d had lots of success with no-knead bread and pizza dough, but I was honestly, for some unknown reason, a little intimidated by the thought of making anything else. I credit my trip to King Arthur Flour with allaying my fears and teaching me to dive hands first into rising dough. After 24 hours with them I was much more confident that I wasn’t going to kill yeast with hot water or not knead dough well enough. Once my fears were gone I was, well, fearless. Now I am making yeast breads all the time and our latest favorite are these cinnamon rolls.