Tomato, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad
Our house sits upon a hill of solid ledge. If you go down into our basement (not something I recommend), you will see the rock come up out from the earth which then becomes a beautiful focal point out in our yard. The downside, however, is that with the rock just below the surface – and in some places actually exposed in our lawn – we do not have enough soil for a vegetable garden.
Our sole effort at growing some of our own food is one small raised bed, which provides enough soil for the plant to grow. We only grow tomatoes and basil, and at this time of year it means we are eating tomatoes and basil with every single meal. I also freeze and can items for the winter, such as pesto, slow-roasted tomatoes, and tomato jam.
Read More
Corn Tacos
I’m not talking about corn tortillas, but rather tacos that feature fresh, sweet, in-season corn, along with a protein or other vegetables!
I first got this idea when I saw a Washington Post article on easy taco fillings, one of which was for corn and chorizo with soft corn tortillas. Of course I didn’t really follow the recipe. First of all, Hank and I prefer flour tortillas, and I also didn’t have any scallions. But what was really key to this delicious dinner was the spicy and the sweet together, with slices of avocado, a bit of sour cream, and a spritz of fresh lime.
Read More
Moo Shu Chicken – Sort Of
We got a beautiful head of napa cabbage from our CSA farm share, along with some sugar snap peas, so my thoughts turned to something Asian. Napa cabbage plays a starring role in most moo shu recipes, and we had some boneless chicken thighs in the freezer, so I started to think about that. Combining a few different recipes, as I often do, with some additional ideas of my own, the plans were coming together. Except for the moo shu pancakes.
In normal times, we would have made it an event for the day to drive to Albany, visit a few stores, eat at an interesting restaurant, and stop at the huge Asian supermarket on Central Avenue to find moo shu pancakes and any number of other hard-to-find Asian ingredients. But nothing these days is normal, and it seemed like a bit too much to drive that far for only one item that we really needed.
Read More
My Favorite Pasta with Eggplant
Perhaps the most famous pasta dish with eggplant is Pasta alla Norma, which includes tomatoes and cheese. That recipe, Pasta alla Norma, is practically the official pasta dish of Sicily, at least it seemed that way to me when I visited Sicily during my Rome semester at the Centro (the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies). In the middle of my semester, we had a two-week trip to Sicily and southern Italy, staying at a different hotel practically every night as we toured numerous archeological sites. At every new hotel where we arrived in Sicily, they served our group Pasta alla Norma, to highlight this famous pasta dish of the island. I’ll admit I was a bit tired of that dish by the time we left!
So this post is not really about Pasta alla Norma! I do love the dish, but there is another way I love to enjoy pasta with eggplant. I like to cook slices of eggplant in olive oil until they become brown and practically melted inside, and then toss the eggplant with the pasta and a bit of heavy cream.
Read More
Fig Marsala Sauce
We all have our weaknesses, those items that when you see them in the store or on a menu, you just cannot resist. One of mine is fresh figs.
Our local specialty store, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, always carries the most luscious figs when they are in season, and pretty much every time I see them I buy a container, even if I have no idea how I will use them.
Read More
Grilled Radicchio
I recently got a head of radicchio in my CSA farm share from Woven Roots Farm. Although I love radicchio and have used it often, I was quite perplexed when I picked up a head of green leaves. The radicchio I’m used to is magenta and white.
Then I cut into it! Gorgeous! I cut the head into four wedges, and also cut four figs in half. I grilled the radicchio and the figs, and served them as a side dish/salad with my favorite maple Dijon vinaigrette from The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook. So easy!
Read More
Fried Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
For the second summer in a row I’ve been able to score some zucchini blossoms! This year, as I posted earlier, I made one bunch into Nidi di Rondine, at the suggestion of my friend, Romina, who lives in Gubbio, Italy.
Another Italian favorite is fried, stuffed squash blossoms, and now, on my third attempt, I think I’ve really figured it out! The first two endeavors were delicious, but this last one really came together so much better!
Read More
Daniel’s Favorite Grilled Vegetable Pasta
As much as this may be Daniel’s favorite pasta, pasta itself is also Daniel’s favorite. He ran two seasons each year in high school and three each year in college and he still runs about 8 miles every day. You can imagine how much pasta I’ve cooked for him over the years.
So when Daniel and his girlfriend, Greta, made plans to come and visit this summer, this recipe was the first one he asked for, and the one I made for our first dinner together.
Read More
Corn and Avocado Salad
I think I’ve got a new blog category, that I’m going to call “Hardly a Recipe.” When everything is in season, you hardly need anything to bring out the brilliance of fruits and vegetables.
Corn on the cob is one of Hank’s absolute favorite summertime treats. If I didn’t stop him, we would probably be eating it 8 days out of every week! Seriously, though, we do eat corn quite often, and even though it’s usually only the two of us now that our kids are all adults, we always get half a dozen ears.
Read More
Blueberries!
Today was my annual blueberry-picking date with one of my former students at what I like to think of as my secret blueberry orchard.
Read More
A Project with Zucchini Flowers
Romina, one of my dear friends from Gubbio, Italy, posted zucchini flowers on Facebook a while back, long before we were ever going to see any here in the Berkshires! And I told her how jealous I was, not only because they were months away, but also because it is not easy to obtain zucchini flowers here in the States. (Yes, I know I could grow them, but our property is on a hill of ledge, with solid rock just below the surface, so growing is a challenge.)
Romina responded with a link to a recipe for Nidi di Rondine, swallow’s nests, filled with sausage and zucchini flowers. I bookmarked the link waiting until I might be able to acquire some fiori di zucca.
Read More
Piracicaba – A New Version of an Old Favorite Vegetable
It should come as no surprise that I follow various cooking groups on social media (as well as chefs and restaurants, of course). How often do I see someone post a less-common vegetable from a CSA or an online produce subscriptions asking for help and suggestions!
Well, today it was my turn, when I got something called piracicaba from our CSA, Woven Roots Farm in Tyringham, MA. At the farm, I spoke with Jen Salinetti who described it as a Brazilian type of broccoli, and indeed it looks like it. But when I got home and Googled it, I only found a couple of recipes (although I found many more mentions of the plant itself).
Read More
Shellfish Indulgence
I love shellfish, but Hank is allergic. It’s not so severe that he can’t be near it – whenever we’re in Maine, after he quickly finishes his fish ’n chips, he waits patiently as I work my way through every bit of my lobster – however it does mean that I rarely cook shellfish at home.
But when we have a guest who likes shellfish, I sometimes like to treat myself, and not too long ago I was able to do so, and I served soft shell crab sandwiches for lunch and grilled octopus for dinner!
Read More
Hilltown Hot Pies – Pizza Pop-Up!
My good friend, Rafi, accomplished pizzaiolo and sourdough master, again has a pizza pop-up this summer! So, friends in Berkshire county and neighboring areas of New York State, if you are looking for a delicious and different evening activity that’s still feasible during this time, head on over to Katchkie Farm in Kinderhook, NY for some wood-fired sourdough pizza! The pop-up will be open this Saturday, July 18, and then Thursday-Sunday beginning July 23 through mid-September.
Read More
Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes
Eggplant and tomatoes pair so well, there’s no shortage of recipes that use them together. This super easy recipe is one of my favorites. The only drawback this time of year is that it cooks for an hour in a very hot oven, and that’s not ideal on a hot summer day. But once you make a pan of this, you’ll be able to keep it in the fridge to serve at room temperature over several days. Sometimes I use the leftovers for a sandwich, other times I’ll toss it over hot pasta.
We especially love this dish with the Middle Eastern flavors of za’atar and tahini, but at the bottom of the recipe, I offer a version that uses Italian flavors.
Read More
July 4th Fried Rice with Salmon and Peas
It is an old New England tradition to eat salmon and peas for the 4th of July. Before we damaged the rivers where they used to run, salmon were a great source of protein during the summer, and right around the end of June or beginning of July the first peas were ready for harvest, even in northern New England. So a tradition evolved to celebrate the seasonal bounty, which also often included new potatoes just dug from the earth.
Read More
Salade Lyonnaise
I am so lucky! I buy my eggs locally from my principal’s assistant’s mother who raises chickens just a few miles from our house, and they are phenomenal! I’ve had people who taste my challah and ask if I’ve used extra eggs because the color is so rich. Every time I get a carton, I can’t wait to see the beautiful colors of the shells from the various breeds she raises.
In our CSA farm share from Woven Roots Farm, one of our recent items was a beautiful head of frisée, which meant we would definitely have Salade Lyonnaise with our dinner. I love how the egg yolk enriches the dressed greens, and how the salty lardons (chunks of bacon) and crunchy croutons complement the flavors.
Read More
Penne with Grilled Zucchini & Garlic Scapes, Ricotta, and Walnuts
Among the many items in our CSA share last weekend from Woven Roots Farm were garlic scapes. I used some in a recipe for pork chops with a rich caper-lemon sauce from the new cookbook Jubilee: Recipes from two centuries of African American cooking, in place of garlic called for, and it was a phenomenal dish. This is a ground-breaking cookbook that presents the wide-ranging cuisine of the African-American experience, beyond the better known, and oft stereotyped, soul food. A couple weeks ago I made a wonderful sweet potato and mango bundt cake from this cookbook, and there are many more recipes to explore!
Still, after the pork chops, I had plenty of garlic scapes left. So I bought a couple zucchini (not ready yet at the farm) and concocted this recipe – perfect for a warm summer evening!
Read More
Tarte Robert (Key Lime with Blueberries)
Blueberries are pretty much Hank’s favorite fruit. If a dessert doesn’t have chocolate, he’d like it to have blueberries. He likes blueberries so much that every summer, after I pick blueberries with one of my former students whose family owns a blueberry farm, I make a large batch of blueberry barbecue sauce and keep it in the freezer in small containers to use throughout the winter. (I use Vivian Howard’s recipe, which I have dubbed “Blue-B-Q,” and I use it on much more than just chicken, which is what’s given in her recipe.) I also freeze the blueberries themselves to make any number of other items during the year, such as my grandmother’s blueberry crumb cake.
Read More
Kitchen Chinese (a novel) & Mapo Tofu
I recently read the novel Kitchen Chinese, by Ann Mah, which is the Cook the Books Club selection for June-July. (Cook the Books is a bi-monthly online book club for which people: read a book – often a novel or a memoir – that has a connection to food and cooking; cook a recipe either given in or inspired by the book; and write a blog post about it. I have twice participated so far, with The Temporary Bride and Pomegranate Soup.)
Read More
