In the Press and On the Hunt

Oh golly.  How am I ever going to convey all the exciting food adventures I've had in one digestible morsel?  Well I'll just dive in...

Heaven, I'm in heaven.  My dad used to sing that song to me when I was little.  I'm in food heaven right now.  I was so certain that the summer would be the best time, food-wise, but this transitional time into fall is really incredible.  I've been playing so much!  A brown butter hazelnut cake with caramelized pears, coffee ice cream, delicata bread, shortbread cookies, eggplant cakes with sauteed tomatoes and peppers.  Plus, I went to a cider pressing event that gave me way more joy than one could anticipate, the kind that makes your face hurt from smiling, and fills your dreams with cider.  And I had gifts showered upon me from a friend with a garden:  fresh, pulpy grape juice (this ain't no welches!), peppery arugula, beautiful oregano, dill, parsley and fennel fronds, tomatoes, and the cutest little peppers you ever did see!  Every day is a feast!  My fridge overfloweth!  And my freezer too!

Sometimes, often when you least expect it, you cook up something so good you want to cry and jump and scream and share and eat more and more!  A conversation with my mom about eggplant frittata gave me the inspiration for the eggplant cakes pictured above.  Occasionally the ingredients in your kitchen conspire to join forces in a way you could never have planned.  These savory  cakes turned out so moist, so delicate, so delectable, I could hardly believe it.  Am I exaggerating?  Try them out and see what you think:  Slice and roast an eggplant, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, at 450 degrees until evenly brown.  Then mash it up with a fork (remove skins according to your desire- I did, but if you pulsed it in a food processor, you could leave them in) and add a couple of tablespoons of flour, 2 eggs, a couple of tablespoons of sauteed onion, goat cheese, salt and pepper, and enough buttermilk to bring it to batter consistency.  While the eggplant is roasting, saute up one medium chopped onion (reserve some for the batter), a minced garlic clove, half a green bell pepper, two small chiles, one chopped tomato, and about a half tablespoon of chopped oregano.  Let this simmer to meld the flavors while you fry up the cakes.  I recommend using lard (bacon drippings work great, but you can use butter if you want to be vegetarian about it).    Then plate it up with a dollop of plain yogurt, which ties the dish together beautifully.  You won't believe your taste buds.  Please, try this and let me know if it's as good as I remember it.

Another happy experiment came of using delicata squash in bread.  Earlier this summer I had some delicious squash bread, and I duplicated it using an incredible sibley squash that had such an intensely colored flesh.  I was longing for this yummy breakfast bread, and opted to try it with delicata, since that's what I had on hand.  Delicata has this sweet, vegetal taste that gave the bread an addictive quality.  I sliced the squash into 3/4 inch rounds to speed the cooking (after removing the seeds) and put it into a pyrex dish with about a tablespoon of butter bits, a few pieces of star anise, two cardamom pods, four cloves, and enough hot water to cover the bottom of the dish.  Then I covered it with foil and baked it at 450 degrees until it was very soft, about 25 minutes.  Once it had cooled a bit, I passed it through a food mill.  The result was a lovely yellow mound of squash with enticing green bits from the edible skin.  This gave me just the right amount for the bread.  Use it in any squash bread recipe, or follow this recipe from an older edition of Joy of Cooking:  Sift together 3 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 t baking powder, 2 t baking soda, 2 t salt, 1 t cinnamon, and 1 t clove.  In a large bowl, beat until fluffy:  2 2/3 c sugar, 2/3 c lard, 4 eggs.  Beat in 2 cups squash.  Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternately with 2/3 c milk and 1 t vanilla (don't overbeat).  Fold in 1 c nuts.  I didn't use nuts, and I missed them.  Use nuts.  Grease a 9x5 pan, pour in batter and bake at 350 degrees for an hour.  This bread freezes well, or makes for happy neighbors if you're feeling generous.

One last exciting tale before I go.  I finally went on a mushroom hunt.  Any of you in the know are swooning at that admission.  Mushroom hunting is a funny thing, shrouded in mystery and diversion.  Mushrooms are treasures, gifts of the earth, and no mushroom hunter is eager to divulge secrets, lest his booty be taken from him.  I don't know how I got so lucky, but I managed to find that rare thing, a mushroom hunter willing to take along some novices.  A gaggle of us headed into the mountains on a beautiful fall weekend and were rewarded for our efforts with pounds and pounds of chanterelles, matsutakes, shrimps, honey mushrooms, rusullas, cottonwood tricholomas, hawk's wings, and a bear's head (a mushroom, not an actual bear's head).  Unbelievable.  I'm probably still forgetting some.  Too tired to clean or cook that evening, we planned a mushroom extravaganza for the following night, and treated ourselves to creamy mushroom filled phyllo triangles, crostini topped with smoked salmon spread, roasted shrimp mushrooms and balsamic seared cherry tomatoes, potato, leek and matsutake soup with chanterelles and sage, fresh pumpkin gnocchi with sage mushroom cream sauce, and heirloom apple crisp.  And lots of wine.  It was one of those ideal dinners where a group of friends converge in a kitchen, chatting, eating, drinking, and generally making the world a better place.  It was divine.  Would that every night could be so good.

By the way, I would never advise mushroom hunting without the coveted aid of a benevolent, seasoned guide.  I would recommend mine, but I'm sworn to secrecy.

OK, since I said that was the last tale, next time I'll have to tell you about the cheese class I held-  another night of food, wine, friends and fun.  I am truly blessed!  

Autumn Upon Us

Is anybody else sad to see the summer go?  Usually I am so ready for the change of seasons, but not this time.  I still want sunshine!!  Plus, I'm unprepared for cold weather.  I am without a fireplace.  I cannot express how sad this makes me.  I ache for the smell of a fire in fall.

But alas, what have I been cooking these past weeks?  Well, I already delved into my frozen peach supply to experiment with peach bread/muffins.  In so doing, I discovered that the skins slip off previously frozen peaches like a dream.  Bonus!  I took pieces from several different recipes to come up with this very moist recipe.  Adjust the liquid depending on how juicy your peaches are:   Cream 1 1/2 cups butter with 1 cup sugar for 3 minutes.  Add 2 large eggs, one at a time, then add 1 1/2 t vanilla.  In another bowl, sift together 2 c flour, 1 t baking soda, 1 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/2 t nutmeg.  Add in thirds to butter mixture, alternating with 1 c  milk (so add 1/2 cup milk, twice.)  Then fold in peaches.  I had about 2 cups chopped.  I divided this among muffin cups and a shallow cake pan.  Then I topped it with streusel (1 c flour, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/4 t allspice, 1/3 c butter, pinch salt, all cut together).  Then I baked it for 15-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  This is one of those lovely things- dessert masquerading as breakfast!

A shining star in my CSA box of goodies was some field celery.  As this head still had the root attached, I wanted to do something extra special.  Now normally celery is either thrown into the soup or braising pot, or it's crunched crudite style.  I was so excited about this celery that I really wanted to honor it in some way.  The root is really my favorite part, and that's what made me want to try the gratin.  This dish is fall.  If you want a little Thanksgiving, but it's not the right Thursday in November, make this dish.  This recipe comes from the great Molly Stevens, who wrote the book on braising.  If you don't have it, get it.  You'll be a braising convert in no time.  So you'll want to take off all the outer stalks and wash them up.  Then use a peeler to take off the stringy bits that run the length of the stalk.  Then cut the stalks into 3 inch lengths.  Don't do  what I did and forget to peel them until after you've chopped them.  This will increase your prep time considerably, and make you feel rather dunce-like, which is not the point of the dish at all.  Then, peel that gorgeous root, and slice it up thin.  (First cut it in halves or quarters as you see fit.)  Butter up a 9 by 13 dish, and arrange all that celery in there to your liking.  Then chop up the remaining celery heart and leaves and saute it with butter (2 T) and minced onion  (1 small) and thyme (1 1/2 t fresh, chopped).  I didn't use all my leaves because I'm pretty sure Miss Stevens didn't envision how leafy my celery was when she wrote this recipe.  I reserved the leaves for later use (substitute for parsley!).  Season the lot with salt and pepper and cook  about 10 minutes, until softened and browning.  Then add a 1/4 cup white wine and reduce until just about dry, then add 1 cup chicken stock and reduce by half.  I actually got this bit going while I chopped and peeled (no- peel first, then chop!) the celery.  Then pour the celery onion mix over the celery sticks, cover with foil, and braise in a 325 degree oven until tender, about 1 1/4 hours.  To finish, remove the foil and top with a mix of 4 T bread crumbs and 1/3 c grated cheese.  She suggests gruyere, which is quite spendy.  Feel free to substitute.  I used emmentaler instead.  Turned out great.  Just broil till golden brown and then gobble it up, thinking thoughts of turkey and stuffing.

My CSA box has been keeping me well-stocked.  If you have any concerns about eating enough fruits and vegetables, join a CSA.  The food is so beautiful and so abundant, you'll be planning your meals around it, instead of thinking, what should I do with the chicken tonight?  Which is as it should be.  However, we ended up with more food than tummy space, so I started to come up with ways to use lots of veggies.  Canning, of course, works well, but soup is also a winner.  With tons of potatoes, and some enticingly gorgeous leeks, I couldn't resist making soup.  After a thorough washing, I sliced up 3 leeks, and in a large pot I sweated them with a sliced up medium onion, salt and pepper, and a nice knob of butter.  Meanwhile I peeled and sliced up three potatoes.  I added 5 or 6 cloves of minced garlic (I love garlic)  and a sachet of thyme, peppercorns and celery leaves to the pot, stirred, then after a minute I added the potatoes and about 6 cups of chicken stock.  I simmered this until the potatoes were tender (about 25 minutes).  Then, after removing the thyme bundle, I used my stick blender to blend it all up.  The I adjusted the seasoning (more salt!), and had me a nice little dinner.  I had made a little pesto, and I tossed some of the most fantastic, sweet little tomatoes in the pesto, and had them with the soup and a little bread.  A delight.  

As for the pesto, let me just say that it's never a good idea to get in an argument with a farmer.  I had the pleasure of meeting a local celebrity farmer- Wynne of Jerzy Boyz.  She is truly awesome, and I'm a big fan.  However, somehow I found myself making the (I thought) innocent comment that I'd be making a little tomato salad with basil.  Wynne was pretty sure I should make pesto.  She herself had brought a pesto sandwich along, and was taunting us all with it's tempting aroma.  And here's where I made my fateful mistake.  I explained that I didn't want to go to the trouble of making pesto.  Silly girl.  Now, it's not like making pesto is all that hard (as Wynne quickly pointed out).  I was just feeling a little lazy, and I knew I'd be happy with sliced basil.  However, laziness is not often abided by a farmer.  These folks work harder than just about anyone, and have beautiful produce to show for it, so laziness is not really a good excuse for not making pesto.  And so, I made pesto.  And wished Wynne was there to share my feast.

Well, let's squeeze in one last food adventure, just because it was so tasty.  I had already canned some lovely tomato sauce, and still had tomatoes that needed eating.  So, I decided to put them to use in soup.  This was not your Campbell's tomato soup.  Oh no.  This was an aromatic, flavorful, thick soup that put Campbell's to shame (not that that's hard).  Now perhaps you've grown up with Campbell's and it holds a special, nostalgic place in your heart.  In that case, please forgive my disparaging comments, and consider trying this soup.  

Ok, so clean up your tomatoes, core them, and slice them in half.  You should have enough halves to crowd a cookie sheet (about 10 tomatoes, depending on size).  Using ripe, delicious, preferably local tomatoes is key here.  So, drizzle some olive oil on the cookie sheet, then load up the tomatoes, and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Cook them in a 425 degree oven for about thirty minutes.  They should be sizzly and juicy and starting to brown on top.  Meanwhile, sweat some chopped onion in olive oil in a big pot.  I added a sliced up carrot for fun.  In a small sauce pan, heat up about a half cup white wine and a half cup water, and steep two dried chiles (I used one ancho and one pasilla).  Once they've softened (15-20 minutes), remove them (reserve liquid), seed, and chop.  Now, I have this little baby cast iron skillet that I use exclusively for toasting spices.  Proceed with this step in whatever creative manner you choose, but be sure to toast the spices!  I used about a teaspoon of cumin seed and a half teaspoon of black peppercorns.  Once they were toasty, I ground them in a mortar and pestle.  Once the tomatoes were ready, I added them to the pot (scraping in all the juicy goodness from the cookie sheet), along with the chopped peppers, reserved liquid, and spices.  Bring everything up to a simmer for a couple minutes, then puree in batches.  Don't be afraid to let the blender run for a while, to get this nice and smooth.  Taste, and adjust seasoning and thickness (add water, chicken or veg stock if too thick, or reduce a bit if too thin, depending on the juiciness of your tomatoes).  Like all tomato soup, this is great with some cheesy bread.  Hope you enjoy it!

Tomato Celebration

Oooooooh, pretty!  Green beans lend themselves to so many flavor profiles.  They're so amiable, even kids usually love them.  Plus, they're fun to eat if you use your fingers (highly encouraged in dipping situations).  But for me, serving them dressed in a dill vinaigrette with red onion and goat cheese can't be beat.  Unless, of course, you throw that over some lettuce and add some tuna!  If you were to try only one recipe from this blog, let it be this one (I'm not using much foresight here.  What if the next post brings an even better dish...)  Still, this is so worth trying, because it tastes so great, and is such a breeze to whip up.  And even though green beans are perfectly good with some butter and maybe a few almonds, perhaps you just need a change.  So.  Steam the beans (about a pound, tips removed) for a few minutes until crisp-tender.  Then plunge them in ice water to stop the cooking.  Whisk up a vinaigrette with olive oil (3 T), lemon juice (or vinegar- I used champagne vinegar- 2 T), dill (fresh is truly best- 2 T, but dried will do in a pinch- 1/2 T), salt and pepper.  In a bowl, toss the green beans with the vinaigrette, sliced red onion (1/4 cup), and goat cheese (1/4 cup).  Feta is nice, but I tried a lovely local goat cheese that was much milder.  It did the trick just fine, because it still had that tang.  Here comes the hardest part:  let it chill for 20-30 minutes while the flavors marry.  Then eat it up!  This is best eaten the day you make it, because the beans will be so lovely and bright green, but truth be told, it's still yummy after a day or two, just not as pretty.  This makes it an ideal candidate for a leftover to take for lunch.  Sooo good!

And how about tomatoes?  All year I shun tomatoes because the mealy, tasteless supermarket tomatoes on offer in midwinter just don't compare to the amazing, firm, juicy, flavorful, vibrant tomatoes you can find locally when the time is right!  The heirloom varieties are so gorgeous!  Yellows, oranges, every shade of red, purple, stripey green.  I came into some super-ripe tomatoes recently, and they were begging to become a sauce.  So, I sweated some diced onion, added minced garlic, a pinch of crushed red pepper, diced carrots and diced green pepper, and lots of chopped tomatoes.  Then I let the lot cook down for a few hours, getting the house smelling mighty good.  I stirred fairly regularly, and when I knew I would be distracted, I simply turned the heat down until I could devote more attention to it.  This keeps the bottom from burning.  When the flavor and consistency were to my liking, I stirred in some capers and let the whole thing cool off.  The next day I froze most of it and saved some for yummy pasta.  I left it very mildly seasoned so I could make adjustments in my final dishes.  You can add salt, but it's mighty hard to take it out...

And now for another low effort, high payoff dish:  Crisp!  Again- use what's in abundance!  I had peaches for days, and I got some blueberries in my CSA box, so I used that.  In the end, I only had a few blueberries to add since my fiance loves blueberries, and most of them found their way into his breakfast...  So about crisp:  I love this dessert, because who doesn't love a little crunchy goodness?  It's way easier than pie, and so super yummy.  First make the topping:  3/4 cup each of flour, oats, brown sugar and butter.  Chop the butter into little pieces, then cut everything in together until it's well combined.  Then let it chill while you prepare the filling.  Just slice up some fruit (I went with 4 pounds of peaches and maybe 1/4 cup blueberries.  Really.  That's all that was left.  He ate that many.)  Toss the fruit with 1 1/2 T flour.  Then pour the fruit in a 2 qt dish.  Actually, use a 2 1/2 qt dish, because as you can see in the photo, I couldn't fit it all in a 2 qt dish, and had to make a cute little mini crisp in a large ramekin.  Then top with the topping and bake in a 375 degree oven.  Check it after 30 minutes, and turn it if your oven doesn't bake evenly (most don't).  Then cook another 15 minutes or so, until the fruit is cooked through and bubbly and the top is a lovely golden brown.  It helps to bake it on a cookie sheet unless you enjoy scraping goo off the bottom of your oven.  (This way you can scrape goo off the cookie sheet, which is slightly less annoying.)  Let it sit and cool on a wire rack to prevent tongue burns, then serve with vanilla ice cream.  You'll want to make this over and over, because it's easy, breezy, and too delicious!  Enjoy!

My New Favorite Thing

Wow.  Harvest is in full swing and there are so many amazing things to eat, and in such quantity!   I've been cooking and cooking and neglecting my blog.  Apologies, my patient friends.  So.  What have I been up to?  Well, schedule changes led me to do some exploring of different markets.  I found a Thursday afternoon market that is smaller and seems more family oriented.  My treasure find at this market was one of this blog's namesakes:  squash blossoms!  They're so beautiful, I love that you can eat them!  I bought a bunch, and ended up giving them to my fiance, who promptly stuffed them with a crab and cream cheese mixture- yum!  I also picked up some little red and white potatoes, some kohlrabi (just for kicks), another adorable round zucchini, tomatillos, and onions, and fruit for snacking (grapes and pluots).  I love tomatillos for soups and salsas.  It's still too hot for  soup, so I opted for salsa - just roasted the tomatillos (minus the skin, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper) along with some onions and garlic, then blended it all together with lime juice and cilantro.  Then I lamented not having picked up some peppers!  It needed peppers.  

I decided to use some of the beans I'd frozen, and made a southwestern lasagna.  I originally learned of this dish as chilaquiles, but there are so many versions of chilaquiles that I think it's safest to call it a southwestern lasagna.  In a pan I sauteed up some chopped onions and minced garlic, then added some ground beef.  Once that was cooked through I added chopped zucchini, chopped tomatoes, and the defrosted beans, as well as some crushed red pepper flakes.  While that was  cooking, I cut about a dozen corn tortillas in half.  Then I just layered it in a 9 X 13 pyrex dish, sauce first, then half the tortillas, then one cup sour cream, 6 oz grated cheese, the remaining tortillas, the remaining sauce, and then 6 more ounces of cheese.  Just bake it in the oven until it's good and bubbly (about 30 minutes at 350 degrees).  This is awesome for a family, or good for freezing if there's only one or two of you.

Let's see, what else did I make?  I decided to try a recipe from the beloved Deborah Madison.  In her book Local Flavors, she has a recipe for Market Ragout of Turnips, Kohlrabi and Peas.  Well, I adapted it a bit for what I had, and it became a ragout of carrots, kohlrabi and green beans.  Either way, it worked out just fine, and I served it up with roasted potatoes and black cod, and was so very happy to be alive and consuming such food.  By the way, the glass in the background contains my new favorite thing...

So, to make the ragout, melt  a tablespoon of butter, add six spring onions (halved), three medium carrots cut into 1-inch pieces, and two kohlrabi.  How to deal with kohlrabi? Cut off the top and bottom, then trim off the skin (or use a peeler).  I cut mine into quarters and then sliced each quarter about 1/3 inch thick.  Kohlrabi reminds me of the stem of broccoli, and would be great in a stir fry.  Ok, so add water to cover the veg halfway, and a teaspoon of salt.  I threw in some sage since I had it handy.  Simmer until the veg is almost cooked through, then add the green beans (about a half pound).  Deborah then adds spinach, and creme fraiche, and basil.  I just tossed the vegetables and let the liquid cook down so it ended up "glazed".  Her way sounds yummy too, and the next time I have all those ingredients at once, I 'll try it out...

By the way, you'll notice the skin is still on the fish.  Here's the thing- if you're put off by fish skin, think about this:  isn't the skin of fried chicken the best part?  Or what about chicarron (fried pig skin)?  OH, sooooo good!  So, give crispy cod skin a try- it's delicious!

As it turns out, I came into some peaches, and finally here comes the part about my new favorite thing.  I had a lot of peaches.  I mean, more than a girl could hope for.  My first plan of attack was to make peach butter, which a friend had just made, and sounded like fun.  It was fun, until a bit of peach butter splattered out and burned me.  It's all fun and games until someone gets burned.  Ah well, battle scars.  To make peach butter, one must first blanch and peel many peaches.  So, I had my pot of water going, and peaches were blanching, and the house was smelling mighty nice.  As I continued blanching, I noticed the water was picking up a lovely color.  So, I began to save the skins, and after I'd finished the blanching, I added the skins to the pot of blanching water and simmered it until it reduced a bit.  I kept tasting it and reducing it until the flavor was strong enough (about by half), then I strained it and chilled it.  Voila!  Peach water.  Mmmmm, this is a lovely light refreshing drink, kind of like a fruit tea.  It would be stellar with a splash of amaretto!  Try it the next time you find yourself blanching peaches.

I could go on- there's peach blueberry crisp, tomato sauce and my favorite green beans still to talk about.  The best news is that I joined a CSA and am now getting a lovely box of local fruits and vegetables every week, which makes it easier on me if I can't make it to the farmer's market.  There are so many ways to get great food!  I love it!  I hope you do as well.  Go, eat something wonderful, and enjoy the waning summer days.

A Rainbow of Peppers

This week at the market I veered away from sweet and over to savory, drawn in by the beautiful array and bewitching aroma of a multitude of peppers.  I had come across a recipe for pickled-chile relish that I wanted to try, because I was reminded of my grandfather's love of chiles.  He and my grandmother kept a small garden, and while she put up jam, he was in charge of the pepper jelly and a delightfully tart relish I can only liken to chow-chow.  Many childhood lunches at Granny's house consisted of a hot dog rolled up in a corn tortilla with mustard and Pappy's relish.  

So, thus inspired, I loaded up on peppers of every color, and a few other things to boot:  tomatillos, tomatoes, green beans, peppers (serranos, tequilas, hungarian wax, purple bells, and yellow peppers helpfully labeled "sweet"), akane apples (a delicious variety with lovely white flesh), red globe peaches (embarassingly large!), eggplants, zucchini, cucumber, and more corn!  Just thinking about all that amazing produce makes me happy.  I'm especially fond of the round zucchinis, which are so tasty that I can hardly cook them- I just keep eating the slices raw!

Well.  What to do with such a haul?  I decided to try out the pickled-chile relish recipe.  I sought out the 1/4 pint cans because their diminutive size is so beguiling.  After that, there was no stopping me.  Here's a link for the recipe.  Once that was processing, I decided to make some salsa with the tomatillos.  I roasted them up with some leftover peppers (two of the "sweets" and a serrano) as well as a walla walla sweet onion and some garlic cloves.  I tossed everything with olive oil, salt and pepper and threw it in the oven to broil.  Once everything was blistery and the tomatillos were oozing, I let it cool, then peeled the peppers and garlic.  I seeded the seranno to moderate the heat a little bit.  Then I pureed everything together and added some salt and vinegar to adjust the seasoning.  

Meanwhile, I had some

 beans going.  A few weeks ago I found some lovely Orca beans at the market.  I'd never had them before.  Actually, I'd never even heard of them!  Of course, curiosity got the best of me.  I picked up a bag, and promptly did nothing with it.  Fortunately, you can ignore beans for a few weeks without consequence.  But now I was ready to cook some beans, because it was over 100 degrees, and why wouldn't I want to throw a pot on to simmer for a few hours??  I can't say I regret it.  I don't like to soak my beans, because if you toss out the soaking liquid then you lose some nutrients.  (Plus, soaking takes foresight...)  I've found that if you bring the beans up to boil for a minute, then turn it down, the beans will cook just fine.  The trouble I'd been having was with texture.  I consulted the vaunted Harold McGee, who pointed out that molasses, with its vitamin C content, acidity level, and sugar level, helps to preserve the texture of beans over the course of long cooking times.  Well, my time in the south drew me to through in a ham hock too, as well as some onions, carrots, dried chiles (1 ancho, 1 pasilla), and a little spice bundle containing half a cinnamon stick, some cumin seeds, and some red pepper flakes.  I filled the pot with water to cover, brought it to a boil, then let it barely simmer for a few hours.  Once the beans were done, I seasoned it with salt.  I was thrilled with the way they turned out.  The flavor is delicate, buttery and almost sweet, with a light heat.  The best part is that the beans kept their unusual patterned color.  I had expected the color to bleed, like cranberry beans do, resulting in a uniform color, but they were just as orca-like when they were cooked as they were prior to cooking.  Fantastic!

By that time I was ready to eat!  I originally planned to have veggie soft tacos, but I decided to make the beans the star, alternately garnishing with the roasty green salsa and the pickled chile relish.  Oh, it was so good, I ate five!  They were small though.  Honest.  

My only note is that the relish was more liquidy than I expected.  But it was still delicious. 

And in this manner I enjoyed another joyous week of eating and preserving.  

A Season of Abundance

These are delicious days.  Every farm stand is a bounty of inspiration.  At the farmer's market on Saturday we picked up salad greens, basil, corn, eggplant, watermelon, plums, nectarines, grape tomatoes, and blackberries.  Remarkably, this was not enough for me.  I had visions of peach jam in my head, so I went hunting for some sort-out peaches.  My hunt led me not to peaches, but to apricots!  So I grabbed up a flat, along with some cherry cider, and headed home to experiment.    I cooked up two batches of jam- one with a little brandy, and one with some Frangelico for a little nuttiness.  I added champagne vinegar to both batches in lieu of lemons for a little acidity since the ripe fruit was so very sweet.  Even after two batches, I still had some apricots left, so now I'm attempting my first fruit leather.  I pureed the apricots, spread it out on a silpat-lined sheet tray, and am letting it dry slowly in the lowest possible oven.  Ideally, the oven should be at 135 degrees.   

We dug into the watermelon and slurped our way through nearly a quarter of it, then set about pickling the rind.  This may sound odd, but it is oh so good with pork!  For dinner we splurged and ate up almost all the veggies grilled and tossed with pasta, along with some onion, olives and basil.  

I'm debating whether I should confess what we had for dessert.  The cherry cider had a sweet-tart candy quality to it, and something about the flavor brought to mind lemonade pie.  So, thus inspired, I reduced the cider from a quart to a cup and made a cherry cider pie, with blackberries on top!  

With so much wonderful fresh produce, it's not too difficult to come up with ideas.  Simple preparations show off how flavorful each ingredient is.  The two things I keep thinking about are how to use large quantities before they pass their peak, and how to preserve the bounty for leaner times.  Summer spoils us with its abundance.  If we don't store up for winter, it will be full of trips to a grocery store that can only offer produce that has travelled from a part of the world enjoying a very different season.  With this in mind, I revel in every juicy piece of locally grown fruit, and slowly build up my store of preserves.