Food - grace grits and gardening

Lemon Thyme Blackberry Cobbler

January 6, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

I am excited to be a new regular contributor to Inspiration Café! Each month I will be sharing information about gardening, specifically herbs, recipes and gardening projects. My personal blog, Grace Grits and Gardening, includes stories of family, food, garden, life, and tales of growing up on a farm in Northeast Arkansas. A bit of personal info…my husband and I live in Dallas, but recently purchased a small home in Fayetteville, Arkansas where we hope to retire…someday… We are empty nesters with two amazing children (Longhorn daughter, Razorback son), but our miniature schnauzers, Lucy and Annabelle, run the household.

Annabelle and Lucy

I’m a big believer in herbs. They are packed with antioxidants and full of health benefits. Plus, herbs are the only crop I can successfully grow in my postage-stamp-sized yard under the blazing Dallas summer sun. And, as the daughter of a cotton farmer, I must grow something…

Lemon Thyme Blackberry Cobbler

An entire bag of lemons stared at me each time I walked through the kitchen. (My husband tends to overbuy when he does the grocery shopping.) With lemons to somehow use up and enough thyme for a restaurant, I decided to add both to my simple blackberry cobbler recipe. If the combo lemon/thyme/blackberry turned out to be disgusting, only the schnauzers would know…

It smelled heavenly. It looked heavenly. I took a teeny tiny sinful bite to make sure it was edible. Very delicious! Both the lemon and thyme added a little something-something to the recipe. I immediately packed up half of it for a few neighbors, yet left a bit for John’s dessert. I managed to successfully ignore it the remainder of the afternoon.

Like everything I cook, it’s super easy. If the recipe is difficult, I move on to something else.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 stick unsalted butter

1 & 1/4 cup of sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

2 cups of blackberries (frozen or fresh)

Zest of 2 large lemons

Fresh Thyme – 2 teaspoons chopped

butter+lemon zest

Method:

1. Melt butter in the microwave. Mix the zest of 2 lemons into the butter. Use a tiny bit of this mixture to butter your baking dish.

2. Rinse and pat dry the blackberries. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the flour and the thyme together and sprinkle this over the blackberries. Gently Mix.

3. Pour 1 cup of sugar and remaining flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk. Mix well. Then, pour melted butter/lemon zest in and whisk it all together.

see the thyme sprinkled on top?

4. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly.

5. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the top.

6. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until golden and bubbly. About 10 minutes before it is done, you can sprinkle a bit more sugar and thyme over the top if you would like. The sugar will give it a bit of a crust & sparkle on top. And, you probably will have a lot of leftover thyme, so you may as well use a bit more.

A shout-out for thyme... In medieval times it was regarded as the plant that provided courage and vigor. The ancient Romans used it as a treatment for depression. It contains antioxidants and essential oils thought to alleviate stress, provide a calming effect and relieve aches and pains in the joints. One teaspoon crushed, added to boiling water, steeped for 10 minutes and then strained, makes a great tea, which will help with sore throats, coughs and mouth irritations. You can add a bit of honey to sweeten.

A big thank you Inspiration Café for allowing me to become a regular contributor! I hope you will stop by and check out my blog at Grace Grits and Gardening. I love comments and followers.

Breakfast Smoothie

January 6, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

I just made a great breakfast smoothie with 4 ingredients…

1/2 frozen banana
3 slices frozen mango
1 tsp almond butter
1/2 cup Lactose free, skim milk (add more to desired consistency)

Healthy + Delicious!

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Maple Glazed Cupcakes

December 1, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

Maple syrup and pecans – a classic combination, right? Maple Pecan Cupcakes are intensely flavored and fittingly festive for holiday entertaining. And the best part – the few basic ingredients needed to create these heavenly cupcakes are likely already in your pantry.

Don’t let the three-part recipe dissuade you. Really, this is simple. But read the entire recipe before you start, and dole out the ingredients in little bowls like the Barefoot Contessa. It really is more fun and efficient. You don’t want to get to the sticky caramel part and realize you have no parchment paper….

(Recipe courtesy of Cupcake Heaven, Susannah Blake)

Cupcake

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup pure maple syrup, dark

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup self-rising flour

½ cup roughly chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy. Add maple syrup and continue beating. Beat in eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of your bowl if needed. Fold in flour and nuts. Easy. Especially with a Kitchenaid.

Spoon into cupcake liners. I use an ice cream scoop. No mess.

Bake in the preheated oven for 17 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake is clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Frosting

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup, dark

1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar

Beat the butter, maple syrup and confectioners’ sugar until pale and fluffy. (Note the adorable measuring spoon… a 50^th birthday gift from one of my BFFs.)

Ice the cupcakes only after they have completely cooled… This frosting is amazing on spice cake and chocolate cupcakes. Don’t forget to lick the spatula.

Decoration

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons water

12 pecan halves

To make the caramelized pecans, gently heat the granulated sugar in a saucepan with water. Stir, stir, stir until the sugar melts.

Gradually increase heat and continuing stirring until the mixture turns a pale brown color. About 5 minutes. Spread the pecan halves on a sheet of parchment paper and spoon a bit of the caramel over each nut to individually cover. Let cool. Top each cupcake with a caramelized pecan half.

Makes 12. But they won’t last long…

A note about butter and flour…

Make sure your butter is room temperature (the texture and feel of Crisco – soft but not too soft). This is important because room temperature butter has structure. When the recipe calls for ‘creaming’ the butter, the sugar crystals are actually cutting up the butter and making tiny holes that help incorporate the other ingredients. The holes also make for a better texture (fluffy, light, flaky) when baking.

Spoon the flour into your measuring cup. If you scoop it straight from the bag with your measuring cup, it will pack down and you will end up with way more than needed. (If a recipe calls for 3 cups and you scoop it, you may end up with 4 cups in your dish, which will totally affect the outcome.)

Enjoy!

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

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