Summer Salads

I've been going a little overboard on the summer fruits...  Melon, raspberries, blackberries, peaches,, nectarines, blueberries... There's only the two of us and even we can only eat so much!

I knew I had to get a bit more creative, so dinner tonight was salads with melon and berries and grapes, hard cooked eggs, artichoke hearts, grilled flank steak, and a quick homemade 1000 Island dressing.

The dressing was just mayonnaise, sour cream, ketchup, and dill pickle relish.  Nothing else.

And everything was on a bed of crunchy iceberg lettuce.  And for all of you out there who would never - ever - sully your plate with lowly, non-nutritious iceberg lettuce... it has the exact same nutritional values as romaine.  Think about it next time you pick up those over-priced packages of romaine hearts.

We definitely needed to do salads tonight because I made a chocolate raspberry torte for dessert.

I still have to put it all together but it should be ready in time for Final Jeaopardy!

 

 


New York, New York

We did a spur-of-the-moment trip up to New York yesterday.

It was Pride weekend, and with the passage of same-sex marriage in New York a couple of days earlier, it promised to be a bit of a raucous celebration.  We had to be a part of it.

We got into the city just in time for lunch - and experience parade-goers know one can never get raucous on an empty stomach - we headed to Eataly at 23rd and Broadway.  It just happened to be right on the parade route.

Eataly, for the uninitiated, is a huge food emporium put together by Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali.  It's an unbelievable experience of food court, restaurants, and groceries.  And it ain't cheap.  (But to put it in perspective, at Penn  Station on the way home we had an appetizer platter at TGI Fridays and two drinks that cost the same as our lunch.  And the service was surly and there wasn't a pleasant employee in the place. The better deal - by far - was Eataly.)

We wandered the areas and settled on lunch at Le Verdure - the vegetarian eaterie.

I had peaches and portobello mushrooms with greens and balsamic vinegar.  The peaches were perfect.  The mushrooms meaty and flavorful.  The balsamic wasn't the cheap stuff.  The sweet, the bitter, the sharp tang...  It worked perfectly.

Victor went for a caponatta.  Roasted eggplant and roasted red peppers with pinenuts.  It was stellar.  Both of these will be replicated at home.

Our dining companion two tables over was one of the latest cooking stars, Curtis Stone.  He just did an appearance on Good Morning America this morning.  He's easy on the eyes...

Eataly is huge.  There are breads, cheeses, meats, dried pastas, fresh pastas, fabulous-looking desserts...

Dried pastas range from about $2.69/lb to $6.99 and more.  They looked great, but we didn't buy.  We have a cabinet full of pastas right now.  Maybe next trip.

But they did have a great variety of sizes and shapes.  I had a lot of concepts and ideas running through my mind.

Fresh seafood.  Lots and lots of fish.

And the cheeses.  Oh.My.God.  The cheeses.

There aren't enough hours in the day to consume the amount of cheeses I wanted to bring home.  It was breathtaking.  There's just no end to my love of cheese.

And then we found the bakery counter.

A score of different cakes and even more individual desserts.  Calorie-laden gastronomic goodies.  I was in heaven.  Again.

Having been a baker, I just love the colors, textures, and flavors.  I also know just how difficult it is to try and replicate things like this at home.

I wanted two of everything.

If we lived in new York, this would not be my daily grocery store.  But I'd definitely be down here on a regular basis.  It was a lot of fun.  There were enough unique items at a reasonable-enough price to make it worthwhile.  They also had ridiculously over-priced items, as well.  Shop smart, as they say...

But our real reason for being up in the city was the Gay Pride Parade.  It was time to head back outside.

New York is wall-to-wall people on any given day.  Throw a parade into the mix and it really becomes crowded!  Fifth Avenue was jammed solid with the most wonderfully-diverse people imaginable.

Just a wondeful, fun-loving crowd.

And I do mean crowd.

There were the scantily-clad disco-boys showing off their wares to bare-breasted ladies

and everything in-between.

It was really a celebration of people.

From all walks of life.

It really was diverse.

With both fun and somber messages.

Of course we had to pay homage to The Stonewall, where the modern gay rights movement started 42 years ago.

I've had more than a couple of cocktails there in the past and I do have to say the place was pretty much a dive, but I haven't been inside in 25 or so years.  It may have changed a bit.

The neighborhood has changed, too.

It was a great time in a great city with great people.  We had some really fun conversations with celebrants all over.  The young guy in the subway station who started taking off his veil - until we convinced him it was a good look on him!  The young girls on the subway, the guys across from the Stonewall.  And our sweet waitress at Eataly who couldn't wait for her shift to be over at 4pm so she could join in the festivities.

I've always loved New York but have been a bit disillusioned recently because of just how much everything costs - from hotel rooms to theatre tickets to getting there in the first place.

But all of that was swept aside yesterday when I really saw New York at her finest.

I was proud to be a part of it...

New York,  New York.

 


Ribs

Last summer I received a 60-day Costco membership.  I had cancelled our membership close to 10 years ago because I just couldn't see paying a store an annual fee for the privilege of giving them even more money.  Not to mention the fact that they just don't have a lot of things I want to buy.  We just don't need industrial-sized drums of the national-brand stuff they sell.  Besides... I read ingredient lists.

Once upon a time we would buy paper towels, toilet paper, laundry and dish soap there, but I found we could get just as good - if not better - prices at local grocery stores.  Without having to pay an annual fee.  The last time I was there, I literally walked every aisle and couldn't find anything I wanted to buy.

Except some ribs.

It was actually my second trip to Costco for the ribs.  I really liked the first batch.

I bought three packages - which translated to six full racks.  Twelve dinners for two.  I cut them and repacked them with my handy-dandy FoodSaver.

Tonight I cooked up the last package.  And were they ever good!

I cut them all into ribs and liberally doused them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ancho chili powder.  I placed them in a 250° oven for a little more than 2 hours.  Victor noted that with our oven, it's like putting them in a smoker.  I think I need to clean it, again.

I then liberally doused them with Peach BBQ Sauce and onto the grill they went. (I love the word "liberal.")

I also made a batch of little sister's baked beans.  They totally rock.

The disappointment?!?  The artichokes.  Tough and woody.  I was especially bummed because I was going to make grilled corn with cumin butter and at the last minute changed my mind.  I didn't even eat mine.  Victor dove into the heart and pronounced it edible but I just wasn't interested at that point.

But it's okay because I'm saving room (and calories) for Nectarine Upside-Down Cake a little later on.

 


Alaskan Cod

It's a bazillion degrees outside with humidity to match.  Going outside to grill would mean leaving the comfort of the air conditioning.  Baked cod seemed a much wiser choice tonight than grilled.

Hey...  I'm not a native.  I don't like drinking my air.

But native or not, dinner needs to get on the table.  Sadly, I'm not one of those people who can't eat when it gets too hot.  I can always eat.  Always.  Feed a cold, feed a fever.  Always.

Dinner tonight was really, really simple... Baked cod, roasted cauliflower, and cheesy rice.

The rice took the longest to cook.  1/2 cup of rice in 1 1/2 cups water, with a drizzle of butter and a half-teaspoon of Italian seasoning.  When it was done, I stirred in about a cup of finely-grated parmesan cheese.

The cauliflower was drizzled with olive oil and coated with crumbs and asiago cheese.  Baked at 375° for 30 minutes.

The cod was the quickest.  I drizzled some butter on top and coated the top with crushed croutons.  Into the 375° oven for 10 minutes.

Simplicity.

I'll probably make it out to the grill again, tomorrow.  Although I have had sloppy joe's on my mind for a while...

H-m-m-m-m-m-m.....

 

 

 

 

 

 


Steaks

I love any number of spices, rubs, sauces, grilled onions, mushrooms, crumbled blue cheese - just about anything on a steak.

But  sometimes ya just want a steak.  An unadorned, on-the-grill, basic steak.  And that's what we had, tonight.

We had a couple of nice strip steaks in the freezer that called my name this morning.  We also had a couple of ears of corn I bought yesterday - and potato salad I made yesterday.  This was one easy meal!

The corn went on first.  Well-buttered and with salt and pepper, I wrapped it in foil and put it on the upper grill rack for about 10 minutes.  The steaks got salt, pepper, and garlic - and onto the grill they went.  I put the corn on the lower grates while the steaks cooked.

A few minutes later, dinner was served.

Sometimes simple is good.

 

 

 


Burgers

If you're gonna have a burger, have a burger!  A real one.  With lots and lots of stuff on it!

This was an 8oz wagyu burger - what they call American Kobe.  I've never had real kobe beef and am not in a hurry to part with the funds necessary to do so, but these are pretty good burgers.  And they're made even better with cheese, bacon, lettuce (iceberg, of course!) tomato, red onion, pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard.

And french fries.

A burger such as this is not easy to consume.  In fact, it's down-right difficult.  Even cut in half, everything is slipping and sliding, juices dripping everywhere.  It's a mess.  But what a fantastic-tasting mess!

It takes numerous napkins - we just bring the roll of paper towels to the table - and even then, we have to wash hands up to the elbows when we're done.

And it's seriously worth every bite.

 

 

 


The Peditto Boys

We spent Father's Day today in Medford Lakes, New Jersey with The Cousins.

It was a family reunion with the Peditto Boys - the four sons of Victor's mom's older sister, Emma.  Emma was the 4th of 11 kids and Victor's mom was 10th.  A mere 11 years separated them.

It was the first time in years that all 4 brothers were in the same spot at the same time - and the first time I had met the youngest of the brothers - another Victor - and his family. It was great fun.

From canoeing

to swimming in the lake

to just shooting the breeze, there was plenty to do.

And in typical Italian Family Style, there was way too much food.

OMG was there food!

There were cheese trays and antipasti...

The cheeses were excellent - including a French Gourmandise with Kirsch that was really fun.

The antipasti had everything - from the typical prosciutto and salami and pepperoni to roasted eggplant wrapped around pecorino romano and soaked in balsamic vinegar.  And cherry peppers stuffed with three cheeses.  And roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, and every kind of olive imaginable.  And breads.  And crackers.

I could have just filled up on this.

Actually...  I did fill up on this.  And then I started some serious eating.

In this crock was Dom's Sausage and Peppers.  There was so much flavor it was almo0st scary.  I had two sausages and peppers on a sesame Italian roll and was in gastronomic heaven.    They simmered for hours with the flavors intensifying with every minute. You just  can't buy food like this at the store.

Kristi made a pulled pork that was stellar! (We brought some home!) She baked it low and slow for about 6 hours and the following day shredded it and added the sauce.  It was tender.  It was meaty.  It was perfect in another Italian roll.  She does a rub with Old Bay and brown sugar to start.  Two things I'd never think to put together - but it's a rockin' combination, for sure.  As I said - we brought some home with us!

And there were ribs finished with Blues Hog Kansas City BBQ Sauce.  It was pretty good.  Sweeter than I generally like but not bad.

Then there were the salads... Caesar, pasta, potato...I did mention there was a lot of food, didn't I?!?

I didn't always have a plate of food in front of me.  Really.  Sometimes I actually walked around and socialized.  But it does seem as if I ate an inordinate amount of food over the course of 5 or 6 hours.

The company was so good, the food was so good. I went for it.

And then we started on desserts.  Yes.  Plural.  Many plurals.

There were the fancy bakery desserts.

Apple pie...

Peach pie...

And my two favorites...

My first favorite was mascarpone and strawberries on a crust that was almost like a shortbread cookie.  It was thick, flaky, and buttery with perfect body without being the least bit heavy.  It was the perfect vehicle for getting the strawberries and mascarpone into my mouth.  I loved every bite.

My other favorite was a trifle of sorts.  Pound cake, strawberries, blueberries, vanilla custard, whipped cream... One of those desserts I could literally eat until I was sick.  I went from indoors to outdoors and didn't check the camera settings, so the picture has a lovely blue tint that does not even begin to do justice to the fabulous dessert in the bowl.

It was good.

The whole day was good.

 

 

 

 


Rice and Shrimp

One of the benefits of working Saturday is Victor being home and able to watch cooking shows.  Saturday night dinner can really be a treat.

Last night was a perfect case in point.

A shrimp and rice dish he saw Giada De Laurentiis make...

Nonna Luna's Rice

  • 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, divided, at room temperature
  • 2 cups parboiled long-grain rice, such as Uncle Ben's
  • 3 1/2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 pounds small shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium nonstick saucepan, heat 1/2 of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add the chicken stock and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer covered for 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat and rest covered for 5 minutes.

In a large skillet, melt the remaining butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 1 to 2 minutes until aromatic. Add the shrimp, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the shrimp is pink and cooked through.  Stir in the cream and heat through. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Using a fork, fluff the rice and arrange on a platter. Spoon the shrimp cream sauce over the rice and serve.

Naturally, Victor played with the recipe a bit.  Neither of us are very good at following recipes exactly.

He used carnaroli rice - a medium-grained rice from northern Italy.  It's a great risotto rice and worked perfectly with this recipe.  It made for an extremely creamy rice.

He also added grated Locatelli cheese and fresh peas - perfect additions.

Some crusty french bread was all the plate needed.  And even that was superfluous...

 

 

 


Peach Ice Cream

Ice cream is one of my earliest food memories. One of the best is my grandmother feeding me homemade peach pie with vanilla ice cream on top - for breakfast.  My mother, of course, was not pleased.  My grandmother just looked at her sternly and said "peach danish and a glass of milk."  Grandma always won.

There was a family gathering at Auntie Sis's house in Bakersfield  circa 1955/56.   Auntie Sis was my maternal grandfather's aunt, and if grandpa seemed old to me, Auntie Sis was downright ancient.

I remember a huge block of ice in the back porch sink and an ice pick. My brother and I just broke off huge chips of ice to suck on.  No one screaming that we were using dangerous implements.  No hovering parents trying to control our every movement or trying to ensure we were experiencing the day the way they wanted us to.  Kids were kids back then.

And sometimes we had to work.

Back in those otherwise idyllic days, ice cream was made by hand.  No Cuisinart ice cream makers, no plug it in and come back in 30 minutes.  It was all hand-cranked.

And that was the kid's job.

Ice and rock salt and grandpa yelling not to get the salt on top and ruin the ice cream.

And cranking and cranking and cranking until I thought my arm would fall off.  And then cranking some more.

The work was hell but oh, was it worth it!  Rich and creamy - almost buttery.  It was summertime perfection - even better than spitting seeds from hunks of ice-cold penny-a-pound watermelons.

Idyllic, indeed.

Peach Ice Cream

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup peach puree (from about 3 peaches)

Mix milk and sugar until sugar dissolves.  Add peach puree and heavy cream. Pour mixture into your ice cream maker and mix according to manufacturer's instructions.

One note...  If you're going to take the time to make your own ice cream - use the best ingredients you can.  Look at the ingredient list on your carton of heavy cream.  If there is anything in it other than "cream" put it back and go to another store.  (You wouldn't believe the things they put in something as basic as whipping cream!)

 

 


Pork Chops and Peaches

Four pounds of peaches really doesn't seem like a lot until they all start ripening at once.  And there's only two of you to eat them.

Grilled peaches last night, peach salsa today, and peach ice cream later on tonight still leaves a few peaches for tomorrow... Peach upside down cake, perhaps?!?  Peach BBQ sauce?!?  I'm gonna have to think about this...

In the meantime, the peach salsa came out pretty good atop bone-in pork chops.    I used a Caribbean salt rub (Sarah's Sea Salt - another gift) on the chops that set off the peach salsa quite nicely.

Peach Salsa

  • 2 ripe peaches, diced
  • 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 2 jalapeño peppers. minced
  • 2 tbsp cilantro, minced
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Mix ingredients and chill.

The salsa is about as basic as it gets.  Add lemon or lime juice, or anything else that strikes your fancy.  It's pretty difficult to screw up.

The mashed sweet potatoes had a bit of a twist, as well.  I mixed in Boursin cheese!  I used it a lot for white mashed potatoes, I figured it would go with the sweets, as well.  It did.

It hit 81° today.  The windows are all still open and a slight breeze is blowing through the house. Perfect temperature for homemade peach ice cream.

More on that, later...

 

 

 


Raspberry Chicken

One of our wedding gifts last October was a huge box of fun foodstuffs from our friend Ruth.

Ruth and I spent many years standing next to one another playing with food - she knew exactly how much fun we would have with all the different sauces and oils and tapenades and the like.

One of the goodies was a bottle of Martin Pouret Vinaigre d'Orléans avec du Jus de Framboise.  A French wine vinegar with raspberry juice. The Pouret family has been making vinegars and mustards in Orléans since 1797 and the company today is run by a 6th generation Pouret family member.  Talk about continuity.  And flavor.

I had been holding back a bit on opening it because I knew that once I did  I would find two dozen things to do with it and it would be gone.

Today I finally figured out that it's okay to use it all up.  That's what fun food and enjoying life is all about!  To quote Patrick Dennis in Auntie Mame "Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" It's time to Live! Live! Live!

I knew that dinner was going to be grilled chicken.  I also knew I was cooking some broccoli.  I had picked up peaches a few days ago and thought grilled peaches would go good with chicken and when I looked up into the cabinet, I knew just how good raspberry would go with peaches, as well.

A really simple marinade was born:  Raspberry vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Nothing else.  The raspberry vinegar is rich and fruity with a nicely-pronounced raspberry flavor.  It's totally unlike most fruit vinegars I've had in the past.  It really tastes like raspberries.

I marinated the chicken for about an hour and then put it on the grill for about 20 minutes total.

The peaches received a light coating of olive oil before going onto the grill, themselves, for about 5 minutes.

Buttered broccoli and faux rice-a-roni completed the plate.

The chicken really was stellar.  It had a great raspberry flavor without it being overpowering.  There was just enough acidity to balance the sweet with the tart.  I'm really glad I resisted adding more flavors.  Garlic would have been fine and any number of different herbs or spices would have worked, as well.  But the simplicity of the raspberry alone made the dish stand out.

Naturally, the little gray cells are working overtime trying to figure out what else to make.  I'm thinking a full-fledged raspberry barbecue sauce might be in the running..

In the meantime, there's a lot more peaches and the ice cream maker has gone into the freezer.  Tomorrow night is peach ice cream.

And maybe a raspberry sauce...

 

 

 

 


Perfect Grilling Weather

Yes.  Perfect grilling weather.  Actually, it has been pretty perfect all day long.  It barely hit 70° today.  Part-sun and part-overcast.  All the windows have been open and I'm listening to a symphony of birds out in the back yard.

A pretty perfect day.  This is the Spring we haven't been getting.  Lazy days with a book in the back yard.  Or - since it is Basil Rathbone's birthday today - a Sherlock Holmes marathon on TCM.

And a pretty perfect day calls for a pretty perfect dinner.  Porterhouse steaks seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.

There were a couple of slices of bacon in the 'fridge that just called for topping baked potatoes - and mixing into a container of fresh peas.

And what's a steak without grilled onions to top it all off?!?

It ended up being more food than any two people could eat - but we have luncheon leftovers for tomorrow.

And Cybil ate well, too.