Recipe magic.  I love things like this.  I  ran across this recipe in a number of old-school community cookbooks.  Enough times that I finally had to try it, to see if it could really work. I shouldn’t have doubted the vaunted cooks of the community recipe collection.  It works, and it is genius.  Now, it is not quite the same as a delicate French soufflé, one that involves whipping egg whites and gentle folding, but those come with the added risk of the dreaded collapse.  But this is light, and if there is an easier, more impressive recipe I have yet to find it.

Let me say one thing.  Don’t question the recipe. I did, and it was a waste of time.  This works. I don’t know why buttering the bread slices And the blender will be full, but it works.  This soufflé is an amazing accompaniment to roasted meats.  It’s good on its own, or with a good tomato sauce.  It makes a great side dish or a lovely luncheon dish with a light green salad.  Whip this up for a weekend brunch, and your diners will be blown away by your skill in the kitchen.

Blender Cheese Soufflé

10 slices hearty white sandwich bread

¼ cup butter (1/2 stick), softened

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups milk

4 eggs

½ teaspoon ground dry mustard

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Generous pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Butter a 2 quart ceramic casserole dish.

Remove the crusts from the bread, then butter each slice.  Cut the buttered bread into chunks and set aside. Cut 4 ounces of the cheese into small cubes, and grate the other half on a box grater and set aside.

Place milk and eggs in the carafe of a blender. Stuff the bread and the cheese cubes into the blender.  The blender is going to be full, so stuff everything in there.  Run the blender a few times to get things going.  You’ll need to push the ingredients down into the blender.  Add the seasonings and blend again until the batter is completely smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared casserole dish.  Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the batter and stir to combine with the batter.

Bake the soufflé for 45 – 50 minutes until it is puffed in the center and golden and no longer wobbles.  If it starts to brown too much, loosely cover with foil while baking.

Serve immediately. The soufflé will deflate a little as it cools.

Serves 6 – 8

A good potato salad is something of an essential for the backyard cookout or grilling session.  It can be made ahead, and adds that substantial heft to a burger or hot dog plate.  And a homemade potato salad is so much better than a bag of cheap chips.  Served next to a steak, it’s downright elegant.

A very good cook I know, with, let’s say a few more years of wisdom than me, shared the vinegar secret.  She told me the only way to get any flavor in potato salad is vinegar in the water and vinegar on the spuds.  And I think she’s right.  I prefer mellow cider vinegar, but plain old white works just as well.  This dressing is a garlic-y riff on classic green goddess herb dressing.  I add some crumbled bacon because I like bacon with, well, everything, but feel free to leave it out if you are having a meat-heavy meal.

Garlic Goddess Potato Salad

2 pounds small potatoes, yellow, red or a mix

¾ cup cider vinegar, divided

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 green onions

3 Tablespoons finely chopped chives

Generous handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped

2- 3 cloves garlic

½ pound bacon, cooked and chopped into pieces (optional)

Scrub the potatoes well and cut them into bite-sized pieces, all about the same size so they cook evenly. Place the potatoes in a large Dutch oven and cover with water by about 1 inch.  Add ½ cup of the vinegar and bring to a boil.  Cook the potatoes until tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 15 minutes.  You want your potatoes cooked through and soft, but not falling apart.

Drain the potatoes in a colander, and return to the pan.  Pour over the remaining ¼ cup vinegar and gently stir to coat the potatoes. Leave to cool while you make the dressing.

Place the mayonnaise, buttermilk, herbs and garlic in the carafe of a blender and blend until smooth. Taste it, and if you’d like to add more garlic, feel free.  Pour the dressing over the cooled potatoes and toss lightly to coat without breaking up the potatoes.  Add the bacon if you are using it. Taste, and add salt if needed. Chill until ready to serve.

The potato salad will keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days, though you might consider tossing in the bacon right before serving to keep it crispy.

Serves 6

The combination of peaches and ginger is a favorite of mine, and in these muffins, it really shines.  These muffins are not too sweet, but burst with flavor and texture.  Fresh, in-season peaches are such a summer treat, make the most of the season.

Use real ginger ale for this – the kind you find at natural food stores or specialty markets.  Fortunately, it is frequently sold by the bottle in the refrigerated drinks section, so you won’t have to buy a whole six-pack.  I like Blenheim’s and Reid’s, but make sure you don’t buy the spicy or hot variety for this recipe.  I find crystaliized ginger already chopped into little chunks pretty easily, but if all you find are big pieces, use scissors to cut it into small bites.

 Peach and Ginger Muffins

 2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 fresh peaches

3 Tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger

6 Tablespoons real ginger ale

turbinado or granulated sugar for sprinkling

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups.

 In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and ginger lightly with a whisk to break up lumps of sugar. Add the melted butter, sour cream and eggs and stir just until mixed – do not overwork.

Cut the peaches, with the skin on, into small chunks.  Drop peaches and crystallized ginger into batter and lightly stir just to mix.  Lightly stir in the ginger ale.  Muffins need to be just mixed, the batter will still be a bit lumpy.  Spoon into muffin cups, they will be nice and full. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a tester inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins

This also works well with plums.

I don’t really know what else I can say about this recipe.  It’s a rich, Southern version of butterscotch sauce with fresh peaches cooked right in, and a nice little kick of bourbon.  Of course, this is great over a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.  But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my favorite way to eat this is with a spoon.  A few slices of fresh peaches on the ice cream amps up the flavor, and a sprinkling of chopped pecans ain’t a bad touch either.

Peach Butterbourbon Sauce

2 large peaches or 3 small, peeled and pitted

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

¼ cup bourbon

Cut the peaches into small chunks and set aside.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the sugar and stir until melted.  Carefully pour in the bourbon and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, and add the chopped peaches.  Simmer until the peaches are completely soft and disintegrating into the sauce.  The ripeness of the peaches will determine how long this takes.

When the peaches are completely soft, puree the sauce with an immersion blender until smooth.  If you don’t have an immersion blender, mash the peaches with a sturdy wooden spoon, then press the sauce through a wire sieve.

Serve warm over ice cream.  The sauce will keep in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge.  Reheat gently in the microwave, stirring frequently, to loosen up.

Makes about 1 ½ cups sauce

Summer food for me is all about bounty.  There is so much fresh, healthy food available, I worry about how I can enjoy as much as possible more than the idea that I might not have access to it at all.  I cook fresh meals for myself, and spend a lot of time putting things up for winter, like these simple Dilly Beans.  Not because I have to, but because I want to.  Sometimes I have so much fresh produce in the house, I have a hard time deciding what to cook next.  Making dinner is a joy, not a worry, because my choices are so vast and diverse.

But for millions of American kids and families, summer is about the opposite of bounty.  It’s a frightening time, when the school lunch program is not an option,  parents worry about how they can feed their families, kids have to skip meals and they don’t get the proper nutrition growing bodies need.  Summer is a struggle, not a carefree holiday. 

Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Summer Meals campaign works to combat this problem.  So do your local food banks, and many food pantries are faced with empty shelves in the summer months when demand is high.  So as we all enjoy the beauty and bounty of summer cooking, please remember those who don’t have that pleasure.  Donate to Share Our Strength or your local food bank.  Organize a food drive in your neighborhood or workplace.  I think there is an idea for a fun summer project for the kids in there!  Please, share ideas you have for helping local kids and communities in the comments section.

Dilly Beans

Old fashioned versions of this always look so pretty with full heads of dill tucked inside, so if you have dill growing or a place where you can buy full dill seed heads, use about three of those with one dill sprig.

¾ pound fresh green beans (enough to fill a quart jar)

2 cups apple cider vinegar

2 cups water

4 Tablespoons canning salt or 3 Tablespoons table salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon dill seed

2 cloves garlic

4 – 5 stalks fresh dill

Trim the ends off the beans, making sure they are a length to stand in the jar. Blanch the beans in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and cover with ice cubes to stop the cooking. Toss the ice around to get to all the beans.  Drain.

Clean a one quart jar with two piece lid.  Stack the beans, the garlic cloves and the dill sprigs in the jar.  I find it easiest to do this with the jar on its side, so the beans stack on top of each other and stay upright. 

Bring the vinegar, water, seeds, salt and sugar to a full rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Carefully pour the liquid over the beans in the jar to cover, leaving a ¼ inch head space at the top.  Immediately put on the top and screw on the band.  Leave to cool 8 hours or so, then refrigerate.   There may be more pickling liquid than you need, just discard the remainder.

To can the beans for longer term storage, process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes immediately after pouring in the hot vinegar and screwing on the lid and band. Here are step by step instructions for canning.

It’s that time again, time for Summer Fun Finds. These are just some ideas about personal favorites – no one has asked me to promote any products.

If you are travelling this summer, and you are anything like me, you’ll be collecting lots of food and recipe ideas from your trips.  Jot them down in this perfect Moleskine Recipe Journal. And get a little inspiration from these adorable Chef Pencils, with simple techniques printed right on them.  Carry a few of these protective, absorbent bottle carriers to bring home souvenirs like wine or olive oil.  They protect the bottle, but also absorb any spillage.  But if you are just an armchair traveller, nothing transports you like good food.  Enjoy the flavors of My French Kitchen by Joanne Harris, let Tessa Kiros show you Food from Many Greek Kitchens, or explore the wonderful food of the Mediterranean in Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, then continue on to the glorious Food of Spain from Claudia Roden.

If your summer entertaining involves outdoor eating, I absolutely love this Bentley plasticware.  They are good-looking, colorful and durable.  I have a cup that belonged to my Grandmother that is still in perfect shape!  They are dishwasher safe and don’t craze or crack.  And if you are taking your summer food on the road, this insulated food carrier is practical and cute. I love Polar Bear Coolers, and the new backpack cooler makes carrying your cold stuff even easier. If your summer entertaining moves indoors, gather everyone around a good game of Cooking Scrabble after a bang-up meal.

I’ve got quite a little garden growing this summer (that’s it in the picture), and if you do too, jazz it up with these herb markers. If you are not a gardener, but head to the farmers market for all the gorgeous summer produce, carry a cute and practical market tote like mine with its big, bright apples. It’s oilcloth so it wipes clean.  If your haul tends to be a bit bigger, try a snazzy wheeled shopping trolley.  Carry some organic cotton produce storage bags to avoid the plastic, and they are great for storing onions and potatoes in the pantry.  You’ll feel super snazzy as you prepare your produce haul with these adorable pairing knifes.

We all have deep and personal food memories and cravings. Exotic, postcard moments in our life in food. Apricots still warm from the tree in France. Your first taste of fish cooked immediately after being pulled from the Indian Ocean.  Or cravings that seem to come deep from the soul, and out of the clear blue sky. The special multi-layered cake only your grandmother knew how to make.  Bread from the long-shuttered, family-owned neighborhood bakery.  Your mom’s homemade soup.

This recipe is none of those things.

It is not exotic, or distant, or impossible to duplicate.  But it is a good food memory for me, and I bet for a lot of folks.  I just know how to make these.  I didn’t invent them or innovate them or deconstruct or re-imagine.  These little crackers are just good, and simple, and everyone loves them.  I had an overwhelming craving for these recently, and they are the perfect snack to celebrate the Fourth of July.  And go ahead, share your memories of these little gems.

Firecrackers

I use mild chili powder and a small amount of chili flakes, but feel free to spice things up.

1 ½ cups canola oil

1 (1-ounce) package ranch dip mix

1 Tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons red chili flakes

1 (16-ounce) box saltine crackers

In a small bowl, whisk together the canola oil, ranch dip mix, chili powder and pepper flakes until thoroughly combined.  Unwrap the saltine and place in two 1-gallon ziptop bags, or a large flat airtight container, like you might store brownies in.  Pour over the oil and toss and shake well to coat.  Toss the bags or container every five minutes or so for about an hour, making sure the crackers are getting a thorough dose of seasoned oil.

Remove the crackers to one or two rimmed baking sheets and leave to dry for several hours.  Stored in an airtight container, these will last for a couple of weeks.   But I bet they don’t.

Cherry Bounce in Progress

Cherry season is beginning, or at least fresh cherries are showing up in the markets here.  We don’t grow cherries locally, so when I start to see them at the grocery, I buy them up.  I love cherries, so I try to make the season last as long as possible.  I bake with the beauties, make preserves, and frankly, just leave a basket on the counter and eat them throughout the day.  But a classic Southern way to preserve them is in Cherry Bounce, which is worth making for the name alone.

This is not an immediate results recipe.  It requires a little patience, but very little work.  Start your Cherry Bounce now, while the cherries are fresh and gorgeous, and by the holidays, you’ll have a special treat.  Decant the liquor into decorative bottles for gifts, or serve small glasses after a Thanksgiving dinner or with a Christmas cheese plate. And Cherry Bounce makes a mean Manhattan.  If you make fruitcake and soak it in brandy, try Cherry Bounce instead for a real treat.

Cherry Bounce

Use a bourbon you would happily drink, but not a top of the line, very expensive bottle.  You can increase this recipe as much as you’d like.

1 pound fresh red cherries (such as Bing)

1 cup sugar

5 cups bourbon

Run a large jar or glass airtight container through the dishwasher to sterilize.  Wash the cherries well and remove the stems. Discard any bruised fruit.  Layer the cherries and the sugar in the jar and leave to sit for about an hour.  Pour over the bourbon, seal the jar and shake occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.  Some cherries will float in the beginning, but they will sink to the bottom. When the sugar is dissolved, leave the jar in a cool dark place for at least 4 months to infuse.

When ready to use, you can simply pour out what you need of the liquor, or you can strain out the cherries and decant the bounce into decorative bottles.  The cherries are edible, but still have pits.  You can eat, them, use them to garnish a cocktail or spoon some bounce and cherries over ice cream for a boozy dessert, just remind those you serve it to about the pits.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I’ve just launched a new monthly e-mail newsletter, full of fresh, new ideas, tips, links and recipes.  Each month will have a special focus, and for June it’s all about canning, pickling and preserving. 

To sign up to receive the new monthly Runaway Spoon newletter, just add your e-mail address to the Subcribe to E-Mail newsletter box to the right  of this page. 

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I love edible flowers. They bring such color and whimsy to the table. I love them sprinkled on a good salad, and this year I even used honeysuckle to make a cordial. I usually plant a few marigolds for tossing with salads, and stick a few nasturtium seeds in the edge of the garden.

This year I forgot to plant the nasturtiums, but as luck would have, the lovely blossoms are a new addition to the farmers market this year. A couple of vendors are offering little bouquets of nasturtium flowers alongside the herbs and greens. And as I missed having them in my own garden, I wanted to preserve their beauty and flavor. These ideas are hardly recipes, just great ways to extend the life of nasturtium season.

This nasturtium butter is beautiful, the golden yellow of butter flecked with bright orange, yellow, red and green. Use it to make the most elegant tea sandwiches, on its own spread on wheat bread, or with thin slices of cucumber. A slice of this butter is spectacular placed on a piece of just cooked white fish, the butter melting into a sauce with the flower specks decorating the fish. And your friends will really ohh and ahh at your creativity when you serve pats of this on a butter plate beside the bread at dinner. Use the finest butter you can afford to maximize the lusciousness of this treat.

The nasturtium vinegar takes on a beautiful hue, and has a slight peppery bite. Use it in any simple salad dressing or as you would herb vinegar.

Nasturtium Butter

To clean nasturtiums, gently dip and swirl them in a little dish of water and shake. Leave on a tea towel to dry. Use the smallest, tenderest leaves.

1 ounce nasturtium flowers and a few leaves (about 8 – 10 flowers, 5 -6 small leaves), no stems

4.4 ounces good butter, softened

Generous pinch Maldon salt

Finely chop the flowers, including the stamens, using a sharp knife. Scrape the chopped blossoms into a small bowl and add the butter. Using the back of a fork, mash the butter and flowers together, making sure the flowers are well distributed throughout the butter. Add a pinch of salt and blend it in.

Lay a long piece of plastic wrap on the counter. Scrape the butter into a log onto one end of the wrap. Roll the wrap over the butter and continue rolling, using the plastic to help shape the butter into a uniform log. Twist the ends together like a piece of candy, squeezing the log into an even shape. Label the log and place in the freezer until firm.

Frozen butter will last up to three months in the freezer.

Nasturtium Vinegar

I use an empty, cleaned bottle that once held bought vinegar, but a mason jar will do just as well.

1 ounce nasturtium flowers

White wine or champagne vinegar to cover, about 1 cup

Clean a bottle or 1 pint mason jar in the dishwasher and thoroughly dry. Gently place the blossoms into the bottle or jar and pour the vinegar over. Seal the bottle, then leave to infuse for at least a week.

The vinegar will keep for months.