Strawberry Fields

One of my favorite things about the spring is strawberry picking. With all of the local farms in the area, there is no shortage of strawberries ripe for the picking. A friend and I headed out to Lyons Farm this past weekend and went home happy with our baskets of loot. 

I'm not sure how many pounds of fresh strawberries I picked, but all of this cost only $5!

Here are a few pointers that we learned this weekend:

1. Pick less ripe strawberries first so they don't get squashed as your basket grows.

2. Bring your own buckets, boxes, or baskets as some farms charge for them.

3. Pick only what you can eat for the week or have strawberry recipes handy because these fresh strawberries will spoil quickly.

4. Don't skip over ripe strawberries in your row.

5. Do bring friends!

To find a strawberry farm near you, look here.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Dining In: Durham, NC - Beyu Caffe

I realized that my Dining In: Durham, NC series becomes quite difficult to search through when the title does not contain the name of the restaurant that I'm reviewing. So I'm going to start including the restaurant name in all posts. 

This is a mini-review on Beyu Caffe in downtown Durham. It's an interesting mix of coffee shop, brunch locale, evening dinner, and happy hour with live music spot. It's amazing they are open as early and as late as they are, but they really fill a niche in terms of restaurant/bar/coffee shop. 

We had a coffee and the Croque Madame or Monsieur. I don't quite remember the difference between the two. Their breakfast potatoes were quite yummy and the ambience was perfect for some Sunday afternoon crocheting while The Husband worked. 

I'll definitely return for happy hour and dinner (full bar!), but with a place that's open pretty much all day I might just have to spend the whole day there. ;) 

Beef Empanadas

Dough made in a food processor is something that I've seen on TV, but never tried on my own. After watching Rick Bayless make empanadas on America's Test Kitchen, I've been wanting to make them for myself. You can watch here! 

These were brought to a dinner party with many positive responses on Sunday. The recipe is actually a mash-up from 2 different sources.

The dough recipe came from Bitmann's "How to cook everything" mentioned several times before on my blog. I decided to go with this dough recipe since I didn't want to deep fry my empanadas. 

Empanada Dough

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup lard or vegetable oil

Less than 1/2 cup cold water

Directions 

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in food processor for 5 seconds.

2. Add oil while food processor is spinning. Mix for 10 seconds.

3. Slowly add water until dough forms a ball. Do not add too much water as dough is supposed to be on the drier side. 

4. Remove from food processor. Knead for 1 minute and let rest for at least 20 minutes in a bowl covered with a damp towel. 

5. Knead dough again for 1 minute after rest period. Cut into 12 equal pieces and roll out on floured surface to a diameter of 6 inches. 

The recipe for the filling can be found here. Since a friend did not eat green bell peppers or cilantro, I left out the cilantro and substituted bell peppers with mushrooms. I also followed the advice of some reviewers and added some Sazon seasoning. 

6. Put a few tablespoons of filling in the middle of the circle and wet edge with water. Seal tightly and fold with a "rope" pattern. 

7. Bake in 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

8. Enjoy hot or serve at room temperature. 

Of course you can put any combination of fillings - meat or veggie - that you'd like. These can be put in the freezer and saved for rainy days when you don't feel like cooking. They are also really good on-the-go snacks that you can grab and eat on your way out the door.

Have an adventurous Monday. :)