Bless me bloggers for I have sinned. It has been six weeks since my last post.

Elizabeth * October 31 * Dinner(s)



It is appropriate that I should do this today, as we are marking the end of the CSA season - yesterday we got our last box for the year (and thank God, our last butternut squash). It has been a lovely and deeply satisfying experience to eat the changing seasons. However, in blogging we have slacked off. Kelly went back to school, I got busy with multiple projects, we got a little blogged out. Nonetheless, we have been collecting photos, some of which I will post here and now, with some attempt at recollection of the recipes. Kelly will do the same later on with the baking, which as you know is her department.

The first dish represented is from around the first week of September. It is a combination of a couple of recipes I love. One is my mom's pork chops, among my favorite dishes from my childhood. She slow-bakes them in a mixture of celery and onions in butter, and then tops them with sharp white cheddar. They melt in your mouth. For a faster and slimmer version, I quick pan-fried a pork chop and then topped it with sauteed onions and celery. This is combined with another favorite, from the Sopranos Cookbook: Pan-fried pork chops topped with pickled banana peppers. We have made these peppers several times - they are best when made with hot peppers from Fournie Farms in Collinsville, IL. See post of July 31, 2010 for peppers recipe and Sopranos link. I served this with fresh CSA zucchini and onion saute and some mashed potatoes. We liked it.

Second you see before you a dish we liked so much and ate so fast that I can hardly remember what was in it. We bought some fresh pork sausage from Crafthouse and fresh wild mushrooms from River Valley at Glenwood Sunday Market. I sauteed these items together with some onions, garlic, crushed chilis, and put them on some linguini. A little pecorino rounds it out and IT WAS AWESOME.

Third is the result of a craving I had for a burger. Kelly made me a turkey burger with blue cheese crumbles and bacon, fresh summer tomatoes, and baby field greens, on nutty wheat bread. She served it with some CSA kale chips and roasted yellow potatoes. Kale chips are like salty roasted fairy wings.

When Kelly came back from Austin in September, she brought back not only a bag of breakfast tacos for me from Maudie's (eaten in the car on the way home from O'Hare), but a selection of exciting spices from Central Market, one of my favorite places on earth. Among these was a jerk rub that I rubbed all over some chicken legs from Whole Foods, which will do in the absence of Central Market. Image four shows said chicken leg, pan-blackened and then finished in the oven, accompanied by some steamed CSA broccoli, fresh mini-yellow tomatoes courtesy of Jaime Hotz, and some rough-smashed CSA potatoes with sour cream and black pepper. K is currently moaning at the remembrance of this chicken. It was very spicy and VERY delicious.

Following that is one of many butternut squash dishes of the fall. We have gotten ALOT of squashes. We are both a little ambivalent about squash - I like it, but can get over it fast, and K is suspicious of it in most forms (she says it's too big). We have enjoyed it in many forms, and this was among the best. We discovered we both like it best when it is completely squashed squash. Here is a risotto made with butternut and fresh sage, both from the CSA, that was delish. Our favorite, a similar dish to this, was a fusilli pasta with a sort of squash sauce also made with garlic, sage, hot pepper, and pecorino.

Next to last please observe a delicata squash stuffed with sauteed kale, white beans, and hot turkey italian sausage with pecorino. Kelly very adventurously made this for me last week as I was going into tech for three simultaneous shows. It was great for a late dinner last weekend and great for lunch in between. Thanks, baby!

Last but certainly not least is tonight's dinner. Due to a back-log of veg and two weeks of overindulgence in the dining department, I wanted to make a homey but not too heavy soup with lots of good stuff in it. After about two hours of messing around in the kitchen, I eventually produced the above. It is beef, wild mushroom, and barley soup with carrots, turnip, celery, potato, onion, white beans, fresh thyme and parsley, in a chicken/beef/chardonnay broth. Billie Jo, make this soup. It is rich and very flavorful and filling and tastes like fall. We ate it with Russian pumpernickel toast with laughing cow cheese. Most of the veg and all the herbs are from Angelic, the mushrooms from River Valley again but via Green City Market this time, and the chardonnay from Markko Vineyard, Conneaut, OH, one of my many homes.

So, that's a brief catching up with some highlights of the last 6 weeks! We joined the CSA again for next year already, and in the off-season I am looking forward to exploring some more local vendors now that we won't be landing a load of veg automatically every week! I feel inspired by a great article in Cooking Light this week about artisan food products, and feel so lucky to be in such a great food city surrounded by plentiful lands. We scored some great stuff at Green City this weekend with Dad, Jackie, and Gwenda, so look forward to some lamb stew soon!

Kelly - Later That Night - October 31

Can I just say a few things?

(1) I have really missed the blog. Flauto has been insanely busy and a little blog burned and I have been itching to get back. Honestly, however, it's only half as fun with out my partner in blogging. In short, so glad that she did the turbo blog.

(2) THIS FOOD WAS SOOOOOO GOOD. I'd shank someone for that jerk chicken leg right now. The pork chops with the hot peppers were amazing (and we in fact have more peppers in the fridge just waiting to be pickled), kale chips rock the house (and are so, so, so, so easy), squash does not suck if you disguise it, and tonight's soup was amazing. We eat beef so seldom that it's kind of a treat to do so. This soup had a twinge of the hamburger noodle soup that we used to make in the mid 1990s.

(3) I AM SO SICK OF SQUASH!!! I find foods that are out of scale kind of creepy (e.g. baby carrots, baby corn, fava beans, hominy--although I've learned to give it a pass, and squash). For those of you who don't know, until my mid to late 20s I really only ate white and brown foods. My nickname in college was Kelly the carnivore. Some old habits die hard. In short, I'll miss the CSA boxes, but not the squash. We just visited our CSA boxmates today to pick up our last shipment and their counter was filled with a backlog of squash. It was like a big butternut nightmare.

(4) This summer has taught me not to fear some foods (even if squash are still eerie) and that farmers' markets are not necessarily a money suck and a hippie conspiracy.

(5) In case it doesn't come through in the blog, I want to say that I sure did marry well. Flauto can cook the dickens out of pretty much everything and I count myself a VERY lucky woman.

(6) Keep your eyes open for an upcoming blog post that will chronicle the last few baked goods that I made from the box. Talk soon (eat sooner).

Acorn Squash with a Teeny Sombrero & Tasty Tacos

* September 14 * Dinner

As I noted in the last post, I generally find large squash suspect. This really traces back to one previous attempt to eat some kind of stuffed squash. I'm sure it wasn't the squash's fault. Despite the distance I have come since being dubbed "the carnivore" in college, I still have residual twitchiness regarding some veg. So, I fully admit that I feared the acorn squash. It was too big. In short, it was creepy. Well, wrong again Kessler. Although our dinner did not end up being what we had initially planned (pork chops with fennel orange marmalade), dude it was delicious and has forced me to give over-sized squash a fair shake.

So, as usual I was searching online to find some fool thing to do with CSA acorn squash (something Liz never buys because of my general disdain for said veg). I found this recipe for roasted acorn squash with chile vinaigrette. Because I had already defrosted the pork, but we wanted to fully capitalize on the veg, we ended up making a Southwestern extravaganza: the aforementioned acorn quash, glamorous pork, onion, jalapeño, pablano, red pepper, and green bean fajitas, and black beans and onions. It was truly amazing. I have to fully admit that I ate all of my squash. The vinaigrette was a lovely addition. We worked from the aforementioned recipe but made it lower in fat by using much less olive oil and increasing the citrus factore. We each ate half a squash, a mess of beans, and 2 tacos worth of pork and veg and we still have 2 dinners or 4 lunches of pork, veg, and beans left over. It was a mound of food that did not turn us into a mound of humanity. In my opinion, this is a win and a win. All it needed was a margarita (but I settled for an Old Style Light - don't you judge me!).

Anyway, it went a little something like this:

Roast one 1 sizable acorn squash (cut in half, emptied and brushed with olive oil and dressed with salt and pepper) at 450 for about 45 minutes.

Chili Citrus Vinaigrette:

Whisk together:

• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 1/4t salt
• 2t olive oil
• 1/4c juice from an orange and lemon (we didn't have lime so we just squeezed a bit of each)
• a splash of apple cider vinegar
• 1 small red hot pepper (diced)
• 1T chopped cilantro

Spoon onto the squash when it comes out of the oven.

Freaking Amazing Tacos

• 3/4lb of pork chops (trim fat and cut into strips)
• 1 red pepper (cut into strips)
• 1 poblano (cut into strips)
• 1 jalapeño (diced)
• 1 onion (slices)
• 1lb green beans

Sauté 3 types of peppers and onion. Place that in a bowl to the side.

Cook pork in skillet (after coating in chili mix - some mix from once we made chili) and then put in bowl to the side.

Cook green beans in skillet (with remnants of chili mix) and then warm all three parts of the pork and veg together.

We served them in the Tortilla Factory corn tortillas we've discussed in the past. In short, yum and yum.

Yes, it's true that I like almost anything with a Mexican or Southwestern flair. Yes, I have forgiven acorn squash for its previous offenses. Yes, Liz has a 99% success rate (and she made this on the fly while starving and managed not to eat everything in the kitchen while cooking).

On a final note, Liz has been working hard of an evening, so I have been blogging solo (with final Flauto approval). I think it lacks for the absence of her voice. I only fancy myself a baking direction-follower and a skilled eater. Flauto is culinary artist. So please forgive my lack of flair in describing the process.

Liz's Note: Kelly's lack of culinary flair is more due to lack of courage than skill, but she eats boldly and describes with panache. It is a pleasure to cook for and with her. While she does not wing it in cooking, she often comes up with fresh and excellent suggestions for things I should make (ie chili citrus vinaigrette) and is the most receptive of diners. I appreciate her. That is all.

Fall is Nipping At Our Heels - It's Sausage, Veg, and Potato Soup Time

* September 12 * Dinner

So, we're in week 13 of our 20 week CSA share. We're starting to get a little anxious about not having the boxes anymore. As it turns out, we're better at not letting produce go to waste when we have the pressure of next week's box.

So, this box was kind of glorious (and we had things from last week to take care of). We still have to figure out what do to with acorn squash (which honestly freak me out a little). So, for tonight we were trying to take advantage of (a) produce, (b) the cool weather, and (c) some amazing so-called "breakfast" sausage that we bought at the Glenwood Sunday Market a few weeks ago (the pork sausage with rosemary, sage, black pepper, garlic, and tarragon was not necessarily breakfasty, but we used some for a lovely red onion, egg, sausage, tiny hot pepper, spinach, basil, and tomato scramble this morning). Anyway, Liz created a bit of fall soupy tastiness.

The taste well complemented the creepy guy outside the sunroom who kept trying to get passersby to give him change and the guy yelling across the street. Ah, the peaceful sounds of fall on W. Fargo.

Anyway, it was truly lovely, despite my overall aversion to carrots (which I support pureed but do not approve of in chunks. I think this is a holdover from my first 20 years of veggie hatred. The crunch still gets to me.). That said, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this soup. It was warm, fresh, and not soggy. It also combined some of my favorite things: potatoes, sausage, and beans. (I fully believe that the majority of people do not take full advantage of beans.)

Anyway, it went a little something like this:

10oz white potatoes, cubed

5oz chopped of collards (CSA)

1/2 large red onion, diced

7 garlic cloves (crushed)

2 small leeks

4 small carrots cut into little discs (CSA)

2oz of seasoned pork sausage (Glenwood Sunday Market)

1 can of Bush's canellini beans

1 T olive oil

6c chicken broth (Costco Organic)

Herbes de Provence

Black Pepper

2T chopped parsley (fresh, CSA)

1t chopped sage (fresh, CSA)

1/4c Chardonnay

Okay, Flauto just rattled off to me how to do it. I'm going to take a shot. You know I'm just a mouthpiece and she's the brains behind this kitchen operation. So, it went as follows (those of you who make soups can likely just turn off right now).

1. Sauté the garlic, onions, and leeks in olive oil

2. Add sausage, potatoes, and carrots and sauté for a bit longer.

3. Add broth, Herbes de Provence, and pepper and bring soup to a boil

4. Add beans and collards and boil until the potatoes are ready

5. Right at the end add fresh herbs and wine

6. Enjoy tasty goodness while watching the tv show that goes on outside your window

Go, fight, win, soup!!!! I'm not sure what we're going to do when the boxes stop coming. Will we get lazy? We're just heading into prime soup time. Only time will tell.

Rosemary-Walnut-Oat-Dried Cherry Cookies - Um, Yes.

Okay, so sometimes Liz comes home from work like this, "So, I have a cookie I need you to bake. I had this cookie at work but yours would be better." It was her belief that the idea behind the cookie (a cherry-rosemary cookie) was brilliance, but that the execution was lacking. I forget the name of the schmancy bakery from which it came. I think maybe it was Flourish. Anyway, she thought it would be good if I could combine the idea of this cookie with a chocolate chip and oatmeal cookie I often make. This is all I have to say, SHE WAS NOT WRONG!!! I can't really impress upon you enough how amazingly good this cookie was. The thing that I like about baking is following directions. Improvising makes me a little nervous (as I'm never sure how well it's going to turn out). In this case, we added the same amount of dried rosemary as I had lavender in a past lavender cookie. So, here is what I did.

Preheat the oven to 350

1 c flour

1/2t baking soda

1/4t baking powder

pinch of salt

1T dried rosemary

1 stick butter

1/2c sugar

1/2c brown sugar

1 egg

1/2t vanilla

1c rolled oats

1c walnuts

1c dried cherries

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix in dried rosemary (which I had crushed with a tiny mortar and pestle).

Beat butter and sugars together. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat (on low) dried ingredients into the wet mixture. Add (with fork) oats, walnuts, and dried cherries.

I have a tendency to make teeny, tiny cookies. I like them that way. I use a small melon baller to scoop my cookies. I guess they are about rounded teaspoons. Place those on a waxed cookie sheet. (I prefer waxed paper to spray, but again, that's just how I roll.)

Bake each batch for about 12 minutes, until slightly brown around the edges.

The smell is amazing. My fear that the rosemary would be too weak was immediately assuaged. The smell during the baking is amazing and the cookies were seriously no let down. I think they're going to have to make their way into the cookie rotation. So, if you feel like trying a somewhat savory cookie (that is totally bad-ass), go for these!

Bake, Schmake, This Tomato Tart Don't Need No Bakin'

KELLY * August 22 * Dinner

So, as you can tell, we've been slacking off a bit. Our summers are catching up with us and the blog has been falling to the wayside. Well, we've been re-making some things (that are not worthy of report). We've been cooking late (and therefore too sleepy to blog). We've taken a few short trips (so not cooking). We've had guests (and therefore wiped out). The new seasons of Jersey Shore and Project Runway started (judge me if you must). In short, life is hard! Anyway, I couldn't let this one go. Last Sunday night we spent the evening with the lovely Hotzmasters (our CSA box partners) and jointly made an amazing dinner from the box. (If I have not mentioned this before, they are lovely dining partners and they often let me sit and drink beers, margaritas, fresh strawberry mojitos, etc. as Liz and Brian cook. Note: I am not slighting Jaime. She made bad-ass cupcakes that night. Liz and Brian, however, seem to enjoy being in charge. As for me, I like watching. I bake what I must and then I sit back and watch the magic happen.)

Anyway, as we have lately been showered with a mess of tomatoes per box, we focused on that angle. The evening was lovely and included the following (and then was topped off by homemade black-bottom cupcakes from Jaime and a little Don Draper):

* Lemon Balm Mojitos (lemon balm from the CSA)
* Cucumber and Garlic Chive Salad (CSA & Glenwood Sunday Market)
* Asian Pears baked in balsamic & butter and topped with goat cheese & honey (Glenwood Sunday Market [pears] & Whole Foods [cheese] & Brian and Jaime [honey])
* Hormone Free Boneless & Skinless Chicken breasts topped with peppers and onions (CSA)

All in all, it was lovely.

The tart was based off of this recipe. The crust is amazing and simple. (I reiterate: DON'T FEAR THE CRUST!!!). Liz didn't layer the tomatoes and she skipped the pesto. Instead she just arranged pieces from a GIANT heirloom tomato around the crust. She cut up pieces of fresh mozzerella and arranged them on top of the tomato, topped that with some sliced fresh basil, and then drizzled olive oil, salt, and pepper on top of that. You do really have to serve everything relatively soon (and it's not so good for leftovers), because the tomato moisture will make your crust creepy by morning. That said, it was amazing.

I'm not 100% sure what she did for the salad. I know she seeded and cut into squares a large fresh cucumber and diced the fresh garlic chive we bought that morning at the market.

The pears were based off of this recipe. Liz saw the pears at the market and had to have them. They're relatively small, so I made 1.5 per person. I just followed the recipe. You just melt a little butter in your dish, put the pears in, add the vinegar, and bake, bake, bake. I am a firm believer that goat cheese makes everything better, so... Goat cheese and honey seemed like a no-brainer.

Liz will have to explain the chicken and the lemon balm if I can drag her to the blog. She's a busy girl. She's been making a LOT of witch heads this summer. That takes it out of a girl. Honestly, I often have to decide if she has time to talk to you or talk to me (and I choose me).

Anyway, this tart is amazing. I swear by it. I think we're going to make it again this weekend (and perhaps one with bacon).

GO TOMATOES!!!

Who Needs Sauce When You Have a GIANT Heirloom Tomato

KELLY * August 25 *

So, tonight was a quickie dinner. I ran out to see Cairo Time in the early evening and the gf ran to the acupuncturist (to work on her chi, wind, or something). We thought a quick dinner that took advantage of our produce would be lovely. So, she stopped off at the Jewel and grabbed some mozzarella and a pizza it was.

All I know is that had perhaps the best fast to tasty ratio of all time. It was quick and easy and incredibly delicious.

We had a pre-made pizza crust from Meijer (bought this summer when in Holland, MI because we knew they were tasty and would want them later). Liz sauted onions, garlic, and mixed wild mushrooms (portabello, oyster, and shiitake from the Glenwood Sunday Market). She cut up half of a giant CSA heirloom tomato. (It was about the size of a softball.) On top of those she placed some half rounds of cherry-sized mozzarella balls, olive oil, and basil.

She baked it at 450 for about 12-15 minutes.

Result: AMAZING!!! It needed much salt, but aside from that, it was delicious. I'm generally a believer in more sauce is better, but I had no complaints here.

I Love You Peaches: Peach Cupcakes & Brown Sugar Icing. Yes, Please.

KELLY * August 12 * Dessert

Well, I'm on the fly. I'm heading out into the wilds of the Ozarks (okay, it's not so wild. It's really a little more like a redneck version of the resort in Dirty Dancing). Well, there will be about 30 members of my family and I'm doing what I do best: bringing baked goods. Last weekend Liz was lured by some beautiful peaches at the Glenwood Sunday Market. That set off my search. What to make with a peach that is both transportable and won't wither in the summer heat of Missouri? I found this recipe for peach cupcakes. Initial response is that they're lovely. As I've worked more with cupcakes, I've been trying (against my nature) to not panic when they don't look perfect. I just keep repeating "all things don't rise the same way. All things don't rise the same way." Well, these weren't the prettiest coming out of the oven, but I'm just assuming that's the norm (as the 2nd batch was left in longer because I lost track of them while watching Notting Hill and although they rose more uniformly, they then fell to look like the others). This recipe called for brown sugar icing. The answer is, yes, it's delicious. It also gives you a nice tan colored icing (which totally has its aesthetic purposes).

Anyway, they look great. I'm hoping that a slew of Kesslers, Briggses, and Littles enjoy them. For someone who has spent her entire life being Kelly who falls down and does "crazy" things, it's tough to convince folks I can do things well. I figure it's easier to convince my family I can bake than insightfully analyze the media.

Redneck Jamaica, here we come!

Don't Know What To Do With That Eggplant? Stuff it in a Tomato!

KELLY * August 10 * Dinner

So, at it turns out, I'm not actually very bright during the summer. I was actually somewhat productive today, but apparently my attempt to be so led to me becoming wholly oblivious of my own surroundings. Liz was pretty sure that the apartment (that I had been sitting in all day with no A/C or open windows) felt like a sauna. She said I was bright red and needed to hydrate. Well, this is not unusual for me. That said, despite my overall obliviousness, I did do some online research to figure out something to have for dinner. What to do with tomatoes and eggplants? Hmm. Well, I found this recipe for stuffed eggplant. Liz had to switch things up a bit (as our eggplants lacked a bit of bodily integrity/size and could not serve as a boat for stuffing). Anyway, I stand by tonight's dinner. I loves me a tomato, so if you want to stuff things into a tomato and give them to me, I will take them! (Have I mentioned that Liz is useful?) We differed on our opinions regarding the dish. She felt that the stuffing was not as good as the veg that she cooked outside of the tomato and I thought the stuffing was naught but tasty tomato-y goodness. I think she was just cranky because the apartment is BLAZING!!!

ELIZABETH * August 10 * Dinner

It's not so hot now that I opened all the windows and turned on a fan or two. The absent-minded professor really doesn't notice a thing when she is working. It was dang hot in the kitchen though, with the oven on and water boiling! Again, like last night, discoveries were made, with room for improvements next time. We served the stuffed tomatoes with spinach-ricotta tortellini from Galucci's Cleveland, with a light Aglio e Olio sauce of lemon infused olive oil, crushed chilis, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and grated pecorino romano. As always, there was NOTHING wrong with this classic. The tomatoes themselves were made as follows:

Two sizeable tomatoes (Angelic CSA) - core and drain in a colander while you make:

Chopped garlic scapes (probably the last of the season) and a sliced leek, both from Angelic CSA, sauteed in olive oil with crushed chilis, salt and pepper.

Diced zucchini and 2 baby eggplants (Angelic CSA), the guts of the above tomatoes sans seeds, added to above.

When veg is tender add 1 tbsp each fresh thyme and fresh parsley, chopped, and some grated pecorino romano cheese.

Stuff tomatoes with mixture, place in baking dish. Surround with remaining veg, and sprinkle the whole with breadcrumbs. Bake 30 min at 350 and serve with more grated cheese, salt and pepper, with tortellini on the side.

I will agree with the good Doctor K that this was pretty good, but in fact the veg in the baking dish surrounding the tomatoes were better than the stuffing inside, even though they were the same stuff. I think the reasons for this were twofold - I enumerate the folds here:

1 - Because the veg in the pan were exposed to more heat and not stuffed in a tomato, they cooked more, became more succulent and tender, and tastier.

2 - Because the veg in the tomato were in the tomato, they not only cooked less, but they got a little wet due to tomato water. K thought they tasted tomato-ey. I just thought they were wet.

I think both folds could be addressed a) by not stuffing this veg in tomatoes at all but just roasting it and eating it yum or b) roasting the tomatoes longer and/or at a hotter temp. I think this would help evaporate some more tomato water and cook the veg more.

Also, although garlic scapes and leeks are lovely and delicate, in this dish I missed the punch of real live garlic (lots of it) and full-force onions. I took some of the Aglio e Olio and drizzled it on the tomato stuffing and it was seriously improved. I'm sure the addition of the extra oil didn't hurt, but the garlic really enhanced the tomato flavor. In short, we ate it and it was good and good for us, and we used up alot of veg, which was truly necessary. I would make again with some adjustments. It WAS very pretty though! A nice summer meal, especially if you have AC!

Chinatown Be Damned! We'll Make Our Own Cucumber & Chicken

KELLY * August 9 * Dinner

So, the evening was a little up in the air. Plans were unclear. I was lazy. Liz had a meeting. I'm incredibly impressed that we (okay, Liz) went ahead and made dinner. (I fully admit that I have made promises of laundry tomorrow so I did not have to help and so I could consequently watch Mad Men. I make no claims of being remotely helpful except once upon a time saying, "Do you think you could make that cucumber and chicken that we had at Joe's Shanghai?") Anyway, we still have a mess of cucumbers. They seem to come non-stop. That said, I could care less about a cucumber. I have no specific reason for not liking cucumbers. I just don't. The chicken and cucumber from Joe's Shanghai, however, has been a personal fave for years. So, Liz whipped up a bit of tasty loveliness. It was light. It was tasty. I braved the chopsticks while Liz totally copped out with a fork. (It's like I don't even know her anymore, honestly.) Anyway, it was a perfect light dinner for a warm summer night.

ELIZABETH * August 9 * Dinner

The thing that's so awesome about that Joe's Shanghai dish is that you can't really tell why it tastes so good, it just does. I did not make something as good as that, but I feel like it was an important step in the right direction! Discoveries:

This recipe is close. I made a few adjustments:

* I cut things in little cubes like at Joe's instead of the strips in the recipe. (Hence the fork. Those little cubes are impossible with stix - although Kelly still somehow managed to finish way ahead of me despite my fork. But then again, I chew.)

* I replaced the rice wine with cider vinegar, mostly because I read the recipe wrong and we were out of rice wine vinegar. Oops, but I don't regret it. I actually think the vinegar was the right choice, but I would use rice wine vinegar instead.

* I left out the soy sauce. The Joe's dish is totally white.

* I added 1 tsp hot chili oil in with the sauce at the end.

I would make a few more:

* There was a shortage of sauce. I added a little water, but I think next time I would add even more chicken broth as liquid. The sauce also could have used the richness of broth.

* Joe's might be so good due to MSG. I salted several times, and black peppered. Chicken broth might also help this issue.

* I put in garlic instead of ginger. Next time I'd do both.

This one is certainly a work in process, but I would for sure try it again, and it was all the way gone, so I guess it was good enough! Actually very tasty, and with a pleasant heat. Cooking cucumbers sounds wierd but it's actually not. As Julia says, "Don't crowd the pan" and use a good high heat, and they sear instead of getting squishy. Yum cucumbers!

oh ps - At the Glenwood Sunday Market, I bought a lemon cucumber. It looks like a lemon that's been zested. I said to the guy, "So this is a cucumber?" and he said "Totally". It was the totally that sold me. Well, I ate it for lunch today like an apple and it was awesome. More lemon cukes for me next week!!!

Fajita-rama and Sunday Gluttony!

KELLY (WITH HORNING IN BY LIZ) * August 8 * LUNCH

Ooh, the tasty deliciousness of an impromptu Mexican feast almost transcends words. Yesterday we received some beautiful green peppers and tomatoes from the CSA. Today we headed to the Glenwood Sunday Market in our hood and I suggested that perhaps we could knock out the peppers, some tomatoes (as we already had some okay tomatoes from Morse Market and Whole Foods prior to the CSA haul), some CSA sweet onions, and the like if we went hog wild in a Mexican sense. So, while at the Glenwood Market we picked up a couple tasty looking (and ultimately blazing) jalapeños. (Just a note, while we were there, we also had some amazing apple cider infused Zeppoli - fried dough balls with cinnamon and sugar. They were stupid good.) Anyway, we made it back from the market and Liz headed off to yoga and I, well, took a nap. When she came home, we headed into the lunch. On her stop to get cilantro and limes for the pico, she accidentally picked up an avocado. So, I cut up 2 peppers (CSA), one sweet onion (CSA) and one yellow onion (Trader Joe's), and Liz did her magic with the chicken (Lime Pepper from Central Market Austin). I followed Emeril's pico recipe, but as usual was heavy handed with the garlic and jalapeño. (NOTE: I find Emeril totally irritating. His presence generally leads to pleas of turning the channel. His mere utterance of "bam" drives me into a fit of ranting. However, the first blazing taste of pico could lead to nothing other than a shout of "BAM!!". The pepper was fresh and I went a little overboard. That said, it was amazing). Liz threw together a little guac (as she is wont to do, and I usually like it more than the overpriced $12 guac at many restaurants). Anyway, once all was finished, we had a lovely Summer afternoon lunch of fresh pico, fresh guac, tortilla chips (Edgewater Produce), Goya pink beans cooked with yellow onion (can't express how much better a can of pink or black beans is if you just put it in a pot with chopped onions when you warm them), and these AMAZING La Tortilla Factory hand made style corn tortillas. (After being spoiled by a never-ending stream of fresh Texas tortillas, these were an excellent surprise. They are really the best of both worlds--corn and flour--they have the chewiness of flour and the heartiness of corn. They're a little bit of a miracle.) Anyway, we eventually just had to stop eating, as we could have just kept digging through the food. Don't worry. It's safe and sound put away for lunches. But dude, it was fab.

TOO MUCH CORN!!! - Make a Chowder

KELLY * August 7 * DINNER

So, we've decided that perhaps we should maximize the number of vegetables that we put in a food. Despite the fact that we ate an insane amount of dim sum this morning (followed by a very long nap), we powered through to conquer the mound of produce that was forming. Today's box only added to the idiotic amount of corn we already had. Flauto decided "CORN CHOWDER." I'm honestly not so focused on the blog today. As we were eating what was an incredibly delicious dinner of corn chowder and quesadillas(yes, I married well), we received a phone call from our friend Sean (see bottom photo). It was Saturday. He needed company. He'd never heard of chowder but had a sneaking suspicious that it sounded, so we headed over to his hipster neighborhood with chowder, quesadilla fixings, and dough to make more carrot cookies.

So, in short, it's tasty. It was a lovely, creamy, delicious bowl of fabulousness. It was not savored, however, as here we are watching E! and preparing to play scene it. I will dream about leftovers.

Liz to add the tasty and delicious recipe soon...

How to Eat Weight Watchers' Worst Nightmare (Carrot Cake) in Good Conscience.

KELLY * August 5 * Dessert

So, we're s little slow on the blogging at the moment. Have been busy. Project Runway to catch up on (and what's up with the guy in the bowler hat). Anyway, I had a mess of carrots to do something with. Seeing as how I don't actually care for carrots (although as long as they don't crunch I find them largely inoffensive), I thought maybe I would think outside of the box. Okay, okay, I still go straight to epicurious.com (because it's genius), but it was outside of the dinner/savory box. So, I found this recipe for inside-out carrot cake cookies, and I must announce in full voice "THIS WAS FREAKING AMAZING." All I did was follow the recipe (sans nuts because I had none [no giggling, we are not 12]. Not much to say except:

- it is possible to make baked goods without bacon
- peeling teeny tiny carrots is really annoying
- cream cheese mixed with honey is AMAZING
- use waxed paper on your cookie sheet or these cake-y cookies will get trashed
- Liz loves me more because I bake for her

GO COOKIES!!

Move Over BLT! I've Got Goat Cheese AND Roasted Garlic!

KELLY * August 3 * DINNER

So, this is likely going to short, but sweet. All I have to say is THANK YOU AMANDA LOTZ! Apparently a perk of this blog is that it makes people tell us about recipes. I would like to give a huge thanks to Wes for showing Amanda the blog which resulted in the email that then provoked tonight's dinner. So, if you recall, I gushed over the BLAGT last week. Yes, our tomatoes were substandard this week (Romas from Florida via Whole Foods not gorgeous and luscious beefsteaks from Fournie Farms), BUT as Dr. Lotz suggested the resultant sandwich was NOT. (You can tell by all of capital letters that I mean business.) Anyway, this was one fabulous goat cheese, tomato, and roasted garlic sandwich. Our particular sandwich was built the following way:

* 2 pieces of sourdough bread lightly toasted (Whole Foods)
* 2/3 of a GIANT clove of elephant garlic - roasted at 425 for about 30 minutes or so (CSA)
* 1T or so goat cheese (Trader Joe's)
* 3 slices of Roma tomato (Whole Foods)

Spread the garlic on one piece of bread and the goat cheese on the other and place the tomato on top of the garlic.

On top of tomato drizzle a mixture of balsamic and olive oil and then dress with salt and pepper.

Dr. Lotz's specific advice was to "then make a dressing of 1T balsamic, 2t EVOO, 1/4t kosher salt, and 1/4t pepper, and drizzle evenly over 1/2 inch beefstake slices (enough dressing for 6 sands), get really fancy and add basil leaves."

We winged it a bit, but DUDE!!

All I know (realizing I said that already) is that Liz took her first bite and started giggling like the cat who ate the canary. I think that meant that she liked it and not that she ate a canary. Anyway, thoroughly enjoying all varieties of the BLT! GO SUMMER!

Oh, and Liz had a small golden beet salad (just boiled beets from the CSA with the same dressing drizzed over them). I, however, have still not come over to the side of the beets. I'll just sit here and relish the thought of the Lotz (which is what I shall call the sandwich from this point on).

Peppers Too Hot To Eat? Pickle 'Em!

Well, Liz is away for the weekend visiting her soon-to-be 101 year old grandmother, so there will be no cooking until at least Monday. Yes, I CAN cook, but NO I likely will not be (at least not anything noteworthy.) I do, however, hope to return home this evening (from the Bon Jovi-Kid Rock concert at Soldier Field) with a bitchin concert-t, but I digress. Last year (or the year before, I forget), we had brazenly bought a mess of hot peppers (banana I think) from Fournie Farms. Fully secure in our own abilities to endure any heat, we tossed them in a salad and realized that they were blazing. Don't get me wrong, I was not beaten by the peppers, but it would have been an unnecessary challenge to make it through all of those peppers.

Plan 2
Liz found a recipe for Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers from the Sopranos cookbook, so she followed another recipe for Pickled Peppers and Onions and we called it a coup. The peppers were a huge success. They were still a little mind-blowing but so tasty. They were lovely on the pork chops. They're lovely on a salad. They're lovely on a pizza. In short, they are just a little bit of spicy Heaven.

SO, we thought we'd give them another go this summer. We headed back to Fournie Farms and bought a giant bag of peppers (basically fill as full as you can a standard size plastic veg bag). As we were bagging the peppers, they yelled, "YOU KNOW THOSE ARE HOT!!??" We made sure they knew we were all good. What are we amateurs?

Anyway, before Liz left town (and the peppers were reduced to nothing), we headed back into the recipe. In an attempt to protect my hands, face, etc. from the blazing heat of the pepper seeds, I donned some lovely plastic gloves and then cut off the tops, cleaned out the seeds, and sliced the mess of peppers into rings. When Liz got home we started the pickling. We basically followed this recipe (times 1.5) except we used the mess of banana peppers, ran out of rice vinegar after the first 3/4c and had no white-wine vinegar. Instead we used cider vinegar in place of the remaining vinegar. Liz also uses pickling spice instead of juniper berries. She said shes that it was maybe an eighth of a cup/3T/a generous handful or something like that. She now (as I confer over the phone) said, "some." You have to love her for her specificity.

Okay, I have to be honest, I haven't tasted this batch yet, but I wanted to get the blog up before we forgot (and because I love the pic of Liz). All fingers are crossed that it's as hot, tasty, and lovely as before and I'm really looking forward to the pork chops. We'll be sending a jar of it home with our CSA box mates. All fingers crossed.

Sadness of Lemon Cake But Joy of Random Cajun-ish Stuff

KELLY * July 28 * DINNER

Okay, I'm going to try to blow through this. I'm stuffed and pooped and it's a mere 9:52pm (a time that usually signals us starting dinner). Tonight's dinner accomplished 2 tasks. One, it knocked off a LOT of our current produce before Liz heads out of town for the weekend (and I am left to fend for myself). Two, it provided a bounty for some friends who came to dinner.

Well, I'm generally not that much of a fan of okra (which is almost a sin in my family), but tonight's dinner was fab and fresh and frisky. So the question was, what do we do with all of this food. The first answer was, "Let's make gumbo." Upon realizing that we did not actually have the ingredients or the time to make gumbo, we decided on something gumbo-ish but not really gumbo. I thought it would be tasty but it has a serious lovely kick. You know Flauto starts with recipes often. Then she just throws this and that into the skillet. Well, this and that were the right things. It was juicy, spicy, and fresh. I think, also (and quite sadly), that this is one of the first times in our lives that we did not cook too much. We are both bummed about the lack of leftovers. CURSES!!!


After that (as was evidenced by my facebook posts) we had a somewhat failed lemon cake with a chocolate ganache glaze. It was not 100% successful on an aesthetic level (as the bundt cake did not seem to like me). I think my error was listening to the comment of the person who suggested not flouring the pan and sugaring it instead. I tried to use cooking spray and powdered sugar (as I hate pulling the bundts out a layer of cooked goopy flour. Well, it was a bust. I lost the whole top of the bundt and had to ultimately glaze it upside down and pretend that the side did not look like hell. (The grand irony was that we were reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. The agreement was that the cake tasted like baking stress or happiness.) Anyway, the lemon cake recipe came from here (although I used 3/4c lemon juice and 1/4c milk instead of the 1c milk. I also used 2T zest and no lemon extract and only baked it for 50 minutes (which was either just right or too long). The ganache (a nice option when you are largely butterless) came from here.

Anyway, in short. WE NEED TO EAT THAT AGAIN!

ELIZABETH * July 28 * Dinner

OK, we started here with Epicurious and improvised. We didn't have any cilantro and decided we'd prefer our corn on the cob, but did have some andouille sausage from Holland Farmer's Market in the freezer, and some truly awesome tomatoes...

2 links andouille sausage, sliced (20th Century Meat Market Holland, MI)
1 chopped yellow organic onion (CA via Trader Joe's)
3 cloves elephant garlic, chopped fine (Angelic CSA)
2 hot banana peppers sliced into rings (Fournie Farms, Collinsville, IL)

Saute above in olive oil. Toss in:

1 yellow squash, chopped (Angelic CSA)
2 large tomatoes, chopped (we used one yellow, one red, Fournie Farms)

Steam/stew above with:
2 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Before serving stir in a handful of fresh basil, rough chopped.

We served this over a brown rice and barley mixture from Trader Joe's, with okra tossed in heavy cream and then coated with medium ground cornmeal, salt, pepper, cayenne, and pan-fried.

I also thought this would taste ok. I don't do alot of cajun and I never made okra before, but it in fact was very delicious - I would most certainly make that again, and the fact that it was gone indicates it was enough of a hit for company!

The cake was also very good, although less beautiful than some of Kelly's work. Nonetheless we ate it and did not feel sad. Rather we feel full and happy of good food!

B-L-A-G-T = Tomato Down My Chin Deliciousness

KELLY * July 27 * DINNER

Okay, this night truly had both barrels blazin'. We just officially booked a Caribbean cruise for a portion of my winter break and we just made the best freaking BLT ever!!! Truly, as I type (and keep in mind I'm sticky-phobic) I'm pretty sure there is still tomato juice running down my chin. All I know is that the trip to Fournie Farms in Collinsville, IL, coupled with our CSA box and a trip to Trader Joe's creates a pyramid of tastiness. Flauto is still feeling a little quiet this evening (and is a bit at a loss to say when there is no actual recipe), so I'm taking over. Okay, I'll give you the run-down.

So, what is a BLAGT you ask. Well, this was truly no ordinary BLT. We wanted a little something special, but also wanted to take full advantage of our Fournie Farms tomatoes (that looked amazing). So, here you go:

World's best BLAGT:
2 pieces of pane toscano (Trader Joe's)
2 GIANT slices of GIANT tomato (Fournie Farms - Collinsville, IL)
4-5 skinny pieces of bacon (Trader Joe's)
1/4 of an avocado, slathered on one side of the bread (Trader Joe's)
one hunk of goat cheese slathered on the other side of the bread (Trader Joe's)
(Liz's also had mayo. Mine did not.)

All I know is that the brilliance of the goat cheese (a food that I fully believe makes any meal an event and is, in any dish, a game changer) and the creaminess of the avocado joined with the explosion of tomato and crispiness of toast and bacon to create actual magic. This is no metaphor. I pulled a rabbit out of my mouth. It's actual magic.

As a lovely side dish, we each had an ear of bi-colored corn from Fournie's. (We bought 6 ears before we figured out that our CSA box came with 8. Oops. We just gave much of the CSA corn to our friends who picked up the box for us while we were out of town. Holla Myron and Ed!)

Anyway, it was a simple dinner, but I shall now (at 11:32 after a very late dinner) go to bed very happy and dream of plump tomatoes frolicking with cows, loaves of bread, and the like. Ah, it's a nice dream.

Kickin' the Shrimp Squash Curry in the GC

KELLY * DINNER * July 25

Okay, this is a day late (but hopefully not a dollar short), but we just made it back to town today and I had a serious baseball game to watch with my mom last night. As many of you know, we were in Granite City this past weekend for my 20 year high school reunion (at which we discovered the blog has many lurkers. Thanks for that and keep reading.). The reunion was a hoot. I enjoyed seeing Liz briefly abandon the CSA box and eat the following: Popeye's chicken, church BBQ pork steaks, White Castles, a Taco Bell meximelt, caramel rolls from a tube, and a margarita in a pool (thanks Aunt Ginny). Anyway, we did try to balance it out a bit while we were there. We brought produce with us to Granite so we could cook for my mom. Yesterday--after stopping at Fournie Farms in Collinsville, IL--to pick up some corn, okra, hot peppers, etc. that will be featured later this week--we (okay, largely Liz) made a lovely red curry with shrimp, skapes, sweet peppers, and squash (based loosely on this). She also made (less than aesthetically successful but tasty) vegetarian spring rolls. It was a little bite of Vietnam and Thailand right in the Granite City kitchen (if Vietnam and Thailand had really dull knives). Anyway, I thought the dinner was lovely. My mom and my Aunt Ginny were quite pleased with the entire meal (and enjoyed having someone cook for THEM). Liz was less than pleased with the shrimp that we bought at Schnucks, but what are you going to do. Anyway, I thought it was a swell end to the trip home and hope so much that my aunt enjoyed her dinner (as we THOROUGHLY enjoyed swimming in her pool in the idiotically hot Southern Illinois heat and being served margaritas). Anyway, Liz is going to talk some smack about the meal when she posts her half of the blog at a later time (as she's now too sleepy), but believe me instead. It was tasty if a bit shrimp-y. I think she may have still been turned off as a residual effect of the previous night's White Castles.

Hey Lamby Pie, That's One Hot Cookie!!

KELLY * July 21 * DINNER

So, I've started this blog prior to the actual dinner cooking. We have guests coming over tonight, so things might be a bit hectic. Regardless, I thought I might set the table so to speak. So, today was yet another day of failed writing (okay, honestly, I watched season 6 of 24) and Cayenne Chocolate Chip Cookie discovery (see recipe).I fully admit that I cut the recipe in half (due to a dearth of flour) but I doubled (or so) the cayenne pepper. Based on the one sample cookie I've tried, I stand by it, although if I were doing a full batch of it, I think I would put a full tablespoon of cayenne. It really just depends on whether you want the cookie to be starring the cayenne or featuring it as a bit player. The way I baked them they were tasty. The cayenne gave a nice after-kick, but I can always use more heat.

I'm getting ready to head into what we hope is a lovely Lamb-Wild Mushroom-Random Veg-Fresh Sage Potpie. I'll let you know.

Okay, I'm back. There was simply no time for an evening blog. The dinner with Michael and Andrew was lovely. In a shocking move, we had dinner ready and appetizers (various cheeses and Trader Joe's pepperoni) plated before they got here. If you have ever eaten dinner at our house, you know on-time cooking is not how we roll.

Anyway, the lamb pie turned out swell. I know people fear pies and I beg of them to relax. Pies are not scary!! If you just follow the Joy of Cooking's basic pie crust you'll be fine. It really is a freakishly easy way to impress people. They think the pie-maker is a genius (when all you really have to do is follow directions). I love baking because it is simply math. Follow directions and you're golden. Anyway, the pie was tasty and delicious (although it needed a little salt).

Despite my overall aversion to cucumbers, I even stood by Liz's emergency (a green bean disaster had occurred) cucumber-mint-sweet onion salad. I can't really give you specifics. She's going to have to make an appearance on the blog to finish things up. I know is was a GIANT cucumber (CSA) and Sweet Onions (CSA) cut ever so thin with the cheap-o mandolin and diced fresh mint (Glenwood Sunday Market).

Anyway, all was super delicious. We think our guests enjoyed everything (as seconds were had all around). We had a bit of pie left (which we look forward to eating). The cayenne cookies were a hit at dessert. In short, win, win, win!!!! The only down-side of the dinner was 2 separate incidents whereby some cats who shall remain nameless thought that licking appetizer olives and goat gouda was appropriate. It was NOT. It's always good to be shamed in front of guests.

Anyway, I'll get down to the nitty-gritty:


This will make enough dough for 2 9 inch pie crusts
* Sift together 2 cups of flour and 1t salt
* In a separate bowl mix together 2T of butter and 2/3 cups of shortening. (I like the new individually wrapped Crisco bars, as Crisco actually goes bad. Who knew?? My family used so much Crisco that we never gave the GIANT bucket time to go bad).
* Mix the shortening/butter mixture into the flour mixture. Using your fingers or a pastry blender works best. (I got my gma's pastry blender last year. It changed my life a little.) Just work the shortening mixture in until it looks coarse.
* Add 4T of water to the mixture and work it in until you can make the dough into a ball. Use half of the ball for each crust. (If you need to add 1 more T have at it.)
* Chilling the dough a bit might make it easier to work with. Also, I swear by rolling out the crust between 2 pieces of waxed paper. I swear, it's easy as pie.

The filling was based on a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie with Leeks and Wild Mushrooms from the Crabtree and Evelyn Cookbook. We just shook it up a bit to fit what we had.

In 4T butter and 2T olive oil cook (for about 10min. on high, stirring occasionally):
1 c small potatoes in small chunks (Mix of baby red and German butter potatoes, Holland, MI farmer's market)
5 new tiny carrots in small slices (CSA)
1 yellow onion, diced (Trader Joe's organic)
1lb of wild mushrooms, sliced small (Glenwood Sunday Market) - Shiitake, Baby Bella, Oyster Mushrooms
Remove the veg with a wooden spoon (leaving oil and butter in skillet)

Brown 2/3c ground lamb (Mint Creek Farms via Glenwood Sunday Market) in the same skillet and then transfer with wooden spoon into holding container with veg.

In same skillet, add 3T of flour and stir constantly (stove on high) for 2 minutes. Add 1.5c chicken broth and .5c heavy cream in stages to the flour. Simmer and stir for about 5 minutes (until smooth and thickened--well, somewhat thickened but it won't get too thick). Scrape any brown bits from the skillet.

Pour cream mixture in bowl with the rest of the lamb and veg mixture and add

1/4c green onions (CSA)
1t dried rosemary (Dad's Herb Garden)
1T fresh sage (CSA)
salt and pepper to taste

Pour all into the pie crust. Cover with 2nd crust (and add cut out dough pieces if'n you have a hankerin'. I had such a hankerin'.). Bake at 425 for 40-50 minutes.


And then eat tasty deliciousness!




Okay, I know this part is totally better if Liz does it, but there you go.

ELIZABETH * July 21 * Dinner

My four cents:

1) Clearly Kelly is better under a deadline than I am. This is not the first indication of this. She did an excellent job of wifery - cleaned house, baked cookies, made pie, all with a smile on her face and a song on her lips, and in good time. I usually sweat and swear up to the point we open the door and then cook for another hour.

2) The dressing on the cukes was regular and lemon flavor olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, pinch of sugar.

3) The pie was RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS, as it was the first time we (Kelly) made it (after which we misplaced the recipe for several years despite the fact that it was right there in the cookbook we thought it was in). Brigadoon Pot Pie.

4) I would not request that she double the cayenne. The cookies were not spicy hot. They were warm. Even when they are room temperature, they have the sensation of warmth. They are magic.

That is all.

Mary Ate a Little Lamb with a Fresh Bolognase Sauce

KELLY * July 18 * Dinner

So, tonight's dinner was late. It's 10:40 and I'm just finishing. Liz is still in her chair with the bowl in her lap making "mmmm" sounds. I fully admit, that again I was supposed to start the dinner. I did not (and it totally worked out for me again). I was doing 6 loads of laundry, so Liz felt it was a legit excuse for culinary foot-dragging on my part. Anyway, we hooked ourselves up with some fresh ground lamb at the Glenwood Sunday Market and I must admit that it does not suck. Liz feels that I did not respond vehemently enough after my first bite. However, as I was trying to sop the last bit of anything out of the bowl with my bread, she decided that maybe I did not hate the dinner. All I know is that (a) it still freaks me out a little to think about eating lamb, (b) I do not like seeing pictures of the lamb at the stall, and (c) it was very tasty. (And I may or may not be singing about the lamb to the tune of Ludicris's "My Chick Bad.") Thank you. And scene.

ELIZABETH * July 18 * Dinner

It is true that I did not think the reaction to the lamb bolognese was sufficently effusive. Especially as I thought it was awesome. Bolognese is a funny thing. I have tried it a couple times in the past and found that it very easily comes out bland. Tonight, however, the onions and carrots were sweet, the lamb tender and meaty, the tomatoes fresh and red. Starting with a bolognese recipe from The Reluctant Gourmet and improvising freely, it went like this:

* 3 cloves garlic, minced (damn chinese garlic. Soon it will be time for local - the garlic at the market this week was so tiny and dirty and weak looking and it was fifty cents a head argh.)
* 1 onion, finely chopped (organic california via Trader Joe's)
* 3 young carrots, finely chopped (Angelic CSA - yummy! a whole bunch with tops!)

Above sauteed in olive oil, then -

Generous pinch crushed chilis
1/2 or 1 tsp (who measures?) dried rosemary, crushed (Dad's garden)
1/2 c (or so) Australian Shiraz someone left here after a party
5 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/3 lb fresh ground lamb from Mint Creek Farms via Glenwood Sunday Market

Simmered this while cooking the cellentani, then added a little scoop of pasta water for sauciness and stirred together pasta and sauce. Topped with pecorino and sea salt. Both bowls licked clean, despite perceived lack of enthusiasm on the part of K.

Served with a salad - baby green leaf lettuce from CSA, yellow pepper, red onion, kalamatas, sliced black pepper pepperoni (thank god as the black pepper is gone again mon dieu) and dressed with something I found in the fridge that seemed to involve olive oil, red wine vinegar, s/p, anchovies, and mustard.

Kelly is dying to read this so I am going to stop writing as she has been asking for 10 minutes if I am done yet. Perhaps she wants to make lamb bolognese and wants my recipe.

G'Night.

Chili in the Summer = Yum! Chili Prior to Blackout = HOT!

KELLY * Dinner * July 18

Have I mentioned how much I love Elizabeth for her willingness to make chili in the sweltering heat of summer. Today was a lovely sedentary Sunday. Liz slept late. We took a brisk walk to the Glenwood (Rogers Park) Farmers Market. We walked back home in a very warm downpour. We sat around and listened to the Cardinals pull a game off at the final strike. I breathed a heavy sigh when Jack Bauer righted wrongs as I streamed the end of season 5. The evening was all set for perfection; Liz was making white bean chicken chili with fresh summer squash and quesedillas. This is all I know. The chili was true perfection. The tastes were amazing. As I think I've said before, I strive for the perfect chili and this was near perfection. The only downside was that, yes, we lost power as we were finishing the cooking. (Okay, as Liz was finishing the cooking.) This was the 3rd time we had lost power this week. Honestly, it's getting a little boring. It was a bit eerie when the only light in the house was the gas burners as they simmered the chili, boiled a chicken, and heated the quesadillas. So, we sat in the darkness of our sunporch, crossed fingers for no looting, and luxuriated in a delicious dinner that had made (the now fan bereft) apartment sweltering. I still stand by summer chili, despite the heat in the apartment and my body. GO CHILI!!!!

ELIZABETH * July 18 * Dinner

I said this evening, not for the first time, that all I really need to pull the strings in this relationship is garlic, onion, and toasted cumin seeds. Tonight's chili is proof. The jalepenos are bonus.

White Bean Chicken Chili (augmented Cha-Cha's recipe)

6 cloves of garlic (good start.)
1 onion
2 tsp toasted cumin seeds
1/2 tsp dried oregano
black pepper to taste
2 diced jalapenos, 1 red, 1 green

saute above in olive oil

Add 4c broth, plus

shredded chicken
1 can small white beans
1 chopped yellow squash (CSA)
corn from 1 ear (our first CSA ear - so tiny!)
1 diced tomato

Simmer until squash is tender.

This is good. We topped it with sour cream and ate it with queso fresco quesadillas on those really good adobo tortillas from holland. We couldn't see it, but we ate it!

Holy Crap! Baked & Sliced Polenta with Tasty Goodness of Fresh Zucchini

KELLY * July 13 * Dinner

Just fyi, the "holy crap" was Liz's actual response to the dinner. It's a good day and can I again say how much I love Liz being home in the summer. Kelly's summer dinners have more historically been strings of tacos, occasional salads, etc. The variety of tastiness this summer is amazing! Anyway, because of the grandiose salad on Sunday (and the particular foods we got this week), we are short on veg and need to make a serious meat and starch oriented trip to the grocery store. Due to various polenta-buying mishaps in the past, we have a mess of polenta of various types. Tonight Liz went for the sliceable polenta with a very simple sautéed veg. I simply can't express how tasty it was. It truly is as if she is a genius. I can't say that her dad taught her to catch, throw, or change a tire (but my dad taught me all of that, so who cares). He did, however, teach her to cook the dickens out of dinner. Thank you Joe Flauto for raising me a dinner-making fool.

ELIZABETH * July 13 * Dinner

Holy Crap. It was VERY tasty. The polenta (tube variety) has actually been waiting for consumption since an epic Thanksgiving trip to Galucci's, a family holiday traditional grocery pilgrimage in Cleveland. In a (successful) attempt to avoid the additional chubbiness caused by pan-fried polenta slices, I brushed the slices with olive oil and toasted them in a very hot oven, flipping once. Meanwhile, I thin-sliced the zucchini, sweet onion, and green onion from the CSA box on my bargain mandolin, chopped some garlic, and sautéed the whole mess with some olive oil, crushed chiles, and black pepper, finishing it with fresh CSA thyme (herbs are here!). I topped the crunchy polenta with pecorino, dished up the zucchini and some red pepper-eggplant tapenade from Trader Joe's.

Meanwhile, I whipped up some tasty yellow squash salad for pot luck lunch! Again thin sliced, with green onions, chopped garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil, wine vinegar, fresh ground pepper, and salt. Dressed it and popped it in the oven to get some wilting going, then refrigerate and marinate until tomorrow!

Also feeling very inspired by Dad's swiss chard frittata - maybe tomorrow!

We Ate It Before It Wilted: Chicken Fried Bacon Salad and Beet Hummus!

KELLY * DINNER * July 9

Finally making it around to the blog. The last couple days have been plain hectic -- finished editing my book yesterday and had a lovely day out with Michael D (and the Joan Rivers doc). So, here are the Sunday delicacies. The good news is that I finally found a way to enjoy a beet: beet hummus (click for recipe). What is beet hummus you ask? Well, it's exactly what you think it is. Just switch out the chickpeas for boiled beets. (I also discovered that if you boil beets the peels just come right off. Cool. Who knew?) Anyway, our box-mates were coming over to pick up their veg so we had a beet hummus and cheese extravaganza. One bag of crackers, much hummus, and hunk of cheese...GONE! We had a couple beers. No one was very motivated toward moving or cooking. Conversations about Papa Johns were flying about. Liz and box-mate Brian decided that life would be easier and tastier if we just made a salad together. Jaimie and I were largely useless in this process, but Liz and Brian ultimately presented a lovely salad. True, there was a minor bacon burning debacle and they improvised by frying some of the leftover 4th of July chicken with the bacon pieces to make a lovely chicken fried bacon event. So, in the end, we had 2 kinds of fresh lettuce, kohlrabi, sweet onions, cucumber, and zucchini (all from the CSA box) spiced up with red pepper, blue cheese, chicken fried bacon (and chicken), and Liz's homemade honey-Dijon dressing. In short, I call it a win! (a bacon-y win.) My only regret was that we were totally starch-less (and I do NOT believe in a starch-less meal).

Kale, Kale, The Gang's All Here or... 6 Cloves of Garlic is a Good Start to Any Meal

KELLY * July 8 * DINNER

The latter part of the title was my lovely partner's comment regarding our dinner. We're trying to get back in the swing of cooking. The week has been very hectic and we had so many 4th of July leftovers that we had a hard time finding motivation. We almost cooked last night, but I was too pooped and hungry and ended up ordering Thai. Even so, we have managed to polish off most of the CSA box for the week. Tonight Liz used all the kale and all of the surviving chard. Dinner came late, as we favored a walk to the beach over immediate cooking. I struck a deal whereby I could watch TV and fold laundry while Liz cooked. (I like that deal.) In the end it was fabulous. I've been feeling like we've been lacking pasta as we've been attempting to cook it before it wilts. I was thrilled for the return of the starchy goodness. Afterall, half the reason I married into this family was for the Italian food. All I know is that I inhaled all of the kaley, chardy, bacon-y (YES, BACON), linguini-y, peppery, cheesy goodness. If only we could figure out how to cook without making the apartment hot.

ELIZABETH * July 8 * Dinner

It is lucky K likes this dinner, because I basically only really cook one thing - endless variations on this theme. It starts with garlic. In this case, I sauteed the garlic in some bacon fat and olive oil with crushed red chiles and black pepper. Then I added a couple cups of chicken broth and the kale, de-ribbed and rough-chopped, plus the chard stalks split lengthwise, and cooked until kale was tender but chewy. I then added the chard leaves, rough-chopped, and a sliced red pepper (we had to break down and buy peppers. They are not in season yet in the box, and we cannot live without them. This was an Ancient Sweet, one of my faves, from Fresh Farms, aka Heaven in Skokie.) These steamed for awhile while the pasta cooked. When pasta was done and draining I added a chopped seeded tomato. The veg went on top of the pasta in a big bowl, then got topped with some bacon pieces, more crushed chile, and pecorino cheese.

The really good news is you can change any number of things about this and it tastes really good. Olive oil for butter for bacon fat. Alliums or not - onion, shallot, leek... Any number of veg - spinach, arugula, zucchini, green beans... Add thyme, lemon, any number of herbs, wine. Add protein - beans, sausages, meats, anchovies. Put on top of pasta, polenta, bread, or a spoon. If any of you have ever wondered, basically this is the secret of our marriage. Good luck to you.