I was finally able to use the gorgeous basil I got at the farmer's market to make pesto. I love pesto - so easy, yet  rich and versatile. A little goes a long way and can be used to flavor not only pasta, but rice or other grains, fish, as a spread on toasted bread - the choices are endless. Using what I had on hand, I decided to toast some almonds as a sub for pine nuts and add some lemon juice and zest; the box of pennine in the pantry was a perfect pasta shape. The result was a bright, fresh taste - so delicious my 11-year-old daughter gobbled it up before her gymnastics practice tonight! I spooned what was leftover into ice cube trays and popped it in the freezer. I will transfer the cubes to ziploc freezer bags tomorrow and we can look forward to a sunny taste of summer during winter's dark days.
Here's the recipe:
Lemony Almond Basil Pesto
3 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup toasted almonds
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp Jane's Crazy Salt (or regular salt)
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice

Whirl the basil, almonds and garlic in a food processor until chopped, scraping down the sides. Add Parmesan cheese, lemon pepper, salt and lemon zest, pulse to mix in. With the food processor running, slowly add the oil through the chute until incorporated. Stir in lemon juice. Enjoy!!

With the Summer 2012 Olympics in full swing, we decided to use the Games as the theme for my son's belated birthday celebration, making "Olympic rings" cupcakes and torches. We chose to follow the 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe from James Beard's   wonderful American Cookery cookbook. My son loved this recipe name and asked me if we were only making 4 cupcakes? I explained no, the name comes from the ingredient "formula," which includes: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 4 eggs. Before the days of standard measurements this not only made the recipe easier to remember, but also made for a successful product, as the baker only needed one cup measurement. According to Beard, this cake has probably been the most popular of all American cakes over the years. It was originally made as a loaf cake and contained no liquid, but was increasingly preferred as a layer cake. Well, it worked beautifully as cupcakes too! Here's what we did:
1-2-3-4 Cupcakes
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups sifted flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, beating at a medium to high speed. Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture, then turn to the lowest speed and add the milk and vanilla. Spoon into cupcake liners and bake at 375 F for 15-20 min.
For the "torches," I put cake-style ice cream cones into a muffin pan, spooned in the batter to about 2/3 full, then baked them at 325 F for 30 min.
We iced them with the Butter Cream Frosting recipe also from American Cookery:
1/3 cup softened butter
3 cups confectioners sugar
3-4 tablespoons cream (or milk)
1 tsp vanilla
Cream together the butter and sugar, and vigorously stir in the cream. Flavor with vanilla.

We tinted the frosting into the colors we needed for the rings, and orange for the torch flame (accented with yellow and red colored sugar). They looked great and were a big hit! Go Team USA!!

So Thurs I got this gorgeous "bouquet" of basil from the farmer's market (courtesy of Promised Land Natural Farm). I will definitely make some pesto with it (which freezes beautifully, allowing the sweet taste of summer to brighten up a dreary winter evening!) But, last night I decided to trim several leaves and add them at the end of a batch of linguine with clams: whole wheat linguine mixed with some fresh sauteed garlic and dark red heirloom tomatoes  (also from the farmer's market), a few chopped olives, lemon juice, lemon pepper and wild caught fresh clams from McCaffrey's - yum!

Yes, there are castles in Pennsylvania! I didn't realize this until we moved to Bucks County four years ago. I'm referring to the Mercer Museum and Fontill Castle - both built by Henry Chapman Mercer and both located in Doylestown.
A true Renaissance man, Mercer's interests and skills cut across a variety of genres.  Born in Doylestown in 1856, he became a famed   archaeologist, anthropologist, tile maker, artist, writer, scholar and antiquarian, and was a leader in the American Arts and Crafts Movement.  Mercer built Fonthill during the period 1908-1912 to serve both as his home and showplace for his extensive collection of prints and Moravian tiles. Designed by Mercer himself, the building is a diverse mix of Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine architectural styles - an imposing sight set back from the road down a long tree-lined drive. A visit there is like entering the grounds of a lush English estate.
My son has been enjoying a neat archeology camp at this picturesque location this week, and has helped dig up some 19th and 20th century bottles and part of a brick. On Friday the kids will give an exhibition of their finds - can't wait! Today he got to throw an Atl Atl  (the Native American version of a javelin). He did great, check it out!

By the turn of the 20th century, Mercer realized that technology was developing at a rapid pace, with machine-made goods replacing handcrafted items by the thousands. With the forethought to gather and preserve America's once-common everyday objects before they were discarded and forgotten, Mercer amassed a collection of almost 30,000 items ranging from hand tools to horse-drawn vehicles. He organized and catalogued them using his own system and then in 1916 erected another castle, 6 stories high and also made of concrete, in order to store and display the objects so that the public could view them.  The towering central atrium of the Museum was used to hang the largest objects - such as a whale boat, stage coach and Conestoga wagon. On each level surrounding the court, smaller exhibits were tucked into the many alcoves, niches and rooms according to Mercer's categorization -- healing arts, tinsmithing, dairying, illumination, etc. The result is a unique structure - both inside and out - that takes visitors on a trip back in time.
For those of you interested in cooking, the museum includes sections focusing on confectionary, kitchen and baking utensils, meat and fruit preservation, butter and cheese making and cider pressing. In addition, outside the castle is a log cabin where they sometimes do open-fire cooking demonstrations. And I actually used the Mercer Museum Library located on the 3rd Floor to do research for my book since they have a pretty extensive manuscriot cookbook collection and other resources covering traditional crafts, trades and industries.

So the kids are at camp this week and I was able to ride my bike along the towpath up to Washington Crossing and back - I love that route! From Yardley it's about 10 miles round trip, so it is a perfect distance, and the scenery is gorgeous. Part of Delaware Canal State Park, the towpath is a great resource - I feel lucky we live so close to it. The 60-mile long Delaware Canal towpath runs from Bristol to Easton, where it connects with the Lehigh Canal and is a National Recreation Trail. Inspired by the success of New York State's Erie Canal, Pennsylvania began building a 1,200-mile system of canals to connect Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lake Erie in the 1800s.  Teams of mules pulled cargo-laden boats (anthracite coal from the northeastern Pennsylvania coal regions was the primary product) along the canal path until the last paying boat went through the locks in 1931, when trains took over as
the preferred form of goods transport. 
Now it is ideal for biking, walking, jogging, fishing and one of my favorite activities - spotting wildlife. I have seen box and snapping turtles, ducks, geese, frogs, snakes, muskrats, herons and other interesting birds, and fish (the canal is stocked every spring). Lots of trees shade the path in the summer and provide beautiful foliage in the autumn. Passing under several quaint bridges (some are very low - ask my husband Joe about that sometime!), it is really pretty flat except a few fun hills. And it is well maintained by the Friends of the Delaware Canal, an independent, non-profit organization which works to restore, preserve, and improve the Delaware Canal and its surroundings. 
To learn more about Pennsylvania's canals, a visit to the National Canal Museum in Easton is extremely worthwhile. You can ride a mule-drawn boat, see canal artifacts and steer a miniature canal boat through its paces (there is also a small canal boat exhibit at the Crayola Factory in Easton - another fun trip!)

I am mostly a healthy eater, BUT ice cream is definitely one of my weaknesses, and when "down the shore," a trip to the boardwalk warrants some indulgences. For me, one of these is Kohr Bros frozen custard -it brings me right back to childhood and many fond memories. Ocean City, NJ was always our beach of choice, and luckily Kohr Bros is still right there on the boardwalk, its blue and white sign lit up like a beacon amid the flashing rides, mini golf, beeping arcades, t-shirt shops and popcorn and fudge places. Last night I had the peanut butter and chocolate twist with chocolate "jimmies" (or sprinkles as some call them) in a waffle cone -heavenly! The custard is so much richer and creamier than regular soft serve ice cream, yet Kohr's markets their version as lighter than ice cream.
I knew custard always contains eggs, but it got me wondering what else is in their recipe, so I decided to check out the website: http://www.kohrbros.com/index.html, which provided some interesting  history.
Turns out the recipe was created by Archie Kohr, a schoolteacher from York, PA.  He and his younger brothers, Elton and Lester, wanted to expand their family's dairy business so they bought a locally made ice cream machine in 1917. They soon were selling fresh homemade ice cream door to door using a horse-drawn wagon. Tweaking the recipe a bit, they started using less fat and sugar for a smoother, lighter product (the website doesn't say why ... cost perhaps?) But Archie and Elton were not satisfied, so they dismantled the machine, changed some parts and adjusted others. They found their revised recipe worked great with the new machine, and on the advice of their Uncle Sylvester, took the product and machine to the Coney Island boardwalk in 1919, selling over 18,000 cones the first weekend.
To prevent the "Frozen Dessert" from melting too fast in the salt air at the beach, Archie, Elton and Lester added eggs to the recipe as a thickener. Incorporating the revised recipe and machine, they created a light and fluffy product that "tasted just like a custard," and they refer to as "the first and the Original frozen custard." Apparently this is the recipe still used today - dating from 1919! Although the exact recipe is still proprietary and I couldn't find an exact listing of ingredients, the company proudly states that the custard contains grade A milk, cream, sugar and eggs. All I know is that it is delicious - not at all "fake" tasting like other soft serve can be. So, okay maybe it isn't "healthy," but it does contain fresh,  wholesome ingredients, which DO make a difference!

Many people think yoga and Pilates aren't really true workouts. If you're in this camp, I dare you to try Exhale Core Fusion DVD with instructors Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp. It contains 5 10-min segments focusing on abs, legs, upper body, flexibility, etc. using light weights and really engaging the core. It had me sweating and I felt invigorated and stretched out after. Plus I love the fact that you can easily pick and choose certain segments or do them all at once.
I've enjoyed yoga and Pilates for years and some are definitely more relaxing than others- Denise Austin's Yoga Body Burn is one of my favs as it also has different segments - a mix of faster paced (feel the burn) and slower, mind/body poses.
If you give either a try I'd love to know what you think!

Jumbles (sometimes spelled jumbals) were one of the first cookies to become popular in America and a signature recipe of Philadelphia cooking school instructor Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow. I started making them when doing the research for my book about this amazing lady, and they have become one of my go-to cookie recipes, as they are so easy to make and I love the aromatic flavorings they contain - notably rose water and freshly grated nutmeg. (In fact, they were sometimes called "rose jumbles.")
The name jumbles comes from the Latin word gemel, which means twin, since the cookies were originally shaped like a figure eight or a double ring. But, we Americans soon found that too time-consuming (big surprise!), and to make preparation quicker and easier, it soon became customary to form the dough into single rings. Eventually even the ring shape fell out of favor, and jumbles were often simply rolled out and cut into circles. (From Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America's First Cooking School, p. 171).
You can see from the photos below how to shape the dough into rings. After chilling it for at least two hours, it is rolled out, then cut into narrow strips. Each strip is rolled between between the palms or on a work surface to form a rope approx. 5-in long. The ends of each rope are then brought together to ceate a ring (I discovered it is easier to wrap them around my finger, but really whatever method works!) The "rings" are then placed on a baking sheet, spaced about 1 in apart. Once they come out of the oven they are sprinkled with sugar. Enjoy this unique taste combination that is both spicy and delicate. 
 
Jumbles

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon mace
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Additional granulated sugar

1. Cream butter and sugar until very light. Add egg and rose-water, blending thoroughly. (May substitute lemon  extract to taste for rose-water.
2. Sift flour with spices. Add all at once to creamed mixture, blending well.
3. Wrap dough and chill at least 2 hours.
4. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. 
5. Cut with doughnut cutter or cut into narrow strips and shape into rings. 
6. Bake cookies on ungreased sheets in preheated 375 degree oven 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Remove to rack, sprinkle with sugar and cool. Makes about 3 dozen.

So I just have to rave once again about Apple Ridge Farm (located in Saylorsburg, PA), a new vendor at the Lower Makefield Farmer's Market this year.  Using a small wood fired brick oven and just 3 main ingredients: flour, water, and sea salt, they produce the most delicious naturally leavened breads. (This is just like the oven Mrs. Goodfellow used to make her pastries and other desserts). Yesterday my daughter couldn't wait until we got home to start nibbling on the chewy, sesame-seed crusted bread sticks we picked up to go with dinner. As I shopped, she contentendly tore off chunks of the heavenly bread - crusty on
the outside, pillowy inside. Our other purchase was a plump semolina, also covered with a generous layer of sesame seeds- it just HAD to come home with us! I also picked up red leaf lettuce, squash and garlic from Promised Land Farms (their lettuces are out of this world! I usually get their pre-washed bagged greens (gotta love the convenience), but they had all been snapped up already). From Shady Brook I got colorful berries - raspberries, blueberries and blacberries, and some heirloom tomatoes - an interesting dark red color. My last stop was Charlann Farms for their cucumber (it has been perfect this year - very sweet) and some red and green peppers. So along with the breadsticks, dinner was a sauteed mix of these yummy veggies (garlic, onion, peppers and tomato) with some Bilinski's spinach-feta chicken sausage served over quinoa, complemented with a salad of the red lettuce, berries and some feta cheese topped with homemade lemony yogurt-mustard dressing. Yum! I am planning to serve the leftover sausage-veggie mixture over pasta tonight, maybe augmented with some chopped olives. Should pair well with the white wine chilling in the fridge....

I just had to share my latest hummus addiction - Hommus with Spinach from Wakim's foods in Bristol, PA. Frankly ALL their hummus flavors are delicious (the red pepper hommus is also a fav), and all use fresh, natural ingredients - no additives or preservatives, and low fat/low cholesterol. Plus I love the fact that they are based nearby - I am able to support a local business and transporting the products is not sucking up a ton of gas.
And while we're talking local, my daughter is hooked on Philadelphia's Bobbi's Tuscan White Bean Dip and Garlic Cheddar Cheese spread. Both have pretty strong garlic tastes, which is great - helping her develop a more grown-up palate and getting her more used to my style of cooking! And like Wakim's, the ingredients are all natural. They are wonderful for snacks after school or even lunches. We have brought them out when she has friends over and they also rave about them. Her favorite pairing with both is carrots and Snack Factory pretzel crisps - which, hey, happen to be from Princeton (also local).
If you can find these products in your store, by all means do. McCaffrey's in Yardley is where we get them, and they often have Bobbi's samples to try - bonus!