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My neighbor introduced me to finger limes the other day and what a treat they are!  The finger lime tree is native to Australia and grows nicely in a few areas of the USA including SoCal.  The lemon lime citrus like fruit within the small oblong fruit is like ‘mini caviar’.  The pleasant citrus tang is within the small vesicle like fruit just under the peel.

The finger lime tree is actually thousands of years old but has become popular in recent years with Chef’s due to the fruits crisp clean tangy taste.  The tiny vesicles creat pops of flavor and can be used in sauces, salads, drinks, desserts and other applications.  The fruit is typically in season in the early fall and can command over $100 a pound when it is available!

Here is a recipe I came up with that is a low calorie creamy delight with a burst of citrus from the finger lime garnish.  You could bake these in a small kitchen in a convection or toaster oven or while camping or make a batch in advance of a camping trip and freeze them in a freezer zip top bag for up to 3 months.  Feel free to enjoy the sweet delights without a garnish or substitute the garnish by topping the individual bites with a blueberry or raspberry.

Makes 20 individual mini cheesecakes

75 calories min cheesecake bites

Ingredients

8 oz                 reduced calorie block of cream cheese

1                      egg

1/4 cup            organic or regular sugar

1/2 tsp             vanilla

10                    vanilla wafers or 1 cylinder of Dewey’s Meyer lemon cookie thins (Costco)

2 tbsp.             softened butter

20                    raspberries or blueberries or 2 tsp of finger lime ‘caviar like vesicles’

Directions

1. Preheat convection oven to 325 degrees F.
2.  Lightly butter a mini muffin pan that fits in your oven.
3.  On a flexible cutting board, crush the cookie wafer with a rolling pin or the side of a glass or bottle.
4.  Add 1 tbsp. of softened butter to the cookie crumbs and combine thoroughly with the crumbs.
5.  Add a tsp of crust crumble to each muffin mold on the pan; gently press the crumble mixture to form a crust.
6. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla using a whisk or hand mixer.  Combine thoroughly.
7. Add a tsp of cheesecake filling on top of each crust.
8.  Bake in a preheated oven for 13 – 14 minutes or until the cheesecake filling is set.
9.  Garnish as desired and serve.  Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers.

Note:  If using a small mini muffin pan, repeat the filling and baking process 1 – 2 times as needed for the 20 servings.  Refrigerate the filling between baking, as needed.

My cookbook Small Kitchen Big Flavors! is available at a great Introductory Price on Ebay and my blog site at : http:/smallkitchenbigflavorsblog.wordpress.com

Here is a recipe you can make ahead, freeze and bake as desired!

I had some cream cheese that I wanted to use and decided making a batch of scones was a good option that would allow me to bake the scones at my leisure anytime over the next 3 months.

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups          all purpose flour

1/2 cup               sugar

2 1/2 tsp              baking powder

1/2 tsp                 salt

1/4 cup                milk

1 cube                 butter (4 oz.)

8 oz                      cream cheese (regular block style, not whipped)

1 cup                    rinsed berries

1/2 cup                 diced nuts (pecans or walnuts) if desired

1/2                         lemon, zest only

1                            egg

2 tsp                      vanilla

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
3.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt)
4.  Combine milk and eggs in a separate medium bowl, whisk then set aside.
5.  Soften butter and break into 1″ cubes then add to the flour.
6.  Soften cream cheese and add 1″ pieces to the flour mixture.
7.  Add citrus zest, berries or nuts to the flour mixture.
8.  With clean hands blend the butter and cream cheese with the flour until the mixture comes together into pea sized balls and the flour is thoroughly folded into the dough.  Note:  the dough will be very dry as you start this process, but it will come together into a dough within a few minutes or so.
9.  Use a flexible plastic cutting mat, pour dough onto the mat and work in any loose flour mixture into the dough.
10.  Flatten the dough to about 3/4″ height.  If your mat is small, divide the dough into 2 batches prior to flattening.
11.  Cut each circle of flattened dough into 5 or 6 triangular pieces = forming scones.
12.  Place the mat with the dough into the freezer until the scones freeze completely then package the scones in freezer ziptop bags, burp the air, date and write the name of the recipe on the freezer bag using a permanent marker.
13.  Remove scones from the bag as you want to enjoy them… you will preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake the scones you want on a parchment lined baking sheet placed on the middle rack for 23 minutes or golden brown and cooked through.
14.  If you want to cook some of the scones prior to freezing, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, place the scones on a parchment lined baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack for 18 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
15.  Remove cooked scone to a cooling rack after the scones have completed baking and rested on the baking sheet on the counter for 5 minutes.

Note:  You can apply a light coating of egg white or milk to the top of the scone just prior to baking.

This is a recipe I came up with… for a small bite dessert for Easter or Spring!  The pastry puffs can be made in advance prior to an RV camping trip, frozen… adding the filling to the pastry puffs when you are ready to serve the dessert.

The pastry shells could certainly be adapted and used for other purposes including: mini appetizer or other dessert fillings… handy for having on hand in the freezer for Potluck get togethers.

If you have a convection oven in your RV, you can even bake the cream puff shells in your convection or toaster oven.

Cream Puff Shells Ingredients

4 oz ( 1 stick)   butter

1 cup               water

1/4 tsp             salt

1 cup              all-purpose flour

4 – 5                eggs, depending on the size

Filling Ingredients

1/2 cup            lemon juice

1 1/2 cups       organic sugar

zest                 of 2 lemons

4 oz                 butter

1/8 tsp             sea salt

4 – 5                eggs (depending on size)

Directions for cream puff pastry

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a medium saucepan add a stick (4 oz) of butter and 1 cup of water.  Bring the mixture to a boil.
3. Add the flour and salt and turn heat to medium/low and stir the dough with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan. Dough will form a roughly shaped ball.  Take the saucepan off the heat.
4. Stir in eggs 1 at a time stirring after each egg is added and well combined with the dough.
5. Drop dough in heaping teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet or mini muffin pan.
6. Bake the puff pastry for 20 minutes or cooked through.  Let puff pastry shells cool.
7. Store pastry shells in a ziplock bag.
8.  When ready to serve the dessert, cut the top 1/4th of the puff pastry off and set aside.  Fill bottom portion of each shell with the lemon curd or other filling as desired.

Directions for lemon curd filling:

1.  In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer, cream a stick of butter until fluffy, add sugar and mix again until well blended.

2. Add eggs 1 at a time stirring to combine.

3.  Rinse lemons, pat dry.  Zest 2 lemons, add the zest and juice to the egg mixture.

4.  Place a medium saucepan on the stove.  Add the lemon curd mixture to the saucepan, turn the heat to medium and  whisk the lemon curd until the curd thickens at approximately 170 degrees.  Take lemon curd off heat and cover.

5.  When the lemon curd cools to room temperature, place the covered pan with lemon curd in the refrigerator.

7.  When ready to serve the dessert, cut the top 1/4 of each baked pastry puff off and set aside. Add a heaping teaspoon of lemon          curd to the center of each puff pastry base and garnish with a raspberry or jelly beans and the puff pastry top… or place the pastry top on the side of each dish next to the filled pastry base.

My cookbook Small Kitchen Big Flavors! is available at a great Introductory Price on Ebay and my blog site at : http:/smallkitchenbigflavorsblog.wordpress.com

If you are in the Central Coast area on Sunday afternoon February 10, 2019, stop in at Morovino Winery and say “Hi!”.  I will have my NEW release cookbook Small Kitchen Big Flavors! available and will include a gift with purchase!

~ Chef MJ

You may not have heard of the sleepy town of Quartzsite, but come January, it’s a hot spot for RVers and campers of all stripes. In fact, according to the Arizona Highway Department, as many as a million people — most of whom were in RVs — descended on Quartzsite last January to enjoy this yearly motorhome show.

In other words, you don’t want to miss it. Here’s why — and all the details you need to know about how and when to get there.

Why You’ll Love The Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show

The Quartzsite camper and RV show has so much to offer, but there’s one detail that stands out among all the rest when it comes to reasons you’ll love this expo.

It’s TOTALLY FREE TO ENTER for the public. That’s right — you won’t pay a dime to get in, or even just to park!

But even if you did have to pay to get in, you’d probably want to. The Quartzsite travel trailer show doesn’t just take place over a weekend, but a whole week. And not only is it the largest RV show in Arizona, but it’s actually billed as the “Largest Gathering of RVers in the World!” It’s been held annually since 1984, and in those thirty years, the organization has learned a thing or two about hosting a fantastic camper show.

Stop by the bookstore in Quartsite to say “hi” and pick up a copy of my NEW release cookbook Small Kitchen Big Flavors!  January 20 – Jan 23 2019.  You will receive a gift with purchase and a signed copy of my full color cookbook with 105 recipes for delicious leisure camping meals and snacks, wine and beer pairing, informative chapters on make ahead meals, stocking an RV pantry, tips on how to make your food look it’s best even when camping, how to’s for cooking at high altitude and more….

~ Chef MJ