Fennel Orange Avo Salad / Master & Everyone

Fennel Orange Avo Salad
Plus some shaved red onion and lettuce from my box. Dressing = juice from the orange supremes, olive oil, white balsamic, pepper, salt
This salad kept the beans n greens soup (and a couple of chicken shish kebabs) company.

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Bonnie "Prince" Billy Master & Everyone

Sriracha Pickled Rainbow Chard / My Life

Pickled Rainbow Chard Stems
My friends John and Natasha have copious amounts of stunning (!) Rainbow Chard that they've been sharing with me in trade for eggs, soup, jam, dried citrus, what-have-you. It makes me crazytown happy cause their produce is freaking beautiful and delicious. But there are weeks it's hard to make it through it all (note: chard + eggs = freaking awesome). Stoked to find a use for the stems; the leaves went into this soup.
Cut the stems to fit the jar. Made a pickling juice out of white vinegar, Sriracha, sugar, coriander seeds. The original recipe called for celery seed, but I'd just run out. Hopefully the substitution won't suck. We'll find out in a couple of days.

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Iris de Ment My Life

Apricot Jam / #1 Record

(More) Apricot Jam
Prep. Stew overnight. Find out tomorrow what flavor wins.

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Big Star #1 Record

Dapple Soup / Neurotica

Beans & Greens Soup
Diane gave me these rad beans. Soup = spring onions, carrots, celery, dapple grey beans and their liquor, rainbow chard, red russian kale, herbs. Topped with parm and olive oil floater. My favorite beans n greens soup to date, methinks. The beans are mild (eating them, the word "rosy" came to mind, don't ask me why. Maybe a smidge of a floral edge?). They're not as rich as pintos, nor as neutral as great northerns. Soft, medium flavor, they were perfect in vegetable soup as they add mild but notable flavor profile in addition to texture and protein. Thumbs Up!

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Redd Kross Neurotica

Apricot Liquor / Wounded Rhymes

Apricot Liquor
The first of two I'm making; this one using the flesh (the other, the pits, cracked with a hammer).
Apricots, Everclear.

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Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes

Apricot Cherry Red Chile Jam / It Takes A Nation Of Millions

Apricot Cherry Red Chile Jam
Fruit ratio was 4:1, apricots to cherries.
Then also lemon juice, sugar, healthy amount of red chile.
Turned out exactly as I wanted it to—tart, sweet, spicy starting in the middle and good through the end, but not so much as to overpower the flavor or hurt your mouth.
Balanced. Go figure.
And made a big batch. Bonus.

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It Takes A Nation Of Millions

Chocolate Cake / You're Living All Over Me

That Chocolate Cake
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1.75 sticks unsalted butter, in half inch cubes
1 cup + 2T sugar
some salt (hearty pinch)
5 eggs
1T g-free flour

- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Butter the bottom of an 8"-9" cake pan. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom. Butter that too, and the sides of the pan.
- Using a microwave (30 second bursts, stirring in between) or a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter together until smooth and all melty.
- Stir in sugar and salt.
- Add eggs. I use a whisk and mix them directly into the batter.
- Sprinkle flour across top and stir to incorporate. You don't want to over-stir, but you don't want flour lumps either.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes. (Technique that's worked the best): bake for ten minutes, rotate, bake for another ten minutes, then start checking every 2 minutes. The sides will puff up and it will be jiggly in the middle. The trick is to have it be just slightly jiggly - usually around 26 minutes for me.
- Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then, using a plate, carefully invert pan and remove cake pan and parchment paper. Then, using your cake plate, re-invert (?) so that the top is facing up.
- Whip up some cream, make some compote, serve it to your friends whilst drinking huge bottles of bourbon.

I got the original recipe from Molly Wizenberg. Slightly modified.


Soundtrack
You're Living All Over me