Sorry, I cannot upload any photos. We were near Woodstock, VT. I had some photos to show some of the flooded trees and root systems affected by the tropical storm last month. We saw areas where the flood waters had to have risen over 20 feet. We saw mobile homes crushed like matchsticks. We saw numerous barns, mostly ancient ones crushed to bits. Trees on both sides of the rivers torn from their roots. Debris everywhere. We have been traversing the country roads on our quest for fall colors, for pretty winding-road scenery, and we have encountered work crews in dozens and dozens of places repairing roads, embankments, guard rails, shoring up the roadsides. We have become used to the orange warning signs telling us “flagman ahead.” or one-lane road ahead.

The trees are just barely starting to change color. My meager few photos of some orangish trees are not memorable. The last 2 nights we have had a freeze, so hopefully we will see more color in coming days. Yesterday we drove to Maine. Where we are staying we won’t have wi-fi, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to blog. We will be here for a week. Our friend who is loaning us her house in East Boothbay, told us to drive to the little corner store, an old fashioned kind of general store, park in the tiny parking lot, sit in the car and use the wi-fi there. It’s free! Every time I’ve tried to upload this post it won’t send because of the photos. It gives me an error message telling me there is a problem with the photos. Sigh. I’ll keep trying.

Well, we have been on the road now for a week. Five days it rained.
Yesterday finally the sun returned. We are happy campers. We have picked up a dear friend of ours from England at the Albany NY airport and have done some leaf peeping. Problem is: we came too early. Very few trees have turned. Yet.

I would have blogged more often but have had problems in most places with sufficient wi-fi connectivity. And am still having difficulty uploading photos. Obviously I need more info on how to upload from an iPad. I’ve downloaded two apps to help me, but no go. I can get a small photo to upload but they’re not big enough for you to hardly see! Here’s as good as I can give you for today. Photo taken today in Woodstock, Vermont on a beautiful country road.

Rain. Mist. Fog. Wet. Drizzle. Precipitation. Mud. Yuck. Drip. Raincoats.

Didn’t think we’d be in so many days of inclement weather. Hard to see the trees, those few that are turning. No photos at all. Raining way too much to jump out of the car to snap even one. Having to stay focused on the nearly all 2-lane roads we are driving. Stressful is what it is. The forecast is for 3 more days of solid rain. We have had 2 days of rain out of the last 3. We are in Northern Vermont now. Did visit the Ben and Jerry’s factory today. They don’t produce ice cream on Sundays, but we did sample their version of vanilla and Oreos, which was very good. They told us that they’re completely sold out of the Schw***ty Balls flavor, the one that’s caused so much controversy. Some states have banned it. Also stopped at the Cabot Creamery. Didn’t take a tour but ended up watching a tour bus get stuck across the 2-lane road. Everyone was very patient. Waiting.

Meanwhile, tonight we are in a BnB that doesn’t have TV. Back to my book, Caleb’s Crossing, while we listen to the steady drip of rain outside.

Actually yesterday was a beautiful day. Mostly anyway. The above photo was taken from a unique location – at a home on a hilltop above the east side of the lake. At Castle in the Clouds, a home built in about 1912 by a wealthy shoe manufacturer. A gorgeous place. More photos of that later.

There’s the same view as my last post taken from our hotel in Meredith, one of the pretty villages dotting the edge of the lake. Just sunshine instead of rain. You can see that the leaves aren’t really changing here yet.

I wanted to come here because I visited this gorgeous lake when I was about 15, when I attended a church summer camp. It’s just as beautiful as I remembered.

Not a lot of scenery today with clouds and showers that kept us from enjoying anything except trying to drive safely on unfamiliar roads and in an unfamiliar rental car with very slushy power steering. The rain began during the night. We are staying at a nice hotel resort on Lake Winnipesaukee, a moderately-sized lake with many inlets and bays. Our 2-day stay here is a splurge with a lake view. We hope the weather will improve tomorrow.

We enjoyed fried clam strips and haddock for dinner. Just delicious. I’m off to the lobby to grab a nice cuppa tea and curl up on the comfy sofa in the room.

The first time I had this was probably 50 years ago. Oh my goodness, do I feel old writing that! The recipe, if you can call it that since it’s nothing more than a couple of ingredients, is from my friend Linda’s mother, Van (Linda is a childhood friend that I still see once in awhile, and she still lives just a few doors from the house I grew up in, in San Diego). Anyway, Linda’s parents are both deceased now. But her dad loved to fish, and he caught hundreds and hundreds of pounds of tuna each year. The family would have a tuna-canning-fest. I can still remember being given a couple of the short, fat Mason jars packed full of tuna, garlic and onion, as I recall. I don’t believe it was smoked tuna, but just “canned” tuna. Van had a big canning kettle and I vaguely remember the family all complaining about the big job it was, to can dozens and dozens of jars of tuna.

Tuna isn’t something we eat with as much regularity anymore, what with the amount of mercury in it. On Wikipedia I found this statement about tuna: Due to their high position in the food chain and the subsequent accumulation of heavy metals from their diet, mercury levels can be high in larger species such as bluefin and albacore. Also, according to Wikipedia, a can of StarKist brand tuna contains about 10 TIMES the amount of mercury as other similarly labeled grocery-shelf tuna.

I’ve told you, my readers, about the albacore tuna that I do buy online, though. It’s by Carvalho Fisheries. They catch young tuna, and as such, younger tuna haven’t consumed enough metals in the sea to have as much measurable mercury in their flesh. I’ve been buying Carvalho’s tuna for about 8-9 years now. Each time, I buy a 12-pack of regular low mercury albacore in its own juices. Last time I ordered I also got some salmon and some smoked albacore. That’s when I started using the smoked version in this simple-easy appetizer.

First, though, you cut up half of a red onion, cut that half in half, peel it and remove the ends, then  thinly slice the onion. As thin as possible. Into a bowl those little slivers go. I add water to cover, then add a jolt (probably about 2 T. ) of vinegar or red wine vinegar and let that sit for 30-60 minutes. What that does is remove the harshness of raw onion – soaked onions make that raw onion taste mild and sweet. If you’d like it actually “sweet,” just add a little dash of sugar to the brine and you’ll have sweet onions. Phillis Carey shared that tip with one of the many cooking classes I’ve been to, and it’s a great little trick.

There you can see one of the crackers (I prefer crackers to bread, but it’s completely up to you) with a little bit of the big flakes or shards of tuna with the onions on top. Makes two delicious bites per Vinta cracker. Nothing else is needed – no sauce – no mayo – no nothin’. It’s just good the way it is.

When I make this I start an hour ahead, soak the red onions and leave them out on the kitchen counter. Then I open the can of tuna, put it on some kind of tray or plate, the onions in a small bowl and surround it with crackers. How simple is that?

There’s a photo from Carvalho’s website of the Coastal Albacore. It’s a traditional tuna-sized can. I still have several in my pantry at the moment, just waiting for my next tuna recipe. My favorite is the Sicilian Tuna Salad. Pasta, herbs, a delicious lemony dressing, and the tuna.

printer-friendly PDF

MasterCook 5+ import file – click to run or right click to save file

My friend Cherrie and I had been on a short hiatus from going to cooking classes. They took a trip and so did we, and for a variety of reasons including date conflicts, we just couldn’t fit in any fun cooking class get-togethers. But we’re back on track again, going to our favorite cooking school, Great News, in Pacific Beach (San Diego). Most often she and I seek out classes taught by Phillis Carey. She’s just tops on our list of great cooking instructors.

This class was all about main dish (summer) salads, and you’ll see all four of the salads up here on my blog eventually. I’m not going to post four in a row. That would be a bit too much, I think. This salad, though, was my favorite of the four that Phillis prepared. I do love ahi tuna, for one. And the cannellini beans too. So good. And the dressing. Well, everything about it was good.

First Phillis soaked the red onion in acidulated water to take out that harsh onion-y taste. That little tip works like a charm. The tuna is seared quickly – you know – you want the tuna to be still red in the middle like you see in the photo at top. If you cook ahi all the way through it’s much too dry and hard to swallow. Just buy it from a reputable fish market. There’s an olive oil and lemon juice dressing. There are herbs (thyme and parsley), there’s garlic, tomatoes and red bell pepper. And there is arugula on the bottom. You could also make this with shrimp, Phillis suggested. I loved it with the ahi, I’ll tell you. If you used shrimp, make more dressing and marinate the shrimp briefly in that extra dressing before grilling it. And be sure to give the top of the salad a good grinding of freshly ground black pepper. It needs it.

What I liked: everything about it. Refreshing for summer. Healthy (well, except for the mercury in the tuna – just don’t eat this often). Lively flavors.
What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Loved it all.

printer-friendly PDF
MasterCook 5+ import file – click to run MC or right click to save file

What you see here is NOT the way a Pavlova is supposed to look. There’s not supposed to be but a hint of brown on the meringue – it should be a swirled cloud of white foam, baked to perfection in the oven and left to sit for hours or overnight, then just when you’re serving it, you add the bed of whipped sweetened cream and fresh fruit.

It was many long years ago that our friends Jean and Jack made a Pavlova for one of our annual book group meetings. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven it was so good. Feathery light, with the whipped cream swirled around the inner-indented center, and it was piled high with cut strawberries, kiwis and blueberries. So colorful. And SO good. I’ve made it several times since then. I should have gone to my file and found their recipe for it. I was just lazy.

In this instance, I was reading someone else’s blog (I won’t embarrass her by saying which one) and reading her recipe for a Pavlova just got me hankering to make one. It would be a great use of some of the peaches I have on hand. I glanced at this particular recipe, didn’t think much about it, followed it and after 20 minutes in the oven I knew there was a problem. The meringue was already brown. I turned the oven off at that point and left the shell to sit overnight. I emailed the other blogger and asked – oh, she apologized –  she’d made a mistake – as written, her recipe said heat oven at 400° instead of 200°. Big difference, and I should have known better. It’s just that it’s been years since I made a Pavlova and my mind went blank, I suppose.

When I removed the shell from the parchment paper it immediately cracked (it was over-baked, of course). But I pieced it back together and made do. You can see one of the cracks in the front center of this photo. I made the shell with Splenda instead of sugar, that way my DH could have a couple of nice wedges of it. He thoroughly enjoyed it. So, this recipe below is the adjusted one – corrected for temperature. The calorie count assumes you use sugar. If you use Splenda the calories go down by half. I can’t say that I could taste the difference using Splenda – the fruit and whipped cream are really the stars of the show; it’s just that it’s done in a different format.

What I liked: well, I like Pavlova anyway – just the sheer simplicity of it, even though you have to plan ahead one day. Love the whipped cream and fruit too. I think it’s the texture contrast that I like the best – the crispy meringue shell with the luscious whipped cream and then fresh fruit. It’s the same flavors and ingredients as my super-simple Meringue Mixed Berry Parfaits  (also called  Eton Mess) where I use Trader Joe’s ready-made meringue cookies, whipped cream and the berries (or other fruit) and vanilla ice cream. The Pavlova makes a very spectacular presentation – be sure to show guests how pretty it looks!

What I didn’t like: I guess the plan-ahead aspect – you do have to make the meringue many hours ahead, or the day before. The meringue shell is super-fragile too, but that can’t be helped.

printer-friendly PDF . . . . . or MasterCook 5+ import file – click to run MC or right click to save file

It was, most definitely, a cold salad kind of evening. In fact, it was still in the mid-80’s at 8 pm the other night after I fixed this. It was too hot to eat outside. But the recipe didn’t need me to heat the oven, although my DH did have to grill the peaches. That was the extent of the cooking. Right after dinner sat in the cool Jacuzzi for awhile, which was very refreshing.

My inbox on this particular day contained an email from one of the magazines I subscribe to – and it listed “25 peach recipes you can use today,” or some such advertising come-on. But I clicked over to look, and up popped this salad, which came from Southern Living in 2008. I had the fresh mozzarella. I had peaches. I had arugula. I had fresh cilantro. I was in business.

What intrigued me – besides the grilled peaches – was the salad dressing. It’s composed of a whole peach, the cilantro, honey (I used agave), lime zest and juice (and I augmented it with lemon juice since I didn’t have enough lime juice), ground cumin, chili powder, olive oil AND tequila. Tequila, I thought? Odd, but interesting.

There you can see the salad a little more clearly with the chicken around the edges. This salad did not include chicken in it, but I decided this should be a dinner entrée, so I used some of the leftover chicken from the perfect Roast Chicken I did a couple of nights ago. I whipped up the dressing in the food processor. Just know that you have to use the dressing in a couple of days. Cilantro, once it comes in constant contact with liquid, becomes a liquid. And not all that nice. I have a lot left over that I’m going to need to use asap. So you might try cutting down on the dressing quantity because I think it will dress a salad for more than 4 people. Next time I’ll make the dressing without the cilantro and just mince it up and add it as needed. That way I wouldn’t have a time limit on using it up.

What I liked: the freshness of it – the peaches were just perfect specimens – they looked beautiful on the plate – the dressing gave a distinct flavor to everything, including the fresh Mozzarella. A delightful summer salad for sure.

What I didn’t like: nothing, really. Just remember my suggestion about the dressing – use it up, or make a bit less of it as it doesn’t keep.

printer-friendly PDF
MasterCook 5+ import file – click to run MC or right click to save file

Really, I thought I’d posted this recipe before. I searched all over my own website because I was certain I had. Nope. So, I’m rectifying that right now. I’ve made these several times (usually around Christmastime), maybe not in the last couple of years, though. They’re worth making. Not all that hard, either, although you might think so by looking at them.

First you make a rich pastry crust that is a cinch to press into the bottom of a 9×9 pan. Not the least bit difficult or time consuming. That shortbread layer is baked for 10 minutes and cooled. Then you spread a thin layer of apricot jam (I used blackberry preserves, actually, though really you want some kind of seedless variety or a stone fruit jam). Then you mix up a flourless chocolate mixture with a whole lot of walnuts in it, and spread that on top of the preserves. That gets baked for a short while and is allowed to cool. The chocolate icing is also cinchy-easy to make – some chocolate chips are melted, then you add a jot of corn syrup (for smoothing it out), a tiny jot of rum (or espresso), a tiny sprinkle of hot water and that’s done. Spread it on top of the cooled bars. Then press in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and kind of press them into the icing (otherwise they tend to fall off). That’s it. They don’t need refrigeration. If you have them more than a day or two I’d recommend you put them in an airtight container and freeze them. They keep in the freezer for a couple of months.

The recipe came from Maida Heatter’s book, The Book of Great Cookies. It’s out of print, unfortunately, but after looking online, I see that she’s got a new cookie book out – just out, actually, in March, 2011. (Do read the Amazon reviews – it appears there are some editing errors – recipes printed in wrong categories according to two commenters.) All the recipes come from her previous cookbooks. One reader suggested trying to find Heatter’s older books in used book stores instead – I’d recommend that too.  Maida Heatter is just the queen of cookies and desserts, more often chocolate. She’s authored several cookbooks. I’ve never had a failure with Maida Heatter’s recipes. Ever. That says something, although cookies are a little hard to bungle. I only own one of her cookbooks, a chocolate dessert one from 1983. And this recipe isn’t in it – I found it online at a couple of sources.

What I liked: the ease of making them; how pretty they look; and how deliciously chocolatey they are.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Just be a bit careful removing them from the pan – the pastry is very tender and will crumble easily – use a big spatula to get them out.

printer-friendly PDF or MasterCook file – click to open recipe