Lavender Collins - Summer in a Cocktail

I recently discovered the blog mint love social club by accident while searching for a recipe for caprese bites. I stumbled upon Natalie's charming blog and fell in love with her inventive cocktails! We have fresh lavender growing in our garden, and so I instantly decided to try my hand at a lavender simple syrup to make Natalie's Lavender Collins. I am not disappointed!

Lavender Collins (adapted from mint love social club)

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1.5 oz lavender simple syrup
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• Ice
• Seltzer or club soda

Shake first 3 ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. In a highball or old-fashioned glass, pour shaker contents over more ice and top with club soda. Garnish with a lavender sprig.



Lavender Collins

Now that our patio project (updates to come soon!) is finished, this is the perfect thing to enjoy outside under cafe lights by candlelight.

Oh, hai!

It's been a while! Per us! LIttle things like applying to graduate school (I'll be starting at Boston University this fall) planning a wedding (getting married in 33 days, but who's counting?), and ya know, working full time, etc. seem to have gotten in the way. I am popping in to link up to my neighbor's blog, A Little Cat Fur. 5 of us in the building are teaming up together to get our sorry backyard into veggie-growing, BBQing party central in time for summer. Be sure to check her blog out to follow our progress! 2 architects, a former farmer and...me and Devin will do whatever it takes to get this thing done, and we couldn't be more excited to have good company whilst we do it!

Eggplant and Tomato Pizzas

Martha Stewart really is one of my favorite food personalities. I think she always focuses on the ingredients and doesn't usually make a recipe so fussy that the star ingredient doesn't shine through. This recipe is one such example.

A good friend of mine was stopping in unexpectedly for dinner, and I didn't have much time to prepare. I had a couple of eggplants and tomatoes from the end of the summer share to use up, and I decided to adapt Martha's Grilled Portobello Pizza recipe for the eggplants and tomatoes. For Valentine's Day this year, Devin got me a stovetop double grill pan, and I am always looking for a chance to use it. Grilling veggies in place of pizza crust is a great way to health-ify pizza without sacrificing flavor!

Veggies grilling away

Ingredients

•                12 cherry tomatoes, quartered (about 1/2 pound)

•                4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

•                2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

•                1 tablespoon Roasted Garlic

•                Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

•                1 eggplant and 2 tomatoes, sliced into ½ slices

•                About ½ of shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (I’ve found that vegetable peelers work great for this)

•                4 very thin slices prosciutto (about 1 ounce)

•                4 tablespoons Rough-Cut Basil Pesto

Directions

1.             Prepare a stove-top griddle or outdoor grill.

2.            Combine the tomatoes, thyme, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, the roasted garlic, and salt and pepper in a small bowl and toss. Set aside.

3.            Brush the top and bottom of each eggplant and tomato slice with the remaining oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until the veggies are tender, about 4 minutes per side for the eggplant and 2 per side for the tomatoes.

4.            After grilling, arrange an equal amount of the tomato mixture each veggie slice. Top each with a shaving of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

5.            Arrange 1/2 slice of prosciutto on each “pizza” and spread 1 tablespoon of the pesto on top of each prosciutto slice.

6.            Enjoy!

Super quick and healthy dinner

Best-Ever Stuffed Peppers

Let me just start by saying, PLEASE MAKE THIS. It is so delicious that I've made it every week since I first tried it. And the best part is you can make a double batch of the filling and freeze it--then all you have to do for dinner is thaw (the night before in the fridge), add filling to the peppers, and shred cheese. It is the ultimate easy dinner.

Onto the peppers...

At the end of the summer Enterprise Farm (the provider of our CSA) began to unload bell peppers on us. I love peppers--in salads, omelets, stirfries, you name it. But there was a slight chill in the air, some dry polenta in the cupboard, and several ears of corn in the fridge. Goey, warm, stuffed peppers sounded like the perfect semi-healthy comfort food I was craving. I googled "bell peppers, polenta and corn" and of course my dear friend Martha had an idea!

I adapted Martha Stewart's polenta and corn stuffed peppers. I love that Martha, but some of her recipes are surprisingly bland. Here is my adaptation of her recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion (or 4 shallots) and 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3-4 ears corns sliced off the cob
• 1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
• 4 bell peppers, halved lengthwise through stem, ribs and seeds removed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high. Cook onion or shallots and garlic, stirring often, until lightly browned, 5 minutes. Add spices and combine. Add 3 cups water, 1 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; bring to a boil.
3. Whisking constantly, gradually add cornmeal, whisking until incorporated before adding more. Reduce to a simmer; cook, whisking frequently, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in corn, remaining 3 tablespoons butter, and half the cheese until melted.
4. Place peppers in a large baking dish; fill with polenta mixture. Add about a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover tightly with foil; bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
5. Return to oven; bake, uncovered, until cheese is golden and peppers are very tender, about 30 minutes more. Garnish with a sprinkling of smoked paprika. Serve immediately.

Ingredients (notice the chopped red pepper--I used that as a garnish but decided it didn't look good)



Farmshare peppers!



Melty, cheesy, pepper goodness.

Tomatillo Guacamole

We got tomatillos in our share earlier this summer. I had actually never had one before, and I had to look them up to see what they were and what to do with them.


Wikipedia told me: The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) is a plant of the tomato family, related to the cape gooseberry, bearing small, spherical and green or green-purple fruit of the same name. Tomatillos, referred to as green tomato (Spanish: tomate verde) in Mexico, are a staple in Mexican cuisine. Tomatillos are grown throughout the Western Hemisphere."


Sounded like I should put it in some kind of salsa or guacamole, and I figured my usual mix of veggie, spices, herbs and oil should do the trick.  I served it with blue corn tortilla chips, and the resulting recipe was tart, tangy, and had a delightful mix of textures. A must-try if you have tomatillos on hand for some reason.

Ingredients

Tomatillo guac!

Goodbye, Summer...

I’m flipping out excited. After a bad history with faithless laptops, I finally decided I needed something more serious. Something sleek and reliable, something that didn’t have viruses, something I could really trust. Enter: MACBOOKPRO!!! Yeah, I got the iPhone, I’m an app-aholic, and now this. Whatever.

I justified this purchase in several ways.

• My current computer is a piece of sh*t. Literally, my friends mock it. It can barely open Word let alone a YouTube video. I require a machine that works. Because of the issue of my current model barely working, I’ve taken over my fiancé’s machine as often as he will tolerate. He has returned to school, so this is no longer possible.
• I am applying to grad school (again.) I need a workhorse of a machine for applications and essays.
• Hopefully grad school—if I get in, I need a working machine, duh! (This is the major one)
• Netflix—is that shallow? Sorry.
• Wedding planning (ditto to above)
• Photograph storage and sorting
• Music storage
• Being part of normal society

So why is all of this relevant here? Because I now have a real, true, working computer, and I plan to blog a lot more.

Until I can really sit down and get the new machine up to date with all my recent food endeavors, I leave you with a shot of a recent meal made. We visited with some friends on the lake in Meredith, NH and had a fantastically wonderful surf and turf meal. It was a lovely way to spend Labor Day weekend, and the ideal meal to say farewell to summer.

Lobster, grilled eggplant and corn!

The spread

The Gents

The girls, enjoying Arabella and Mike's amazing Stoli Doli

Basil Pesto - Summer Staple

Nothing beats basil pesto, especially when it is made fresh in the summer with lots of extra virgin olive oil and tons of garlic. I use it on pastas, as a spread on sandwiches, as a base for pizza, to add something extra to omelets...the list is endless! And the recipe is simple:

In a food processor combine a cup and a half fresh basil leaves and 4 to 5 large garlic cloves and 3 TBSP of a hard, sharp cheese such as Parmesan. With the processor on, drizzle in olive oil until the pesto reaches the consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, if you like, to brighten the flavor. You can also pulse in toasted pine nuts, but I never seem to have them on hand.

The great thing about this simple spread is that it freezes well, so if you need to use up some basil on its way out, this is the way to go!

Fresh pesto, ready to be popped in the freezer for future use.

Blast from the past! Turkey Burgers on the Trinity Quad

Last year I found a teeny tiny Weber grill, never used and in its original packing at a yard sale for 5 bucks. A steal! Though that little guy hasn't seen the light of day since last summer, it was a trouper last summer. One of my favorite summer memories from last year was an amazing afternoon at my alma matter, Trinity College, with fellow alum (and now betrothed) Devin.

We took some lean, ground turkey meat, mixed it up with some delicious spices, fresh chopped herbs, onions and bell peppers, and formed them into little patties...complete with an extra sharp cheddar cheese center, of course!

We headed over to Trinity with blanket, cards, frisbee, grill and the rest of the burger fixings and let those little patties grill to perfection. We topped the burgers with grilled red onions and red peppers, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, and of course more cheese. Served with Cape Cod chips and lemonade...what could be better?

The grill master at work!

The lovely mini burgers in all of their juicy glory

Eggplant Stacks with Mozzarella and Basil Pesto

I've never been a huge eggplant fan. It's not that I have had much of a chance to try any...I guess I just never really considered cooking with them. That is, until our CSA started putting them in our share. I've done a few things now that I have loved with eggplants, and now I seek them out: roasted eggplant spread with tahini, eggplant parms, and now this concoction.

I love that eggplants have a hearty, meaty feeling to them that makes them a good vegetarian main dish. Start with one large eggplant and slice into 3/4 inch disks like so:

Coat each disk in flour, dredge in 2 beaten eggs, and dip in a bread crumb mixture. Lay on parchment paper.

Fry breaded disks in a hot pan with a half inch of olive oil, about 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. With a large eggplant, you will need to do this in batches.  While the eggplant was browning, I mixed together a quick hand-crushed pesto--chopped basil leaves, chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I layered the eggplant stacks like so: eggplant, pesto, mozzarella, tomato, eggplant, pesto, mozzarella. I broiled each stack in the over until the cheese browned. I topped it with a single basil leaf and served it will the potato gratin. A simple, refreshing and pretty summer meal.

Dinner!

Blast from the past! Summer Lobster Dinner

Last summer after I moved from CT to MA, I only worked part-time for the month of August. This meant I had a lot of time to play on my hands, and that playing took place mainly in the kitchen. I have to admit, I kind of loved pretending to be a housewife for the month, enjoying preparing meals at a leisurely pace. This particular meal was a locavore's delight (at least as far as the produce was concerned.) The herbs (chives and basil) came from Devin's parents' garden. The potatoes, tomatoes and corn came from Ward's Berry Farm, where I also handpicked the blueberries for the pie (nerd alert!) The peaches in the pie came from our backyard at the time. Nothing says summer to me like lobster, white wine, corn on the cob and pie. Sigh.

August, 2009, Mansfield, MA

Menu:

• Steamed lobster with drawn butter (my favorite way to steam is in salted water with peppercorns and white wine)
• Chardonnay
• Fresh, local corn with butter
• Roasted fingerling potatoes with garlic oil and chives
• Heirloom tomato salad with olive oil, cracked pepper, fleur de sel and chopped basil
• Blueberry-peach pie

Blast from the past! Moving in together.

Because I am a nerd, I have always been fond of photographing meals. I guess I like the colors and textures in food, and it is fun to look back on meals we've made. I found some old food photographs on Facebook. Every now and then I will post a food "blast from the past." Let's start with a lovely summer meal out on the porch!

Summer, 2009, Mansfield, MA

This is pretty poor quality photograph, but the lackadaisical nature of the meal is conveyed. I believe this was a meal celebrating moving in together. Last summer before moving into our place in Somerville, Devin and I lived in his old apartment in Mansfield for one month. The suburbs provided a HUGE deck and yard, something we enjoyed immensely during those 30 days at the "Men's Warehouse." (Don't ask). There is nothing quite like dining al fresco with a crisp glass of champagne and good company. It is fun to think back on all the meals we have made together or for one another in this past year of living together. I look forward to many more :)

Menu

• Herbed goat cheese baked over toasted baguette slices drizzled with rosemary honey
• Pan-seared sea scallops with a lemon-wine reduction
• Simple lemon vinaigrette dressing over baby greens
• Veuve Clicquot to celebrate!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

As many of you know, I am not a baker. I do not enjoy baking. I try to avoid baking at all costs. Not because I don't enjoy eating baked goods, but simply because I am more of an improvisational cook than a methodical cook. And baking is all method (unless you are a very skilled baker in which you can safely improvise...enter Devin).

Luckily, my finacé, Devin, is a tremendous baker, no doubt a skill he learned from his mother. That means I get to have my cake (not baked by me, of course) and eat it too...I have my fun with veggies, meat, seafood and wine while Devin whips up batches of luxurious orange-scented chocolate chip cookies or his family's famous strawberry short cake recipe (all of these will be in future posts, I promise).

His most recent creation was so good that he made a second just days later as a hostess gift. May I present with with a true summer dessert, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. I will update this post later with recipes, but for now, here are some tasty images!

Fresh fruit ready to be turned into a delicious pie

Mis en place (Devin is learning well)

Ready to eat! Notice the lovely lattice crust.