BRUSCHETTA

I've had bruschetta before, but I've never made it, I don't know why, because it's really easy .  Basically, I bought the baguette & some fontina cheese.  I already had fresh tomatoes, red onion and basil from the garden.  A little chopping, add crushed garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little salt & pepper and you have a delicious bruschetta topping.  Slice the baguette (why haven't I bought & eaten more of this great bread?) (oh yeah! because I would eat it all!) then toast it, I used my toaster oven.  Once lightly toasted, brush with olive oil and top with cheese.  Place it back in the oven until the cheese is melted, then remove and add the bruschetta mixture.  Many of the directions say to quickly rub a cut garlic clove over the warm toasted baguette after the first step, but I had enough garlic in my bruschetta, so I skipped this step.  Also, a word about Fontina cheese,  it melts beautifully and was a great combination for the bruschetta.  Happy eating!

Peach Muffins

I stopped by the local orchard last week and picked up a peck of peaches.  Lovely, fragrant, juicy peaches, unlike the hard flavorless variety at the local grocers. Friday we had peaches and ice cream and Saturday I made two pies for the freezer, a raspberry peach tart (sorry-no pictures, I took it to a friend's party and of course was running late) and sliced and sugared a couple of quarts for the freezer. That only left 4 or 5 peaches so I started looking for a muffin or bread recipe.  Monday our local magazine from the electrical co-op came and featured peaches, including a muffin recipe.  Last night I used it to bake these muffins.  I'm not going to include the recipe, because I think there's a misprint.  I had to add an extra egg, and double the milk.  Also it called for a full tablespoon of baking powder!  It seemed like a lot, but I used it anyway.  They raised just as they're supposed to but I swear I can taste the baking powder.  I can't decide if I like them or not- but I did eat three trying to make up my mind!

Stuffed Pepper Experiment

I saw a recipe online using peppadews stuffed with a cream cheese mixture that looked very interesting.  Peppadews are a specific type of pepper that are supposedly widely available next to the olives in your grocery store.  Well, maybe your grocery store, but definitely not mine.  So I bought several different types of peppers and filled them with some different cream cheese mixtures.  I thought they were very pretty & interesting, but frankly I'd rather eat the peppers and the cream cheese separately.  I had Greek Pepperoncini, Pickled Cherry Peppers and Pickled Banana Peppers.  They were all fairly mild flavored; the Pepperoncinis and the Banana Peppers had just a touch of heat, but not much.  I stuffed the Greek Pepperoncinis with a mixture of cream cheese, basil and feta cheese; the Banana Peppers with cream cheese, basil and dried tomatoes; the Cherry Peppers with cream cheese, garlic and green onion.  

SESAME NOODLES

I  was going to make these for dinner one night and didn't read the recipe through.  I was very disappointed when I got the "put in the refrigerator overnight" part. I love ginger and garlic, but they ovewhelmed this dish. So next time I'll cut those back and increase the vinegar and soy sauce. And maybe add some more vegetables. I only made a half recipe and it was enough for three meals.

Sesame Noodles

1 lb. spaghetti or linguine
7 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
2 tsp. Sriracha chili sauce
6 green onions, diced
sesame seeds (black or regular), for garnish
chili flakes, for garnish

Serves 6-8

Cook the noodles al dente.  Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water.  When they’re cool, let the noodles sit in the colander to drain while you mix up the sauce.

Sauce:

Mince up the garlic and put it in a medium-sized bowl.Add your ginger, then sugar, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha chili sauce, and sesame oil to the bowl.  Whisk the ingredients together well.  Pour into a medium-sized pot cook over high heat, whisking occasionally to help the sugar dissolve.  Take the pot off the heat when the mixture just comes up to a boil. Whisk it again well. You want to heat it up just long enough to dissolve the sugar. (This means you’ll still have plenty of fresh garlic and ginger flavor.) Tip the pot a little and look at the sauce. You shouldn’t see any sugar granules. Give it a taste to be sure.  Put your cold noodles in a large mixing bowl and pour the hot dressing over the noodles. Slice the green onions into rings and add to the noodles.  Gently toss the noodles to coat them in the sauce with a wooden spoon or tongs.  Once they’re well coated, transfer to a large zip lock bag and refrigerate over night.

When you’re ready to serve, garnish with sesame seeds and chili flakes.

Summer Is Here!

It's officially summertime.  We just had our first BLTs of the season made with real grown and ripened outside tomatoes.  Unfortunately they weren't grown in my garden, but were very good anyway.  My tomatoes are still as green as can be, since I got them planted so late.  Every year I'm late tilling, then it rains for a month and a half. But it just means more tomatoes in August.  These came from the local farmers market along with some delicious cucumbers.  I also stopped at  the orchard in Collins and got some peaches, apples and green beans (which we also had for dinner).  I picked up a watermelon at Wal-mart (on sale for 2.50) but locally grown.  The watermelon was the best we've had in sometime, really sweet.  I love summer! 

Sauteed Shredded Zucchini

As C will tell you I love squash, especially zucchini.  At one point the last summer she was living at home, she started asking me every night at dinner "Is there zucchini in it?".  I wasn't trying to hide it, I just liked it in a lot of different things.  I had it in my breakfast burrito on Sunday sauteed with eggs, onions, cheese and tomatoes.  But this was a different way to prepare it I came across that I hadn't tried before and it was very tasty and easy.  Just grate the zucchini, salt it and let it drain for 20 minutes or so.  Then put in a kitchen towel and squeeze dry.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a heavy skillet and add the shredded zucchini. Add garlic if you like and salt and pepper to taste.  I served it with a very sweet fresh canteloupe and smoked chicken.

Independence Day

So the best way to celebrate Independence Day?  BBQ? Fireworks? Picnics? Those are all great & we actually did them all, but the very best is CAKE!  This is our Independence Day Celebration Cake.  It's a banana cake with cream cheese frosting (I've posted the recipe before) then we decorated it with blueberries and strawberries.  It's actually 1/2 the recipe, because I used the other half for another purpose.  But the berries on top with the banana flavor in the cake made it taste like a delicious fruit salad with cake.  Maybe next time I'll make a pineapple filling- then it will be almost like a banana split.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!

After talking with you yesterday I decided what you really needed for your birthday was Chocolate and lots of it!  Also something GIRLY to offset the over-flow of testosterone at your house. This cake will fit the bill,  dense, complex chocolate cake with chocolate, melt in your mouth ganache decorated in pink and purple flowers.  To find the recipe go to epicurious.