Adventures in Thyme

Our adventures in food

Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies

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Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies

Have you ever experienced a cheesecake craving?  The kind where you just want to sit with it in your lap and eat the whole thing while you watch some perfectly wretched B movie?  Okay, maybe that’s just me then, but today’s recipe is a cheesecake cookie that not only satisfies in its petite serving but is also fun to share.

Ingredients

1 cup fresh Blueberries
3/4 cup Water
1 1/2 cups all purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup mild, soft, white Goat Cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 large Egg
1 to 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

In a small sauce pan, combine 1 cup fresh blueberries, 3/4 cup water and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat, stirring periodically, until the berries split and then the mixture reduces by half. Strain. This should yield between 1/2 and 2/3 cup of blueberry syrup. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl combine 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sift together to combine and remove any lumps.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, combine the butter and goat cheese. Beat until combined and smooth. Add the sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg and beat until well combined. Add the dry ingredients, a bit at a time on low speed, beat until combined.

Take one cup of your batter and put in a small bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the blueberry syrup (be sure to retain 2 to 3 tablespoons of the syrup for your frosting) and 1/2 cup flour. Beat by hand until combined. Pour the batter back into your mixing bowl and gently fold together with the remaining batter to give swirls.  Don’t overmix – you want it to be “swirly”.

Using a small ice cream scoop , drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the bottom edges are golden grown. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes then place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.

Make your frosting by combining your reserved blueberry juice and powdered sugar. Start by adding 1 cup of powdered sugar to the syrup, whisk together. If the frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar a little at a time until you get a consistency that you can drizzle over the cookies.

Drizzle the frosting over the cookies and serve. These would be good with coffee, milk or tea.  Watching a B movie is optional.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Peach Buckle

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Peach Buckle by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Peach Buckle

The weather pulled a fast one on us this week.  We started out at a balmy 80 degrees on Monday, and now we’re down in a the 50s with a dusting of snow on the Sierras.  So we’ve decided to dig our heels in and bake a delicious warm weather dessert.  One you could happily eat at a picnic, family bbq, or perhaps, curled up by the fireplace.  Enjoy!

Batter

3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Butter, softened
1/2 cup Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 large Egg
2 cups all purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 cups Peaches (We used canned peaches, drained)

Topping

1/2 cup all purpose Flour
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
6 tablespoons cold Butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the batter, cream together the brown sugar, and butter. Then add the milk and egg and beat until blended. Add the vanilla and stir. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir together. With your mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients a little at a time until all the ingredients are combined. Cut your fruit into bite sized pieces and gently stir into the batter.

Flour an 8×8 inch baking dish (ie: rub butter around in the dish covering all the areas batter will touch, then roll a tablespoon or two of flour around inside the dish covering up all the butter, then dump out the remaining flour.) Pour the batter into the baking dish and spread out in an even layer with a spatula.

To make the topping, combine all of the ingredients for the topping in a food processor and pulse until you have pea sized pieces. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the top of the batter.

Place your baking dish on the center rack of your oven and bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.

Serve with ice cream.

Do It Yourself Chicken Soup

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Chicken Soup by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Chicken Soup

 

Simple meals can be the best meals.  Tonight’s recipe is really a canvas upon which your guests, or family, can create their own masterpiece.  By providing hot stock and a selection of ingredients it allows for more time at the table enjoying lively conversation and togetherness.  No meal is truly complete unless it can be shared with those you care about, and that my friend is nourishment for the spirit!

For this dish you’ll need:

Chicken stock (2 boxes, 3 if you are feeding more than 4 or are really hungry)
One box of your favorite pasta
Whatever vegetables look good or you are growing in your garden (We used Sweat Potato, Turnip, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli, Carrot and Mushrooms)
Chicken (a roasted chicken from the grocery store works great)
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Green Onion
Parsely

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Cut your vegetables into bite sized or smaller pieces, toss with Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper. Place on a cookie sheet and roast 20-30 minutes (longer for bigger pieces) or until they begin to brown and get soft.

While the vegetables are roasting place one box of chicken stock in a large pot, add at least an equal amount of water and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until tender. (You may need to add water while they cook, just keep an eye on the level of your liquid). Cooking in the stock will give the noodles some flavor of their own!

Place your remaining boxes of stock in a pot and heat to boiling, reduce the heat and keep simmering until the rest of your ingredients are ready.

While everything is cooking, strip the meat off of your chicken and cut into bite sized pieces.  You can separate white and dark meat if that is important to your guests and simple enough to do!

Once everything is cooked, place the vegetables and chicken on a plate or in separate bowls, as you prefer. Place the noodles in a large bowl. Now for the fun part. Put all of the ingredients out on the table. Let your diners assemble their soup and add the stock. Top with green onion and or parsley.

Enjoy.

Sweet and Sour Pork Meatballs

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Sweat and Sour Pork Meatballs

Sweat and Sour Pork Meatballs

Here in America, much of the news lately has been consumed with coverage regarding deflated balls (NFL footballs).  Few have been unable to resist the urge to take to social media or put their special touch on headlines decrying soft balls.  So who are we to let the subject slip by without manhandling a ball or two, slathering sauce all over it and serving it up for din-din.  This is a surprisingly simple recipe and much preferred over similar sweet and sour offerings from local takeouts.  Enjoy!

 

Meatballs

1-1/4 lbs ground Pork
1 large Apple, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon grated Ginger
1/4 to 1/2 small Onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 oz Water Chestnuts, chopped
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon ground Pepper
1 Egg, lightly beaten

Sweet and Sour sauce

32 oz Chicken Stock
1 medium Onion, cut into wedges
1 cup White Vinegar
1/4 cup Honey
1 large Bell Pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons Corn Starch
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Garnish

Green Onions sliced or slivered
Sesame Seeds

Directions

Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands until well combined. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to portion the meat and then roll into balls.  This recipe makes approximately 14 meatballs.  Heat a little olive oil over medium-high in a non-stick pan and brown the meatballs on all sides.  Do not remove meatballs from pan when done.

Now add the Chicken Stock and bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the onion and cook another 5 to 10 minutes.

In a small bowl combine the vinegar, honey and soy sauce. Add the corn starch to the vinegar mixture, mix in well.  Turn the heat back up to medium-high and add the vinegar mixture and the bell pepper.  You’ll want to bring this back up to a boil uncovered for about five minutes.  This will thicken the sauce and soften the bell pepper.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie

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Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie

 

It’s 5:00pm.  It’s been “one of those days”.  Your butt would be dragging except it’s cushioned in the car seat and your on your way home.  Thoughts soon turn to dinner.  You want something easy, but it needs to be healthy too!

Such was our situation as we ambled into the grocery store.   We walked out with the fixin’s for a one dish dinner that satisfied all our needs – and it’s non-dairy!

Ingredients:

1 Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store (we chose “Savory” spiced)
1 bag of your favorite frozen vegetables
2 to 3 cups mashed potatoes (Instant are fine as are left overs, we used mashed white sweet potatoes – WAY better fiber and vitamin content)
3 cups chicken stock
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and Pepper to taste

Over medium low heat, pour 3 cups of chicken stock into a large skillet and add one beaten egg.  Whisk to combine well, then mix in 2 tablespoons flour.  Stir frequently until it starts to bubble and thicken.

If you don’t already have leftover mashed potatoes, it’s time to get your potatoes going too – and instant is well, nearly instant!  Get ’em ready, they’re going to be needed shortly.

Next add the bag of vegetables (they’ve been defrosting on your counter, but if they’re still hockey pucks you can place the bag in lukewarm water to thaw a little). While the mixture comes back to a simmer, strip the meat off of your chicken and cut into bite sized pieces.  We remove the majority of the skin from the pieces, true enough the skin has the most flavor, but it also has the majority of the fat – but if your long day calls for chicken skin then roll with it!

Add your chicken pieces to the skillet. When the mixture comes back to a simmer taste a wee bit to see how much salt and pepper to use then add accordingly. Stir well.  Turn off the heat and put the mixture into a 9 x 9 baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes and cook at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Be sure to put a cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch the liquid that is likely to bubble over. Turn your oven to broil and broil until lightly browned on top.

Enjoy!