Fresh Tart

July 2: John & I returned from Provence, France (post forthcoming, sometime in 2011, gah).

July 3: I hit the Minneapolis Farmers Market, hard. Five racks of Bar 5 ribs; Blue Gentian Farm lamb chops, sausage, and eggs; many pounds of greens, carrots, beans, herb, berries, onions, garlic scapes, potatoes, and general fabulousness.

Oh lovely summer.

July 4: The Annual Super Duper Shubert Coopster July 4th Celebration of course!

Ribs, as always. Kale salad. Green bean & tomato salad with garlic scape dressing.

I kept it ridiculously simple at the pool. Minnesota strawberries and a big ol' bowl of popcorn with butter and salt.

Suz brought this smashing trifle...

...and a special gluten-free version for me. I love my friend. I also love her daughter Vivian who took the kuchen pic up top, as well as the pic of me and of the sliced ribs below.

I took Suz's Kingfield Market Berry Bake-Off Winning Blueberry Kuchen recipe and substituted a gluten-free, almond meal crust. Delicious! You can see that I added raspberries as well as blueberries - red, white & blue and all. You could do that too. Or not. All good!

Blueberry Kuchen (Gluten-Free)
Adapted from a recipe by Susie Shubert
Serves 10

Stephanie's note: this recipe can be easily halved - bake in a 10-inch spring-form pan or removable bottom tart pan. It works nicely to line the pan with parchment paper.

1 stick butter (1/2 c.) + extra for buttering the pan
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. blanched almond flour (choose a finely milled variety from this excellent list at www.elanaspantry.com)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 c. sugar, divided, plus a little more for sprinkling
6 c. blueberries, divided
1 tsp. cinnamon

Generously butter a 9x13 baking pan.

In a large saucepan, melt butter.  Stir in 1/2 c. of the brown sugar and let cool to room temperature.  Whisk in egg and almond extract, then stir in salt and almond flour.  Press dough evenly into pan, with slightly higher edges.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes.  (Can be prepared one day ahead.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp. cornstarch, 1 c. sugar, and cinnamon.  Sprinkle half of the mixture over the crust, top with 4 c. of the blueberries, then the remaining sugar mixture.  Shake the pan a little so the sugar sinks down around the berries and the berries are evenly distributed.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the edges of the crust are deep golden brown and the berries are bubbling.

Transfer pan to a rack and distribute remaining 2 c. of blueberries evenly over the top.  Sprinkle with a little sugar, let cool for 30 minutes, and serve warm with vanilla ice cream (or cool to room temperature).

I cooked my brains out this weekend and loved every minute of it.  See Saturday's results -  icy cold gazpacho, as well as poached eggs over potato pancakes - below.  Both are new favorites, and why not?  Crunchy, creamy, salty.  Pretty much everything I crave.

So where, you might wonder, are the pics of Sunday's pork ribs, coleslaw, crushed potatoes with garlic & preserved lemon, and mini-burgers?  Well...

...I hate to say it, but the Annual Super Duper Shubert Coopster July 4th Celebration meal went largely unphotographed.  Turns out, I am terrible at entertaining and taking pictures at the same time.  Cory Shubert took the pics above and below - thanks man!

Luckily I possessed a no-fail pork ribs pic from when I posted the recipe on Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly mag's blog a few weeks ago.  If you look hard enough, you'll see that these are everyone's favorite ribs, falling-off-the-bone-tender with a crusty, spicy-sweet glaze.  It's harder to see that they're ridiculously easy, making them the perfect party food.  But it's true.  If you give them a try, let me know.

I'm kicking myself for not snapping pics of the coleslaw and crushed potatoes - you'll just have to take my word for it that both turned out so pretty.  I added sliced cucumber, quartered cherry tomatoes, and crispy bacon to the coleslaw.  Good move, I recommend all three additions.  The recipe for the excellent potatoes, via The Pioneer Woman (with the addition of garlic and preserved lemon), is below.  You could boil the potatoes a couple of hours ahead of time, keep them at room temperature, then crush (crash!) and roast them right before sitting down to dinner.

For dessert, Suz brought her now-famous blueberry kuchen, one of the best desserts on the planet.  Also easy (see a pattern?) - make it now through the end of the summer, when blueberries are at their peak.  Serve warm with a scoop of melty ice cream - fireworks in your mouth and a real crowd pleaser.

If you make it, take a pic and send it to me!

So there it is.  Another 4th of July, another summer celebration.  We swam, we sipped, we grilled, we ate.  We laughed our butts off, doused ourselves in bug spray, and hauled our chairs out onto lovely Interlachen Golf Course for fireworks.  The rain held off, the fireworks dazzled, and we made our way home to bed.  Oooh.

Aaaaaaaah.

I hope you all had a great 4th!

Crash Hot Potatoes
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Serves 6

12 whole new potatoes
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. chopped rosemary (or other fresh herbs)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 of a whole preserved lemon, seeds discarded, minced (I find jars of whole preserved lemons at Whole Foods)
coarse salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F.  Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Add potatoes and cook them until they are fork-tender.

While the potatoes cook, add heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add the rosemary and garlic and saute until garlic is fragrant and just softening, about 4 minutes.  Stir in preserved lemon and set aside.

Drizzle the remaining 2 Tbsp. of olive oil on a baking sheet and spread evenly.  Drain potatoes and place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly crushes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and crush lightly again.  Spoon a bit of the garlic oil on each potato, using all the oil.  Sprinkle the potatoes lightly with salt.

Place potatoes in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  Grind black pepper over the hot potatoes and serve immediately.

"Oh, this pool is as warm as a Turkish Bath!" - Sullivan Shubert, age 8, in response to How's the water Sully?, July 4, 2010
"I love these hamburgers so much I want to marry them, but the funeral won't be long after..." – Sullivan Shubert, age 7, regarding mini-hamburgers, July 4, 2009
"They start big but end fast, like a good sneeze." - Sullivan Shubert, age 6, explaining fireworks to Cooper, July 4, 2008
“Wow, those would make Vivian feel fancy!” – Sullivan Shubert, age 4, regarding super-sparkly fireworks, July 4, 2006

On Wisconsin! Or, not so much, since I've been back for a week already, and the Badgers are 0-3 in the Big Ten as of last night. Ouch. But no matter, the real reason for last weekend's trip was to get together with my long-time friends Cami and Michelle, and the three of us had a BLAST. Beautiful weather, lots of walking, drinks on the Terrace, Saturday morning Farmer's Market, dinner at Kabul, beer at the KK, and a real-deal Badger tailgate party (grilled brats with all the fixin's!) more than made up for a sorry football game. We had low expectations for the game anyhow - the fabulous Wisconsin Marching Band had been suspended from playing last weekend. Boooooooo! Camp Randall without the band? Pfffft, nothin'. Oh, the student section managed a few raunchy cheers on their own, but the pom squad had no drums to shake it to, half-time was completely silent, and at the end of the game, everyone just...left. No 5th quarter = no fun.

As is typical for me, a few nights of less than adequate sleep (and more than adequate beer) means getting sick. I knew I'd blown it by Sunday night - sore throat, raspy voice, here we go. I did my best to fight it off this week, but here I sit, coughing and sniffling, damn those Badgers! (But totally worth it!)

I even rallied to put on a bit of a feast Thursday night as we loosely celebrated Yom Kippur. John doesn't fast, and I'm not Jewish, but no matter - we invited Jewthran Suz and her family, and Stacey, Cooper, and Bowen as well, and had a lovely meal in honor of the most important of Jewish holidays. I made matzo ball soup with very rich chicken broth, beef brisket with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and challah. Suz made a caramel apple pie and a pumpkin pie for dessert, both to die for. It was a school night, plus we had little Coop, so we ate early (and heartily, uff), and toddled off to bed by 10:00. L'chaim!

This weekend, keeping things pretty low key. Tortilla soup for dinner last night - its spicy garlicky-ness cleared the sinuses quite nicely. Wish I had some of that matzo ball soup for today, oooh, but no, it's all gone. Sniff. I still have a spot of delicious, beefy gravy left from Thursday's meal, however; I'll have to innovate around that so it doesn't go to waste. Perhaps something a la stroganoff - whisk in a bit of sour cream, serve over sauteed steak and mushrooms, I can picture it. Yeah, I can picture it quite clearly, in fact. I'm off to the store...