Yummy things

Baby boom!

I’ve heard that less babies are being born these days because of the recession, but you wouldn’t know it around here.

Our friends, Nate and Saralynn, were due to deliver their first baby, on 9/09/09.  In the end, their little man wouldn’t arrive until three days later, for a slightly less memorable birthday, but we’re still overjoyed to welcome Atticus Sessions to the world!

“Trot” is quite a cutie, and we can’t wait to meet him. We’ll have to get good at making some food for new parents, because Atticus is just the beginning of the baby parade we’re about to get.  Dan’s got two cousins due in the next two months, two of my HBHE classmates are expecting, and our neighbors are having a baby in early 2010.  Looks like the next year will be filled with lots of cooing over cute babies!  :-)

Finally - fresh food!

After working 70 hours last week, I was delighted to get into the kitchen and make some fresh food after wrapping up the Healthy Devils training on Sunday evening.  Luckily, when I finally had the time to make dinner, we had all the ingredients to make a totally local dinner.

Inspired by Jennifer’s Eggplant Steaks Alla Pizziola from Last Night’s Dinner and the fact that we had a fresh bottle of olive oil delivered to us directly from Greece, by our friends Kathi and Rob, who were lucky enough to spend 10 days there just before Labor Day, I knew a good meal was in order. :-)

Eggplant steaks

Slice 1 pound eggplant into 3/4-inch thick “steaks” lengthwise.

Preheat grill pan over medium heat.

In a small, lided, plastic container, combine:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Cover container and shake until emulsified.

Coat eggplant steaks with balsamic sauce and place on grill pan coated with cooking spray.  Cook on each side for 10 minutes.

I really liked the grilled eggplant steaks.  They were hearty and made this vegetarian dinner feel like a full meal.  But the kick of the pizziola relish on top of the arugula was what really made this dinner.

Pizzaiola Relish

Chop 1 small tomato and quarter 1/2 pint of Sungold tomatoes.

Add:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir to combine.

To assemble:

Place 2 cups of baby arugula on each plate.

Top each plate with 4 eggplant steaks, sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, and then finish with 2/3 cup of pizziola relish.

Fall is in the air

It’s hard to believe, but morning temps have been below 70 degrees for two weeks, we’ve just ended the third week of classes at Duke, and the Chicago Marathon is just one month away!  Fall is definitely here.  Sadly, this means that we’re almost at the end of our current CSA share.  Luckily, we got a bounty of beautiful produce this week, since our friends that we split the box with are away on vacation.

Lots of fun stuff - Sungolds, Muscadine grapes, arugula, red potatoes, tomatoes, a bell pepper and eggplant

Unfortunately, I’ve been working late at Duke essentially every night this week, so instead of whipping up fresh dishes, we’ve been eating our way through a spaghetti pie that I made over the weekend.  But today we had a great time at the first day of Healthy Devils training, so new food is in order soon!

Awesome Healthy Devils - Kathryn, Alia, Priyanka, Sam and Yaoli - who shared their experiences with new applicants during a panel on our first day of training

Also, I’m enjoying our flowers as much as possible, because next week will be our last week of our flower share.  At least I’ll have my album of CSA goodies to help make it through the colder months.

Slicing tomatoes

Despite what national grocery stores might try to convince you, the time for a good sandwich with a tomato toping it is NOW!  I know there are bright red globes stocked in the produce section year round, but the truth is, I find they really aren’t worth slicing outside of this time of year.  And although sandwiches generally don’t need a recipe write up, it seems just right to post a few of my favorites for Labor Day.  It’s so easy to grab a few good ingredients, slap them together and enjoy the flavors melding together, as the tomato juices drip down your arm.  So whether you’ve got the day off (like Dan) or if you have to work tomorrow (me!), get some slicing tomatoes before they’re gone and make an easy meal out of one of these favorites!

Favorite #1 - Grilled pimento cheese sandwich

Alright, let’s start off clearing out an idea you might have about how to make this healthy.  We’re putting some beautiful tomatoes on it, but that’s it.  The rest of it is bad for you, but it’s so good, that just once while tomatoes are in season, it’s so worth it.

Heat a skillet over medium heat.

Coat one side of 2 slices of white bread (I told you, don’t attempt to make it healthy - white bread is the only way to go) with butter.

Put one slice of bread into the skillet.  Meanwhile, smear 1/4 cup pimento cheese (my favorite is the Weaver Street chipotle pimento cheese, but use whatever you’ve got available to you) on the non-buttered side of the other slice of bread.

Once the first slice of bread is well toasted, put down the slice with the pimento cheese, and then top it with 2 large slices of fresh tomato and the toasted piece of bread.  Grill for 2 minutes.  Enjoy!

Favorite #2 - Arugula cheese grinders

This sandwich is also guilty of being heavy on the cheese, but I just love the interplay of the strong flavors and textures.  And if you’re a little scared of the spiciness of arugula, this is a great way to try it.  It’s a nice substitute for peppery meats, and much fresher tasting.

To make one grinder, slice one club roll in half lengthwise.  Turn on your broiler and toast for four minutes.  As soon as the roll comes out of the oven, place one slice of Swiss cheese on one side of it, so the cheese melts slightly.  Set aside for 3 minutes.  Once the roll has cooled slightly, top it with:
3 tablespoons light Alouette garlic & herb spreadable cheese
1/2 cup of arugula (smooshing it into the spreadable cheese helps to keep your sandwich from slip, sliding around)
3 slices of tomato

Favorite #3 - Open faced roasted red pepper spread sandwich

I already wrote about the roasted red pepper spread once when I was talking about how to use up all the cucumbers we got in our CSA.  But it doesn’t really get it’s full due until you can use it on an open faced sandwich with a juicy summer tomato.  And when it got a shout out on my cousin’s blog, The Sweet Life, I knew it was time to revisit this summer favorite.

For each sandwich, top one slice of toasted hearty wheat bread with 1/4 cup roasted red pepper spread (recipe below) and one large tomato slice.

Roasted red pepper sandwich spread
Adapted from Cooking Light

In a food processor, combine:
1 small cucumber, seeded and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 7-oz. jar of roasted red peppers, drained and dried (or 2 large red bell peppers, roasted and peeled)
6 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
3 oz. fat-free cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons red onion
1 garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon salt

Pulse until ingredients are all combined in an even texture (I like mine a little chunky still). Store in a well sealed container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Busy, busy

I think when I wrote to say I was back in business, I misspoke a bit.  It seems instead I was just headed to work, and lots of it.  I’ve been crazy busy with recruiting new peer educators, enrolling students in a new research study on health coaching, getting set up with a team of UNC students that I’m working with on their Capstone project, and everything else that comes with going back to school.  So although I have some things I want to write to tell you about, I haven’t had the time to write them up.  So for now, I’m just glad to have pretty flowers to look at and cheer me up after being away from home for 14 hours working.  I hope you enjoy them too.

The green beans in our CSA share were an exciting new addition, but they are also reminding me that autumn is creeping up on us.  Although I can’t complain on bit about the drop in temperatures that arrived nicely on the first of September (it’s SO much nicer to run when you aren’t dripping wet from the moment you walk out the door), it does remind me that I better hop to it if I’m going to share some of my recent favorites using the tomatoes and peppers that are so prominent at the markets now.  I suppose I can’t really wish it both ways - for it still to be summer produce season and for the back to school rush to be over.  I guess that means Labor Day weekend is calling for some good blog postings of end of summer fixings.  Stay tuned!

Back in business

Sorry for my recent absence!  It’s been a little crazy recently, but since I last wrote, I’ve made it through orientation, the first week of classes, and my first ever 16 mile run!  I love the energy of all the students returning to campus, but whew, it’s a lot of work!  Adding marathon training on top of that is no small matter, and then to top things off, our dishwasher broke, and Lowe’s brought us one with a big dent in it before successfully installing a new one on Friday.  All together, this has meant that I haven’t been doing much original cooking, and even when I did, I didn’t have time to take photos or post details.  But hopefully this week, I’ll get back into gear and give you some ideas for the bounty of produce that’s available here at the end of the summer. In the mean time, I hope the rest of you are enjoying lives that are a little calmer!

Delicious!

Do you know about Delicious?  I don’t just mean food that tastes delicious, rather the awesome social bookmarking website Delicious.  I discovered Delicious a few weeks ago when I was trying to find a way to organize a list of web resources that I keep for work, but use infrequently.  They seemed to clutter up my bookmarks list, and I thought for sure there must be an online way to keep a list of different URLs and tag them with the appropriate topics so you can search for them when you need them.  Of course, before I came to this conclusion, lots of smart, web savy people figured this out a long time ago, and that’s exactly what Delicious is about.  It solved my work problem, but then I realized how great it would be for keeping track of all those recipes you see, and think “That would be great to try,” but aren’t able to put on your meal plan for the week.

It’s a super way to take a recipe you find on someone’s blog, or in the NY Times, or anywhere else you happen upon yummy things just waiting to be made, and save it for later.  I’m tagging recipes with what season they’re good for and what the main produce used in them is, and I’m hoping to develop a whole online archive of recipes that I can just search when we get a particular fruit or vegetable in our CSA that I can’t seem to figure out how to use.  But  you can use any system that works for you.  You can also see what other people are tagging those same articles/recipes/websites, and then you can follow their tagging to see what else other people tagged the same way.  It’s pretty fantastic and allows for making some delicious food!

This week, I went back to my growing archives and was pleased to discover two excellent dishes: grilled eggplant salad and spiced peach oatmeal muffins.  Amazingly, it seems that I haven’t posted any recipes here for about a month, so I figure I’ll finally redeem myself with two!

The grilled eggplant salad is from the NY Times, which recently had a feature on rice.  After I started cooking, I discovered I didn’t actually have jasmine rice like I thought I did, so I just used plain white rice steamed in the standard way.  But in the end, it’s the eggplant salad with it’s fresh herbs that’s the star of the show.  So I’d definitely do this one again, but I think it’d be just fine to serve it with the standard white or brown rice.  I also thought the salad dressing had a little too much lime tang, so I’d suggest trying it as directed in the recipe below, but it’s definitely one to try, here as eggplant and tomatoes are coming in fresh from the garden.

Grilled eggplant salad
Inspired by Martha Rose Shulman’s Steamed Jasmine Rice with Grilled Eggplant Salad, which was inspired by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s “Seductions of Rice”

Heat a grill pan over high heat, or prepare a hot grill. 
Slice 1 large globe eggplant in half lengthwise.  Slice each half into 1/4 inch slices.  Spray both sides of eggplant slices with cooking spray. 
Grill eggplant for 6 minutes on each side, until the slices are slightly browned and tender all the way through.
As each batch is done, remove to a bowl. When all of the eggplant has been grilled, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.  Set aside the bowl for 10 minutes to allow the eggplant to steam as it cools.

Meanwhile, mix together in a small bowl:
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 jalapeno pepper, ribbed, seeded, and diced
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon sugar

Then in a large bowl, combine:
grilled eggplant, coarsely chopped
1 small tomato, diced
1/4 cup of cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup of fresh mint, finely chopped

Toss dressing with eggplant mixture.  Set aside for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of white rice to a small saucepan.  Turn heat to high, and bring water to boil.  Allow the water to boil hard for about 15 seconds, then reduce the heat, cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this time.

Plate hot rice and top with eggplant salad.  Serves 4.

I initially found the oatmeal peach muffin recipe through one of the AllRecipes.com weekly e-mails highlighting summer produce, but I hadn’t had any luck getting peaches at the farmers’ market.  So I tucked it aside in Delicious, and pulled it out when I had the luck of getting “cosmetically challenged” peaches from Lyons Farm on the cheap.  Although they weren’t perfectly pretty, they were deliciously ripe.  The addition of some whole wheat flour and cardamom to the original recipe made them a lovely summer snack.

Spiced oatmeal peach muffins
Adapted from Sal’s recipe on AllRecipes.com

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, add 1 teaspoon lemon juice to 1 cup of milk.  Let sit 2 minutes. 
Add:
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup applesauce
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs

In a separate bowl, combine:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Stir flour mix into wet ingredients. 
Stir in 1 1/2 cups of diced peaches.

Spoon batter into 12-16 greased muffin cups.  Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let cool for 15 minutes before attempting to remove from muffin cups.

Refrigerate leftover muffins for up to one week.

Pretty pictures

So this week has kicked my butt a little bit.  A week ago, at 4 PM on a Friday afternoon, the powers that be decided it would be a good idea to move my office a just three days before students arrive on campus for orientation.  To make it more “fun”, moving my office also includes moving to a new computer, a new e-mail, and a new calendaring system. Okay, I’ll admit, getting a MacBook is a little fun, but transferring all your appointments to a new system and being unable to access 4 years worth of e-mail from the new e-mail system is just a pain in the tail, especially when I already had LOTS of other things to do before the new school year starts.  And no one ever enjoys packing moving boxes.  So despite the fact that we got our usual CSA share earlier in the week, I’m just now getting around to posting some photos. TGIF!

Our full share, before the split - red bell peppers, arugula, tomatoes, sungolds, and the first butternut squash of the season

A nice assortment of flowers, which were fun to play with for my photography assignment this week to look at texture

Photogenic produce

Last month I decided to embrace the extra bit of free time I have over the summer and take a photography class.  I’m hoping to improve my confidence when I’m out photographing things with Dan, who was the photography editor for our college newspaper, and I’m also hoping this blog will benefit from my learnings.  So while I haven’t posted here much in August, I have been working to capture some beautiful meals.  If you have a favorite you want to hear more about, just drop me an e-mail, and I’ll post more.  I think these photos probably do a better job capturing the beauty of summer than my writing does anyhow.

Sungold tomatoes - little bites of the sun!

Pods and their purple hull beans

Into the pit of a peach

Sicilian chicken and peppers over polenta

Afternoon delight - roasted tomato, peppers, and corn soup with grilled cheese with curried goat cheese spread

Chocolate-cherry dessert bars
Fresh cherries are hard to beat, but if you’re going to try, adding butter, sugar, chocolate, and almonds is a pretty good way to try!

Summer loving

The peppers and tomatoes are in full swing here in North Carolina, so I think this weekend will be great for braising some chicken Sicilian style.  But in the mean time, I’m just going to snack on tomato sandwiches and this lovely watermelon!

CSA - Week 14 - 2 slicing tomatoes, Sungold tomatoes, red bell pepper and watermelon!

The sunflowers also make it seem super summery!  So here’s an added close-up for good measure.

I hope you’re all enjoying summer while it lasts.  It’s hard to believe we’re just days away from August!

Whew!

We’ve had a busy summer, and I just can’t seem to keep up.  This weekend we hosted Dan’s parents, his uncle Larry and aunt Sharon, his aunt Virginia and uncle Kevin, and his cousin Brian.  Except for Dan’s parents, it was everyone’s first time in the Triangle, so we had to pack a lot in!  In less than 36 hours, we got to:

• Enjoy barbeque at the Q Shack
• Tomato Day at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market (check out a copy of Totally Tomato, their booklet that includes tomato recipes, stories, and memories submitted by customers and vendors that’s available in PDF!)
• Explore the UNC campus and make a (very) brief trip through Franklin Street
• Lunch at Weaver Street Market
• Ice cream on the front porch of Maple View
  
  
  Dan had Carolina Crunch for the first time
  
  
  Larry, Sharon, Virginia, and Kevin
• A Durham Bulls game!
  
  
  Funny how the little kid always manages to beat Wool E. Bull around the bases!
• Brunch at Elmo’s
• See some lovely flowers at Duke Gardens
  
  
  There were some really lovely butterflies at the gardens this weekend.  I don’t recall ever seeing so many before.
  
  
  It was HOT, but the sun really lit up these gorgeous flowers.
• Visit the highlights of Duke’s campus, including the Chapel and K-ville
  
  
  Everyone enjoyed a chance to relax inside the Chapel, where it was cool.
  
  
  I love all the colorful stained glass.
• Have dinner at home, with a surprise birthday dessert for Larry!
  
  
  Pizza #1, with a tomato sauce, pepperoni, peppers and Penzey’s pizza seasoning, which really does wonders to make homemade stuff taste like pizza shop pizza.
  
  
  Pizza #2, with a basil sauce, heirloom tomatoes, peppers (can you tell these are in season at the market now?), and goat cheese.
  
  
  Summer birthday dessert - with fresh blackberries from the market, blueberries and cherries.  YUM!

It was a whirlwind, but it was really fun to show everyone around and enjoy the company!  Now Dan and I are here for the rest of the summer, which is good, because I’ve got too much going on, and things are just going to get busier, since classes start back up at Duke in 4 weeks.  I can’t hardly believe it.  But hopefully I’ll be able to get some good summer recipes posted before it gets too crazy.  Cross your fingers!

Back to basics

This week’s CSA box was full of summer classics - tomatoes and basil.  Just calling out for a good pizza! Amazingly, it didn’t include any cucumbers, so my friend Ellen graciously gave me one from her garden so I didn’t go into withdrawal.

Also, we got some lovely zinnias to add some color to the house.

Great summer classics.  :-)

Too much fun, too little time

This weekend, Dan and I made a quick trip to Indiana.  As usual, the weekend sped by too quickly, but we still got to enjoy lots of fun.  Highlights included:

• A pimento cheese sandwich at Artemesia in Louisville, with a lovely side dish of fresh corn, which, unfortunately, is probably impossible to replicate without the chef’s secret spice blend
• A trip to Huber’s Farm Market, where we took off with loads of loot, including peaches, nectarines, blackberries, corn, tomatoes, and a big jar of apple butter, since apparently Harris Teeter does not see this to be the essential toast topper that I do
• A leisurely dinner at Le Relais out at Bowman Field.  And by leisurely, I mean the waiter pretty much kicked us out.  :-)

via Fleur-de-louis on Flickr

• A long run on Old Hill Road, Old Vincennes Road, and Slate Road.  Good hills, perfect weather, and some nice views.
• Breakfast with Julie, Elizabeth and Gunther with fresh baked banana bread and sliced peaches.  Yum!
• Megan and Alex’s wedding!

The newlyweds, from Dan

Gettelfinger cousin extravanganza, from Whitney

Dan taking advantage of the open bar - one of the few photos I took over the weekend!

• A nice recovery run with Elizabeth, even though she kicked my butt with the final sprint to the mailbox!
• A baby shower with lots of baby love to go around with Grace and Knox both in attendance.  :-)

Cutie pie photo #1 - me and Grace (age: 6 months)

Cutie pie photo #2: Whitney and Knox (age: 4 months)

Total baby love - Lindsey, Knox, Grace, and her mom, Amanda

• An awesome handpie that Whitney made for me with Huber’s blackberries to eat at the airport.  Definitely the best food you’ll get in the Atlanta food court ever!

Now Dan and I are back in NC for the rest of the summer, so it’s back to some more local adventures.

CSA colors

This week, we had a lovely diversity of produce in our CSA box.  What a beautiful time of year to eat your colors!

An amazing heirloom tomato, two smaller tomatoes, a gypsy bell pepper, Sungold tomatoes, cantaloupe, red potatoes, 3 ears of corn, and a mere 4 cucumbers

Pretty flowers too!