Pineapple Bread Pudding

I love pineapples. Quite a bit of my early teens was spent sitting on our front steps scooping pineapple rings out of a can with a fork and eating them, while my friend Robin and I watched cars go by. We lived in a small suburb... watching cars go by was a way to pass the endless amount of time that summer seemed to be, since we couldn't go to the beach until the weekend.

Unlike big hair, Wham!, and acid-washed jeans, my love of pineapple has stood the test of time. It is quite versatile, but one of my favorite ways to eat it has to be sliced into huge, watermelon-like wedges, or tucked into this bread pudding. My kids love this for breakfast the next day, but I love it when it is still barely warm.

Pineapple bread pudding

2/3 cup granulated sugar

5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

4 eggs

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, in its own juice, drained

6 slices white or wheat sandwich bread, crusts removed, diced into 1/2 inch cubes

2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350F; butter an 8x8 pan; set aside.

Cream the butter and granulated sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Add salt and stir until well blended. Add pineapple, stir until mixed thoroughly, then stir in bread cubes. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Small-Batch Red Currant Apple Jelly

Since I moved to the wild tropics (also known as Florida), I'm a bit thrown back at the endless summery season here. The great bonus, of course, is the abundance of local fruit and veg all year around.

I happened upon a couple of half-pints of red currants on offer at my local grocery store. I snatched them up and headed home to make the tart, versatile jelly that I love so much. Slather it on toast, croissants, or mix it with a bit of Dijon mustard and glaze some chicken breasts with it.

You'll find that the measurements don't require a certain amount of currants, but as long as you have at least a cupful, you can make enough of this ruby red jelly to last you for a week or so. This recipe doesn't require any additional pectin, it will softly gel thanks to the apple. The jelly is unprocessed, and is unsuitable for long-term storage.

Small-Batch Red Currant Apple Jelly

1 Granny Smith apple, unpeeled and grated
minimum 1 cup red currants, stems removed
1/3 cup water
granulated sugar
cheesecloth

Prepare several layers of cheesecloth in a sieve, and place it over a liquid measuring cup In a nonreactive pan, heat the water, apple, and currants until it comes to a simmer. Gently crush the berries with a spatula or a spoon to encourage them to release their juices. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and scrape into the cheesecloth-prepared sieve. Allow to drain. Resist the urge to press the solids into the cheesecloth; this will result in cloudy jelly. If cloudy jelly doesn't bother you, of course, go right ahead and squeeze the last essence from the simmered fruit.

Measure the liquid. Wash out the nonreactive pan, and pour the liquid back into the pan. Add the same measure of sugar as there is liquid to the pan. I had a little under 3/4 of a cup, and added enough water to bring it to 3/4 cup. Have a couple of clean heat-safe glass containers (I use Pyrex 6 oz. custard cups, but feel free to use a proper canning jar). Heat the juice and sugar to a rolling boil, stirring. Keep an eye on it, as it does have a tendency to boil over. Once the mixture boils, time 5 minutes for a batch under 2 cups of liquid, and 10 minutes for a batch over 2 cups of liquid. Pour hot liquid into the glass jars, and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Eat within a couple of weeks, if you can manage to make it last that long.

Pudding, two ways

I have a thing for pudding. It is comforting and creamy and delicious. I grew up with pudding out of a box, and never really had anything outside of it. Of course, I preferred the cooked over the instant, which I find has an odd, gritty, fake flavor about it.

The first homemade pudding I had was made by MB, my college roommate, in the tiny galley kitchen of the apartment we rented. Little did I know, MB was about to change my view of pudding forever. There were eggs in her pudding, which apparently is more of a cooked custard, but it was lush and silky and delicious. I loved the stuff. I also had no idea how to make it. Since the hallmark of the starving college student is a lack of cashflow, I wasn't about to waste precious quantities of milk on the chance that I'd make chocolate scrambled eggs.

It wasn't until I was searching for a from-scratch recipe for banana pudding that I came across something that resembled MB's recipe ingredients, which she refused to share. I tweaked it and whatnot, and came up with the silky glorious result that will follow your constant stirring.

The uses of pudding are nearly endless. Use it to drench torn layers of pound cake topped with berries (for the vanilla) or dribbles of salted caramel (for the chocolate). Tuck it into the soft folds of a baked meringue. Put it into the ice cream maker after it cools for a dense, frozen custard. Or, do what I'm doing today; sit by the fire with a still-warm bowl of pudding on a chilly, rainy sort of day.

The Pudding

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sugar for vanilla, or 1/3 cup sugar for chocolate

2 large eggs

1/4 plus 2 tsp. all purpose flour

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

In a 2-qt, heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk sugar and eggs together until well blended. Add flour, and whisk until no visible lumps remain. Slowly add the milk until all is incorporated. Turn the heat to medium, and whisking constantly, stir the pudding mixture until it is thickened and coats the whisk, about 5 minutes. As the mixture begins to thicken, turn the heat to low. It is important to stir the pudding mixture the entire time, or else it will begin to curdle on the bottom of the pan, and will result in a grainy texture. Once the pudding coats the tines of the whisk, turn off and remove from heat. Add vanilla. Add chocolate, if desired, and whisk until all of the chocolate is melted. Pour into a heat-safe bowl and lay plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate.

Of Poison and Delight...

There's just something about rhubarb that is delightfully forbidden. After all, the oxalic acid in the leaves is toxic (and to some extent,also found in minute quantities in the stalks).

That said, I love the stuff. My brother and I used to dip raw stalks in sugar and crunch on them like celery sticks. Most people mix rhubarb with strawberries and hide the whole lot inside of a pie.

Not me. Rhubarb is for jam. Open some of the stuff in the dead of winter, close your eyes, and you can feel spring creeping in. I generally don't like traditional rhubarb jam recipes because they all have an abundance of strawberries in them.. or... heaven forbid--Jell-O.

Jell-O does NOT belong in jam, in my opinion.

I do throw a few strawberries in to give the jam some depth of flavor and a hint of sweet fruit... but for the most part, this jam is *pow!* sweet-tart delicious goodness.

If you've never grown rhubarb before, I would highly suggest dropping $6 or so at your local garden center for a gallon-sized potted plant. Hide it in the corner of a garden, and you'll be rewarded with an abundance of the first fruit to ripen in the next spring (okay, it's a stalk, but I'm calling it a fruit.) You should divide it every 3-5 years or so, and relocate the entire plant every 6 years. Always cut it before it sends up a seed stalk (if it does, do not harvest).

Rhubarb Jam
10 cups rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
5 1/2 cups granulated sugar
zest of one navel orange (a small one)
juice of above orange
1 1/4 cup strawberries, chopped into small pieces (about 10 large strawberries)
one envelope of liquid pectin (such as Certo brand)

Combine rhubarb, sugar, orange zest and juice in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set inside refrigerator for 12 hours. Start water bath and add canning jars, lids, and rings to boiling water to sterlize. Strain the rhubarb mixture into a heavy stockpot, pressing on the rhubarb to extract all of the liquids. Set rhubarb aside. If any sugar remains in the bowl, scrape it out with a rubber spatula and add to the liquid in the pan. Over medium heat, bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and allow to reduce in volume by half, making sure that the mixture does not burn. Add strawberries and reserved rhubarb. Cook until rhubarb is tender and breaking down; about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, put a small ceramic plate into the freezer. Add Certo to the jam pot, bring mixture back to a boil, and stir for one minute. Turn heat off. Take plate from freezer and drop about a tablespoon of jam onto it. Wait 30 seconds and tilt the plate then run a finger through the jam, it should leave a clean trail. The jam should not be liquid enough to fill the space where your finger went through. If it is not done, boil for another minute. It does thicken and set when it is completely cooled, but in the case that your finished product is too liquid, it makes a great topping for waffles, pancakes, and ice cream. Fill sterilized jars with jam, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe off the rims of the jars using a cloth dipped in hot water. Place lids on the jars, and screw rings onto the jars, but do not tighten completely (you want them on firmly, but not so that air cannot escape from the jars when you process them). Return filled and sealed jars to the hot water bath and boil (process) for 10 minutes. Remove from water and allow to cool completely overnight. Yield: 8-10 half pint jars.

Any remaining jam should be refrigerated if it lasts that long.

Ricotta Cheese in the Microwave.

I made my own ricotta cheese tonight, and let me tell you, it was so simple that I cannot believe that I haven't been making it all along. If you have a microwave-safe bowl that can fit about a quart of liquid, either some cheesecloth (which you can find in larger grocery stores in whatever isle they're hiding "gadgets" and the like) or a fine sieve, you can make it too.

How to go about it:

1 large microwave safe bowl. I use a Pyrex 3 quart glass bowl.
several layers of cheesecloth set into a colander OR a fine-mesh sieve
1 quart of whole milk
1 fresh lemon (bottled lemon juice is not going to work in this), juiced.
1/4 tsp salt (or 3/4 tsp salt, for ricotta salata, which follows)

Pour milk into bowl.
Put the bowl into a microwave. I tested my time on a 1000-watt microwave, so your time may be more or less depending on the power of yours. Set time for 3 and a half minutes. When time is up, stir milk. Microwave for another minute. Stir. Microwave for 45 seconds. Test the temperature. The milk should NOT be boiling or simmering. It should just be hot with steam rising off of the surface. Remove bowl from microwave carefully.
Stir salt into the milk.
Stir 2 Tbsp lemon juice into the milk, stir gently for a moment, then let the mixture sit undisturbed for 30 minutes.

The curds should separate from the whey... this generally looks like little white chunks (curds) in a clearish yellow liquid (that's whey). Strain the mixture into the sieve or cheesecloth until all of the liquid is drained out. If you're using cheesecloth, you can gather up the ends and give the cheese a gentle squeeze to drain it.**

Put your cheese into an airtight container and use it within the week. Yield: about 1 cup of cheese.

**If you want to make ricotta salata... which is salted ricotta that has a firm texture, the cheesecloth method will be the best method for this. Follow all of the above steps, but gather the ends of the cheesecloth and gather them over the cheese. Place the colander into a larger bowl. Top the cheeseclothed cheese with a plate, then weigh it down with some cans. Place in the refrigerator for 2 days. Serve cheese with crusty bread and sliced fresh fruit (figs are amazing with this).

Butterscotch Blast Cookies

The whole whirlwind of getting things ready for school also includes making cookie dough and cookie mixes so that when the kids need either something in their lunchbox or an afterschool snack... I'm at the ready. This particular recipe can also be put into quart-sized jars and given as gifts, with instructions to add the butter, egg, and vanilla. I usually just blend the dry ingredients, pop it in a freezer bag, and leave them in the freezer until I need them. One can also mix the wet ingredients in and freeze the dough. Either way, this makes a dozen and a half 2 inch cookies.

Butterscotch Blast Cookies

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup english toffee baking bits (such as Heath Bits-o-Brickle)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350*F. Blend flour, salt, soda together in a bowl. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg, and blend to combine. Add vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly, until well mixed. Stir in oats, pecans, chips, and toffee bits. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes and let cool on the baking sheet for one minute longer. Makes 18 cookies.

For Gift Jar instructions: Mix 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg, and 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract together. Add dry ingredients and stir until well combined. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes and let cool on the baking sheet for one minute longer. Makes 18 cookies.

Huevos Mom-cheros

Since there is no possible way to make huevos mom-cheros look appetizing on film, I am not posting a photo with this one. Just make it. Trust me... it's a fantastic (albeit healthy) way to start the day. And its quick. Really quick.

Huevos Mom-cheros

4 egg whites
1/2 cup salsa
2 Tbsp. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 Haas avocado, diced

In a microwave-safe bowl, cook the egg whites in the microwave (I use 1000 watt) on high for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Remove from microwave; caution, bowl may be hot. Sprinkle cheese on the eggs and top with the remaining ingredients. Serves one.