The Zitner’s Butter Krak. Of course I had to buy it.

Little did I know it is a Philadelphia-area delicacy, and only available for a few months each spring.

The Zitner company has been making cream-filled chocolate Easter eggs since for decades. The coconutty Butter Krak flavor was invented by Annie Zitner in the 1930s.

It took me a few days to test the Krak.

The outside is unassuming.

The inside is incredibly sweet, with a creamy coconut flavor mixed with short coconut shreds. The dark chocolate coating also contains bits of toasted coconut.

It’s tasty, but very, very sweet. I think I can wait until next spring for my next one!

I usually serve it with brown rice, but recently decided to attempt naan.  I love bread in all forms, but particularly love soft and chewy naan. I used to be able to get takeout naan to eat with my homemade Indian food, but now I live in the country about 15 miles from the nearest Indian restaurant. Now that I have this recipe I’ll never be without naan!

I adapted my recipe from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. This is an amazing book–a must for anyone who loves Indian food! I looked at naan recipes online and they were all extremely complicated, with yeast, eggs, multi-hour rises, etc. This recipe is very simple, and very delicious. I don’t have a pizza stone or a griddle and had to improvise a bit. They turned out perfectly, especially since I burned them a bit under the broiler! That added a little authentic tandoori-style char!

Naan

3 cups all purpose flour (mine was a mixture of white and wheat flour), plus extra for dusting
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt (once I only had vanilla and it tasted fine!)
1 cup warm water
Canola oil
Melted butter or ghee

1. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

2. Combine the warm water and yogurt in a measuring cup. Pour over the flour mixture, and mix. It will seem too dry but will soon come together into a soft, sticky ball.

3. Using your hands, gather the dough and knead it into a smooth, soft ball. You may need to dust your hands with flour, but don’t add too much.

4. Cut the dough into four equal portions. (I use my digital kitchen scale to make sure they are perfectly equal!) Lightly grease a plate with oil. Shape one portion of the dough into a bun-shaped round and put it on the plate. Repeat with the remaining dough.

5. Brush the tops of the dough with melted butter, cover with a plastic wrap, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

6. Pre-heat broiler in your oven. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on a heavy cookie sheet. I use commercial steel half sheet pans.  Put the pan under the broiler and heat for about 10 minutes. When the pan is nice and hot take it out of the oven and put the dough pieces on it, letting them stretch into long ovoid shapes. Put the dough back under the broiler for about 5-10 more minutes.  Keep an eye on them, because the dough will puff up!

7. You can top them with more melted butter if you want, but I don’t.

8. Devour.

I need to put a button on it, so no pictures of me wearing it yet. I didn’t size it up at all, so it’s kind of too small, but still wearable.

I doubled two types of yarn together, so it’s quite thick and heavy. I think it will be nice for winter, when I want something cozy on my back but don’t want to wear a shawl.

I have been reading a fascinating book called Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerers by Lizzie Collingham. It is an account of the history of Indian food, and shows how each common Indian dish is a result of invasions by, or trade with, other groups of people. The Vindaloo chapter is about the Portugese influence in India, and the Biryani chapter is about the Mughals. They are the ones for whom the mughlai sauce is named, so I was very interested to read this chapter. The Mughals came from Persia, and ruled India from around 1550 until they lost power in the mid-19th century. Because they were the royalty of India, their food is very rich and contains a lot of spices. Collingham’s book is history interspersed with recipes.

I think this is going to be the summer of Indian food!

It is nice and spicy, and the lemon juice gives it a freshness that is so addictive. You can use two cans of chickpeas, but I recommend cooking your own from dried. They taste so much better, and their texture is better too. They are firm, and a little bit nutty.

Chana Punjabi

1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 cups of cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
rice or naan for serving.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low. Add onion and cook until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and chili, and cook until soft but not browned. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook until tomatoes are very soft, about 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

2. Puree with an immersion blender, or in a blender or food processor until smooth. Put back on heat. Add paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, coriander, the garam masala and lemon juice. Add chickpeas and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.

3. Cover and simmer until sauce is thick and chickpeas are soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Stir in cilantro, adjust salt as needed and serve with cooked rice, if desired.

I only had whole milk yogurt in the house, which I don’t think I would use again! It was a bit too creamy.

Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt

1 lb ripe strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup plain yogurt
Juice and zest of 1 limes
1 ripe banana

Hull and quarter the strawberries and place in a bowl. Add sugar, mix, and let macerate for about an hour. This will draw the water out of the berries and make them nice and juicy. Stir occasionally.

Put the berries, yogurt, lime juice and zest and banana into a blender. Puree until nice and smooth. Pour the berries, yogurt, lime juice and rum into a blender. Blend until smooth. Chill in the fridge for about an hour, or stick in the freezer until you just can’t wait anymore.

Freeze in ice cream maker, according to manufacturer’s instructions. You can eat it right away if you don’t mind it being slushy, or move to a freezer-safe container and freeze for about 30 minutes. It will be really hard so you’ll have to let it sit for a few minutes before it will be scoop-able.

This reminded me of the smoothies my aunts used to make when I was little. It’s super tasty and refreshing!

I took this recipe for lamb burgers and modified it a bit.

Burgers
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3 green onions
Greek seasoning
salt and pepper

Feta sauce
4 ounces crumbled feta
3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
Leaves from 3 stalks fresh mint, chopped

I think I would double the feta sauce recipe, because we ended up using almost all of it on two burgers. This was super fast and easy, and very delicious.

James’ department party was a couple of weeks ago, and I really wanted a new dress to wear. I was in Baltimore and went to Anthropologie with some friends looking for one, and realized that I could just make a cute summery party dress and not spend $100+. With two weeks to go before the party, I had to work fast. Luckily I stopped in Ikea and found this crazy bird fabric. Crazy in a good way, right?

I decided to use a pattern for a dress that I have already made before, with a view slight modifications. I made the straps long so they could be tied, instead of attached. I also didn’t use the skirt pattern, I just used the rest of the fabric to make it as long and full as possible. I used a self-fabric lining, which was actually kind of cute because the birds peeked out from the under layer. This fabric is pretty thin, and I think I will make a lining for the skirt. I made most of it in one evening, and then finished it the next morning. I love this pattern because it’s so fast and easy, and the result is so cute and comfortable.

The dress was a hit and I got a lot of compliments! The woman working the bar at the party asked if I made it, and said she knew because she recognized the fabric from Ikea!

I wore it with a black camisole underneath, and a grey short-sleeved cardigan. A perfect summer party outfit!

Earl Grey Tea Latte
Serves 2

1 cup boiling water
2 Earl Grey tea bags
1-2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the water, and pour over the two teabags. I did this in a 4-cup pyrex measuring cup. Let steep for at least 5 minutes, or while you are heating up the milk.

Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat until it foams up. Remove from heat. Add vanilla to milk.

Remove teabags from water, pressing to get all the tasty tea goodness out. Add the sugar. I used 2 tablespoons, which was yummy but super sweet.

Add milk to the tea and stir, then divide into two cups. Enjoy with your sweetheart.

I found a recipe on the Life in Recipes blog and modified it slightly. I bought some graham flour a few weeks ago, and was looking for something to use it in so I used that too. I didn’t notice a different flavor, so next time think I’ll use a full cup and see that that does.

Whole Wheat English Muffins
1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups white whole wheat flour

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cups graham flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal – or enough to scatter on pan

First you make the sponge. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup water. It’s easy to do this in a glass measuring cup. In a large bowl, combine the 1 cup of warm water, the honey, the milk and the salt. Add yeast mixture and 2 cups of flour. Stir to combine, cover and leave in a warm place for at least an hour. It will puff up and become very bubble. This is what mine looked like after an hour.

Add the oil and mix in the rest of the flour, bit by bit. I had to switch to my hands towards the end. Eventually I had a smooth but slightly sticky dough.

Dust a cookie sheet with cornmeal. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 an inch, then cut with a round cutter. I’m not sure how big mine was. I have a set and I picked the one that looked English muffin-sized! Place the rounds onto the cookie sheet and allow to rise again until puffy and almost doubled in volume. Mine took a while to rise, and I ended up turning the oven on for a few minutes and setting them in there. I think my kitchen was too cold! Here they are nice and puffy. I ended up with 20 muffins, but some of them were too thin, I think.

Next you cook them on a griddle or in a skillet. I used a non-stick skillet. I had a hard time transferring the muffins from the cookie sheet to pan, and they ended up deflating quite a bit. I think this is why they didn’t really have the nooks and crannies that an English muffin is supposed to have. They do puff back up while they are cooking, which is fun to watch! Let them brown on the first side before flipping them over. This takes a few minutes.

After the muffins have been “griddled” they will need to finish cooking in an oven. As you take them off the stove, put them on a different cookie sheet and then bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Here they are ready for the oven.

My friend Monet, who just made some English muffins of her own, which she describes on her blog Anecdotes and Applecores, says they should cool for 30-60 minutes. I couldn’t wait and ate them straight out of the oven!

I made these a few days ago and we have been enjoying them at least twice a day since then. We’ve had them toasted with butter and local honey, had them with some chicken barley soup last night, and today James used them to make delicious egg, bacon and cheese breakfast sandwiches. They are hearty and wonderful. I’ll never buy packaged ones again!