We do our best daydreaming, uh, I mean, brainstorming at the farmers markets.
One of us will say, You know what I want? Vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce and peaches and blueberries.
And the other person will say, Mmmm chocolate waffles with dark chocolate chunks…
And we’ll lapse into silence as we both get lost in thought but later we’ll bring it all together:
Stay cool, stay sweet, and keep daydreaming,
XO
Charleston Spice Co.
We made our first round of blueberry yum yum a few weeks ago. And we followed the recipe, sort of. If you didn’t write the recipe down last year, here it is: THE BEST BLUEBERRY RECIPE.
The only thing we changed was the creamy filling. Instead of using frozen whipped topping we made our own whipped cream using 1 cup heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup vanilla bean sugar. We mixed in that homemade whipped cream with local cream cheese that we picked up at the farmers market from Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse!!
And it was divine.
It’s what summer blueberry daydreams are made of:
It was so good we wanted to share it with everyone. But how were we going to share an 8×8 pan of goodness at the market?? Talk about awkward. We had to come up with a way to transport all that yum in a more efficient manner.
So we made the yum yum in the sturdiest cupcake liners we could find, and it worked beautifully!
Whether you decide to make an 8×8 dish or a bunch of mini yum yum cupcakes it’s going to be delicious.
Stay sweet,
Charleston Spice Co.
What do you do with two beautiful jalapeños,
a few cloves of garlic, and some black truffle sea salt?
You could make some popcorn!!!!
That’s right, POPCORN!!!!!
I slice the peppers into rings and the garlic into slivers and put the truffle salt on standby. I have a Whirley Pop so I put the popcorn and oil in and turn the stove on high. When the oil starts to bubble in a spirited manner I throw in the peppers and garlic and continue the popping as per usual. The delayed addition keeps the overall heat down and makes it so the garlic and peppers aren’t overly roasted. But you can add the peppers sooner or later depending on the peppers you are using and your own personal preferences.
Once the popping is complete I pour the popcorn into my bowl. At this point it’s always nice to have a second pair of hands so one person can pour the popcorn in layers while the other person makes sure to get the appropriate amount of truffle salt onto all the popcorn!!
Happy popping!!
XO
Charleston Spice Co.
If I could write a love song about corn I would.
Cream it, grill it, pan fry it, throw it in a stew.
No matter what you do, I’ll love it. And I might even love you.
It’s an epic sort of love, I posted about grilled corn last year and I’ll probably post about it next year too.
I mean, look at this beauty:
Talk about tasty. YUM.
We pulled back the husk, stripped out those little white hairs, rubbed on some olive oil, and then lovingly sprinkled Grill Seasoning on all the cobs. Then we wrapped them back into their husks and tied them with string to keep all that goodness inside:
Then we threw those puppies on the grill and let the magic happen.
*sigh* Isn’t summer marvelous?
Let’s stay this way forever,
XO
Charleston Spice Co.
Yeah.
mmmm, yum.
Words.
I’m at a loss here, but shoot, this ice cream is delightfully refreshing (all by itself or in an ice cream sammie, you can’t go wrong).
It’s creamy and cold and full of that lovely chai flavor. It’s best if you make the cream mixture a day in advance and let it chill and intensify in flavor before turning it into ice cream! Here’s what ya need:
6 rounded teaspoons chai masala
10 oz water
1 cup sugar
14 oz milk
4 rounded teaspoons black tea (optional, we didn’t use tea in the pictured ice cream)
2 cups heavy cream
Bring H2O and chai to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. Add milk and tea simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and steep for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Strain chai and stir in heavy cream. Chill overnight and then follow your ice cream makers directions to freeze ice cream!
If you want to make deliciously scrumptious ice cream sandwiches you can take the easy route like us. Instead of making our own cookies we went to our favorite cookie baker at the farmers market, The Cookie Chick, and bought a variety of cookies!!
Stay cool, stay sweet,
Charleston Spice Co.
Maybe you were a little overenthusiastic at the last couple of markets and bought a bunch of blackberries in a fit of excitement. Or maybe you saw all the blackberries and thought, darn, what the heck do I do with those?
Here’s a good option from Southern Living:
Here’s what ya need:
FOR COBBLER
4 cups fresh blackberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 tablespoons butter, melted
FOR WHIPPED TOPPING
chilled metal bowl
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons vanilla bean sugar (you can use less or more sugar depending on how intense you want the flavor and sweetness to be!)
Fresh mint sprigs for garnish
Preheat oven to 375 F. This is also a good time to place a metal bowl in the freezer if you plan on whipping up your own whipped cream.
Place blackberries in lightly greased 8 inch square baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice. Stir together egg, sugar, flour, and ginger in a medium bowl until mixture looks like coarse meal. Sprinkle on top of blackberries and drizzle melted butter over all. Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and let cool a bit.
While the cobbler is cooling you can make some whipped cream. Combine heavy whipping cream and sugar in your chilled metal bowl and whip it, whip it real good. Once you’ve beat that cream into whipped cream, chop up some mint to throw on top of your cobbler as you dish it out!!
XO
Charleston Spice Co.
Frogmore Stew is a beautiful thing.
Some people know it as Lowcountry Boil or a Shrimp Boil. No matter what you call it, everyone can find something they can eat in this delicious medley.
Here are the guidelines for greatness:
1 gallon water, salt to taste
1/2 a pack of our Frogmore Stew blend
2 lbs sausage of your choice
4 ears of corn cut into 1/4ths
8 to 10 small onions, whole (OR 2 large onions cut in quarters)
8 to 10 small potatoes
2 lbs shrimp unpeeled
The above will serve around 4 to 6 people. Bring water to a boil with Frogmore Stew seasoning. Boil 10 minutes to season the water. Add the sausage, return to a boil. Cook 5 minutes or until the sausage is cooked. Add the corn, and onion, return to a boil. Add potatoes & return to a boil, cook until done, 15 to 20 minutes. Add shrimp, cook until pink about 2 to 3 minutes depending on size. Strain and serve with choice of bread (we used baguette, from Baguette Magic, but cornbread or hushpuppies would work too).
But let’s talk about some of your options, because Frogmore Stew is all about the options. All the above ingredients are GUIDELINES. If Caitlin is coming over please add some more corn, if you know you have some heat lovers amongst your guests add some spicy sausage to your 2 lbs of sausage. If you have vegetarian guests, make a smaller pot for those veggie lovers with cauliflower instead of all that meat.
Most importantly listen to your heart and your stomach and enjoy!
Yours truly,
Charleston Spice Co
Summertime may be over officially but that doesn’t mean the end of cooking out.
We decided to tryout some ground beef from MiBek Farms (one of our neighbors at the Mt. Pleasant farmers market). After much debate about what we should top our burgers with we thought our best bet would be to make sliders so we could have a little bit of everything!
For the sake of cookouts and tailgates everywhere, we thought it would be very nice of us to share some of our combinations with you. We’re not saying a good old fashion burger with cheese and bacon and ketchup and mustard and lettuce and tomato isn’t awesome but sometimes its nice to spice things up a bit.
And the first one up is this guy:
yum.
That’s Bleu cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce. Need we say more? It’s simple and delicious, the hardest part is picking your favorite BBQ Sauce (we used Southern Comfort, which you can pick up at the Mt Pleasant market when you pick up your burger meat).
#2: The Fiesta Slider
Heaven, I’m in heaven…. At least that’s what I was thinking when I was looking at this beauty. Homemade guacamole, chimayo corn, and aji mirasol. The chili paste to heat ya up, and the guacamole to cool you down: perfection.
#3 The Mushroom Burger
Sauteed shiitake mushrooms topped with Jarlsburg ceheese and a lovely sriracha dijon (made using equal parts sriracha and dijon)!
#4 The Irish All Star Burger
Dubliner cheddar cheese topped with bacon and Ballymaloe relish. Instant classic.
And last but not least #5 The Feta Burger
Feta cheese topped with Kalamata olives and spicy Thai basil. So refreshing and flavorful!
Of course after creating all these we still had sliders left over so we let our imaginations take flight. The combinations are endless! So go forth and create the best burger you’ve ever had!
This parfait can be breakfast or a light refreshing dessert to follow brunch!
Remember when we macerated strawberries with lavender flower sugar? (If not check here.) We did the same thing, but this time we used peaches and ginger sugar. With peaches though, one should be careful. If you plan on leaving them macerating for over a few hours you should add a splash of lemon juice so they don’t turn too brown.
Once you’ve got your sweetened peaches you can layer them in a cup with greek yogurt and your favorite granola! It’s so simple and so delicious, it’s the perfect way to start the day!
XO,
The Charleston Spice Co
Do you ever stand in your kitchen, look at everything in it and think what in the world am I going to eat?
We do.
So what do you do with a loaf of bread, some basil, a few eggs, some spices, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella?
The obvious answer to us was make caprese french toast!
For the caprese topping you’ll need:
2 tomatoes (ours came from Behr Farms at the Summerville farmers market)
.5 lb mozzarella (we used Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse mozzarella)
2 Tbs fresh basil, cut in a chiffonade (that sound’s fancy but here’s how you do that.)
1 clove fresh garlic
Chop up all these ingredients then throw them together with a little olive oil, Charleston 10 Spice, and African 5 Spice to taste.
Here’s how we made the french toast:
8 slices Dakota bread from Great Harvest
5 eggs (from Fili-West Farms)
5 Tbs milk
A little butter or oil for cooking
African 5 Spice and Peruvian Pink Salt to taste
Place nonstick pan on medium heat add 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter or oil. Beat eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a pie plate. Once mixed add your slices of bread and allow them to sit in mixture for about 5 minutes. Add the soaked bread to the hot pan and cook until brown before flipping to other side. Serve immediately or once cooked hold in an oven at 200F.
Top the french toast with the caprese and garnish your plate with some fresh fruit! We used Big Smile peaches and Blue Pearl Farm blueberries.
Happy brunching!
xo
Charleston Spice Co
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