blueberry-creme fraiche loaf

Can we make another food "holy trinity"? A fruit themed one? Blueberries, lemon zest, and creme fraiche? Those three in a loaf are just so luxurious--so perfect together. No spring or summer is complete without making a few batches of blueberry loaves with these ingredients in them. Of course you could use sour cream or yogurt. I love to indulge in creme fraiche once in a while--it just makes cakes and loaves so rich and creamy. And I swear a blueberry loaf the next day tastes even better.

And if you love blueberry cake recipes make sure to give my blueberry cake recipe a go. It is fabulous and is always being requested by my friends.



This recipe I found used a frosting on the top. I did not use it, but opted for using a nice "crunch" topping. I love when cakes or muffins have a texture-like topping--a crunch. Make sure to read my cook notes before making this. Can you use another berry in this? Of course. Blackberries would be fabulous in this; strawberries too, if you cut them small enough.

Blueberry-crème fraiche loaf
print recipe
recipe adapted from bbcgoodfood.com

175g soft butter (3/4 cup plus 1 TB)
175g golden caster sugar (3/4 cup plus 1 TB; I used turbinado sugar and ran it through the processor)
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour (I used 1 & ½ cups of self rising flour)
1 & ½ tsp baking powder
(I used a pinch of salt)
2 tsp vanilla extract (if you use lemon zest only use 1 tsp of extract)
142ml carton soured cream (I used crème fraiche “almost” 5 ounces)
3 x 125g blueberries (I used almost 1 & ½ cups)

Cook notes: Since I did not make the frosting that goes with this, instead I opted for a sugar crunch on the top. So halfway thru cooking time I sprinkled raw/coarse sugar on the top for that “crunch”. For the pan, I did not use a cake pan but used a large loaf pan instead. If you use a loaf pan you may have a bit of batter leftover, so you can use remainder to make muffins or a couple mini loaves. An after thought, I should have used a few teaspoons of fresh lemon zest. Golden caster sugar is an “almost” light brown sugar; it’s very light light brown. If you can’t find it, try using turbinado sugar and run it thru the processor to get it nice and fine. Or you could use superfine sugar.

Preheat the oven 350 degrees.
Spray or butter a 9-inch cake cake or a large size loaf pan.
Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla in a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes, or with a hand electric beater for 1-2 minutes, until lighter in color and well mixed.
Beat in crème fraiche, then stir in half the blueberries with a large spoon.
Tip the mixture into the tin and spread it level. (Halfway thru cooking sprinkle raw/coarse sugar on the top.) Bake for 50 minutes until it is risen, feels firm to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed.
Cool for 10 minutes, then take out of the tin and peel off the paper or lining. Leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

pastrami sliders

Food law #2583: all sliders should come with layers of food. A slider is NOT a mini bun and a couple slices of meat--this does not make a slider. From now on if a restaurant is going to serve sliders they cannot serve just a bun with meat. That's not a happy slider. A happy slider is a buttered TOASTED bun with flavored hot meat, (or vegan meat substitute is cool too), a couple of flavored cold veggies, good cheese, and a dressing of some sort, or two dressings. Right? Let's get this passed through the food of congress stat--I'm done with crappy ass sliders. Until then you can use this slider--it was the bomb. And the best part, so easy to pull together. The meats, the veggies are all interchangeable. You can use corned beef, beef, bbq chicken, grilled sausage, grilled tofu, etc....Endless possibilities; it'll get your creative-culinary flowing.





pastrami sliders
print recipe

1/2 lb of pastrami (or whatever deli meat, chicken, beef you want)
1/4 lb of baby swiss cheese
broccoli slaw
cole slaw dressing for broccoli slaw
grain mustard
fresh tomatoes
mini buns

Butter and toast the buns, layer on the baby swiss on top of the hot buns,set aside. Mix the broccoli slaw with the cole slaw dressing, set aside. Fry up the pastrami, till crisp. Layer on a thin layer of grain mustard on the bun, then put on the pastrami, tomato, then the cole slaw.

spring 2011 on cape cod

I thought I would switch things around and give you some photos of what's happening over here in my world. It's finally spring, soon to be summer on cape cod, which means things are coming back to life. No more snow! Typically spring on cape cod means lots of rain and clouds with short surprises of 70 degrees sunny days.

I could easily live here....have

my morning coffee sitting right there

water temp 58 degrees, not quite ready....yet.

Pretty soon the charter fishing boats with be slammed with business.

Dingy had a bad winter.

Isn't that peach color fabulous?

Someone's rustic office

west dennis

east dennis

A good place to sit and do nothing

Hello, can I live with you? I'll cook for you.

One of my favorite places to go and chill out on cape cod when my life gets stressful is cape cod national seashore. The sound of the waves are empowering and massive. Once there you forget there is another world; it feels as though this is the only place on the earth--it's magical.
"A man may stand there and put all America behind him." Henry David Thoreau (his quote describing the CC National Seashore)

You can walk for miles uninterrupted

and miles....

Another place I love is provincetown. Ptown is a world of it's own. It's perfect, has some of the nicest people; everyone is always happy; always something going on, never a dull moment with tons of great places to eat. It is one of the places hubby and I wanted to live, but his commute would have been brutal during the wintertime on the ferry's. The ride up along scenic Rt. 6A is breathtaking. There are so many little beaches and some of the cutest places to stay overnight, but you have to look for them and you have to call early! I have to also give a HUGE shout out to my favorite radio station WOMR. This is the radio of Ptown. Has the best jazz around and the sweetest DJ's ever. If you're coming to Ptwon please tune into WOMR radio.

Now that's a view. To the right is the tip of provincetown, about 5-7 miles down the road.

See the tower of provincetown?


Little inn on truro that I'm dying to stay at. Look at that view?

Let's get to the food already.



I go to twin acres in sandwich, a lot. It's a bad habit of mine to eat a ton of ice cream in the summer. It's all I crave, and they really have good ice cream: ice cream filled with lots of stuff in it. Like this one: pb chunk chocolate ice cream.


Or a soft serve with that crazy coconut hard shell stuff. Man that's good.


My favorite is the mint oreo chocolate chunk. Obviously I never order a small anything.


There is a french bakery that is fairly decent. It's cafe boulangerie owned by pain d'avignon. I was not so impressed with their croissants, they were ok, not quite authentic. The almond croissant was very close to being the real thing. Ham and cheese was tasty, but had a trace amount of ham and cheese. I will say they do have fabulous breads. They had horrid customer service when I was there--all the help was over talking at the bar and could care less that people were in line. Sad. But it happens.


Almond was the best tasting. Chocolate was bad, just a tiny piece of chocolate in there, but one could tell they used high quality chocolate. Ham & cheese ok.

Ahh the infamous Marions Pie Shop. A well known landmark of cape cod located in Chatham. This place has grown from just a few pies to now well over 50 sweet and savory types of pies. It's a small hole in the wall joint with large impressive menu's. Display cases are kind of empty and may have muffins or other sweet rolls. I was hoping their cases would be filled and overflowing with fruit filled pies, slices of pies to tease and wet the appetite of customers, but all the pies are in the back stored in fridges sadly.

One wall of the pie menu--it's huge.

The bacon quiche. Very good, the crust was fabulous. Each little or big pie comes with directions for reheating. Love that.

Shepards pie. Fabulous. Lots of cheese on top,ground beef could have used a bit more seasoning.

Hands down the best seafood at reasonable prices with huge portions is Lindsey's Restaurant in Wareham. Not the best cape cod town, but well worth the drive. The food is exceptional, high quality, big portions, reasonable prices and always fresh. Hubby and I go there a lot. It's gets packed there so go early. The waitstaff is the nicest around. They do have impeccable takeout service too. When I do do the takeout, I sit in the back part of the kitchen where the diner part is and I always see the big pencil sketch drawing of the owner prominently displayed in the middle of the kitchen. IN the drawing is the owner with the saying "keep everyone happy". So true. And he never ever steered away from that, even when his kids took over. If you go, get the infamous seafood bisque, it has the perfect amount of sherry, filled to the brim with seafood; a bowl is a meal (and I mean that). Broiled, stuffed scallops are highly recommended too.






Yes, you get all that for a meal. Amazing.



Some of the best pizza that comes very very close to NYC pizza is found not on cape cod but off at Mamma Mia's in Plymouth. Another little hole in the wall joint that has undoubtedly the best crust ever. I swear they must import the water in from NYC to make this the tastiest crust ever. If you do visit cape cod, on the way, stop in plymouth to make a stop at Mamma Mia's and get a large cheese pizza. Even the photo says it all.

Best place for breakfast is Keltic Kitchen. A place where you can get a real Irish breakfast or not. Either way it's like diner food but way better, and they have daily specials where they kick things up. The chef/owner is very creative (I love that) no same old same old with him, he's known to really kick things up a notch. You have to go there and see what his daily creation is. Last I saw there was a marshmallow pb Elvis french toast with bacon inside. Crazy good. It's gets packed. Get there early on the weekends--for real.





Other good eats that are not to miss on cape cod:

Emack & Bolio's of Orleans. Now this is homemade ice cream at it's finest with really foodie flavors like: peanut butter ice cream with HUGE chunks of Oreo's. And Mud Pie--don't get me started on the Mud Pie.

Bonatt's Bakery of Harwichport. Home of the infamous meltaway. You literally have to get there early to get meltaways, they only make a few batches for the mornings and then it's gone baby gone. Definitely worth the wait in line. They don't have a website only facebook page. They are on 537 main st in harwichport.

Jo Mama's of Orleans. Who's your mama? Best bagels on cape cod. Exactly like NYC bagels. Cofffee is pretty good too.

PB Boulangerie of south wellfleet. The most authentic bakery I've been to outside of france. I know that's a huge statement right there but it's true. If you go there you will see why. It's right on the way to provincetown on Rt 6. Has gotten rave reviews all around. Both owners are from france, classically trained, worked under some of the best chefs in the country, such as Daniel Boulud. Their bio is impressive, but more importantly their creations are extraordinary.

Did you have a favorite place on Cape Cod? Or better yet, is there a place on the cape (or close by) that you are curious about? Let me know--I love discovering new food joints.

buffalo chicken salad

(Let's pretend I got an email from a fan asking me what to do with leftover BBQ chicken? OK? Cool. )