I am always looking for great snacks to serve at Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast, and this amazing recipe has absolutely BLOWN MY MIND!  It’s SO delicious! And perfect for spring when lighter, greener fare is your craving!

Credit where it’s due, this is lifted from the spring issue of Real Simple!  Though it’s not REAL simple, it’s simple enough.  I used store bought pizza dough, EASY, and made 4 pizzas from two tubes of dough. Assemble all ingredients before putting together and it’s a snap to make.

Ingredients:   1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature, corn meal for dusting the baking sheet,

1 lb asparagus, halved lengthwise and across, 5 ounces baby bella, crimini or button mushrooms,

2 cloves of garlic, minced, 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese, 3 T olive oil, salt and pepper,2 cups baby arugula, 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice.

Directions: Heat oven to 400° F.

Shape the dough into 4 rounds and place on 2 cornmeal-dusted baking sheets.

Dividing evenly, top the dough with the asparagus, mushrooms, and garlic, then the ricotta, Parmesan, and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Season with ¾ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the crust is golden brown and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss the arugula with the lemon juice, the remaining tablespoon of oil, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Top the pizzas with the arugula just before serving.

The ricotta cheese is surprisingly light, a nice change from mozzarella on pizza.  The arugula and lemon juice make a spicy tart contrast to the other ingredients.

I guarantee that you will love these!!!!!

It’s SPRING!!  And all Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast food cravings are for asparagus!  Here’s a simple but elegant, creamy soup that has a few ingredients that make it extra exciting: paprika for a subtle heat, spinach for a brighter green color, a runny poached egg dropped into it for comfort and some great homegrown herbs for dazzle.  There is no cream in this soup, but it still comes out very rich and creamy.  Serves 6.

Start with a large leek, white and green parts, sliced down the middle then sliced into half moons. Saute in a tablespoon or two of olive oil along with 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.  When they are tender, about 10 minutes, add a teaspoon of Hungarian paprika.

Prepare 1 1/2 lbs of fresh asparagus, simply chop into 1/2 inch pieces. 

Add 3 cups of vegetable stock, preferably homemade, to the pot, along with the asparagus.  Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

   Now you’re cooking!  When the asparagus is tender, add a cup of fresh spinach.  Stir in and take pot off heat. Place the soup in a blender and whir it up to a creamy consistency.  Return soup to pan to keep warm until serving.

   Time to go raid the spring herb garden!  I love the taste of French tarragon, very licorice. Chives are always great, also fresh parsley.  Chop for topping off the soup bowls.If desired, poach 6 eggs until just perfect, solid whites/runny yolk.  Fill 6 bowls with soup, drop a poached egg into the center of each and top off with your herbs.  Voila!!  Enjoy!

I love pesto!!  It’s so versatile for pasta dishes or bruschetta and so easy to whirl up in a food processor.  Of course I’m addicted to traditional basil pesto, but sometimes, especially when it’s not summer and herb season, I love to experiment with other ways to make a pungent, garlicky, cheesy, herb spread.  Sun dried tomatoes!  It’s another pantry staple too, so you can whip this up when unexpected company arrives!  If you have a notion to dry your own tomatoes, by the way, I always use the recipe and technique from about.com.   But store bought is fine too. In this recipe the spinach stands in for the green, but basil is great too.

1 cup sun dried tomatoes

2 cups fresh spinach

6 cloves garlic

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Soak the tomatoes in water to soften them, then drain.  Combine everything in a food processor until blended well into a perfect, pasty pesto!!

The blog is great for Yelton Manor B&B recipes, no doubt, but I am including some dinner concoctions because they are so easy to turn into lunch, or appetizers or even breakfast!

Here’s the thing that keeps cooking interesting: we stay in touch with what is ripening on the counter, getting older in the fridge and available at the market, toss it up to chance sometimes. Planning ahead for weekly meals is great, but sometimes it’s just a matter of rolling with the creative forces of what is available, ready and pairing well together. Open your plan to what is in front of you, some VOILA! may result!

Tonight the organic pears came into perfect ripeness while the bread was on its last end (best toasted). Panini! I added some red onion, provolone cheese and some organic seedy mustard, oooh la la.

Fruit makes a perfect savory sometimes, don’t underestimate its power on the appetizer table!

At Yelton Manor B&B we believe in the power of pesto, it’s true, and this easy beauty proves that you don’t even need to start with a green herb to make it!  Mercy, this is so good.  Simply put in food processor:

1 12oz jar marinated artichokes, drained

4 T finely grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese

2 T olive oil.

Blend until coarsely chopped, not too smooth.  Taste and adjust for salt and freshly ground pepper.

Here’s the real trick to making these awesome: the crostini.  Slice a French baguette into 1/2 inch rounds. Melt unsalted butter with minced garlic and spread on.  Then toast them.

Spread the toasted crostinis with the artichoke pesto, and finish with a sprinkling of very fresh, minced, Italian parsley.

Pesto mixture can be made a day ahead, cover and chill.

Though we keep a vegetarian kitchen at Yelton Manor B&B, we always include some meat and fish options on the party appetizer table for friends and family who love it. When considering fish, tuna is always a handy ‘pantry ready’ choice, but on big special occasions I like to mound up a shrimp bowl around a spicy horseradish red sauce,  or a side of smoked salmon with fabulous adornments, like capers, boiled egg, small dice red onion and perhaps cream cheese.  But everyday tuna (please do splurge on fine quality canned tuna, of course) dresses up a snidge in this simple appetizer that is easy to make and everyone snatches it up happily. It’s a simple comfort food, no shame in that!

Here’s what we love best when we make this: snip the parsley very very fresh from the garden. When it’s full of water and crisp as can be, it adds the perfect crunch to this appetizer.  We consider this munchie much diminished with store bought limp parsley, but use it if you have no other options.

1 can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

kosher salt

thinly sliced celery (preferably the tender heart)

2 can albacore tuna

Finely chopped parsley (and are you in the mood for dill?  Maybe.) to taste and color

2 T fresh lemon juice

freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup capers (optional, I only use them when in a salty kind of mood)

mayo

Optional ingredients you may want to add: diced sun dried tomato, diced red bell pepper, pickle relish, mustard, garlic, diced black olives, diced pepperoncini, what are you feeling like today?

Combine.  Toss with just enough mayo to bind, keep it light. Try not to break up the tuna or beans too much. Serve on small party square breads for hors d’oeuvres, or toasted baguette slices.

For a warm bite, toast quickly, perhaps with a small amount of cheddar cheese.  Nice on a toasted whole grain English Muffin too.

For sandwich or pita, or rolled up in a tortilla, add some tomato and red leaf lettuce, perhaps some homemade hummus, top with sprouts.

If you have joined The Yelton Manor family over these 24 years, you’ve delighted in these little bites on the afternoon snack table. We’ve shared the recipe a zillion times. No muss, no fuss, healthy and delicious and beautiful too! Serve these warm, they don’t stand up well on a buffet table…so if serving at a party, go from the oven onto a pretty platter, cute cocktail napkins offered, and make some social gadabout as you offer them around. Tasty veggie treat, easily made vegan as well.

1 10 oz package of chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 4oz can chopped mushrooms (better yet, fresh button mushrooms or more exotic mushroom)

mayo or substitute

1/2 red onion, small dice

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (quality will matter, best is goat or sheep feta, but cow will do)

24 small party rye slices. (or cut regular rye into 2″ squares)

Combine all ingredients and use just enough mayo or substitute to bind, do not overuse. Spread on each bread slice, cut them in half on a diagonal.

Salt and pepper (important) all. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Since becoming such an avid herb gardener AND a vegetarian in the last decades, I have become quite willing to take on nearly any adventure imaginable that blends a green leafy herb with a you-name-it nut, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil. There is no end to it! Freeze it, store it, use it for pasta, pizza, bruschetta, this is the simplest, healthiest, tastiest and most beautiful food!  Tonight I improvised this concoction, made affordable in winter with some organic baby arugula as the heft of it, accented with some basil.  Arugula has an unexpected and pleasant bitterness, very ooh-la-la when used right. I used a penne pasta, absolutely fabulous, but anything you like will work fine. I double the recipe and freeze 1/2 in ice cube trays and use the individual cubes in forthcoming dinners.  And don’t forget breakfast, where pesto of all kinds works beautifully with egg dishes like frittatas!

Penne Pasta with Arugula Pesto

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

3 cloves garlic

2 cups chopped arugula

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup grated Parmsan cheese

pinch salt, pinch cayenne

Chop the walnuts and garlic in the food processor. Add arugula and basil until chopped, run the olive oil in a stream until a nice paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the cheese, salt and cayenne.  Use however you please!

    I love cornbread.  It’s in the Mac and Cheese class for best comfort food. Years ago someone gave me these way cute, cast iron cornbread forms and the rest is history, now I make cornbread all the time.  These are the simplest of ingredients, always in the pantry, and everyone oooohs and aahhhhs over warm cornbread and soft butter.  Positively heavenly, truly.

Sometimes it’s as easy as just using the recipe on the corn meal bag, right?  But sometimes it’s just as easy (and twice as adventurous) to simply try out one of the many recipes available and see what suits you best.  I always opt for the greatest form, texture and taste matched to the easiest go-together that can be had.  Sometimes that involves the ease of a boxed mix that you dress up with fantastic flavor boosters. Years ago my friend Cathy gave me her cornbread recipe and this is the one I love.

Cathy’s Cornbread:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + 1 1/2 cups cornmeal + 4 1/2 t baking powder + salt and pepper

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

4 eggs

1 3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup honey

Combine eggs, milk, butter and honey in separate bowl and add to dry ingredients.

Add in:
1 16 oz can white sweet corn
1 small can diced green chili
1/3 -1/2 c. salsa
1 1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.  It can be served at any temperature you choose and for any meal.

By the way, you don’t need these cute forms like I have.

You can just as easily make muffins, sheet cake, casserole pan, any form you please.

It’s cornbread, it’s the essence of easy going.

Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast puts you smack in the center of Michigan’s wine making area. Thanks to the wondrous micro-climate of Lake Michigan, cool in summer and warmer in winter, added to the sandy soil, grape vineyards are all over our area.  We can direct you to any and all of them.  Except for deep winter, there is always some kind of event wrapped around enjoying our wines, so check it out.

Our favorite is Fenn Valley Vineyards.  The wine making and tasting rooms are tucked into the vineyards, making for a complete treat for all the senses.  The owners are very hands-on, and the tours get A+ raves from our guests every time.

Just a short trip to the NE of us, with plenty of fun attractions along the way, like nurseries and greenhouses, antique stores, Saugatuck and Douglas for shopping and dining, Crane’s apple Orchards and much more.  Our favorite day trip always includes Fenn Valley Winery.