Cool Eats: Melon-Mango Soup

All this week I'm featuring "Cool Eats," recipes that require little to no stovetop time; perfect recipes to take the edge off that summer heat!

I can't think of a more delectable recipe for ending "Cool Eats" week-and this one requires NO cooking. In fact, you'll have it whipped together in a matter of minutes.

What goes in this fabulous treat? Mangoes, cantaloupe, a little sugar, some white wine, and lemon juice. That's pretty much it. Oh, and a splash of half and half.

I discovered champagne mangoes this summer--they're a bit smaller and much less fibrous than regular mangoes. Huzzah!

These are some slippery ingredients, so don't worry if it gets a little messy. Make sure your hands are clean, that you've scrubbed the outside of the fruits before slicing them, and just toss it all together in the blender.

We chilled these in the hollowed out cantaloupes for an extra bit of fun. It was even more scrumptious scooping out bits of cantaloupe from the fruit while eating the soup!

Mango-Melon Soup
1 mango, pitted
1 cup cantaloupe, just scooped out of shell
1 Tbls lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine (dry or sweet)
2 Tbs sugar
Splash of half and half (or 2 Tbs greek yogurt--we were out of yogurt at the time!)


Toss everything in a blender and give it a good whirl. I poured the soup back into the cantaloupe halves and chilled them about an hour. Divine!

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Cool Eats: Cold Cherry Soup

All this week I'm featuring "Cool Eats," recipes that require little to no stove-top time; perfect recipes to take the edge off that summer heat!

Cherry soup can be heavy and not-so-healthy, but this recipe comes out cool, bright, and deliciously decadent, despite its being not-so-bad for you!

This recipe comes together easily, with only about 15 minutes of stovetop time. It's a riff on the Martha Rose Shulman recipe that was in the New York Times last month. It's healthy, light, and so refreshing!

Fresh cherries can be expensive, so if they go on sale, nab 'em! Or, just splurge on a bit of summer's best work. A fruit stand in my Brooklyn nabe sells them 2 pounds for 8 bucks--that woman has seen a lot of me this summer. :)

Three of us set to pitting 2 lbs of cherries by hand--honestly? Not that difficult. And whatever dropped outside of the bowl, we got to eat. :) Make sure to save the pits, because that's what you use to make a sort of cherry 'stock.'

Mmmm...pitty.

After boiling the pits in the water, you remove them, put in everything but the cherries,yogurt and almond extract, and let it go five more minutes. Then add the cherries, let it "simmah down nah" for five minutes more. You're almost done!

A quick whisking of 1 cup cherry liquid into the yogurt gets the final step going. After the first cup came together, we added the almond extract. I briefly considered adding more than the teaspoon, but the flavor is even stronger the next day, so I think the 1 tsp. is sufficient. And awesome. :)

I couldn't help thinking that this would be equally delectable spooned over some vanilla ice cream, or freshly-sliced peaches and bananas. Any other serving suggestions?

This is dead simple and so, so, so fantastic. We had the first round for dessert with dinner, and more the next day for breakfast. Yay, summer!

Cold Cherry Soup (adapted from Martha Rose Shulman's NYT recipe)

5 cups water

scant 1/2 cup sugar (use less if berries are very sweet)

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 teaspoon salt

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp almond extract (YUM)

2 pounds sweet, dark cherries, pits reserved

1 cup Greek-style yogurt (we used Fage 2%)

Bring 5 cups to boil in saucepan. Add pits and boil 5 minutes. Remove pits (water will be tinged rosy-pink) and add everything but the cherries and yogurt. Stir gnently to mix, then let go for about 5 minutes at a rolling boil before adding the cherries. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat to start cooling down.

Take 1 cup of the warm cherry mixture and whisk it into another bowl with the yogurt, whisking quickly, then slowly add the rest, cup by cup. Let it cool down before putting in the fridge. As Ms. Shulman says, you may have to stir it up again before serving, but we didn't really notice any separating.





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Cupcake Combo

Strawberry & Cardamom—why hadn’t I thought of it before? CHOW’s latest email had a recipe for this flavor combo in a cupcake, and I quickly filed it in my recipe folder. Then my friend Jen A forwarded me the same exact email, saying if I came to visit her on Sunday, we might just have to bake these! Yeah, that worked. ;) I would have come anyway, but cupcakes never hurt!

We made the batter step by step, and even accidentally switched up the eggs (adding the whole eggs before the single egg whites), but we kept going forward. Soldier on, bakers!

I’m glad the CHOW folks warned us the batter would look curdled, and not to worry, because it looked really curdled.

While we ate a delicious dinner (Jen’s BF Tom made us a feast of grilled salmon, sinful scalloped potatoes, chicken sausage, and a spinach salad), the cupcakes baked to a golden perfection.

We deviated from the CHOW recipe here--we skipped the filling and made our own frosting, riffing off a cream cheese frosting recipe Jen found. The secret ingredient in this batch? All-natural strawberry extract.

Jen had picked it up on a whim and we figured this was the perfect recipe to take it for a test drive. It SMELLED like a field full of fresh, ripe strawberries. Wowza.

I had some Trader Joe’s strawberries, which I sliced nicely and used to top the cupcakes. We also paired the cupcakes with some white port (have you had white port??? You must try it—light, delicious, and yes, sweet) and it was dessert perfection. Dreamy sigh.

Strawberry & Cardamom--a new favorite flavor combo! I'll have to try this in smoothies, cocktails and more. I'm learning to savor this summer!

Get the Chowhound recipe for these cupcakes (and more summer treats) by clicking THIS LINK!

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Samantha's (Super-Awesome) Smoothie

You may remember my post on the delicious Samantha Sandwich (have you tried it yet??) A lot of my friends tried it, too, and raved about it, so next I had to try the Samantha Smoothie, aka Samantha Heller's Get Well Good Morning Smoothie (go HERE for the recipe and more of her delicious ideas!)

My day starts pretty early--around 4am to be exact--and I have to admit I do NOT usually feel like eating at that time. If I DO eat, I have to have something quick and ready to go, because I am determined to sleep as long as possible. I love that I can whip up this smoothie the night before and have it ready to go--in fact, it makes two servings, so I'm set for the next two days! Also, I bought everything you see here at Trader Joe's--affordable and healthy!

I often think of smoothies as sugary, not-very-filling drinks, not substantive meals or snacks. This smoothie packs some omega-3 and fiber-rich walnuts and flax seeds (ground in my coffee grinder).

And while walnuts are good for you, make sure you measure--especially if you don't cook that much. You may think you know what a tablespoon is, but do yourself--and your waistline--a favor, and measure out just to be sure.

This blended up in less than 30 seconds. It makes about two servings, so I sampled some right away (DELISH!) and then portioned it out into two glasses: a standard juice glass, and then, just for kicks, a fancy-schmancy cocktail glass that came with my Chambord bottle.

Why not have fun with breakfast?

This is not like just downing a glass of juice, which might taste nice but isn't filling you up at all. This has serious flavor (berrytastic) and fiber, and a serving of this will actually stay with you. I now have the next 2 mornings' breakfast ready to go, so I can sip a healthy drink while I get ready in the (very) early hours.

Thanks to my favorite Registered Dietitian for yet another 'healthy' recipe that is also fabulous!

You can learn more about Samantha and get this recipe (and others) here!

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Vermillion Beauties (aka Poached Pears)

Another reason to heart your slow cooker--it can take rock-hard, pale pears and turn them into vermillion beauties!

I can't believe I waited so long to make these scrumptious and stunning treats--for not much labor, it can look like you really went all out for dessert!

One quick trip around the web will reveal more variations on this recipe than you can count. I noticed a lot of them called for crazy amounts of sugar, cloves, nutmeg, etc. You just want enough sugar to take the bite out of the wine. I dialed down the spices for the most part and used the fruit I had on hand for flavoring. Using what you have makes it all the more of a Recession Recipe!

The most time-consuming part of this dessert is the peeling, but even that doesn't take more than 10 minutes. A lot of recipes recommended Bosc, but Anjou were on sale that week, so that's what I used!

The rest of the hands-on time was easy: pour the entire bottle of wine ($7.99 on FreshDirect.com!) into the cooker. Correction. Sample some of said wine first, you know, for a quality check. THEN pour the rest of the bottle into the slow cooker, which you set on 6-8 hours. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then gently place the pears, add spices.

Let them simmer for about 30 minutes, then come back and flip them over with a spoon (or something else that won't leave a mark). I flipped them over every hour or so just to keep the coloring even.

The smell of these pears poaching is absolutely heavenly. It will fill your whole house with a spicy, relaxing aroma. You know they're done when a knife or fork easily pierces the pear.

Remove them from the cooker, put them in a dish (preferably glass), and cover them with the juice. Chill them a few hours, or even better, overnight. I recommend removing the cinnamon stick if you're leaving it overnight, otherwise the cinnamon overpowers everything else.

Resist the urge to drink the entire amount of the wine/spice mixture. Holy moley is this delicious!

The part that surprised me about this dish is how extremely unripe pears soften over time in the cooker. Not all of my pears cooked as evenly, but most of them came out tender and delicious.

Serve with a dollop of freshly whipped cream or good-quality vanilla ice cream. This gets even more delicious day after day. I had leftover pear halves for dessert for a good few days!

Pears Poached in Red Wine
Firm, not-too-ripe pears (I used Anjou, but any will do)
1 bottle (750 ml) red wine (I used Trapiche Pinot, per FD's suggestion)
1/2 c sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest and juice from 2 clementines

Peel and rinse pears, pat dry. Squeeze lemon juice over them to slow browning. Add bottle of wine to crockpot, add sugar and stir to dissolve. Gently place pears in liquid, then add spices and fruit zest/juice. Flip pears every hour or so to ensure even coloring. Once pears are easily pierced, remove from crockpot and let cool. Pour juice over them and cover, chill several hours or overnight if you can. Serve with freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Cherry Pie

This Thanksgiving I made another cherry pie, though I hit a snag or two in my routine. Foodtown no longer carries the sour cherries I normally use. My only option? Pre-mixed pie filling. I didn't know if it tasted good, was sicky sweet, or anything, but time was ticking, so I had to go with it. Also? EIGHT DOLLARS A JAR! What?!?!

Pom Party!

The perfectly lovely people at Pom Wonderful chose my blog (along with about 99 others) to host a Pomegranate dinner party--and they sent me plenty of pomegranates to make that happen! This exotic (but approachable) fruit was the centerpiece of the meal, and they encouraged us to serve it up in different ways.

I decided to throw this party on the same day as the New York City marathon, which goes right past my building each year. ABF's sister, brother-in-law, and nieces were among the guests, and they came with mimosa fixings. Awesome! We took it up a notch and made "Pomosas," which was Moet & Chandon champagne with a hefty dose of 100 percent pomegranate juice. These were gorgeous and delicious--look at that ruby red beauty!

I also put my Trader Joe's apple cider (like a liquid apple pie!) in the crockpot and let it simmer, filling up the whole house with an unmistakable aroma of fall. A splash of pomegranate juice and it took on a whole new flavor. Yum! (Don't worry--Mitzi didn't get near it until AFTER all the guests left--please don't bother to call the Health Department.

For my savory dish, I sauteed chicken breasts in a pomegranate reduction. This was SO easy to make, but it tasted like it took a lot more skill than it did. :) I sauteed some shallots in olive oil, a bit of butter, red wine, and of course, freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice! This had a tart, juicy feel to it and it went so well with the chicken.

I paired it with some quinoa, which I mixed with freshly-chopped cucumber and of course, pomegranate seeds. A drizzle of pomegranate molasses (a gift from a friend who visited Turkey) finished off the dish.

ABF repeatedly told me how delicious this was, and I have to agree with him: it was pretty righteous. The tartness of the pomegranate is balanced by juuuust enough sweetness, and the color is just downright gorgeous!

I feel like I'm seeing pomegranates everywhere, and now they aren't the least bit intimidating. I hope you'll pick up one next time you hit the produce section--they're as tasty as they are beautiful. Thanks again, Pom Wonderful!

Full disclosure: While Pom Wonderful provided me with copious amounts of pomegranates, a kick-butt apron, and giveaway bags for my guests, I was not required to give a glowing review...it just deliciously worked out that way!