Juice: Day 3

This weekend I learned two things:
1. There are things to drink that are more fun than juice.
2. Juice makes my body feel better on Monday morning.

Happy juicing!

Day 3:
2 cups blueberries
2 kiwifruit, peeled
16 strawberries
2 cups mint leaves

Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

There are some really great things about getting older. You get a new sense of freedom and responsibility, you become more comfortable with yourself (which I think is a good thing, anyways...) and if you really want to- you can eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... which at this point, I am going to have to seriously start considering because our freezer is about to explode.

With this heat wave in LA I have pretty much deemed my oven out of order! It's hot outside.... and when you live in a charming 1940's building- it's even hotter inside, making our oven, stove, and even using hot water completely unacceptable. The good news? This ice cream is also no cook. That's right. So stay full and stay cool...

Ingredients:

1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled and halved

1 2/3 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt 

Method:

Combine everything in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth with just a few small chunks of berries in the mix. Scrape into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve right away, soft-serve style, or transfer to a quart-sized container, cover tightly, and freeze until firm.

Strawberry Basil Hand Pies

Since turning 27 (and immediately becoming older, more mature, and grown-up) I have had a few revelations:

1. My hangovers now SUCK. Way worse than ever. I mean, waaaaay worse. Pizza has stopped saving me, which is probably a good thing because....

2. That one slice of pizza from last week.... now likes to make itself right at home on my ass. That is NOT it's home!

3. I have learned that it is that time in my life where I can no longer have everything I want. (At least when it comes to food. In the rest of my life, however, 27 is an ideal age to get EVERYTHING I want.) 

So, with all of my external ass checking and internal soul searching I have learned to just accept that dessert and I are now on a break. In fact, we've gotten a divorce. Yeah, it was that serious.  

But then I realized that there are two things in life that I love even more than dessert... and they are WINE & CHEESE. So in my breakup with desert I've learned how to live footloose and fancy free and enjoy being "single." Because now, this "single" girl, has regular trysts with her two favorite suitors, wine and cheese. (Or "vino y queso" if I'm feeling a little extra slutty).

So, just when I thought I'd finally moved on from desert and was embracing my inner Samantha (she liked threesomes, too, right?) along comes a recipe that just sweeps me off my feet and makes me rethink everything. I mean EVERYTHING. 

Not only are these little pies desert, they go really well with wine (a glass of rose) and cheese (any and all). So now I'm all confused, my world is turned upside down, and thanks to these little pies, this little ginger is ALL HANDS...

Strawberry Basil Hand Pies

Ingredients:

For the crust-

You can make your own crust. I don't. There is perfectly good pie crust at the market that takes 1/48374 of the mess and work and self loathing. I hate making pie crust. It is not something I am good at and I like being good at everything.

For the filling-

3 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

You will also need:

1 egg

Sugar for dusting

garden berries

Method:

In a saucepan, combine all of the filling ingredients and heat until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. The filling should take about 8-10 minutes to get really think. If you stop stirring it will burn or turn hard and nothing will be good. 

Once thick, remove from heat, cover, and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

On a floured surface, roll out pie dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter, the rim of a glass, or some other circular thing you can find in your kitchen, cut dough into about 4 inch circles. 

Using a pastry brush (or your finger) dab egg wash along the outer rim of 1/2 of the pieces of dough. 

On each egg washed piece of dough, mound a tablespoon or so of filling right in the middle. Place a non egg washed piece of dough on top, making sure the two pieces of dough are "glued" together. Then take a fork and crimp the edges of each pie. 

Repeat this until you are out of dough.... I had leftover filling and a spoon and made that work. Don't judge me. 

Place pies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush each pie with egg wash, poke a few holes in the top to let the steam out, and dust with course sugar. 

Bake 18-22 minutes until the crust is golden and the filling is starting to ooze out. 

Pea Shoot Salad with Strawberries and Shaved Cucumbers

I'm not going to lie.... spring is actually my least favorite time for seasonal produce. There are obviously a few winners: artichokes, asparagus, and every kind of citrus you can dream of. But come summer, my little farmer's market shopping heart is singing from the rooftops!  My freckles are beginning to pop up and my allergies are raging..... this can only mean one thing- SUMMER PRODUCE! Yippee! With the temperature rising, the hubby and I have started frequenting all of our local farmer's markets on a more than regular basis. And while I'm not up to my elbows in perfectly ripe peaches just yet, a few summer favorites have already started popping up... and a few new favorites!

How am I just now finding out about pea shoots!!!!

I love green peas. They taste just like green peas. We are a match made in heaven!

As you can imagine, pea shoots taste like the peas that they grow. They are sweet, crunchy, and so so tasty! Apparently you can replace most lettuces with them, add them to stir frys, or.... make this amazing salad. This was my first rodeo with my new favorite green, and it will certainly not be my last!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp organic honey (local if you have allergies!)
1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 bunch of pea shoots
Almonds & goat cheese

Method:
Pour the honey and balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan and reduce by 1/2 over low heat. Let cool. If you don't feel like making a reduction, Whole Foods sells a great balsamic reduction. I once bought it by accident.... best accident ever.

Toss the pea shoots, strawberries, and cucumbers together and drizzle the balsamic reduction on top. Top with almonds and goat cheese. I clearly was all out of goat cheese, but I really wish that I wasn't.

Rich told me this was one of his favorite salads of all time. That actually means something.... he is not as hyperbolic as I am.


***There are so many Farmer's Markets around town... LA Times Farmer's Markets is a great website if you want to venture away from the overwhelming Hollywood Farmer's Market on Sundays!