Stone fruit crisp

This past week we received a lot of stone fruit, apricot, peach and plums. They were all on the ripe side, this i felt was perfect for a fruit crisp.

I used the same recipe that I've included in the past here.

I diced the fruit and tossed with a little corn starch rather than flour, which I though might help bind the juices from the fruit.

I topped with the crisp topping and baked until nice and bubbly.


And served with vanilla gelato.

Roasted Vanilla Peaches

We picked up some great peaches the other night at our farmers market and they were starting to get a little soft. I find the best thing to do at this point is cook them.

I wanted something easy and had a taste for vanilla.

Slice peaches in half.


Place in a oven safe container and top with a touch of brown sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon.


Bake at 400 deg for about 15 minutes until soft but not mushy.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.



Yum!

Left over salad

Every once in a while I open the refridgerator and all i have are a bunch of small containers with not quite enough of something left to make a meal with. These odds and ends make for a great salad.

Toss them all together...a few sting beans, some chick peas, cheese, beets...with your favorite dressing and you are done.




I served this with Fettunta.

A couple of quick summer options

It seems to happen more in the summer, but every so often we get to dinner time with no real plan. The bounty of summer produce throws me off, I guess. This happened last night.

We had some string beans from Irv and Shelley's...

I quickly blanched them, then sauteed them in brown butter (more on this tomorrow) and threw in some pine nuts.


After eating this, we had no real plan. With our new herb plants on the deck, it was easy to make this pasta with brown butter and sage.

Cook the pasta and drain, reserving about a half cup of liquid. Toss with a touch of oil.
Brown butter and toss in fresh sage.




Add the pasta and coat with the butter and sage. If it is dry add some of the reserved stock.
Top with Parm.

Baked Eggplant with Cheese

Like everyone else I too get tired of making the same things over and over again, but sometimes you have a taste for something and the ingredients on hand. Often changing the structure will be enough to make it feel different without a lot of extra thought into a new recipe.

That happened last night. Rather than the typical Eggplant Parm I tried something new.

I once again started the same way, frying the eggplant.


This time I used some of the "sausage" to enhance the sauce. Also, we picked up some fresh basil plants at the market over the weekend. I finally got around to planting them.


I could not resist using some of the fresh basil in the sauce. (Here's hoping I do not kill the whole plant.)



Layer the sauce on the bottom.


Top with the eggplant.



Then add cheese. I used Parm, mozzarella and fontina.



Bake in a 400 deg oven, about 15 minutes. Then finish under the broiler to brown the top.


I also served this with a roasted tomato caprese.

Q & A: What do I do with the ton of Basil (cilantro) I got at the market

My brother called the other night and asked what he should do with the massive amount of basil that he got from his CSA. I also, got a similar question from our neighbor, she wanted to use fresh cilantro but never finishes it before it goes bad.

The easy answer is puree it with oil and freeze it.

Place the herb in the blender with a little oil and puree. Add enough oil to make a paste that is not too oily. This can be stored in the refrigerator in a squeeze bottle or frozen in an ice cube tray.

Then when you want a splash of fresh herbs, drop in a cube.

Cooking with Auden: Greek Salad

Well sorta... I wanted to make a salad last night to go with some left overs and remembered that we picked up some feta at the farmers market over the weekend.

I taught Auden to use a peeler in the process. After a couple of tries together he got the hang of it.


We had some teardrop tomatoes...what better way to explain the shape?


Toss the feta, tomatoes and cucumbers with lettuce and dill. Then a splash of wine vinegar, EVOO and salt and pepper and you have a quick Greek salad.