Heat wave, nice save.

As I sit here writing it is 102°F outside, and probably somewhere in the 80's inside. Even the computer can't stand it - it keeps shutting itself off. A quick glance at the weather forecast shows that temperatures will remain stupidly high for at least the next ten days, although they may at least dip below the 90's. We are trying to keep ourselves and our kiddo cool as best we can. Frequent trips to air conditioned stores, running through sprinklers, lots of ice packs and ice cream.

But you can't just eat ice cream. The grown-ups in this house have been eating lots of cold, refreshing veggies to stay happy. Shaved cucumbers in soy sauce with a little chili oil and furikake, frozen peas, and yummy salads. I stopped by Trader Joe's and stocked up on snacks that say summer to me, and pretty much threw them all in a bowl for dinner. With a few trimmings from the garden, this is the yummiest meal I have had in a little while, and it doesn't require a stove or oven which might just push us over the brink when it comes to heat.



This doesn't really call for a recipe, since it's more of a throw together whatever you have kind of thing, but I will give you a list of what I tossed in there.

The base:

Lettuce from the garden, soaked in water for 1/2 hour for maximum crunchiness
Mâche
Trader Joe's gourmet microgreens

The good stuff:

Rainbow cherry tomatoes
Steamed and peeled baby beets, chopped
Trader Joe's Abondance cheese

Top it off:

Coriander blossoms from the garden
Chives from the garden, chopped
Salted pepitas

The dressing:

Juice of one lemon
1 small spoonful whole grain mustard
generous pour of extra virgin olive oil
What seems like too much pepper, but isn't

This salad was quickly snarfed down, and served with a fried egg topped with green tomato salsa. I feel better now. ^_^

xoxo

me

Blechy belly, not ready to detox

This week has been tasty, but has set me back on my diet, and though I'm not paying for it on my waistline I am paying with an overall blechy feeling and probably a few points on my cholesterol score. My junk food laundry list has included "beef" and "chicken" style (aka vegetarian) taquitos smothered in pepper jack and sri racha, plenty of soft tacos filled with chili, vegetable potstickers fried to a crisp and doused with soy sauce and ginger, frequent noshings on chocolate leftover from several holidays, daily trips to Starbucks for mochas and vanilla scones, "family meal" nachos at work, and several paninis fat with mozzarella dipped in oily french onion soup. There have been few veggies and absolutely no salads. It has been delicious and disgusting and I'm not sure if I'm over my junk food binge yet, but I feel like I should be.

You'll know when I am because I will give you a recipe for some decent food.

xoxo

me

Sunny day, sunny food

Yesterday was another CSA delivery day for me, and it was definitely my favorite one I have gotten so far. Blueberries, raspberries, apricots, kale, lettuce, sage, shelling peas, carrots, rainier cherries, and french breakfast radishes. I'm practically rolling in summer right now.

The shelling peas went first. I think the last time I had homegrown shelling peas was when I was about 5 years old. I remember standing on a chair at the kitchen sink, helping my mother wash them and pop them out of their pods. Eating them out of the colander I thought they were the best things I had ever tasted. Unless you have access to a nearby farm or have a friend who grows them, peas like that are hard to come across. Savoring every bite, I ate half of them as I shelled them, and the rest I steamed lightly and tossed with butter, sage, and reduced cream. The apricots were used up in an easy clafoutis after dinner.

Now, for the carrots. I had two bunches in my fridge already, along with some dill, so I made a light soup of of them, being careful to hold onto that bright sunny, summer flavor. The citrus-y flavors of the orange juice and coriander are not overwhelmed by the strong aroma of dill, but the carrots are so fresh and bright that they are the real star. The soup turned out to be so good that I had to eat my whole bowl before I was able to snap a picture, so this is all you get:



Carrot-Dill Soup

Oil
1/2 medium onion, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped small
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp freshly ground coriander seed
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups vegetable stock
3 bunches fresh, crisp carrots
1 small bunch dill, finely chopped
1/2-3/4 cup fresh orange juice

Heat oil on medium heat in a large saucepot or dutch oven. Add onion and garlic and cook until softened and lightly browned. Add cumin, coriander, pepper and carrots and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add vegetable stock, bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or so until the carrots are tender and easy to mash, but not mushy. Stir in dill and remove from heat.

At this point, if you have an immersion blender blend the soup in the pot until you reach the consistency you desire. I prefer mine to be a mix of smooth and chunky so that it has some texture, but you can blend until completely smooth if you wish. Then add the orange juice, tasting it to make sure it's not too strongly orange-y before adding the full amount.

If you don't have an immersion blender add the smaller amount of orange juice, puree in batches in your food processor, and if it doesn't taste orange-y enough for you put the pureed soup back into one container and add the rest of the juice.

xoxo

me

Cherry pie, a little late

I worked all night this 4th of July, so I didn't get to get into the whole celebration thing, but if I had gotten to go to a summer BBQ I would have brought these turnovers with me. Faced with an excess of cherries from our fantastic cherry season I have been putting them in everything in ridiculous amounts. These little pastries used up the last of my cherry stock, but I'll be getting more in my CSA box tomorrow.



Cherry Turnovers*

1 1/2 cups cherries, pitted (or however many cherries you have left)
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 package puff pastry
1 egg
1 tbsp water
sanding sugar for dusting

Puff pastry needs to thaw for at least 30 minutes on the counter (I usually thaw it in the fridge overnight so I don't have to worry about it being frozen in the middle still when it's time for me to work with it). When ready to go pit and halve the cherries (or halve and pit the cherries, like I do), then add the cornstarch, sugar and lemon juice and stir. Let sit and macerate for a few minutes.

The puff pastry I buy comes in 3 sheets of 3 strips. Tear the strips apart and roll them out slightly. Put about 1/4 cup of cherries in middle of the upper half of one strip and fold the other half over it. Then fold up the edges all around and press the tines of a fork around the edges to crimp it shut. The turnover should be stuffed full, but not leaking out the edges. Repeat for all strips (it only took me 2 sheets to finish off the cherries. The extra pastry dough can be re-frozen).

Whisk together egg and water and brush the entire top of each pastry; dust each one with sanding sugar.

Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. If not toasty and brown enough you can pop them under the broiler for 2 minutes or so, but be careful! Mine obviously were broiling for too long.

*This recipe came from Artichokes and Garlic. She also provided an icing recipe, but I didn't have the ingredients. Her recipe doesn't call for lemon juice either, but I thought these turnovers would be too sweet for me without it.

xoxo

me

Bringing them to the table

I have spent quite a bit of time lately thinking about what the important things in life are to me. How can I simplify? What will make me, and my family the happiest? The answer to that question in particular is different for all three of us, I think, but I believe that one force can bring us closer together time after time - the home-cooked meal. It is no secret to anyone interested in food that a simple meal can change the dynamic between people, dramatically. Food can unite people within a culture, or bring multiple cultures together to revel in their differences. Sitting down to a holiday dinner can turn even the most quarrelsome of dysfunctional families into contended, thoughtful companions, if only until the food leaves the table. I dream of casual yet elegant dinners with friends and family, taken outside at a table crowded with dishes brought potluck style from each guest; we would linger at the table for hours, chatting and sipping wine, picking at the last bites in each bowl until twilight makes it too dark to see. While occurrences such as that may be regular for some, I have to face the fact that I don't have those sorts of family or friends.

Realistically I will settle for bringing my husband and daughter together just long enough for him to lick his plate clean (an average of 2 1/2 minutes), and for her to get bored of being confined to the highchair and scream relentlessly to get down (only double the time it takes hubby to finish his meal). A notoriously slow eater to anyone who knows me, I will often sit for half an hour after the two of them leave the table, chewing thoughtfully and fending off tugs at my leg from the bunbun. Not my ideal scenario, but at least I can control part of our meals - the part that is on our plates.

I also have it set in my mind that my daughter will be an adventurous eater who will try anything once and who has no fears of bitter aftertastes or strange textures. Thus far... well, I have a lot of work to do. What can I say, I have a toddler. So I am constantly searching for recipes that will appeal to both our adult tastes (and love of all things spicy) and her persnickety palate. A recent addition to my mommy repertoire are these simple sweet potato- black bean cakes. I use mild chiles in the patties, but add spicy salsa on top for me and the hubs. They have their place on our plates next to rice and steamed veggies, with tortilla chips and spicy soup, or sandwiched in a bun with lettuce, tomato and onion. Regardless of their accompaniments they are a favorite with all three of us, and are a way to get us all to the table, if only for the time it takes to devour them.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Patties*

Oil
2 small sweet potatoes or yams
1 4.5 oz can diced mild green chiles
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 egg
salt and pepper
pinch of smoked paprika
breadcrumbs, at least 1 cup (amount depends on how wet the mixture is)

Peel and dice the sweet potatoes, then boil them until soft (15-20 minutes). Drain, mash, and cool until they won't burn you. In a small skillet heat a teaspoon of oil over medium heat and add the garlic and the chiles, stirring until garlic is tender but not browned (2-3 minutes). Add chile mixture to sweet potatoes, along with black beans, egg, salt and pepper to taste and paprika. Mash the mixture with a fork to crush a few of the black beans (should still be very chunky). Then add breadcrumbs, a bit at a time, until mixture holds together well, but is still moist. Shape into patties and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place under the broiler for about 5 minutes on each side, being careful not to let them burn. Serve however you like. They go great with a spicy, chunky salsa.

*This recipe was inspired by Cooking Books, which was in turn inspired by a few other people, but our internet was not working when I made these the first time, so I improvised on the ingredients and technique.

I found that adding the egg and more breadcrumbs makes them drier after they cook than you will expect, but they stay together nicely on a bun. Leaving the egg out and just putting in enough breadcrumbs to shape them into patties will give you crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside balls that are best eaten with a fork.

I forgot to take a picture when I made them, so instead I'll leave you with this image of bunbun at the beach this weekend. A bun-bum if you will.



xoxo

me

Another little push for eating organic

I was happy to see Nicholas Kristof's appearance on the Colbert Report last night and the interest in his cause that it hopefully will generate. He was discussing endocrine disruptors - the estrogens that we are exposed to constantly from things like pesticides, plastic softening chemicals, and even residual hormones from medications and birth control pills that are flushed out of our bodies with our urine and then end up in our drinking water again after it is treated. Basically these estrogens are having a very negative effect on our bodies, the most concerning of which involves genital deformation that can make men sterile and is becoming increasingly and worryingly common. You can read more here and here if you're super interested.

In 2002 I watched a video about this in my environmental science class. We were discussing all of the stuff that is just making national news now - how the bulk of the amphibian population in the U.S. is affected - many frogs and other animals like alligators have severe genital deformations from the amount of pesticides and chemical waste in the swamps they live in. We discussed how this was directly related to the rising number of transgendered and sterile humans. This has been discussed seriously in the scientific community since at least 1996, but we still have absolutely no regulations from the EPA on any single one of the chemicals that are causing these problems. The EPA is trying to study and regulate these chemicals, but they have little support right now. I don't understand why people don't listen to or care about this kind of thing, but if you can't get into the bigger picture, at least do what you can to take care of yourself - every little bit counts.

Buy organic products whenever you can. Whenever you can afford to try to switch over the plastic food containers you have to stainless, glass, or at least phtalate free plastic. Don't take medications that you don't actually need - ask your doctor about how necessary certain prescriptions really are, doctors work with the pharmaceutical companies to sell more drugs, and they contribute many more problems than just disrupting your endocrine system when they show up again in your drinking water. Don't use pesticides in your yard - there are plenty of organic ways to garden and care for your lawn that are often better than the non-organic ones. And most importantly - learn about and understand what you are buying, whether you are eating it, sleeping on it, wearing it or whatever. Ignorance is not bliss.

xoxo

me