South Dakota Magazine Recap

It is that time of year when things start to get a little cray-cray. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and then there is no stopping Christmas and all of the many holiday events. Throw in a little year-end business and a few bouts of bad weather, and before we know it 2014 will be done.

Before I get caught up in that whirlwind, maybe I should do another South Dakota Magazine Recap. I have shared several recipes (and a few stories) online with South Dakota Magazine since my last update in early April.

For Easter, I considered a new tradition of layering asparagus, ham, and pasta with cheese and a creamy sauce. Ham and Asparagus Lasagna is a perfectly elegant comfort food worthy of a Spring holiday table.

Cinco de Mayo was observed with simple Sausage and Feta Tacos. The day is a celebration of a Mexican military victory and more than just party with "2 for 1" margarita deals.

My husband was fearful that I would give up his prime asparagus hunting ground when I shared some of his wild asparagus secrets. If you are lucky enough to receive a bouquet of freshly cut wild asparagus, I recommend trying Asparagus Ravioli in Parmesan Broth.

I am happy to report that as summer dawned, the snakes in my backyard seemed to move on. Harvest of strawberries and rhubarb for Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars was uneventful...and the bars were delicious.

Nilla is still living in town with us, and before the snow, I noticed a new hole in my cleared-for-fall garden. She must still be digging for worms. I should have taken her fishing for some walleye to make Lemon Butter Fish.

Avocado Toast with Radish Salad pulls from produce both local, and not. Sourcing my food from whatever origins are available for the tastiest options is my "diet" plan.

I didn't get a great spinach harvest from the garden this year, but did manage enough for a few Spinach and Garlic Vinaigrette Salads.

Keeping cool was easy this summer with the Asian influenced Peanut and Cucumber Salad.

If I want to kiss my husband, I need keep my toothbrush handy whenever Bleu Cheese and Bacon Potato Salad is on the menu.

Scrambled Eggs with Pesto and White Beans is a powerhouse for breakfast and an excellent place to start while working toward those big dreams for the day.

In September, I guided Laura from the South Dakota Magazine offices through a south-central South Dakota adventure and made time for some Pho-ish Soup.

Homecoming revealed a little background of a long ago spontaneous pancake party in Colome, and I shared the story with the puffed pancake of a Dutch Baby with Caramel Sauce and Bananas.

As the winter allows Hubs more time at home in the evenings, I can't wait for movie night and Pomegranate and Popcorn.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup is a perfect fall bowl of comfort. Topping this rich, savory soup with crumbled queso and sliced green onions enhance the earthy flavors.

And, finally, I have the tart jewel of your Thanksgiving table: Homemade Cranberry Sauce, even though I kinda miss the nostalgia of those perfect rings on the log of sauce from the can.

Whew. What a list of amazing recipes! I hope you have had the opportunity to enjoy a few, and I can't wait to share more On My Plate and with South Dakota Magazine.

There Was Pie

You know what? There was pie.

There was a really amazeballs pie that is a cheesecake, and rhubarb, and baked all into one simple press-in-the-pan crust.

I first encountered this pie when a friend brought it to a lunch. I hadn't before experienced that sweetened sour cream topping and instantly was in love with the contrast of the tart rhubarb. Delicious. She shared the recipe, but without my own rhubarb supply, I didn't get around to making this extraordinary pie.

Fast-forward several years, and with the garden rhubarb well established, I am searching for ways to use it. I remember that delicious pie, but can't find where I stashed the recipe. Then, a Pinterest search brings me to my knees. There it is. Blogged by Brenda at A Farmgirl's Dabbles. The pie. The ultimate summer pie.

This summer, I have whipped this pie of perfection up for almost every cookout, and everyone loves it. Everyone begs for the recipe. But, I haven't blogged it because I haven't taken a photo. You see, we do a radical thing with the recipes that I make and share here On My Plate. We eat them. *gasp* Food photos happen when I am alone and have prepped something early (or have suitable leftovers). Otherwise, we are too busy eating to bother with taking pics.

Thankfully, there were a couple of pieces of Rhubarb Cheesecake Pie leftover today. They aren't perfectly sliced leftovers, and I snapped the pic with the camera on my phone, but who cares. There was pie.

Rhubarb Cheesecake Pie

(adapted from A Farmgirl's Dabbles)

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons flour

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325F.
Using your mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, and butter until crumbly.
Press the dough on the bottom and up the sides of a 9" pie pan.
Stir together the rhubarb, sugar, and flour.
Arrange evenly over the pie crust.
Bake for 15 minutes; set aside.
Increase oven temperature to 350F.
Again using your mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light, fluffy, and creamy.
Pour cream cheese mixture over the hot rhubarb in the pie pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Stir together the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla.
After the cheesecake layer has baked for 25-30 minutes and mostly set, spread the sour cream layer over the center of the pie.
Leave about 1/2'' of the cream cheese layer exposed around the edges.
Bake an additional 15 minutes.
Let cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. Store refrigerated.

South Dakota Magazine

So...in case you didn't know, I have been contributing semimonthly at South Dakota Magazine for almost a year. However, in poor blogger form, I have neglected the updates here On My Plate.

Let's do a quick catch-up with a rundown of my columns from last summer and so far this fall...

In June, we had The War for the Strawberries with Ace and I trying in vain to protect my precious berries from the squirrels. We did manage to save enough for Strawberry Mousse.

I also waxed poetically about the beautiful corn crops that later were destroyed by the drought. Thankfully, there was still some sweet corn for Fresh Corn and Radish Salad.

July brought my dilemma regarding what to take to the Antiques Roadshow and a Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake.

Later, I cried for cucumbers to be made into Refrigerator Pickles...which led to a friend gifting me with more cucumbers than I knew what to do with in August. I now have refrigerator pickles as well as several other versions canned on my food storage shelves.

Zucchini was loud and proud in August with a rich and creamy Zucchini Alfredo

...AND sweet and delicious Zucchini Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies making the pages of the South Dakota Magazine website.

I whined about the difficulty of finding some ingredients here on the prairie and shared the recipe for the ever spicy Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Skewers in September.

Maintaining that level of heat with the kick of my Basic Salsa for Canning was easy.

I admitted to not really loving crock pot cooking, but making a concession for Chipotle Pork earlier this month. 

And, just this past week, I started looking ahead to the holidays and meal planning with Green Beans in Mushroom Sauce.




There you have it...a round-up of what I have been sharing through South Dakota Magazine. Hopefully, I can be a bit more faithful with updates in the future.

Antique versus Vintage

If you follow my bi-weekly submissions at South Dakota Magazine, you may have read last month that I had an opportunity to volunteer with the Rapid City taping of the Antiques Roadshow. I got to work behind the scenes of one of my husband's favorite televisions programs, and it was AWESOME. INCREDIBLE. FANTASTIC. Truly. (Just check out the Flickr photos!)

Before that weekend, I was concerned that I didn't have an item that was suitable for appraising. I debated Antique versus Vintage while sharing a Strawberry Rhubarb Cake on the South Dakota Magazine website. Ultimately, I decided not to invade my hoard of vintage junk and just present myself as a ready, willing, and able volunteer.

The night before filming, volunteers gathered to be assigned duties and trained for the specifics of those tasks. (Of course, to ensure our devotion, the brilliant PBS crew made us each feel as if our job was the most important one of the day. haha) My function as a "truss guard" was to protect the camera and filming areas from stray guests. Our minds often search out the shortest path to where we want to be, but that isn't always a path that works for the filming of a television program. I gently nudged a few wanderers back into a suitable direction and gawked mercilessly at the pieces that floated by with anxious visitors. 

Super enthusiastic and interesting people made the day fly by. Over 300 volunteers from all over the state worked side by side at the Rapid City Civic Center with the PBS staff to create an amazing experience not just for the guests, but for all of us. A contagious spirit of joyful expectation filled the air. Everyone truly enjoyed being there, checking out the treasures, and helping to make the day a success. (I need to give out shout-out to Gary Ellenbolt of SDPB, who made my volunteering possible; the ladies from Harding County that took my lonesome soul under their wing; Paul, the best supervisor ever; and Ron, the ever attentive Stage Manager. Thanks for a great and memorable day!)

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. The staff was fabulous. The guests were marvelous. The items that came in for appraisal were fascinating. It really was an unforgettable day of hobnobbing with PBS and excited area collectors.

Would I change anything? Possibly. I might work harder to find one of my personal treasures for appraisal. Visiting with several of the appraisers while they prepped for filming was one of my top experiences of the day. Having a little one-on-one time with them over an object of my affection might have just put me over the moon.

And so, in that vein of thought, I will share another rhubarb cake. This one takes a little more work than the previous cake mix and jello version, but really not much. The cake is dense and rich, and the rhubarb is, of course, tart and refreshing. The one part of this recipe that puzzles me slightly is the crunchy crumb. While the cake is baking, a crumble on top of the batter crisps as it would for a crumb cake. However, after the cake is done and flipped to be a true upside-down cake, those buttery chunks are on the bottom and the top is covered in the fruity rhubarb. I have never had a cake like this before. I honestly loved the blend of textures and flavors, but perhaps you should make it and offer your appraisal.

 

Sour Cream Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

 Topping:

4 tablespoons butter (unsalted), melted

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Cake:

12 tablespoons butter (unsalted), room temperature, divided

1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and sliced about 1/2-inch thick

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon orange extract

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350F.

For the topping, stir together butter, flour, sugar, and salt until moist and crumbly.

For the cake, butter a 9-inch round springform pan (2 inches deep) and wrap the bottom in foil. (This helps to prevent butter from leaking out during baking and burning in the bottom of the oven.)

Dot the bottom of the pan with 4 tablespoons butter that has been cut into pieces.

Toss rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in another small bowl.

Beat remaining 8 tablespoons of butter with 1 cup sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy.

Add the extract.

Beat in the eggs and sour cream.

Add the flour mixture, beating until smooth.

Again, toss the rhubarb and sugar mixture, and then spread in the pan over the butter pats.

Spread the cake batter evenly over the rhubarb.

Crumble the topping evenly over the batter.

Place pan on rimmed baking sheet and bake 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and top springs back when touched.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. (The rhubarb will be scorching hot when directly out of the oven, but if allowed to cool too long, may stick.)

Run a knife around edge of cake and invert onto plate.

Let cool completely. (Serves 10)