How to peel a banana

Do you know the easiest way to peel a banana?

Rhubarb

Rhubarb: one of those funny 'old fashioned' fruits/vegetables (in the USA it is a fruit thanks to a New York state court ruling...) that seems to have become popular again with the increase in farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and eating locally/seasonally. I always thought it was a New England plant - maybe native - who knew it is originally from China where it had a medicinal use. According to Wikipedia, the expense of transporting it across Asia caused rhubarb to be very expensive in medieval Europe where it was several times the price of other valuable herbs and spices such as cinnamon, opium, and saffron.

The question I faced earlier this week after making a strawberry rhubarb pie was: What do you do with the rhubarb that is left over? Here are two suggestions from the Mouse House:

1. You can freeze it (who knew?). Cut the rhubarb into small (1/2” to 1” pieces), place in airtight container, and freeze. I like to freeze rhubarb in two cup portions – perfect for the next strawberry rhubarb pie.

2. Stewed Rhubarb: enjoy this easy dish over ice cream, plain yogurt, as filling for pies and tarts, or mixed with granola. Here’s what you do:

1 bunch rhubarb, washed and trimmed*

½ cup honey

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Cut the rhubarb into ½” slices and place in a saucepan. Drizzle honey over the rhubarb and sprinkle with lemon juice. It is not necessary to add water as the water in the rhubarb will seep out as it cooks.

Cover the saucepan and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat immediately and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

If not using immediately, cool mixture then place in covered container and store in refrigerator for up to one week.

*If I only have one or two pieces of rhubarb, I reduce the amount of honey and lemon juice, usually by ‘eyeballing’ it. I have to resist the temptation to add  water as it makes the stewed rhubarb too wet.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

To me, June is strawberries and rhubarb. Growing up, June was strawberries and roses: the red ones outside our back door that always bloomed at graduation time and for my sister Ellen’s birthday. The roses were a true red; for years I grew Mr. Lincoln roses at the Mouse House as they were the closest I could find to the rose bush of my childhood. Eventually, my Mr. Lincoln roses gave out: too little pampering on my part and too much winter road salt; today they have been replaced by white rosa rugosa.

June became strawberries and rhubarb the year I joined the Farm Direct Co-op. There were no problems finding uses for the strawberries in my share; the rhubarb was a bit more challenging. I remembered my grandmother making strawberry rhubarb pie; I don’t remember liking it a lot, my preferred strawberry dessert was strawberry shortcake. Not finding a lot of recipes for rhubarb, I made my first pie and found I loved it. Today, strawberry rhubarb pie signals the beginning of the Farm Direct Co-op season as well as our local farmers market.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I prefer a tart pie so my recipe has less sugar than most.

Ingredients:

• Dough for a 9” double crust pie (I use the rolled, refrigerated Pillsbury dough)
• 2 cups unpeeled, diced young rhubarb stalks
• 2 cups sliced strawberries, tops removed
• 2 2/3 tbsp quick-cooking tapioca
• ½ cup sugar (add up to 1 cup for sweeter pie)

Directions:

• Line an 8” or 9” pie plate loosely with pie dough, pressing dough against bottom of pie plate. To keep bottom crust from getting soggy, brush lightly with egg white, melted butter, or a light sprinkling of flour. Do not prick bottom crust.
• Combine remaining ingredients, stirring gently until well blended. Let stand for 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Turn fruit into pie shell.
• Cover pie with lattice crust:
• Roll out top crust, then cut into ½” wide strips
• To weave, place one strip in center of pie, then lay second strip across center, perpendicular to first strip.
• Continue to alternate strips vertically and horizontally, folding back strips as needed to create an under/over weave.
• When the whole pie is latticed, loosely attach the strips to the pie edge, moistening ends to make them stick.
• Give the pie a decorative edge by rolling the dough hanging over the edge as well as the ends of the lattice pieces up into a ‘rim’ above the edge of the pie plate. Press edge with fork or pinch between fingers to secure edges to each other and to pan.

Bake in a 450 degree oven 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees, cover edge of crust to prevent over browning (use a pie crust ring or make one from strips of tinfoil) then bake 35 to 40 minutes more or until golden brown.
Cool on rack before serving.

Strawberry rhubarb pie is really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! (Of course, Coffey ice cream is the best.)

Spinach Strawberry Salad

June = strawberries + strawberry picking. Sun-ripened fruit, warm to the touch. Small sweet berries, ready to pop in your mouth. Juice dribbling down fingers and onto shirts. Images of my daughter and friends eagerly searching for perfect berries to pluck and put into their cartons or buckets. More recently, my father-in-law, wide brimmed hat on his head, sitting amidst the rows at the Thompson-Finch Farm in Ancram, NY, smiling broadly as he picked berry after berry, filling the cardboard tray to overflowing. My husband, Bill, moving randomly from row to row, searching for the smallest of the berries, also the sweetest.

Abundance. Three 11 x 17" cardboard trays filled with berries. The crazed search for recipes. Strawberry shortcake. Strawberry rubarb pie. Strawberry smoothies. Cut up on cereal or vanilla ice cream. Freezing berries on cookie sheets, then storing in bags for later in the season. And, calling my sister Ellen for her spinach strawberry salad recipe. Easy to make. Delicious to eat.

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Ingredients
2 bunches spinach
4 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Directions
Rinse spinach and tear into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries. In a small bowl, mix oil, vinegar, sugar, paprika, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds for dressing. Pour over the spinach and strawberries, just before serving.

Blueberry Strawberry Trifle

Greetings from a Mouse House pal! I too enjoy playing in the kitchen and entertaining my friends. I’m always on the lookout for recipes which I can make ahead of time. I like to be with my friends and not holed up in the kitchen..

Here’s a nice dessert that can be made the day before. Its red, white and blue theme makes it perfect for Memorial Day or Fourth of July gatherings.

Submitted by Mara Lynch
Marblehead

BLUEBERRY STRAWBERRY TRIFLE
Yield 8-10 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 3 oz. package vanilla instant pudding
2 cups whipped cream
1 pound cake cut into 1 inch cubes (I use Sara Lee)
1 pint strawberries-sliced
1 pint blueberries

METHOD
Beat together condensed milk, water, lemon rind and pudding until well blended. Refrigerate until thick (about 15 minutes)
Fold in whipped cream
In a large bowl layer 1/3 of the cake, 1/3 strawberries, 1/3 blueberries. Repeat for two more layers
Pour pudding on top and refrigerate. Garnish with a few strawberries and Enjoy!

Davidge Eggs

This is Bill’s breakfast specialty. When we first met, he would serve me Davidge eggs with fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. Yum.

This is often our Sunday morning breakfast. Or brunch, if we have a slow start to our morning.

Sunday usually begins with coffee and newspapers in bed: Bill has the New York Times, I have Sunday’s Boston Globe and also any editions of the Globe or the Salem Evening News that I didn’t get to during the week. Not sure why I feel that I have to read the newspapers in order or, why I can’t just recycle the old ones without reading… guess I’m afraid I might miss something. Spending two hours daily in the car traveling to and from work, I hear the news and commentary – WBZ in the morning (for the traffic reports) and WBUR/NPR at night – I know what is going on in my community and the world.

Last week I heard a program on NPR about hoarders. The guest quoted research that suggested people who saved newspapers and magazines were afraid they might miss something - an opportunity or important information – so they keep things, just in case. That resonated with me: I save clippings (not whole issues) of things that interest me. When I go back and look at them, they often go right into the recycling bin: I’ve missed the event or I make a note in my reference notebook, knowing I can retrieve the information on the Internet.

My take-away from the NPR program? A resolve to read the paper each day and on Sunday evening, toss any unread papers from the previous week into the recycling bin, ready to put on the curb Monday morning. So, once I finish this post, it’s back to my basket of papers: Everything except today’s paper goes in the bin. I’ve heard it takes two weeks to establish a new habit…wish me luck.

1 ½ eggs per person
½ eggshell full of milk per person, or half and half (cream) for a creamer texture
Freshly ground black pepper
Cheddar cheese, diced
Butter
English muffin, 1 per person

Heat butter in frying pan over medium heat.
Mix eggs, milk, and pepper in bowl.
Add egg mixture to hot pan; reduce heat to medium-low.
Add diced cheese to eggs once they begin to set.
Scramble with spoon, not fork (Bill Davidge ‘secret’).
Cook to taste.

Serve with English muffins, on side or as a sandwich.

Deviled Eggs

Lately, my contribution to Easter dinner is deviled eggs. In my extended family deviled eggs are served three times a year without fail: Easter, the 4th of July, and Labor Day. Looking back into my childhood, there have always been deviled eggs. Perhaps I remember this because of the dishes.

My grandmother, my mother, my aunts, my sisters, and I all have special dishes to serve deviled eggs; usually a round glass or china platter with egg shaped depressions to hold the eggs. Mine is round and glass, discovered years ago by one of my aunts in an antique or second hand store and given to me as a Christmas present. My Aunt Nancy, who makes the eggs for our family 4th of July and Labor Day cookouts, has a Tupperware-type container made especially for deviled eggs.

My childhood Easters always began with an early morning Easter egg hunt. The first hunts I remember were for jelly beans wrapped in foil that were ‘hidden’ around the house: in our slippers, on our bureaus, on the edges of the bookshelves, and lined up on all the windowsills of the house. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that my parents, most likely my mother, must have wrapped jelly beans in foil before placing them throughout the house. Later, the ‘tin’ foiled jelly beans were replaced with the small foil wrapped chocolate eggs. When my sisters and I were grown with children of our own, the Easter egg hunt moved outdoors, after dinner, with the foil wrapped eggs ‘hidden’ on the car bumpers, in the grass, on the front steps, and on low lying horizontal branches. Kids of all ages, with plastic bags in hand, took part in these hunts.

Earlier tonight, I made time for two other Easter rituals: first I checked the time for the sunrise service at Old Burial Hill in Marblehead. Bill and I will get up early and walk down to participate in this simple Easter service overlooking the magnificence of Marblehead Harbor and the ocean beyond. Next, I carefully prepared Easter baskets and gifts for Bill, Allison, our houseguest Jen, Al’s boyfriend Shaun, and my two nieces who we will see at Easter dinner. Rituals complete, I finish my writing, post this blog entry, then off to (a short) sleep as sunrise will come early.

Deviled Eggs: 12 stuffed egg halves

6 eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ tsp salt
pepper
paprika

To hard boil eggs:

Eggs in the shell must be cooked at the right temperature for the correct amount of time. While the recipe is rather simple, the actual cooking of the eggs requires the cook to pay close attention to saucepan of eggs: turn off the heat too soon and the eggs will not be hard boiled; let the eggs come to a full boil and the yolks become hard and turn greenish-grey. For best results, buy eggs for hard-cooking several days ahead, as storage allows the air space at the large end of the egg to expand, making peeling easier.

1. Place eggs in a saucepan wide enough to accommodate them without crowding and deep enough so that tops of eggs are covered by at least 1” of water.

2. Over high heat, heat water and eggs just to a full boil.

3. Immediately remove saucepan from heat and cover tightly. Let eggs stand in hot water for 15 minutes.

4. Pour off hot water and run cold water over the eggs to stop them from cooking. This also makes peeling easier if peeling immediately.

5. To peel eggs, gently tap entire surface of shell against a flat surface, taking care not to break the egg itself. Under cold running water (or in a large bowl of cold water) peel egg, starting at large end as the air space in the large end makes it easier to start peeling.

Stuffing:

1. Slice 6 hard-cooked eggs in half lengthwise.

2. Gently remove yolks and place in small bowl; with fork, crumble yolks into fine pieces.

3. Stir in ¼ mayonnaise, ¼ tsp. salt, and dash pepper until smooth; with spoon, pile into egg centers. Refrigerate, covered until ready to serve.

4. Before serving, dust yolk mixture with paprika.