My absolute favorite summer brunch is poached eggs over grill leftovers. Here served with fresh avocado and garden tomatoes. For quick hash par-boil grated potatoes for about 3 minutes in water with salt and cider vinegar.
– warm your cast iron pan with chopped garlic.
– push garlic to the side and turn up heat and add more oil, then toss in drained, par-boiled potato.
– flatten with spatula and wait for some crisping to happen. Turn a few times.
-Add paprika, a hot and smokey one preferably.
– Toss in diced meat and vegetable leftovers. Here I had grilled leaks ( high in natural fructans) corn, summer squash and steak and chicken. Heat until warmed through.
Category Archives: Summer
Jerusalem Artichoke Slaw
Jerusalem Artichokes are a vegetable I just seemed to forget about for a while. Years ago in my food co-op days they were all the rage for everything from juicing to roasting like potatoes. I saw some in the store and went for it, as I had also just read an article about how great they are for your gut microbiome. The possibilities for slaw are endless and raw and that’s why I tend to slaw everything .
For today’s :
2 Jerusalem Artichoke (slightly pealed)
3 Carrots
Juice of 1 lime
A thumb of fresh ginger (also grated)
A small bit of finely chopped cilantro
A Tbsp of sesame oil
Sea salt and pepper
It’s really good. I’m excited to try also fennel instead of carrots and add toasted leek and a sherry dressing!
Ana’s Quick Sangria
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As you might have gathered, I’m all about easy pleasures for summer time. I just came up with this and it’s a keeper .
3/4 Wild Berry Zinger Iced Tea (4 tea bags per quart)
1/4 Red wine that has been open or doesn’t cost much.
Shot of Agave Syrup
Big squeeze of lime
Stir well- pour over ice.
Saludos Amigos!
Quick Ice Coffee Delight
Hey when it’s this hot you don’t want to work very hard- let alone make more heat in your house in any way. This is the quickest, most delicious way to ice coffee I’ve found.
Add a HEAPING table tablespoon of each and about a cup of water.
Stir until dissolved.
Add Ice.
Top if with more cold water and stir a little more.
Drink slowly .
Solving some zucchini problems.h
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Anyone with a garden or CSA share usually ends up with more zucchini then they know what to do with. Since I have both a CSA share – plug for Enterprise Farm in Wately MA here, and my own garden, here’s what I’ve worked out.
MY Zucchini Bread:
3 Cups flour (2 whole wheat pastry)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cup turbinado (or maple )sugar (sub 2 Tbsp. organic molasses for 1/4 cup sugar for healthier version)
3 tsp. vanilla
1 Giant oversized garden zucchini OR 3-4 cups grated and pressed in a clean kitchen towel to remove moisture
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1 cups chopped nuts or raw pumpkin seeds(optional)
Grease and flour two 4×8 pans, oven 325.
Dry in one bowl, beat wet in another, add dry to wet.
Mix in zucchini and nuts/seeds, Bake 40-60 or until knife comes out clean.
Raw Zucchini Salad:
Zucchini rounds cut fine on a mandolin.
Mint Yogurt dressing: Fresh mint and any other green herbs you got. Love chives, basil, thyme and oregano works, as long as fresh. This dressing is a great way to use up your garden herbs that are over growing.
1 cup yogurt 1 clove garlic, some honey, salt, and pepper to taste. If you have a stick blender that’s the way to go. No need to chop anything!
Zucchini Cakes/Fritters:
2-4 cups grated zucchini with the moisture removed very thoroughly.
3-4 eggs depending on how much zucchini, you want it wetter for fritters.
1 finely diced small onion
Juice and zest from 1 lemon.
Instant mash potatoes until right consistency. The ones at Whole Foods are plain dehydrated potatoes and not full of additives and preservatives.
Serve with a garlic aioli.
Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs
Having been served a beet juice pickled egg a couple of times I always wanted to try it myself. So when I boiled some beets this past week I reserved the beet juice in a large glass jar. Added equal parts apple cider vinegar and about a teaspoon of salt.
Let it sit 3-4 days in the frig and then check on them. I Deviled them with mayo and Sriracha chili sauce, then topped with a little diced Kim Chee. It was delicious !
Blueberry Picking.
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Here is our almost 8lbs of blue booty. Everyone pitched in to gather this many yesterday. The heatwave should subside later in the week and there’ll be pie! You really can’t beat the America’s Test Kitchen recipe, it’s on their website. I’ll use their no fail Vodka crust recipe as well, but sub in 1 cup of Barley Flour for the awesome texture.
fourstarfarms.com for great unusual and small milled flours.
The rest of the berries go into the chest freezer for cooler days when we’ll make jam. Don’t let anyone fool you into jam kits. One less cup sugar per cups of fruit is all I do, or less if the fruit is good and sweet. You just have to boil it down a good long time in a decent double walled pot. Put fruit and sugar in the pot, bring to boil, simmer on low. Put a small plate in the freezer, you know your jam is done when you put a little on the fozen plate and tip it. If it’s real runny keep simmering. Small batches can just go into recycled glass jars in the fridge. If your going for a big batch like this, you do want to go through the whole canning process, so they’ll keep in the pantry.
Don’t be intimidated by getting into canning. Fruit us actually very easy.
Lettuce Wraps Picnic
Lettuce wraps make great picnic food for a hot summer night. I was inspired by the gorgeous full head of radicchio I got in my CSA box from Enterprise Farm. Big shout out here to Enterprise Farm in Western MA, without their year round weekly vegetable box I don’t know what I would do.
You could also use another soft lettuce such as Butter (Boston). Fillings could be almost anything with an Asian flair. Put everything in containers and assemble wraps as you eat on site.
For our rooftop picnic lettuce wraps:
Grilled Chicken thighs cut into thin slices. Marinate or rub with your favorite Asian flavors.
Red Cabbage slaw dressed with Seasoned Rice vinegar, tahini, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and a little mayo.
Mandolin sliced baby cucumbers and carrots in honey, lime, toasted sesame oil, salt marinade.
Solving your mint problems
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We had a poster of Woodchucks eating dandelions in my kitchen growing up. The caption read, ” learn to eat your problems for breakfast” it left a mark on me and I’ve always tried to do just that. When my community garden plot was being taken over by mint- I took home like a bushel and made mint pesto. Use any pesto recipe if your need ratios, I made a ton because it freezes well. In my food processor :
Mint
Fresh squeezed lemon juice ( a little more then for basil pesto)
Olive oil
1/2 Sunflower seeds
1/2 Papita ( raw pumpkin seeds)
Garlic
Salt
Really just taste as you go but so good with goat cheese, as a spread or on flatbead grilled!
Seen here on whole wheat pasta, Kalamata olives, steam broccoli , sheep feta.