I need to breathe some life not only into my summer food prep but also some “light” topics on this message board.
Try any new recipes lately? Or new twists on summer foods?
Here’s a twist that was delicious. A twist on a BLT.
Not into thick sandwich bread so used a toasted wheat sandwich thin.
Blended mayo and a lime crema sauce to spread on the sandwich thin.
Sliced tomato.
Bacon (I always sprinkle a very little dash of brown sugar on mine before baking in oven)
Instead of lettuce I had a LOAD of kale from my garden. Massaged a cup or so (reduces it in quantity) and then added a sprinkle of Garlic Expressions and fresh shaved parm and stirred up, let sit for a few minutes then put on top of bacon. Added a little fresh mozzarella - wow I could eat one everyday for days!
Also even though it’s not quite corn season, I’m into corn on the cob toppings - it can be the “Main dish” along with other sides!
Corn on the cob cooked as you like (leave on the cob)
Suggested toppings:
Blend of grated parm, paprika, chili powder and zested lime. Roll the cob in it.
or
Bacon crumbles and blue cheese crumbles. Spread room temp blue cheese on cob and sprinkle with bacon crumbles.
Long story, but for his birthday we got my youngest son a meat grinder (he asked for either that or a video game player, I can’t get over the feeling that he worked us, but I’d still rather deal with raw meat than the video game thing, so here we are…) Anyway, for the past week we’ve been making sausage. DS is in heaven. And it’s pretty much as fascinating and awful as you’d suspect. Our local butcher shop loves my kid so ordered in some special Berkshire(?) pork for him to use. So far we’ve made Mortadella and Landjaeger.
Right now, though, the boys are visiting their grandma and I’m having a nice break eating all the sorts of foods I love but my family doesn’t… made homemade gravlax and am having that with rye bread, cream cheese, sliced tomato, capers, red onion and Everything But the Bagel sprinkle. Also made up a huge batch of tzatziki and am eating that on everything - baked potatoes, pita, veggies. Or I’m just lazy and eating fresh tomato sandwiches… lots of Hellman’s mayo and sprinkle of salt. Yum.
We’ve been eating a lot of corn, tomato, and avocado salad. Sometimes with black beans, sometimes with poached salmon, sometimes plain as a side. I use a green goddess dressing.
It’s been hot this week. Central coast California hot, notMidwest or rest of the nation hot but it’s hot to us. I made extra chicken breasts last night so tonight we are having a Farro bowl with roasted vegetables that I roasted earlier today, zaatar spiced cold chicken, a tahini dressing and middle eastern spiced garbanzo beans.
I’m over cooking but we need to eat!
I’m not much of a baker. My H isn’t much of a sweet eater and he can eat one sliver or cookie and I eat the rest.
Wish I could grow good tomatoes.
I might be using the wrong phrase since it’s from an old, old recipe, but when I make it gravlax is salmon that’s rubbed with a mix of salt, sugar, freshly ground pepper and dill, pressed and “cured” for 24-48 hours, depending on how thick the salmon is. After that time, you rinse off the salt, pat it dry and thinly slice it. It’s tender like butter and melt in your mouth delicious. Since it’s been “cured” with the salt rub, it theoretically lasts in the frig for a couple of weeks.
Our local tomatoes are on their last legs. Usually they’re pretty fried by June but a couple of stragglers persist. It’s hot here so our tomato growing season is really late fall, winter and early spring. In the summer, all that’s edible and still growing in my yard is the lemongrass that’s trying to take over, the rosemary that’s putting up a good fight against the lemongrass (not sure which one is Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors, but at least one of them is…), mint, basil, thyme, sage, chives. Dill does fine, but wilty and bolts quickly so I’m not bothering right now.
What is a very good tomato? And delicious corn on the cob?
I grew up in Indiana so have memories but Oregon NEVER gets good tomatoes or corn. Cherry tomatoes but not the wonderful kind you can put on a sandwich.
I’m just beginning to get tomatoes from the backyard. Farmer’s market has had the heirloom tomatoes (barely) for two weeks. We are drowning in our CSA shares, so we are weekday vegetarians in the summer. Made a dish with amaranth leaves (so pretty!) and chana dal (roasted yellow split peas) and another one beans, coconut and an Indian spice mixture. I’ve been working my way through my various Ottolenghi cookbooks most summers - lots of good recipes.
Tajin is a chili, lime, and sea salt seasoning. I first discovered it on popcorn at a craft faire and loved it. (It seems to be well-known to many, but not to me.) There is a low sodium version and it’s not too spicy but the heat and lime flavors are great on almost anything.
@abasket Tajin is worth looking for. My go to meal when my H is away is to bake a couple of bone in chicken breasts drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a generous amount of Tanin. I get the skin crispy and eat it in a warmed flour tortilla. I eat the same meal for days. My ultimate comfort dinner.
It’s also great as @psychmomma suggested on corn. Or corn with both tajin and Parmesan.
My son likes a drink called a michelada that has the rim coated with Tajin. I buy it at the Mexican market but I’ve also seen it at Vons (Safeway).
Yesterday I picked the most amazing blueberries. They are huge and so sweet! I’ll be making gluten free blueberry pancakes - mix 2 eggs, a banana, add your desired amount of blueberries and cook as you would any pancake. This is a great no carb, no refined sugar breakfast!
Foodie grad student here… we don’t have a ton of energy to cook in the evenings at the moment but our weeknight repertoire can be pretty fun. Most Fridays we make Thai green or red curry with chicken and whatever vegetables are fresh at our grocery store. The way we make it it’s a veggie bomb, and the heat is great for a summer evening because it gets you sweating. This spring we learned how to make pho but have yet to find a butcher in our new city so we can get the beef bones for the stock. We’re planning on a favorite sometime soon: beef or lamb kofta with homemade pita bread. A family friend who is originally from Malaysia let us in on her spice blend for her amazing kofta and now that we’ve made them my boyfriend can’t get enough (and he loves making pita). Serve with pickles and garlic mayonnaise. Next time we do it I’m insisting on also making our own hummus.
Well, Tajin sounds like something I need to find - and quick! I wonder if the Mexican market here would have it - where do you buy it?
I have to admit I really LOVE talking food! I would like to eat everyone’s meals here!
Last weekend we made blueberry cottage cheese pancakes. You can put the blueberries in though last week we put them on top - cottage cheese and a little lemon juice and zest in the batter. Very yummy and feels less heavy than traditional pancakes.
My tomatoes aren’t quite ready but I am looking forward to making tomato paste. I planted a variety called Amish paste. It takes a ton of tomatoes to make a small quantity of paste but the paste is so good that I think it’s worth the effort.
H and I went deep sea fishing and caught lots of bluefish. H smoked them (his new toy is a pellet smoker) and we made bluefish pate. It is great with a toasted baguette slice and pickled veggies. I use this recipe from Food and Wine. https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/smoked-bluefish-pate?amp=true
The chefs who created this recipe have a great sea food restaurant that we go to fairly often.
What are we baking? Seriously, nothing, unless in the toaster oven. The panini press comes in handy as a countertop grill (love it.) I stocked up on some juicy precooked chicken breasts at WF (I’m a seal-a-meal queen,) add mushrooms and a good dose of Marsala. Love salad with blueberries added. Great watermelon lately.
We’re just starting to get the good local tomatoes here, too. But my cherry tomatoes are ripening and I hope the meatball sized ones ripen soon (a large meatball, but smaller than tomatoes usually are.)
