First thing I did was turn the oven on to about 375 degrees. Then I went out into the garden to get some fresh herbs.

I got some chives, thyme and some basil.

Then I cooked up some bacon to crumble on top. This actually came together pretty fast since all I had to do was cook bacon and then assemble the pizzas.

I couldn’t fit all of the pita bread onto one sheet pan, so I used two smaller ones that could sit side by side in the oven. I carefully cracked the eggs into the center of the pita breads. They didn’t slide off or go anywhere (except on one which I didn’t center very well) and just stayed on the pita bread.

I cut up a fresh tomato from the garden, added the bacon which I crumbled onto each pizza, added some portabello mushrooms to 2 of the pizzas (since some of my would be consumers didn’t care for mushrooms), added some cheese (a 6 cheese blend we had in the fridge) and topped it off with the herbs.

My change would be this: put the herbs on when they come out of the oven and add a little salt and pepper to the mix. I thought the bacon would be enough saltiness, but it just needs a little extra. The herbs got crispy while in the oven and lost some of their flavor, but was still good. I also wished I had coated the sheet pans with a little Pam spray first since the pita breads stuck to the pan a little – so you might want to do that as well!

The mini pizza above is also on a pretty, recyclable, and sustainable Palm Leaf Plate. I won these eco-friendly plates from a Foodie Blogroll Contest. I’m impressed that these plates are incredibly durable and made out of palm leaves! They use the naturally discarded leaves from the forest and press the leaves into different shapes. That means that these plates are biodegradable and compostable. Totally awesome. I’m planning on using them at my next BBQ or get together to share the wonder of Palm Leaf Plates with my friends! Thanks to the Foodie Blogroll and MarxFoods for having an a great giveaway!

Mini Breakfast Pizzas

4 pita breads
4 eggs
8 slices of bacon (about 2 per pizza, unless you eat some while you’re making them…)
shredded cheese
1 tomato, cut into chunks
3-4 portabello mushrooms, chopped
herbs (chives, thyme, basil)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook bacon and crumble into large pieces. Crack an egg into the center of each pita bread. Top with bacon, tomato, mushrooms and other veggies or toppings. Added shredded cheese. Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the eggs are set. Top with herbs (don’t be like me and put them on first!). Eat and enjoy.

I washed and peeled the loquats for my tarts. They have pretty large seeds in the middle and a little film from where the seed is, which I also took out. Alyssa told me she likes the skin, but I found it to be a little too tart for my liking. I also though having the skin on would make it too chewy, so I peeled all of the skins off and hand tore them into pieces. Apparently squirrels don’t like loquat skins, either. After they were peeled, I sprinkled nutmeg onto the fruit. If I could have found my cinnamon and if I had some lemon, I would have put both onto the fruit at this point.

I did mini tarts because I only have mini tart pans. I think I picked them up for really cheap at a thrift store one time in the hopes that I would make a lot of tarts. Crusts have intimidated me in the past, so that hasn’t really happened, but I made good crust this time!

I used the recipe for Sweet Pastry Crust from Joy of Baking. I was surprised that this called for room temperature butter (I’m so used to seeing “use cold butter” in a lot of recipes) and I figured it looked easy enough. I tried to handle it as little as possible and I ended up sticking in the freezer since the dough was still too wet and not too firm after being in the fridge for 20 minutes. I pricked the bottom of the shells with a fork for good measure as well.

I don’t have any fancy pie weights so I used parchment paper and rice to blind bake my mini tart crusts.

After baking the crusts (smelled so good) I placed a bunch of loquats into each mini tart crust. I made a custard that I poured over the top of each tart with a mini funnel. I adapted this Apple Custard Tart from Joy of Baking to use in my recipe.

The mini tarts sit and cool on a wire rack.

I loved the crust and I think I have the confidence to try crust again, yay! The only bummer thing about my recipe is that I really felt like it could use cinnamon. I didn’t cook the loquats either like they do with the apples for the Apple Custard Tart recipe since I didn’t think it was necessary, but it might add another layer of flavor to try that next time. Loquats seems to be a versatile little fruit and I think most tart recipes would work well with it. Another thing to try with these fruit would be to add a crumbly crisp to the top for a little extra texture.

I started by prepping my chicken for the grill. I received some Sierra Seasoning from a company called Sierra Madre Grocery Company some moons ago, but hadn’t really had the chance to use it. I decided I would use some of it on my bbq chicken this weekend. I actually dipped my finger in and tasted the mixture before I decided to sprinkle it on – it had a really good herb flavor to it so I sprinkled it on the chicken (underneath the skin and on the backside) and added a little extra sea salt and black pepper for good measure.

Then I tossed the chicken on the grill (indirect heat) and I tossed some french bread rolls to toast for a little goat cheese and bread appetizer.

The bread I put directly on the flame (I left only the back burner on) and they didn’t take too long to crisp up. Then I took a garlic clove and rubbed it over the bread before topping it with a little honey goat cheese and a sprinkling of parsley – pretty tasty!

I also grilled some sausages that I picked up at Henry’s: Chicken Parmesan Sausage and Sweet Italian Pork Sausage. I also got some white corn to grill as well.

When my chicken was almost done, I moved it to the back burner directly over the heat to crisp up the skin (my dad told me about this trick!) and then I slathered some Sweet Baby Ray’s honey BBQ sauce onto the chicken. The roasted corn I wasn’t sure how long to leave on the grill – since I was cooking it over indirect heat it didn’t really get that roasted look to it, but the roasted corn turned out really well. I only took some of the husks off to protect the corn a little while it was cooking.

I should have buttered and herbs them up while they were on the grill, but I did that afterwards; butter, sea salt and a little parsley. Really, really tasty.

The chicken turned out really well. Good flavor, sweet sauce, tender and juicy. Mmm! I really like the chicken sausage as well. The pork sausage got totally overcooked though and I ended up giving that to my dog (luckily, she thought it was awesome).

For dessert I made this Fruit Delight-thing. It’s got a cookie-like bottom with cashews in it, a sweet cream cheese and whipped cream center plus a blueberry + raspberry compote topping. Super tasty, this dessert didn’t hang around for too long.

I’m hoping to have lots more BBQ’s this summer! Are you? What are you grilling/cooking/hoping to cook this summer?

I have never entered a food contest before. I thought briefly about entering something for the San Diego Cake Club’s show but I don’t think my skills are quite up to par for that (looking at past entries is intimidating!). While looking at the website for the County Fair this year, I started looking at the Home & Hobby Contests. If you enter one of the One Day Contests, you get free admission to the fair, and you could win a prize! They had a “Cupcakes & Muffins” contest that sounded like something I wanted to enter with.

My entry? Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream. I found this recipe at Patent & the Pantry and reworked it a little to my liking. I did a test run the week before to try my hand at piping techniques:

["Stars"]

["Swirls"]

[Innards of the cupcake - see the specks of tea?]

I ended up going with the “Stars” piping technique and using a combination of two colors, orange and yellow, for the top. The end result:

I thought they turned out rather pretty, myself. I convinced my friend, Julia, to also enter. She made “Sean’s Cherry Chocolate Surprise” cupcakes – chocolate cupcakes with bits of maraschino cherries and chocolate inside. They looked totally cute, but sorry, I don’t have a photo of them!

We just made it in time to get through the gate at 12:30P to enter our cupcakes. We were also the last ones to get there, but luckily we got there in time to submit our entries.

[Chocolate Cupcakes]

There were 4 classes to compete in: Dessert Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, Savory Muffins and Sweet Muffins. Sweet Muffins seemed to be the largest class and the Savory Muffins were the smallest. All in all, there were 65 entries. They awarded ribbons through 5th place for each category.

[Dessert Cupcakes - mine are the ones in the pink box]

Neither of us won a ribbon. The winner of my category (dessert cupcakes) was also the winner overall of the “Best in Show” – it’s the one above with the pineapple and coconuts on a tray with little umbrellas in each cupcake. I honestly didn’t even think too much about presentation – and it wasn’t much of a surprise that the most elaborate looking cupcakes won overall. But it was a learning experience to see all of the entries and it was totally fun to enter!

Here’s my recipe for my cupcakes:

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 teabags Earl Grey tea (I used Stash brand tea) – about 1 tablespoon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the butter until soft. Add sugar to butter until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, making sure it’s thoroughly combined before adding the next egg. Sift together the dry ingredients in another bowl, including the tea. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in a measuring cup. Beat in half of the dry mixture with the wet, then add the buttermilk/vanilla and the rest of the dry mixture, stirring it all until just combined. Line the cupcake pan with 12 cups and fill them about two-thirds full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool thoroughly before frosting.

Lemon Buttercream

• 1/4 cup salted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups powdered sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Place butters and shortening together in a large mixing bowl and beat until combined. Add one cup of sugar at a time, mixing well after each cup. I like it when it’s at 3 1/2 cups of sugar – but if you want it a bit sweeter, add 4 cups (or one 1lb. box of powdered sugar). Add lemon zest and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Mix. Add until it’s the right consistency for you – I like it at about 2 1/2 tablespoons. This makes more than enough to frost 12 cupcakes – you will have leftovers. It’s probably enough to frost 24 if you double the recipe above. Store at room temperature.

I recreated this recipe on a smaller scale last week for some lunchtime snacks. I pretty much just eyeball all of the ingredients, but here are some measurements if you must have them. The recipe below isn’t very saucy – but if you want extra saucy, just add more cream. Alternatively, if you want to cut down on the fat, you can use milk, but it will probably take a little longer to tighten up the sauce.

2 pats of butter
1 T olive oil
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 T dried Italian seasonings
handful of baby bella mushrooms
about 1/4 cup of heavy cream
handful of parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
toasted bread of your choice (I used sourdough)

Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet. When the butter is getting foamy, add the garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and add dried Italian seasonings. Cook for a few minutes (3-5) until the mushrooms are golden and soft. Add cream. Cook until the sauce has thickened up slightly – if you want it saucy and more loose, just add a touch more cream. Add parmesan cheese. Serve mushrooms onto your toasted bread.

* for the party, I didn’t put the mushrooms on the toast, I just left the mushrooms in a large bowl and had the toast off to the side. This cut back on preparation and allowed people to put as much or as little mushrooms as they wanted and allowed the bread to be eaten plain or with other items for those pesky non-mushroom lovers.