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Secret Garden Recipe: Two Exquisite Tea Sandwiches

When I was little, I didn’t lust after coins or stamps or postcards or anything particularly, ah, collectible. Instead, I coveted tiny things. When my mother would head to torturous craft stores to pick up sewing supplies, the dollhouse aisle was a haven. Package after package boasted teensy soda bottles, itty bitty magazines (with readable headlines!), miniature lamps, pint-sized armoires, and on and on. I always tried to pick a particularly adorable item to ask Mom for, but then I’d realize with a measure of disgust that I didn’t really know what I’d do with a set of tiny kitchen utensils. At any rate, miniatures have always had my heart.

Maybe I am secretly a gnome.

One sort of miniature that did frequently end up coming home with me was tea sets. I sought them out everywhere I went — toy stores, souvenir shops, craft stores, department stores, gas stations. You’d be surprised where you can find tea sets. I had medium sets, tiny sets, super-ultra-tiny sets. There were teapots with elegant designs, cutesy designs, holiday designs, and even one where every dish was shaped like a flower.

Despite my plethora of tea sets, I never once sat down and had tea. I displayed them, fiddled with them, and every now and then acted out a sad little version of a teddy bear tea party, but I don’t think a drop of tea or a crumb of a crumpet ever touched a single dish. What a shame, because there are very few food events more classy and sweet than a tea party.

For my sister’s Secret Garden Party, I remedied the situation. It was a tea party to the extreme, complete with a colorful tablecloth, Mom’s best china, some sweet decor, and the most important part: an elaborate spread of indulgent finger foods. These savory, delicate finger sandwiches were one of the biggest hits on the table.

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches


Recipe by: Great Party Recipes
Yields: about 40 finger sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced very thinly
3/4 cup butter, room temperature so it’s soft and spreadable
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
20 pieces thin-sliced bread with crusts removed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Place the cucumber slices in a colander, lightly salt them, and let them drain for 1-2 hours to remove some of the moisture.

Combine the soft butter and garlic in a bowl and spread onto one side of each slice of bread. In a separate bowl, stir together lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. Place the cucumber slices into this mixture and toss to coat them well. On each of 10 slices of bread, arrange overlapping cucumber slices. Top with remaining 10 slices and quarter. Serve immediately.

Classic Cucumber Tea Sandwiches were cool, buttery, and satisfyingly crisp. Providing the perfect complement was the salty, bold flavor of Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches with a kick of paprika. Both sandwiches were devoured (daintily, of course) in between scones, croissants, and lemonade.

Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches


Recipe by: Great Party Recipes
Yields: about 40 finger sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 cup cream cheese, room temperature so it’s soft and spreadable
20 slices bread, thin-sliced with crusts removed
1/2 cup capers
12 ounces thin-sliced smoked salmon
lemon juice
Pepper to taste
mayonnaise (optional)
paprika (optional)

Directions:
Spread cream cheese on each slice of bread (one side only) and dot with capers (I liked quite a few capers). Arrange the smoked salmon on 10 bread slices, with a squeeze of lemon juice on each. Pepper generously (to taste), top with remaining 10 bread slices, and quarter (using a serrated knife). Brush long side of each tea sandwich with mayonnaise very lightly and dip into paprika to coat. Tap to remove excess paprika. Serve immediately.

Don’t repeat my childhood mistake of overlooking the tea party. Whether it’s for a gardenful of guests, a roomful of family, or a handful of (conveniently disinterested) stuffed animals, whip up some of these simple tea sandwiches. With minimal kitchen time and a short ingredient list, they provide a ton of pinky-pointing deliciousness. How about you? What’s your favorite tea party friendly dish? Scones, croissants, muffins, pastries, petit fours? Or are you a savory tea sandwich person yourself?

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Dining in The King’s Kitchen (recipe: Southern Pimento Cheese with Lavash Crackers)

I was floored to find out that, because of your votes, I was not only 1 of only 12 blogs to move on to round 9 of Project Food Blog, but was also Readers’ Choice! FLOORED. Thank you times a million for your amazing support! Challenge #9 was to write a restaurant review. After telling you about my head-on collision with the homelessness epidemic in San Francisco, I heard about The King’s Kitchen and its mission to “feed the hungry and heal the brokenhearted.” Please read my review below and consider supporting me in this round! VOTING IS NOW OPEN! Please sign in to your Foodbuzz.com account (or register if you don’t already have one). Then go to my official entry here and vote by clicking the heart next to the words “Vote for this Entry.” I’d be so grateful for your continued support.

Dorothea sat across from me, a child of God in the kitchen of the King, and wore a sweet grin on her face, though she was recounting times in her life that were anything but happy. She described herself as a character, and you could see by the way she lit up her coworkers’ faces that it was true. She’s worked her way up from dishwasher to prep cook at The King’s Kitchen, a new restaurant in uptown Charlotte, but what she was remembering during our conversation were the times before she had this opportunity — darker days of her life.

“I was wild, a troublemaker,” she said, and “it was a hard struggle to get back. People do make mistakes, and when you want to do what’s right, it’s hard because [jobs] look at your background, not realizing that we all make mistakes.” But The King’s Kitchen, a restaurant that donates 100% of its profits to help feed the hungry and employs workers others might consider “unemployable,” recognized that all she needed was an opportunity.


After my first anonymous visit to the restaurant, I returned to get to know some of its amazing staff. From L to R: Dorothea, Sous Chef Sam Stachon, and my fantastic server, Charity.

When we got up so that I could take a photograph of Dorothea, she pulled Sous Chef Sam Stachon along with her, saying affectionately, “I want a picture with my chef, my chef.” Her words seemed to communicate a particular emotion to me, but I reflected on them all night before finally recognizing what it was: acceptance. The King’s Kitchen is a family, and Dorothea is — as she deserves to be — a beloved member.

* * * *

Restaurants are part of the broader hospitality industry — but what does hospitality mean in the world today? In America? In my city, in my neighborhood, in my heart? Does it mean good food, attentive service, a comfortable seat, a cordial smile? Maybe all of those things, but even more than that, hospitality carries with it a deeper sense of welcome. It’s an opening of one’s space and talents, an expression of love, and a willingness to serve. As Dorothea’s story illustrates, both the staff and the customers have found hospitality in The King’s Kitchen.


The King’s Kitchen

The ninth (!) challenge of Project Food Blog is to write a restaurant review — something that’s never happened on Willow Bird Baking! Especially after listening to the judges talk about exploring the “folklore of the meal,” I felt inspired to resist the traditional tone of restaurant reviews. The point of this blog is not to write to you from an expert standpoint — it’s to talk to you, one home cook to another, and to tell you my stories.

A WBB style restaurant review will tell you, first off, about a place that touched my heart — and I hope you’re already seeing how The King’s Kitchen did just that. Second off, a review here will tell you about my honest, individual experience with the food a restaurant served and the atmosphere they created. Finally, it just wouldn’t be a Willow Bird Baking post without a recipe. Sous Chef Sam Stachon gave me one of my favorite King’s Kitchen recipes to make at home and share with you: Southern Pimento Cheese with Lavash Crackers.

The Food:


One of my favorite dishes: Fried Flounder with Butter Beans, Macaroni and Cheese, and Coleslaw

The King’s Kitchen serves comfort food that amplified, for me, the feeling of hospitality. Every dish became an allusion to something in my past, some memory of home or family. I sampled biscuits, cornbread, one appetizer, three entrées, six side dishes, and two desserts in all. And apart from feeling a little humiliated to have just admitted that on the internet, I had a fantastic experience.

The Fried Flounder, for instance, had a light and flavorful breading and was served with a tangy, house-made tartar sauce with capers. Another entrée, Aunt Beaut’s Fried Chicken, transported me to the Fridays in high school when my dad would bring fried chicken by my summer job as a special lunch. It was juicy, crisp, and nestled next to a bank of corn and perfectly flavored collard greens.


Aunt Beaut’s Fried Chicken with Collard Greens, Macaroni and Cheese, and Corn

The Shrimp and Grits were unexpected. They had a more intense tomato flavor and were lighter than a typical spicy andouille sausage incarnation. As Mike and I ate this dish, I remembered Charleston and cobblestones, buying a bouquet of flowers from a peddler in the night — flowers I still have tucked away somewhere. Mike enjoyed the dish more than I did, but we both agreed that there didn’t seem to be a way to go too wrong when choosing anything on the menu. Everything felt like home.


Shrimp and Grits

Other odds and ends at our table were also impressive. The biscuits were fluffy and make-your-knees-buckle good when slathered with the housemade strawberry jam. The veggie side items were all fresh and perfectly seasoned. And one of my favorites, the pimento cheese on housemade lavash crackers, reminded me of many a fond moment spent devouring pimento cheese from a spoon over my sink — except it was handmade and had a much better flavor than the sort from a plastic tub.


Odds and Ends (from top L, going clockwise): Pimento Cheese and Lavash Crackers, Biscuits with fresh housemade Jam, Butter Beans and Macaroni and Cheese, and Aunt Beaut’s Chicken and Collard Greens

Finally, the dessert options at The King’s Kitchen are exciting and varied. My pet peeve about some restaurant dining is that many a restaurant neglects the dessert menu, offering pedestrian dishes that are meant to appease rather than delight. Dessert is important, y’all, and The King’s Kitchen boasted plenty of it: Banana Pudding with housemade vanilla wafers, Coconut Chess Pie, Deep Dish Apple Pie, Pecan Pie, Chocolate Pie, and Aunt Esther’s Brown Sugar Pound Cake.

Mike and I come from families with legendary banana pudding recipes, so we were a bit biased. We found the Banana Pudding with toasted marshmallow topping a little too sweet and would’ve loved more wafers. The Coconut Chess Pie, however — which was made by Dorothea herself! — was a work of art with a flaky crust and a dense, coconut filling.


Banana Pudding (top row) and Coconut Chess Pie (bottom)

The Atmosphere:

The food was matched by the exceptional, warm service and comfortable atmosphere. Matt, our first server, was always ready with recommendations or a refill of the best fountain soda everrr (side note: hurray for fantastic fountain drinks). When I returned alone to meet some of the staff, Charity was equally attentive and kind.

More than just the servers’ personalities, though, the mission of the restaurant creates its environment. Even as you sit in the beautifully appointed dining room with lovely upholstered booths, a glossy bar, and, now, a shining Christmas tree, there’s a sense that you’re not the center of the universe, but part of a broader community — a web of people who have and have not, people of all races and classes, and people who are necessarily interdependent. In addition to enjoying the nostalgic food, I so appreciated the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself.

Pocket-Sized Review:

  • Location: 129 W Trade St #100, Charlotte, NC 28202-5305; on the web; or by phone: (704) 375-1990 ‎
  • Hours: Lunch is served Monday through Friday, 11 am-2:30 pm; Dinner is served Monday through Saturday, 5 pm until
  • Cuisine: Southern soul food (lunch menu; dinner menu)
  • Price Range: Dinner appetizers: $4-13, Dinner sandwiches: $8-13, Dinner entrées: $12-24, Desserts: $7.5
  • Favorite Picks: Aunt Beaut’s Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Fried Flounder, and Coconut Chess Pie
  • Cool Notes: The King’s Kitchen donates 100% of its profits to feed the homeless, and also employs and trains members of society who others may consider “unemployable.”
  • Dress: Casual
  • Parking: Parking is relatively easy to find. We parked in a lot just behind the restaurant on Trade Street that was $6-7 for evening parking. There are also metered spaces nearby.
  • Overall Willow Bird Baking Rating: 4.5 out of 5 spoons

If you’d like to enjoy a little bit of The King’s Kitchen in your own home, whip up some homemade pimento cheese and lavash crackers. The recipe below is simple and satisfying.

What small choice could you make to show hospitality to someone today?


The King’s Kitchen Pimento Cheese and Lavash Crackers — this time made in my own kitchen!

Southern Pimento Cheese with Lavash Crackers


Recipe by: Adapted from The King’s Kitchen
Yield: about 4 servings of crackers, about 2 cups of pimento cheese

Lavash Cracker Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
1/3 to 1/2 cup room temperature water
water for misting

Southern Pimento Cheese:
2 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup gouda, shredded
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, diced (I used half pimentos)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:
Make the lavash crackers: Sprinkle yeast into 1/3 cup room temperature water to dissolve for 5 minutes. It should start to foam a bit. Combine this yeast mixture, flour, salt, honey, and melted butter in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine into a ball. You can add up to 1/4 cup more water if needed, but add the smallest amount needed.

Flour your counter and knead the dough on the counter for 10 minutes until it has medium firmness, is not tacky at all, and is supple enough to stretch if you pull it. Place the kneaded dough into an oiled bowl, cover it, and place it in a draft-free area for around 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray the counter with cooking spray and transfer the dough onto it. Roll it out until it’s paper thin, stretching the corners periodically, and about 15 x 12 inches, so it’ll fit on a sheet pan. Stop every now and then to allow the gluten to relax if needed. Let it relax for 5 minutes once finished rolling, then transfer it carefully onto a baking sheet. Trim any excess that falls over the side of the pan with scissors.

At this point, you can mist your sheet of dough with water and coat it with sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, cayenne pepper (go easy!), cumin, poppy seeds, or scores of other fun things.

Bake for 13-20 minutes, watching carefully to ensure your crackers don’t burn (full disclosure: I was distracted and some of mine did!), before pulling them out and letting them cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Break them into shards.

Make the pimento cheese: Mix everything together in a bowl. Allow to chill for at least 20 minutes or so for the flavors to meld before serving. Sprinkle with fresh cheddar shreds to serve (and serving on lettuce is a nice touch).


Lavash Crackers with various toppings

P.S. One blog I love is Evangitality, where Kamille charges herself to share the love of Christ (with her family and others) through hospitality. Go see and be inspired!

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Deconstructing a Pizza and a Place

Deconstruction in the culinary world is about division: a familiar dish is broken down into its discrete flavor components, which are served in an unexpected way. It’s about assembly: the separated components meld in each bite, surprising in their newfound unity. It’s about departure: the eater is asked to readjust what they know and what they think they know. It’s about coming home. It’s about the moment when all the flavors suddenly make sense as a recognizable whole — maybe as a dish you’ve had a taste memory of since childhood, but didn’t expect to meet in this new form.

During my parents’ anniversary dinner, I took the classic dishes they’d grown up with and reinterpreted them. Diner pizza became these deconstructed pizza bites, cold and salty, bold and mellow — and surprising in their transformation from discrete bits of flavor to a unified, familiar experience.


View of the Bay Bridge from Alcatraz

San Francisco was also deconstructed for me this past weekend. I attended the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival and after a weekend of crowds, taxis, food, lights, friends, laughter, food, cameras, trolleys, hills, and food, I’m sitting alone in Charlotte trying to process the experience.

It’s quiet here — just the sound of airplanes in the sky above my apartment, the road noise beyond the woods, the determined hum of my recently reemployed heater. When I look to the west from this vantage point, pretending my vision reaches the 3,000 miles and 96 hours back in time to my trip, I see fragmented moments: a deconstructed city, a deconstructed experience.

Maybe if I offer these bits of memory to you together — no toothpick to assemble them on, so a blog post will have to do — you’ll taste the flavor of the weekend.


A gull looks toward San Francisco

FLAVOR

Bursting, juicy pork sandwiches with crispy pork skin. Cupcakes like coconut clouds. Adorable quail eggs. Agave-sweetened gazpacho. The burning rush of juice from a garlicky escargot pop. Sultry corn tortillas around shredded beef. A tongueful of flaming mushroom soup. Tart cranberries nestled in goat cheese. Lamb resting peacefully on a bed of butternut. Gruyère tucked inside a fat croissant.


Mini-doughnuts by the bay

ADRENALINE

I presented my Blueberry Stuffed French Toast Bowl recipe to a room filled with sweet, hungry people. Before the demonstration, my shaking hands were trying desperately to set each kitchen utensil and bowl in its rightful place, taking aimless photos, and failing to fasten my apron properly. During the demonstration, I might have been a little silly. Maybe. And after the demonstration — pure joy. What fun! What supportive friends!


Doing my Nature’s Pride demonstration at the Foodbuzz Tasting Pavilion

LAUGHTER

On Saturday night, Foodbuzz hosted a scavenger hunt around the city. I joined a group of relative strangers to romp around San Francisco being silly. I was so exhausted before we began that I wasn’t sure if I’d made the right decision — but being a part of Team Tony & the Gold Dust Gals (as we dubbed ourselves) was a highlight of my trip. Here are the tasks we had to complete (photos in this section are by the super-sweet Laura Flowers except the business card photo by my lovely roomie Diana):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZByOPa-X-l0&fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca]1. Dance with a stranger (I totally stepped on his foot).


2. Late night exercise: 10 synchronized jumping jacks.


3. Exchange business cards with 10 people.


4. Photo with the hippest person you can find (the dude in the bowtie, OBVIOUSLY!)

5. Late night toast at the Gold Dust Lounge (I don’t drink, but water works!)


6. Late night snack (of brightly colored, flagrantly artificial drugstore sweets!)

It was beyond absurd scavenging around San Francisco with these wonderful, crazy people. I started out so tired I could barely move, but once we finished our tasks, I didn’t want the night to end.

CRISIS

Even as we were running around San Francisco through bouts of laughter and chatter, something was very wrong. In fact, something had been wrong throughout my trip. On my first night in the city, I walked out to the drugstore to purchase a few supplies. A homeless man stood outside and asked if I would buy him a tuna sandwich and some orange juice – something I happily did. As the weekend stretched on, though, I saw a different man or woman on every corner. Every few feet. In every other doorway.

During the scavenger hunt, we passed a man with no shoes and only a thin sweatshirt sitting in an alcove. He was unable to make eye contact, and seemingly unable to modulate his voice. In a quiet monotone, he was repeating, “Help me — somebody help me.”


San Francisco sunset through the dirty hotel window

I don’t know what to say except that I’m haunted. We have homeless in Charlotte, but I encounter them at a rate that I feel I can manage, and offer them a warm lunch or dinner. In San Francisco, I was overwhelmed. What can I do for this person? And this one? And this one? Each individual deserves a meal, deserves clothing, deserves love, deserves a kindness. But I don’t have the money to provide for them. I prayed as I passed, but was confronted with a scripture from James: “If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”

I’m reading through the article series, Shame of the City from 2003 and still wondering, wondering, wondering: what can I do?


View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz

COMFORT

Despite traumatic moments, Sunday was a balm on my nerves and heart. My beloved college roommate, Martha, drove an hour and a half to spend the day with me. We walked through the sometimes-rain and sometimes-mist in Chinatown, then took a trolley out to the water. We devoured croissants and muffins at Boudin Bakery, home of “mother sponge,” the starter of San Francisco’s famous sourdough.

The sea lions of Fisherman’s Wharf had us in stitches — especially the particularly bulbous ones. I made Martha pose like a tourist in front of random ferries and Ghirardelli square. We rounded off the night with In N Out fries and a crazy drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. Staring out at the lights of Sausalito and San Francisco with someone I truly love to pieces was one of my favorite parts of the trip.


Me and Martha

From random bites to random dances, from boisterous sea lions to giant bay bridges, San Francisco was full of magic. I’ll continue to process the experience and break it down into bright bite-size pieces. In the meantime, have a Deconstructed Pizza Bite.

Do you have suggestions for how to get involved in the plight of the homeless? Have you found a way of serving underprivileged citizens? Let me know.

Deconstructed Margherita Pizza Bites


Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking
Yield: about 12 pizza bites

Ingredients:
2 1-inch thick slices of crusty Italian bread, toasted
12 pieces of pepperoni
1 tomato, chopped into cubes
24 mozzarella pearls (or small hunks of mozzarella)
about 4-5 large basil leaves, torn into 3 pieces each

Directions:
On a toothpick, assemble the following: one hunk of bread as your base, a pearl of mozzarella, a hunk of tomato, another pearl of mozzarella, a piece of pepperoni folded into quarters, and finally, a piece of basil leaf. Refrigerate until ready to serve, and serve cold for a fresh, bright flavor.


Sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf

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A Heartfelt Birthday Do-Over, Homemade Ravioli, and a Giveaway!

This weekend, I drove a total of 320 miles or 6 hours total for one magical road trip. It was inspired by a sweet gesture from Mike, and turned into a beautiful event for both of us. Let me tell you all about it.

I.  The Inspiration: A Childhood Dream Come True



Mike’s gift to me that inspired my road trip: a visit to the NC State Fair.

This weekend, Mike gave me a sweet gift: a do-over. He gave me the opportunity to revise a childhood memory from fifth grade.

My parents are going to kill me when they read this, because I’ve never told them anything about it. In fifth grade, my teacher scheduled a field trip to the State Fair in Raleigh, about 3 hours away. I’d never been to a fair, so I was thrilled to hear about the trip — until I heard the cost: $90. To my fifth grade brain, that might as well have been a million dollars.

I thought of my daddy going off to work third shift every night at the newspaper. I thought of my mom working late into the night to get her nursing paperwork completed. I thought of how we had to be careful to make ends meet each month despite all of their hard work.

I decided not to tell them about the field trip. I knew they would sacrifice to let me go, and I knew I’d rather stay home than let that happen. I sat at school while the other kids climbed aboard the bus to Raleigh. I’m sorry Mom and Dad — I know I should’ve given you the opportunity to send me! But my fifth grade mind was made up.

Imagine my surprise and delight when, a few weeks ago, Mike asked if I wanted to drive up and go to the State Fair. All of my fifth grade excitement came rushing back. Yes, I wanted a do-over! A second chance! A funnel cake!

In that spirit, this past weekend, Mike took me to my first fair. We ate copious amounts of fried food, petted fat billy goats, and definitely made up for lost time. It was better than it ever could’ve been in fifth grade, because Mike was by my side.

II.  Returning the Favor with a Road Trip: Mike’s Birthday Do-Over

I knew I wanted to do something special for Mike in return for what he’d done for me. Thankfully, Project Food Blog’s challenge for Round 6 was to pack up a meal and take a road trip (thank you so much for voting me through to this point). My road trip was designed to surprise Mike with his very own special do-over!



Mike’s surprise do-over.

On Mike’s birthday this past year, I really goofed. I made him handmade pumpkin ravioli — which probably sounds wonderful, except for the fact that he doesn’t like pumpkin and it tasted awful. This isn’t one of those “Oh, this could use more salt” things, y’all. It was gross.

For my road trip challenge, I decided to drive to Raleigh and throw Mike a heartfelt birthday do-over. Everything would be decorated in hearts and kisses and, most importantly, I’d make him a fantastic meal this time — one to drive all thoughts of pumpkin ravioli straight out of his mind.


The menu and decor. Note to PFB voters: the picnic basket was just for charm; all food was transported in my PFB cooler per challenge guidelines! Oh, and psst – you can enter to win this chalkboard below!

I chose to make the following dishes for our party:

-handmade, heart-shaped cheese ravioli in a meaty red sauce

-heart-shaped palmiers with goat cheese and homemade pesto

-red velvet cupcakes with heart cutouts

-giant red velvet kisses with special messages

-hot chocolate with homemade heart-shaped marshmallows


Cooler packed and ready to go!

Besides being delicious, some of the dishes had special significance. The red velvet cupcakes were planned to remind Mike of cupcakes I made for him one Valentine’s Day years ago, before I baked on a regular basis. He loved them so much that it inspired me to continue baking.

The hot chocolate represented sitting by the fire in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with him one December a couple of years ago. We hadn’t expected to have access to a fireplace on our trip, and for some reason, it made us so happy. We sat by it and sipped hot chocolate, loving every minute.




Handmade ravioli — now you see it, now you don’t.

I prepped and cooked for 3 days before hopping in my car and driving up the interstate. The venue I’d chosen for our birthday party picnic was Historic Yates Mill Park, and it turned out to be breathtaking. We spread a quilt under the shade of some gorgeous trees and ate while looking out over the mirror-like pond. Heart streamers danced in the wind beyond our picnic blanket, and a few industrious ants tried to join us for our meal. We brought books to read, but ended up having too much fun playing, talking, lounging, and walking around the mill.


Heart-shaped Pesto and Goat Cheese Palmiers.


I <3 Dessert! A giant red velvet kiss, red velvet cupcakes with heart cut-outs, and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.

Mike was coaxed into putting on the gigantic birthday hat I bought him. We blew birthday horns, I sang happy birthday, and he blew out his candles — all just as it should have been on his real birthday. This time, there was no pumpkin disaster to overshadow the moment — just me, Mike, and our little feast.


Normal Mike, and Julie-Made-Me-Wear-This-Stupid-Hat Mike

When all the food was packed away into the car again, we spent hours dwindling about the grounds. All told, four hours slipped past us like silt along the creek bed beside the mill. We decided picnics need to be a regular event for us.



Around the Historic Yates Mill: heart streamers, beautiful trees, and the mill itself.

Between fried cheesecake, corndogs, historic mills, and heart-shaped meals, Mike and I have had an amazing weekend. Thank you to Project Food Blog for my awesome cooler, and for inspiring my birthday party do-over. Most of all, thank you, my amazing readers, for voting for me in the last 5 rounds. I’d so appreciate your votes again in round 6!

Would you like to win the aqua chalkboard showcased in this post? Posh Pilfer is giving it away to one lovely reader (deadline for entering: Thursday, 10/28 at 6pm EST; winner will be chosen via random.org). To enter, answer the following question in the comment section: What memory do you wish you could “do-over”? Think about what you could do right now to make your do-over happen — and go for it!

Want an extra entry? Follow Willow Bird Baking on Twitter, tweet this message, and leave an extra comment telling me that you’ve done so: I just entered to win a cute chalkboard from @julieruble of Willow Bird Baking: http://bit.ly/cz2iLB

Handmade Cheese Ravioli in Meaty Red Sauce


Recipe by: Adapted from Annie’s Eats (pasta and ravioli); Sauce adapted from Strawberry Hedgehog
Yield: enough pasta to serve about 2 people

Ravioli Pasta Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 tablespoon water, plus more as needed (I ended up using several full tablespoons)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole ricotta
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles
fresh basil, chopped, to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, chopped, to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste

Sauce Ingredients:
about 3 links of Italian sausage, crumbled and browned
2 16-oz. cans tomato sauce
4 6-oz. cans tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
chopped fresh basil to taste
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Make the pasta: In a food processor, combine the eggs, water, olive oil and flour. Mix on low speed until the ingredients are well mixed and a dough begins to form. If the mixture is not coming together, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time just until the dough is formed. Transfer the dough from the food processor to a work surface. Knead 1-2 minutes by hand. Cover with a clean towel and let rest for 20 minutes. Knead again for 1-2 minutes, or until dough starts to feel more supple and elastic. Let rest for another 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces. If you have a pasta machine, see instructions here for how to prepare the sheets of dough. If not, roll one piece of the dough out on a lightly floured surface, pressing hard and rolling diligently until the dough is very thin. Use a large heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out ravioli pieces. Let these rest while you mix your filling.

Mix filling: Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Taste and season accordingly.

Assemble ravioli: Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle of half of the heart shapes, leaving a clear edge around the perimeter. Dip a finger in water and lightly brush around the edges of a heart topped with the filling. Place one of the remaining pasta hearts on top and press the edges of the pasta shapes together to seal around the filling, being careful to press out any excess air. Repeat with the remaining dough shapes.

Make sauce: While browning Italian sausage, mix all other ingredients together in a bowl. Add to sausage and cook until heated through. In the meantime, cook pasta: bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the ravioli until al dente, about 4-5 minutes. Drain well and add ravioli to the sauce, tossing to coat. Serve with a spring of basil and shaved Parmesan.


At one point, my “Check Airbags,” “Low Tire Pressure,” and gas light were all lit. Glad I was only 5 minutes from my destination at this point!

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Pizzas Benedict and Deep Dish Pizza Cupfakes

YOU PEOPLE ROCK! Willow Bird Baking is one of only 72 blogs in Round 5 of Project Food Blog, and it’s all because of you! Virtual high-fives, y’all! I can’t say thank you enough.

Challenge #5 was to take a traditional dish, pizza, and remix it to create something inventive. I brainstormed for a week to find something creative, fun, delicious, and maybe even a little magical. I asked a billion (give or take a few) folks to weigh in with their pizza favorites. I laboriously googled (okay, that part was easy) and read recipe after recipe. Finally, I reached a conclusion. I appreciate your votes and I hate to let them go to waste, but . . .

FORGET PIZZA. I made cupcakes instead.

I’m tired, I’m whiny, I’m challenged-out, and cupcakes are tasty.

Just kidding, just kidding! ME, challenged-out? NEVER. The whiny part was true, but I’m always up for a challenge.

The title of this post probably gave me away — of course I made pizza . . . with a big twist. I chose to create two pizza remixes for this challenge, actually, representing two times of day when you aren’t “supposed” to eat pizza: dessert and breakfast.

I’ve been eating pizzas at all the wrong times since my childhood. Cold leftover pizza for breakfast was a delicacy. Midnight snack pizza was one of my favorites. What can I say? I’m a rebel. And I have a feeling more than a few of you are rebellious in the exact same way.

My “dessert” pizzas are a little sneaky, because they aren’t cupcakes at all — they’re cupfakes! They’re actually mini Chicago-style deep dish pizzas stuffed with mozzarella, goat cheese, pepperoni, and some of the best pizza sauce I’ve ever tasted. They’re then “frosted” with ricotta cheese, topped with colored salt sprinkles, and crowned with grape tomatoes in the place of cherries. Apart from being utterly delicious, they turned out to be the cutest little pizzas on the block!

I broke out the razorblades, cardboard, ribbon, cardstock, and glue gun to create an asymmetrical cupcake tower to showcase these cuties. Cue amusing exchanges on Twitter and Facebook:

My favorite cupfake incident was when I took a few of these to my neighbor (hi, neighbor!) and asked if he’d like some leftover homemade pizza. He looked at what seemed to be a plate of cupcakes in my hand with a slight pause. I wasn’t sure if he was going to ask why I didn’t know the difference between a pizza and a cupcake or just assume I was crazy, so I quickly explained. Mustn’t have the apartment complex thinking I’m nuts — any more than they already do, that is!

I was originally only going to create the cupfakes, but this morning I woke up and decided that for Round 5 of this competition and with only 72 blogs left, I had to go all out. I made a whole new batch of pizza dough to create my breakfast pizzas and some even tinier deep dish pizzas for later. So three batches of dough, a whole package of mozzarella, and scads of pepperoni later, I’m ready to fall over.

It was worth it.

I’ve affectionately named my breakfast pizza Pizzas Benedict. These had a heartier crust made with part whole-wheat flour to mimic an English muffin (okay, it was because I thought I’d run out of all-purpose flour. I later found a bag of it in the living room because, you know, that’s where normal people keep their flour).

The Pizzas Benedict were stuffed with a mixture of scrambled eggs, spinach, bacon, goat cheese, and cheddar cheese, and topped with fresh Hollandaise sauce. The egg mixture didn’t stay stuffed into the crust like it was supposed to, so in some of the pizzas, it was more of a topping and the crust was like a muffin base — but they were still delicious! Next time I might add even more of the stuffin’.

This turned out to be an exhausting, dangerous challenge. I shattered a glass all over the kitchen floor and sliced my foot as I was mixing my first batch of dough — a batch that ultimately ended up in the trash. I was up until the wee hours of the morning with my razorblades and hot glue. And at one point, I looked up from creating my Chicago-style deep dish pizzas and realized that my New Yorker roommate was sitting on the couch watching a Yankees game.

Barbara is not just any New Yorker, y’all. She makes a yearly pilgrimage to New York for Italian food and baseball. She has Yankees paraphernalia all over her room. She has like 8 superstitious rituals she completes for each baseball game — including lighting tealight candles, snuggling under her Yankees blanket, and wearing her lucky necklace.

She’s going to kill me, but I told her there was no way I wasn’t going to tell you about the time she ran into my room in a panic, pleading, “Can you please help me get this necklace on?!” I thought she just really loved jewelry until I realized it was her Yankees necklace and the game was starting. Yeah. She’s that kind of New Yorker. And here I was busily creating some Chicago pizza in our kitchen. I started planning escape routes.

Turns out I needn’t have worried — Barb appreciates good food as much as she appreciates New York. She loved the pizza sauce and forgave the crust. She declared that you should vote for me — and she has such good judgment. I’m just sayin’.

In addition to being exhausting, dangerous, and sometimes painful, this challenge was amazing! It allowed me to tackle new techniques (making homemade pizza dough), which is something I’m passionate about. It also provided an arena to do the things I already know I love: playing with food, making it adorable, and making it fun.

I hope you’ll make some pizza cupfakes and surprise someone you love. Or why not have a pizza day, complete with a pizza breakfast, lunch, dinner, and “dessert”? Have fun!

Deep Dish Pizza Cupfakes


Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, compiled and adapted from the following sources:

– Recipe Pizza (crust) with help from Annie’s Eats
– Strawberry Hedgehog (pizza sauce)

Yield: about 13 cupcake-sized cupfakes

Crust Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 3/4 cups all−purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Pizza Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

“Toppings”:
pepperoni
mozzarella
goat cheese
ricotta cheese
grape tomatoes
kosher salt mixed with a few drops of food coloring to create “sprinkles”

Directions:
To make dough, sprinkle yeast and sugar into the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer for this, or just mix by hand); allow stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the flour, cornmeal, oil and salt to the yeast mixture and knead on a high speed for 7-10 minutes (you could also do this part by hand on a floured surface). You may need to add more flour here (I added about a cup and still had a wet dough, but I left it at that).

Turn dough into a large bowl coated with olive oil. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size, about 1-1.5 hours. To create a “warm spot,” I turn my oven on to 100 degrees F for a few minutes and then turn it off and open the door. When it has cooled to just barely above room temperature, I place the dough in and close the door, eliminating the possibility of drafts.

Prepare a muffin pan. Preheat the oven to 475 (with a pizza stone in it, if you have one – I just used a baking sheet). Coat each well with olive oil and a sprinkle of cornmeal. Punch risen dough down. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and let rest for 10 minutes. Using floured hands, pinch off about 2-inch balls of dough and place them in each prepared muffin well (you can freeze any leftover dough in a ball). In each well, poke a few pearls or slices of mozzarella cheese, some goat cheese, one or two pepperoni, and, finally, a big spoonful of sauce. In fact, I’d layer the sauce between each topping and then really stuff as much as you can on top — it’s the best part! Push each topping down so that the crust rises around the side. I use a spoon to gently press the sauce down at the end, so the entire thing resembles a deep dish pizza. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Let cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes before cooling on a cooling rack. If you’re making cupcakes, let them cool completely (otherwise, serve them warm).

To “frost,” pipe ricotta cheese onto each cupfake. Top with a grape tomato and salt sprinkles. You can heat each cupfake about 30 seconds before serving it. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pizzas Benedict


Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, compiled and adapted from the following sources:

– Recipe Pizza (crust)
– Tyler Florence (Hollandaise sauce)

Crust Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 1/2 cups all−purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

“Toppings”:
about 8 scrambled eggs
spinach, torn into small pieces
cooked bacon, torn into small pieces
cheddar cheese
goat cheese
garlic
butter for scrambling eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Hollandaise Sauce:
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
Pinch cayenne
Pinch salt

Directions:
To make dough, sprinkle yeast and sugar into the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer for this, or just mix by hand); allow stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the flour, cornmeal, oil and salt to the yeast mixture and knead on a high speed for 7-10 minutes (you could also do this part by hand on a floured surface). You may need to add more flour here (I added about a cup and still had a wet dough, but I left it at that).

Turn dough into a large bowl coated with olive oil. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size, about 1-1.5 hours. To create a “warm spot,” I turn my oven on to 100 degrees F for a few minutes and then turn it off and open the door. When it has cooled to just barely above room temperature, I place the dough in and close the door, eliminating the possibility of drafts.

As dough rises, beat eggs, garlic, salt and pepper, and spinach together. Place a teaspoon or so of butter in a skillet over medium high heat and scramble egg mixture. Pour into a bowl and add cheddar cheese, goat cheese, and bacon.

Prepare a muffin pan. Preheat the oven to 475 (with a pizza stone in it, if you have one – I just used a baking sheet). Coat each well with olive oil and a sprinkle of cornmeal. Punch risen dough down. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and let rest for 10 minutes. Using floured hands, pinch off about 2-inch balls of dough and place them in each prepared muffin well (you can freeze any leftover dough in a ball). Place a heaping spoonful of egg mixture in the center of each well, pressing it down into the crust dough. Bake 15-17 minutes until crust is golden. Let cool in pan for at least 5 minutes. Serve warm with Hollandaise sauce.

Make the Hollandaise sauce while your pizzas bake: Whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl and until it is thickened and doubled in volume. Place this bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water that does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Whisk rapidly and constantly, being careful not to let the eggs get so hot that they scramble. Drizzle melted butter in while continuing to whisk. Whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat and whisk in cayenne and salt. Cover and place in a warm place until ready to use. If the sauce gets too thick, you can whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.

Just for fun, here’s the list of ideas I considered for this challenge. Maybe you can grab one of these ideas and run with it!

  • Iconic Luxury Dish Pizza: Beef Wellington and Tiramisu Pizzas
  • Pizza Pie (a pie made with pizza ingredients – a take on tomato pie)
  • miniature pizzas with super accurate-looking toppings (e.g. tiny, tiny pepperoni!)
  • pizza pockets
  • dessert pizzas
  • a “pizza parfait” with layers of crust, sauce, cheese, toppings, basil in a parfait glass
  • a “waffled pizza” cooked on a waffle iron (this idea comes straight from the waffleizer blog, so not very original)
  • pizza cups — crust cups filled with sauce, cheese, and toppings and served as little appetizers
  • pizza muffins (muffins baked with cheddar cheese, pepperoni, etc. in them, and a mozzarella cheese ball in the center — sauce on top)
  • pizza nachos
  • pizza panini
  • fried pizza balls (not sure how I’d do this… somehow put pepperoni and cheese inside batter and fry the outside, and dip in sauce? Kind of just like mozzarella sticks, I guess)

What creative version of pizza can you think up?

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