Whole30 #2: Week 3

Began the week on the cusp of a slip-up (a yummy delicious and worth it slip-up), but I'm back on the wagon!

Day 15: Feeling the sugar hang-over.  Tired, stuffy, dragging.

• Breakfast: Coffee.  I think I had 3 cups!
• Lunch: Work lunch steak salad: grilled steak, romaine, pico de gallo, lots of guac.  I also cheated a little with 2 corn chips as I stared at them longingly for almost 4 hours...
• Dinner: Peer pressure is the worst, and I'm such a sucker.  Definitely had a glass of home-brewed cider from a friend, got wasted off one glass, and then made dinner.

Day 16: Obviously dragging and tired.  Nose still stuffy.

• Breakfast: Coffee.  Again, multiple cups.
• Lunch: Leftover steak salad with avocado (since I ate all the guac at the meeting...)
• Dinner: Spaghetti squash and meatballs (no bread crumbs) with homemade marinara.

Day 17: Feeling better again, but still a little tired.

• Breakfast: Coffee.  I'm really just not hungry in the morning...
• Lunch: Leftover spaghetti squash and meatballs and an apple with almond butter.
• Dinner: Butternut squash burrito bowl.

Day 18: Energy's back. Still tough getting up, but it's not tragic.  Woke up hungry for the first time in about a week. 

• Breakfast: Coffee and a smoothie.
• Lunch: Leftover spaghetti squash and meatballs, and an apple lent to me by a friend.
• Dinner: More squash burrito bowl, with the last of the chipotle chicken, a poached egg, salsa, avocado, cilantro.  A spoon of almond butter as a snack.

Day 19:  Feeling great, except for this cold that came upon me...I also weighed myself and I'm down 7 lbs!

• Breakfast: Coffee.
• Lunch: The last of the squash burrito bowl, with a poached egg, salsa, avocado, and cilantro.
• Dinner:

And then there was a blizzard.

Day 20: Lots of shoveling, some "I earned this" beers, lots of warm things to thaw us.

• Breakfast: Coffee
• Lunch:  6 pepper chili (jalapeno, bell, chipolte, chili, ancho, and cayenne) with ground beef (no beans).
• Dinner:  

Day 21:  I'll be honest, I can't remember...there was more shoveling, and more chili to be sure.

5 Reasons to Love Your Crockpot This Month

Although the past week or so has been hiding this fact, it's November and the colder weather is coming.

Here are 5 easy ways to show your crockpot (and wallet and sanity) some love this month:
1. Roasted Squash.  I was totally afraid of this one at first.  But seriously, wash a butternut squash, cut it in half, and just throw it in and put the lid on.  No seeding, no peeling, nada.  High for ~4 hours or low for ~6.  Then just scoop out the roasted yummy goodness (after scooping the seeds out if you don't want to eat them).
2. Roasted Chicken and Vegetables.  3 whole peeled carrots, 3 trimmed stalks of celery on the bottom, a seasoned (salt, pepper, paprika to keep it simple) whole fryer chicken stuffed with a bay leaf, a clove of garlic and a small onion on top.  Put the lid on, turn it on low for ~8 hours.  Eat the breasts and then get onto...
3. Chicken soup.  Leave everything in the crockpot but the whole chicken from #2, add back in the meat you picked off of that chicken after your meal for #2, add about 4 cups of water and voila!  Soup.  You don't even have to turn the crockpot on for this one.
4. Chili.  After browning about a pound of ground beef (or turkey), add it to the crock pot with two big cans of whole tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, a chopped onion, a chopped green pepper, a chopped (and seeded if you like) jalapeno, a can of black beans, a clove of garlic, and 4 diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (1/2 a small can).  ~2 hours on high; ~4 hours on low.
5. Coq au Vin.  Whether you prefer it red (I recommend cote du rhone) or white (Nigella and I say Riesling), just get some skinless chicken thighs (4-5), coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, 2 bay leaves, and 2 cloves of garlic into that crockpot!  Serve it over some buttered egg noodles or just with some crusty bread.  ~4 hours on high or ~6 on low.

Happy slow cooking!

Portobello Mushroom "Burger" with Peppers and Fresh Mozz!

Served with a baked sweet potato

Meatless Mondays.  It's a thing.  And for a gal who would rather eat veggies, it's a great excuse to have some fun with vegetable main dishes.

This is what we had for dinner last night, and I'm so glad I saw those mushroom caps at the grocery store on Sunday!  All said, this took about 30 minutes to make, and most of that was waiting for the peppers and onions to cook down and caramelize.

Portobello Mushroom "Burger" 
Serves 3

3 portobello Mushroom Caps
1 red pepper (med/large), finely chopped
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
1 cup baby arugula
3 English muffins, toasted
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 slices fresh mozzarella (1/4 thick)
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Lay mushrooms stem side up on a plate.  Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Heat pan over medium heat.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil, peppers, and onions when pan is hot.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover.  Cook for 10-15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to caramelize.  Move from pan into bowl; set aside.

Put mushrooms in pan, stem side down, with balsamic vinegar over medium heat.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Flip mushrooms, cover, and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until tender.

In the pan, spoon peppers and onions on the stem side of mushroom.  Top with cheese, and cover until cheese melts slightly.

Serve on a toasted bun (or English muffin) with 1/3 cup of baby arugula.

Breakfast Cookies

Coming back from vacation, I realized that I had gained 8 lbs.  In one week, I gained 8 lbs.  The same week I had a crazy stomach bug during which I purged an entire day's worth of food. 8 lbs!

Since I'm not a diet/salad/deprive myself kind of girl, I was super excited to see breakfast cookies in my Bloglovin' feed last week from Ambitious Kitchen.  And not because I ever planned on eating these for breakfast (though it's a pretty awesome idea), but because I need to take the ravenous 545pm beast that tries to wrangle ninos, start dinner, and pick up the morning's mayhem while keeping the hanger at bay. 

Yes, I get hangry.  If I'm cranky, please offer me food.  I'll be much nicer to you.

Back to the cookies...


Here's the link to the recipe.

Before Baking

Some notes for making the cookies:
- Cool down the nuts before incorporating the other ingredients (my chocolate chips melted)
- The "batter" doesn't really hold together too well when forming the cookies
- They look super ugly on the cookie sheet out of the oven.  Don't be scared
- Cherries are a better idea than cranberries.  It's just better.

Right Out of the Oven

Some notes on eating:
- Crumbly.  Messy.  Don't eat this in front of people you're trying to impress or in bed.
- Let them sit for a couple days in a ziplock bag or container.  It helps with the messy factor a bit.

You could probably make these vegan by using a banana in lieu of an egg.

I will be making these again.  It's a, easy to make, great recipe and mostly guilt-free. 

And they're delicious.

Yum

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seeds.  I just realized that these were the same seeds that you put on a chia pet.  Which is probably a good thing or I doubt I would have started eating them...or maybe I would have because then I could say I ate a chia pet.

Chia are some good stuff.  They're pretty amazing little buggers nutritionally, are great thickeners, really don't taste like much, and are so easy to add to pretty much anything (salads, smoothies, soups, etc.).  And they're pretty cheap (I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill at Giant for $8 last week which will last me a solid 2 months).

Whilst pregnant during the dog days of summer, all I wanted was something refreshing to eat that was also healthy and easy to make.  Since a girl can only cut up so much watermelon, I went hunting and found that chia seed puddings are kind of thing and ridiculously easy to make.  And the texture is similar to tapioca, which I adore.

Here's what I came up with after doing some internet and taste-testing research:
1. Use coconut milk:  It's easy, you don't have to add sugar to make it awesome, and I always have a can in the pantry (ironically sitting next to the jar of chia seeds) so I have an instant desert now.
2. Top with fresh fruit:  In addition to making it look prettier, it was a great way to use up that bumper crop of raspberries I had this summer.  I used blueberries, peaches, and grapes (I don't really recommend the grapes), but I'd imagine most anything would be good.
3. Use mini chocolate chips:  normal size are just too big. Dark chocolate is awesome.
4. Anything that doesn't require preparations with heat in the summer are awesome.
5. Maple syrup is a good sweetener if you decide you need it.
6. This is one of the few desserts that should satisfy all of your friends' weird dietary habits (vegan, paleo, low carb, etc.)

Chia Seed Pudding
makes 4 servings
1 12oz. can coconut milk (full or low-fat)
1 1/2 tablespoons chia seed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup fresh fruit for garnish

Mix coconut milk, chia seeds and chocolate in a bowl.  Cover and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes up to an hour.  Scoop into serving cups and top with fresh fruit.

Remaining pudding can be stored for up to a week in the fridge.  FYI: it might separate, but will stir back into prettiness easily.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Blueberry Buckle

Photo borrowed from thespicedlife.com

I think berry season is my favorite part of the summer--strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries (try them, they're AMAZING), blackberries, whatever.  I'm there, I'm stained red and blue and I'm happy.

So, I'm thrilled that blueberries were on sale a few weeks ago (from CA, but I couldn't help myself) so I could make a blueberry buckle for my co-worker's office wedding shower.

Blueberry buckle is one of those desserts/breakfasts/snacks that reminds me of childhood.  My grandparents had blueberry bushes which my sister, cousins and I spent a lot of time picking, and someone was always making something with berries.  My mother makes a mean buckle, but I did modify her recipe a little bit to suit the lack of Crisco in my pantry (mmm, butter).

Also, if you're wondering exactly what a buckle is, it's like a coffee cake, but with a band or "belt" of berries going through the middle.  I simplified for this recipe and just put all of the topping on top, but it's definitely prettier if you have the patience to split the cake batter into two layers.

Blueberry Buckle--makes 16 servings

Oven: 350F

Prep time: 15 minutes

Bake time: 45 minutes

Creamed sugar, butter, and egg

Cake

1/2 cup butter (softened)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

Thoroughly cream shortening and cup sugar - add egg and beat till light and fluffy.  Sift together flour, baking power and salt- add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.  Spread in well-greased tube pan.

Topping

Batter before topping

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup butter (cold)

Mix together sugar, flour and cinnamon in medium bowl.  Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.  Gently mix in berries and sprinkle over top of cake  Bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

Let the cake cool for at least 20 minutes before trying to remove from the pan.  When mostly cool, slip a knife around the outside edge of the pan.  Place a small bowl or short glass inverted on the counter and use that to help you remove the cake from the outer ring. Then run your knife along the inside edge and under the cake to loosen.  It should lift off the tube easily--if not, run the knife around again.

Pre-baking

Cut into 16 wedges and serve.

You can wrap and freeze whole cakes and portions as well--keeps for about 3 months without issues.  To defrost, just let sit on your counter for a few hours.

*Please note: the title image on this post has been borrowed from http://www.thespicedlife.com/2008/07/blueberry-buckle.html.  This is because I didn't have time to take a photo before all sixteen pieces were eaten!

Pretzel Bread Bowls & Butternut Squash Soup

Fall means a few things to me, and two of them are baking and soup!  And (as long as you have strong arms or a stand mixer), these two easy recipes will keep you ready to fight the impending frost.

First, I made these pretzel bread bowls.  And luckily, my trusty helper Little Man was there to help dump in the flour and make a mess.  Though the entire process took some time (20 minutes of mixing and kneading, an hour of rising, 25 minutes to punch down/separate/rest, 10 minutes of baking soda bath, 20 minutes of baking), it really couldn't have been easier.  And we fought over the left-over bread bowls...because apparently having 6 left over wasn't enough to make us all happy.

While they cooled, I made the butternut squash soup.  Very easy to do from scratch and it takes maybe 30 minutes and will feed 4 people LARGE soup portions.  Can be made vegan or vegetarian by using oils and water or veggie stock.

Butternut Squash Soup
1 large Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 small onion, diced
1 quart of chicken stock (box or home made)
1 tsp of sage
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup cream or half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Put a stock pot over high heat with a tablespoon of olive oil or butter.  Once it starts to glisten, add in the onions, sage and bay leaf and pinch of salt.  When the onion is slightly translucent add in the squash.  Saute about a minute until the squash starts to turn a bit darker.  Add in enough stock to just cover the squash and bring to a bowl.  Put the lid on, turn the heat to medium, and cook until the squash is soft.

Take off the heat, remove the bay leaf. Using a stick blender, blend away until all the soup is smooth (can be done in a traditional blender as well in stages).  Add the half and half, stir and return to the heat for a few minutes until it's nice and hot again. 

Serve with a sprinkling of sage or a dusting of nutmeg.

Can be made vegan or vegetarian by using oils and water or veggie stock.
Freezes REALLY well.

Home made Pedialyte

I totally stole this exact recipe from 100 Days of Real Food, but it's surprising to me that a lot of people don't seem to realize that Pedialyte isn't the only thing you can give your child when he's sick.  Here is a much better alternative (spelled out for you) which will save you quite a bit of money.  Plus, I know you all have this stuff at your house already, so it saves you a trip to the store, too!

She recommends using OJ, but I think the acid might be too much for a sensitive stomach. I use watered-down
apple juice or cider with a pinch of salt in it for Little Man (worked twice now).

Enjoy!

Homemade Pedialyte Recipe

Mix together:

• 1 quart water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Note: If you fear your child will think this drink is too plain consider adding in a couple splashes of orange Juice. Also, the sugar and salt may dissolve more easily if you warm up the water first.

Disclaimer: This recipe is recommended for children who are older than 1, generally healthy with properly functioning kidneys, and not experiencing severe dehydration or high fever (which would probably require direct medical attention anyhow). And, as always, follow your own doctor’s advice over anything you find on the internet!

Venison Tenderloin Roast

I'm a lucky girl in many ways, but I am definitely lucky to have to step-father who shares the spoils of his hunting expeditions.  And last year, he got two deer, so there was a lot of sharing!

Since deer season is set to begin again in his area, I'm in a mad dash to finish all of the wonderful cuts of meat we got last year and this tenderloin is actually part of a larger roast I made into stew a few weeks back.  It was a small roast--maybe one pound tops--so it was perfect for a quick and yummy weeknight dinner for two.

Plus, once it was defrosted, it only took 10 minutes to prepare--start to finish! 

Pan-seared Venison Tenderloin
1 lb. tenderloin (whole)
2 Tbs. garlic powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbs. cracked black pepper
2 Tbs. olive oil

Heat a frying/sautee pan over high heat.  Add olive oil.

Pat dry tenderloin with paper towels, and evenly apply garlic, salt, and pepper.

Once the oil is shimmery and just starting to smoke, add the tenderloin.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side--probably 4 sides--for a rare center and medium rare ends.  It should be dark brown but not burnt.  Turn off heat and remove loin to carving surface and tent with foil to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving and serving.

*You can use a similar preparation for a beef or pork tenderloin as well, if you finish it off in the oven since they are generally much larger than 1 lb.

It's Oktober!

I feel like if you're a home brewer, there are a few things you HAVE to make every year:
1. A holiday/spiced beer for Christmas or the fall
2. An Oktoberfest

Here's what mine looked like.  And I say lookED, because that keg is KICKED!
As you can see, it's a little cloudy, but I'm really thrilled with how it turned out. 

One of the reasons I hadn't made an Oktoberfest before this year was that I didn't have any way to lager the beer (fermenting at low temperatures like 55F).  And I still don't, but I waited until the weather cooled off and the house was under 65 during the day and I dare say it worked!

I'm really disappointed that this beer is gone.  It's probably the best Oktoberfest I've ever had!

P.S. I totally cheated on this one, I went with a recipe kit from my favorite home brew store, Keystone.  Go pick it up!

Raspberry Maple French Toast

I'm lucky enough to have raspberry bushes that produce just as much fruit in the fall as they do in the late spring, and an arsenal of recipes to make sure none of them go to waste.  This is one of my favorites.

Raspberry Maple French Toast
French Toast
8 slices of day-old challah, 1/2 inch thick
4-5 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbs cinnamon

Heat a skillet, griddle or frying pan over medium heat.  Lightly beat eggs, milk, and cinnamon in a shallow dish.  Add a single layer of bread and then flip the bread to coat the other side.  Let it sit in the egg for a minute to soak.
Add a pat of butter or a non-stick spray to the pan and put in a single layer of bread.  Cook 3 minutes on one side until lightly browned and flip.  Cook 3 more minutes until lightly browned and remove to a warm oven until ready to serve.  Repeat with the remainder of your bread. 

Syrup
a pint of raspberries
2 cups of maple syrup
4 Tbs/ 1/2 stick of butter

Add the butter to a pan over high heat. Once melted, add raspberries and cook until berries start to break apart.  Add syrup and cook until heated through.  Poor syrup into a gravy boat or small pitcher (I use a pyrex measuring cup with a spout).

Serve warm over the french toast (or pancakes).

Serves 4-6

*You can use frozen berries with this recipe
*You can also substitute blueberries, blackberries, or even strawberries
*Day-old bread is not necessary, but it makes it that much better
*You can also strain the syrup if you're adverse to pulp or seeds

Pan Roasted Cabbage

I love a cabbage, garlic and cumin combo, so I came up with this recipe one night when I had a random head of leftover cabbage.  After everything is said and done, this dish will cost you about $2 to make, and feeds about 6 people very hefty side servings.  Goes great with chicken, steak, and pork.  It's a little sweet, a teeny bit sour, and perfect for a fall evening.

First thing to know about cabbage is how to cut it. Remove any leaves from the outside that look wilted, damaged, brown, mushy, or otherwise unappealing.  Cut it in half from the core and then cut a little triangle around the core to remove it.  Cabbage can be a tough little ball of leaves, so be careful.  You can also use a food processor to shred the cabbage after removing the core, but I find it to be too much clean-up.

Then, cut the cabbage in about 1/8 inch (smaller if you can manage) slices.  I cut those in half.  The smaller you can make the slices, the quicker it will cook and caramelize.

Pan Roasted Cabbage
1 medium head of green cabbage
2 tablespoons of oil (I used olive)
3 large cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the garlic and add to a large skillet with the oil, cumin and a bit of salt over medium heat.  Once the cumin aroma starts to come out, add the cabbage, stir to combine and cover for 10 minutes or until the cabbage has softened.  Stir again, add the honey and vinegar, and cook uncovered for another 2-3 minutes.  Cabbage should just start to brown.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6-8.

Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipes

We might not all be destined to be the Commander in Chief, but now we can drink like him!


After a few weeks of online petitioning, bloggers demanding, and homebrewers drunkenly whining, our fearless leader and his even more fearless chef and brewing partner released the recipes for their White House Beers.  And apparently they are amateur bee-keepers as well...

And being that this weekend in the Philadelphia Honey Festival, it makes the release of this recipe very timely.

Here's the link to the recipes, and bit more on the background, and an interview of the big O talking brewing

I'm planning to do the Honey Porter first...SO EXCITED!

Linguini and hot sausage in a fried sage cream sauce

When I first read about this in a NYTimes column early this week, it sounded gross.  I mean, fried sage?  In a cream sauce?  And then you have hot sausage?  Nothing about this seemed like it would make sense, but I have a sage bush(?) in my garden (that I can't seem to kill and I barely even use the stuff) and those food writers at the Times haven't steered me wrong yet, so I went for it.

This is a modified recipe, as I didn't use theirs and frankly don't remember or care to spend the time finding the link.  I made it for two, and we had two large servings, with just barely enough left over to not save it for a lunch the next day.

1/2 lb of Linguini (not fresh)
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 lb of hot italian sausage in the casing
2 Tbs Fresh sage chopped finely (or use little leaves)
1 small shallot, sliced thinly
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Start your pasta water boiling, and a large skillet on medium/medium high with a drop of olive oil. 

Cut the sausage into 1/8" slices (think bite-sized).  When the pan is hot, add the sausage and cook for 5 minutes or until both sides are browned.  Remove sausage from pan and set aside.

If you have a fair amount of oils left in the pan, just add the sage and saute until it turns to a dark green, scraping up any bits that may have been left in the bottom of the pan along the way.  You may want to add a small amount of oil if you didn't have a fatty sausage, but be light-handed with the oil.

When the water is boiling, salt it and add the pasta.  Cook to package directions.  Before you drain your pasta, be sure to save a mug of pasta water.

Once the sage is a bit crunchy and the desired shade of dark green, add your thinly sliced shallot.  You can also substitute a bit of onion and minced garlic, but I liked the sweetness of the shallot and think garlic would have been a bit much with the sausage.  Saute until it becomes translucent and starts to brown.

Turn off the heat, and slowly add the cream, about 1/4 cup at a time.  Stir to incorporate, making sure that the cream isn't curdling.  Once you've added the cream, turn the heat back on to medium.  Add the sausage back in as well.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Allow the cream sauce to simmer and thicken to your desired consistency--I'd recommend just a bit thicker than the cream started out.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce skillet and toss to combine.  If you'd like a looser sauce, add the reserved pasta water (less than 1/4 cup at a time) until you get your desired texture.

Serve and enjoy!

On the menu for next week

I realized that even though I've been doing a pretty good job of sticking with my meal-planning, I haven't shared my experiences in this arena lately.

I have not stuck with a meal planning service--I didn't LOVE the recipes, and our fickle tastebuds tend to crave things that weren't in any of the menus I found.  I did, however, find a lot of inspiration of how I should be doing things and continue to use the models of execution from many of the websites I found.

So what exactly am I doing?  I've started bookmarking recipes and (GASP!) making a running grocery list of items we'll need to execute those menu items for the next few weeks.  You'll notice some things are crossed off, and that's because their procurement was delegated to the big guy who drives past a butcher on his way home from work.  Other things missing from the list are things I have in my garden, so no tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, cucumbers or raspberries will show up on here until October.

And what will we be cooking?
-Peach sauce for the little guy
-A shrimp, peach and spinach hot salad thingy (once I make it and figure out what I'm doing I'll post about it)
-Pasta with hot sausage, fried sage, and a cream sauce.
-Grilled flank steaks (probably slightly Mexican-style w/ fresh salsa and tortillas)
-Grilled chicken breasts marinated in a yogurt curry sauce.
-Eggplant (roasted, fried and baked into a "lasagna", possibly into a chutney I saw)
-Pretty much all meals will be accompanied by a tomato salad since it's that time of year.
-Left over corn chowder to eat with hamburgers and hot dogs over Labor Day weekend

It's amazing how just this little bit of conscious planning has really taken away the stress, made me a better grocery shopper in terms of both time and money, and has really made our evenings that much more enjoyable.

Pistachio Milk

I definitely think this could be a contender for weirdest breakfast of the week, but I DARE you to try it and tell me it's awful.

A few weeks ago I was reading FoodBabe's Blog, and she posted a pistachio milk recipe.  Intrigued, I set out on the semi-daunting task of finding unsalted, unroasted, shelled pistachios.  It took a minute and two grocery stores, but I found them at the fancy farmer's market near the in-laws.  Biggest draw back:  $20 a lb.

This recipe is easy-peasy, so try it if you have a $20 spot to burn, because it really is worth it.  It also only took about 2 minutes to make, though cleaning up the food processor took about 5.

The pistachio milk is really satisfying, nutty, and even a little thick (thanks to my less than fine mesh strainer), and a half jar and a banana was a perfect breakfast.  I added a bit of vanilla, and I think for a really awesome fall drink, I'd warm this up and add a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Other possibilities going through my brain:
-Making this into an icecream
-Booze--why does it always come back to booze?  I'm thinking a bit of spiced rum could be nice.
-Whip it and put it on a chocolate dipped graham cracker
-Smoothies--Add some oranges and a creamsicle appears!

Drink the pistachio milk.  Seriously.

Corn off the Cob

Apparently I am on the same writing and cooking schedule as a NYTimes food columnist--Corn is on my brain!

In an effort to send better quality videos your way (with minimizing effort on my behalf), here's a really great video to show you how to remove the corn from your cobs.

Stay tuned for a recipe for corn chowder...

Tomato Basil Bisque

August to me means lots of fun foods from the garden, and a panic attack trying to make sure I use everything before it spoils!  To preserve those 80 lbs of tomatoes I've been picking, I make this super yummy soup with a portion of them.  Everything could come from my garden (save the dairy), but alas, my garlic didn't do anything this spring...

Here's the recipe for the only tomato soup I'll eat!



Tomato Basil Bisque
1 medium onion, chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
About 5 lbs of tomatoes, peeled and seeded (view the video tutorial here)
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1-2 TBS of basil pesto

Heat large sauce pot on medium with olive oil. Add onions and garlic with a pinch of salt, stirring frequently until they become translucent. 

Boost the heat to high and add one tomato, stirring until it fairly well disintegrates and much of the liquid has evaporated. 

Then slowly add the remaining tomatoes (this eases the mess more than anything).  Bring to a simmer and then set heat to low, stirring occasionally.  Let the soup simmer for a few hours until it has reduced by at least 1/3 (sometimes a bit more if you have watery tomatoes). 

Off heat and using a stick blender, blend the tomatoes to your desired consistency. 

Slowly stir in the cream (to avoid curdling, keep the mixture off the heat), and then add in the pesto.

Consume immediately, or store in fridge for up to a week/freezer for a few months.  I recommend reheating on the stove--the microwave changes the texture and can make for some curdling.