Sunday, July 12, 2009

tons and tons of food

I have loads of food to blog about -- my kitchen has been a busy place, as always.

Dinner from last week:
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Homemade spinach and tomato dal, over a brown rice pilaf with cardamom, black pepper, and slivered almonds. Frozen samosas and mango chutney on the side. Yum!

Baking fun:
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I checked out Baking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America from the library, and have been adapting a few recipes from it. These blueberry muffins were the first -- I cut the fat down slightly, used whole-wheat pastry flour, and agave nectar instead of sugar. Dan and I gobbled these down in a couple of days.

Why the funny plastic cover on the muffins, you ask?
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Oliver likes to eat muffins when I'm not looking.

Another delicious dinner:
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Beets and greens tossed in homemade vinaigrette, sliced heirloom tomatoes, and homemade bread topped with local, herbed goat cheese. This is quickly becoming a favorite dinner, and will continue to be as long as tomatoes and beets are in season! (P.S. I used some of the scapes in the greens -- delicious!)

A fun treat:
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Blackberry ice cream (storebought, but organic and on sale,) with blackberries!

I brought home quite a load from the Farmer's Market yesterday:
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Clockwise from bottom left: sugar-snap peas, beets w/their tops, sweet corn, the hugest bunch of lettuce ever, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and roma tomatoes.

Not pictured in the above photo, 'cause I got so excited when I got home I started cooking and forgot to snap a picture of everything together:
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I also bought cucumbers, green beans, and dill, which I promptly turned into refrigerator pickles. Spicy dilly beans, and normal garlic dill pickles will be enjoyed by Dan and I throughout the summer. That is, if they last that long! :)

I had to figure out what to do with most of that produce, since our fridge is practically bursting with goodness. I did chop and wash the lettuce so it is salad-ready, and I cut a bunch of the corn off the cobs and froze it for future chili and creamy corn soup use. :) I also had to put some of the zucchini to good use right away, since we were already out of blueberry muffins:
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Zucchini bread, also from Baking at Home with the CIA. I'm less impressed with this recipe so far, but the bread may have moistened up a little bit overnight -- I found it a little dry yesterday. I did use organic, natural sugar in this recipe, and I think I should have used agave nectar. Whole-wheat pastry flour sometimes dries things out a little bit! Drat. Now I know for next time. :)

I should have another post for you all tomorrow -- Dan and I checked out a new (to us) state park yesterday, and I took some great pictures! Until then.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha--I knew what the plastic thing was for before I scrolled down and read your explanation--I was thinking "ahhh...she covered them so Oliver wouldn't eat or lick them! Brilliant!" He DOES like to do that...

And you found a recipe for the dilly beans! What do you think? Is it any good? Would you be willing to share it?

Thanks!
Courtney

Emily said...

All looks amazing as usual!!! :)

J said...

That is too funny that Oliver will eat your muffins! We have to keep our stuff covered because our cats like to come around and puff their hair all over it.

Your tomato, toast, and beet greens dinner sounds fantastic. A perfect, light, yet balanced summer meal. Wahoo!

I hope the zucchini bread moistened up for you.

aTxVegn said...

Oliver looks very disappointed! I wish I was still getting garlic scapes. The greens with scapes sounds really yummy. Sliced tomatoes are a staple here too. And your dilly pickles all look so good!