Creamy Pesto Parmesan Salad Dressing

I had a bunch of leftover homemade basil/cilantro/almond pesto that needed to be used up as well as a craving for a salad.  Did some Googling and came up with this creamy pesto parmesan salad dressing recipe that looked pretty good.  Apparently it's based on a well-loved and much sought-after recipe from the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I've never been to that restaurant, but the dressing sounded pretty nice.  

I put my own twist on it as follows, upping the pesto quantity and subbing in yogurt for the sour cream.  I like how it turned out- tangy, herby and a hint of cheesey. 

Creamy Pesto Parmesan Dressing

Adapted from SavorySweetLife.com

1/4 C plain, unsweetened yogurt

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/4 buttermilk (I mixed milk with a teaspoon of lime juice)

1 TBS finely grated parmesan

3 TBS pesto

Freshly grated black pepper

Mix, chill and pour over salad!

Buttermilk Bread

Using leftover dough from my cinnamon raisin swirl bread (the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe makes enough dough for 4 loaves, I made a half recipe and got 2 loaves out of it), I baked up this awesome buttermilk bread.  

Super tender from the buttermilk in the dough, but still it is sturdy enough to brave the toaster and turn out some kick-ass toast.  The toast is so good- it reminds me of the Pepperidge Farm Toasting White Bread that my Grandma McCarthy always used to have on hand.... not sure if they make it anymore, but this buttermilk bread is a really good substitute!!

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

I have been on a raisin kick recently for some unknown reason (maybe I need iron?), and, after my bread-making success a few weeks ago, I decided to combine my raisin obsession with my bread making skillz. 

I popped open my trusty Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book and found a recipe for cinnamon raisin swirl bread made with a buttermilk dough base.  So good.  So, so good.  And so, so easy to boot since it's a no-knead recipe.  Tim and I could barely wait for it to cool before cutting into it and then subsequently ate almost the entire loaf in one sitting.

I haven't seen buttermilk here in Jakarta, so I used ye olde whole milk + lemon juice trick.  Also, I brushed the bread with butter and sprinkled it with a little bit of sugar right before popping it in the oven, which made for an awesomely crispy top crust.

Chocolate Buttermilk Ice Cream

This deliciously non-traditional ice cream flavor, buttermilk chocolate, was the perfect way to use up buttermilk (leftover from cupcakes) and egg yolks (leftover from my massive flag cake). Tangy, rich, creamy and chocolatey.

I basically followed the basic buttermilk ice cream recipe from Smitten Kitchen and the chocolately modification from the Cupcake Project, although I used only 8 egg yolks. Plenty rich enough.

Buttermilk Biscuits!

I went to the beach (Sandbridge Beach, a low-key part of Virginia Beach) Labor Day weekend for some beaching, relaxing, drinking, eating and makin' memories (yes, our house was aptly named "Makin' Memories") with about 13 other people. Generally unscathed by Earl, we cooked massive meals, got sunburnt, drank more beer than you can imagine, and gave all of your favorite board and party games a bad name.

Some of my fellow beachers had requested biscuits for breakfast. I knew that biscuits from a can would be super easy, but I also knew they just wouldn't taste very good compared to flaky, light homemade biscuits, so I decided to make the biscuits myself. Not knowing what sort of equipment and ingredients Makin' Memories would have, I brought the dry ingredients for these awesome biscuits with me and mixed up the dough on-site. I chose this recipe, a) because it was high up on the Google hit list for buttermilk biscuits and b) because it used cake flour, which I had in abundance after making angel food cake a couple months ago. This recipe is awesome- I think the cake flour gives it an airy lightness. The recipe is so delicious that I couldn't snap a photo in time. But Nicole of Pinch My Salt fame has plenty, so take a look at hers and try not to drool.

Note: This recipe doesn't make a ton of biscuits. For 14 people, I made 3 batches of biscuits, which was a good amount.

Okra Fritters!

I love okra. I don't think I'd ever had okra until I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in college, and then I think I didn't get the chance to try it again for years. Some people don't like the stickiness or hairiness of it, but I don't find it offensive- once you cook it, it's no longer sticky or hairy. I looooove it: deep-fried, Indian-style, and apparently now in fritters.
I saw this recipe in the Other Martha's Everyday Food magazine this month and immediately decided to make them... the okra stood up really well, stayed crisp and was perfectly complimented by the thin, equally crispy buttermilk batter. Mmmm.

Okra Fritters
adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food, September 2010

Vegetable oil, for frying
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
2 cups sliced okra
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk

- Heat oil over medium in a large, heavy skillet
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- Add okra and onion, toss to coat
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk
- Add egg/buttermilk mixture to okra and stir until just combined
- Drop 2-tablespoonful mounds of batter into the pan and smoosh down with spatula
- Fry until golden, about 4 minutes per side
- Drain on paper towels
- Season with salt and serve warm

Potato Salad and Burgers

A couple weeks ago, Chuck had a craving for potato salad, and I burgers. An excellent match. We turned to the most reliable of the Food Network chefs for recipes... Alton Brown's Burger of the Gods, which Tim made to rave reviews in the past, and Ina Garten's New Potato Salad. Delicious. Both were hits...

Potato salad can be tricky- it can go very, very wrong. Ina's recipe was very, very right, though. It had some tang from the buttermilk, good crunch from the celery and onion, a little class from the whole grain mustard and fresh dill.

Steamed Lobsters and Green Salad with Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing

Martha brought some New England lobstahs (Massachusetts for "lobster") with her on the Amtrak from Massachusetts to DC, so we steamed 'em and served 'em up with garlic butter. Delicious!

We also had romaine salad with a homemade buttermilk blue cheese dressing... the flavor of the dressing was good, but the consistency was a little funky and chunky. Too thick for pouring onto a salad. Also, the color was a little disconcerting... please observe above in the square plastic container. Hmmm.

Strawberry Shortcake

Got some strawberries from the CSA that needed to be used ASAP. Thought strawberry shortcake would be a good Memorial Day dessert to welcome summer...

I had buttermilk in the fridge left over from the last time I made biscuits, so I thought I'd make a sweet buttermilk biscuit as the shortcake. The only change I made from this Epicurious recipe was to sprinkle some raw sugar on top of each biscuit after I brushed them with milk. I liked these biscuits for strawberry shortcake since they were tender and tasty, but for general munching, I prefer the other biscuits I've made, which have the buttery layers I look for in a biscuit.

Cheddar and Chive Buttermilk Biscuits

Mmmmm... now that I've discovered that I can successfully make homemade flaky, buttery, delicious biscuits, I want to make them all the time. But I restraint myself and try to limit it to once a month, max.I hosted a brunch for my new "TV Club" (like a book club, but more fun and less pretentious) this morning and made these cheddar and chive buttermilk biscuits, which were a big hit. Super easy and really fabulous.

Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits

Just about everything Joy the Baker makes causes me to drool... but this cheddar/black pepper biscuit recipe particularly caught my eye because she used the biscuits as the basis of an egg sandwich. I love egg sandwiches. I think my dying meal would be a bacon, egg and cheddar sandwich on a biscuit.

Anywho: biscuits.

I used to be intimidated by biscuits, but turns out they're really easy to make. I had great luck with Smitten Kitchen's cheddar and jalapeno scones, which were very biscuit-like (what is the difference between scones and biscuits?). These were equally awesome... peppery and cheesy with a ton of flaky layers. Yum.