9 Am:

It’s cold today, and pouring rain, but I have to get to the post office to ship commissions.  Living in the city has advantages. I live within close proximity to several post offices. But I do have a favorite: it has a large tree lined parking lot. Here, I can juggle as many boxes as I like without having to worry about opening my car door into traffic or dodging cars with my arms full.  I could have the packages picked up as a time saver, but I prefer to personally “see them off”.

9:30 AM

After leaving the post office, I visit one of my regular recycle bins. It’s parked outside of an art supply store. I choose my cardboard carefully, and it has to be clean (no food containers in the bins). The cardboard from the art supply recycle is clean and sturdy since it’s used to ship delicate supplies. Because it’s strong, I like it for armatures, and monochromatic cardboard colored pieces like this  cupcake.

10 AM

Back at the studio. Immediately I cut up the boxes, keeping only the cleanest pieces. I then pencil the source of the box ( ie: Random House) on the sections, so I can accurately inform buyers of the ‘ingredients’ included in their purchase. All of the pieces from ‘The Cardboard Kitchen’ include an ingredients tag which lists the major sources of cardboard in each sculpture.

10:30 AM

At last I return to the organized chaos of the studio, and begin all over again. At least it’s warm and dry!

Why do I find oysters attractive as a subject. I have no doubt it is all the multi- hued layers of shell they build up throughout their lives. Layering is definitely a theme:  in the studio I layer paint; in ‘The Cardboard Kitchen’ I layer cardboard such as this Napoleon I constructed;  and in the ‘real’ kitchen as in this layered  strudel.

In ‘The Cardboard Kitchen’ I am still working out the construction details of the outer shell and the oyster inside. Although these are my first 100% recycled cardboard oysters, I know that as long as I have just the right cardboard box to complete the process, oysters will  soon be on the menu in ‘The Cardboard Kitchen’.

My recipe this month had to include mushrooms as the star ingredient. We had a spectacular mushroom season in the PNW. Remember the Caterpillar’s advice to Alice in “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland”.  I concluded he was referring to the ‘heightening’ powers of all that flavor, color and texture!

I decided to share one of my favorite Fall recipes: Mushroom and Butternut Squash Strudel.

I’m sure I love making strudel’s and working with Fillo dough because it’s similar to constructing with cardboard. There are parts to assemble, gluing with butter is always fun (!), and there is great satisfaction when you complete the process. Only in this case, it’s edible.

The sweetness and orange gold color of the squash is a perfect counterpoint to the muted earthy palette and flavor of the sauteed mushrooms. And, it’s all wrapped up in the magic of Fillo. I am sure the Caterpillar would have mentioned the magical properties of Fillo if he was not only a Hooka smoker, but also a cook.

Mushroom and Butternut Squash Strudel

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onions

1 pound fresh mushrooms ( cremini, shitkake, porcini, chanterelle, or white button or a mix) cleaned, and any tough stems removed, sliced
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves minced garlic

1 pound butternut squash,  roasted ( olive oil, salt, pepper, a little brown sugar),  and medium diced.* ( You can do this days ahead)
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried thyme
2 Tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup grated mozzarella
1/4 cup panko ( or plain bread crumbs)

Salt and pepper to taste
8 sheets Fillo thawed
1/4-1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Pour the olive oil into a large saute pan over medium heat. When hot add the onions and celery, and stir until limp.

Add the mushrooms and garlic, and saute until mushrooms are brown and any liquid is evaporated.  Remove from heat and stir in  butter until melted, and butternut squash.

Stir in remaining 5 ingredients, and salt and pepper to taste.

On a 12 x 24″ piece of plastic, lay one Fillo sheet flat ( cover remaining sheets with  plastic wrap to prevent drying).

Brush lightly with melted butter. Top with another sheet . Brush lightly with more butter. Repeat to stack all sheets.

Spread mushroom mixture in a 3″ wide band along one long side of the dough, keeping 2″ from the edges. Fold the  long edge, and the short edges of the dough over the filling. Gently lift the plastic wrap over the filled side, guiding it forward to form a roll. End with the seam side down.

Gently transfer the roll, seam side down, to a buttered baking sheet.

Brush top with melted butter. (I decorate with Fillo triangles, and brush with more

butter.)

Bake on the center rack  until golden brown 25 – 35 min. Cool to warm. Cut into 2″ slices.

What I love about Autumn is the way this season arrives quietly. Then, with it’s palette of earth tones and brilliant yellows, reds and oranges, it slowly paints the landscape.

In color and flavor, this palette perfectly matches the Fall harvest: mushrooms, apples, pears, squash, nuts, and many more.

I ‘know’ these fruits and vegetables ripen this time of year because they require colder, damper weather. But I always ‘feel’ they really ripen simply because their flavors and colors faithfully reflect that earthy scent in the air, and the vivid array on Autumn’s palette.

Autumn doesn’t stay long, but it brings so much!

The eggplant is the queen of summer. Not only is the color associated with royalty, the shapes are amazing. Maybe this is the summer equivalent of the pear in fall:  the still life painter’s nude.

In the PNW we don’t see eggplant until mid to late summer. When we do, it’s sudden, abundant, and with a flood of deep purples, whites, greens, and magenta. There is always a little dark blue and black for accent.

When I buy them at the Farmer’s Market they are  fresh, perfectly ripe, and very firm. This is when I love to eat them raw. It’s  a surprisingly sweet and salty flavor when sliced very thin on the mandoline, dipped in good olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and garnished with a basil leaf on top.  It’s beautiful too. A thin  round cream colored slice, edged in purple, magenta, blue, or white and green, with a drop of light green olive oil and bright green basil leaf. I assure you when they are this fresh they’re never bitter.

If you’re an eggplant lover, you have to try this recipe for eggplant fritters.

I love it because it doesn’t mask the eggplant with a lot of other flavors. The queen stays front and center,  as she should!

Eggplant And Nut Fritters

(Adapted from “Hors D’Oeuvres” by Eric Treuille & Victoria Blashford-Snell)

Topping:

2 plum tomatoes
1 clove garlic sliced
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh finely chopped rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°

Put tomatoes & garlic on a baking pan. Mix balsamic, brown sugar and olive oil together and drizzle on tomato/garlic. Sprinkle with rosemary. Roast in oven 20-30 min until softened. Cool. Place in food processor and pulse until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.  Can be made one day ahead.

Fritters: makes 20-25

1/4-1/3 cup olive oil depending on the size of your eggplant

1 medium eggplant, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, beaten
3/4 grated Parmesan
1 cup mozzarella, small dice
1 cup dry breadcrumbs ( I use panko)
1/2 cup pine nuts, roughly chopped
salt, pepper
arugula leaves for garnish

Preheat oven to 400°

Spread eggplant on  a baking sheet being careful not to crowd. Evenly pour oil over eggplant and toss to coat ( using spoon or hands).

Place in oven and roast for  15-20 minuets or until soft and brown.

Remove from oven, cool.  Blot with paper towels, pressing down slightly,  to absorb as much olive oil as possible.

Place baked and blotted eggplant in a medium bowl. Combine with garlic, parsley, rosemary, beaten egg,  Parmesan, mozzarella, bread crumbs and pine nuts.

Form into a walnut sized piece ( about 1-2 tablespoons). Form each round into an oval.

Place ovals on parchment lined  baking sheet.

Bake (@ 400°) 10-15 min until golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temp. Salt and Pepper to taste, garnished with 1/2 tsp tomato topping and an arugula leaf.

I am content if the dessert I order is sweet and satisfying. But there are times when that dessert is so much more and takes on a life of it’s own. This was the story of a generous slice of cake I recently shared with friends.

It was simply described as “Pineapple Banana Cake”,  but this cake had lots of everything. Not only was it a sixth of a cake and easily served four, it was rich and moist, studded with pecans, packed big pineapple flavor, and arrived frosted in thick buttercream. The garnish deserves its own mention: a mountain of maple laced whipped cream on the side, topped off with fresh strawberries and a drizzle of caramel sauce.

I realized my fixation with this slice had become overwhelming as I was working through my third rendering. It was just hard to resist the pale stripes of frosting intersecting dark textured cake, punctuated by bright spots of red strawberries. The first piece this cake inspired was a painting,  which quickly transformed into a baking project, and then became a serving of Chocolate Strawberry Cake from The Cardboard Kitchen.

Crazy? Maybe a little. Fun? Definitely!

Strawberry and Whipped Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Cake:

3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar

3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 tsp salt ( if using salted butter, reduce to 1/2 tsp)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350⁰

Melt chocolate, set aside

Beat butter in stand mixer, then add brown sugar and eggs. Beat until light and fluffy (about 5 min).

Add vanilla and melted chocolate, beat just until combined.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt. Add to chocolate mixture, gradually, alternating with sour cream and beating after each addition.

Stir boiling water into batter. Batter will be thin.

Fill paper lined muffin pan 3/4 full.

Bake 15-20 min or until center springs back when touched. Makes 18.

Filling:

1/2 pint fresh ripe strawberries,wash, dried, roughly chopped, set in sieve to drain.
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla (or to taste)
sugar to taste

Whip cream, add vanilla and sugar to taste.

Fold in strawberries.

Set aside in fridge until ready to fill.

Buttercream: ( if you are not piping, halve recipe)

4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk, or (more adjust to consistency)
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
food coloring if desired

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat at low speed until well mixed. then increase speed to medium

until light, fluffy and well mixed,scraping bowl often. Tint with food coloring if desired.

Assembly ( just before serving):

Piping bag method:

Fill bag  fitted with a #18 plain tip with cold strawberry whipped cream mixture.
Fill from the bottom by puncturing, being careful not to overfill.

Layering method:

Split cupcakes horizontally, and spread mixture between layers, and refit with top.
Note: I found it easier to frost after I filled, but I was piping the frosting and piping the filling.

That’s the industry slogan, and they are incredible when you consider the spectrum of dishes in which they appear. Is anyone baking today? How about that souffle, or lemon meringue pie that you love to show off? Or ‘THE’ perfect omelet that  took a few tries to conquer.

Everything, as they say, from soup to nuts can be made with eggs. This incredible edible acts as a leavening and binder, as well as being delicious on it’s own in a variety of preparations.

I am a purist when painting eggs. I reduce them to their obvious yellow and white form: deviled; in the shell; out of the shell; sunny side up, etc. As long as I can see the white and the yolk together. Then, like the real thing, I can always add pepper, paprika, parsley: well the palette is endless.

The color of the yolk is always a variable which it makes it exciting. It ranges from  a bright cadmium pale yellow, to  the  warm deep cadmium orange. Crack the shell. Out comes a clear viscous liquid surrounding a luscious golden circle that holds it’s shape. This is my experience of the egg.

We have been having the dreariest, wettest Spring this year. Perhaps this is why eggs have been on my easel so often the past few months.

I love to thoughtfully consider the icons of food, and why they remain so popular. Enter the well known Hostess Cupcake.

At one time I occupied a studio space directly across from the Hostess plant in Seattle. I faced a wall with a protruding pipe labeled “sugar in”. At various times during the week, a tanker style truck would arrive, hook up a giant hose to that pipe, and the rest is Cupcake, Twinkie and Ding Dong history.  At the time all sorts of crazy ideas about this entered my creative process, but I never imagined a blog post.

On the Hostess site I found the history of this cellophane wrapped chocolate enigma. In 1950 a baking executive added the vanilla creme filling, and the signature squiggles on top. That must be it! That circular white line work on a satiny dark brown coating, coupled with a white creamy circle that is set into a soft dark brown fluffy texture must be the secret to the success of this well known phenomenon.

Like the ipod, mid century modern furniture, and your favorite chef knife, the Hostess cupcake is well designed!

Artists love pears. They are figurative, and like the figure, come in many colors and shapes. They also stay ripe for quite a long time, which is the best part: you can use them in a still life to paint, and then eat them.

Those of you who follow my Flickr photos know that I have been receiving lots of pears through my shared Full Circle Farm Subscription. Early in the fall pear season it was the Bartlett,  which is great for baking. More recently it is the versatile Anjou.

If left to ripen, Anjous are meltingly soft and sweet. But I had so many ripening in my fruit bowl that were almost to the point of eating. This forced me to be quick and creative. My first choice was a  savory tart, but of course I recently posted a tart recipe! I will save my Savory Pear and Cheese Tart for next fall’s crop.

I used the only currently available edible in my garden: rosemary. Pairing these two flavors produced the most unexpected and delicious flavor combination. One part pungent and aromatic, the other sweet and floral, it is just heavenly. Don’t be afraid of all the rosemary in this recipe: it’s fantastic!  I served this  with roasted room temperature root vegetables on a bed of peppery arugula, vinaigrette and shaved Parmesan. Mmmm. Try this pairing before the season ends in late spring.

The original was published in Bon Appetit years ago, and called for Bosc’s. I have not only used all varieties, but  I’ve also made a few changes here and there and everywhere!

Caramelized Pears With Rosemary

5 large (7-8 small) pears peeled, cored, and cut into 8 wedges each. If using some of the softer varieties like  the Anjou, use them while they are still firm but fragrant and not overly ripe.

2 Tblsp fresh lemon juice
2-4 Tblsp. butter
2 fresh sprigs of rosemary, one 6″ with leaves left on, one 2″ with leaves removed.

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

(Alongside kosher salt, I used a gift from a dear friend: truffle salt. The earthy truffle flavor  used as the last seasoning adjustment below, was incredible with this dish).

• Preheat oven to 350º

• Spray or butter a baking pan and spread wedges in one layer.

• Bake 15-25 min, or until tender when pierced. Cool slightly.

• Rub with lemon juice to prevent browning.

• Chill overnight.

• In large saute or frying pan over medium heat, melt 2 Tblsp. butter.

• Add pears, the 6″ full rosemary sprig, and salt to taste.

• Cook until pears are brown and caramelized. (I did this in two batches to ensure my pears
wouldn’t be too crowded and steam. This uses more butter.)

• Stir in pepper to taste and remove rosemary sprig. Adjust salt to taste. (I added a sprinkle of truffle salt as a finishing salt, and used kosher salt above in the initial seasoning step).

• Serve at room temperature, garnished with the fresh rosemary leaves from the 2″ sprig.

Note: I know you all think that’s crazy: eating raw rosemary as garnish, but it really is delicious!

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