Picnic Perfect

The best way to keep the memory of an all too brief vacation alive, is to picnic on the very same beach the following weekend. And to encourage your friends to eat your experiments, stored safely in your picnic hamper.

Since my friends are mostly vegetarian, and the beach is home to more than one case of sun induced food poisoning every summer; I decided to make everything veggie friendly, and although the picnic basket is insulated, I steered away from anything that might spoil, and therefore spoil our day. 

A muffaletta traditionally features various deli meats and cheeses layered in an entire loaf of bread with a tapenade mix that balances out all the richness. To Vegetarian-ize (yes, I'm making up my own words now) I grilled super thin slices of zucchini, and summer squash,(tossed lightly in coconut oil) and layered them with grilled onions, baby spinach, tapenade, and hummus. Simply pull out some of the inside of you loaf of bread, smear one side with hummus, the other with tapenade, and fill. Then wrap it up and stow it at the bottom of the picnic basket: it gets better if you give it a bit of a press.

The barley salad was inspired by one of my picnic companions. She once made a dip for freshly baked bread out of olive oil, garlic, and copious amounts of cilantro and I couldn't get enough of it. I’ve made it several times since, and when I was trying to think of a side dish that would be sun-safe and also refreshing it occurred to me that the dip would make a delicious dressing, I cut the olive oil way down and added a splash of white wine vinegar, for good measure a chopped cucumber from our garden went in.


For dessert we had Allison Attenborough’s lemon lavender shortbread. I made it in a small cake pan, so we could bread pieces off as desired. Its delicate enough that you taste the lavender but not so potent that you feel as though you ate a potpourri cookie, or licked your grandmothers drawer liner.

NOTE: There is nothing wrong with using fancy picnic fare to bribe friends to come to the beach with you, even though you know they have to work that afternoon.

More...

Zucchini Panzanella

Remember that zucchini that cropped up while I was on vacation? Well its starting to look like it might be the only one my Jurassic size plants create. And since it was enormous, I figured it deserved a place in the center of dinner, maybe to honor it in front of the garden gods so that they might give me one more zucchini.


Panzanella is a fabulous dish for when its too hot to eat, cook, or live in general. If you are like me, and lighting the grill and standing over it when its ninety degrees seems unappealing, you can use a grill pan and stand in your underwear in the kitchen.

For this version, I grilled cherry tomatoes until just blistered and corn on the cob until it looked - and smelled- really roasted, because my grill pan is teeny I  sauteed the zucchini with a sweet white onion but if you have the space I encourage you to grill all the vegetables.

I used a whole wheat rosemary bread bought at the farmers market, and toasted the cubes under the broiler. In this heat I sometimes just eat popsicles for dinner, so I'm willing to call this a win, even if its not really grilled the way I like it.


I dressed this with homemade raspberry vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and a shallot all whizzed up in the blender. This is a substitution friendly sort of a dinner salad, so feel free to use whats on hand, if you have no zucchini, use another squash, or make it a little more fresh with a cucumber.


Quasi Grilled Panzanella
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 ears of corn, shucked and cleaned
1 loaf of rosemary bread
1 mammoth sized (or 2 small) zucchini
1 small sweet white onion
Raspberry Vinaigrette

Heat your grill to high, and place on the tomatoes and the ears of corn whole, turning occasionally to give an even char. * Once they reach your desired level of doneness, remove them from the grill and set them aside. To remove the kernels from the cob,I like to stand the ear of corn on the pillar in the center of a bundt pan and cut the corn off the cob with a sharp knife in a downward motion, just let the pan well collect all the roasted corn goodness. While you are grilling your vegetables, toast the cubes of bread and saute the onion and zucchini If you let this go as long as you grill the corn you should get a lovely caramelization on the onions. toss the ingredients together and serve warm with a drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette.

*Pay close attention to the tomatoes as they can explode in the heat, you want them just blistered, then you can remove them. Let the tomatoes cool while you prepare the rest of this salad, while cooking them deepens their flavor, because of their liquid insides they become finger and mouth scalding bombs when you cook them.

More...

Summer

This week I took time off to visit friends in New Hampshire. Sometimes living in an area where you have to get in the car and drive in order to see the woods allows you to forget that an hour up 95 there is open space and trees and fields that aren't rationed off to those who can afford to live near them. I spent alot of time lying in the sun, staring at the cornfield, and drinking dandelion wine.

 It was a solid reminder that somewhere other than my life things move a bit slower. Nothing particularly amazing happened in the way of food, except for a tour of a fairly sizable vegetable garden, but when I came home I got my first zucchini off our plant, and the first cucumber too. The gifts just keep on coming.

More...

Faux Pho

Its been a hell of a month, and it doesn't look like our summer is headed in direction that we had hoped. I'm working on a side project, trying to get it up and running before all the summer produce slips away from my fingers, and running myself in two directions. The man, who broke his ankle a few weeks ago and is awaiting a second surgery does a surprisingly large amount of 'the dirty work' keeping the kitchen, and the rest of the house running...and now that he's laid up for at least another month....Well lets just say I'm desperately clinging to the idea that he'll be magically healed in a week...
When he came home from the hospital the first time I had promised him whatever made him feel better would be dinner...cut to Eggs Benedict with hollandaise that was almost clear, takeout Chinese, and a mess of other kitchen horrors that look appetizing... until you bite into them and realize I've been so tired that I forgot salt...on everything.

But tonight, I was on my game...probably has something to do with having yesterday off and doing very little. Tonight I took what remained of the leftover ground beef from burgers we (ahem, my father) grilled on July 4th and made little ginger and beef meatballs, I thinly sliced pea pods from Allandale Farm and cabbage from Two Fields Farm and sauteed it in the wok. I simmered vegetable broth with ginger and garlic and a chile, and after the meatballs got a quick browning, they went into the vegetable studded broth to simmer. Flat Chinese egg noodles sparingly dressed in toasted sesame oil made little nests that cradled the meatballs (more like little meat dumplings, without dough, really) and swam with the broth. I topped it off with some of our very own cilantro and a super finely chopped garlic scape. Rose was poured and we ate before it got dark. I was the winner. The dish reminded me a little of the Pho we used to eat years ago when we lived by the beach. It was pretty easy and more importantly satisfying,(when you aren't eating on a regular schedule, sometimes salad will not cut it for dinner, even if its eighty degrees...besides that's why we have air conditioning)

These are the kind of nights I look forward to, when lunches are packed and the vegetable garden is watered and I live in (feigned) ignorance about the fact that there is not a single clean towel in the house.

I may be tired and not very good company but I'm still cooking.... More...

Jump Start

Yesterday the farmers market opened...I bought some seedlings, arugula, kale, French breakfast radishes and green onions...the market is a great reminder that while you may be seeing corn on the cob and zucchini as thick as your forearm in the grocery store, its still only the beginning of June in Massachusetts, and those things are still a few weeks away around here.

The market served as a beautiful jumping off point for me...I haven’t stopped cooking but its gotten awful quiet around here...and admittedly over the winter I did overindulge a bit. I’m blaming a new job, the holiday season and a damn fine French cookbook...holy-majoly, I was not eating right! But I’m back to eating my vegetables and watching my portions and I couldn’t be happier to see the warm weather (and the sunlight that stretches until 9pm) return. With its return I’m hoping to resurrect the writing I do here.

Lately I’ve broken through a few ‘food fears’ of mine: I baked a loaf of yeast baked bread (!!) and I managed to (miraculously) pull an almost flawless bundt cake from its pan. I’ve been feeling rather invincible…you know, until I burn something. The man and I have been experimenting in mixology which is exciting and terrifying at the same time…we are ardent beer and wine people, but I’ve recently found that if you crush herbs into a cocktail I’m totally smitten with it. (Next up: I’m going to conquer the Americano.)

As I said; we haven’t stopped cooking. There have been all sorts of spring risottos, with fiddleheads and asparagus. There was a week of cold rain that was eventually chased away with pasta carbonara (dear whole foods, thanks for selling prosciutto ends for almost free) I made apple rhubarb bundt cake and a loaf of sesame bread. I roasted fish over leeks and tomatoes, and last week I made amazing turkey burgers on our charcoal grill and I knew summer was on its way.

I cant wait to show you what else we're up to this season.

More...

Spice Spiked Red Pepper Salsa

Up on Food52, my Moroccan inspired red pepper salsa. Go on over and take a peak and if it sounds good to you, give it a 'like'. I'll be following the weekly challenges as best as I can, and posting the recipes over there, and here. I must recommend that this sauce is perfect for these meatballs. I can not tell you about these turkey meatballs enough. They are moist, and delicious, and spicy, and...I could go on.

But I shouldn't really.

Instead what I'll do is post the recipe for the sauce. That, and encourage you to go over to view the meatball recipe. I will say that I only brown these meatballs and then bake them for 10-ish minutes at 350 to finish them, mostly because I have a tendency to mis-manage my oil temperature, and so I burn things...that, and I'm afraid of undercooked poultry. I might even  let you know, as a sidenote, that this is especially delicious when you serve it on top of cooled couscous combined with radishes, cucumbers, and fennel. Dress the whole thing in sherry vinegar and olive oil, and plunk down two meatballs on top. Perfect.

Red Pepper 'Salsa'

1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

1/4 cup golden raisins or dried apricots, chopped fine

1 meyer lemon, zest and juice

1/2 cup cilantro finely diced

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 cup mint, finely chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 red peppers, roasted, seeded, peeled, and chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine the first seven ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside
Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a small skillet, add cumin and cinnamon, and heat until fragrant. This is the important part. In another bowl, dress roasted red peppers with the spiced oil, and toss gently to coat.
Add the remaining combined ingredients and fold to gently so as not to pulverize the softened peppers.
Dress with remaining oil, if needed





  More...

Kitchen Seven Five: Weekend Edition

Brunch

Dinner Friday - Salmon 'burgers' and sweet potato fries

Crispy Cornbread - for succotash (recipe coming soon)

roasted

Red pepper recipe test, and Dorons Meatballs - Dinner Saturday

Saturday night called for cold beer

This was another weekend without interruption. We relaxed at home, caught up on the mountain of laundry that has taken up residence in our bedroom, and I cooked - a lot. Friday night there were salmon burgers and sweet potato fries. Leftover fries became sweet potato homefries for brunch with eggs and bacon. After my weekend errands, I roasted some red peppers (so much easier under the broiler rather than on the gas range!) and tested a Moroccan spiced red pepper salsa for the Food52 weekly contest.  We served it with some spiced meatballs and a fennel couscous salad. Early on Sunday, before the heat settled in, (its going to be in the nineties all week!)  I made a thin skillet cornbread (I have plans for this cornbread, look out later in the week) and banana bread laced with hunks of dark chocolate. Really you should try it, its fabulous.  Later in the afternoon we went to Providence, and when we decided it was much too hot in the city we took ourselves to a late lunch in Newport. It wasn't anything fancy by any means, a burger made with green onions and Boursin (mine) and some Cajun chicken  (the man's) accompanied by some local beer and possibly the best french fries I've eaten since high school. Later at home, we watched television parked in front of the fan, sipping wine. It was the perfect end to a very relaxing weekend. 

More...

Peach & Cream Popsicles

The weather in Boston has been strange this week. I wake up at 4am, the fan is still blowing, and I’m completely freezing. I step off the train at night, and the temperature is a swampy ninety degrees. Fall, it would seem, is creeping in early. With its warm days, and chilly nights fall is easily my favorite season (I also grew up in an apple orchard of a town in New Hampshire, which helps...) but I’m not ready to let go of summer. I've just started to really appreciate the sun. That, and the peaches. I could eat them in or on everything, but despite my best intentions, they always end up getting eaten ‘the traditional way’ (in my hand with lots of napkins for soaking up juices, while I lean against the kitchen counter). The man likes a peach now and again, but mostly (and especially in Summer) he loves to eat popsicles. If one could buy popsicle futures, I would, based solely on the popsicle consumption in my own home, We buy them, quite literally, in bulk.

These particular popsicles came about because of two peaches that were lost in the back of the refrigerator. They were looking a bit worse for the wear, and while they still smelled good and tasted delicious, they were a bit too juicy to eat the traditional way. I simmered pitted diced peaches in a combination of Gosling’s rum, crystallized ginger, and lemon zest. You can simmer them for a long time, to ensure the alcohol is cooked out, or just until the fruit collapses, which is what I did. This all got pureed in the food processor, and then combined with plain Greek yogurt. And a little fruit juice if you need to thin out the mix. It only made six popsicles, (which is a shame because they will probably be gone by Friday,) but its something I will experiment with, until fall really does set in and I find myself preoccupied with apples.



Peach & Cream Popsicles


2 peaches, scrubbed, pitted, and diced

3 tablespoons dark rum (I used Goslings, because it was on hand, and I like how sweet it is)

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

Zest of a small lemon, (or zest of ½ of a naturally sized lemon)

½ cup of plain Greek yogurt

1-3 tablespoons, as needed of fruit juice (I used apple) to thin them

Special Equipment: a popsicle mold, or dixie cups, saran wrap, and skewers
Combine the peaches, rum, ginger, and lemon zest in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, cover and cook until peaches collapse on themselves, and the rum has all but disappeared. Set aside to cool.
When peach mixture is cooled, blend in food processor until smooth, add yogurt and blend again, to combine. Thin as needed with juice.
Fill popsicle mold, and freeze, at least one hour. Then hide them in the back of the freezer, unless you want to share, which I hear is overrated, when it comes to popsicles.

More...

Zucchini Muffins

Let me tell you about my mornings, circa one week ago: I would drag myself out of bed 15 minutes too late, shower, makeup, water and a vitamin, and then out the door to the train. By the time I get to work I'm ravenous, and runnng on fumes. I succumb to the siren song of the coffee shop (literally three doors down from my office, I can smell donuts and muffins all day) and I indulge - daily- in a crummy (not crumbly) muffin, an oily croissant, or a nine-thousand calorie bagel. Not anymore my friends. Today I was up on time, ate a banana, my vitamin, drank my water and also scarfed down a chewy, moist, veggie laden muffin laced within enough walnuts and crystallized ginger to make me feel like I could open my own coffee shop. 

I wouldn't say these are necessarily a strictly breakfast muffin, and in short order you could probably sweeten and spice them, frost them with cream cheese frosting and make a (slightly) healthier cupcake. The ginger, along with the reserved nuts and zest that add cruch to the top go a long way toward making this a sweet and spicy treat at any time of day.

I found the original recipe for these beauties over at 101 Cookbooks, which (for someone as afraid of baking as I am) is an INDISPENSIBLE website (but you already knew that, right? Forgive me, I'm sort of new here.) I removed the poppy seeds, added some flax seed (these are breakfast muffins, right?) and changed around the spices a little bit, to incorporate a spice that my Lebanese neighbors have me hooked on: allspice. (I'll be sad when winter comes and I'm not able to smell what my neighbors are cooking when I get home. Its always inspiring) You very well could take this into a harvest – muffin area and sub out some of the zucchini for shredded carrots, shredded beets etc. I wouldn’t eliminate the zucchini entirely without making some adjustments to ensure there is enough liquid in the mix. Feel free to pull out the nuts, flax seed, zest and ginger and sub in something you prefer (or nothing at all and have a traditional zucchini bread). Next time I make these, (which might be next week, the way zucchini is showing up on the farmer’s market tables) I am going to add toasted coconut, and maybe cocoa nibs, and eat it as a dessert..

Zucchini Muffins Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Note: this will make approx 24 muffins, or 12 muffins and a loaf of bread

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, fine dice

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

zest of one medium lemon

zest of one medium orange

1/2 cup - (1 stick) - unsalted butter

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini (3 medium) squeeze out most of the liquid before use

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

¼ cup ground flax seed

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 tablespoon curry powder

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line your muffin tin with liners or parchment paper squares

In a small bowl combine the walnuts, citrus zest, and diced ginger. Separate approx. ¼ cup. And set aside

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Add the vanilla extract and slowly add the grated zucchini

Separately combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Slowly add these to the wet ingredients on a low speed . Remove the bowl from your mixer and stir in the walnut-ginger mixture.

Fill your muffin tins. The mix will look wet, but it is supposed to. Bake for about 45 minutes and as soon as your fingers (or tongs) can handle it, pull the muffins from the tin to finish cooling, this will keep them from getting that slick skin common in quick breads.

More...

Kitchen Seven Five: Weekend Edition

Dark n Stormy

the best store-bought salsa you'll ever eat.

limed onions, recycled jar.

sizzle

fish tacos - dinner 8/13

this is what you can buy for $34 at the farmers market.

matzo ball soup, and a salad - dinner 8/14

simmering spinach, eggs, and cheese

baked eggs & baguette

zucchini muffins - so delicious, lookout for a post.

what to assemble, when the man eats leftover soup for dinner

Pasta with Pursulane and Lemon - dinner 8/15

Jiffy Pop

We were both home all weekend so I did a lot of cooking and cleaning and things that generally needed to get done when you have a house (I’m still learning, we’ve only been here 2 months). After cleaning out the refrigerator, I took advantage of the cooler Boston weather and made an enormous amount of chicken stock. Later that day, after being stung by a bee (in the face, of course,) out in our backyard this stock became dinner. I was in no mood to do anything but throw things in a pot, (but I obviously wanted to eat, while I held the icepack to my face) I made some enormous matzo balls and a salad and called it a day early. The next day, looking less like Quasimodo, I took it upon myself to make zucchini bread, which I will post here later this weekend. Not shown here, (because I haven’t quite gotten to the point of taking my camera into restaurants) was a really delightful Pimm’s cup (the man had a gimlet) and some fried stuffed green olives on Friday night. Fried olives are definitely not in the good for you category, but they were delicious, and Im hoping to replicate them at home. More...

Hot & Sour Eggplant (and Noodles)

There are a million and one things to do with an eggplant. When you come from my family, with my half Sicilian, all Italian father, immediate thoughts go to eggplant parmesan. Thick rounds of eggplant cozied up to a half a gallon on tomato sauce (laced with olives, obviously) and blanketed in enough romano (pronounced 'rrrrrromano') to make your hand cramp over the grater. Delicious and comforting as eggplant parmesan is (and never actually made with parmesan in my house, oddly enough...)

Its not 'summer-y'. It makes me have to turn the oven on. When its eighty-odd degrees, I do my best to not turn on the oven.

On top of that, while Italian food is where I am most comfortable; the man did not grow up with a ‘Nonna’, or an Easter dinner that involved spaghetti and antipasto before the requisite turkey or ham. The man’s favorite flavors are decidedly Asian: ginger, chilies, wasabi, and recently, anything in a peanut sauce garner more affection than anything else that comes out of the kitchen.

It is the mans love of Asian food that had pushed me to the food-focused internet in the first place. In search of wasabi glazed salmon for a birthday dinner when we were both too poor to go out. I drove down to Cape Cod from my North of Boston apartment with a grocery bag of wasabi powder, mirin, and bok choy and a print out from the internet with full intentions of impressing the man. I’m pretty sure I undercooked that salmon, and after it was plated it had to be re-wrapped in foil and put back in the oven...

Asian food is not always my biggest success, but I have come a long way from that misguided salmon dinner, and some variation of stir fry or another Asian dish makes the menu once a week in our kitchen. This dish is a riff on hot and sour Schezuan eggplant. Same sauce, more things to sit in it.

Hot & Sour Eggplant with Noodles

1 medium sized eggplant, or 2 skinny chinese eggplant, cubed

2 small heads of bok choy, cleaned and roughly choped

1 medium white onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, cut into strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon grated ginger (admittedly this is from a jar, if you use fresh, use a teaspoon)
1 tablespoon chili paste (I cheated here and used 2 tablespoons of sriracha, I was out of chili paste)

2 teaspoon cornstarch

salt

vegetable oil

1 package of your favorite rice or wheat noodles, prepared to package instructions
 
Place the eggplant cubes onto a large plate, and sprinkle with salt, let them sit for 20 minutes while you open your mail and gape at the electric bill. Rinse well, and drain on paper towels. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, red wine vinegar, sugar, chile paste, cornstarch, and ginger. Set the sauce aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the eggplant until it softens and begins to brown, 5ish minutes. Add the onions, bell pepper, and the bok choy. Cook them together with the eggplant for another 2-3 minutes, until your bok choy is wilted ever-so-slightly. Pour in the sauce, and cook and stir until the sauce is thick and the eggplant is evenly coated.

You could put this atop a lovely nest of noodles at this point, or if you're me you can add the noodles to your vegetable mixture, give a quick stir and then eat the whole mess with chopsticks, cross-legged at the kitchen table while the man makes you laugh so hard white wine comes out of your nose...you know, whatever you prefer. More...