Posts from the ‘Vegetables’ Category

Sep 13

Stuffed Peppers, A Visit From A Friend And Nectarine And Meyer Lemon Preserves

Two weeks ago a new farmers market popped up only 2 blocks from my home. It’s small only 2 stands one with baked goods and the other fresh fruit and vegetables. It does not have an abundant selection but the vegetables are good and fresh and it’s great to have a farmers market during the week and near me. I’ve shopped there the past two weeks and have some beautiful produce to work with.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve made stuffed peppers, a really long time, I’m not sure why because I like them. I usually stuff the peppers with meat and rice and vegetables and simmer them in a tomato sauce, actually when I first made them years ago I saw a recipe using Campbells tomato soup. I made them on the stove top and the peppers were soft and tender and the filling was delicious, I always topped them with some cheese which melted on the peppers and the sauce that you spoon over the pepper was really good. So I bought some tomato soup and decided to recreate this forgotten recipe. I have never seen a purple pepper before you can see it below, I thought it was so pretty I had to buy it and thought it would be nice to have an assortment of colors. These are great because they are already individually portioned and with a salad you have a great meal. For a vegetarian version you can add lentils or beans instead of the ground meat, even tofu would be good.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Makes 4 large stuffed peppers

1 lb ground beef, pork, turkey or chicken

1 cup cooked rice, white or wild or both (I used wild rice)

1/2 cup cooked yellow split peas

1 medium onion chopped

1 large clove garlic minced

1 cup diced fresh tomato tomato

2 cups chopped kale (uncooked, it will cook down)

1 cup grated cheese, your choice, I used manchego and cheddar.

1 can tomato soup or tomato sauce + 1 can water (a can of soup is 10 3/4 oz)

Ready for the oven

Boil your rice in salted water until it’s cooked al dente. You don’t want it completely cooked or it will turn to mush when it’s cooked in the pepper. In another pot boil the yellow split peas in salted water until soft but a little toothsome.

Heat oven to 375 degree’s. Pour the tomato soup or sauce and water in a baking dish and whisk to combine. Clean your peppers, cut the top off and clean the inside of the pepper removing seeds and membranes. If the peppers won’t sit well cut/shave a very thin slice off the bottom of the pepper being careful not to cut a hole or the filling will fall out.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and add the onion and garlic, cook until soft and transluscent. Add the ground meat and cook until meat is browned. Drain any fat, season with salt and pepper and set aside. Add a little more olive oil and cook the kale until softened. Chop the tomatoes and add to a mixing bowl along with the meat, onion,garlic and kale, mix in the rice, split peas and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Note: It’s important to season along the way then before you stuff the peppers season again if needed. The cheese acts as a binding agent but you can also add a beaten egg.

Stuff each pepper all the way to the top gently pressing the filling into the pepper and place in the baking dish sitting in the tomato soup. Sprinkle a little cheese on top. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes, uncover, increase the temperature to 425 and cook another 15-20 minutes. The peppers should be soft but not falling apart.

Over the weekend I got to meet Gerlinde- Sunny Cove Chef. Meeting other bloggers is wonderful and a great perk that comes with blogging, she is such a lovely and sweet person. We had lunch at a local restaurant and walked around the neighborhood. Gerlinde is German by birth and lives in sunny California. She is also an accomplished and avid traveller, part of her blog is devoted to her travels, she calls it Wanderlust Blog. She brought me a gift, so sweet of her. Some meyer lemons from her tree, beautiful ceramic egg cups, some German pesto salt and some tea. I used one of the lemons with the nectarines to make this preserve. An unusual combination, maybe, but it works and the preserves are delicious, a little tart, a little sweet and the meyer lemon adds this wonderful flavor that is distinct to that citrus fruit. I only made one 16 oz jar using the nectarines I had that were over ripe.

Nectarine and Meyer Lemon Preserves

Made 1 16 oz jar

5-6 nectarines peeled and cut into slices- they were sizeable nectarines so if yours are smaller use more

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

pinch of cinnamon (about 1/8 tsp)

Juice of one meyer lemon (You will put half of the lemon in with the nectrarines while cooking)

Add the sliced nectarines to heavy bottom sauce pan along with the sugar, honey, cinnamon,lemon juice and half a lemon. Bring to a boil on medium high heat. Then reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until thick, test it by placing a spoonful on a cold saucer it should thicken when it’s ready. It cooked for close to an hour. Place in sterilized jar, seal and process with your preferred method. No shots of this open the jar is sealed, waiting for winter.

Sep 6

88 Comments

Roasted Eggplant And Tomato Parmigiana

This is not a traditional eggplant parmigiana, I used what I had a ton of tomatoes and one large eggplant. I usually bread the eggplant and fry it but not this time, it’s a little different. Yesterday I oven roasted 3 baking sheets of tomatoes that I got at the farmers market. I bought an eggplant that I thought I would try to spiralize, it was too big and spongy and the spiralizer didn’t work on it. Cleaning out my freezer I found a small bag of bread crumbs (about 1 cup) that I had made from homemade bread that didn’t get eaten. So if you can see where I’m going I used what I had in the refrigerator and freezer and created a delicious casserole. The eggplant was cut into about 1/4 inch thick slices and roasted in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil. Layer the tomatoes and eggplant with some ricotta and fresh mozzarella and there you have it. This is not really a recipe, I guestimated the amounts, with this type of dish you make it according to taste, it is open to interpretation, if you are watching your fat grams use less cheese or low fat/part skim cheese for example. I made two of them a little individual size for me and a larger one to take to my friends. You don’t have to make everything at once, the tomatoes were roasted the day before and you can even make the whole thing and refrigerate until ready to bake.

Roasted Eggplant and tomato parmigiana

Made 2 casseroles one larger than the other

Roasted tomatoes (I guess I used about 2 cups of roasted tomatoes approximately)

eggplant (I used one very large eggplant)

1/2 shallot (1 lobe) chopped

1 large clove garlic minced

1 cup breadcrumbs

approximately 1/4 cup grated cheese plus more for the ricotta and casserole

ricotta (about 8 oz)

mozzarella cut into thin slices (I used most of an 8 oz fresh mozzarella)

4-5 basil leaves torn

Heat oven to 375, cut the tomatoes into rounds and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes just until they start to caramelize but are not dried out. Set aside. I made the tomatoes the day before.

Slice eggplant into rounds or quarters about 1/4 inch thick. Place on parchment (brush some oil on parchment sheet) lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for about 40-45 minutes until softened and lightly browned. Set aside.

Heat some olive oil and a little pat of butter in a skillet, mince some garlic and chop 1/2 shallot, cook on medium high heat until softened. Add the bread crumbs and pan toast until golden brown. Spoon into a bowl and cool. Add some (if I had to guess about 2 tbs) grated cheese of your choice, parmigiana, romano, asiago or all of the above and some chopped parsley.

Beat an egg in a mixing bowl, add a little grated cheese and season with salt and pepper, add the ricotta and stir to combine.

Putting it together

I used a small rectangular pyrex and small oval baking dish. Layer some of the roasted tomatoes on the bottom of the pan. Place some of the eggplant on top, sprinkle with a little of the breadcrumbs, spread some of the ricotta on top and then continue to layer adding a few of the torn basil leaves in between each layer. You can make this however you like, my top layer was tomatoes which I sprinkled with a little more bread crumbs, some grated cheese and some mozzarella. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 40-45 mintues or until bubbly and the cheese on top is lightly browned. Let sit for about 30 minutes to set before serving.

Aug 28

118 Comments

Pizza With Cauliflower Crust

In my quest to eat less carbs and still hoping to have some of the same flavors that I love I discovered that you can make pizza with a cauliflower crust. I knew about cauliflower mash (instead of potatoes), and cous cous and rice. This did not start out to be pizza crust, at first I planned on a cauliflower and cheese bake, then thought I would do a roasted cauliflower soup (still too hot out) it then morphed into this pizza crust. Since it was not originally meant to be used for pizza I didn’t follow the directions for making it. They have you grate raw cauliflower and depending what recipe you use steam or dry roast in a skillet. My method may not be entirely orthodox and because of this I had to add a little bit of flour, I used only 1/4 cup of spelt flour along with egg and cheese to bind. The cauliflower was steam roasted first in the oven then covered in grated parm/asiago/romano, drizzled with a little olive oil and roasted again uncovered this time until lightly browned and the cauliflower is soft. Now Cauliflower has a high water content and depending which method you use they have you squeeze out the water with a towel. Because I dry roasted the water pretty much evaporated except for a few drops. I then blitzed it in the food processor mixed in the flour, egg and some taleggio cheese (grated) laid it on a cast iron pizza pan on some parchment (sprayed with cooking spray) and baked at 425 degree’s for about 25 minutes. Before baking I grated a little taleggio on top. When making a cauliflower crust you have to pre bake otherwise you will have a soupy mess.

The pizza turned out great and I love that I have the flavor of pizza without feeling bad about eating it.

Preparing the Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower cut into florets (my cauliflower was medium size)

grated cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat oven to 375 degree’s. Place the cauliflower on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with foil, or you can steam it if you like. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender. Remove the foil and drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and grated cheese of your choice. I make a blend of parmigiana, romano and asiago. Place back in the oven and roast until it is very tender and lightly browned. Let it cool and place in a sieve or colander over a bowl or plate, cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight. Cauliflower has quite a bit of water and you want to make sure it is pretty dry when you make the pizza dough.

pulsed in processor

Making the dough

makes one 12 inch pizza

2 1/2 cups of cauliflower crumbs (there will probably be leftover cauliflower, I put in a ziplock and froze)

1 egg lightly beaten

1/4 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup grated cheese

1/2 cup grated melting cheese like mozzarella or I used taleggio (Highly recommend taleggio)

Note: If you use all of the cauliflower (more than 2 1/2 cups) you should add an additional egg and a little more spelt flour and when grating either taleggio or fresh mozzarella it should be cold, the cheese is soft and even softer at room tempurature.

Place the cauliflower crumbs in a mixing bowl add the egg, flour and cheeses and form into a cohesive ball. Heat the oven to 425 degree’s and line a baking sheet or pizza pan with parchment, spray lightly with cooking spray. Press the dough onto the parchment into whatever shape you like, square, rectangular or round. Grate some more taleggio or mozzarella on top and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool, after 10 minutes transfer the parchment sheet to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before putting the pizza together.

Top your pizza with whatever you like I topped with roasted tomatoes and zucchini, mozzarella, dollops of pesto and grated cheese. It’s really so good and I didn’t miss the regular pizza crust at all.

Aug 24

82 Comments

Zucchini Pesto Lasagna And A Kale Lentil Salad

Here are a quick couple of recipes that I have made that turned out well and I wanted to share them with you. We had 2 days where the temps were under 90 woo hoo!! We are back up almost at 90 again but I have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. I harvested my basil from the garden and made a big jar of pesto, also working on harvesting my herbs and drying them so I have for the winter. The lasagna uses some of the pesto and the zucchini I got at the farmers market. It’s so simple to make and really delicious. I haven’t been eating meat lately, I can’t bring myself to eat it right now. The Kale and lentil salad provides protein from the lentils and cheese and pistachio a very nice substitute and delicious. The lighting was weird on the photo of the lasagna, it was daylight but I guess the natural light wasn’t sufficient, the pan is sitting on a white cloth that looks purple or blue.

Zucchini Pesto Lasagna

Serves 2

1 or 2 large zucchini cut into thin strips approxmately 1/4 inch thick

roasted tomato (you don’t need much it’s only for the bottom of the pan)

2-3 tbs pesto

mozzarella

ricotta

grated parmigiana or romano cheese

olive oil

Heat oven to 375, brush the zucchini strips with olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and roast until lightly browned, it only took about 20 minutes. If you don’t have roasted tomatoes you can make those at the same time. I used an oval roasting pan and placed some tomato at the bottom, add a layer of zucchini, spread some of the pesto on each zucchini slice, dollop on some ricotta, a little grated or sliced mozzarella and sprinkle with grated cheese. Repeat and top with mozzarella and grated cheese. Bake at 375 for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

kale and lentil salad

Lentil and kale salad

Serves 2

1 cup dry lentils washed

1 carrot cut into pieces

1 shallot

3 sprigs of thyme

water to cover the lentils

salt and pepper

In skillet sauté the shallot and carrot, add the lentils and water, salt and pepper and cook until lentils are al denté, add more water if you need to during the cooking. Rinse the lentils and set aside.

Assembling the salad

Kale leaves washed (as much as you want)

some crumbled feta (again as much as you want)

handful roasted pistachio chopped

tomato chopped.

Place the kale in a large salad bowl drizzle with olive oil and massage until softened. Add the lentils, tomato pistachio and feta. To dress just whisk a little honey, thyme leaves and white wine vinegar together and pour on the salad. Keeps beautifully even until the next day.

In closing I made another parfait, I love eating them, they are delicious and for me guilt free. This is just Carr’s whole meal biscuit, greek yogurt, peaches and blackberries. Thats it!!

Aug 21

88 Comments

A Breakfast Skillet And Dessert

First let me say how encouraged and overwhelmed I am by all the support from all of you good people. Thank you, thank you!! Because of the outpouring of support it made me even more resolute. I have to say it really helps baring your soul to your friends, I have always found that a diet and exercise buddy helps me stay on track, I live alone it’s and it’s really easy to fall off the wagon, my best friend Carla lives in Long Island, not exactly close to Brooklyn but we talk on the phone almost every day and encourage each other. I feel now like I have LOTS of diet buddies in all of you and it has helped tremendously. I encourage anyone in the same shoes to do this, we will all cheer you on. Special thanks to Elaine @foodbod who chatted with me by PM on Instagram in the wee hours and Cheryl @cheryl cheffie cooks Wiser, who did a special post for me with fantastic salads, I am so touched. It means the world to me.

So far I am doing fine. This morning I wanted something substantial that would nourish and keep me from getting hungry. There is nothing worse than being hungry and perusing all the food blogs and food photo’s on instagram. I used what I had for this breakfast skillet, eggplant, zucchini (used the pieces left from spiralizer) tomatoes, kale and micro potato. Half roasted in the oven, I wanted the kale crisp like a kale chip, transferred to a 6″ skillet (portion control) added an egg and completed the cooking until the egg was done. At the very end I added a little bit of raclette and put it under the broiler for a minute. A dash of hot sauce and it was a great meal.

Skillet Breakfast

Made 2 #6 inch individual size servings

4 micro potatoes cut in half

approx a half of a medium zucchini cut into bite size pieces

handful cherry tomatoes larger ones cut in half

generous handful of kale leaves

4 asparagus stalks with tough end broken off and cut in half

4 tiny fairy eggplant cut in half or quartered lengthwise

Cheese, just a little, didnt’ measure. I used raclette but any good melty cheese will do

Pre heat oven to 375. Place all of the vegetables on a parchment lined baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, make sure the vegetables are coated with the oil. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, kale will be crisp and vegetables will have softened. Arrange in skillet, crack an egg on top and bake (again at 375) until the egg is done to your liking it took about 20 minutes for an egg where the white was done but yolk was runny. Add some cheese, I used raclette, and place under the broiler just until the cheese melts.

Dessert

I have to have dessert, something sweet it’s part of the fabric of my being. You have to be a bit creative when trying to lose weight and maybe a little crafty. I came up with this recipe, well it’s not really a recipe, but it is really good. It made 2 small parfait or maybe they are more like an ice box cake or a combination thereof.

Strawberry and peach parfait

makes 2 small parfait

4 Carr’s whole meal biscuits smashed into crumbs

1 7 oz container plain greek yogurt (I used whole milk yogurt)

3 tbs heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

honey to taste ( I used a little more than a tbs for both the fruit and yogurt mixture)

fruit of your choice, I used strawberry and peach.

Cut the fruit into bite size pieces and drizzle with a little honey. Smash the whole meal biscuits into crumbs. Whip the yogurt and cream, sweeten to your liking and add the vanilla. Layer into small containers and refrigerate at least an hour or two before eating. The biscuit absorbs some of the fruit juice. It’s delicious.

I just have to show you the throw pillow I won in a charity auction to help pets with liver shunt disease. I love it!!

pug pillow

Lastly in memoriam for little Caleb a 3-4 month old dog in Atlanta that was brutally abused, if you think of the worst this is 100 times worse than you could possibly imagine. You can sign a petition by going to my facebook page . This has me so upset, to my very core, and it’s all over the news. Hoping they catch the monsters that perpetrated such a heinous and evil crime. Little Caleb is not the first dog to suffer horrific abuse and unfortunately he will not be the last. Raising awareness, supporting rescue organizations and being pro active reporting abuse perceived or otherwise is so important. RIP little Caleb. #justiceforcaleb

Aug 19

136 Comments

What’s A Food Blogger To Do?

Green Market Haul

Lately I have been a pretty sorry excuse for a food blogger, sorry about that, I have several excuses, busy, it’s too hot to cook but honestly I think that I feel lost, not terribly motivated and a bit forlorn because I have gained weight. I love food, cooking it, eating it, shopping for it and blogging about it. Taking photo’s of what I prepare (when they are good) makes me happy. Unfortunately, the food I make ends up in my mouth at least a good portion of it, some gets farmed out to friends and family and even charity but what ends up in me has caused me to gain weight. I wish I were the person that could eat whatever they want and never gain an ounce but thats not me, I wish I could happily exist on salads and low fat food and no sugar, but thats not me either. There has to be a balance and I have not found that yet. I’m also not an exercise fanatic, sure I walk every day, walking Percy doesn’t really count because thats not much exercise, he is very slow. The heat has also taken it’s toll, making me lethargic, I just don’t want to be outside it’s too uncomfortable. After some soul searching and a glance in the mirror I decided to try to find my balance and watch what I eat, the reason for this post is that over the next few weeks you will not be seeing anything remotely fattening, no cakes or pies or bread or heavy calorie laden meals. I have to do it for me and I am challenging myself to come up with some great recipes that will help me, if you all have something you love comment and provide the link to your recipe. Will it make me happy, not really, I would rather eat what I want, but if I slim down a bit maybe I will feel better about myself. I will still be posting recipes but until I find a balance in my eating I am staying away from the foods I love namely sweets, bread, rice and pasta. The photo’s you see I posted on the Food52 app for “not recipes” I will be posting these over the next few weeks, they are simple and delicious and fit into my diet.

I have always fought to keep my weight down, I tend to yo yo. Years ago I saw a nutritionist who put me on phen phen, I was not dramatically overweight and just wanted to lose about 20 lbs. Well let me tell you that stuff works, I had no ill effects, I took a very low dosage about a quarter of what the Doc prescribed and the weight came off, too much really. People were actually telling me I need to gain weight, that felt good no one ever said that to me before. I was on it for a year and then the bottom dropped out, they took one of the phen’s off the market because some people had heart related complications. He put me on other meds that I didn’t like, they didn’t work and made me feel bad so I slowly gained weight. To this day I still have not gained back all of the weight I lost I have gained a good portion back though. A few years ago I tried South Beach and was very successful losing a lot of weight and I really liked the low carb and low sugar diet, I never really felt hungry and the weight melted off. When I started competitive cooking on Food 52 and Whole foods, and blogging about it I gained back most of what I lost on the South Beach plan.

strawberry buttermilk smoothie

I have to try again and if I cook the food I like then I gain weight. I am active, I work, I walk, I am constantly doing something but evidently not enough to mitigate the amount of calories I consume. I recently tried weight watchers, I really don’t like counting points or weighing food, the thing is I know how much I should be eating, I know my portions are too big. Portion control is key along with making the right choices.

Sorry to bore you with all this but I wanted to lay it all out and explain why you may not see much from me for the next few weeks. The Holidays are coming, I can hardly believe it, and I can’t afford to allow the usual holiday weight gain to happen on top of what I have gained over the years. As you age your metabolism slows down, at least for some of us, and all of that needs to be taken into consideration when deciding what goes on your plate and into your mouth.

Here is a light, quick and delicious stir fry that I am making tonight. I use skirt or flank steak cut into strips it cooks up in no time and is tasty and satisfying without being heavy. Tonight I will have it without the rice just broccoli.

Beef and Pepper stir fry

1lb flank or skirt steak cut into strips

bell pepper, I used rainbow colors, orange, red, yellow. cut into strips

1 medium onion sliced thinly

1 clove garlic minced

1 tsp minced ginger

corn starch for dusting the meat

soy sauce

salt and pepper if needed

Coat pan or wok with a little oil, add the onion and sauté just until softened, add the garlic and ginger, now add the peppers and continue to saute until all the vegetables are cooked through. Remove from pan, add a little more oil if needed and saute the beef just until browned, put the onion and peppers back in the pan, add a little soy sauce, add salt and pepper if needed. Serve over rice or with vegetable like broccoli and I added some quick pickled radish.The broccoli is steamed then drizzled with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Jul 19

73 Comments

A Non Traditional Panzanella, A Gooseberry Red Currant And Plum Crumble And Salsa

Salad

The first thing that I made with my Farmers Market finds is a salad. There is nothing like a salad made with fresh vegetables. There is no recipe for this, it’s a salad after all and everyone has their own favorite way of making and dressing them, this is sort of a panzanella, sort of because it’s not traditional. A traditional Tuscan panzanella is made with tomatoes and stale bread dressed with olive oil and vinegar. I spread pesto on the bread and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown. Saturday’s farmers market find included both cherry and regular size tomatoes, for a salad cherry tomatoes are so easy and I love how crisp and sweet they are.

Panzanella

tomato

cucumber

spring onion

bread

pesto

shaved pecorino romano

salt and pepper

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, slice the onion very thinly, cut the cucumber into small pieces and throw it all in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Spread some pesto on the bread and either broil or grill until lightly browned. Cut into bite size pieces. Dress the salad with vinegar and oil. I don’t measure starting out light and adding more as/if needed. Add the bread and toss it together. Shave pecorino romano cheese on top and enjoy.

crumble

Today I experimented with some of the gooseberries. Having never eaten them or cooked with them I didn’t really know what to expect, For the first attempt I thought a crumble would be nice and only made two individual servings in my tiny cocotte pans. I chose purple gooseberries, red currants and a golden plum. The fruit when baked produced a lot of juice and was very tart, next time I would probably add another 2 tbs of sugar although the tart fruit when eaten with some vanilla ice cream was really nice. For the crumble top I used spelt, oat and AP flour in equal parts added some butter and brown sugar. Before baking I dotted with a little butter and sprinkled with demerara sugar. I thought adding a plum would be nice with the gooseberries and currants, somewhere in my research I saw that the gooseberry is a member of the plum family or vice versa, not sure thats correct but they do go together nicely.

Gooseberry,red currant and plum crumble

serves 2

Crumble

1/4 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup oat flour or oats

1/4 cup AP flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar (not packed)

4 tbs butter+ more to dot on top before baking

whisk the flour and brown sugar together add the butter and mix with your hands until it resembles pea size crumbs.

Fruit

red currants

purple gooseberries

1 golden plum

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

I didn’t measure the berries if I had to guess how much it was about 1/3 cup of each. Put all the fruit into a bowl and add the sugar, toss to combine. Spoon into baking dishes and top with the crumble topping. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 degree’s for approximately 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.

Warm crumble with vanilla ice cream

There are a few more recipes I plan on making with the gooseberries and will post them very soon, it’s fun working with an ingredient you are not familiar with getting your sea legs so to speak. The crumble was delicious the combination of gooseberries, currants and plum created a lot of juice and some of the crumble sank creating what was more akin to a cobbler. It was really good this turned out to be a cobbler/crumble.

Salsa

The green gooseberries are very tart, sour really and using them in a savory dish seemed like it would be delicious. I had a flounder filet earmarked for dinner the other night and thought instead of a heavy tartar sauce (love it) a light fruity salsa would be nice with the fish. I didn’t measure, don’t need to with this type of dish, the beauty of it is that it is tailored to suite the individual’s taste.

Salsa

makes approximate a cup of salsa

Green gooseberries (larger ones cut in half and quartered and small ones cut in half)]

1/2 mango- chopped

1 purple spring onion- chopped

approx a tbs of chopped fresh mint

1 jalapeno chopped and seeds removed

1 small orange bell pepper chopped

approx a tbs of chopped flat leaf parsley

juice of one whole lime

salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients, serve right away.

Jul 17

75 Comments

A Trip To The Green Market, And My Introduction to Gooseberries

Green Market Haul

It has been hot here, I mean really uncomfortably hot and humid and even though I have AC it’s still hard to use the stove. It’s been a few weeks since I have gone to the Farmers Market in my neighborhood, each week I went I was disappointed to find nothing, so I decided to check it out this weekend and I happily found some beautiful produce. There are still no strawberries though, did I miss them? Every year I see basket after basket of gooseberries and until this year I have never bought them, I really don’t know what to do with them. Same with the red currants, I have had red currant jam, dried currants in Persian rice, but have not actually bought and made anything with fresh berries. It’s just me and Percy and as you can see from the photo, as my Mom would say my eyes are bigger than my stomach. How can you resist when you see produce this beautiful, it’s impossible for me. I tend to shop with my eyes, if something looks beautiful, even if I don’t know how to use, it will probably end up in my basket.

Weather wise summer is my least favorite season, I am not a person who enjoys being in the sun, I detest being hot and sweaty and braving the heat to go to the Green Market was uncomfortable, but once I saw all of that produce I forgot how hot it was outside, that is until I had to lug it all home. I have 2 tomato plants in the garden that are producing some cherry tomatoes, in dribs and drabs. I keep a container by the door and religously pick a few ripe tomatoes each day. Maybe someday soon I will have enough to make a salad. My zucchini plant never produced anything except for one zucchini blossom that I let sit, thinking it would turn into a zucchini, it didn’t.

the end of the homemade pesto and homeade bread ready for salad

My favorite salad is simple, cucumber and tomato, maybe a little onion and grilled bread. After buying the beautiful heirloom tomatoes and the seedless Persian cucumbers I knew that is what I had to make. A few days ago I harvested a huge amount of basil from my garden and made pesto. For this salad, the bread is slathered with pesto and grilled, then broken or cut in bite size pieces and added to the cucumbers and tomatoes. The dressing is simple, olive oil and vinegar. Sometimes I will add some crumbled feta or ricotta salata. The salad is incredibly flavorful, fresh organic produce and bread that is grilled with pesto make an absolutely delicious and satisfying meal.

I will shamefully admit that I have never eaten or cooked with gooseberries or fresh currants, it’s hard to believe that every year I pass them up at the farmers market without so much as a glance back. This year is different, I grabbed 2 lovely punnets of gooseberries green and purple and some red currants. Now that they are in my hot little hands what to do with them? They taste pretty sour, I like sour so find it appealing but I don’t think I could sit there and eat them by the handful. Doing an internet search there is really not very many recipes using gooseberries, there is compote, jam and pie and a few savory recipes as sort of a chutney with meat as well as beverages. I love wikipedia, vital information at the touch of a keypad, according to this online source there are a few varieties of gooseberries and they are quite popular in England. The three varieties noted are the European/North American, Indian and Peruvian Gooseberry. The Indian gooseberry seems to be the most nutritious with the highest vitamin C content. All contain moderate levels of anti oxidents.

This post is too long, because I dislike having too much information in one post, it will be divided into two and the recipes will come later. In closing here are Percy’s thoughts on the summer heat. Wishing everyone a relaxing Sunday!!

I hear ya Percy

Jun 24

86 Comments

Chimichurri Marinated Petit Filet With Roasted Potato And Tomato

Kind of a long recipe title I know and I tried every which way to shorten it but wanted it to describe the dish, hence the way too long title. In the summer when it’s hot the last thing I like to do is stand over a hot stove and my BBQ grill is the answer to that. I normally make this with flank steak but there was a sale on petit filet which I love, they are tender and quite tasty and I thought using the same chimichurri marinade for these little pieces of beef would be delicious. It’s so simple and you can actually prepare the meat the night before, marinating overnight makes the meat even more flavorful. The chimichurri I have posted here before, it’s really good both as a marinade and condiment. The leftover chimichurri went on the micro potatoes which I roasted in the oven along with some baby heirloom tomatoes. A simple and delicious dinner that can be made quickly and easily using the grill, oven or stovetop.

Since it’s grilling season and it’s Friday, Fiesta Friday #125 that is I am bringing all of this with me to the party. Angie and her co hosts Quinn from the blog Dad What’s 4 Dinner and the lovely Elaine from the amazing vegetarian blog Foodbod (Elaine sorry this is a post with meat while you are co hosting).

Petit Filet

chimichurri for marinade

2 petit filet totalling about 1 1/2 lbs

salt and pepper

olive oil

Place the meat and about 2-3 heaping tbs of the chimichurri in a zip lock bag, seal, squish the marinade around so it’s covering the meat and refrigerate at least an hour or better overnight.

Take the meat out of the refrigerator, scrape off excess marinade and let meat sit for about 30 minutes to take the chill off. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

It takes about 8-10 minutes total (for medium rare) approximately 4-5 minutes on each side on a red hot grill. Be sure to cover the meat loosely for about 10-15 minutes before carving.

Tomatoes and Potatoes

Pre heat oven to 375 degree’s.

Using two sheet pans one for tomatoes and one for potatoes, line with parchment. Drizzle olive oil on tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. The micro potatoes can be cut in half or left whole, wash and dry, place in a bowl and add the chimichurri, make sure each potato is covered in the marinade. Place on sheet pan and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until the potatoes are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and the tomatoes are soft and slightly caramelized. In all it took about 25 minutes in my oven.

Percy with his birthday cake couldn’t resist he loved his cake

Jun 16

106 Comments

Happy Birthday To Percy

Percy is turning 11 years young today and to celebrate his first birthday with me I made him a cake and some dog friendly ice cream. Now this cake is not sweet, as a matter of fact it’s a savory cake. Percy’s last visit to the Doctor revealed that he has high triglycerides, I was putting a little olive oil on his food thinking that would be good for him, not the case for Mr. Percy. The Doc said no more olive oil, a little coconut oil is fine and some salmon oil for his heart but his diet should pretty much be fat free. He also needs to lose a little weight so cutting down portion size.

The layer cake is made from ground turkey breast mixed with vegetables and baked in round cake pans. I frosted and filled the cake with mashed potatoes and made some carrot ribbons to decorate. Percy and his friends will love this cake I’m sure. The special treat is ice cream, because it’s hot out this icy concoction should satisfy. I simply lightly sweetened some coconut milk with coconut palm sugar and added some vanilla, chilled and churned in the ice cream maker.

Percy’s Birthday Cake

2 lbs ground turkey, (1 lb ground white meat and 1 lb dark meat)

1 carrot

handfull of kale

orange and yellow bell pepper

handful cherry tomato

handful parsley

1/2 cup oats

2 eggs lightly beaten

Process or chop the vegetables and add to the ground turkey along with the eggs and oats mix to combine and set a side. Grease two 8 inch cake pans with coconut oil and laid a parchment round in each. Preheated oven to 350 degree’s. Distribute the meat in each pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Let cool for 10-15 minutes and then turn out on cooling rack.

Mashed Potato Icing

2 russet

2 yukon gold

1/4-1/2 cup cream cheese

Peel and boil the pototoes, put through a food mill or potato ricer and mix in the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Place in oven set to 170 or 200 degree’s lowest setting to keep warm.

Assembling the cake

Lay one layer on serving platter, spoon some mashed potatoes and smooth, add other layer and repeat. Frost the cake with the remaining potatoes.

Well, he loved the cake, as you can see all thats left is a carrot curl and a couple of crumbs. Later on tonight he will have a little bit of ice cream and we will deliver cake to his friends in the neighborhood.