Smoothie #9

This is a fizzy, purple smoothie Andrew whipped up from the fruits we froze together this summer. 

Smoothie #9

1 banana
approximately 1/4 pound each frozen peach slices and frozen blueberries
1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
peach-flavored sparkling water

Blend all together until smooth.

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Smoothie #8

A contribution from Andrew, using leftover cider from a holiday party.
1 banana
approximately 1 cup frozen peaches
1/2 cup spiced apple cider
2 cups almond milk (1 1/2 cups if you like a really thick smoothie)

Blend all ingredients together in blender until smooth.

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Easter dinner and other springtime foods

Mmmm, I like serving springtime food at Easter. There is always a fun mix of stuff that has kept over the winter and new spring produce.
Here are some photos of our Easter foods.

The food above is called Osterbrötchen in German, and they are a yeast-raised bun with dried fruits. I serve them as a breakfast food about every other year, alternating with a German cake (which is not served for breakfast), Osterlamm. The cake is baked in a lamb-shaped mold. Here I am with last year's cake, which has homemade chocolate frosting for a black sheep.

At this year's Easter dinner, the first course was a deceptively "cream"-y soup (soymilk thickened with a little roux) filled with carrots, spinach and peas, accompanied by blanched asparagus with a faux bernaise sauce. I found another application in which Ener-G egg substitute is a terrible idea. The sauce texture was sticky and elastic, meaning that it acted a bit like melted cheese when we dipped asparagus in it. It had a lot of lemon juice, which tasted nice on the asparagus, so at least it was edible. Here's the table shot before we eat the soup and asparagus. Daffodils are from the backyard. The wine is Beaujolais.

And for the main course at Easter dinner, I had planned something that wasn't an Easter ham, but did have ham in it. I had some minced ham left over in the freezer after ham pie, and I wanted to add it to fried potatoes. I boiled sliced potatoes in salted water, then fried them, and although they tasted fully cooked and well-salted like I wanted them to, I had to adjust to a new textural reality from what I had in mind. The potato slices fell apart when I turned them in the pan, so now I had potato hash. No big problem. The hash tasted great with the ham bits and a generous sprinkling of fresh-ground black pepper.

Also wonderful in springtime are mangoes and the new crops of berries. Of course, none of these items grows anywhere near here in April, so they are an occasional indulgence until the local fruit appears in May or June. This week, Andrew mixed blackberries with the banana slices I had in the freezer for an impromptu fruit salad.

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Today's sandwich: brunch quesadilla

No advance planning here, just throwing together what’s around the house because I didn’t feel like eating leftovers from last night’s dinner. I'm saving the leftovers to take to work. I've always liked bananas and cheese, since I used to eat bananas wrapped in American cheese as a kid.

Here’s a picture before I folded the quesadilla together and cooked it:

Banana Brunch Quesadilla

1 burrito-sized flour tortilla

a couple of spoonfuls of peach jam (whole fruit, homemade and canned this summer)

1/8 cup to ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese (leftover after making strata recipe below)

1 banana, cut in half crosswise and sliced lengthwise

Spread half the tortilla with peach jam. Cover with shredded cheese. Top with banana slices, as many as will fit on the tortilla, and eat the rest of the banana. Fold the blank tortilla half over the filling. Place in a dry skillet and cook each side until golden brown.

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