Fresh and Local: Stryker Farm

For years I've been buying meat, like anyone else, from the supermarket. Always working within a tight budget, cheap cuts of meats were my go-to. And until recently I didn't really care about where it came from, or how it got to the supermarket, or how it was raised. I just didn't have the time to worry about that sort of stuff. Now, "that sort of stuff" is what I'm most interested in. "That sort of stuff" shapes and affects my health and lifestyle. In time, I've graduated from regular supermarket meat to organic meats. It was only last year I discovered I could get delicious, locally raised meat for less than, say, Whole Foods prices and support my local economy at the same time. Affordable and sustainable? Sign me up!

I learned that buying directly from the farm saves your wallet money and puts more directly towards the farmer's. Only one catch; most often you have to buy the whole animal or a large portion of it. Is that a grisly way of putting it? Oh, well. So, last December we bought an eighth of a cow for Verdant Farms and a quarter of a pig from Stryker Farm in Pennsylvania. Everything came portioned, labeled and frozen, how convenient? Our great meat adventure! We acquired a chest freezer and stocked it with a little under 100 pounds of the freshest meat we could get our paws on and we've been savoring every bite since.

Tonight I made beer brats from Stryker Farms in Saylorsburg, PA. As I pulled them out to defrost, I noticed the ingredients, "Pork ,Weyebacher Ale, Sea Salt, Spices, Turbinado Sugar". No nitrates, no fillers, no unrecognizable ingredients. And not only is the pork fresh and local, but the ale flavor is too!

So far, every cut that we've eaten from Stryker farm has been superb. This post singing it's praise is long overdue. The housemade sausages are fabulous. We've had the breakfast sausages (scrumptious), Irish bangers (bangin') and now the brats. I let them simmer in a pot of "quick" sauerkraut.

My Quick Sauerkraut:

• A medium sized head of green cabbage
• 4 strips of thick cut bacon
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of juniper berries (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

1.   Start with a heavy bottomed pan. Cut the bacon up into pieces and fry it up.

2.   Slice the head of cabbage into thin ribbons.

3.   When the bacon is cooked, but not crispy, remove it from the pan... and leave all the fatty goodness in there.

4.   On a medium flame add the cabbage and saute for a minute. Add the butter and apple cider vinegar. Traditional sauerkraut is a fermented food, but the vinegar makes this recipe quick, giving it that sour flavor.

5.  There should be a good amount of liquid at the bottom. Add the juniper berries. Add a sprinke of salt and pepper. Let it simmer for a few minutes uncovered.

6.   Make a hole in the middle for the brats to simmer. Turn the heat way down and let the flavors do their thing for a half hour or so, covered. I don't think you can actually overcook this, but personally, I like when the cabbage still has the slightest crunch left to it.

7.   Add the bacon. Did you forget about that bacon? Oh yeah, it's going back in there. I never said this was low cal.

8.   I try to pick out the juniper berries before serving because they're bastards to chomp down on.

I served this with some roasted carrots and onions and a dry white wine. These brats are flavored so nicely, tender and juicy. I'm sure they'd be great grilled on a toasted bun. With fried onions. And mustard. Mmm.

(As I write this Chris moans that I'm making him hungry again. He's threatening to go eat the leftovers before bed. Not on my watch.)

Our friends Mike and Gayla organized the group of people to share all of these wholesale meats, so they also went to the actual farm to pick up the piggie when it was ready. They had nothing but wonderful things to report about the farm and the owners. You can read more about the farm, here. I'm pretty certain there's no going back to "supermarket meat" for us. When we run out of pork, we'll be headed back to Saylorsburg!

Paleo Cauliflower "Rice"

Since Christmas I've been eating and preparing paleo meals (check out this post to catch up on my paleo adventure). Generally it's not too different from how we already eat, and Chris even confessed he hasn't felt deprived of anything. However, I've had to learn a few paleo hacks, if you will, to make up for some previous staples. RICE. We ate rice all the time! It was our go to grain, cheap and easy. But rice isn't a option anymore. So, now what do we eat with our stir frys and curries?

Cauliflower "rice"!

Paleo Grain-Free Granola

Why would I want to make grain-free granola?

Around Christmas time, way back when in December, I found myself on a paleo food blog. I knew the gist of the paleo "diet", but this blog had me consumed. Look at all of these wonderful things to eat! This doesn't look like a diet at all. And in fact, paleo folks don't call it a diet but rather a lifestyle. And as I read the science behind it, it started making sense. Enough sense that I decided to try it out. So here's the short and fast version...

Your body isn't designed to efficiently use a lot of the food we put in it; grains, sugars, most dairy, legumes, and chemically processed stuff. And evidence of that can be found in obesity, diabetes, peanut allergies, gluten allergies, and lactose intolerance (pretty common stuff, eh?). Instead you should model your diet more like that of our lean and muscular ancestors (cavemen). Eat meat, seafood, lots of vegetables, some fruits, nuts and seeds. Done.

After my varsity athlete days in high school, I learned quickly that my adult body's metabolism wasn't going to keep up with my eating habits. And honestly, since then it's been a bit of a struggle to keep my weight down. I've ate a loose paleo diet from Christmas to January and steadily lost 12 pounds. Even better, I have more energy, and I didn't feel hungry all the time. I felt so good I wanted to give the Whole30 challenge a go, and Emily joined in too! I'm days away from day 30 and I feel, dare I say, awesome.

I'm still no expert on it. But here are some people that are...
Nom Nom Paleo
Eat Drink Paleo
The Healthy Foodie
The Clothes Make The Girl

This fantastic granola came from Irey's kitchen at Eat Drink Paleo.

Homemade Whiskey Beef Jerky

I have a confession. I love jerky. There's something about a dried piece of salty meat that I find so satisfying as a snack. But as much as I love it, I rarely buy it except on the rare festival or camping trip, where it's dried nature actually fulfills it's purpose. I came across this recipe for homemade jerky and I gathered my supplies to make it the same day. Whiskey infused jerky.

Because I also like to eat my alcohol.

Adult Hot Chocolate

Today is the first snow day of 2014! I love snow, but I knew I became a real grown up when I no longer prayed for giant snowstorms to blanket the roads so that school would be closed. Because unfortunately when you're adult and it snows you still have to go to work. You have to dig out your car, or shovel your sidewalk. Or help your neighborhood shovel their sidewalk. And shovel your driveway. Ugh.

So, after an hour of shoveling this morning I made us some hot chocolate as a well-deserved reward. Not Swiss Miss packets with fake marshmallows, no no. Real hot chocolate, with a kick.

Christmas Pizelle

My Italian grandfather always had licorice flavored candies of some description around, and every so often a batch of pretty pizelle cookies from the Italian bakery. Love 'em or hate'em, that's usually the case. And guess what? I love pizelle! Some people are turned off by the traditional anise (licorice) flavor, but I enjoy their light texture and that zingy flavor. Although they are a cookie, they're not terribly sweet, and compliment the Christmas sugar overload nicely. They're delicious with coffee or hot chocolate too!

I was perusing the Crate and Barrel sale section and this CucinaPro pizelle maker jumped out*. I liked the idea of making my own fancy cookies, because I'm historically not great with baking cookies, so this will be foolproof, right?! Reviews told me this model is well-made, and easy to use. Tonight I tried it out with high hopes of becoming a pizelle making machine, maybe it will be a Christmas miracle...

Thanksgivingworthy Apple Pie

Apple pie is a Thanksgiving staple in my book. Although I'm an expert at eating them, I'm not an expert at baking them, yet. Emily was with me on Saturday night and walked me through this recipe because she clearly possesses superior baking skills and she's also admitted to making mini versions of this for herself from time to time, check it out here. Why did we make an apple pie a whole week before Thanksgiving? Because we can, that's why.

Homemade Horseradish Sauce

My aunt gave me a horseradish plant in the spring. Fun, I like horseradish. I planted it in a sunny spot outside of the garden beds because I was warned that it will take up a lot of space. The plant flourished throughout the growing season, producing long large leaves that sprouted into a big dome shape. I never watered it or tended to it, it just grew in the corner of the yard. Yesterday as we prepped the lawn for winter, mowing, raking and mulching, I figured it was time to unearth the horseradish that I had all but forgotten about.

Coconut Curry Acorn Squash: Two Days, Two Ways

It's the season of the squash! One of my favorite, the acorn squash, is a staple in the supermarket and I always tend to throw a few in the cart. Unlike the unyielding butternut, acorn squashes are easily halved and roasted. Wednesday I wanted to make a mild side to go with Rogan Josh spiced chicken and lentils (very similar to the Maharajah Curry). A smooth and coconutty mashed squash would compliment the heat nicely. Since I had two squashes I roasted them both to make enough for two meals.

DAY ONE:

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Happy Halloween! I already posted about all the treats I was making for myself, so today here's a little something festive for all the puppies in our lives. Emily made Dante homemade dog treats last year for Christmas and he went berserk for them, which says a lot because he is extraordinarily picky about his treats. The one store-bought treat he loves is a duck jerky, but unfortunately there's been a lot of warnings going around about harmful chemicals used aging the jerky made in China and making many dogs very ill. Yup, ours is made in China, into the trash it goes!

When I was in the pet store looking for new treats I saw a stack of pumpkin puree for doggies. I read the label and it's meant to be good for their digestion. The ingredients read: organic pumpkin puree. Hmmm, why would I pay extra for this can because there is a cute dog on the front? I went home and baked these with the canned pumpkin I had, for humans. These are easy enough to make for the baking impaired, like myself.

Beet and Spinach Orzo

So I have to admit I haven't been stellar at keeping up with Meatless Mondays, but we do have a lot of meatless other days. I feel like I've significantly reduced our meat consumption, which is the end goal anyway. And now that the chickens are laying we can get a lot of our protein from eggs. I got some tasty beets from the farmer's market and wanted them to be the star of something. I found this recipe on Food52, I know, I'm on there a lot, but I had this recipe saved and decided to make it last night.

Microwaved Eggplant: I'm a Believer

If the title of this didn't scare you away, but rather intrigued you, I promise you won't be disappointed. This was another recipe I found through Food52, one of "genius" proportions that involves microwaving eggplant. It was quite timely because I found this the day after I wrote the post on Baba Ganoush, and the neediness of eggplant, for lack of a better word. Eggplant ripens just at the end of the summer and most times it's still way too hot to be using your oven. Enter, the microwave. Barbara Kafka's Marinated Eggplant Recipe has made a believer out of me; you can microwave eggplant, and it will be glorious.

You'll need:

• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons loosely packed cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 1/2 medium-size cloves garlic
• 3/8 ounces fresh peeled ginger (a 1-by- 1/4-inch piece), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices
• 4 small Chinese eggplants (2 to 3 ounces each)

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients, except eggplants, in a blender. Process until smooth.
2. Prick the eggplants several times with a fork and pull off the leaves. Cut in half lengthwise. On the open side of each half, make three deep diagonal slashes in each direction. Place eggplants skin side down in a 13-by-9-by-2-inch microwave-safe oval dish.
3. Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons of the marinade over each eggplant half. Rub the marinade into the flesh so that it runs into the cuts. Turn eggplants skin side up. Pour remaining marinade into dish. Let stand for 45 minutes.
4. Turn eggplants skin side down. Cover tightly with lid or microwave plastic wrap. Cook at 100 percent power in a high-power oven for 10 minutes. Prick plastic to release steam.
5. Remove from microwave and uncover. Serve warm or at room temperature.

So you'll notice this requires the use of microwaving plastic wrap. My first thought was, "that's not safe, right?" The one unused roll of SARAN wrap I had in my drawer actually says, "microwave safe" on the box. I did a quick search, and it seems as though these plastics have tiny perforations to let out steam. Okay. I'll go along with it. 

In my excitement to try this out, I failed to notice the "marinate for 45 minutes". At the time, I was really impatient, but I think it's a crucial part.

After the eggplant is microwaved, it comes out looking like it's been roasted for a long time. They're not spongy, they're smooth and completely infused with the marinade. Wow. I decided to make some soba noodles and extra cilantroed shrimp with this. Shrimp wouldn't be my first choice, but it was all I had, and it tasted mighty fine. In the future, I might include some marinated, pan-fried tofu. OR just eat the eggplant on it's own because it was DE-lish.

Now I know we're at the end of September, and you can probably use your ovens without sweating all over the kitchen, but this dish will still be awesome. Quick, go out and get some eggplant before you start spending all your days making roasts and stews! 

End of Summer Apple and Fennel Soup

I recently purchased some fennel from the farmers market with the intent on grilling them, but I came across this soup on Food52. A tart apple and fennel soup sounded perfect for a Meatless Monday meal. This soup was so light and sweet. With apple season at our door, I'll certainly be making this again!

I used:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large shallot, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 large bulb fennel, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 large Granny Smith, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 stalks celery, sliced in 1/2-inch pieces, leaves and all
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup watercress
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fennel fronds
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I didn't have any heavy cream as suggested, but I thought this was an acceptable lighter option)

As it says in the title, this soup really did only take 20 minutes. Saute the minced shallot, garlic and butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. After a minute or two, add the cubed fennel, apple, celery, chicken stock, honey, lemon. Simmer for 10 -15 minutes so that everything gets soft. Add the herbs and puree. The recipe says to strain the puree, but I prefer a little texture. Stir in the yogurt last, and garnish with more herbs. In the future I might swap butter for reserved bacon fat. I think a lil' hint 'o bacon will give it extra oompf. But for Meatless Monday it was perfection!

Grapefruit Gin & Tonic

I've been enjoying G & T's recently during (hopefully) our last muggy weeks of the season. When I ran out of limes, I used lemons, and when I ran out of lemons, I bought a grapefruit. Probably one of the lesser favorites of the citrus family, I really enjoy it's flavor and tartness. As I mixed this, I recalled a lovely cocktail served to me before the ceremony of an outdoor summer wedding. It definitely was grapefruit based, maybe with champagne? But what stuck me was the sprig of lavender that stuck out. It was so delicately fragrant as you sipped the drink, and went so well with the grapefruit. I had just clipped out bunch of lavender to dry, so I popped one in the glass for a little fanciness.

To make you own incredibly refreshing cocktail you'll need...

• A glass half full of ice
• About a shot of gin
• A shot or two of freshly squeezed grapefruit 
• Top off the glass with tonic
• A sprig of lavender for fragrance

Best enjoyed outside with a good book!

Eggplants at Their Best: Baba Ganoush

I haven't ever gotten too excited over eggplant. Done right, they are heavenly, but there are so many ways to do them wrong. Under-cooked, they're weirdly spongy, and a bit bland. To me, they seem to require a little more finesse than other veggies, so admittedly I don't cook with them often. My eggplant love affair began after eating baba ganoush at an Israeli restaurant. I think, up until then, I imagined it was just a different type of hummus, au contraire! Baba ganoush is like hummus in that it also uses a tahini base, but instead of chick peas, the superstar is roasted eggplant. After reading the gist of the recipe, I thought, "that seems too easy"... To the kitchen!

I got this recipe from David Lebovitz, go ahead and read the entire post because he muses on dining in France, where baba ganoush is called caviar d’aubergines. Fancy.

Ready? You'll need:

3 medium-sized eggplants (perfect timing because eggplants are in season)
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1/8 teaspoon chile powder (I also added a pinch of Hungarian paprika for more smokiness)

1 tablespoon olive oil
a half bunch picked flat-leaf parsley or cilantro leaves

Pre-heat the oven to 375°. After you've picked out your prize winning eggplants, poke them a few times with a fork. If you have a gas stove top, turn your burner on, and put those eggplants right on the burner, one a piece. If you don't have a gas burner, that's okay. Just pierce them and move on to the next step.

Rotate them to evenly char the skin for 5-10 minutes, based on how smokey you'd like them. Before making this I've never put any vegetables directly on my stove top, but it's a really helpful technique! Apparently you can skin red peppers easily this way too. Watch them, otherwise they could set off the smoke detector. The skin gets charred and papery. I used tongs to transfer them to a baking sheet.

Bake them for 20 - 30 minutes. A knife should easily slide in without resistance. I put the timer on for 20 and test them. 

Let them cool before halving them and scooping out the roasted goodness. The skin should peel right off, if not, they could probably use some more oven time.

Blend the innards with the rest of the ingredients. *Be careful when scooping out the tahini. The oil naturally separates and sits on the top, so it's best to try to mix it up a bit. Easy as baba ganoush! 

Serve with fresh pita, toasted bread, or if you're like me, and have giant bags of Stacy's pita chips hanging around, use them. David remarks on how this would actually be a little more flavorful if you made it a day or two in advance, making it excellent for entertaining. For that extra presentation panache, when you're ready to serve, put the spread in a bowl and using a spoon swirl a spiral in the top. Drizzle some olive oil over and let it nestle in the indentations. Top with finely chopped parsley.

*Kitchen casualty! While mixing the tahini a big glob of oil sloshed out. I didn't realize it also got to the floor... Later I noticed a big oil slick on Dante's head; looks like he was helping himself to it!

Orange Ginger Banana Bread

I've said a few times already, I'm not a great baker. My cookies are passable and cakes are questionable, so I was hesitant to try turning my spotty bananas into anything but future smoothies. Whatever it was that insisted I try my hand at banana bread, probably my stomach, I'm so glad I did. I finally baked something sweet and delicious! I started out with a simple recipe from the Food Network and added a few things.

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar (or 2/3 agave nectar*)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs (or 3 Monica sized eggs)
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ground ginger 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange extract
1/2 cup of crushed pecans

*All About Agave has a helpful agave substitute guide here.

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Mix the butter and sugar in a mixer until it's fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.

In another bowl, mash up the bananas, add the milk, and spices. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.

Add the banana mixture slowly to the mixing bowl, stirring slowly. Add the dry ingredients and mix until the flour disappears. Fold in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the greased pan, and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Flip it out of the pan, and allow it to cool before you slice it up.

This turned out oh so chewy and moist. It's best fresh out of the oven with some melty butter. In the future, I think I'd splurge on some orange zest and freshly grated ginger. It would also be good with some ice cream on top, vanilla bean or dulce de leche... That reminds me, I should get some ice cream.

Scandalous Puttanesca Sauce

I say scandalous because Spaghetti alla Puttanesca in Italian translates to "whore's spaghetti". I have some ideas why it got it's name, but I'll save my speculations for later. In short, this sauce is spicy, salty and savory; not for the faint of heart, or palette!

For my version of this saucey sauce you'll need (serves 4-6):

• Half an onion, diced
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• A tin of boneless, skinless sardines in olive oil
• About 6 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 whole roasted red pepper, thinly slivered
• About 2 tablespoons of capers
• A can of black pitted olives, roughly chopped
• A healthy dose of crushed red pepper flakes
• A couple sloshes of red table wine
• 3 heaping spoonfuls of tomato paste
• A can of drained diced tomatoes

There's a lot of stuff in there, right? Like I said, this is my version, and you can tailor it to your liking, add or omit what you please. This is probably one of the few times I won't add salt to something. Trust me, it doesn't need it. Start boiling your salted pasta water. In a medium sized sauce pan start browning the onions and garlic in, wait for it, the olive oil from the tinned sardines.

(Okay, backtracking; I decided to make this because I just bought a great many tins of sardines from Costco. Why? Impulse buy, maybe? They're really good for you, right? Yeah, they are, look at all those omega 3's.) 

Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes as well for the spicy component. Then get all the goodies prepped, the sun-dried tomatoes, roasted reds, olives, capers* and sardines. All of which would make for a kick ass antipasto on a later date.

*Helpful Hint: I learned that capers really can't go bad refrigerated. The brine that they soak in is so acidic that they're perfectly preserved for the most part. So, that jar that you bought two years ago in the back of your fridge is fair game!

Add everything to the browned onions and garlic. Give a stir or two, and add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Let it cook down while the water boils. The final product should be thick and textured.

Add some of that red wine you're drinking. Let the sauce simmer until the spaghetti is ready. Top it all off with big ole' hunks of pecorino romano. Enjoy it with the rest of that wine you didn't put in the sauce.

So why's it called "whore's spaghetti"?

1. Because you can put anything in it.
2. It looks awful, but tastes amazing.

Ba-dum pssh. I'm done.

Pizza Night

I don't remember exactly when my mom started making pizza, but when she started, she didn't look back. Friday nights became pizza night, followed by some quality family television on TGIF on ABC. Remember Boy Meets World? Classic! I've mentioned before that I never took interest in learning to cook as a young'un, and I never thought to learn to make pizza. I just enjoyed being served the cheesy goodness on a weekly basis. Finally, I tried it out for myself, with some direction from my ma.

This dough recipe is quick and easy for relatively instant pizza gratification.

I use:

2 1/2 cups of bread flour
1 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 packet of "Pizza Crust Yeast"
A pizza stone

Preheat the oven to 450ºF right away. In a bowl, empty the yeast packet, and add the sugar and warm water. Wait about 10 minutes and give it swirl in the bowl. It will get creamy looking.

Add the flour, salt and oil. Mix it right in the bowl with a wooden spoon. Add some more warm water if it looks too dry. When everything is mixed, take out the dough and knead it a few minutes on a lightly floured surface. Put it back in the bowl and let it rest for another 10 minutes. This is great time to prepare your toppings! For this pizza, I used some homemade marinara from our very own San Marzanos. I'll have to share that recipe shortly...

Using the heel of your palms, work the dough out from the center. Stretch and tug 'til you have about a 24" diameter. Sprinkle a light coating of cornmeal on the pizza stone, and transfer the dough carefully to the stone. Add toppings of your choice, get fancy or go simple. A general rule of thumb is no more than three toppings to balance flavor. A classic Margherita has tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. Use the back of a large spoon to evenly distribute the sauce, I get about a half inch away from the crust. Slice the about a quarter inch thick for perfect cheese melting dispersal.

Put the pizza in the middle rack for 15 - 20 minutes. I put the timer on for 15, check on it and gauge from there. The crust should be golden brown, and the cheese should be bubbling. Remove it and let it cool a minute or two before you slice it up.

The Soup of the Summer: Gazpacho

So. Many. Tomatoes. Chris's mom tipped me off to growing San Marzano's, a type of plum tomato originally grown in the volcanic ashy soil around Mount Vesuvius. They are celebrated for their meaty quality, which makes for heavenly marinara. And I've made my fair share of marinara with these, but a hot bowl of pasta doesn't do it for me in these last days of July. Gazpacho. Now, that's the ticket.

Gazpacho turns a few people off from the words, "chilled soup". I feel like labeling it "soup" is just silly. Sure you can serve it in a bowl, and eat it with a spoon, but you can also just guzzle it straight out of the blender like Pepa, in that Pedro Almodovar film. It also makes for classy appetizer in tasting spoons or other small bowls. Gazpacho has origins all over Europe, but the most common is that it was a peasant dish from Spain. Making up fresh Gazpacho in the fields with a wooden dornillo would be a way to cool down, hydrate and energize. And it's fantastically delicious too.

I adapted my version from this recipe from a Slate article, You're doing it Wrong: Gazpacho. They'll also tell you all the wrong ways to do Gazpacho. But the most important ingredient should, and always will be, fresh ripe plum tomatoes.

You'll need:

2 pounds tomatoes, roughly chopped (about 10ish plum tomatoes)
1 medium red bell pepper, roughly chopped
½ medium cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped (always an English cucumber)
½ red onion, roughly chopped
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
⅓ cup almonds
One ½-inch slice white bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 medium fresh jalapeño, seeded and roughly chopped (Or any pepper with some heat)
2 garlic cloves
Salt and black pepper
1 avocado, thinly sliced (for presentation)

Start with the tomatoes. You'll halve them and scoop out the gooey seed center. Plum tomatoes shine in this role, because they have much less seediness about them.

Many people will add water to thin out the final Gazpacho product, but why use water when you can use the fresh tomato juice? Set up a bowl and a strainer over top. As you scoop out the seeds put them into the strainer. When you've got all the tomato guts, use a spoon to smoosh the juice through the strainer. It won't add up to too much, but it will be enough to add to the final product for a thinner quality. That's the most laborious part.

 Add the tomatoes, olive oil, and vinegar into the blender. Give it a pulse or two to puree. Then add all the chopped and seeded veggies. Blend again, then add the almonds and the bread, which gives it it's thickness and texture.

Blend everything until it's nice and smooth. Garnish with some sliced avocado. Easy, so you don't need to slave away in the fields of Spain to enjoy it. Mmm.

Whole Foods Cajun Pickle

I've been pulling carrots here and there all season. But didn't realize they should be harvested sooner than later before they start to get squishy. So out they went. And then we had a lot of carrots to eat. The overabundance of a particular food is the plight of many a gardener. And in a time like this I like to pickle things!

I tried out this Whole Foods recipe for a veggie pickle last year and it turned out wonderfully. The perfect balance of spicy, garlicky goodness.

Pickled Cajun Green Beans and Carrots: by Whole Foods

These amounts will make about 2 pint jars or one large jar, so plan accordingly for the quantity of veggies you have

Salt
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
1/2 pound carrots, trimmed and cut into ½-inch wide sticks
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 whole black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or a small whole cayenne pepper)
1 dried bay leaf
1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar

Start a large pot of salted boiling water to blanch the veggies. Put the cut and washed veggies into the boiling water and let them cook for 2-3 minutes, just until tender. Have a large bowl filled with ice ready. Strain the veggies and immediately put them over the ice, then fill the rest of the bowl with water. This will stop them from cooking any longer.

Slice up the onions super thin, I use a mandolin. And peel and crush the garlic cloves. Put all of the spices in your jar(s). 

Combine the vinegar and sugar in a pan and cook on low heat 'til the sugar dissolves. While you let the vinegar cool, strain the veggies and with clean hands or tongs pack the veg in the jar(s). When the vinegar solution has cooled you can add it to the jar leaving a quarter inch of room on top. Let them cool a bit more, lid them, give them a good shake, and refrigerate them. Don't crack into them for at least 24 hours.

These were a hit last year. They're great to bring with you to barbecues as a little gift (tie the lid with some raffia, so cute!) or just to snack on at home. Because they're not actually canned they won't last forever. But left unopened in the fridge I say they could keep for a few months. Use your best judgement, no fingers in the jar! And if you see signs of haziness then best to toss them. But we never got to that point because they went so fast!

Next post will be about too many tomatoes... (No such thing!)