BRUNCH ALERT – pancakes served with sweet cheese topping and blackberry-strawberry-pomegranate syrup.

Hello Fellow Foodies!

Who doesn’t love brunch? Since we were gifted with a 3-day weekend, I felt it only proper to celebrate with a fabulous brunch. This recipe turned out SO good and was SO easy to make. There is definite prep involved which lengthened the cook time, but in the end it was very worth it.

FIRST- pick your breakfast/brunch item of choice: i.e. pancakes, waffles, french toast, crepes, etc…

If you are going to buy them already made, great! If you’re going to make them on your own, I suggest making them last so they can be served hot.

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Let’s get to our TOPPINGS!

SYRUP – the idea of homemade syrup can be daunting, but don’t let it be! It’s really easy.

Ingredients- fresh fruit of your choice (no citrus), granulated sugar, any juice, honey OR simple syrup.

ONE – slice fresh fruit into smallish pieces. They don’t have to be minced, chopped is fine, just small enough that they will break down during the cooking process. I used strawberries and blackberries. Place cut fruit into medium sized sauce pan. If you are using a juicy fruit – like I was with the blackberries- squeeze/smush them a bit.

TWO – add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 1/2 cup juice (I used orange juice), and honey or syrup to the pot. I used a pomegranate simple syrup – you know the kind you use to make fancy sodas or badass cocktails? (SEE BELOW) If you do not have this on hand you can easily substitute a honey or agave.

THREE – cook on medium heat until the mixture has reduced to the desired texture. Stir occasionally so it does not burn to the bottom of the pot. I left this on for about 25 minutes while I cooked the rest of the meal. Remove from heat at least 5 minutes before serving so that it may cool and “firm” up.

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SWEET CHEESE – this sweet cheese can be made in a variety of ways and can be used as a topping or put inside a crepe to make blintz!

Ingredients – cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla, cream.

ONE – Pick your cheese. You can use ricotta, mascarpone, cream cheese, or a mixture of any of these. I only had cream cheese on hand so that’s what I used. In a bowl mix 4 tablespoons of cheese, 1/2 table spoon of granulated sugar, 4 drops of vanilla extract, and 3 tablespoons cream – if you do not have cream on hand you can use half and half – I did and it turned out great. Mix with a spoon until all ingredients are evenly mixed.

TWO – Use whisk (a small whisk is preferable) to whip mixture into more “spreadable” consistency. This took approximately 5 minutes.

THREE – Place uncovered in refrigerator.

— At this point you are ready to make your pancakes, waffles etc. The cheese should chill the entire time you are cooking these. Remove cheese mixture from refrigerator 5 minutes before serving so that it can come to room temperature. —

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Now you’re ready to put it all together! First spread a spoonful of the cheese mixture, then the syrup. Then add fresh fruit, mint, and some powdered sugar to garnish!

I read on a cooking blog recently that you’re not supposed to garnish with anything not in your actual meal, but I think that’s absurd! So garnish away!

Serves 2.

ENJOY!

-SUSANNAH 

Watermelon Aqua Fresca (Martinis!)

Hi Guys,

Happy Spring!!! Our garden is blooming and the sun is shining! It’s a great season to live in San Diego. I am really excited to cook through a ton of recipes I’ve saved, and with produce grown in my own backyard. I’m even more excited to share them here. I hope you enjoy!

To get started, have you ever tried watermelon aqua fresca? If not, you’re not alone, my boyfriend had never had it either. It’s a wonderful treat, especially on a hot day. It’s pretty easy to make, and has none of the preservatives you’ll find in store bought bottled juice.

What you’ll need:

• Watermelon – preferably seedless
• Limes- at least 4-5
• Sugar – 1/2 cup
• Water – to taste
• Mint- 2-3 sprigs
• Honey – optional – to taste

Step One – Melon

Slice the watermelon into medium sized pieces. Remove the rinds and set aside. Cut remaining fruit into smaller pieces (in order to more easily place them into the food processor or blender.)

Step Two – Blend

Every recipe I’ve read for this calls for blending of the melon in a blender, but I do not own one. I’ve got a food processor and a magic bullet. While I LOVE my magic bullet, it’s really made for smaller portions (i.e. a salad dressing, one cocktail etc.) so I decided to improvise and make this in the food processor.

It did work, but word of caution, if you fill it with too much, it will leak and send watermelon juice flying around your entire kitchen! So if using a food processor take it in steps, blending small amounts of watermelon at a time. It’s slow, but worth not having to mop your kitchen!

Put pieces of watermelon into the food processor with some water and blend thoroughly. This should be a watery puree, there should not be actual chunks of melon left. Pour into bowl or large pitcher. Repeat until all watermelon is used.

If your puree is too thick (it should be a juice) add water until it reaches its desired thickness.

Step Three- Make it sweet!

Add sugar and honey to taste. This is really where you get to decide how sweet you want your drink to be. Start small and add in small increments to desired sweetness.

Step Four – Make it sour!

Now it’s time to add your citrus. I made mine with limes, but I imagine lemons, oranges and grapefruit would make an excellent accent as well.

^^ I added the slices to garnish but also squeezed 2 medium sized limes into the mixture.

Yes my limes are yellow! The lime tree we have in the backyard is crazy plentiful and drops limes every day. In googling the internet I found out that only a few types of limes are green and the majority are actual yellow when the ripen. Who knew!?

Step Five- Add the mint!

This is pretty simple, add a few sprigs of mint.

Step Six- Let it chill!

Let the mixture sit over night in the fridge so that all the citrus and mint have a chance to “marinade”.

Step Seven – Serve it up!

You can serve it virgin with some mint ice sticks, or you can add some tequila and salt the rim of your favorite cocktail glass and made a margarita!

Watermelon – store bought.

Limes and mint – grown in our backyard.

ENJOY!

5 Minute Post! – Salmon,bacon,potato hash, served with a fried egg and a blood Mary.

Hi Guys,

Happy Weekend!

I just wanted to quickly share today’s brunch with you guys. I didn’t get a chance to photograph each stage because I was too busy thinking about eating it, I forgot to think about blogging it. In fact, this happens to me a lot. So I think going forward I’ll post 1 recipe a week, that may not have been planned for the blog, but ended up coming out so good I had to share. These will be my 5 minute posts!

Hope you enjoy!

Step One- the Hash!

Ingredients- potatoes, bacon, salmon, onions, salt, pepper, cumin and paprika.

• Dice up any potatoes you have on hand, red, russet, sweet – you name it! (In a pinch a frozen hash browns can be used, simply heat them up and break them apart to small pieces. ) Set potatoes aside.
• Dice up 3 slices of bacon into small pieces. In a skillet cook the 3 chopped up pieces of bacon, and 1 intact piece of bacon medium heat.
• When the bacon is 1/2 way cooked, set the intact slice aside and add the potatoes and spices listed above to the pan with the diced bacon. Mixing all ingredients together, continue to cook on medium heat.
• Salmon- For this hash the salmon needs to already be cooked. I had cooked the salmon the night before (let me know if you want that recipe.) Flake the salmon into little pieces and add it to the mixture, continue to heat on medium heat.
• Add cream cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese as desired.
• When the hash is done, remove from pan and set aside. Do not allow pan to cool.

Step Two – Fry your egg!

• Turn the heat up to high and then fry your egg.
• Serve the hash, with the egg on top, and sprinkle the plate with dill.

Step Three- Make your drink!

I served this meal up with a bloody Mary complete with a celery, olive, onion and bacon garnish. That’s right! Remember you 1 slice of intact bacon? Well add it to your bloody Mary for the tastiest garnish there is.

FINAL PRODUCT