Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Everyday my husband goes to work with pretty much the same lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, bag of chips and 3 cookies of various types. Personally, I would go insane. He on the other hand does not seemed phased at all to eat the same thing day in and day out.
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a classic lunch staple. I can’t even begin to count how many times over the years that it has shown up in my lunch pail. As a teacher, I used to eat lunch with the kids, a lot(I was cheap and the rule at our school was that if you ate lunch with the kids your meal was free). I would say half of the table of kids were more than likely eating a pb and j. Mine of course must be made with Jif peanut butter and I usually enjoy it most with good ol’ grape jelly(which is funny because I don’t like grape jelly on anything else).
School is starting back up in Arizona(they have another month up here in the Seattle area), but since I taught in AZ, I tend to keep that schedule. Though I am now 3 years out of teaching I still seem to rule my life by the school calendar…I even use a student planner instead of a grown up one…so my year always starts in August.
So to honour the new school year and all my poor teacher friends who are back to school next week, I made this peanut butter and jelly tart. It is basically a peanut butter cookie dough that has been modified to roll out a little better. Simply topped with some of my mom’s really good homemade jam. And then topped with some peanut butter ganache. So to all you teachers who are heading back into the trenches, I wish you the following:
I hope you have a good class this year.
I hope you have parents who will be supportive and actually show up to parent/teacher conferences and all the other stuff that a parent should show up to.
I wish you quick staff meetings, so that your entire afternoons are not sucked up into a 2 hour drone of your principal sounding like the teacher from Charlie Brown.
I hope that “that kid” is stuck in some one else’s classroom this year, and not yours.
I hope that when a kid doesn’t show up with homework he/she has come up with some interesting and original excuse.
I hope you have enough school supplies so that it doesn’t have to come from your own bank account.
I hope your principal backs you when a kid is being a snot and so are his/her parents.
I hope your school district magically decides to give you a pay raise or at least a bonus
And last but not least I hope you have a stress free year(yeah, right!)
Have a great school year everybody!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Tart

4 peanut butter tart shells(recipe follows)
homemade jam
peanut butter ganache(recipe follows)

Peanut Butter Cookie Tart Dough

½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 10 pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
½  cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½  cup peanut butter
1 extra large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2  cups  all-purpose flour
½  tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

In a food processor, blend together butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Add the peanut butter and pulse until completely mixed together.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to food processor. Pulse until it starts to form a ball. Take out and roll into two balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour.
Take dough out of refrigerator, divide ball into two parts, place onto a heavily floured surface and roll out into a circle. You might have to pat it back together a few times. Carefully lift and place into a greased and floured tart pan(I used 3-inch diameter ones). You will most likely have to do some patch work, which is easily done.  Using a fork, poke the bottom of the tart, I did it about 10 times. Place a piece of parchment paper and then pie weights or dried beans.
Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. Take weights and parchment paper off and bake for another 6 minutes.
Makes 4 small tarts shells.

Peanut Butter Ganache

1 cup peanut butter chips
3 TBSP heavy whipping cream

In a saucepan, on low heat, melt together peanut butter chips and heavy whipping cream.

To assemble tart:

Place desired amount of jam/jelly into tart shell. Take peanut butter ganache and place in a piping bag. Pip ganache in whatever pattern you would like. These are best eaten the day of.

For some reason, perhaps the mirror cake, I have been stuck on wanting to make multi-step desserts. My ankle of course has decided to most definitely veto that idea. So I moved onto my other urge, unusual desserts…and I found me a winner. Tagged awhile ago was a recipe for a goats cheese cake from a local chef here in the Seattle area. I was intrigued as it was a flourless cake(well 3 TBSP) with very little sugar. What was most important to me is that it looked easy(and it was). This cake is absolutely wonderful. It baked up beautifully and is so light and tangy. This cake in my opinion(depending on the topping) could be used as either dessert or an appetizer. I used cherries(the season is coming to an end so I thought I should put them to use) but I think the topping choices are endless. I was thinking about making it next time using some orange blossom water in the cake and then drizzled with honey and pistachios.
If you are a goat cheese lover this is a must for you.

Goats Cheese Cake

10 ounces goat cheese
¼ cup sugar
2 TBSP honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
6 eggs, separated
3 Tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cheese, sugar, honey, vanilla, zest and juice. Mix well. Add egg yolks, two at a time, mixing to combine after each addition. Stir in flour. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold whites into cheese batter. Pour into well-greased 9 – inch, round baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until wooden skewer comes out clean. Invert onto large plate and cool. Serve with orange-cherry compote.

Chef Tamara Murphy of Brasa – Seattle, WA

Orange-Cherry Compote

1 cup pitted cherries, chopped
1/3 cup orange juice(no pulp)
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp cornstarch
splashes of Grand Marnier( personally like a lot of splashes :P)

Whisk together orange juice and cornstarch, making sure it dissolves so there are not clumps. Place cherries, juice/cornstarch mixture, and honey in a sauce pan. Turn on medium heat. stir every 30 seconds or so until it has thickened up. If it takes forever to do this, throw a little more cornstarch(your cherries might be juicer than mine). Take off of heat and throw in some splashes of Grand Marnier to taste. Spoon over the goats cheese cake.

You can serve this with a variety of toppings, such as simple berries.

I’m sure they have one. I’m sure I need one. I must be stopped.
What am I in need of? A 12 step cookbook addiction program.
I allow myself 4 cookbooks a month. Usually I stick with that. But with being injured and having nothing to do, I found myself browsing the Internet WAY too much. And what was worse was browsing Amazon.com. Now I love me some Amazon. But they are evil. Every since they came out with their suggestion list my cookbook budget has gone up. Sigh. Whoever the evil genius was that came up with this brilliant idea no doubt has bought himself a new BMW on my cookbook addiction alone. I have bought cookbooks I had never even heard of all thanks to this suggestion list. If you don’t know what I am talking about, they analyze what you have previously bought and suggest new items based on what you bought. I buy a lot of cookbooks so they have a lot of suggestions. Bastards.
One of their suggestions was The Jimtown Store Cookbook. I was sold just browsing through the index.
Right around the time I was figuring out what to do with all my buttermilk, I came across this recipe. This is by far one of the strangest things I have ever made. It was like a tangy souffle in a pie shell. It has a little hint of spice(I would have added more). It feels very airy and fun on your tongue. I was expecting it to be more like a custard pie. I want to keep tinkering with it since it is so unusual, adding more spice and more sugar(come on it’s me).
For those of you wondering, my ankle is still being stubborn. I’m hanging in there though and have as my physical therapist says, “a refreshingly positive attitude.” towards my injury.

Buttermilk Pie

3 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 TBSP unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
3 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 2/3 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Preheat to 450F. Place rack in middle.
Separate eggs, putting yolks in a large bowl and whites in a medium bowl.
Briefly whisk the yolks, then whisk in 1/3 cup of the sugar, the flour and the salt. Stir in the butter, and then the buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk until completely combined.
Beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Continue beating, ad remaining 1/3 cup sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, until whites are stiff and glossy. Stir 1 cup of the whites into the yolk mixture; blend thoroughly. Spoon the lightened yolk mixture onto the remaining whites in the large bowl. Using a whisk, fold together gently but thoroughly. Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell.
Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350F. Bake for another 20-25 minutes. The top of the pie should be dappled with brown and tenderly evenly set.
Cool pie completely to room temperature on a rack before serving.

Adapted from The Jimtown Store cookbook by Carrie Brown, John Werner and Micheal McLaughlin