Blackberry Vanilla Syrup

Blackberry Vanilla Syrup

For reasons I can’t quite identify, I’ve become a little obsessed with fizzy water this summer. In my efforts to drink less beer, it tends to be a better substitute than non-fizzy water. And my fizzy water of choice, Perrier, comes in wonderfully shaped, curvy green bottles that make my packaging-obsessed self happy. I prefer the non-flavored variety, and I often drink it on its own, but sometimes I feel the need for something a little fancier. And with berries and stone fruits galore in season right now, it seemed the ideal time to make some fruit syrups to add to my sparkling beverages.

This blackberry syrup isn’t just good for fizzy water, though. It makes a great topping for ice cream or yogurt, and would be terrific stirred into oatmeal, if I ever felt like eating oatmeal in the summer. Supposedly, it can last for up to six months in the refrigerator, so if I can make it last until the weather cools down, I’ll be able to find out. That’s a pretty big if, though.
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Fresh, Easy Pizza Sauce

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In all of my experimentation with pizza-making, I’ve focused almost exclusively on the dough and the toppings. I worked endlessly to find the best dough recipe, and topped that dough with every kind of topping I could imagine. But when I wanted a traditional tomato-sauced pizza, I usually contented myself with buying a jar of pizza sauce from the market and calling it a day. Well, now that I’ve got my dough recipe pretty much down (I usually go for either Smitten Kitchen’s Really Simple Dough, or, if I want to bank some away in the freezer for the future, Peter Reinhart’s neo-Neapolitan dough from American Pie), I figured it was time to nail a recipe for homemade sauce. The good news? The sauce is WAYYYYY easier than the dough.
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Quick Pickled Cabbage Salad

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It took me a long time to become a fan of cabbage. In fact, most cruciferous vegetables were anathema to me as a young child, for their somewhat, um, gassy odor. Cabbage was nothing to me but the bitter, slightly wilted filler in salad bars, and the stinky, mayonnaise-clogged pile of coleslaw I avoided at picnics. I never realized you could cook cabbage, but my first taste of the vegetable braised, until it became silky smooth and almost sweet, was an eye-opener. These days, I’m starting to enjoy raw cabbage, but I still usually prefer it cooked until some of the harsh, raw flavor dissipates. However, summer is not the time for long, slow cooking, so yesterday, I decided to try something new. I decided to pickle.

There are a lot of recipes for pickled cabbage, and many of them looked very involved. Some involved long periods of salting and fermentation, but I wanted more fast and easy. This preparation isn’t fancy, and certainly some additional spices and complicated steps might result in something more complex and mind-blowing, but I am quite pleased with how it came out. And as part of a simple composed salad, it’s pretty spectacular.
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