Latte love…
August 29, 2009
There is something that makes me indescribably happy about seeing the swirl of a flower in foam. While it might a fleeting moment of beauty, it is usually the stamp of a truly good latte, one made with the care of someone who understand the perfect mix of espresso and steamed milk. Thankfully Lux always delivers this little cup of happiness. As a connoisseur of espresso, I am never disappointed. Their lattes are always perfectly poured, and their little foam flowers always make me smile.
Family favorite…
August 27, 2009
On special occasions, mainly when I am too tired to cook, we will have pancakes for dinner. Not just any old pancakes… puffy pancakes! This recipe is incredibly easy, which makes it one of my favorites, and it’s pretty tasty which makes it one of Sean and Aidan’s favorites. Aidan loves that the pancakes rise up like a bowl in the oven. We usually cut up fresh fruit and sprinkle a little confectioner’s sugar or honey over the top, but truthfully you could serve these with just about anything. I have even heard that some people eat them for breakfast.
Puffy Pancakes
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick of butter
Mix milk, flour, eggs, sugar and salt together and let sit for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Melt the 1/2 stick of butter and divide between two pie pans. Coat the sides and bottom of the pie pans well before pouring in the batter. Let cook for 12-15 minutes, or until pancakes rise.
With a cherry on top…
August 24, 2009
This weekend my family came together and had a send off dinner for my step-brother who is returning to college. At some point during the evening someone mentioned getting gelato afterwards, which wasn’t so much a question as much as it was a proclamation. “Gelato” really translates to only one thing in our family… Arlecchino Gelateria.
Yes, there are a number of gelato places around town, in fact the restaurant where we were dining had it on the menu, but Arlecchino gelato is something entirely different. Everything at Arlecchino is handmade from scratch using only fresh, natural ingredients. The recipes are closely held secrets that Moreno Spangaro and his wife Marina studied and perfected while apprenticing under a gelato master in Italy. Over the years we have had long conversations with Moreno about his care and detail in making gelato. You will appreciate their dedication to authenticity. Their store is just like walking into a gelateria in Florence with seasonal fruit flavors, dark chocolates and espresso varieties, and Sean’s personal favorite the Pistachio, made from roasted Sicilian pistachios. Sean and I once traveled through Italy with the goal of tasting every gelato flavor we could try and Arlecchino Gelateria takes us back to that memory every time.
Now… here is the secret when you go, order any flavor you want because they are all spectacular, but make sure you get the Amarena Fabbri on top. Amarena Fabbri is a wild cherry topping from Italy that puts our maraschino cherries to shame. These black cherries come in a thick syrup that is both a little sweet and a little sour and explodes with flavor. It is the perfect topping for the perfect gelato.
4410 N. 40th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-955-2448
SE Corner of 40th Street & Campbell
Marsha’s Shrimp Gazpacho…
August 21, 2009
I love walking into Marsha’s kitchen, because when I do she hands me something wonderful – a slice from one of the first ripe Early Girl tomatoes, bruschetta with an olive tapenade, a squash blossom stuffed with artichokes and parmesan, or sometimes just a glass of wine. Whatever she has waiting, it is always exactly what I was wanting. She has a knack for knowing what I am craving before I can even put a name to it.
Last night when I came into her kitchen, probably at breakneck speed chasing Aidan, she had bowls of chilled shrimp gazpacho waiting. It was filled with all of the flavors of the garden – zucchini, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and topped with shrimp. It was cool and flavorful and so refreshing after a hot summer day. As always, it was the perfect thing I didn’t know I wanted. But she did.
Here is her recipe so you can make it yourself and surprise someone else who didn’t know they needed Shrimp Gazpacho either, but will be so grateful that you knew.
Marsha’s Shrimp Gazpacho
(Makes 4 servings)
1/2 small white or red onion
2-3 medium tomatoes
1 small cucumber
1/2 red or yellow bell pepper
1 small yellow or green zucchini
1 large stock of celery
1 large carrot
Handful finely chopped cilantro
Juice squeezed from 2 limes
5 drops of hot sauce
1/2 avocado (cubed)
1 dozen small cooked frozen shrimp
Chop all of the vegetables into small cubes. Mix together in a big bowl, adding the lime juice and hot sauce and half of the cilantro. Let refrigerate a few hours before serving to allow the flavors to meld. Add the shrimp, avocado and the rest of the cilantro right before serving. You can leave the shrimp frozen when you add to the gazpacho, to keep the rest of the soup very cold.
Optional:
If you have a fresh corn, you can add a handful of cut kernels too. Also, to spice it up a little more, add a few tablespoons of canned green chiles. Jicama is good too!
Oh honey…
August 17, 2009
(photo courtesy of Aidan McClendon)
Have you tried McClendon’s Select Honey? We have a couple hundred thousand busy little workers who not only help pollinate all of our wonderful citrus and produce, but they also spend some time creating one of nature’s best sweeteners.
Honey is as fascinating and complex as the bees that create it. Not only is honey a wonderful substitute for sugar, but it has amazing antibiotic, antioxidant and cleansing properties as well. Honey has been used for centuries for curing aliments, treating cuts and building immune systems. It also never goes bad, because despite how much bacteria loves sugar, bacteria simply can not grow in honey. The high acidic level and low water content in honey makes it impossible for bacteria or microorganisms to grow, meaning that it always stays fresh. Honey is truly a miracle food.
McClendon’s Select sells two types of honey from bees kept on our farm: Desert Blossom Honey and Orange Blossom Honey. Our honey is available on our website or at our markets.
We also sell Raw Bee Pollen, which is both a wonderful source of protein (without the saturated fats of animal proteins), but also a concentrated source of the B vitamin complex. Bee Pollen has long been used by athletes because of it is a natural energy booster for speed and endurance, but it also helps in recovery after workouts.
I am working with Bob on writing a longer piece about the nature and benefits of both honey and bee pollen. He is a wealth of information on this subject and I continue to be amazed at this complex food made by this tiny creatures. Aidan is also fascinated and loves to help Bob when they are working the hives and extracting the honey. I am sure most mothers don’t send their children towards bee hives, but the more I have learned about the bees the less I worry. He has never been stung while helping Bob work the honey, although he will tell you the tale of getting stung while we were on vacation in Scotland years ago. Aidan loves that story and it gets better every time he tells it. He has learned from Bob over the years how to respect bees and the work that they do and how to act around them. Too many people fear bees unnecessarily and without their contribution to farming, we would all be at a loss. McClendon’s Select absolutely relies on these hard workers and we are grateful for their help.
Makes honey all the sweeter, doesn’t it?
Happy Birthday Julia!!
August 15, 2009
Did you know that today is Julia Child’s birthday? If you haven’t seen Julie & Julia yet, today might be a good time to go and celebrate the gift Julia gave to all of us.
I hope she would be honored that the film seems to have reignited a passion for home-cooking. Her first cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, now in its 40th edition, sold out on Amazon after the release of the film. The publishers have ordered a reprinting of 750,000 copies, so you can still get one if you haven’t already. I am currently reading her memoir My Life in France that she wrote with her nephew. It is a love story about falling in love with food and cooking. Her enthusiasm for everything is infectious. They have so beautifully captured life in Paris during this time and the smells and flavors of the dishes as she masters them, you are hungry for more with each page.
Bob and Marsha had a chance to meet Julia years ago at the Masters of Food & Wine dinner in Carmel. I sat at their kitchen table the other night and heard them recount their evening with her. She sounded as enchanting in person as she was on television.
We have dear friends who are also in love with Julia. Avid homecooks themselves, they have a collection of cookbooks that has to now number into the thousands. Tonight before the movie they are preparing some of the classics from Mastering the Art of French Cooking to honor the great Julia Child. How are you going to celebrate?
Zucchini with a side of squash?
August 14, 2009
Okay… so last night might have been a little bit of overkill, but with the bounty of summer squash right now I couldn’t help myself. They come in such pretty colors and I love all the ways you can make them. Sean and I made these wonderful zucchini cakes, but then with a with a colander of green and yellow summer squashes still sitting there, we decided to go ahead and saute those as well. There can’t be too much of a good thing, right?
Aidan helped too, but mostly by picking off the pine nuts as I was putting them on the bruschetta. He is very helpful like that.
Zucchini Parmesan Cakes
Makes about 12-14 patties
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cups grated Zucchini
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
Dashes of cayenne pepper, sea salt and pepper
Heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Spoon a golf-ball sized amount of the mixture into the pan once hot. Gently flatten the balls into a 2-inch patty. Turn heat down to medium and let the patties brown on each side for 3-4 minutes. Flip patties over and brown on the other side for another 3-4 minutes.
Remove patties after thoroughly browned and set on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
We ate these last night with a sprinkling of O&Co’s Premium Balsamic Vinegar. You know they were good if I was willing to break into my stash of expensive vinegars!!
Grilled Summer Peaches…
August 12, 2009
It may be hotter than a furnace, but one of the rewards of the summer is stone fruit. I love all of it – cherries, nectarines, plums, and peaches. Last night while we were fixing dinner to throw on the grill, I decided to add some peaches as well. Had I planned better I would have had some vanilla ice cream to serve with them, although we enjoyed them just the same. They turned out perfectly. I could do this every day. Well, not the 110-degrees, but the peaches definitely!
Grilled Summer Peaches
4 ripe peaches
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits. Mix the cinnamon, vanilla extract and brown sugar in a bowl. Coat the cut side of the peaches in vegetable oil and then place cut side down on the grill for 1-2 minutes until there are nice grill marks. Coat the sides of the peaches in vegetable oil and place back on the grill for 3-4 minutes. Spoon the brown sugar mixture over the top of the peaches and close the grill. Remove the peaches when the sugar has melted.
Food Inc.
August 12, 2009
Have you seen “Food Inc.” yet at the Camelview? Sean and I went the other night and left speechless. It is harrowing and incredibly informative. I feel like I have quite an education about the benefits of eating organic, but was stunned at how much I did not know. The films goes into depth about how food is produced at a mass scale and the effects of having become so removed from our food sources. It made me very grateful for the hard work my in-laws have done for years.
The film was very well done and worth the education. The audience even applauded at the end. The movie also interviewed two authors who have written on this subject Eric Schlosser of “Fast Food Nation” and Michael Pollan author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”. These books are now on my reading list.
Take a trip to the Camelview. I hope that with enough interest and attendance that this movie will be able to open wide and reach a broader audience.
Welcome!
August 10, 2009
And if you are not new to the McClendon’s Select Blog… well, welcome anyway!
McClendon's Select 
