Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.

Marion berry + Black berry Pie

After freezing most of the berries we picked recently, there was just enough Marion berries and Black berries for a week-long celebration of fresh berry smoothies, short-breads and pies.

The pie crust is the standard Double-Crust Pie pastry I've used before. The filling is simple as well. It turned out pretty delicious, needless to say. It is hard to go wrong with fresh berry pies.

With a scoop of Double Vanilla Ice Cream, the fresh warm pie just felt like heaven.

Ingredients
Double-Crust Pie pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening/butter
6-7 Tbsp cold water

Filling:
1 cup sugar
½ all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh Marion + Black berries

Preparation

1. Double-Crust Pie Pastry: Mix together flour and salt; cut in the shortening; sprinkle a Tbsp of water at a time, toss with fork, push aside and add another Tbsp and so on till all the flour is moistened; form the dough into 2 balls; roll one ball into a 12-inch flat circle; do not overwork the dough; save the other ball for the top crust
2. Place the rolled out pastry on a pie plate carefully, without stretching, allow to fall over the edge and trim around the edge
3. Filling: Combine the sugar, flour and salt; toss the fresh berries in. Pour the filling into the pastry-lined pie plate
4. Top Crust: Roll out the second ball of dough and drape it on as the top crust; brush top of pastry with some milk and sprinkle with sugar; flute the edges - i.e., pinch them into a zig-zag shape, or simply press down with tines of fork like for single-crust banana cream pie
5. Bake in 375°F oven for about 25 to 30 minutes till golden

Easy Breaded Pan-fried Chicken Breasts

So, what's special about chicken breasts, right? Marinate, then pan-cook or oven-bake or deep-fry, breaded or plain, serve with a salad and a possibly some sort of bread/starch and there you have it - a simple well-rounded delicious meal.

This recipe was inspired by a recent grocery shopping trip when I casually (and quickly) browse the packaging for meal ideas. Some old non-crispy crackers and unfrosted shredded wheat cereal came together for the breading.

The sauce is optional. Kids don't care for it. Just some rosemary and oregano leaves from the garden ground up with tomatoes, basil and garlic, cooked down to reduce a bit so the flavors meld.

And, the garden lettuce was ready to be harvested, with hopefully plenty more to come for the rest of the summer. We had gone berry-picking, our usual summer favorite. Marion berries are my favorite, next only to raspberries and blackberries. So I had picked some, while kids and D were picking blueberries and raspberries. The thorns are nasty so nobody else wanted to pick the Marion berries with me...

That's how this simple salad came about - just home garden lettuce with some ripe juicy Marion berries and almonds with a simple lemon juice and olive oil vinaigrette.

Ingredients
2 or 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced up if too thick
1 cup unfrosted shredded wheat cereal
1 cup cheddar-flavored crackers
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
2 to 3 Tbsp Olive oil

marinade: red wine vinegar, soy sauce, Patak's™ Kashmiri masala paste(optional)

Preparation

1. Marinate the ½ inch thick chicken breasts in enough marinade for about 2 or 3 hrs. If making on a weekend, I marinate right after brunch/lunch to cook it for dinner (refrigerate on warm days)
2. Grind the shredded wheat cereal and crackers to breadcrumbs texture, keep handy
3. Heat the oil in a pan, coat each chicken breast piece with the breading mixture, arrange on the pan, allow to cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes or so till the crust is formed
4. Flip and cook the other side, adding more oil if needed
5. Check to see that the chicken is cooked through (I am happy if internal temperature is 170°F off the pan)

Oats and Berry Squares

We baked a few goodies for the Holiday Season - we meaning me mainly, with my little girl being a fairly willing but rather inexperienced sous chef :)

Mostly Christmas Sugar cookies, some Lemon Butter cookies and a batch of these fairly "healthy" oats and berry squares. I had canned some Blueberry+Raspberry preserves from all the berries we picked over summer which seemed like a good filling for these simple oats and berry bars.

If using butter alternatives like Smart Balance™ or Earth Balance™ they don't behave the same way as traditional butter - they are too soft. If shaping them into cookies, preferably refrigerate for 2-4 hrs before working with it and even then, work really fast... but, as far as these bars go, it seemed fine - we just want a crumbly mixture to pack at the bottom and the Smart Balance™ Omega that I used seemed to work all right.

Ingredients
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup Smart Balance™ Omega butter or regular unsalted butter
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup berry preserves

Preparation

1. Beat brown sugar and butter until fluffy
2. Stir in flour and baking powder till it makes a crumbly mixture; reserve ¼ cup (or more) mixture for topping
3. Grease an 8-inch baking pan and pat the crumbly mixture at the bottom in a single uniform layer; spread the berry preserve in a single uniform layer over it; top with the reserved crumbly mixture
4. Bake in a 350°F oven for about 30-40 minutes till brown
5. Cool on a wire rack and cut into little squares or into rectangular bars. I like to cut it into little squares so it is easy to allow the kids to enjoy a reasonable portion at a time.

Tri-Berry Cobbler

We had gone berry picking this berry season and I had all these fresh berries after making a big batch of jams, and freezing some. So, while we do love eating the berries as-is, I thought it would be nice to top it with some form of simple pastry and make it a delectable dessert.

We had picked raspberries, boysenberries and blueberries and I liked the combination of flavors.

Now, among the local berries, my top favorite is the incredibly sweet and juicy marionberries, next is ripe and wild, melt-in-the-mouth albeit seedy blackberries, then plump and wholesome blueberries, then the 'everybody's favorite' dark and sweet Mt.Hood strawberries and finally the many varieties of raspberries, which we grow in our home garden as well.

Local hybrids such as boysenberries, loganberries , salmonberries and, even the rare huckleberries while quite tasty are not as ubiquitous as blackberries and raspberries and blueberries and am not terribly fond of them.

Anyway, this is a very simple cobbler: rather than bake all the berries with pastry crust on top, the biscuits are made separately and the berries are cooked separately and served together. I don't add any sugar, but, feel free to add a little if you prefer. And, if preferred, make the berries into a thick sauce by adding some cornstartch or tapioca and adjust the water suitably.

The biscuits are not sweet at all and so this dish bursts with wholesome berry flavors, and the biscuit gives the contrasting mild flavor and crunch. Plus, the biscuits can be served with other foods like soups as they are neutral, light, and delicate making them quite versatile.

Ingredients
raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries (or any berries of your choice)
for the biscuit:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup quick-cooking oats
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
¼ cup buttermilk
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup butter

Preparation:

1. Biscuit:
   • heat the oven to 395°F
   • combine the biscuit ingredients, do not overmix
   • scoop little dollops of the dough into a greased muffin pan
   • bake in the 395°F oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through on the inside (toothpick inserted comes out clean)
2. Fruit: combine about 2-3 cups of berries (or as much as you'd like), add a few tablespoons of water, cover and cook till a little mushy; crush the berries if desired, but, I like them a little chunky, reserving some berries for topping
3. Serving: dish up some mushed berries, top with the hot biscuits and sprinkle some fresh berries as garnish or serve them on the side