Zucchini Muffins

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Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini are the prime example of summer's many abundances (we don't talk about the extraordinary level of heat we've gotten all summer thus far).  There is little better than adding them to baked goods once you've gotten sick and tired of them -- since that makes those baked goodies healthy, no?
We bought a tad too many zucchinis, since they looked so inviting at the market.  What else to do but to incorporate them into also palatable goodies, such sweet breakfasts or snacks?

The result was moist and rich, with nice zucchini flavor.  The nuts added a nice crunch for those who prefer nuts in their baked goods.

Recipe
Zucchini Muffins
3 cups grated zucchini
1 cup oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 tsps vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line muffin pan with wax paper.

Combine the oil, sugar, eggs, and then zucchini and vanilla.  Combine all the dry ingredients.  Stir into the eggs mixture, and pour into the lined muffin pan.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

Caramel Swirl Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

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Caramel Swirl Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Waffles

I love caramel and I love chocolate chips.  Needless to say I also love ice cream.  So it is inevitable that one day I would try to combine the two.  And I did.  The result was deliciously rich.  Truly decadent, but who doesn't love decadent once in a while?  In fact, it was so decadent that we cleaned it in 2 days ....  Yes, it was that worth it.

Another View to Entice You

You can buy the waffles.  I did, since I did not feel like making them too.  Or you can omit the waffles if you wish.  But waffles surely added an "European" air.  I still remember ice cream on waffles in Germany.  I do not like cream so I always got mine without cream.  But delicious just the same.

Recipe
Caramel Swirl Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole or 2% milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup caramel sauce

Add sugar and salt to 1 cup of heavy cream.  Warm over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat and add the remaining cream and milk.  Add in vanilla extract and stir to combine.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Churn for about 30 minutes.  About 5 minutes before the end of churning, gently fold in the caramel sauce and chocolate.  Freeze in the ice cream maker.
Enjoy!

Another View

Limits of Models

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Modern economics, with its heavy emphasis on mathematical modeling and quantitative methodology, exhibits a particular affinity with a philosophical tradition called logical positivism.  Crudely speaking, logical positivists posited that there were two kinds of statements: the verifiable and the nonsensical.  As an example, "this pen is red" is a verifiable sentence (though it does presuppose a common acceptance of the meaning of "red" and "pen").  However, a sentence such as "lying is immoral" is not verifiable.  In short, moral judgments are not given credence because they are mere subjective preferences not amenable to empirical verification.
This focus on empirical verification reveals the deep affinities modern science has in relation to logical positivists.  Following the methods underlying observable science, modern economics eschews the notion of "other minds" because we cannot penetrate those minds.  What is must be observable, reality is not interpreted or mediated, but is seen.  By observing human actions we know what they value, and so forth: each person acts in ways that reflect his or her utility function, so to speak.  It is clear that this focus shares a closeness with the micro-foundation view in neoclassical economics that is based on a notion of human beings as rational actors bent on maximizing his or her utility.  However, this view fails to explain problems such as the collective action or prisoner dilemma problem.  Indeed, recent psychological experiments suggest that humans possess some notion of "fairness" and "reciprocity" which, if violated, will lead them to choose an action that is not predicted by the utility maximizing theory alone.
The limits (and also the appeal) of this approach to economics is that it does not address the "other minds" problem.  How can we know the contents of another's mind?  How can we compare satisfactions and utilities?  By focusing solely on observable behavior, and positing that such behavior is emblematic of another's utility function, we have done away with one problem but raised another: why do people act the way they do?  And if we do not know why people act the way they do, are we sure that we are not only positing correlations that stop at the boundaries of the events which we seek to explain?  Of course, to subscribe wholly to the view that reality is interpreted and we constantly mediate our relationship to the world via values and norms invites the criticism of being unverifiable, and hence, only an assertion.
I do not set out to resolve these differences.  Indeed, this is a schism that has existed in social inquiry and policy making.  Recent advancements in science (e.g., fMRI imaging) show correlations between regions in the brain and certain thought processes:  they reveal which questions appeal more to our emotions and which appeal more to our rational consciousness.  There is reason to be skeptical of these studies, however, because of the low signal-to-noise ratio.  Indeed, the measurement of the relaxation rate of the hydrogen caused by the coupling of oxygen to iron is indirect, and in fact, because of a feedback mechanism, more oxygen actually flows to the parts of the brain that supposedly "light up."  However, I would also urge one to consider the premises on which scientific inquiry is based and consider whether such premises are equally applicable to social inquiry.  Indeed, by rejecting that we fill in the contents of a narrative vision of ourselves as we negotiate our place in the world, and insisting that the world is composed of rational beings bent on maximizing his or her own utility function, rather limits the explanatory power of modern economics or a positivist based version of social inquiry.  In fact, many laws in the sciences are not Aristotelian in the sense that they do not start from the behavior of a single atom (or if you want to be really precise, boson) and derive their way to a description of large-scale phenomena.  General relativity works quite well even though it shares no particular affinity with quantum mechanics.  A similar problem appears in language: do we, or can we, ever know anything beyond language?

Sausage with Potatoes & Peppers

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Sausage with Potatoes & Peppers

Summertime.  It evokes images of sausages sizzling on a grill and vegetables seething above a fire.  Potatoes roasting in a pan accompanied by multicolored peppers.  It means simplicity and invokes implications of backyard barbecues and open spaces.  This is a very simple recipe, and yet wonderful for a lazy summer evening.

The sausage was charred nicely, and had a nice smoky flavor.  Somehow the smokiness penetrated through to the rest of the dish and lent the peppers and the potatoes a similar flare.

Recipe

Sausage with Potatoes, Onions, and Peppers

1 lb potatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 onion, cut into slices

salt & pepper

1 1/2 tsps rosemary

1 1/2 tsps thyme

1 lb Italian pork or chicken sausage

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Mix the vegetables with the spices and layer on the bottom of a pan.

Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Stir well.

Roast the vegetables for about 45 minutes.

Pierce each sausage in 2 or 3 places with a fork.

Place the sausages in the pan.

Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes more or until the ingredients are cooked through.

Pair the dish with a bowl of ripe rainier cherries!  Now it's time to simply relax and enjoy the bounties of summer.

Olive Bread

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Olive Bread

This past weekend was a nice respite to triple digit weather.  In fact, the weather was wet and a bit chilly.  Perfect for bread paired with a steaming bowl of soup ... or chili ....  Hence came olive bread.
Olive bread.  I've always liked olive bread; olive bread combines the salty briney-ness of olives with soft white bread.  I usually am not a big fan of breads sweetened with honey or sugar, preferring the savory kind to the mildly sweet.  Olive bread is easy to make and versatile, since you can incorporate whatever kind of olives and as many as you can possibly savor in one slice as you want.  You can spread bruschetta or even better, olive tapenade, on the bread.  Or, you can slather with pate!  Of course, there is always almond or peanut butter.  But, since I was going to have peanut butter ice cream afterwards, I decided to forego the spreads and eat the bread plain, as they were.

Simple Pairing with Fruits

Recipe
Olive Bread
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 F)
1 TSP molasses
2 TBSP active dry east
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP salt
7 1/2 cups bread flour
2 cups olives, any kind you wish

Place water, yeast, and molasses in a mixing bowl; stir to mix.  Let stand for a few minutes until mixture is creamy and foamy.
Add olive oil and salt; mix.  Add flour, about a cup at a time, until sought is too stiff to stir.  Add olives.
Turn dough out not a lightly floured board.  Knead, adding flour as needed to keep from being sticky, until smooth and elastic.  Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn to coat the dough surface with oil.  Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour or so.
Punch the dough down, split into 2 pieces, and form 2 round loaves.  Place on greased baking sheet.  Spray with cold water.  Let loaves rise 25 - 30 minutes.
Bake at 400 F for about 46 minutes, or until they are brown and sound hollow when tapped on bottom.
Enjoy!

Snickers "Sundae" with Peanut Butter Swirl & Cookies

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Snickers Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirl & Cookies

I made snickers ice cream the other day.  I am always interested in trying out different combinations of indulgences, piling them one on top of the other, the more decadent the better.  After all, summer is about enjoying life, indulging in all the sweetness that it has to offer, isn't it?  (Well, okay, I am aware that people are usually referring to the bounty of stone fruits as they write this ....)
So then I decided to improvise, to make snickers ice cream with peanut butter swirls, and to add some cookies to the mix.

The result was simply delicious.  A double dose of peanut buttery richness, from both the snickers ice cream and the peanut butter swirls.  Added in the sweet gooey-ness of chocolate chip cookies you can't get better than this on a scorching summer day.

Recipe
Snickers Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirls
Snickers Ice Cream, recipe here
Peanut Butter Swirls
1 cup peanut butter, crunchy
The idea is that you would drizzle the peanut butter slowly when the ice cream maker has almost finished churning.
Enjoy!  Too bad I didn't have any chocolate syrup or ganache to drizzle over ....

Yet Another Example ...

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of the importance of framing.  We can conceive of economic activity as one of mutual exchange: we exchange and barter things with one another for the betterment of our respective selves.  In this sense, the exchange is voluntary and, absent overt coercion, free.  This strand of thought may have provided justification for a strand of decisions that emphasized formal voluntarism in entering into contracts, and all but ignores the circumstances of such entry that may entail choices between highly undesirable choices and even more dire options.
Another way of viewing the market and contract making is by focusing not on the act of voluntary bartering for the betterment of our mutual selves, but rather on the act of coercive bartering for survival, or enrichment, or whatnot.  This conception presupposes the premise that we hold what we own (be it goods or services) exclusively and we are coerced into bartering what we own to achieve those aims or we may exclude others from enjoyment in what we own because, for example, we occupy a superior bargaining position and may achieve those aims by obtaining from others services that those others might have to offer.  The idea of reciprocity becomes more apparent in this view of market relations, in the sense that if you own a resource that I need for my survival for example and cannot obtain elsewhere, and I cannot offer you any similar resource, then my bargaining position becomes materially worse than yours.  In this sense the aspect of coercion becomes more stark and prominent, such that a look at the circumstances that surrounds the bartering would be warranted to evaluate the "freedom" embodied by a particular barter or exchange.
There is no a priori justification for privileging one account of the market over another account.  Hence, this just shows the importance of framing the discussion in affecting policy choices.  Conceptions of labor is inextricably tied to two notions: what it means to be a person and how do people interact with one another.  You cannot untie the two but you can influence one and therefore shape the contours of the other.  For example, a more robust notion of personhood surely pushes back the idea that humans can enslave one another even when the enslavement is voluntary.  Therefore, a richer and more fulfilling choice for thinking about labor is perhaps to focus on the relationships among people in their interactions with one another.  What should be warranted and allowed in inducing another person to offer his or her services?  What cannot be violated?  What dictates and justifies the terms of this engagement?
In fact, this conception may move the conversation away from an emphasis on survival and need, and hence seeing people as fungible entities in the churn of market production, to a more equal and enriching conception of people are agents of multifarious capacities who strive to fulfill their potentials.  Rather than strictly adhering to what may be antiquated notions of acceptable aims that labor relations are to preserve and promote, perhaps we should focus on the process itself.  Indeed, we should explore on how our institutions and laws seek to contribute to the shaping of and the discussions about those aims, and in the very process shape and become shaped by those aims.

Snickers Ice Cream Sandwich

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Ice Cream Sandwich

It's hot again.  We are blessed with temperatures pushing to the triple digits after a nice respite over the weekend.  Hot = ice cream sandwiches, no?
Ahhh ice cream sandwich.  They evoke memories of childhood, when we used to chase after the ice cream truck, panting until we flag it down, handing over our bills and grabbing an ice cream sandwich in exchange.  What can be better than a nice ice cream sandwich on a sweltering day?

As you see we like the sandwiches BIG, loaded with ice cream, with thick cookies.  In fact, we prioritized taste over form, attempted to squeeze as much ice cream as we could, and sacrificed looks in the process.  But the result was a nice, cool, sweet concoction, plus we got a bit greedy and added snickers pieces to the ice cream, heh heh.
You can use whatever recipe for chocolate chip cookies you like.

Recipe
Snickers Ice Cream
1 1/4 cups full fat milk
1 1/4 cups cream
1 cup caster sugar
4 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup chopped snickers bars
1 cup chocolate chips
8 oz fudge, chopped

Pour the cream and milk into a sauce pan.  Stir in sugar until mixed well.
Cover the mixture and refrigerate over night.
Churn for about 30 minutes in an ice cream maker.  When the mixture is almost done, fold in the snickers bars, chocolate chips, and fudge.
Once the churning has finished, scoop ice cream on a cookie.  Place another cookie on top and squeeze gently.  Cover in wrap and place in freezer until nicely solid and cold.

Enjoy!

"Healthy" Parfait with Moose Track Ice Cream, Walnut Brownies, and Granola

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"Healthy" Parfait

Oh we decided to experiment with "healthy" eating.  By that, we mean adding something healthy to irresistible indulgences, hoping in the process to create something "light" that can be consumed at ALL HOURS of the day, even at breakfast.

Hence the parfait with granola, brownies, and moose track ice cream is born!

Drip Drip Drip-ity Drip

It is easy enough.  All you need is a handful of your favorite granola, actually, you can use as much as you wish.  It is breakfast after all, and there is something a bit decadent about eating desserts during breakfast, no?  And this recipe is great since we got to reuse our favorite ingredients: ice cream and brownies!

Recipe
Parfait with Moose Track Ice Cream, Walnut Brownies, and Granola
1 cup of your favorite granola
5 scoops of moose track ice cream, recipe here
1 walnut brownie, chopped, recipe here

First, pave some chopped brownies on the bottom of a large glass.
Add in scoops of ice cream.
Top with granola.
Finally, sprinkle some brownie pieces on top.
If you wish, you can also drizzle hot chocolate sauce.  Now, that would be truly indulgent on a hot summer morning!

Enjoy!

Onion Bagels

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Onion Bagels

Onion Bagels.  They are my favorite bagels and I don't usually like bread all that much.  But once in a while I do need my fix of bagels ... well, fix means ... 2 in one sitting!!!  I like these bagels because the caramelized onions lend a hint of sweetness to otherwise salty bagels.  They are very nice on a hot day when I don't feel like eating anything overly complicated, no complex blends of exotic flavors like Thai Chili that otherwise would be palatable if the thermometer doesn't read 100+ F.  In addition, they work very well as a quick lunch on the weekend when I am too lazy to make anything for anyone.

Plump-y!!!

I especially like these bagels because of how plump they are.  Really fluffy and airy, not dense at all.  I guess I don't usually go for the New York style chewy bagels.  They are a bit too heavy and starchy for me.  But these are just right.

Recipe (Adapted from Emeril Lagasse's)
Onion Bagels
2 cups warm water
2 packets of active yeast
3 + 1 TBSP of sugar
6 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
2 TBSP corn meal

1 cup onions, chopped and sautéed
1/2 cup poppy seeds

Combine the water, yeast, and 3 TBSP of sugar in a bowl.  With a mixer, stir and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.  Gradually add 4 cups of water and salt, and mix until mixture comes together.

Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups additional flour to make a stiff dough, stirring it.  Fold in the onions and poppy seeds.  Turn on a floured surface and knead until smooth and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes.

Grease bowl with 1 tsp of oil, place dough in bowl, turning to coat.  Cover and let rise in warm draft-free spot until almost double, about 1 hour.

Remove from bowl and punch down the dough.  Divide into 12 equal pieces.  Form each dough into a ball.  Roll each ball into a 4 to 6 inch log.  Join the ends and place fingers through the hole and roll the ends together.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Place on lightly greased surface and cover with a clean cloth, and let rest until risen but not doubled, 20 - 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Grease a baking sheet with remaining tsp of oil.  Sprinkle corn meal on another baking sheet.  In a large pot, bring 12 cups of water and the remaining TBSP of sugar to a boil.  In batches, add the bagels to the water and boil, turning, for 30 sec to 1 minute.  Flip bagels unto the prepared sheet pan.  Bake for 5 minutes, turn over and cook for another 30 - 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

As a main meal or as a snack.

Onion Bagel with Peach and Cherries

Vanilla Moose Track Ice Cream

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Moose Track Ice Cream with Brownies & Banana Chips

I love Moose Track ice cream.  I think I first fell in love with Moose Track ice cream when I was waiting in line for something cold and refreshing after a strenuous hike of all of 2 hours in the hot August sun.  I saw someone with a deliciously enticing cone in front of me, vanilla base swirled with fudge and studded with peanut butter cups.  It looked so inviting that I asked what flavor it was and then decided that I had to try some myself.  So I ordered a 2 scoop cup, savored every taste, and went back in the long line for another 2 scoop cup!
I wanted to try to make some.  With banana chips.  And brownies (recipe here).  Yes, I later picked the walnuts off.

Recipe
Vanilla Moose Track Ice Cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk
3 cups cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
1 cup chopped peanut butter cups
5 oz fudge
1 walnut brownie, chopped in small pieces, recipe here

Place sugar, milk, and cream into a bowl and mix.  Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves and bubbles form around the side.  Stir in vanilla essence.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and add them to the milk mixture.

Continue cooking the milk mixture until it becomes thick and custard-like.

Cover with a plastic wrap and let cool overnight in the refrigerator.

Transfer the mixture to a ice cream maker bowl and churn for about 30 minutes.   When you have about 5 minutes left, add in the chopped fudge and then fold in the peanut butter cups.  Then freeze.
When ready to eat, sprinkle the chopped brownie pieces and banana chips
Enjoy!  Nothing is better on a hot summer day than lounging around eating ice cream!!!

The Individual Mandate: An Example of the Importance of Framing the Debate

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Most of the objections to the "individual mandate" provision of the Affordable Care Act has been cast in libertarian terms.  Its critics frequently invoke somewhat Romantic notions of "individual freedom" and "liberty" as means of rallying their troops.  What these critics fail to recognize, however, is that the problems sought to be solved by the Affordable Care Act is a collective action problem that spills over state borders.  Indeed, the problems of free riding and adverse selection are not confined to any one state alone; indeed, as states offer versions of healthcare that differ in generosity, people from less generous states can and may move to other states to benefit from more favorable healthcare provisions.  Therefore, the healthcare question should not be framed as whether the Commerce Clause may reach "inaction" or should strictly be confined to "action."  Indeed, the healthcare question should be framed as whether the government may be empowered to act in instances of market failures that span across state lines.  The answer is surely yes, since the problems that the Affordable Care Act seeks to address are economic in nature, and they do cross state lines.  As such, they should be covered by the Commerce Act.

This little example illustrates the importance of framing a debate.  The supporters of the Affordable Care Act ignore the federalism dimension to the healthcare problem to their detriment, and focus too narrowly on the libertarian arguments that draw deeply on people's emotional and visceral reaction to anything that smacks of a deprivation of their freedom.  Perhaps this example also shows how libertarian arguments have hijacked most of our debates that concern economic matters, and how perhaps we need to invoke other notions -- such as individual obligations in a well functioning and just society -- to pave the basis for a richer conversation.
This may be a bit invidious, but much of the libertarian arguments that rests of some version of substantive due process -- contractual rights equals freedom -- actually privileges the freedoms of some people over the freedoms of others.  This runs against the vein of utilitarianism, on which many libertarians purport to cite as foundations for their beliefs, which presupposes the equality of all.
Okay, I promise the next post will involve food.

The Importance of Moving in the Public Discourse

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I think people often ignore (or forget) how important it is to try to get ideas into the public discourse.  We have seen the power of ideas once they are embedded in the public conscience: for example, while nobody seemed much bothered by growing inequality, the Occupy Movement worked it into the public discourse and for a while we had staunchly conservative politicians paying attention to it.  Indeed, ideas, or the language with which we use to discuss social issues, can change the entire paradigm according to which we evaluate those issues.
Take climate change for example.  Much of the discussion on policies affecting the climate (or the environment) focuses on cost-benefit analysis.  For instance, commentators frequently talk about imposing pollution costs on coal-based technologies so that coal generated electricity reflects its "true" value as opposed to "subsidized" cost.  Such discourse is essentially economic in nature.  The premise is that as rational beings, humans behave to maximize individual well-being.  Hence the difficulty in enacting some kind of policy that extracts costs today and locally while providing benefits that are at best diffuse and potentially far into the future.  This framing of the environmental debate ignores the power of normative narratives -- in short, it ignores that a person also embraces a normative narrative of himself or herself that encodes his or her values and beliefs.  For example, although people like to reduce altruistic behavior to some probabilistic analysis of the likely future (and perhaps intangible) benefits of such behavior, a person is partially motivated to act in certain way by his or her preferences and beliefs about himself or herself as a person.
This is where raising certain ideas and normative goals into the national conscience comes into play.  Perhaps we should borrow a page from other disciplines that ask us to set ideals and goals for ourselves.  The Romantics viewed nature as a force that remains at the same time awe-inspiring (think sublimity and the terror that it inspires), while other movements regarded nature as a goal in itself, whose preservation should be aspired to without any regard for utilitarian arguments.  Regardless of the merits of such rationales, I think a good way to try to change the way environmental discourse is mediated is by trying to bring ideas into the language concerning environmental issues.  Once we do that, we can move away from the purely economic way of talking about environmental issues, which can camouflage the issue as one whose harms are potentially abstract while whose costs are immediately concrete.

Walnut Brownies

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Walnut Brownies

Brownies.  I haven't met anyone who doesn't like brownies.  Of course, people like different brownies; some like them fudge-y and gooey while others like them cake-y.  Some like them studded with nuts while others like them packed with chocolate chips.  Some even like peanut butter or cream cheese swirls in them.  I just like them plain, packed with chocolate chips, and without nuts.  I like them fudge-y too.
So you might ask why these brownies have nuts on them?  Well, I don't make brownies for me, only for others.  You see, I like brownies so much that I wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly nice recipe by substituting oil for butter (I don't like the taste of butter).  Once I tried and I had brownies coming out of the oven with the oil bubbling away -- a decidedly strange sight to behold.  Fortunately the brownie "absorbed" the oil a bit later on, but I never forgot the initial appearance.
Since as these were not for me, I baked them with nuts.

So Many Nuts!

They were well received.  Fudge-y and goo-ey, and the nuts really lent a nice flavor.

Recipe from Epicurious
Walnut Fudge Brownies
10 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9x9 brownie pan with oil.  Stir 7 oz of semi-sweet chocolate with butter and unsweetened chocolate in a pan over low heat until smooth.  Remove from heat.  Whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl until fluffy.  Stir in chocolate mixture.  Mix in flour and chips.  Pour into the pan and sprinkle walnuts on top.  Bake for about 35 minutes or until a tester comes out smooth.
Enjoy!

Three Pine Mysteries and Mixed Nuts

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Fruits & Nut Mix

Have you read Louise Penny's Three Pines series?  They are mystery novels interwoven with delicious details of gourmet fare.  Seriously, DO. GO. READ. THEM. if you like good food and good mysteries.  Anyway, I decided to mix up fruits and nuts partly because I was inspired by the cuisine featured in those books, and since I was too lazy to whip up any French Toast with Maple Syrup or Rack of Lamb with Beans and Fingerling Potatoes myself, mixed nuts were the easiest way to go!

The books take place in the Eastern Townships, on the border with Vermont.  I've never been there, but the books make them seem very bucolic and peaceful.  The place must be stunning in the fall, with all the vibrant red from all the maple trees.  If anyone has ever been and can recommend where/when to go and what to do, that would be great!

Now there's nothing better than indulging on summer fruits!  I certainly have my share of indulgences ....  Did I tell you that one day I ate 4 apricots?  And they were large ones, like the ones below.

Apricot & Peaches

Plus a bowl of chocolate covered fruits.  I could't quite figure out what the dried fruits were ... perhaps plums?  Or some sort of large berries?  Regardless, they were delicious.  I think they infused the chocolate with some type of liquor to lend it a deeper richer taste, smoother texture too.

Chocolate Covered Mystery Fruit

More regular fruits.  The weather has been inching towards the triple digits ... all appetites have fallen by the wayside ....

More Sone Fruits

I love stone fruits!  Though the peaches this season leave something to be desired, and the apricots are practically tasteless despite their nice coloring ....

Blueberry Cornbread

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Blueberry Cornbread

Happy 4th of July!  Barbecues and fireworks!  Picnics too!  And hence cornbreads!  I don't usually have a hankering for bread (or for starchy things in general), but I do love cornbread.
We seem to always make cornbread for July 4.  They are fluffy and just slightly sweet.  The buttermilk really gave it a nice tangy flavor.  Perfect for going on a picnic or bringing a couple of squares while waiting for the fireworks.  And they are so easy to make as well; just mix everything together by hand and bake and voila!  You have delicious cornbread to last you.  I always add blueberries at this time because they are in season and are very sweet.  The key to adding berries is that you absolutely need sweet berries.  We've added blueberries when they were not in season, and the result was not ideal, and that's a nice way of putting it.

Recipe
Blueberry Cornbread
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1 1/2 Cups Cornmeal
1 Cup Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk
1 Cup blueberries, or more if desired

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.
2.  Combine the dry ingredients.  Mix the eggs and oil into the buttermilk, then mix this into the dry ingredients.  Fold blueberries into the mixture.
3.  Pour into a pan and then bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is slightly brown.
Enjoy!

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Homemade Chocolate Moose Track Ice Cream with "Accoutrements" 

Another ice cream creation!  Moose track this time, plus accoutrements of course.  M&Ms and banana chips!

Moose track ice cream has always been a favorite flavor of mine.  I remember once after a strenuous hike up and down a hill (it was very strenuous, all up hill, no rest on the way), we stopped by the ice cream shop.  I got not one, or two, but three cups of moose track ice cream, 2 scoops in each cup.  Perhaps I was especially hungry that day, or perhaps the ice cream was particularly good, but it doesn't matter.  I like moose track.  I was hungry.  I needed to replenish all the lost calories ....

Plain Chocolate Moose Track Ice Cream

Or, you can have it plain.

Recipe
Chocolate Moose Track Ice Cream
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup 2% or whole milk
3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup mini-peanut butter cups
4 oz fudge, chopped
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together cocoa powder, sugar, milk, and cream until the sugar has fully dissolved.  Add in vanilla extract and stir and combine.  Cover the mixture with clear wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Transfer the mixture into ice cream bowl maker and churn for 30 minutes.  Shortly before the churning is over, add in the chopped chocolate fudge and chocolate pieces.  Then place ice cream into tub and freeze.

Enjoy!