Ash Halter Top and Monkey Bar Skirt

My first Monkey Bar Skirt for Zoe came out so cute, I immediately made another one.  This time, though, I used woven fabric for the skirt... a super cute cotton/poly blend with watercolor strawberries from a local shop here in Bangkok.  The green waistband and shorts are made from this emerald heather jersey blend from Girl Charlee (super soft!).  Love it!  Download this free pattern from Hey June if you haven't already!

I also made a top to match: the adorable halter top portion of Willow & Co's Ash jumpsuit.  Zoe looked so cute in the pink seersucker Ash jumpsuit I made here that I thought I should make it again.  The halter doesn't have a lot of hanger appeal (or kitchen table appeal, as it were), but I know it will look awesome on her:

The whole outfit is pretty damn cute, huh?:

Strawberries Galore

I know strawberries are out of season now in the U.S., but they still seem to be going strong here in Indonesia.  I think they might have multiple seasons here, in fact.   My understanding is that growing strawberries is relatively new in Indonesia, but people seem to like them a lot.  Strawberry seems like the new hotness as far as flavors go here in Jakarta... 

I got a couple containers of strawberries at the store recently and whipped up two strawberry cakes:

First, Franny's chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream, which I made for a BBQ Tim and I attended.  I figured you can't go wrong with strawberry and chocolate as well as two tried and true recipes. 

As usual, the cake was light and moist, and the frosting was really nice, albeit slightly

 soft in Jakarta's heat:

Second, I made Smitten Kitchen's strawberry summer cake, which was pretty awesome right out of the oven.  Like Deb said, jammy strawberries combined with a slightly crunchy, sugary crust, plus a tender cake below.  Good stuff.  I successfully substituted a third of the flour (1/2 cup) with whole wheat flour and that worked quite well:

Bulgur Maple Breakfast Cereal

I recently came into what I think is bulgur wheat from some friends who moved on from Jakarta to greener pastures (Hi Brooke and Rob! Miss you!)... it came in an unmarked (but for a stylized drawing of what looks like a wheat stalk) bag, but looked fairly bulgur-y, if that's a thing.  

I've used bulgur a little bit in the past... tabbouleh, Moroccan spiced stuffed squash, bulgur and ricotta pancakes... but was intrigued by this idea I saw in last week's NY Times for a maple bulgur breakfast porridge.  

I always think the concept of oatmeal is nice: a hearty, warm bowl of breakfast goodness.  But in reality I find oatmeal to be kinda gluey and gross.  The texture of this bulgur wheat porridge is better somehow... it's got a creaminess, but the little bits of wheat retain some appealing bite and pop.  Add a hint of smokey sweet maple flavor?  Pretty awesome.

I followed the super simple NY Times directions to a T (soaking the bulgur overnight in hot water then cooking it briefly in milk in the morning), but switched up the accoutrements, using quartered strawberries and roughly chopped almonds in place of the blueberries and pecans.  Yum.  As an experiment, I also tried Martha Stewart's cook it all at once methodology, but I found the overnight method creamier and more appealing.

Cupcakes for Baby Mamas

More baby mamas = more cupcakes... this time Kate (of turtle fame) is the baby mama being showered, and the cupcakes I baked are yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles, and strawberry with strawberry buttercream.The strawberry cupcakes, based on a recipe from the self-proclaimed originator of the cupcake craze, Sprinkles, were amazing. I got the recipe from the Other Martha, and my only comment is that if that's what all of Sprinkles' cupcakes taste like, they earned their glowing reputation. The recipe was super easy and took advantage of some of the local strawberries I picked earlier this summer and froze. I'm not normally a strawberry cupcake person because of the weird fake strawberry flavor I normally think of, but these cupcakes are so moist, with a real strawberry flavor. Plus the frosting has an amazing bright pink color, so no need for artificial food coloring!

The yellow cupcakes were less impressive, sadly... decent, but not as moist and yellow-y as I was hoping. Not enough egg yolks? Not sure where they went wrong. Next time I think I might try the "best birthday cake" from Smitten Kitchen...

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken and Spinach Salad with Strawberry Balsamic

I saw this recipe for pretzel-crusted chicken in the Washington Post's "All We Can Eat" blog this week and had to make it... it was so good! Super crunchy, slightly salty crust. Mmm. I made the sauce a little bit differently from the recipe, mostly because I was preoccupied while cooking, but it was still good- mayo, minced dill, a hint of honey and a hint of lemon juice.
Very loosely based on this recipe, we turned a little more of our abundant strawberry harvest into some sweet (but not overly so) strawberry salad dressing. Pureed strawberries with minced shallots, a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper... healthy and delicious on a salad with some tangy cheese (goat cheese or feta worked for us).

Fresh Strawberry Daiquiris

Amy, Chuck and I braved wilderness of Waldorf, MD over Memorial Day weekend to take advantage of the strawberry bounty at Shlagel Farms. We picked 3 huge trays of strawberries, as evidenced above, most of which needed to be eaten immediately because they were so deliciously ripe... some of them got a little bruised up on the way home, so we decided to blend them into some fresh daiquiris.

These daiquiris rocked. Simple, fresh, boozy. Strawberry, lime juice, rum, a teeny bit of sugar, ice. Done.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlets

One of Tim's all-time favorites is strawberry-rhubarb pie. Luckily it's easy to come by these ingredients at the CSA in the spring. Armed with super ripe berries and tart rhubarb, I decided to use a recipe for lattice-topped mini-tarts that I found in Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts cookbook (snagged, along with her cookie book, for a cheap price at TJ Maxx on Friday). I tweaked the recipe a little bit to my taste, as described below, and they came out great! Not too sweet, super buttery crust.

Here's how I adapted the filling:

2 cups strawberries, cut into tiny dice

3 stalks rhubarb, cut into tiny dice (about 1.5 cups)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

2 TBS orange-flavored liqueur, such as Grand Marnier

3/4 cup sugar

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.

Romaine Salad with Sweet Onion, Strawberry and a Sweet Poppy Seed Dressing

Chuck was tasked with bringing a salad to Lindsay's potluck... she remembered this great strawberry and greens salad Martha used to make when we were kids, so she dialed Martha up and got the recipe.

Slices strawberries, romaine, sweet Vidalia onion, and a poppyseed dressing:
1/2 C mayonnaise, 1/3 C sugar, 1/4 whole milk, 2 TBS white vinegar, 2 TBS poppy seeds.

Meringues with Berry Coulis

I wanted to give from-scratch meringue making a try after successfully making a pavlova with the pre-packaged mix. I used Ina Garten's recipe for Meringues Chantilly. They came out pretty well, but I think I still have some work to do to really perfect the right texture- these were a little too chewy!

I made a berry coulis to top off the meringues, using frozen blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, loosely based on this Emeril recipe. Tasty!

Topped also with whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

Pavlova Magic!

In honor of Amy's last DC meal, and to steel her for the barrage of Aussie delights she'll be eating at her first Australian Christmas, I made a pavlova topped with passion fruit puree and sliced strawberries.

A pavlova (or "pav") is basically a giant meringue- egg whites and sugar- all poofed up and slowly cooked to make a crackly mound with a soft, marshmallow-esque center. The tartness of the passion fruit puree really compliments the sugary meringue.

I could have made the pavlova from scratch- it seems pretty easy- but Amy had given me a container of an Aussie pav shortcut: Pavlova Magic, the equivalent of American boxed cake mix. It was pretty foolproof, if not magical, once the internets converted the directions from Celsius to Fahrenheit for me.

The best part about Pavlova Magic, though, is that it comes in this weird egg-shaped packaging. It's like all of the '80s era L'eggs pantyhose packaging died and went to Australia to be reincarnated as Pavlova Magic containers:

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes

I saw this recipe for chocolate strawberry shortcakes in my Food Network Magazine (which I got for free, using my Coke points), and it caught my eye. Luckily, I got really great strawberries in this week's CSA. They were super ripe and needed to be used immediately, so I got a chance to try out this recipe...The shortcakes had a nice flavor, but were kinda dry. Maybe that's how shortcake is supposed to be... but I think I'd just make brownies and top them with strawberries and whipped cream instead next time.

Smoothie!

In-season, local strawberries from the CSA, a past-its-prime banana that had traveled from home to my office and back, plus some Greek yogurt and honey.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie!

"Tim, can you preheat the oven and pull out the pie plate, please?"

"Ehhhhhhhh... when you said you'd make me a pie, I didn't think I'd have to be involved!!!"

Used another Smitten Kitchen recipe, although I omitted the cinnamon and substituted some lemon juice instead since I have a weird thing against cinnamon in sweet dishes. I only like it in savory dishes like chili, etc. Pretty tasty, although a little watery as the recipe noted.

First Rhubarb of the Season

Made a cornbread-crusted strawberry rhubarb cobbler with rhubarb from the farmers' market (strawberries aren't quite out yet here- I got those at the Giant). Mmmm. Rather than follow the directions for the cornbread topping, I just used a box of Jiffy cornbread mix with an egg and a cup of leftover buttermilk that I wanted to use up. Worked out just fine!