so i was a bit out of control

Sometimes I get crazy ideas in my head. So yesterday, I decided I would try three recipes. Corn custard, which I've made before mainly because I wanted to use up 3 of 4 egg yolks I had left over from a tortilla the other night. To that I also decided to add zuccini pancakes and blue cheese scallion biscuits, because I'd read the recipes during the week and wanted to try them. And on a whim, during the cooking process and because I'd just read about a similar recipe in Bon Appetit, I turned some rhubarb sitting in the fridge into a strawberry rhubarb crumble. I hadn't thought it through - mainly the issue was the dueling cheeses - smoked gouda in the custard, feta in the pancakes and obviously blue cheese in the biscuits.

The custard was creamy and cheesy and filling.

 And it tastes just as good with frozen corn as it did last summer with fresh kernels. I added a touch of cayenne this time around and will make that a permanent addition.

The pancakes worked well, unlike another recipe for zuccini pancakes I tried last year, which resulted in a zuccini frittata hashy mess. But I am getting better about wringing water out of zuccini

 (wring really well using tea towels!). These were relatively easy to make and quite good.

They will be added to our repetoire this summer when I'm hoping to be awash in zuccini from the garden although I might add some chili or cayenne to add a bit of bite.

Or bump up the fresh mint.

The biscuits were easy to make, and I felt quite virtuous mixing the butter into the dough with my fingers.

The dough yields big biscuits. Baking, they filled the house with a lovely cheesy aroma. Baked, they looked beautiful, just like a biscuit should look.

D loved them. I was a bit overwhelmed by the blue cheese. We decided that they would be a wonderful appetizer with wine (instead of wine and cheese - wine and biscuits) or a lovely summer lunch served with a peppery, slightly bitter salad (arugula) with balsamic vinagrette.

Ultimately, we didn't have room for the crumble but we managed it for dessert tonight. The strawberries melted into the rhubarb and disappeared - it would be better with local strawberries but that is a few weeks away still.

chard?

D came home on Friday night with a gift of a bunch of Swiss chard. I've never had it before, never cooked it before. But after a few seconds of pondering I pulled out my trusty Rebar cookbook and there it was - a perfectly, simply perfect way to cook it. Saute/steam with olive oil, garlic, chili and when wilted add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Mmmm. It tasted yummy with an aftertaste of goodness. You know when something you eat tastes like it is good for you. Bring on the chard.

Saturday the boys hung out together while I went for a hair cut. The plan was that D take T for a walk and possibly pick blackberries (they are huge and plentiful this year). When I got back, all coifed and carrying groceries (hey - two trips in one) - there were no blackberries to be found. All the berries picked were eaten. Sigh!

The market was smaller than usual on Sunday - not as many vendors and not as many shoppers but the weather was lovely. T got to paint a rock at the children's craft table which will be used as my office paperweight. I was too late to buy large organic free-range eggs and had to settle for medium. They seem a lot smaller than the large ones. Sigh. I'll just have to get moving faster next weekend and make it to the market earlier.

Sunday night I made a corn custard with smoked gouda which was very tasty. I also experimented with portobello mushrooms - oven roasted them, then topped them with a saute of mushroom stems, red onion, spinach and sun-dried tomato pesto and then a layer of feta cheese and popped them under the grill for a couple of minutes. Tasty!

I had some egg whites left over from the corn custard. Now I've always been afraid of merangues but I hate wasting food and last night I got out my Delia Smith - Basics of Cooking Book and looked up merangue. I carefully studied the pictures and read the directions, I beat my egg whites, added in the sugar and when it looked stiff and glossy, I stopped and laid out some merangue nests on a baking sheet and baked them as per the directions (into a warm (300 deg oven)), turn it down to 275 deg for 30 minutes and then turn the oven off overnight. I took them out when I got home tonight and they were good. A bit stuck to the baking sheet because I didn't have any parchment (to do for next time). I whipped up some cream and we had mummy pavlova - merangue nest with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Yum! T being unadventurous chose to have chocolate pudding over mummy pavlova - oh well.