My single cherry tomato plant is just starting to offer up ripe fruit, so we've only had a batch or two of fresh pico de gallo so far this summer,…
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Recipes
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Today's post comes courtesy of my handy recipe binder. I've been clipping and keeping recipes for 10+ years, and sure, it'd be easier to just bookmark them and go back to them online when I need them. But there's something reassuring about just going to binder and knowing they'll be there. I mean, what if you bookmarked some recipe that was on someone's Angelfire Web site in 1997? It's probably toast, long ago abandoned by someone who probably moved on to Blogger or hosting their own site. (Holy cow, I just googled it, Angelfire still exists and is part of Lycos. Lycos still exists? Really?)
Anyway, I clipped the recipes for the balsamic BBQ sauce and the chopped vegetable salad. They're great for summer grilling, but luckily both are still available online.28
I had some big ol' collards in my CSA box this last week. They were as big as throw pillows, I kid you not. So big that they didn't fit in the crisper drawer, which quickly put them on the way to wilted...and made them perfect for stuffed collard rolls.
Collards are usually long cooked with a ham hock or andouille sausage, so I went for a filling somewhere in the middle, with ground pork, bacon and Cajun spices. While cabbage rolls often start with an uncooked filling that braises in the pot, I opted to cook it first since I was only going to throw these in the oven for 30 minutes.26
I must have looked for David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop for almost 6 months at my fave used bookstore, thinking a copy would turn up eventually. It never did. And now I know why! You'd be crazy to give up this book! Covering ice cream, gelati, sorbetti, granitas and a full spectrum of accompanying sauces, The Perfect Scoop offers a mix of more traditional (chocolate & peanut butter, rum raisin, chocolate sorbet) and not-so-traditional flavors (orange-Szechuan peppercorn, pear-pecorino, roquefort-honey). If it tastes great on its own, why not in ice cream? The book is a must for anyone who likes frozen treats, dairy or non-.
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Leave it to Jeremy Fox, who did amazing things with vegetarian cuisine at Ubuntu in Napa (and maybe soon at a joint called Smith?), to come up with a different, maybe better, spin on panzanella. I've had the recipe for this peach panzanella tucked away for safe keeping (since 2007!), until some hot weather and good peaches came my way. That was this weekend...it's been a scorcher everywhere. Here in the PNW, we're thanking the weather gods. Across the rest of the country, everyone else is wondering, when will it ever end?!
I think I first had a traditional tomato panzanella at Caffe Centro in San Francisco, just across the street from where I worked. Their version had diced tomato, cucumber and corn with a balsamic dressing. A great summer salad. If the name is anything to go by, it's the stale bread that makes a panzanella. But after having this version, I'd say it's the peaches.21
In college, chicken stir fry was a mainstay for me and my roommates. It was something you could make a lot of, relatively cheaply, when we had friends over for Must See TV on Thursday nights. Friends, The Single Guy, Seinfeld, Caroline in the City and ER. I liked Jonathan Silverman in the Single Guy, but that 8:30 pm slot was always no man's land despite being bookended by Friends and Seinfeld.
Anyway, the stir fry. Back then, we used San-J Szechuan sauce, a Sun Bird packet for seasoning and a big bag of frozen stir fry vegetables.
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Aside from the sunshine, doing nothing and umbrella drinks, eating local is one of the best things about vacation. I love those trips where the biggest decision I'll have to make on any given day is what to eat next.
On our recent trip to Tofino, BC, many of the restaurants in town featured greens from Nanoose Edibles Farm in Nanoose Bay, BC. One of the best was this salad at the Long Beach Lodge Resort with Nanoose Edibles greens, Okanagan Happy Days goat cheese, toasted hazelnuts and strawberries with a citrus and vanilla vinaigrette.
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Escarole is one of those greens you don't give much thought to until it turns up at the farmers market or in your CSA box. We're so used to the dark leafy greens -- kale, chard, collards, mustard greens -- I couldn't tell you when I last had escarole. And then it showed up in our CSA box last week -- in June! Related to endive, the season usually runs December through April-ish, and with its broader leafy leaves and just a hint of bitterness, it's perfect for a simple salad with red wine vinaigrette.