A Few Odds and Ends

In the past few days/weeks since I've posted, I've made some dishes that haven't appeared here yet.

First, the tomato tart from Martha Stewart's Living:

It is a great way to use up some of the summer tomato bounty, except that this year there is no bounty, and is just a yummy way to eat tomatoes. It's made with roasted garlic and fontina cheese baked in a pie crust, and then sprinkled with a little fresh basil when it comes out of the oven. Only problem with this one is that it takes almost an hour to cook, so it requires some advance planning.

Next is chicken paprikash from the Frugal Gourmet's Immigrant Ancestors:

This is a good cool, rainy day meal. There was enough for two dinners; the first night I served it with noodles and corn, and the next night I served it with spatzle and corn.

A few weeks ago DS and I spotted these at the farmers' market:

Purple potatoes. I roasted them with a little salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.

The Veggies of Summer

It's August, and the farmer's market is overflowing with produce. We've been feasting on corn, summer squash, tomatoes, new potatoes, peaches, apples (Ginger Golds, one of the first varieties available in the season), and melons. My garden is doing okay, but we've had better years. It's been cool and wet this year, and the threat of late blight is hanging over the tomatoes.

At the moment, however, they are fine, and we've been harvesting a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes (I think cherry tomatoes only come in bumper crops). A few days ago I made cherry tomatoes in a balsamic vinegar sauce (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone).

The tomatoes are sauted in butter, then simmered in balsalmic vinegar with a bit of chopped onion or shallot tossed in. They were very good.

Another veggie dish I made last week was the Smoked Cheese and Vegetable Casserole from Thanksgiving 101 by Rick Rodgers. Again, pretty simple. Summer squash, zuchini, onion, garlic, rosemary, corn and green pepper with a topping of bread and smoked cheese. Excellent. I made this the last two Thanksgivings and it was a hit.

For Garlic Lovers Only

Skordalia, sometimes called garlic mayonaise (a complete misnomer, as there is no mayo in real skordalia) is Greek dip/sauce made of some combination of white bread (or potatoes or both), ground almonds, olive oil, lemon juice and a good amount of fresh garlic. This all gets blended together until smooth sauce forms, which is served with meat, fish, veggies, or eaten as a bread dip.

It took years for me to figure out how to make this right, but I finally found a recipe in the Complete Middle East Cookbook (see the entry on Green Beans in Oil). The batch in the picture was a little stiff and should have been thinned out with a little olive oil or lemon juice. It was, and I had to admit this, just a tad too garlicky; one clove less would probably sufficed. Still it was good, especially with the cherry tomatoes I've been harvesting from the garden.

Corn Beans and Squash

The week we were away the corn must have grown two feet. It also produced tassels and ears. After not seeing the garden for a week it was quite a shock to pull into the driveway and find this:

The corn is taller than I am and has actual ears on it, and the squash plants (Sweet Dumpling) have teeny little squashes on them. No beans yet, but here's still time.

The tomatoes are doing great, should have a few cherry tomatoes ripen tomorrow. Picked some hot peppers and one sweet pepper.

I am a little concerned about the tomatoes, as there is a tomato blight in the Northeast. I think I should spray a fungicide to keep them going this summer.

Speaking of veggies, I made Summer Vegetables Cooked in Their Own Juices (From Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers Markets by Deborah Madison). It's basically a stew of vegetables, cooked with the garlic and herbs on the bottom, and the veggies layered according to how long the veggies take to cook (the ones that need more time are on the bottom of the pot). After it's all done, serve it with a basil puree (basically pesto without the pine nuts). I served this for dinner with a loaf of Italian bread and some sauteed chicken breasts.

Potatoes and Beans

I made a very good potato and bean dish a couple of days ago (recipe from The Classic Vegetable Cookbook by Ruth Spear). Boiled about a pound of small potatoes and cut them in quarters. Mix with one pound of cooked green beans. Top it off with pesto, and mix everything together. It was very good.

No picture because it's all gone.