The Hazel Bloom

Cardamom Apple Pancakes

Life is crazy busy right now, so I've got to keep it short. In a nutshell: I love pancakes, I love apple, and oooh do I love cardamom. So I put 'em all together and I must say, this recipe really works. Little chunks of apple in fluffy, buttery pancakes, scented with lemony spicy cardamom... nom nom.

I love opening the papery green cardamom pods, and smooshing their seeds with a mortar and pestle. It makes the kitchen smell divine, and makes me feel like I've accomplished something kind of impressive.

As Tom Hanks said, "I... have created... fresh ground cardamom!" Well, maybe that isn't exactly how it went.

Anyway... want the recipe? Here it is.

Cardamom Apple Pancakes

Adapted from Veronica's Apple Pancakes recipe on Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup apple, diced small (tart is best, like Granny Smith)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, white sugar, and cardamom.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the melted butter, egg, milk, and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring just until incorporated.
4. Stir in the apples; don't overstir.
   
   
   
5. Heat a griddle or frying pan to medium-low, and add a tablespoon or so of butter.
6. Pour pancake batter in 1/3 to 1/2 cup measures.
7. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the pancake, and the bottom is golden.
8. Flip and cook on the other side until golden.
   
   
   
9. Serve with butter and maple syrup. And enjoy!

Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad

 
Okay, confession time, everyone. Admit it: have you ever had a gift registry that you could access online? Where you could see if an item had been fulfilled, before you actually received it? Did you peek to see what you're getting?

I always thought that if I had such a registry, I would 100% refrain. After all, there was that Christmas when I was 9 or so and I sneaked a look at my presents before the big day, and not only was I wracked with guilt, but it sucked all the fun right out of opening my presents. The element of surprise was an important factor, 9-year-old-me learned.

But yeah. Once I got a taste for "wants" vs. "fulfilled," I found I couldn't help but visit my registries here and there. Not every day! But every week? Yes. I admit it. I have sinned.

This is how I know that we are getting Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics cookbook as a wedding present. If you bought it for me and you read this, thanks in advance, and I'm sorry - I suck for knowing! But I'm super excited because I just totally dig Barefoot Contessa, aka Ina Garten, aka The One On Food Network Who Says "Fabulous" 50 Times per Show But is Totally Lovable Anyway.

She's developed a bunch of kick-rear recipes, such as the one I'm talking about today: Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad.

Warning to family and friends: If you come over to our place this summer, or if you ask me to bring something to yours, you'll probably see this dish - and I'm pretty sure you'll like it. It's admittedly a little strange to those who have yet to discover the perfect pairing of watermelon and feta cheese. Lemme tell you: Watermelon and feta is delicious. Salty/sweet perfection. Watermelon, feta, arugula, peppermint, and a vinaigrette with fresh orange and lime juices?

Fabulous, indeed.

Here's the recipe!

Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad

Serves 4

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa's Arugula, Watermelon, and Feta Salad recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 cups watermelon, cut into one inch cubes
• 3 cups loosely packed baby arugula
• 6 ounces crumbled or cubed feta cheese
• About 20 peppermint leaves, chiffonaded (wash them, dry them, roll them up, then thinly slice into strips)
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Make the vinaigrette: In a small bowl or container, whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice, shallots, honey, salt and pepper.
   
   
   
2. Pour in the olive oil into the vinaigrette mixture in one thin stream, whisking briskly as you pour to blend.
   
   
   
3. In a large bowl, gently toss the watermelon, arugula, feta, and peppermint.
4. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and toss until evenly distributed.
5. Enjoy!

Fire-Roasted Artichokes with Chipotle Aioli

 
Oooooh yeah. It's artichoke season. Green, spiny, scaly, perhaps slightly mysterious - and so fun (and delicious) to eat.

A plain old artichoke can be slightly intimidating to the uninitiated. But once you know the drill, they're truly a cinch to cook up, and just as easy to eat. 

I love the article entitled How To Cook and Eat an Artichoke over on Simply Recipes. It's a terrific, informative piece. I usually use her cooking method - throwing a bay leaf, clove of garlic, and slice of lemon into the steaming water. 

The other day, I decided to take it a step further - slap a few on the BBQ, serve it up with a spicy mayo concoction, and see what happens.

Artichoke magic, that's what happens.

Wine check/perfect pairing: Maryhill Winery's Rose of Sangiovese. We first tried this when we were at their winery last summer, on a 100 degree day. We bought a bottle of this lovely stuff, light and slightly sweet, perfect for the hot weather, and drank it under their big grapevine-covered deck overlooking the Columbia River. Along with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we brought. Hey, I never claimed we were the classiest couple in town!

(It's inexpensive, too - generally under $10 a bottle.)

I really do love Maryhill wines. But I've digressed plenty - back to the artichokes.

Fire-Roasted Artichokes are a company-worthy dish that would be low-maintenance to churn out (steam the 'chokes earlier in the day, then throw them on the BBQ when it's time to eat), and totally impressive. Or just make a few for yourself. I'm willing to bet you'll find yourself wanting 'em again and again. (Have I mentioned my stomach is growling?)

Here's the recipe!

Fire-Roasted Artichokes with Chipotle Aioli

Artichoke recipe adapted from this one for Claim Jumper's Fire-Roasted Artichoke

Fire-Roasted Artichokes - Ingredients:

• Artichokes
• One bay leaf
• One garlic clove
• One slice of lemon
• Melted butter for brushing

Chipotle Aioli - Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I love the reduced fat olive-oil based stuff from Kraft)
• 1 teaspoon canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, seeds removed (unless you want heat galore) and chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce (from the can of chipotles)
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Fire-Roasted Artichokes - Instructions:

Prepare and steam the artichokes:

1. Clip the tips of the artichoke leaves. They're pokey; who needs it! I, for one, haven't got time for the pain.
   
   
   
2. Lop off the top of the artichoke - about 3/4 of an inch worth.
   
   
   
3. Cut off the stem, so that the base is flat.
4. Remove just the very bottommost leaves.
   
   
   
5. Rinse well under cold water.
   
   
   
6. Bring about two inches of water, along with the bay leaf, lemon slice, and garlic clove, to a boil.
7. Set the artichokes bottom down in the water, and cover with lid.
   
   
   
8. Steam the artichokes for about 30 - 40 minutes, until tender.
9. Remove from water and allow to cool.
   
   
   
10. With a very sharp knife, slice each steamed artichoke in half.
    
    
    
11. With a spoon, scrape out the fuzzy middle above the heart.
    
    
    
     
    
12. Brush with melted butter.
    
    

Barbecue those bad boys:

1. Lay cut-side down on a hot grill - medium heat, about 325 - 350 degrees.
   
   
   
2. Cook for about 5 - 6 minutes, until there are nice brown grill lines on it.
   
   
   
   
3. Serve with chipotle mayo, or garlic butter, or lemon butter, or even mayo and soy sauce mixed together. I have yet to try this, but my friend Vix was raving about it just yesterday. I'll likely be trying it soon and reporting back.

Chipotle Aioli - Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together well.
   
   
   
2. Chill for a couple of hours before serving, ideally, so the flavors blend well.

(I forgot to take a photo of the final product, so here again is a photo with the artichokes and the chipotle aioli in the background.)

Dang. Now I'm hungry.

Chives and Bees, Chives and Bees!

A couple of months ago, I got my big girl camera. A Canon Rebel T1i and oh, people. This thing is fun.

I haven't done much with it yet. I can tweak here and there, but mostly I put my budget-friendly and so-worth-the-money 50mm f/1.8 lens on and just snap away.

I can't wait to learn more, and oh my, there is so much to learn.

Today I thought I'd share some photos I took in my herb garden, of my beautiful blooming chives and the cute little fuzzy honey bees attracted to it.

Kind of boring, I know, but I couldn't help myself.

One picture:

Next picture:

Are you bored yet? Reminded of that time at Aunt Edna's when she just kept pulling out photo album after photo album packed with football pictures of Dad? (If you actually have an Aunt Edna with sports-themed photo albums, that's really going to wig me out, because I just whipped that out of nowhere.)

More:

He looked like a fuzzy little bee-bunny there!

More:

Oh, and check this out. There aren't any bees in this one, and it was a complete accident. I love it, though.

That's it for today. Please do come back and visit The Hazel Bloom again, y'all. I'm usually far more exciting than this.

(At least, I hope I am.)

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

These bad boys are perfect for a nice relaxing weekend morning when something just a little special is in order. Or for when you are, for some strange reason, just really craving something made with bananas. Not that I would know what that's like. Nuh uh. (I actually really wanted to make a banana cake with cream cheese frosting, but who needs such yumminess around the house? Not I.) (Gosh, that still sounds so yummy, though).


These pancakes, though not the aforementioned banana cake, are packed full of flavor with their sour cream, a hint of lemon, and big-time banana. They're terrifically fluffy, too. Topped  with a few more sliced fresh bananas and dusted with powdered sugar, they're definitely something special.

(I swear, dogs seeking a little treat really know how to make themselves inconspicuous, don't they? Not.)

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes. You want some, right?! Well then. Here's the recipe!

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

Adapted from Ina Garten's recipe on Food Network

Makes about 10 medium-sized pancakes

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe (but not overly ripe) bananas. 1 1/2 diced, and the remaining half sliced for topping the pancakes right before serving. 

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder.
   
   
    
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the sour cream, milk, egg, vanilla, and lemon zest.
3. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, mixing only until well-incorporated.
4. Melt a little unsalted butter on a skillet heated on medium low.
    
   
    
5. Pour pancake batter 1/4 or 1/3 cup at a time onto the skillet.
6. Sprinkle 1 - 2 tablespoons of diced banana over the top of each pancake.
    
   
   
    
   
7. Cook each pancake until bubbles start to form on the top, and it starts to become brown underneath.
8. Flip and cook on the other side for one or two minutes, until it becomes golden brown and the pancake is cooked through.
   
   
   
   
9. Enjoy smothered in butter and syrup, decorated with extra slices of banana and dusted lightly with powdered sugar. 

 

DIY Wedding Favor Sneak Peek

I'm all about the Do-It-Yourself for our upcoming wedding. And heck yes, I'm planning to share and share and share all our fun DIY wedding projects after the big day ... but (except for today) not until after. (And afterwards is soon! This thing came faaast.)

We finished one of our wedding favors this weekend and I am amped about how these things turned out. Have you heard of Swedish Ivy? It's this crazy, cute, hard-to-kill indoor plant that is so easy to take cuttings from. In fact, the original plant started with a cutting that was sent to a friend, who then gave a cutting to me, and eventually I gave cuttings to my mom and sister, who both have lush Swedish Ivy plants as a result. When I decided I wanted to share cuttings with others as a wedding favor, my mom and sister started several, as did I - and we've ended up with a bunch of little Swedish Ivy plants to share with our wedding guests.

 
Yup, those are cans. Covered in scrapbook paper, tied with a tag I printed out at home. 

Specific instructions will be posted in a series after we tie the knot in a few weeks.

(Holy crap! I'm tying the knot in a few weeks!)

A Cat and His Nip

Allow me to introduce you, officially, to Tigger.

Tigger is high.

 

Tigger has officially discovered the catnip in the herb garden. He's even been fighting off other cats for the rights to his stash.

(He's discovered that it's not easy to fight off doped up cats, however, so the key is to guard proactively instead of chase off reactively. High cats don't seem to get the usual signals. He hisses, they purr. He lunges, they stand there dumbly, head tilted.)

Tigger's packed down a round little hard patch of dirt in front of his drug of choice. I'm pretty sure if I try to plant anything there, it'll meet an extremely early demise.

Maybe I should just try planting more catnip in his laying spot, so that he can have an entire bed of it and not just a catnip pillow.

Wait. Can a cat OD on catnip?

Never mind. We've got plenty of catnip here.

Enough to keep the kitty happy.

Very happy. And quite possibly seeing things.

But mostly I'm pretty sure he's just happy.

(In case you're wondering: This perennial that grew very easily from seed in my well-drained, sunny herb garden, and though I'd personally rather not eat it, it's certainly worth the entertainment factor if nothing else.)

No-Bake Cookies (Chocolate + Peanut Butter + Easy = Oh Yeah)

I'm still relatively new to this blog thing. So I'm still learning the ins, the outs, the wonderful surprises, the pitfalls.

One interesting and unexpected result of all this? The expectations, man! Nowadays, friends and family are counting on some seriously good things out of my kitchen. Which, I admit, is actually kind of cool... as long as I can deliver, that is. Pressure!

Case in point, number one: I arrive for Mother's Day Brunch with some Overnight Caramel Pecan French Toast in hand and ready to bake, and my adorable 8 year old nephew says, "YES! I'm so glad you're here and that I finally get to try your WORLD FAMOUS FRENCH TOAST!" I was already nervous that this thing wasn't going to turn out, having thrown it together at 12:30 a.m. after a night out drinking wine. And then the pressure of possibly letting down my hopeful nephew? Eek! (It turned out well, luckily. Not only did he enthusiastically approve, he also requested the recipe.)

Case in point, number two? My guy phones his mom and asks, "Do you have any special requests for Mother's Day?" Why yes, she does - she wants a creation from The Hazel Bloom! Except, crap... The Hazel Bloom's blogstress has exactly 20 minutes over the course of the next two days to whip up any sort of homemade treat.

Enter... No Bake Cookies.

No Bake Cookies are nothing special, but then again they sort of are. They're nothing special because we've all seen them before, and they're ugly, and they require embarrassingly little effort. But then these easy-to-make little nuggets are delicious, are they not? Creamy, chocolatey, peanut buttery, rich. Easy to make, yummy to eat. Probably not as mom-pleasing as the red velvet cupcakes I would have loved to whip up instead, but at least they're something.

Here, if you want it, is the recipe!

No Bake Cookies

From Food Network

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup peanut butter (the more processed stuff like Jif works better than the all-natural stuff)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups rolled oats

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, stirring frequently, bring the sugar, butter, cocoa, and milk to a boil.
   
   
   
2. Boil the mixture for one minute.
   
   
   
3. Remove from heat and add the peanut butter, vanilla, and oats.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Mix together, then plop onto sheets of waxed paper, using a couple of spoons.
   
   
   
5. Let cool - they should harden within about an hour.
6. Enjoy!

Blackberry Pie Muffins

I made these muffins a few days ago for my guy and his "crew." They were working on landscaping the backyard. I'm still not really sure what exactly went on back there (the end result was going to be a surprise for me), but I do know there was wind. And there was rain. Oh, and mud. Lots of mud. And there was a backhoe.

But my guy reads this site faithfully, and he still seems a little shell-shocked about the whole thing. So let's talk about the muffins, shall we?

Blackberry Pie Muffins. They're based on another favorite muffin recipe of mine, Apple Pie Muffins. Please, though, don't take the "pie" part of the name too seriously. It's no intriguing true hybrid like the Cookie Cake Pie or anything. It's just that the crumbly top tastes kind of like pie crust, see. It's yummy.

  

These tender muffins are brightened with a little lemon zest and bursting with fresh, tart blackberries, and they just scream "summer is coming! Summer is coming!" They don't literally scream - as far as I know, my muffins don't talk. But I do love that joke. (Can you name that joke?)

Here's the recipe!

Blackberry Pie Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Topping

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Muffins

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 12 ounces fresh blackberries, cut in half

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees, and line 12 muffin cups with liners (or grease the cups).
2. In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
   
   
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the egg and then stir in the sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, and lemon zest.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, along with the buttermilk, and stir just until moistened.
   
   
6. Add the blackberries and stir until well incorporated.
   
    
7. Fill your muffin cups almost to the top with the batter (I like big muffin tops, and I cannot lie).
8. Sprinkle the topping evenly over each cupcake.
   
   
   
9. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes, until they're golden brown and the tops spring back when you poke at 'em.
10. Enjoy the blackberry goodness! ("Summer is coming! Summer is coming!")

 

Trophy Cupcakes + Martha Stewart Cupcake Tree

Two things I love:

This Martha Stewart Cupcake Tree that my guy's coworkers gave us (along with a ton of other loot) for a surprise wedding shower (those folks rock!)

And... and... the sinfully delicious Trophy Cupcakes that were on it.

I've loved Trophy Cupcakes for years. This time, though, I tried the Salted Caramel flavor for the first time.

Heaven. (I don't have a photo of it. I ate it, fast, before the idea occurred to me.)

There are Pineapple Upside Down Cake cupcakes, with a hunk of pineapple hidden at the bottom.

And Chocolate Vanilla. Simply delicious.

And "Hummingbird" - a pineappley coconutty cake with cream cheese frosting.

And approximately a gazillion other flavors.

In summary:

Trophy cupcakes...

Martha's cupcake tree...

Happy me.