When the CSA Gives You Tomatoes...

Here's the thing, it has been no secret in this blog that I really enjoy all fruit and veg. Yet, this weeks take home from our local CSA questioned my inner cook. As the summer draws to a close, the farmers market and CSA have been offering the most diverse and colorful produce to date. Simply beautiful. Simply delicious.


This weeks shopping list for week 12:

Cantaloupe
Peaches
Grape Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Beefsteak tomatoes
Pink heirloom tomatoes
Radishes
Cauliflower
Peppers
Carrots


This week marked the third distribution of our canning share. We opted to split an add on to our fruit and veggies with our friends for the season. The canning offers ALOT of veg in 5 installments. In July we received a crate of basil and at the beginning of August, we received a crate of Kirby cucumbers. It appears that the purpose of this share is to preserve food for the winter months. We had given our basil to a friend to enjoy when we were in the Cape and the cucumbers got pickled by another friend who created delish pickles that currently line my shelves. This food sharing is part of why I love cooking in our community so much. Fun times.

This week as you can tell by the list above, tomatoes were king. They were everywhere at the farmers market and the CSA. As an added bonus, our third distribution of the canning share awaited us. Saturday morning, amidst a steady summer morning rain, a massive crate filled with "paste tomatoes" was split between our 2 households. I got them home, laid them out on the counter and the journey of creating our first fresh tomato basil sauce began.

Please note, this is very similar to the sauce I shared a few months ago. However, that recipe was a quicker sauce that utilized canned tomatoes. The difference, these tomatoes are fresh from the vine. Mmm...Enjoy!

Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

40 tomatoes, (beefsteak and plum)
3 small onions, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup basil, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of super fine sugar


1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2) While bringing water to a boil, fill your kitchen sink (after scrubbing it clean) with cold tap water.
3) Working in batches, place 4-6 tomatoes into the boiling water (do not crowd) at a time and let float for about 1 minute.
4) As you pull out your tomatoes, place them into your water bath. Repeat and continue until all tomatoes are cooling in your water bath.





5) Pull the skins away from the flesh of the fruit and place in a bowl. Discard all skins.
6) Cut each tomato in half and cut out the seeds and stems. Place into a bowl. Continue this step until you have cut up and seeded all of your tomatoes.
7) Heat oil in the bottom of your pot and sauté garlic, onions and tomato paste together for about 4-6 minutes until onions are sweated and tomato paste is absorbed.
8) Add tomatoes to the onion/garlic mixture, add salt and pepper, basil, oregano, sugar. Cover and walk away.


9) Stir every 30 minutes for about 2 hours.
10) After 2 hours, uncover and let the tomatoes reduce and break down to about half.


Tips:
* If some of the tomatoes aren't breaking down as much as you may like after the first 2 hours, use your immersion hand blender to bring your sauce together.
* Be careful to not over salt during the first hour or two. I promise that the flavors will concentrate and build.

4 hours after our sauce journey began, I was left with 3 beautiful quarts of what I felt was red gold. This tomato basil sauce had the freshest and most vibrant flavored throughout. Another silly experiment ended with a feeling of pride and joy. I loved every moment of this process. Every week that CSA continues, it solidifies the fact that we will rejoin next year. Loving so much of what the season, the soil and my kitchen have to offer.

Please, love one another and happy eating!!!

Location:Brooklyn, New York

Have Guac, Will Travel.

What a crazy start to August this has been. I have run around so much that I haven't had a chance to write this week, so here I am. The days fly by so quickly that I find myself wishing the clock would stop or slow. I must admit though, this summer in particular has taught me more about how to slow down and take it in. I am getting the hang of it, but am a work in progress. More time is being taken for me to cultivate, rejuvenate and explore. It feels great. The kitchen has been a home base for more exploration this summer, but this weeks recipe is an old standby that I haven't prepared in about 5 years. See, time does fly!

The recipe I am sharing is for guacamole. It is a twist on Alton Brown's well received recipe, but with a few omissions and alterations. It is his method of coating the avocados in lime juice prior to mashing that I feel really makes all the difference. That is a trick I will keep in my arsenal. Another tip, is to make sure to also work with the most ripe produce you can find. It helps when you mash.


Ingredients

9 hass avocados, scooped
3 limes, juiced
1 medium red onion, diced
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt


Directions

1) In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat.
2) Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated.
3) Using a potato masher add the salt and mash.
4) Fold in the onions, cilantro, and garlic.
5) Add reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve with your favorite chips or as we did, along side some tacos!

Tip:
* Use the largest bowl that you can find for mashing. This will give great surface area to mash away.
* Taste as you go. Flavors build and build and you don't want any one flavor to overpower.


This particular batch made exactly enough to fill these two containers pictured above. I recommend these containers in all sizes in your Tupperware drawer/closet. They stack and store great. Not to mention, you don't have to worry about getting your "good" containers back at nights end when bringing items to someones home. Win win.


Although this batch produced ALOT of guac, it still wasn't enough. 13 people were at the mexican themed backyard party that I made this recipe for. Yet, i witnessed grown adults scraping the side of the bowl to ensure that every morsel was consumed of the green stuff. That made me happy, but I may need 15 avocados next time. Oh yes, a great rule of thumb for guacamole is to figure between 1/2-1 avocado per guest if they are very hungry! These guests most definitely were.

Happy eating to one and all!!!

Location:Brooklyn, NYC

Road Tripping with the Family

Truth be told, I was not raised in a house where healthy food was king. I remember many meals saturated with frozen pizza or kids cuisines and take out. Healthy snacks were also not readily available, but what fun were carrots or fruit anyway? So, when I was delegated to be the one to prepare for our 3 day/2 night trip to Cape Cod, I was a little too excited to go back to my snacking roots and pack up some road food for our 6 hour drive.
List of goodies:
Plums
Good and Plenty
Vitamin Water
Kind bar-pomegranate almond
Luna Bar-chocolate dipped coconut
Cookies and Cream CHEX Mix
Twizzlers
Baked Sugar Snap Peas
Iced Coffee and Munchkins (picked up 1/2 way through our journey)




As I write this list, I am quickly realizing that my road snacks as a 29 year old are drastically different than of a 9 year old. I may have thrown caution to the wind and indulged in some munchkins and CHEX mix, but a younger me would have chased that with a regular coke and thrown in a bag of chips. All good things, but I would live to regret it, making it less enjoyable. This was a weekend away however, a weekend of indulgence, but my conscience still reigns in my mind.
One of our must haves on this trip according to Doug's niece was a sweet treat at The Ice Cream Smuggler. The Ice Cream Smuggler is an institution located on the Cape where on any given day, a rotation of 50+ ice cream and yogurt flavors are available for consumption. Absolutely worth the detour if you aren't near by if not just for the experience.
I would say that my flavor choices in ice cream are pretty predictable. Whenever I indulge in full fat ice cream, you can be sure that one of three things will be in that cup. You will either find something coffee flavored, minty or with cookies or chips throughout. Luckily, on my first trip to the Smuggler, I was able to get a few of these items within my two scoops. My first scoop was a bright green mint cookies and cream that they had named "grasshopper". My second scoop was called "peppermint stick", a flavor reminiscent of the signature ice cream I used to share with my father at Peppermint Park in NYC. Wonderful memories shared there, but it is now a Dunkin Donuts. Clearly there was a minty theme for me that afternoon, but a summer afternoon for me demands flavors that are refreshing and full of fun. My choices had both. The rose hued peppermint ice cream was smooth and creamy with flecks of crushed up peppermint stick candy throughout. Grasshopper was a crisp mint ice cream with huge hunks of dark chocolate cookies throughout like little mud tracks.




The Smuggler's ice creams were all hand scooped by what looked like high school kids working hard at their summer jobs. You have to love that! This group of girls were full of joy, infectiously positive and sweet. All traits that were similar to the product they were selling. I left their happy in the reality that this is what a small town ice cream shop should be. It felt like home with just the right amount of kitsch thrown in. I look forward to going back again one day.
Although I am not a lover of seafood, Doug is. I am slowly allowing seafood into my life, but for now crab is the only item that i would order off a menu. For our second evening in the Cape, we ventured to a seafood shack situated within a marina in Dennis, MA. At Sesuit Harbor Cafe pictured below, there were absolutely no frills. It is a family owned and operated restaurant overlooking the harbor. I loved the vibe because it wasn't phony. They were offering good food in a great location.








Sesuit had a great atmosphere. All seating was outdoors at picnic tables dotted along the inlet. 3 young female servers ran around shouting out numbers for orders to coordinate with patrons who had grabbed a seat after paying. Finding seats was an art and took patience. The environment and feeling of this place was perfect, we felt comfortable and free. There was an hour wait in line just to get our order in, but the blow was lessened when we learned that we were able to hang in line with a clear plastic glass of Sauvignon Blanc in hand. I may have forgotten to mention that the restaurant was also BYO. Score!




We had gotten a heads up that a quaint little liquor/wine shop was just down the road from the marina, so prior to getting to the restaurant I was able to purchase the perfect New Zealand wine to round out our meal.




No surprise, I opted for a garden salad with grilled chicken at dinner while Doug indulged in raw oysters. He enjoyed the flavor, depth, and texture of these little buggers, but found that each consisted of some shard of shell. Bummer. However, the pictures I took say it all. Good food, beautiful scenery and amazing company made this a truly memorable dinner in Massachusetts.








I have found that there is something insanely rejuvenating about traveling outside of the boroughs of New York City. On this trip in particular, the crisp dry air and abundance of kind folks mixed with a slower pace made for a wonderful 3 day weekend. Throw my future husband into the drivers seat of a rental car and the furry kids in the back seat with me, and you have a recipe for a great time. This experience reaffirmed to me that road trips are really about spending quality time reconnecting with the road while in the presence of those you love most. Oh yea! Let us not forget, road trips are also great ways to nurture your cravings too! Happy Eating to all!

Location:Brooklyn,NYC