Bing! Went The Strings Of My Heart

It's Fruity Fun Friday and today my heart strings are all about Bing Cherries. Mmmm...

We recently scored some Bing Cheeries from Mountain Valley Orchards while on a trip. It's a sweet little farm market in Cavetown, PA specializing in fruit and fresh produce as well as some herbs and baked goods.

We stopped by early in the morning on our way home so we had our pick of all the day's offerings.

But it was the cherries I was after.



You know I took them up on that offer!

Cherry pits have been found in Stone-Age archeological sites and were carried by Roman soldiers along their routes of conquest through out Europe and England. Cherries are what's called stone fruits and are related to plums, as well as peaches and nectarines, though the last two are distant relations.


Sour cherries are lower in calories than the other variety, the sweet cherry. Bing Cherries are the famous cherries- large, round, sweet, and juicy. Cherries are loaded with antioxidants, Vitamin C, and beta carotene as well as potassium, magnesium, iron, fiber and folate. According to Choose Cherries, "emerging evidence links cherries to many important health benefits – from helping to ease the pain of arthritis and gout, to reducing risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Cherries also contain melatonin, which has been found to help regulate the body’s natural sleep patterns, aid with jet lag, prevent memory loss and delay the aging process".


 

Image via Wall Street Oasis

 
Buy cherries that are large and glossy, plump and firm, preferably with a flexible green stem still on the fruit. Cherries should be kept cool and moist as both the flavor and texture suffer in warmer temperatures.



Washington Monument framed by the famous blooming cherries trees.
Image by Scott Gawne via Flickr



The CDC website Fruits and Vegetables Matter (a great site) has this advice for storing cherries:

Loosely pack unwashed cherries in plastic bags or pour them into a shallow pan in a single layer and cover with plastic wrap to minimize bruising. Store cherries in the refrigerator and cherries in good condition should last up to a week. Check the fruit occasionally and remove the cherries that have gone bad. Wash the fruit before eating.

You can freeze cherries by rinsing and draining thoroughly, spreading them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and placing in the freezer overnight. Once the cherries are frozen, transfer them to a heavy plastic bag. The frozen fruit may be kept up to a year.

Image via Donate Fuit Blog

OK- let's eat some cherries. Now I know that we just read all about the wonderful nutritional value of cherries and there are some very tempting recipes for salsas and salads out there. But other than being eaten raw, cherries are most often used for dessert, as in Bing Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Crumble from Recipe Goldmine.

1 1/2 pounds fresh Bing cherries, halved and pitted

1 cup apple juice

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped*

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces (1 stick)

1/2 cup old-fashioned (not quick-cooking) oatmeal, uncooked

1/3 cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the cherries in a bowl and pour the apple juice over them. Set aside 1 hour.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar and the chopped nuts in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oatmeal. Set aside.

Strain apple juice from cherries and place in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the cornstarch and the salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and bubbly. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cherries and almond extract. Spoon the mixture into a deep 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle crumble topping over the cherries.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the crumble is bubbly at the edges and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

* To toast nuts, spread on baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for 5 to 8 minutes or until brown. Or heat in a dry skillet over medium heat until they start to brown. Stir occasionally. Be careful not to burn.

A couple of comments. Someone's tween-ager who shall remain nameless but whose initals are Zippy Extraodinare drank the entire bottle of apple juice I had gotten for this recipe. In one day. The dietary impact of that makes my head spin and we discussed vitamins, minerals, and SUGAR in juice and moved on. So I used V-8 Fusion in Cranberry Blackberry Light. It worked fine though I do think it boosted the richness factor of the finished dessert. Also, incredibly, we did not have any ice cream in the house (?!) so whipped topping did a fine job as stunt double.

Even though this dessert has lots of yummy healthy ingredients like cherries, walnuts, and oatmeal, a small serving goes a long way.

Image via Cook Here and Now

Enough talk already! Go out to a local farm market, grab some bing cherries, and get to cooking. You'll thank me later.

And I thank you for stopping by today-- have a cherry of a day!

Precious Fruit Salad

It's been some time since I've posted a Fruity Fun Friday and even though today is Saturday, let's go with it.

I was in the produce section of the grocery store this past week and I guess it was the one day of sun we've had since March but I was feeling all spring-y. The outcome of that was that I was throwing fruit into my cart like a greedy, gluttonous maniac. Oh, we like fruit at our house but this was different. I was like Gollum, from Lord of the Rings, cradling fruit to my heart, hissing "Yes, my precious. My beautiful precious berries. They can't have you, my precious." Seriously, not kidding. It was pitiful but the fruit and the weather were so good that to be honest there were several other folks there whispering sweet nothings to the cantaloupe and strawberries.

Once I secreted my precious fruit in the refrigerator at home, it was time to mix. Mixed fruit salad, that is. This is so easy-

Cantaloupe- one half, cubed

(Cantaloupe is one of those things that I never think will go with berries, but oh...)

Blueberries- one pint

Strawberries- one pound, leaves cut off, quartered

Blackberries- one little package (what is that, half a pint?)

Bananas- two, sliced

A splash or two of lime juice to preserve the bananas.

Rinse, cut fruit, mix in a bowl.

 

Mmmm, my precious fruit salad.

Fruity Fun Friday- Peaches

Yea- Peaches! We've been getting some pretty nice peaches in the grocery store and I think I'm about to start growing fuzz since I've been eating so many. Peaches are actually available most of the year, depending on the variety. The third most popular fruit grown in the United States, peaches were first cultivated in China centuries ago where they were thought to endow longevity. Peaches were traded along the Silk Road long before Christian times and came to us by way of Persia and the Mediterranean. Peaches are in the rose family, which makes sense when you stand in the market sniffing lovingly over the peaches. But maybe I tell too much about myself ...

Select peaches at market that are soft to the touch but not mushy, free of blemishes, and with a fragrant aroma. (See, there's a reason my nose and I linger over the peaches). Some peaches have a reddish blush to them but that indicates the variety not how they will taste or their ripeness.

Peaches may be ripened on the counter in a paper bag for a couple of days or in a cool place other than the refrigerator, stem down. Check them every day and once they have a pleasant peach fragrance and give just a bit to a light touch, store them in the refrigerator for up to a week. Hard peaches kept in the refrigerator, in a plastic bag, or in direct sunlight will not ripen.

by wanderingnome via Flickr



The Seasonal Chef (there's a link in the sidebar under Butterflies Gotta Eat Too) has a nice page on their site about freezing peaches.  Just think about how they would taste in the middle of winter when the power has been off and you are "forced" to eat them. Click here for that page. Simply Canning has a page with an excellent tutorial on canning peaches. Check it out here.

by Chrstopher via Flickr

A medium size peach has about 40 calories, 9 grams of sugar, plenty of fiber (and roughage in the skin), and virtually no fat (less than 1 gram).

So let's eat.

Peach Enchiladas comes to us from Dickey Farms in Musella, Georgia, home to the country's oldest continuously operating peach packinghouse. Hit that link for the website, which has lots of good info on the care and eating of peaches as well as tons of recipes. I mean TONS.

You will need:

2 packages of crescent rolls

2 sticks of butter (I know, Paula Deen all over the place)
4 peaches, peeled and quartered (OK, I didn't peel)

1 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1 cup and this was plenty sweet)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 can of Mountain Dew (12 oz)

• 
  
   Melt the butter, then add the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

• Unroll crescents one at a time and place one peach quarter on each at the wide end. This shows two slices because I halved the quarters. You don't need to do that.

• 
  
  Roll from wide end to small.

• 
  
  Each peach quarter will be a little football-shaped papoose.

  

 

• 
  
  Place the rolled peaches in a 12 x 12 pan and pour the melted butter mixture over them once they are all rolled.

• 
  
  Then pour the Mountain Dew over the top.

• 
  
  Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes until nice and golden.

• 
  
  Serve with ice cream or whipped topping. Tastes like cobbler.

So there you have it- Fruity Fun Peach Enchiladas. Who knew? Think I'll get some peaches in the freezer for a bit of psychological relief about mid-winter when the snow is flyin' and cabin fever is mounting.

Have a great day and welcome to October!

Have you done a check of your heating system?

Now's the time.

Fruity Fun Friday- Zucchini! Whaaat?

1. First Zucchini of the Summer, 2. Summer Zucchini, 3. curry zucchini pickles, 4. Zucchinis

Surprise! Zucchini is a fruit, which is really handy for today's Fruity Fun Friday since we have all that zucchini someone piled up on the front porch.

Botanically, anything with seeds is a fruit. All the other parts of a plant- stem, leaves, roots, etc- are vegetables. That's a pretty simplistic break down of fruit versus vegetable but it gets us mostly on the right road. Most of us know the botanical surprise that tomatoes are fruit but things like cucumbers, pumpkins, and green peppers are also fruit. That kind of flies in the traditional face of our understanding of fruit as being sweet but many fruit we treat, gastronomically, as vegetables. It doesn't really matter other than my trying to justify having zucchini as today's featured fruit. Just trying to get through the bounty.

by ljcybergal

Folks in South and Central American have been eating zucchini, which is a summer squash, for thousands of years. However, what we consider zucchini was probably developed in Italy. Christopher Columbus most likely took seeds back to the Mediterranean with him. Zucchino is the Italian word for small squash and squash comes from the Indian word skuatasquash, meaning "green thing eaten green." However, squash comes in a variety of shapes, from cucumber-like to bottle shaped to the blossom shaped patty pan squash. It's color ranges from deep green to light green to yellow to white. And of course it comes in a variety of sizes, depending on how many days- hours?- since you checked your garden.

1. summer squash, 2. Summer squash, 3. 189/365 patty pan squash, 4. bowl o' crookneck squash

One medium zucchini has about 20 calories and contains calcium, potassium, Vitamins A, B, and C as well as folic acid. Zucchini is a good source of dietary fiber.

 So- let's get rid of some zukes!

Garden Zucchini Pie

This is another of those recipes that came from a magazine years ago but I am unable to tell you which one, where, or when. I can tell you that I've had it longer than eleven years because that was B.K. (before kid), when I had time to type up my recipes and add them to my binder. Now I just shove the recipe into the binder on whatever piece of paper it happens to be scribbled.



Ingredients:
3 cups of frozen loose-packed shredded hash browns, thawed
4 eggs- total (you won't use these all at the same time in preparation)
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (or a tad more)
2-3 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 tbsp margarine or butter
3/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese (about 3 oz)
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp snipped fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste)

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 egg, onion,  and Parmesan cheese. Stir in the potatoes. Transfer potato mixture to a greased 9-inch pie plate or 10-inch square dish. Pat the mixture in the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Bake, uncovered, in at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until the potaotes are golden brown.

Reduce oven to 350 degrees.

While the potatoes are baking, saute the garlic in butter. Add zucchini and cook until the zucchini is "crisp-tender." Arrange the zucchini mixture in the potato crust.

In a small mixing bowl combine remaining 3 eggs, cheese, milk, oregano, salt, and pepper. Pour on top of zucchini. Confession- I usually sprinkle on some extra Parmesan at this stage.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the filling appears set when gently shaken. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes- You can make the crust ahead of time- it freezes well. Just thaw it in the refrigerator before using. And off course you can use egg substitute instead of the real eggs.

Humor me- one more mosaic before we go.

1. Zucchini Alert !, 2. Zucchini / Courgette, 3. Courgette flower, 4. Untitled

Hey, it's been fun today. Keep working at that pile of zucchini. I'm going to go surfing for Curry Zucchini Pickles, pictured in the first mosaic of today's post.

Check back again for a new tutorial-

Faux Stained Glass.

Fruity Fun Friday- Asian Pears

Welcome to a new feature here on The Butterfly Jungle -- Fruity Fun Friday.

I love fruit of almost every shape and variety. One of the things I loved about Cambodia, besides the truly amazing folks I met there, was the fruit.

You only had to go a minute or two down any road before you would come across a fruit market with some of the most gorgeous and, I soon learned, delicious fruit you've ever met. My ho-hum "Oh yes, I like fruit" attitude quickly transformed into a renewed passion for fruit of every kind.

Except Durian. Maybe we'll talk about Durian some Fruity Fun Friday. Don't expect recipes.

Since returning home, I have made an effort to incorporate more fruit into our meals and to keep an eye out for any new varieties needing to be tested. So we'll take a look at a different fruit each Fruity Fun Friday. Some will be familiar to us and hopefully we'll discover some new fruit friends to keep a lookout for at the grocery store. We'll learn a bit about the featured fruit and if possible I'll share a recipe with you. Some fruits I simply won't be able to locate in my neck of the woods but that doesn't mean we can't get acquainted. And just so you know, Fruity Fun Friday will be a recurring though not weekly feature.

So let's look at our inaugural fruit, the Asian Pear.

Pear season is just beginning to get started and a nice progression of pears will be available from now with the arrival of Bartlett through winter with the Anjou . But what about those pear-ish apple-like things that you frequently see lovingly wrapped in their own cushy mesh net?

Asian Pears. Apple pears. Chinese, Japanese, Sand, or Nashi Pear. Delicious pears.

Asian pears have a very crispy texture and are very sweet and juicy. Their flavor is milder than the pears with which you may be familiar and are harvested ripe instead of green. While Asian pears have a longer shelf life than most pears the skins are more likely to bruise, which is the explanation for the cuddly nets. Asian pear trees are very labor intensive, requiring regular rather aggressive pruning in order to produce larger fruit. As a result yield per tree is low. The low yield and popularity of Asian pears combine to drive the cost of our Asian friend fairly high. This week they were $2.00 USD a pound at my local grocery store. However ....   they really are delicious and so I fork out the cash.

from Wikimedia Commons

Nutritionally, Asian pears ring in at about 50 calories each and are a good source of fiber as well as Vitamins C and K. And they are so juicy.

Alright-- let's talk business. What about eating Asian pears?

Asian pears are generally eaten raw, alone or in salads and slaws, as cooking them tends to destroy their unique crispy-crunchy texture.

I started with the slaw recipe from the CDC's great website Fruits and Veggies Matter. I did make a couple personal preference tweaks and those are reflected in the recipe below. An Internet search will bring you some really yummy looking possibilities and I may have to save my allowance for more Asian pears.

Asian Pear Slaw with Chilies

2 stalks of celery, sliced very thinly
2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp crystallized ginger root, minced
2 Asian pears, peeled and sliced  1/4-inch thick
1/3 cup Vadalia onion
1/4 cup fresh Cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp Jalapenos, minced

Whisk together the  liquids then add the remaining ingredients. Let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes to allow the flavors to develop.

The first thing you notice when tasting this slaw is the crispiness and mildness of the pears, followed by the tangy lime juice. And then the jalapenos sneak up on you. It's delicious.

Image by acloudman via Flickr

So thanks for stopping by today. Hope you enjoyed our first Fruity Fun Friday and I look forward to seeing you again.