I’m rushing the season, I know. Soup has been on my mind for several weeks, and today I followed through on it. The house is cool, so it felt like it should be a soup night. Last year, or perhaps it was two years ago, Dear Husband took me to dinner at Maggiano’s in the Fall and I had Sausage and Orzo soup. I found one of those knock-off recipes and gave it a try.
The soup has celery, onion, carrots and garlic, diced tomatoes with their juice, chicken stock, seasonings, and bite sized chunks of Italian sausage. You boil orzo and put some in your soup bowl, and then ladle the soup over it. Dear Husband baked garlic bread, and offered me some watermelon to round out the meal. I think I might be able to wait for Fall, now that I’ve assuaged my soup cravings.
Category Archives: From the Kitchen
TOMATOES!!!
I have harvested my first tomatoes of the season! I thought I’d get the jump on the chipmunks and deer and bunnies and pick the very few tomatoes that were ready to eat. I have three yellow pear tomatoes, the tiny ones, a cherry tomato, and what I think may be a “Celebrity” tomato.
The chipmunks planted tomato seeds in the gardens at the sidewalk leading to the front door. The seed was in seventh heaven, because that’s one of the areas that has full sunlight, and it gets water regularly from roof run off, and overlap from watering the containers. It turns out there are two cherry tomato plants. They exploded with growth when the heat arrived and were growing across the sidewalk. Our guests had to hop over them. I should have corralled them sooner, but didn’t have anything to use. Dear Husband clipped apart an old trellis and we slid it under them and propped them up. It could look better, but the plants seem to be thriving.
When I weeded across the front of the house, to see if the Russian Blue sage was still there, I discovered more tomato plants, and left them. We’ll see if there will be tomatoes to harvest, there, too.
I’m looking forward to ripe homegrown tomatoes in “Summer” salad, and “Farmer’s Tomato Pie!”
Visit the May 13, 2003 archives for the recipe for Farmer’s Tomato Pie. “Summer” salad is diced tomatoes or thin tomato wedges, with cucumber slices and sliced green onions, with dill, in a vinaigrette. You can add other veggies, or omit those you don’t care for to personalize the recipe.
Summer Salads
My family has a salad that is standard on the tables of almost all my siblings. A visitor to my parent’s home years ago dubbed it “Summer Salad,” and so we’ve called it. You all have variations of this salad: diced tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion and a vinaigrette (or in my case, Zesty Italian dressing) with LOTS of dill. Occasionally, I’ll toss in some broccoli flowerettes, or perhaps some cauliflower, but I really like it the traditional way.
Unfortunately, Dear Husband is not as enamored of it as I am. I can easily make a bowl of it for myself, but then I need to come up with a salad for him.
I’ve been thinking that I’d like to create chunkier side salads. For instance, tomatoes, cauliflower flowerettes and pea pods. I need more ideas. Do you have a blend that your family really likes? I hope you’ll share your suggestions with me.
Mexican Chicken Salad
I’ve been trying to find new salads to serve this summer. I want a way to bring more veggies into our meals, and I want to serve something other than the same old things we’re used to preparing. I was surfing for variations on chicken salad and came across this recipe: Mexican Chicken Salad.
Chicken, corn, black beans, red onion, grape tomatoes, and red peppers are all dressed with a mixture of cider vinegar, honey, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper and chilled. It’s served mixed with greens. Avocado, pepper jack cheese, sour cream, salsa and blue corn chips are served as garnishes, allowing each person to choose how to finish off their salad.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the beans and corn but the salad is good. The dressing is not overpowering because it’s spread over a LOT of salad. This would be a really good salad to take to a pot luck, or to fix for a large summer party. I doubt I will make it just for Dear Husband and myself, but I’d make it again if there were more than two of us at dinner.
Farmer’s Market
I finally made it to the Farmer’s Market today! I visited the French Market two weeks ago, but until today haven’t made it to my favorite Farmer’s market. I was amazed at the produce that was available. I’m used to shopping there starting Memorial Day weekend, so this was like being thrown into a grocery store in comparison.
I dropped off two pruners to be sharpened by Tony, the knife sharpener. I’ll pick them up next week. I don’t need them at the moment and it will give me a chance to visit with him again. He’s one of Elegante Mother’s favorite men.
Then, I bought a little from as many stalls as I could. I picked up a cauliflower, vine ripened tomatoes, pickle cucumbers, green onions, 2 cloves of garlic, yellow wax beans, five ears of corn, peaches from two different stalls, red raspberries, and a quart of crimini mushrooms. I have too many potatoes in my pantry, or I would have picked up some new potatoes. We’ve particularly enjoyed roasted peppers, onions and potatoes lately, so I should be ready for some next week.
There’s a recipe for a simplified peach pie dessert in the June issue of Southern Living that I want to try. I may add the red raspberries to Cherrios or oatmeal for breakfast. All the other veggies will find their way into our meals this week.
I hope to have cherry tomatoes soon, so I’ll make a Farmer’s Tomato Pie for dinner when Dear Husband is off sailing. It’s the epitome of summer dining!
Leftovers
This has been a leftover weekend. When Dear Husband goes to sail for a weekend, I try not to cook. I eat salads and sandwiches, fruit, and junk food. (My bad…..I’m still working on that junk food habit.) THIS weekend, I’ve had an abundance of leftovers from two meals that were eaten out.
Yesterday, I heated up the garlicky poor boy sandwiches for lunch. At dinner, I had the second half of Frankie’s Shrimp Caprese from Olive Garden: shrimp and angel hair pasta with tomatoes, butter and garlic. I also had a slightly wilted salad that came home with that meal, and the fruit salad I had made on Friday night.
Today, there was just one little box left (thank God!). I had half a serving of Shrimp and Asparagus Rissoto, and a slice of the pugliese bread from Trader Joe’s.
I now have eaten enough garlic to have a lifetime immunity to werewolves, and I may have single-handedly supported the Wisconsin dairy industry with all the butter in those meals.
Come to think of it, the AMA may be collectively rubbing their hands, thinking of the money they will make from either re-educating me about eating habits, or caring for me if I keep this up.
But, I’m really glad that I didn’t have to cook, and I wasn’t restricted to a simple sandwich.
Food…..glorious food…..
Use it up
I’ve been using up things from my freezer. You know the concept….don’t let it stay around so long that it gets freezer burn or looses it’s value as a foodstuff. I moved a roasting chicken from the freezer to the refrigerator three days ago, but by 3:00 this afternoon it had not defrosted enough to roast. I’d left it to Dear Husband to oversee, but I think the US/Canada Olympic hockey game was more pressing.
I was trying to decide what we could do for dinner, running through what was in my refrigerator and pantry. I had hamburger, rice, cabbage, and tomatoes. There was only half a head of cabbage, so I couldn’t really do stuffed cabbage leaves, but I found a recipe for Golumpki casserole on-line, and I decided to wing it. I cooked the casserole for an hour, and it tasted okay, but some of the rice wasn’t cooked through. I wonder if a full head of cabbage would have added more liquid to the casserole, or if a necessary liquid was omitted from the recipe? I’ve added more water (and should have added more salt and pepper), and put it back in the oven to finish cooking. I think it will make an adequate leftover for lunches, and it wasn’t a bad as a “What the heck are we going to have for dinner?” meal.
I want to surf, or check my cookbooks to see if I can find a recipe similar to this that may have more liquid, or less rice in it. Failing that, I’ll just try my hand at cabbage rolls. It’s never too late to learn a new recipe!
Desserts
Following Thanksgiving dinner, my family offered up four desserts. We probably could have done away with all but one, but in my magazine reading for the holidays I came across two recipes that I couldn’t resist.
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the dark, spicy pumpkin pie that my mother made when we were children. My oldest sister has taken over the duty, and for years she has made pies on Thanksgiving morning. This is really the only version of pumpkin pie that I care for. When she brought them in, the house was suffused with the scents of cinnamon and cloves, and it made my mouth water!
If you have a copy of the December 2009 “Southern Living” issue, one of the desserts I made was featured on the cover: Chocolate-Citrus Cake.” Actually, the making of the cake was a collaboration. I made the two chocolate cake layers (bittersweet chocolate with 62% cocoa solids). I also learned how to make ganache (which I assure you I will be making again, soon!), that was used as the filling between the layers. My niece, Kim, who is the family cake specialist, brought a vat of fresh whipped cream, assembled the cake and then iced it with whipped cream (in place of the 7 minute boiled icing). She decorated it with an orange slice and thin chocolate wafer cookies. It’s to die for……
Usually at Easter, Kim’s sister makes her famous iced sugar cookies. I’ve been the recipient of a personal bag of those cookies, which I really treasured. One of the kids begged for the sugar cookies, so we were blessed with a bowl of them half a year early!
I found one more dessert that I wanted to make: Pecan Pie Cheesecake, from the December, 2009 issue of “Cuisine at Home.” I put this together on Tuesday only to find that the spring-form pan had not been sealed and wrapped properly. Water from the boiling water bath around the cheesecake leaked in, and ruined the crust. I decided that I would try it just one more time, and started over on Wednesday.
The crust is made of chocolate wafer cookies, toasted pecans and butter. Over that, you bake an incredible cheesecake that has a quarter cup of bourbon in the filling. This cake can be made a day ahead. All you need to do to finish it is to make a sauce of brown sugar, heavy cream, butter, MORE BOURBON, kosher salt, and toasted pecans. Make the sauce before you are ready to serve dinner, and it will be thickened and ready to serve in time for dessert. Yummy!
We were all so stuffed after dinner there wasn’t much room left for dessert….and half the cake, and half the cheesecake are in my refrigerator. Oh, DARN! I really did try to get my family to take it home with them. I should count my blessings that I got to taste it at all, and not worry about leftovers! *G*
Thanksgiving, reviewed
I believe that yesterday was just about the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever hosted. Actually, I think it might have been the best Thanksgiving ever. Perhaps because of all the health problems, and financial problems, and relationship problems the family is suffering, that they were able to gather and enjoy each other’s company, and put all that aside, made it very special to me.
There were 37 people seated to dinner yesterday. To accomplish that, I started working on things more than a month ago. I tried to get the gardens and grounds done by early November so that I could concentrate on things within the house the closer we got to “The Day.” My oldest sister will be happy to tell you about the file I sent her with the names of those attending, and list of what they were bringing for the meal.
One of my nieces helped me with two marathon cleaning sessions. Unlike most of you, I do Fall cleaning rather than Spring cleaning. (Well, actually, I do both, but we do a really thorough Fall cleaning before the holidays.) The china and glasses and silverware were washed and dried. I gathered seasonal items to decorate the tables (there were 5 tables), and seasonal quilts were laid out or hung.
I ironed napkins, cleaned out the office and my quilting studio, and moved things from the laundry area and mudroom counter to make room for desserts and a turkey roaster.
Dear Husband is an old hand at Thanksgiving with that many guests. He took care of the seating, made two huge pans of lasagna (Wednesday night), and at the last minute, prepared a Caesar salad. He is a genial host, and makes everyone welcome. Toward the end of the afternoon, I saw him playing with the three little girls (including one of our granddaughters) who were in their twos.
My oldest sis arrived early, followed by part of her family, and they all helped out with the last minute preparations. We peeled potatoes and cooked two huge pots of them for mashed potatoes (we only needed one, I sent most them home with her.) I made two dishes of dressing (we only needed one, and I KEPT the second one! lol) We made iced tea, filled the ice bin, put out the pickles and olives and appetizers. Sis had set the tables on Wednesday afternoon while I worked on desserts, so all they had to do was move chairs in place.
Enough of this detail….Suffice it to say, we had TONS to eat, all of it great, and a lot was left over. No one goes hungry in this family, ever. What’s most important is that so many of my family members were able to gather for a meal. We have several people who are dealing with serious health issues, some with relationship problems, and some who are trying to hang on through difficult financial times. They were able to put all that aside and have a day to simply enjoy the extended family. When I asked before dinner if there was anyone feeling particularly thankful who would like to say grace for us, my six year old great-nephew raised his hand. I was floored. He did an outstanding job! He was succinct, and clear voiced. It was the perfect blessing to our gathering.
It’s my hope that you all had just as perfect a day as we did. If not, come join us next year, and we’ll share our blessings with you. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and a relaxed month leading to Christmas.
Ramblin
I have my annual Fall cold. I have been blaming my stepson for sharing his with me, but I discovered that my niece has the same cold, and she was with us for an afternoon. On top of that, I’ve been exposed to the swine flu, so I have spent the past two weeks pretty close to home. I chose not to go to exercise because I felt it would be wrong to share the swine flu with the senior citizens in the class. I hope to get back to exercise next week, before all my muscles turn to jello!
It’s supposed to be almost 70 degrees today. It’s sunny, and will be the last of the sunny days this week. We have rain forecast from this evening through Saturday. I should do a little work in the gardens, to move us through preparation for winter. My dear sis, Frankie, has done most of the work in the herb garden. I need to work at the front of the house, and in the long driveway gardens where the peonies grow.
Dear Husband was able to bring the boat home safely last weekend. Other than being swamped by a huge wave as he motored south to the yacht yard, it was a relatively uneventful trip. I suspect that he did better without my help than he does with it. He’s been offloading anything that would freeze, and winterizing the motor and bilges. Poor guy. Seven months and he’ll be back on the water!
Zucchini bread and pumpkin muffins are the only things I’ve baked so far. I’d like to make a carrot cake, and some pumpkin bread, and maybe some zucchini bread to freeze. I love the scent of fall seasonings. Cinnamon must be my all time favorite flavor!
I’ve managed to enter my Mother’s checkbook onto Quicken, but I realized yesterday that the program sees it as my property, rather than a separate account. I need to see if there is any way to sequester that data so that I can run reports, or I’ll have more work to do at tax time. Darn it all!
And that’s about all the news that’s fit to print. I hope you are all having a good Fall!