Sweet potato kale frittata

I was looking for a recipe to use up some kale and sweet potato I had on hand. As you may know I never turn down a chance to utilize or consume goat cheese!

Recipe from countryliving.com

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 1 c. half-and-half
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• ½ tsp. Freshly ground pepper
• 2 c. sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 c. firmly packed chopped kale
• ½ small red onion
• 2 clove garlic
• 3 oz. goat cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together eggs and next 3 ingredients.
2. Sauté sweet potatoes in 1 tablespoon hot oil in a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden; remove and keep warm. Sauté kale and next 2 ingredients in remaining 1 tablespoon oil 3 to 4 minutes or until kale is wilted and tender; stir in potatoes. Pour egg mixture evenly over vegetables, and cook 3 more minutes. Sprinkle egg mixture with goat cheese.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F 10 to 14 minutes or until set.
4. (I found it needed an additional 5 minutes cooking time to set)

Apple Fritter Bread

Julian Apple recipes part II!

Recipe provided by my friend Michelle's mom:

Apple Fritter Bread loaf

Preheat oven at 350

1/3 c. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. Cinnimon

Mix Brown sugar and cinnamon together and set aside.

2 apples pealed and chopped in thin slices

Mix in 

2 TBLS Sugar

1 tsp Cinnimon

Mix this up and set it aside

Batter

2/3 c. Sugar

1/2 C. Margarine

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

Beat the batter, then put in.

1 3/4 tsp of baking powder

mix that  into batter

Add 

1 1/2 C. Flour, mix 

then add 1/2 c. Milk

Put  1/2 batter in a 9 X5 Greased loaf pan, then put in 1/2 of apples and 1/2 the brown sugar and cinnamon mix.  Lightly press the apples and cinnamon mix into the batter. Then add remainder of batter, apples and cinnamon/brown sugar.  Take a knife and kind of mix that together on the top to move apples down a bit.

Bake for 50-60 mins, cool for 15 mins and add glaze.

Glaze- should just be able to drizzle it on top

1/2 C powder sugar

1 Tlbs Milk or cream.  May need a bit more milk 

Chop up the apples

Layer with batter, apples, and cinnamon sugar mixture

Repeat layers then press apples down into batter 

After baking make the glaze and drizzle on top of the bread

The Apple cinnamon combo is classic fall flavors! I will be eating the leftovers for breakfast :)

French Apple Cake

Finally went apple picking in Julian! Another thing checked off my bucket list✔️. Half the fun is finding recipes to use up all the pears and apples we brought home.

We went to Apple Starr Orchards, an organic pear and apple orchard.

It was pretty expensive- 2 bags for $40, but you do get a lot of fruit, and a good variety.

The first recipe I decided on was a French Apple cake. I found many similar recipes online. This rustic cake's ingredients include the bakery pantry staples- flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, eggs. It also called for rum, but I used imitation rum extract instead because that's what I had on hand. 

Bon appetit! 

Plum crumble

Cut up plums and toss with sugar. I added elderflower liqueur as well.

For the crumble topping I used flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon, and butter.

In the oven at 350 for 40 minutes. 

Lavender honey Popsicles

I have been wanting to make these pops for a while. I decided to sacrifice some of my sacred lavender that I harvested from the keys creek frog farm lavender fields in ojai. Anyways combine lavender, honey and whole milk in a small sauce pan over low heat until just before boiling.

Remove from heat and let sit for 2 hours for the flavors to infuse. Strain out the lavender blossoms. Then add some plain nonfat Greek yogurt and freeze in pop molds!

These turned out terrible! I couldn't even finish one! I think maybe I put too much lavender- they were almost like bitter and soapy tasting.

Basil coconut Popsicles

My aunt Bobbie turned me on to these and I have made them a few times since.

The recipe is from the roasted root

http://www.theroastedroot.net/basil-coconut-ice-cream/

And is originally for ice cream. But you can just make the recipe and pour into Popsicle molds instead.

I usually make a half recipe, and instead of honey I have substituted sugar or Splenda.

Basil Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (tightly packed)

2 cans full-fat coconut milk (13.6-ounce cans)

½ cup honey

¾ cup half & half

1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Heat coconut milk and cream on the stove over medium high in a saucepan until hot and barely bubbling (bring to a low boil). Add honey and salt; mix to dissolve. Add basil leaves, stir and allow them to wilt in the mixture; remove saucepan from heat. Pour mixture into a blender and emulsify until completely creamy and no chunks of basil are visible (if this is not possible in your blender you can strain out the basil pieces with a fine wire strainer/colander if you would like or you can leave the basil pieces in the mixture). Allow mixture to cool 20 minutes; this allows the flavors to infuse. Pour mixture in a large container and refrigerate a few hours until cool.

Minnesota fish fry

Zucchini pie

Art adventure in Mexico!

Saturday I went on an adventure in Tijuana visiting murals by the artist Panca. This tour was hosted by the tour company tourista libre!

Our first stop was the the central bus station.  She described the feeling of this work as being "Spat out into the world in an unknown place"

Here's some of the other artists murals on the bus station wall.

The next stop was a mural painted on the wall of a musician friend's house.  She said he is moving soon so this mural won't be here for too much longer

It was painted in 2012- which was a political year because of the elections going on and people selling their votes. The translation is "A real change comes from within."

Steve being grumpy 

Our bus about to take us to go get tacos! Did I mention the cooler on the bus full of ice cold Tecates and Mexican coca colas?

We went to Tacos los paisas, a taco shop once visited by Anthony Bourdain.

Some adobada tacos

The next mural was right by the border on the outside of a tattoo/screen printing shop.

On our next stop we walked through the oldest park in Tijuana. Across the street from the park is an apartment building from the 1940's where Panca lived for a while.

The building is now home to a community of young Tijuana writers and artists.  There's also murals inside the building, but no one was home to let us in.

The next mural was in an alley way near where all the mariachi musicians live.

From there we walked to a small brewery storefront located inside a covered alley way with other little art studios, cafés, used book and record stores.

The brewery is called Mamut- which means mammoth!

The last mural was finished just the day before we got to see it! It's located on the border wall near the casa del tunel art gallery. The building once housed the entrance to an underground tunnel that crossed into the US.

The gallery had some art by other artists outside. Here are some other artworks at the gallery: