Category Archives: delish

Ten on Tuesday: Ways to Deal with an Overabundance of Produce

Answers vary depending on what you’ve got, but I like to do the following:

  1. Slow roast tomatoes in a 200 degree oven overnight.  Wash and halve the tomatoes (or leave them whole if they’re really small).  Line a baking tray with parchment paper or tinfoil.  Place the tomatoes on the tray skin-side down, then top with salt and pepper, herbs, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Bake overnight, or until your house smells like tomato candy and the tomatoes are tiny and dry.  Eat by the handful, or freeze in a tightly sealed container.
  2. Make a frittata!  Seriously, you can put anything in a frittata, especially excess greens.
  3. Or, for that matter, a quiche.  I like apples, onions, and cheddar.
  4. There no rule that says that pesto has to contain basil, pine nuts, and parmesan.  I like to make cilantro pesto with cashews.  Bzzz up your greens, nuts, oil, seasoning, and cheese (if you’d like), then freeze what you don’t anticipate eating in the next few days.
  5. I have friends who swear by green smoothies, but I’ve never partaken.  I’d advise against including apricot kernels, however, as they contain trace amounts of cyanide.  Yes, that cyanide.
  6. Root vegetables that have gone soft can be used to make stock, which can then be used in soup, risotto, or a variety of other things – or frozen.  Just don’t freeze it in a glass jar.  Trust me.
  7. Most firm vegetables can be pickled, especially cucumbers, zucchini, and beans.
  8. Wash and quickly blanch vegetables in boiling water, then freeze on a baking tray in a single layer.  Once frozen, transfer to freezer containers.  The texture won’t be as good as fresh, but you can conceal that in a risotto or vegetable puree.
  9. There are few things that aren’t delicious when baked with oil and seasoning or fried.  Think kale chips, sweet potato fries, fried green beans, homefries, fried green tomatoes.
  10. Similarly, there are few things that aren’t delicious when grilled.  You can grill far more things than you’d imagine – including peaches and romaine lettuce.  I might grill both of those things tonight, in fact.

 

Ten on Tuesday is a listserv-driven meme thingamagig.

¡Viva España!

Germany vs. Spain, Semifinal World Cup Soccer Match

I’m taking Spain’s victory today as an excuse to declare a new challenge for myself: cook my way through the Spanish cookbook that has been lingering on my shelves for at least five years.

Over 150 recipes, some of which I’ve made, many of which will provide new and interesting challenges.  I’m allowing myself to skip 10, with extra special dispensation given to pulpo gallego in honor of Paul the psychic octopus, who called the game in favor of España.  ¡Viva España! ¡Viva Paul!

first zine!

[info]weetziefae said that I’m the only person she knows who decided to write a zine after only reading 2-3. This is true!

I made a zine

32 half-sized pages about my family, my favorite holiday, and a whole bunch of recipes raided from my grandma’s cookbook.  I decided to make this because for the last two generations, when a kid in our family moves out, my grandma provides them with a black ledger book full of family recipes.  My brother and sister and I all got the book, but only…

Today: a list

  1. Awake at 4am, lulled back to sleep by the rain.
  2. Spent much more than I planned at the Dupont market – buffalo burgers, strawberries and more strawberries, broccoli, ZUCCHINI, golden beets, chive blossoms, salad, rhubarb, and basil.
  3. Finished the rest of the grocery shopping, made pesto, dramatically reorganized the fridge to make 2 shelves work (used to have 3 but one broke), and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom – all before noon!
  4. Drove all the way to Cherrydale Hardware only to find no 4oz jelly jars.  Bought lids and Taco Bell.
  5. Prepped and canned four pints of strawberry-rhubarb jam.  Scraped the pan with some bread from the market.  Even better than last year’s batch.
  6. Transplanted the herbs and the lime tree.  Planted lavender seeds – would really, really like it if my kitchen smelled like lavender year round.
  7. Dinner: spare ribs braised in this and that, broccoli with an amazing vinaigrette, glass of Garnacha.
  8. Sleepy E.

Wine-Braised Chicken with Shallots and Pancetta

Wine-Braised Chicken with Shallots and Pancetta

Guys, seriously this is the new awesome recipe of deliciousness.  We’ve gotten into making one big pot of something on the weekend, then eating it throughout the week.  The problem with this recipe is that it’s so damned good that there’s barely anything left.  Seriously, if you are a chicken eater, MAKE THIS TONIGHT.  OR TOMORROW NIGHT.  I’M NOT PICKY JUST MAKE IT WHENEVER IT’S CONVENIENT AND THEN EMAIL ME TO TELL ME HOW AWESOME IT IS.  Because it is awesome.