August Update: 10 Favorite Photos

I feel like it's been a lifetime since I last updated you all on our comings and goings. I don't like having fallen so far behind. In an effort to quickly catch back up, here are the highlights from August 2010. These are ten photos that give the fullest picture of how we spent our time. For a look at the full photo album, click here.


This summer will surely be remembered as the Zach and Thora summer. It's the summer that they became great friends. Here they are after Zach and his family's return from a trip to Hawaii with luau costumes for both kids.



Thora, Zach and Noah also became busom buddies this summer. Here we are on a sweltering August day taking the Charles River Boat Tour.


We cherished all our time with Lauren and Noah as they spent their last months here in Boston before returning home to their native England. They left last week. They will be sorely missed. Sean and I are already planning a visit to see them in May, to coincide with the alumni dinner for the English boarding school that Sean attended for high school.

The late summer provided us with lots of great food. We gorged ourselves at various harvest festivals. Here we are at the Verrill Farm Corn and Tomato Festival, out in Concord, MA.


And here we are shucking corn at Zach's house. This was a great job for three year olds. And entertaining for the babies, Auric and Zach's little sister, Ellie.



Also, our container vegetable garden was a success. We had tons of yellow cherry tomatoes, a nice crop of big, flavorful brandywine heirloom tomatoes, several peppers, quite a few cucumbers, and lots of herbs. Here's a harvest on a particular night.



And in addition to healthy farm and garden foods, we had many occasions for ice cream. Here is Thora, literally covered from head to foot in chocolate ice cream. Normally she's not quite this messy.


In August, we had several close encounters with animals, mostly pony rides and petting zoos. Here, Auric is getting his hat nibbled by a hungry goat.


And speaking of our boy, Auric got 4 teeth this summer. He's a speedy crawler and likes to walk holding on to hands. His favorite thing is to walk while pushing toys or large wheeled things like strollers or luggage racks. I'm sure it won't be long now before he's walking on his own.


We had many hot days and so spent a lot of our afternoons at the local playground that has a sprinkler. My friends and I regularly shared our collective dread at the long winter ahead when we'll be desperate for activities that allow our kids the exercise that they get at these local parks.


This was a great end of summer, one with lots of fond memories.

Gardening in July: Tomatoes Ripen

Check it OUT. It's been a long time coming, especially if you take into account the tomato blight of last summer that halted the growth of our two lonely brandywine tomatoes and then rotted them on the vine. So it's been a summer and a half of waiting, watering, checking, pruning, more watering, brow-furrowing and disappointment. But now there's renewed hope and actual anticipation!

Is it ridiculous how I'm planning the celebration for the harvest of this single tomato? The mozzarella I'm going to buy, the rosemary I'm going to pick from our garden, the slices of baguette I'm going to toast and then brush with olive oil. This plate will be the highlight of the dinner. I can't wait!

New Favorite Pizza Place

We ordered a pizza from Zing Pizza tonight. And it was a smashing success. They offer four pizzas at any given time. Tonight we got half cheese (the John Dough) and the other half the Blue October. And it was wonderful!

First of all, it totally delicious. The Blue October was an amazing combination of fresh ingredients while still tasting like pizza. I will be sad to see this one inevitably rotate off their menu.

The pizza comes in a rectangular shape roughly 1 foot by 2 feet. The price struck me as a bit steep, but since we usually order Upper Crust for our "fancy" pizza, I took it as par for the course in Cambridge for gourmet pizza. However, what you get is practically the equivalent to 2 thin crust pizzas. So the $19 that it cost to have it delivered (including the $2 delivery fee but not including tip) seems very reasonable.

I also am a fan of thin crust pizza that isn't droopy, since I want to be able to put a slice of pizza in front of my 2 year old and watch her eat it. I don't want to have to feed it to her because her small hands can't keep it from collapsing all over the front of her, or worse, the floor or carpet or furniture which is often where the pizza gets eaten when we're in a "pizza party" frame of mind. And I don't want to have to cut it up into pieces. I just want to hand her a piece of pizza and not watch her struggle. And not only did she handle the pizza like a pro, she couldn't get enough. Literally, after our friends left, I kept nibbling on a small wedge here and a left-over square there and each time she would spot me in the midst of my first bite and commandeer the slice. I was very happy to see her eat so much.

And last but not least, I LOVE their eco-friendly practices. They use organic and local ingredients whenever possible and compost all of their waste.

So Zing has done right by me and has replaced Upper Crust as our "go to" fancy pizza place. Visiting friends and family will no doubt benefit greatly from this discovery.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Candied Squash Seeds

There have been so many squashes in our house over the last several weeks and I'm glad of it, since it means I got the excuse to try these candied pumpkin seeds. They taste delicious! However... I made some significant adjustments to the recipe since I had trouble with them being too chewy.

The first thing I did was boil the cleaned seeds in unsalted water for at least 10 minutes. Then I followed the recipe, cooking the spices together with the butter and sugar in a sauce pan and then adding the drained seeds. But for some reason the mixture was just all too runny. After letting them simmer for a long time in hopes that the candy sauce would cook down to a thicker consistency, I gave up, took them off the heat and then spread the gooey seeds onto a sheet of wax paper, in hopes that the mixture would dry out. No luck. So then I sprayed some non-stick spray onto a cookie sheet and roasted them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes--after 5 minutes, I kept a very close eye. And that did the trick! They were clumped together in chip-sized bites. They were crunchy and not chewy. And they didn't last long, a sad detail considering how long it took me to get the seeds clean. If I could find an easy way to clean all the seeds we ultimately compost, I would make these all the time. Sadly, I think it will be awhile before I build up the endurance to make these again. Even if I don't make candied squash seed right away, I have to admit that my immediate response to the final product was that I wanted to candy everything in the house, in particular, I wanted to abscond with all of the nuts that Sean uses for his various healthy snacks (his homemade power bars, and his muesli cereal) and candy them all! Sadly, he didn't agree with this plan.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Broccoli Pesto

While not a terribly camera-friendly presentation here, I'm very happy with this result. Super easy, and well-timed. Last Monday was our final Farmer's Market and our favorite veggie and fruit farmer had a great deal on broccoli: buy 2 pounds and get 1 pound free. So I had tons of broccoli to use.

We're big fans of broccoli in our house. We regularly steam it up and spritz with "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" spray and salt, pepper, and garlic powder. (This is our very basic, quick and easy way of getting lots of veggies on our table.) My favorite method of cooking broccoli is Ellie Krieger's recipe for "dirty broccoli," which is basically cooked broccoli tossed with sauteed garlic and breadcrumbs. Awesome!




Anyway, for this broccoli pesto, I treated it just as I would regular pesto, just substituting broccoli for basil. I steamed up quite a bit of broccoli (about 3 small heads) and then put it in our food processor.








I put in 5 or so cloves of raw garlic, about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, about 1/4 cup of pan-toasted pine nuts (just what I had on hand), and blended away. As I blended, I slowly added about 1/4 cup or so of olive oil, after which point I added some of the reserved water that I used to steam the broccoli to give it a bit thinner texture. (Of course, I could've just added more olive oil, but I was trying to keep the fat content under control.) Then I added salt and pepper to taste. It's still a smidge on the thick side. I've since portioned it out and frozen it in 1/2 cup servings to be used to mix with a box of cooked pasta down the road. It will likely need a touch of olive oil or pasta water to thin it back out when it's mixed with the pasta.

It went really well with large batch of pasta salad, which was inspired by our friend, Kathleen's, recipe. She cooked it for us after Auric was born and it was great to have on hand for dinners or cold lunches. I added some of the broccoli pesto to cooked pasta, then added steamed broccoli, chopped oven-dried tomatoes that I store in herbed olive oil, cooked chicken breasts, salt and pepper. Very tasty and Thora-friendly!

Gardening in June

My container garden, as well as the flower garden, have really filled out. We've had sooo much rain, (see Thora doing some well-loved puddle-stomping), I've done practically no watering. But apparently there's been enough sun (a surprise to me) for these plants to flourish, rather than being totally water-logged. Check out some of the highlights below.



The oregano (in the middle of the cluster, right in front of the staked tomato plant) is growing like a weed!!! Is there a recipe for oregano pesto?!? The tomatoes are full and seemingly robust. All the other herbs are plentiful!








The view of the other side of the container garden. Here we have a second tomato plant, basil, zucchini, eggplant, peppers and strawberries, along with two more pots of thyme.














Here are the peppers, which are a small pepper, best when ripened to a yellowy orange. We have four plants going strong, but one of the peppers was prematurely picked by the ever-curious Thora. I swear, the refrain I feel like I most say is, "No, NO, NO! Don't pick that!!!" This refers to flowers growing around our house, as well as those growing in other people's gardens and public green spaces. I love that she's interested, and that she's got a harvesting instinct that connects her to where flowers and food come from. However, I can't seem to convey the idea that once a plant or flower is picked, well... that's it.


In our flower garden, here are the echinacea blossoms that will bloom soon. I cannot wait for this. I just LOVE purple coneflower. I can't get enough of it. Perhaps it embodies the fertile country life that I secretly yearn for. Right now, the plants are vigorous and tall. They will be my favorite sight of summer plant-life, I think.

Cheese! (This time with skim milk!)

I tried my hand at cheese-making* again this morning, this time with accidentally-purchased skim milk.

(By accidentally, I mean I deliberately went for my "cheese-making brand," but then seemed to go completely blank of mind and forgot what I was getting it for, mindlessly reaching for the skim out of habit. But so you don't think I'm a danger to myself and others, by going "blank-of-mind" regularly, say behind the wheel or walking across busy intersections, I did have a loose-and-energetic Thora with me and so it's fair to say that I was particularly distracted and more prone to blank-of-mindness for all things besides keeping her from pulling breakables off the shelves and walking backwards into the annoyed man pushing his cart that we KEPT crossing paths with.)

I was using the Garelick brand again, (a large dairy company located in MA, so the milk doesn't have to travel as far, and therefore, doesn't need to be pasteurized above home-cheese-making temperatures), so I was mildly confident. However, I think up until this point, I had only a 50% success rate, so this confidence was tempered with memories of dumping a ridiculously large blob of cottage-cheese-looking goo down the drain (after thinning it out with water first). And to top it off, I'd never had success with anything but whole milk, so I was skeptical. But amidst the dissonance of my luke warm confidence and lurking doubts, I plunged ahead.

Things weren't looking good at first. I let the curds and whey separate for 8 minutes, and when I attempted to cut them, they kind of immediately went all brain-looking. They kind of seized up into a few balls the size of a softball, a baseball, and a racquetball. I forged ahead nonetheless.

Then comes the draining, which I did carefully, but more speedily than in the past, scooping the curds into a colander and then pouring all the whey out over the curds to get all the smaller curds as well.

Next comes the part I dread: the microwaving. Our microwave is exceptionally strong and I don't know if this is the problem. But even in the failed attempts, the cheese always looked pretty much how it's supposed to look, until, that is, it gets the microwave step, which results in cottage cheese-looking goo that quickly progresses into a cream of wheat-looking goo.

However, today, after 45 seconds in the microwave, I already had a shiny, stretchy ball of cheese. I was floored. Was it the skim milk? Was it the slightly more than a quarter of tablet of rennet that I used. Was it the shortened trips in the microwave. I stretched it and pulled it, rejoicing in this silly little success. I put it in the microwave one more time, this time for just 20 seconds, so that I could mix in the herbs and cheese salt blend (1/2 tsp of cheese salt, and 1/4 tsp of dried oregano, basil, and rosemary). I quickly got the seasoning incorporated throughout and then pressed it into a small glass bowl, so as to avoid the ridiculous-looking end product that I've had in the past. (The photo above is of the cheese setting up in the bowl which is sitting in a couple inches of very cold water.) The cheese sets up very quickly, I've found, and so to take too long means that the cheese is randomly seasoned and looks like a long snake of cheese that's been shaped into a ball, rather than looking like the shiny, smooth ball of mozzarella which is so pleasing to the eye.

I've tasted it, and it's good (I'm 3 for 5 now!), if a little too herbaceous. I might ease up a bit next time, perhaps still using all four flavors, but just a smaller combined total measurement. However, this was eating it straight, cut from the whole. I have high hopes for it when melted onto something like tomatoes under the broiler.

*I use the 30-minute mozzarella kit from the folks at the New England CheeseMaking Supply Company.

How to Make an ENORMOUS Batch of Soup

So, as planned, but later than hoped, I made a batch of the Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup from the recipe that my in-laws emailed me, coincidentally on the same day that I came back from the last Farmer's Market, totally drowning in sweet potatoes and butternut squash. The verdict on the soup? ...Awesome.

So, if you want to try this soup and would like to feed a neighborhood or just your small family for a while by freezing it (what I plan to do), here are the steps.

First, you must pretend not to know how much 1 pound of diced sweet potatoes looks like. If you have a good idea, throw it out the window. If you're like me, proceed by chopping up two large sweet potatoes. You will soon realize, when you're chopping and adding the other ingredients, that you've doubled the recipe, at least. Then go back and chop more onion, since there won't be enough. And chop more butternut squash to even out the ratio of potato to squash. And forget to season while it's simmering. This all sounds really complicated, but if these basic steps are followed, you'll have a yummy, savory soup without the chaos of my cooking technique.

2 tablespoons oil (I used olive oil although the recipe calls for canola)
2 medium onions, diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I accidentally didn't get around to doubling this part of the recipe, but would have, had I been more on the ball about what was going on. My point is, it still tastes great without doubling.)
1 large butternut squash (and if you're like me and you didn't know that there was an easy way to peel a butternut squash, check this out.)
2 large sweet potatoes
3 medium potatoes
12 cups of chicken stock

I heated the oil in a pan and sauteed the onions with a little added salt to help soften them. I then added the ginger and let that saute for a minute or so. I added the squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and stock. I simmered it for over an hour, until the squash and potatoes were mushy.

Then I transferred the vegetables and onions into the food processor, being careful to keep most of the stock in the pot. I learned quickly that the soup would be way too runny if I used all the stock I'd cooked the vegetables in. I figured I could always add more liquid if the soup was to thick. So I was careful to strain it before blending. Basically, I have a ton of chicken stock left, but the end product is a golden yellow, shiny, smooth, creamy, savory soup. (The salt in the stock and the pinches of salt I used when sauteeing the onions was enough seasoning for this soup. I never seasoned it again, and don't think it needs it.)

Farmer's Market Bounty: Roasted Red Peppers

This past week has been all about preserving (for days/weeks but not months) the fresh produce from the weekly Farmer's Market. In addition to making oven-dried tomatoes, I wanted to preserve the large, red peppers that I picked up this week. I've been thinking about red peppers, marinated in herbs, oil, and vinegar, and what a wonderful accompaniment they would make to salads and on pita bread with goat cheese. (Now that I've got the cheesemaking bug, I think goat cheese is my next accomplishment.) Anyway, I found this great resource for roasting peppers and keeping them. (While there are a ka-gillion recipes that call for roasted red peppers, if they don't require you to open a jar, then you are expected to use them all up as part of a larger recipe.) I wanted information on how to dress up roasted red peppers that would keep in the fridge to be added to snacks and meals over the course of a few weeks. And I found here, in a New York Times Health piece.

I started by grilling the peppers directly on the burner. I actually woudn't recommend doing two front to back like this, since I would occasionally "warm" my forearm while reaching over the front pepper to check and turn the back pepper. I moved the back pepper to the left front burner and that was a much safer way to roast two at a time. It took about 5 minutes or so to roast each pepper.

Here is a pepper almost completely roasted. Its skin is almost completely blackened.

Then, once I'd charred each pepper as well as I could, I put them each in a bowl and covered tightly with cling wrap. They stay in there, steaming a bit, until they cool. Once they're cooled down, after about ten minutes, I peeled off the blackened skin, which comes off very easily. It breaks apart and sticks to your hands, so I found it helpful to rinse my hands repeatedly. (I remember vaguely reading somewhere that you want to resist just putting the peppers under running water--although that is a super easy way to get the skin off--since it washes away a lot of the roasted flavor. I don't remember where I read or heard this--or maybe I've invented this. Anyway, because of this half-memory of something that might not even be true, I resisted putting them under the faucet, and instead, put my hands under the faucet.

Once they were peeled, I followed the suggestions in the recipe. I a) sliced in half over a bowl (you want to keep all the juice that is caught inside the pepper); b)seeded and cored the pepper; c) sliced the halves into strips and put those in a separate bowl with the strained juices; d) added dried basil (would've used fresh, of course, but had none on hand), sea salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, about 3 garlic cloves minced, and 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar; e) I mixed it all up to evenly distribute all the flavors and then put them into jars for the fridge--well, one pickle jar and one plastic take-out container.

After tasting a few this morning, I might add a bit more vinegar and perhaps more dried seasonings. But they're fresh and bright-tasting. The first thing I thought of when biting into one was how good they would taste on a pizza.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes

Last night was full of culinary victory in my house. In addition to successfully making homemade mozzarella cheese, I successfully, and tastily, preserved some beautiful cherry tomatoes by oven-drying--a variation on sun-dried tomatoes.

It has become more and more important to me to gather up as much of the fresh, in-season produce from local farms. But to have it sustain us beyond it's limited window of edibility is always a challenge. Either the produce sits in the fridge too long, or on the counter. Life happens. My intention for veggie-heavy meals get lost in shuffle, when nights get late before we've even started cooking, and we often forego the second side of veggies for some other leftover. (Or we fill up on tomatoes on herbed and olive-oiled baguette slices, which is becoming more and more a pre-dinner treat that we love.) Or instead of finding their way into fresh smoothies, peaches grow soft on the counter as I spend what seems like every waking minute prying non-food items from Thora's jaws, or keeping her this side of melt-down, from a log-rolling tantrum. Needless to say, all my Monday-Morning-Farmer's-Market hopes for healthy, responsible, globally-sustainable eating sometimes goes by the wayside, or specifically into the the compost bin. But because I hate that sense of failure as I drop the wilted greens or squishy fruit in with the compost that not every bite got eaten, I've been eye-ing the produce at the Farmer's Market with specific thoughts of semi-preserving. (I'm not canning, so the preserving I'm doing here extends the lifespans of the produce by several weeks in the fridge, rather than months on the shelf.)

So last night's success was oven-dried tomatoes. I cut in half about 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes, scooped out their seeds with a grapefruit spoon, and laid them cut-side up on a foil-lined baking sheet.

(Could these look more like candy?!?)


I put them in a 200 degree oven (the lowest setting on ours) at roughly 10:30pm for what I was thinking might be over night. But at around 12:30am, when I was still up (!), I took a look at them, and they were already shriveled and some quite leathery. So I took them out and put them in a heat-safe bowl. (I will soon be pouring boiling liquid on them, so the bowl needs to be tough.)

Then I referred to the recipe in Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, called "Antipasto Tomatoes," which can be found at their website here. I brought about a cup of plain white vinegar to a boil (just what we had on hand and a quantity that I eyeballed and assumed to be enough to cover my small amount of tomatoes). After it came to a boil, I poured it into the bowl over the dried tomatoes, tossed in a few whole cloves of garlic, and let the tomatoes and garlic steep for 10 minutes. Then, I scooped out the tomatoes and garlic from the vinegar and, by pressing them, drained as much of the vinegar off as I could. (I reserved the vinegar that is all carmel-colored and tomato- and garlic-infused now and sure to be good in some new incarnation.) Once drained, I tossed the tomatoes and garlic with dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. (I used dried since I didn't have fresh herbs on hand, but would surely use fresh if given the option.) I put them into a jar and poured olive oil over them to cover (see top photo).

I tried some this morning, and they're quite yummy. There's still a subtle vinegar hit to the taste, which I'm not sure I want there or not. The vinegar bath helps raise the acidity so as to help prevent the bacteria that causes botulism, so it's necessary. But perhaps I could've pressed harder when draining and gotten more of the vinegar out before they went into the jar. But I think they will be nice on salads, on crusty bread, or tossed with pasta. I plan to get some plum tomatoes on Monday and do this again, for one reason, that I'd like to try again and see what happens with a meatier tomato--one that has more substance to it after it's been seeded--but ultimately, I have a feeling these won't last long.

Next up: Roasted Red Peppers

Cheese! (after 3 tries and finding the right milk)

So tonight didn't end in despair and culinary disappointment. I successfully made my own mozzarella cheese! I can't tell you the elation I felt as the gloppy goop started to turn into stringy goop right before my eyes. The sense of pride as I stretched it between my hands twelve inches, then 18 inches! It was fun and in retrospect, quite easy. Once I landed on the right milk, that is. And for you in Massachusetts, that milk seems to be Garelick brand all-natural milk. (Of course raw milk straight from a farm, your own cow or goat, for example, would be best. But for those of us who don't have ready access to farm milk, so far the store-bought brand that works for me is Garelick.)

The first two times I tried to make cheese, I was using Trader Joe's organic milk*. And despite not being labeled "ultra-pasteurized," it wouldn't result in a curd that ultimately clung together. Perhaps they heat their milk when pasteurizing to a higher temperature than milk that doesn't need to travel as far and be stored as long. Garelick is a Massachusetts company, and so their milk is transported relatively short distances. (For home cheese-making, you must use only non-"ultra pasteurized" milk [or raw milk that you pasteurize yourself] since the curds won't set.)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making my first entree into cheese-making via the supplies and instruction from the folks at The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company at www.cheesemaking.com. Their instructional booklet and dvd are so informative and inspiring. And after having trouble the first time, I emailed them with my problem and they wrote back the very next morning with helpful tips.

Anyway, here's my success:

Here it is, a kind of clingy mass, having separated from the whey.


Then it spends about 2 minutes in the microwave. This is just before it goes in for its first minute.


Here I am pressing it into a single piece (although, it pretty much was a single piece prior to this step) and expressing more whey before going back in the microwave for another 30 seconds.



Working the cheese



Stretching the cheese

And the final product. Viola!

I look forward to working a bit more on final presentation next time. It begins to harden up and take shape before I really knew what was happening, so I was stuck with a less than perfect globe of shiny, white mozzarella. It tastes great. I look forward to it with baguette toasts and heirloom tomatoes tomorrow!


* While my experience seems to suggest that Trader Joe's milk doesn't work for home cheese-making, we are happy with both their organic and regular brands for daily drinking for both us and Thora.

Something I never thought I'd do: Home Cheesemaking?!?

So something I haven't written about, but have been meaning to, is my appreciation for Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It spoke to me, spurring me on to do things that I've done in the past (backyard gardening) but that had lapsed while we lived in apartments in NYC. It also encouraged me to do things (namely Farmer's Market shopping) that I did before for fun, but now I do with a true sense of purpose, enjoyment, and obligation (it's very important to support local farmers since they provide bio-diversity necessary for our planet's well-being, the significantly lower fuel usage in getting the produce to me and my neighbors, the sensibility and enjoyment of eating food that's "in-season,"...)

Anyway, two direct repercussions of reading this book are:

I'm serious about growing our own vegetables and fruit next season. Sean got me this great book as a birthday present this year, called Bountiful Container, that is proving to be critical in my planning for next year. (While I have yard access, due to a shady tree in our backyard, very little of the ground gets lots of sun. So I'll be doing container gardening along one side of house which gets tons of sun but which is also completely paved over with asphalt.) I'm so excited and don't know how I will get through the long months of winter. Seriously, I'm excited. You should see the plans, dog-eared library books, my highlighted copy of Bountiful Container littering the floor along my side of the bed.

The second thing I've done, that I have to admit I never ever imagined I would ever do, (even in my most hippie-fied fantasies), is to make my own cheese. And this is a direct result of Kingsolver's book. I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and as always, I was determined to use it for something out of the ordinary; something that I want, but that I can't really justify to myself to come out of our budgeted monthly money, which also has to fund things like toilet paper and food for the baby. I know, you're thinking, "Cheesemaking?!?" I said, I know. But apparently it's super easy to make soft cheeses like mozzerella, ricotta, and goat cheese. The place to go for home cheese making is cheesemaking.com, where Ricki Carroll has been teaching home cheese making for 3 decades. Just tonight, I purchased the Starter Kit, which contains their book, an instructional dvd, and the Mozzerella & Ricotta kit which contains all the equipment and ingredients I need to make mozzerella 30 times. For now, I'm kind of doing this for the novelty of always being just 30 minutes away from organic, homemade cheese made without unnecessary processing, refridgeration, storage, transportation, etc. But rest assured (or be forewarned, whichever camp you fall into), I'll write about the trials and victories, the cost and savings, the taste and elbow-grease that goes into making your own cheese at home. So stay tuned.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Puckery Pickles

This past Monday, I was compelled to pick up some cucumbers and make my own pickles. To be truthful, the compulsion was probably chiefly driven by the "3 for $1" sign above the mound of ENORMOUS cucumbers. I couldn't resist. I love pickles. And I love having my own pickles in the fridge to shamelessly munch on when the mood strikes, or even when it doesn't. (Otherwise, I'm snacking on the pickles which are meant for tuna salad and hamburgers.) I plan to do a little more tweaking to the recipe to get a punchy but a bit more subtle flavor. Right now, the vinegar hit is unrelenting. But I love it. I'm a vinegar lover, even if it often catches me unprepared most times and causes my throat to seize up and my eyes to tear. Here is the one and only recipe that I've used to make pickles over the past years. These are refrigerator pickles and so last in the fridge for a couple of weeks. (They're not preserved so they need to be eaten relatively quickly.) I found this recipe in the New York Times Food section about 5 years ago. Although I cut the recipe out of the paper, I don't have an author to attribute it to. However, this author adapted it from "Blue Hill at Stone Barns" (which is meaningless to me, but I figured I should include it). I too have made some changes/additions (see what I did in italics below) and I look forward to playing around some more. But for now, here's the recipe:

8 medium Kirby cucumbers
This Monday, I got the three for a dollar good-sized regular cucumbers and 2 were used to fill the 3 jars I used.

For the brine:
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
I use less (slightly less than 1/4 c.) since I like a more savory pickle.
1/4 cup Kosher salt
2 cups water
I'm thinking of upping the water and reducing the vinegar ratio in the future, maybe 2.5 cups water to 1.5 cups vinegar. Just fyi.
2 cups Champagne vinegar
We didn't have any, I used what I did have on hand: 1 & 3/4 cups white wine vinegar and 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar.

Infusing flavor in the jars:
I completely eyeball the following ingredients. I'm certain I use more of everything below, plus I added mustard seed in comparable amounts as the peppercorns this time around. Also, I never add the chiles, but I'm a baby about heat.
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
4 sprigs of dill
3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 whole dried chiles (optional)

1. Boil a stockpot of water as deep as the shoulder of a quart jar (or of the jars your using; I use a hodge podge of saved glass jars of all different sizes, so I usually have to boil in batches and adjust the water level accordingly.)
2. Wash cucumbers and slice into 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick rounds.
3. In a small saucepan bring sugar, salt, vinegar and 2 cups water to a boil over high heat; remove from heat and set aside.
4. Distribute peppercorns, dill, garlic, and chiles equally between 2 sterilized 1-quart jars, then pack jars with cucumber slices. (I layer pickles, then spices, then more pickles, etc., since I think it helps disseminate the flavor. However I have no research to back that up.) Fill each jar with brine to 1/2-inch from rim.
5. Partly close jars, leave gap for steam to escape, and place in boiling water for 10 minutes. Carefully remove jars with jar lifter or 2 tongs and close lids tightly. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Yellow and Red Brandywines

Even though we bought tomatoes at the farm stand at Verrill Farm over the weekend, I couldn't resist splurging at our Central Square Farmer's Market on Monday with these two Brandywine (heirloom) tomatoes, a yellow and a red. I picked up a whole wheat french bagette at Trader Joe's, cut off some slices and brushed them with herbed olive oil. (Basically I just dump rosemary, thyme, sea salt, and pepper into a few tablespoons of olive oil and stir.) I put these slices under the broiler for just a couple minutes, until they're lightly browned (or not so lightly since I always forget about them) and then top with the sliced tomatoes. These Brandywines were so flavorful, they didn't need the typical basil and mozzerella that often accompany sliced tomatoes in our house. Sean and I devoured these. Honestly, I can't wait for Monday, when I will pick two new heirloom tomatoes and we'll do this all over again. This makes an easy and tasty appetizer while we're cooking dinner. Although, had I made up more, we probably wouldn't have needed whatever it was we were cooking.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Radishes & Beer

Well I want to say, who knew? But since I don't really know all that much about all the ways that various foods are used the world over, the answer to that question surely is: Lots of people. And by "lots" I think I may be talking about millions (gazillions?). So, I guess I rephrase this to say: I really wish I knew about this! All you gazillions of people that have been eating raw salted radishes paired with beer, (Germans, I'm looking at you) why didn't you tell me?

Anyway, this past Monday at our local Farmer's Market in Central Square, I was eyeing the blood-pink color of the radishes and thought that for the first time in my life, I might buy some, for salads. Sean and I are always looking for ways to spruce up the salads we have with every single dinner (except when we have pancakes or waffles for dinner). We really like crunch, so we're constantly rotating through carrot/broccoli slaw, soy nuts, croutons, red and yellow peppers and the like. As I was handing over my money (I think $2) I thought to ask how else people might use radishes besides cut up in salads. He told me that people sautee the greens. But I could tell that his heart wasn't really there, until he said, "You know how I really like them? Sliced and salted with beer."

So I wasted no time. There were a couple cold beers in the fridge. There was sea salt in our cabinet. Now there were radishes. I put the baby to bed--not in the middle of the afternoon or anything, but at her regular bedtime--and got to slicing. And the verdict: I LOVE them. They're the slightest bit hot, in the way that wasabi is hot, but only a whisper of wasabi's sinus-clearing punch. And of course, I love the satisfying crunch and savoriness of the sea salt. Sean's comment after trying one was, "Well, I don't hate them." (Since the first taste test, he's gladly had more here and there.) But he did say that he thought one could get a "burning stomach" like he is prone to get when he has raw garlic or raw onion on an empty stomach. I guess that's why you pair them with the beer.

p.s. I am submitting this post to the Farmer's Market Report over on To Every Meal There Is A Season. Check it out here.

Kumquats: The Peyote of Citrus Fruit?

First, I have to say that I have not taken peyote. But I did see The Doors three times in the theatre when I was in junior high, so... Anyway, I tried kumquats for the first time while my in-laws were in town this past weekend, and, well, have you tried these?!? My reaction after eating the first one was that it was like walking over coals. Eating kumquats is not for the faint of heart. I mean, almost blacking-out isn't normal, right?
They look like oval-shaped mini-oranges, about the size of a large grape. You pop the whole thing in your mouth, skin and all. The skin is intensely tart and bitter, but it is immediately countered by the incredibly sweet flesh of the kumquat. For a split second, when I eat one, I'm so totally overcome by the sensation, that I can focus on nothing but enduring. This extreme fluctuation lasts less than twenty seconds, however long it takes to chew the kumquat. And despite eating about a dozen of these, the experience ambushed me every time. It's not entirely pleasant, and yet, I think I like them. We must've made quite the sight: the grimacing, the puckered faces, the doubling-over... only to do it again and again. I don't have the steel taste buds to eat ultra-spicy food. I used to think people perverse who torture themselves with ultra-spicy food, who sweat, whose faces are at once shriveled and contorted with the rapture of the pain. Who claim, "No, it's delicious!" despite a redness to their face, and their body's attempt to douse the fire in their mouth with all sorts of fluid--tears, running nose, extreme salivation. "Why are they doing this to themselves?" I would always ask. Little Kumquat, you have solved that mystery for me.

Baby Food and Mommy Drink

Tonight, while Sean watched a DVR-ed basketball game (poor Duke), I made Thora some butternut squash puree. And because the two wine bottle corks that we own have mysteriously gone missing, I had to finish off a bottle of wine in the process. It was pretty good wine, in fact, for being a Trader Joe's $3.99 special--Castelli Romani Rosso. My palate is not terribly sophisticated when it comes to wine. I like bold cabernets, for example, wines that kind of run my taste buds over. But it did the trick. Exactly what that trick is, I'm not sure. But I'm here sitting up at 11:05, feeling very loose of mouth, so there's that. Anyway, back to the baby food. I get such a satisfied feeling as I seal up these re-used Gerber baby food containers for Thora. I feel so efficient as I lay out the empty containers in assembly-line fashion and fill them up. I have brief fantasies of having created a friendly, but hugely successful wholesome foods business. Butternut squash is my favorite to work with because I just want to swim around in it after I'm done. So okay, that's probably the wine talking. And likely, comments like that wouldn't help my fantasy-business. But its jewel-like color, its shimmer, its translucence. It makes me think that I should go pull that Boston Adult Education catalogue out of the recycling bag and look up "Stained Glass for Beginners."