Lemon and Olive Oil Yogurt Cake with Fresh Blackberry Limoncello Sauce

You know those recipes or ingredients you read about and think, "that sounds awesome, I should try it" but never really get around to them? For me just a few of those things were; a quick yogurt cake, a fresh fruit puree or sauce, olive oil cake, crème fraiche... And, that's how this cake came together, I bought a few ingredients and then all of a sudden I had this fancy cake.

It started at the grocery store, blackberries were on sale for just a dollar per package. I bought two and thought, blackberry sauce! As I browsed the alcohol aisle, checking for sales, I remembered the gorgeous bottle of Limoncello Katy gave me for Christmas. Limoncello blackberry sauce sounded much more interesting than blackberries all by themselves.

The Best Broccoli

I was a pretty picky eater as a child, but I always ate my vegetables. Unless, of course, those vegetables were onions, cabbage, or chunky tomatoes. Broccoli though, broccoli I ate. It was a regular fixture at our dinner table, usually steamed or in stir fry or chicken soup. But since I've moved out I can count on one hand the number of times I've cooked broccoli for myself.

These days I roast most of my veggies. Roasted cabbage with jasmine rice is a weeknight standby, and springtime always means panfuls of garlic roasted asparagus. I had been considering roast broccoli for a while, but always fell back on the familiarity of other vegetables. But no more.  I think this recipe, which is just slightly adapted from this one by Ina Garten, will quickly make it into my regular meal rotation. I love the bite of the cheese and the creamy toasted nuts with the broccoli but, for simplicity's sake, they probably won't always make it into the dish. The garlic and lemon, however, are required.

Pickled Strawberry Jam

Was it just a few weeks ago that I wrote about making refrigerator pickles? Well, since then I've made all sort of veggie pickles; cucumbers, green beans, carrots, sugar snap peas (recipe coming soon!) And now, Pickled Strawberry Jam. But don't be scared of that "Pickled" in the title. Really the jam just starts out with a little vinegar, a few spices, and lots of sugar but ends up just barely tart with a hint of something extra. Something delicious.

Bloomington Sandwich Company

I keep wanting to use the acronym BSC for Bloomington Sandwich Company. But around here BSC stands for Bloomington Swim Club. And to a child of the 90s like me, I totally associate BSC with Ann M. Martin's classic Babysitter's Club series (man, I loved those books.) So to avoid confusion I mostly just call it Sandwich company. I meant to write about the restaurant months and months ago, way back in 2009. But the restaurant closed suddenly in 2010, for most of the year. Then, finally, in December it popped back up in a larger and much nicer location. Now it's back to being one of the best lunch spots in Bloomington.