Fresh Tart

Tomato Tart Round III: This Time, Gluten-Free + A Tomato Party!

FreshTartSteph — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:07:33 PDT

I should have titled this post, How to Beat a Recipe to Death. Seriously. This is the third time I've posted a variation on it but hey, a winner is a winner, and this one is A Winner. It originated with the lovely blog 101 Cookbooks and I've just continued to play with it.

The first time I made it as written. The second I adapted for bite-sized tarts. This go-round I made it gluten-free and oh wow, it's quite lovely. The addition of almond flour is a big win, adding an extra layer of crunch that is a dreamy pairing with the tangy Parmesan cheese.

I've also started layering in tomatoes of varying sizes for even more visual and flavor impact. Good tomato fun. Treat yourself before our juicy friends are gone for yet another season...oh, I hate to even think of it.

I took this latest version along to one of the highlights of my whole summer - a Tomato Party! Dreamed up and hosted by Heidi Skoog and her husband Kern Nickerson and Heidi's cousin Arianna Skoog, every item on the delicious potluck menu was made from tomatoes!

Heavenly.

Heidi and Kern opened the party with a tomato consomme cocktail, a ridiculously delightful concoction of tomatoes, basil, vodka, olive oil, and salt, slurried together then dripped through cheese cloth into a clear, blushing liquid. Pure essence of summer, those sips, they lingered on the tongue like the very best of kisses.

Mmm.

From there we graduated to juicy Bloody Marys, brought by Dena Alspach, thick with homemade tomato juice and zingy spices.

Better than dessert. Even without a hangover. Yep.

As we sipped and chatted, we dug into Heidi and Kern's tomato/fresh mozzarella salad (dubbed The Mothership, love), a bowl of perfect cherry tomatoes from their crazy-awesome heirloom garden, as well as their version of roasted tomatoes with goat cheese.

Dena brought roasted tomatoes with goat cheese too (great tomatoes, great tomato minds...), and an insane heirloom tomato salad with tomato vinaigrette - yes! We were all soon spooning that dressing over everything, so fantastic and rich.

I so wished I'd taken a stab at a tomato-strawberry ice cream, or some such food fun for a tomato-y dessert, but...next year.

We joked about how a huge blast of tomatoes would mean none of us would be getting colds soon. Or prostate cancer.

Whew.

For now, in case you have a stash of lovely tomatoes on your counter, and you're somehow tired of BLTs, have at this easy, cheesy tart.

End of summer happiness.

Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust (Gluten-Free Version)
Very lightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson
Serves 8

According to my friend Joy Summers, the nutty cheese crust is like a savory cookie frosted with Mother Nature's bounty. Love.

4 medium-sized, in-season, ripe heirloom tomatoes, mixed varieties (3-4 inches in diameter), cut into 1/4-inch slices
4 small, ripe heirloom tomatoes (1-2 inches in diameter), cut into 1/4-inch slices
8-10 ripe cherry tomatoes of varying colors, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 tsp. fine-grain sea salt
1/2 c. cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 c. almond flour
1/2 c. gluten-free, all-purpose flour (or whole wheat flour if not gluten-free)
4-oz. chunk Parmesan cheese, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 Tbsp. ice cold water
best quality extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c. torn basil
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Place tomatoes in a single layer on paper towels and sprinkle them with fine-grained sea salt. Top the tomatoes with another layer of paper towels and press gently. Let the tomatoes sit until you are ready to use them.

In the bowl of a food processor, grind the Parmesan until very finely grated and fluffy. Remove about 2 Tbsp. of cheese and set aside for later.

Add butter and both flours to the cheese and pulse in short bursts until the dough is sandy-textured with pea-sized pieces of butter. With a few more pulses, blend in the 2 Tbsp. of ice water. The dough should start to come together in a ball and when pinched, stick together. Transfer the dough to a removable-bottom tart pan, then press the dough uniformly into the pan, patting out a 1/4-inch edge as you go. Place in the refrigerator and chill for 15 minutes.

Pull the crust out of the refrigerator and poke several times with a fork. Cover the tart with a square of aluminum foil and cover with pie weights. Slide the crust onto the middle rack in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, pull the shell out of the oven and remove the pie weights, then gently peel back the foil. Place the uncovered tart back in the oven, weight free, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until it is a deep golden brown color. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the reserved grated Parmesan (this will act as another barrier to the tomato liquid). Place the pan on a rack and let cool to room temperature before filling.

Just before serving, arrange tomato slices on the crust. Drizzle with best quality extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with basil. Grind black pepper over the whole. Serve immediately.

Gazpacho

FreshTartSteph — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:00:26 PDT

How do you like your gazpacho? Smooth or chunky? Spicy or sweet? I'm such a gazpacho lover that I like it any way, honestly, and mix it up every time that I make it, depending on my mood and what I have on hand.

This version is a combination of elements from two friends' recipes: Artist Maud Bryt, and co-Minnesota Food Blogger Laurie Jesch-Kulseth, who writes the lovely blog Relishing It. I love the tomato juice that Laurie uses, and so enjoy the hearty dash of paprika and fresh herbs that Maud calls for - together they make a particularly delicious gazpacho, as spicy or smooth as you want it to be, rich and tomato-y. If it's a really hot day, Maud adds more cucumbers. Laurie makes her own garden-fresh tomato juice. It's fun to experiment with adding watermelon, your favorite herbs, or hot chiles.

The key to a really tasty gazpacho is to taste and adjust and make it your own. Recipe for Gazpacho at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Tour de Farm Chicknic at Riverbend Farm, July 31, 2011

FreshTartSteph — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:29:53 PDT

Sweaty, delicious partying is in full swing in Minnesota, whee! Given our short al fresco season, we are maniacal about eating outside, mosquitoes be damned. From food trucks to farmers markets, patios to farm dinners, food just tastes better in the hot sun.

I'm personally full to bursting with beautifully prepared local food, courtesy of a flurry of lovely, farmy events. I was even at the same farm - Riverbend Farm in Delano - twice in the last week. Yah. Too fab, truly.

Yesterday's food fun was via the Tour de Farm Chicknic Breakfast at Riverbend, featuring four lady chefs - Molly Herrman, Sheela Namakkal, Michelle Gayer, and Solveig Tofte. Oh my god, all four are the coolest girls on the planet, cranking out ridiculous food all over the Twin Cities while keeping everyone around them laughing.

When Stephanie March, Katie Hoffman, and I arrived, there they were, glistening in the beating sun while pulling together a local feast for the crowd's breakfast.

Molly's Kitchen in the Market partner Tracy Morgan was pouring icy cocktails (each chef created a signature mix). Loads of volunteers were running-while-melting. King and queen de Tour de Farm Scott Pampuch and Kris Hase played hosts and runners and photographer and...everything.

Steph, Katie, and I - city girls that we are - set out our blanket in shade-that-was-sun in less than an hour. Ah well. We were happy to sweat it out with the rest of the crew, inhaling heaping plates of chilequiles, poached eggs, braised pork, cheesy polenta, BLT waffle cones, empanadas, salads, pancakes with berries, and a healthy sample of each cocktail.

I was personally quite taken with Molly's pretty tomato jam (up top), a bright-and-tangy foil for the porky, cheesy heaven that I slathered it on. I asked her for the recipe last night and she graciously obliged.

Recipe for Tomato Jam at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Summer Saturday Lunch: Gazpacho, and Poached Eggs Over Potato-Green Pepper Pancakes

FreshTartSteph — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:48:11 PDT

Have I got a gazpacho recipe for you. This version is smooth and creamy (without cream), made crunchy with a garnish of minced cucumber, green pepper, tomato, and croutons. Serve it icy cold for summer in a bowl.

Or cup - sip it while you fry a few potato pancakes, poach a few eggs. That's what I did, while John worked on his 9,500-song - no lie - iTunes library and read me raves from the newspaper. I cook, he sits with me, that's our thing.

I picked up the tomatoes and cucumber at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market yesterday. Real garden gazpacho. Nice. I plan to sip more later for an afternoon snack. It's light yet filling, perfect for a hot, sunny Saturday.

Or ooh, pour the gazpacho into a thermos and take it for a bike ride-picnic, with good bread and cheese, cold white wine, and fresh cherries or berries. Damn, I wish I were doing exactly that right now.

But then I would have missed making the second course... I know, I know, yet another poached egg dish, sorry for the redundancy. But poached eggs are so easy and delicious, I can't help myself. They just make everything special. Agree?

What are your plans for Independence Day? We're having our Annual Super Duper Shubert Coopster 4th of July Celebration, including my sister Stacey, and hoping it won't rain all day so we can be in and around the pool. I'm making the no-fail pork ribs and crunchy, creamy coleslaw I posted on Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine blog, as well as mini-burgers and boiled new potatoes with olive oil, garlic, parsley, and preserved lemon.

Suz is bringing blueberry kuchen, which we'll top with a scoop of homemade strawberry-rhubarb ice cream. Red, white & blue, woo hoo! Have a Bangin' 4th everyone!

Andalusian Garden Gazpacho
Adapted from www.latimes.com
Serves 6-8

Author's note: the gazpacho should be the consistency of light cream. If it is to be served for sipping, thin with additional cold water. Lemon juice can be a substituted for the vinegar.

Stephanie's note: I used both a food processor and blender - food processor to puree the bread and tomatoes, blender to puree the gazpacho itself so it would be as smooth and creamy as possible.

4 slices bread, crusts removed (4 oz.); plus 2 slices bread, diced and fried in a little olive oil (for garnish), divided (Stephanie's note: I used the bread crusts to make the croutons)
water
5 tomatoes (2 lbs.), cored and roughly chopped; plus 1 small tomato, finely chopped (for garnish)
1/2 green pepper, cored and roughly chopped; plus extra finely chopped (for garnish), divided
1/2 cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped; plus extra finely chopped (for garnish), divided
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 c. ice cold water

Break the 4 slices bread into chunks and soak it in water to cover until softened. Squeeze the water from the bread and place it in a food processor with the garlic. Process until smooth. Transfer to the bowl of a blender.

Without washing the food processor, add the chopped tomatoes and process until smooth. Press the tomato juice and pulp through a sieve or colander, discarding the skin and seeds. Add the tomato juice and pulp to the blender.

Add the green pepper, cumin, and salt to the bread and tomatoes in the blender. With the blender running, add the oil in a slow stream. Blend in the vinegar and some of the cold water. Transfer the gazpacho to a large pitcher and stir in the remaining water. Serve immediately or chill until serving time. (Stephanie's note: I like to leave a couple of hours for it to chill and for the flavors to blend. It's best icy cold.)

To serve, pour the gazpacho into individual bowls. Place each of the garnishes (finely chopped green pepper, cucumber, tomato, and crispy bread) in small bowls. Pass the garnishes with the gazpacho and allow guests to serve themselves.

Poached Eggs Over Potato-Green Pepper Pancakes
Serves 2

1/2 c. safflower, canola, peanut, or other high-heat oil
1 large russet potato, peeled and shredded
1/2 green pepper, shredded
1 large shallot, peeled and shredded
2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs

Set a saucepan 1/2 filled with salted water on to boil.

Heat oil in a large (preferably nonstick) skillet over medium-high. While the oil heats, stir together the potatoes, green pepper, shallot, flour, and salt. When the oil is hot, drop 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the oil. Use a spatula to flatten and spread the potatoes a bit, into pancake shapes. Fry until golden brown, then turn pancakes over and brown on the other side. Drain on paper towels. Fry remaining pancakes; drain. Place one or two pancakes on each plate.

The water will likely boil as you're frying pancakes, which is great. Turn heat down so that the water is barely simmering - small bubbles should barely break the surface. As soon as you're done frying the pancakes, crack one egg into a small dish and slide it into the water. Quickly do the same with the second egg. Set the timer for 3 minutes. The eggs whites will look shredded, but that's OK. When the timer goes off, use a slotted spoon to scoop one egg out of the water. Tilt the spoon so the water drains completely off, then place the egg on top of one of the plates of hot potato pancakes. Repeat with the second egg and second plate of pancakes. Top eggs with a sprinkle of salt and a few grinds of black pepper each. Serve immediately.

Tomato Time

FreshTartSteph — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:36:29 PDT

So you may have noticed that my last few posts have included tomatoes, fresh, sweet, glorious tomatoes. 'Tis officially the time of year when I can't get enough of the beauties - raw or cooked, in salads or pastas, in soups or sandwiches, in gratins or eggs dishes, all good, all good.

Tonight - after last night's bacchanal - we had a simple dinner of grilled bread (thick slices of whole-grain bread drizzled on both sides with a bit of best olive oil, sprinkle of salt, grilled until hot and crusty) topped with chopped cherry tomatoes mixed with minced garlic, chopped basil, coarse salt, olive oil, and freshly ground pepper. It's nice to assemble the tomato mixture before grilling the bread, since a rest at room temperature blends the seasonings and draws some of the juices out of the tomatoes - the better for softening crusty bread, oh yes.

For more tomato goodness, check out the New York Times topic on Tomatoes, chock full of delicious recipes and tips. I'm a big fan of whisking a little fresh tomato sauce into beaten eggs before scrambling them - adds a pretty color, wonderful flavor, and makes the texture extra light and fluffy. Top with a shower of freshly minced herbs to finish.

David's Not Too Cool for Minnesota - But It's Close

FreshTartSteph — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:58:00 PDT

Happy Labor Day! Flew by, of course, as all holiday weekends do, but this one was particularly fun because my brother David was here. That meant extra hang time with Stacey and Cooper too, and as a group we had a grand old time. We pretty much just chatted, cooked, ate, and hung by the pool. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

The foodie highlights:

I made a tomato-goat cheese tart for a late din Friday night. Nothing more than a short-pastry crust, smeared with minced garlic, filled with tomato slices, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and dabs of soft goat cheese. I baked until golden brown and soft, served alongside a salad, in the dark on the deck, with a glass of crisp white, and it was nice.
Scrambling for a brunch idea Saturday morning, I innovated crepes filled with softly scrambled eggs and a "sauce" of cherry tomatoes sauteed with onions and fresh herbs. With a few slices of Nueske's Canadian bacon on the side, we were well-fortified for a day of...lying around in the sun, listening to music, reading books, and chatting. Hey, what can I say?
Saturday night we dined deliciously at 20.21. As usual, the star was the lobster risotto with crispy spinach, I'd say one of Minneapolis' top five restaurant dishes. It hits all the notes, baby - creamy, spicy, sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy. And it's gorgeous. And delicious. Oh yeah, I already said that.
Last night I made not just shrimp saltimbocca, but scallops saltimbocca as well, due to a bit of a screw up in purchasing frozen shrimp at Whole Foods. A tasty mistake, turns out, since Stacey, David, and I all love scallops (while John and the kids opted for shrimp). With grilled bread, topped with ricotta cheese and grilled tomatoes, we had ourselves a summer feast.
And the wrap up today, more tomato goodness, this time in the form of post-exercise BLTs at Stacey's. Garden-ripe tomatoes and Nueske's bacon. 'Nough said.

David (pictured at right with Etta, a couple of weeks ago in Wyoming) left around 5 pm this evening, unforch totally missing the chicken I roasted tonight, whole on the grill (with my Weber poultry roaster), this time with a Mexican spin - garlic, lime, and ancho chili powder. We ate the crispity slices in warm corn tortillas alongside potatoes roasted with jalapenos, onions, and green pepper.

The End to a lovely Labor Day weekend.

Moderate it: yeah, a pretty big food weekend. I biked in the wind, walked in the heat, and most surely didn't come close to working off that lobster risotto. Good thing the weekend is done and we're back to "normal" tomorrow. Uff.

Real Foodies Make Their Own Cheese

FreshTartSteph — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:07:00 PDT

I'm not a Foodie, not really. Oh, I love to cook and eat (and talk about it!), of course, but I'm way too lazy to be a real Foodie, the kind that strives for the very highest quality and most unique of food experiences. I'm much more likely to let someone else crawl the city for the perfect taco and then go check out the goods, ole! If I'm generous I could call myself a foodie (lower case). But in all honesty, I think I'm really just a Foodie Parasite, you know? Sigh. I guess I'm OK with that, if only because it's such a comfortably delicious spot to be in. As in major YUM. In fact...

...I played the happy Foodie Parasite at dinner last night, at the home of John's secretary Kris and her husband Harry. Now they are Foodies - and Harry's a wine genius to boot, so not only was the food incredible but the wine pairings were lovely. Sigh. But let me back up a bit.

First of all, they have a beautifully laid out garden of flowers and vegetables. Many delicious varieties of tomatoes as well as peppers, herbs, beets, asparagus, peas, beans. All the good stuff, much of which went into the spectacular meal they prepared for us. And I'm not exaggerating - it was spectacular. At it's core, a tomato feast, really, tomatoes three different ways. To open, a sliced-tomato salad, simple and clean with basil for garnish. Green, yellow, and red beauties, perfectly vine-ripened and bursting with flavor. Ah, but that was only the beginning. Thin strips of lightly roasted tomatoes followed, seasoned with garlic and herbs, jam-like in consistency and smeared on slabs of toast topped with...homemadericotta cheese. Oh, that cheese, I'm going to get the recipe, it was divine (Kris said it's simple; just whole milk and buttermilk). But wait! Before taking a bite, a light drizzle of honey-balsamic glaze, just a few drops...now you can eat. Sweet, creamy-crunchy, tomato heaven, yeah.

And then. After a delicious bowl of chilled asparagus vichyssoise, more glorious tomatoes, this time little red-and-gold cherry jewels, tossed with garlic, herbs, olive oil, and bread, then baked into a sublime gratin. It's a Jacques Pepin recipe so I was able to find it online, check it out here. If you're lucky enough to possess garden-ripe cherry tomatoes, then you are set for dinner tonight. It's basically a summer-perfect dish (I was even fantasizing a bit this morning about how good it would be for breakfast, alongside over-easy eggs...mmm...).

We didn't just have tomatoes, of course, although I would have been perfectly happy to, if you can't tell. Yes, Harry also grilled a gorgeous piece of salmon and skewers of chicken, mushrooms, and zucchini, glazed until crusty-crunchy-browned. Rarrr...

For dessert, cheeses and biscotti, as well as...home-roastedcoffee. Yes, they roast their own coffee beans, in their garage, using a popcorn stir-pan - they said it's super-easy, and since the results are of course incredible, I may be giving it a try. They served it with nut milk - yes, they make their own of that too, almond milk or whatever stirs their fancy. It was all so delicious and fresh I was inspired to kick my butt into all sorts of gears - grow more tomatoes, try my hand at cheese-making, as well as coffee roasting. (Check back for recipes... OK, recipes for garlicky tomato & bread gratin and homemade ricotta cheese are now posted in comments, below.)

A true foodie-feast my friends, fresh and healthy, beautifully prepared, I enjoyed it so thoroughly. What a nice start to the weekend, huh? And I'm not done, oh no. More Foodie Parasite fun tonight at Debbie & Stu the Wine Genuis', with Rudy and Ana as well - Team Napa! Let's hear it for Foodie friends! Woo hoo!

Moderate it: Kris and Harry eat a mostly vegan diet, although very kindly cooked meat and fish and served dairy for us. Given the quantity and quality of produce they grow, they could be my vegan chefs anytime!

Tomatoes, Green Beans, Carrots

FreshTartSteph — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:44:00 PDT

What's this you see? The sorry banquet (wedding, fundraiser, church dinner, you name it) side-dish we've all had a million times, green beans with carrots? Yep, it is indeed - and it was deeeelicious. The green beans and carrots both arrived in my CSA veggie share today, so I simmered until just tender and tossed with a little butter and minced chives. So fresh, wow, the way they're supposed to taste. How...fun!

No, I didn't serve a baked chicken breast alongside (I can only go so far with the banquet kitsch), but instead made these pretty little tomato souffles. I found the recipe online (recipezaar), adapted from Earl Peyroux's book Gourmet Cooking. Peyroux had a long-running cooking show on PBS (although I've never seen it) and the book looks actually pretty fantastic. Funny the things you discover when you google "tomato souffle" (as you can tell, I'm still reaching, looking for inspiration, more than a bit tired of my usual fish& veggies). The souffles are so simple - hollowed-out garden-ripe tomatoes, filled with a tomato-egg filling (I added a bit of goat cheese as well, but I think any cheese would be nice), baked until puffed and browned. Next time I'll add a bit more cheese and salt. As constructed, less than 200 cals/tomato, nice.

Speaking of veggies, I had a great idea tonight, in the vein of one of my (unfulfilled) fantasies...living close enough to everything I love to bike and walk to-and-from. Restaurants, grocery shopping, oh heck even a farmer's market (it's the France/Italy fantasy, where one markets with a basket, buying fresh bread, bottle of wine, cheeses, and fresh veggies on the way home from work... Photo, also a fantasy, I neither bike in the city without a helmet, nor with a fedora, hahaha...)

Since I can do exactly none of those things from where I live, I decided to bike to pick up my CSA veggie share, just a few blocks away. All went well on the way there (although it was a tad tricky getting on my high-bar bike with jeans on, strreeetch), with my last-week's empty box flattened and tucked under my arm. I uber-ungracefully hopped off my bike, deposited the flattened box, and picked up my new box, chock-full of veggies. It was...really heavy! WAY too heavy, in fact, to handle with one arm on my way home, although I gave it my best shot (getting up on my bike, lifting the box, and quickly realizing there was no-way, no-how to balance it with one arm). So I had to put the box back, bike home, and drive back to pick the thing up. Talk about un-fantasy! If anyone watched the whole event, you're very welcome for the entertainment (my attempted box balancing on my neighbor's driveway must have been...completely dorksville at best).

And hey, I have to mention because it's a deliciously good deal, we enjoyed a glass of - get this - Virgin Vines Chardonnay before dinner. Virgin as in Richard Branson, yep, we learned of it from John's parents (you can buy it easily in NYC). As far as we know, it's not available locally, but it sells online for less than $13.00/bottle. And it's tasty, I'm rarely a fan of domestic Chardonnays (I just do not dig the oaky Chardonnay thing) but this is completely simple and clean and crisp, very food friendly.

And Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Moderate it: souffles are really so easy, and pretty, and not heavy at all. And oh, they're delicious to boot! With an average of one egg and a couple of tablespoons of grated cheeseper person, they seem so much more decadent than they really are. Enjoy!

That's a really big...cabbage

FreshTartSteph — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:38:00 PDT

Due to receiving one of the most enormous cabbages I've ever seen in this week's CSA veggie share (albeit not quite as large as the one in the pic), I made an unlikely summer soup yesterday - er, cabbage soup. Studded with potatoes, with a hint of bacon-smokiness, served with a sprinkle of gruyere cheese, pretty hearty fare (even though light on the cals, and somewhat diuretic, thank you, cabbage). But somehow it all worked, and tasted great, and I have leftovers for days. And days. More days than I'll want to eat cabbage soup. In August. Good thing it freezes so well. I can far too easily imagine some chilly damp day, only short months away, where I'll be damn glad for a bowl of cabbage soup to warm my bones.

Back to summer: I shockingly didn't eat anything tomato yesterday - I'm currently all-tomato, all-the-time. 'Tis the season, yesss! Tonight, I'm thinking a simple herb frittata, with some lovely chopped garden tomatoes thrown in, finished with a dab of creme fraiche, alongside a few more of those lovely fingerling (thumbling, toelin g) potatoes. Pass the salt. (Because cabbage soup is diuretic - see how that works?)

What to do with my second giant summer squash, also in this week's veggie share? There were two - one I skewered and grilled with bell peppers and red onions (below). This second one, hmmm... If you, like I, are faced with an abundance of summer squash, check out this lin k to more recipes than I could ever think of. The fried squash puffs look delicious for a party - squash fritters, as it were. Anything frittered is fine by me, and potentially moderate if enjoyed in the low single digits. I've even been tempted in summers past to experiment with squash bread - basically golden-hued zucchini bread - but in the end haven't given it a go. I could even imagine going savory with the concept, a cocktail muffin, a la the spinach-feta cocktail muffins I made up last summer (pictured). I may mess around a bit, stay tuned...

Moderate it: cabbage and summer squash have very few calories. Sauteed in a bit of olive oil, and finished with fresh herbs, salt, and pepper, and even a squeeze of fresh lemon, both make delicious, nutritious sides (or mains).

L'Chaim!

FreshTartSteph — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:10:00 PDT

L'chaim! Yep, I get dinner out with my minxes tonight, woo hoo! We're hitting up Bar Lurcat this time, for gazpacho, mini-burgers, and those irresistible, cursed frites. I even have straight hair (for now) since I got my hair cut today - a blow out in this weather is only worth it if someone else does it. Since that happens, oh, about every 8 weeks, it's feeling a bit rare and swingy. Whee! Hey, what can I say, I measure my days in dewpoint, always have. It's a frizz thing, not a curl thing (I can handle curl, curl is cute; frizz is, uh, I'll let you fill in the alliterative blank).

Anyhow. Just quick meals lately, last night nothing more than good ol' spaghetti with meat sauce for Wild Wednesday, although I did grill thin slices of zucchini to go alongside. Way easy - brush both sides of slices with olive oil, sprinkle with a bit of salt, let sit a few minutes to soften, then grill away. Eat hot off the grill, as is or showered with fresh herbs, maybe even a grate of Parm. Mmmm...

Oh, speaking of zucchini, I can't forget to pick up my La Finca CSA veggies on my way to pick up the girls (Thursday is pick-up day, just a few blocks down). Maybe some tomatoes this week! I received two huge, juicy beauties as a little gift this week, OMG, so good. Nathan and I had BLTs for breakfast today, loving every juicy-crispy-salty-smoky bite. We agreed that whoever made up that blessed sandwich was a genius. So simple - which means the ingredients have to be top notch. Nueske's bacon, a garden-ripe tomato, crisp lettuce, good toasted bread, and real mayo. Oh man, pretty hard to beat.

Moderate it: BLTs don't have to be unhealthy - on whole-grain bread, easy on the mayo, two slices of well-drained bacon, heavy on garden-ripe tomato. Fabulous.