Daily Loaf

Friends invited me to dinner this week, and I offered to bring dessert. A trip to the market produced sweet-tart, juicy nectarines. I thought about a nice pie or cobbler, but my hostess can’t eat wheat products. A bowl of sliced nectarines with a drizzle of heavy cream is always good, but I wanted something a little more special.

Pavlovas were a perfect choice. They don’t contain wheat, are easy to put together, and are a wonderful showcase for beautiful ripe fruit.

Pavlovas are popular in Australia and New Zealand, where they were developed and named for ballerina Anna Pavlova. They resemble clouds on top of pillows, with a base of meringue and a crisp exterior that gives way to a soft, marshmallowy center. The meringue is filled with whipped cream and topped with fruit — in this case nectarine, but as long as it is soft, juicy and ripe it should work (tart is also a good quality). Berries are beautiful and delicious. Passion fruit is wonderful, as are blueberries mixed with a touch of lemon curd (made from the yolks that aren’t used in the meringue).

Volume is key when making Pavlovas. When working with egg whites Read the rest of this entry »

My Saturday habit is to start the day at a farmer’s market. Instead of going with a menu and specific ingredients in mind, I choose what looks best and design my menu around what I buy and this week the stars of the show were the peaches.

They’re in season within 100 miles of my home, getting from the farm to my table quickly. This means they are picked at their peak and I get to enjoy a peach that is dripping with juice, has a heady aroma, and tastes…. like a peach.

One of the best ways to enjoy peaches like this is sliced, chilled and topped with a drizzle of good quality heavy cream. But this Saturday I was having company for dinner and wanted something more. One of my dinner guests was my mom, who doesn’t eat much in the way of sweets.

This peach shortcake recipe was pretty, homey and very tasty. The base is a faintly sweet biscuit that gets a flavor and moisture boost from sour cream. The peaches have just a bit of sugar added to help coax out juices to drizzle on the cake. Whipped cream adds a touch of vanilla for a sweet quality without extra sugar. Read the rest of this entry »

When I seek out ingredients, I make an effort to find good-quality local items. Sometimes that means eggs and greens that travel fewer than 20 miles to get to me in the Florida panhandle. Other times, when something is not available on a truly local level, I try to find it regionally (usually Florida, Georgia and Alabama).

It isn’t always possible, but when I have a choice I buy local. That helps the local economy and uses fewer resources to go from farm to table. It also makes me focus on buying items that are in season, which is when they are the least expensive and taste the best.

For me, local buying is easy when it comes to seafood. It’s abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay. Local buying has also worked well with cheese, honey, vegetables and meats. One of the meats I buy are ranch-raised rabbits from Seely’s Ark in Ocala. Read the rest of this entry »

When Hamburger Helper came out in 1971, it made ground beef a mainstay of the quick and easy dinner. Mom did make that boxed meal on occasion, but fortunately she never abandoned picadillo, a quick and easy ground beef dish that’s part of our family tradition.

I learned to make picadillo (pick-ah-dee-yo) from her, she learned it from her mother, and I can only assume that my grandmother learned it from her mother. I remember my grandfather mispronouncing it “piccadilly” as a playful poke at my grandmother when she prepared it for Thursday night dinner.

There are many versions of picadillo, but this recipe is true to what I grew up eating, although the cumin and cinnamon stick are my additions. It has wonderful, complex flavors: the beef and onions are savory, the raisins add sweetness, olives are salty and capers piquant. Picadillo has a big impact for a dish that only takes a few minutes to put together using pantry staples. Read the rest of this entry »

I love finding great produce, and was thrilled to find the first corn of the season in the market recently. The good thing about in-season produce is it is cheaper, more flavorful and usually from closer to home.

Roasting the corn for this salad coaxes out all the sweetness. The soft bibb lettuce provides nice contrast to the crisp bacon. The simple dressing of vinegar and cream is inspired by a dressing I had on a salad in France. Adding vinegar to the cream makes a dressing with a nice balance of sweetness from the cream and acidity from the vinegar, a bit like crème fraiche. Be sure to start with a good quality, good-tasting vinegar because it is a prominent flavor in this salad. Read the rest of this entry »

For wine lovers, the paraphernalia for enjoying wine are second only to the wine itself. I don’t collect gadgets just for the sake of having them, but I don’t mind picking up something new when I find it really adds to the wine experience. Recently, while visiting my neighborhood wine shop, I discovered a wine glass that has made drinking wine at picnics and cookouts even more enjoyable. Read the rest of this entry »

These Lamb Burgers are packed with flavors from the Middle East. Cumin, mint and parsley bring out the best in the lamb, while a sauce of tahini and lemon is a savory stand-in for mayo. Served on warm flat bread, the tiny burgers are very moist, even when cooked through. A Cucumber-Feta Quick Pickle adds bright flavor. In the same theme, delicate eggplant fries are served alongside. Frying the eggplant brings out sweetness that works well with the tangy flavors in the burgers. Read the rest of this entry »

There is something so perfect about a warm spring evening spent under the stars listening to good music and eating good food. It gets even better when you have the happy accident of discovering an unexpected and unconventional food and wine pairing. The Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation kicked off its 8-week Concerts in the Park series on Thursday, providing a great excuse for a picnic (not that an excuse was necessary). A group of us put together a slightly organized potluck — we knew what the main course was going to be, and everything else fell into place.

Read the rest of this entry »

I tend to seek out food made from good quality ingredients that haven’t been manipulated too much. I love to cook, and take pride in making things from scratch. I try to eat local, and like to know where my food comes from. That means that fast food and junk food are not everyday choices. But being married to a junk food aficionado introduced me to another world of options.

Some of those options have become cravings. I call those my guilty pleasures. They include Krispy Kreme doughnuts (plain glazed, of course), Popeye’s spicy chicken tenders and onion rings, and the Whataburger potato breakfast taquito. My latest guilty pleasure is from McDonald’s. Read the rest of this entry »