Plain and Simple Sugared Strawberries with Cornmeal Shortcakes, E.A.T. #24

April 27, 2017May 27, 2017 ~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 12 Comments

A craving sets in this time of year for the first Spring Tennessee strawberries. This week baskets and baskets arrived at my local, downtown Nashville Farmer’s Market. Juicy and plump with the wonderful variations in shape and size not seen in supermarket berries.

Aren’t they beautiful?

Cut up and gently tossed with raw sugar awaiting a shortcake.

I am not a big fan of store-bought shortcakes when it is so easy to make my own. I enjoy a shortcake with a bit of texture and flavor which I get by adding cornmeal to the mixture. Buttery & barely sweet with a bit of crunch. Soft enough to soak up those berry juices.

Light golden brown right from the oven.

Here….have a bite. Treat yourself…strawberry season doesn’t last long. It’s as Easy-As-This!

Sugared Strawberries with Sweetened Cornmeal Shortcakes

Time: 30-40mins
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Ingredients:

1 quart of local strawberries, capped, sliced
a few tablespoons of raw sugar, to taste for berries + 1 tablespoon for the shortcake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy, cold cream
Ice cream or whipped cream, optional

Directions:

Toss sliced berries with a few tablespoons raw sugar to taste. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Whisk together remaining 1 tablespoon raw sugar, the flour, cornmeal, baking powder & salt.
Work cold butter into the flour mix using your fingers or a pastry cutter.
Drizzle heavy cream over the top of the flour and stir to bring together to form a somewhat wet dough. Use your fingers to bring together into a ball. Knead a few times.
Pat dough out into a rectangle about 10-12 inches x 5 inches. Cut into 6 pieces and place on a baking pan lined with parchment.
Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove to cool on a rack.
Serve cornmeal warm or room temperature shortcakes split open and topped with juicy strawberries. Add a scoop of ice cream of a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

Teresa Blackburn www.teresablackburnfoodstyling.com http://www.foodonfifth.com

A Refreshing & Intoxicating “Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook” and a “Spicy Golden Mary”

June 15, 2014June 15, 2014 ~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 17 Comments

Above is a cool, refreshing & quite intoxicating “Spicy Golden Mary”.

Below is the refreshing & intoxicating cover of the “Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook” by Nancy Vienneau (her blog is Good Food Matters). This book’s release date is just a few days away, June 17th, 2014 and will be available at your local bookstores and on-line. It’s a beauty full of wonderful stories of food and folks. The “monthly chapters” feature seasonal produce & recipes from each month of the year. You can cook your way through 5 years of Third Thursday Potluck gatherings all in one book. I was so pleased to do the food and prop styling for this book, which was a real labor of love.

What do these two things have in common you might ask?

One is a much-anticipated cookbook that chronicles the stories and recipes that have been shared over the past 5 years, every Third Thursday of every month, at one of Nashville’s best kept secrets. Nancy, and her friend, Gigi Gaskins (who owns HatWRKS) started this potluck as a way for a group of food friends to get together, share incredible seasonal recipes & foods, have a glass of wine and talk. There is no set theme except for the season. As the cover says, this truly is a potluck like no other.

To herald this book’s release I want to share with you a recipe of mine from the book. The deliciously refreshing & intoxicating “Spicy Golden Mary “. Get the book for this and so many more enticing recipes and stories. This recipe is from July’s Chapter “The Big Tomato”.

Before we have a “Spicy Golden Mary”, here are two events you will not want to miss if you happen to live, or be visiting the Nashville, TN area on these dates….lots of fun and good food.

This one is on Tuesday night, 6/17……

This is on “Third Thursday”, 6/19 of course! Bring a dish and a drink (wine, etc) if you like and come join all of us…..

Here is how to make my recipe,

“Spicy Golden Mary”

1. Core and chop 4-5 pounds of very ripe yellow tomatoes. (About 7 cups).

2. You will also need 1 1/2 cups good quality Vodka such as Tito’s from Austin, Texas or Ketel One from Holland.

3. Puree chopped tomatoes in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade until smooth.

4. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the pulp, pressing down gently with a wooden spoon to get all the juice from the pulp.

Whoa! Look at that beautiful golden tomato juice.

5. To the bowl of tomato juice add the following: the Vodka, 2 tsp grated horseradish, a generous pinch of salt to taste, freshly ground black pepper to taste, 1 tbsp Serrano chili-lime pepper sauce (or 2 tsp Tabasco sauce), 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings.

7. As I was making this for a Third Thursday Potluck evening I used two bottles to transport it to the gathering. First I made a label on my computer of a giant tomato on a gold background and added type identifying what was in the bottles. All the ingredients were listed, along with my blog name and a catchy phrase “Drink your breakfast for dinner right now!”.

I cut up some fresh limes & celery sticks, packed it all up in my antique carrier and off to Third Thursday!

Here is a toast to all the past Third Thursday Community Potluck dinners and to many, many more! Congratulations Nancy on your beautiful cookbook!

“Crop Circle Tabbouleh / Third Thursday”

May 21, 2011May 21, 2011 ~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 2 Comments

“Crop Circle Tabbouleh”

Ingredients:

Gather the following: Fresh, Ripe, Local Peaches & Strawberries, Cilantro, Parsley, Mint, Spring Green Onions, Jalapeno & Sweet Red Bell Pepper, Wheat Berries Cooked, Balsamic Vinegar, Olive Oil, Honey, Herbs de Provence, Sea Salt & Black Pepper (Amounts really don’t matter just use whatever amounts you want of each based on your own personal palate.)

1. Chop finely Spring Onions, Parsley, Cilantro & Mint. The onions I used came from the Downtown Farmer’s Market and the mint from my garden.

2. Carefully peel ripe peaches & cut into a large dice. I used a combination of Alabama and Georgia peaches that started showing up at our local Farmer’s Markets last week.

3. Let cooked Wheat Berries cool completely. Finely chop a bit of Jalapeno pepper & Red Bell Pepper for garnish.Wash & trim Strawberries, let drain. The small sweet berries in this salad came from a farm in Ridgetop, TN.

4. Choose a large round serving dish and place cooked wheat berries in the middle a bit “domed” spreading out to the edges. Add each prepped ingredient in a circle around the domed center, creating a “crop” circle!

Cover loosely with plastic wrap & refrigerate until ready to serve.

5. Mix a simple Vinaigrette using the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, herbs de provence, sea salt & black pepper. I make quick vinaigrettes in small canning jars and shake to mix ingredients. Taste and adjust.

To Serve: Remove Crop Circle Tabbouleh from refrigerator anda drizzle Vinaigrette over all, add a large serving spoon.

The destination for my “Crop Circle Tabbouleh” ……………..

“Third Thursday May 2011 at Gigi’s Home”

Third Thursday’s Potluck was held this month at the home of Hat Maker and Gardener Extraordinaire Gigi Gaskins. Also hosted by Nancy Vienneau who invited some out-of-town guests who livened things up for us all. Third Thursday’s are always much-anticipated by all of us who attend regularly and even more so as a bounty of seasonal crops are arriving daily, fresh from farmers all over our area here in Nashville.

Out-of-town guests, Kathi Speller and Lanette Mohr read about Third Thursdays in the current issue of Relish Magazine (check it out online at relish.com) & as they were both nearby on this particular Third Thursday they joined our pot luck dinner party.

Image Gallery of the evening of food, conversation, laughter………..

Good food, new & familiar friends, a beautiful May evening.

Bon Apetit.

(My “Crop Circle Tabbouleh” was inspired by a recipe by Nigel Slater in his Tender, Vol II cooking book. His recipe was for a Peach and Mint Tabbouleh.)

(The styling for”Crop Circle Tabbouleh” was inspired by an article I recently read on Crop Circles and by my good friend, Nancy Vienneau.)

A bit about Crop Circles from Wikipedia:

A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented cases have substantially increased from the 1970s to current times.

Since the early 1990s the UK arts collective founded by artists Rod Dickinson and John Lundberg (and subsequently includes artists Wil Russell and Rob Irving), named the Circlemakers, have been creating some crop circles in the UK and around the world both as part of their art practice and for commercial clients.

Using local crops to make circles in food seemed a natural progression. Teresa B.

“saturday morning, nashville farmer’s market”

June 2, 2010June 3, 2010 ~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 4 Comments

Saturday morning treat yourself & your family, by going to the downtown Nashville Farmer’s Market on Rosa Parks Blvd. As many other farmer’s markets across the country have done, our downtown market has been going through a wonderful transformation over the past few seasons. Artisan cheeses, local organic milk & eggs, fresh-baked goods, meats with no additives, hand-crafted all-natural soaps & fresh garden flowers are sold along with produce vendors selling local strawberries, greens, beets & local honey & jams. The market is a destination place for anyone who loves good, locally produced foods & a lively market environment. The prices are good, the quality fantastic & no piped in Muzak!

The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.
– Thomas Jefferson