Scottish Cow

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

This was our perfect summer dinner from the other night.  So quick, so tasty, so licking the oily pesto off the plate when your kids aren’t watching.

Zucchini, sliced about 1/8-1/4 inch thick, rubbed with oil, salt and pepper.  Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to oil your zucchini.

Tomato sliced thicker, covered with oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper.

Grill them up, zucchini until soft and starting to get a little char.  Tomatoes until they are about to fall apart.  You’ll lose one brave slice to the fires below, for taking it just a little too far.

The pesto, which was already made after receiving a canvas grocery bag full of basil from the CSA, was like the arugula pesto that I did here, but with a TON of basil and all pine nuts.

Grill some bread – I like something with a seriously high crust to crumb ratio, like this ciabatta.  Get it crispy on both sides, add pesto, sliced cheese, and the veggies and you’re all set.  The possibilities are endless and my only regret is not having eggplant in the house.

I dare you not to lick your plate.

Copyright Your Hummus

So, an interesting story via Peter of Kalofagas, regarding a run-in that another blogger, Melissa of Alosha’s Kitchen, had with the folks at Cook’s Illustrated (Cook’s Country / America’s Test Kitchen).

She found a potato salad recipe of theirs, adapted it to her liking, and posted the results, with credit for inspiration given to their recipe and ended up in a email exchange with a representative of their publicity company after being asked to take her recipe down.

You should read her thoughtful and insightful story about it here. 

Oh really, you say? 

Cook’s appears to be operating on a few bizarre assumptions here….

Every recipe published under their regime has reached perfection, and any further modification is both blasphemous and unnecessary.  If you change or adapt the recipe in any way, you know, to tinker with the perfection they’ve achieved, and decide to write about it, you’ve broken the law.

Did their publicist really think she’d be able to write such condescending messages with claims like that without having them put up for everyone to see?

So…where did they get their recipe from?  Did they invent Potato Salad?  Was it handed to them from the Heavens, carved word for word into a tablet of stone?

As Melissa and all of her commenters have noted, not only is it ridiculous to consider a recipe sealed forever in a state of perfection, but to actually try to prevent someone from modifying and discussing it?

That’s why I’m here and that’s why you’re here.  That’s why we love to cook. Taking an existing recipe as inspiration, as a starting place, and seeing where we can take it is exciting.  Having it turn out well is wonderful.  Sharing it with others is redeeming.

If we had to come home everyday and make a recipe word for word from a book, like an assembly line robot automaton, cranking out identical widgets ad infinitum, what would be the point?  And if we can’t share our excitement and ideas with others? 

(Do the writers at Cook’s read food blogs for inspiration and ideas?)

We owe a debt to the first ugly-looking caveman who had the grand idea to toss the bird he just caught into his fire.  Imagine his excitement, charred feathers and all.  Every roast chicken since then is just a derivative of his recipe, scratched onto a cave wall somewhere.

Stepping off the soapbox and silly-angry ledge I seem to have worked myself onto, I think it comes down to this – if she had published their recipe verbatim (with or without credit), that’s one thing, and they’ve got a right to be pissed.  But publishing a potato salad recipe that’s been heavily adapted (with love) and giving a “thank you” for inspiration?  Their reaction to that?  As Peter eloquently put it:  Bullshit.

So here, in honor of this mess, is a recipe, Not Inspired By Cook’s Illustrated Hummus, named so because it seems like Melissa might have been better off in the end by just publishing her recipe without doing Cook’s the favor of any sort of mention.  It certainly wouldn’t have been illegal, at least from my understanding. 

So this recipe, is, uh, all mine.

I will thank the writer of the Cook’s recipe for the earth-shattering revelation that the food processor will make the hummus smooth.  No credit was given, so I assume that idea was all theirs.

(Not Inspired By Cook’s Illustrated) Hummus With Fresh Herbs

The cashews are optional and certainly not traditional, but I like the added texture and the nuttiness.  They do make it less creamy though.  They also tame some of the bitterness in the tahini.  Fresh herbs make just about everything better, so feel free to go crazy with them.

1 can (14 oz) chickpeas
2 lemons, juice and zest
4 TB tahini
1/3 C water
1 clove garlic
Fresh herbs (I used parsley, mint and oregano in this one)
Handful of cashews
Big pinch of salt
Black pepper
Olive Oil

Put everything but the cashews and the oil in the food processor and pulse until almost smooth.  Turn the machine on, and drizzle the oil in (like you’re making pesto or mayo) until it’s really smooth and silky.  Keep the machine going after you’ve got enough the oil to get it as smooth as you want.  Add the cashews and let it go for a little longer.  Add more salt if it’s necessary – if it’s too bitter from the tahini, I think a little more salt/lemon will help.

From Vietnam to Germany (Bun Thit Nuong and Riesling)

*** Update: One of my flickr contacts pointed out that this can be considered nem nuong, which is usually skewered sausage-like meat, while thit nuong is flat pieces of meat.  There you go! ***

If there was one, just one cuisine, that I was forced to eat, forsaking all others for eternity, it just might be that of Vietnam.  Granted, my exposure to Vietnamese food is fairly narrow - some restaurants in Buffalo…some in Boston.  Never have I set my clumsy feet on Vietnamese soil for a spoon of Phở or some Bánh mì.  That’s not to say that I never will…

This is my attempt at one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes – I believe the name is Bun Thit Nuong – at least that’s what it was called on the menu of Pho 99 – a wonderful little place that was nestled into the heart of downtown Buffalo, until its building was razed for yet another courthouse.  Come to scenic Buffalo, the personal injury litigation capital of the Northeast.

Grrr…stepping away from the bitterness…I love the flavors of the food, the freshness of the herbs and vegetables, the heat from the chilis, the salty sour flavors of citrus and fish sauce, the smoky char of the grilled meat, the ubiquitous dipping sauces.  Vietnamese food seems to have it all, and this dish, for me, is the perfect example.

Grilled pork served over noodles and vegetables.  The pork is essentially a quick sausage, full of shallots and garlic, and formed into logs.  Pork logs, I’ve been informed, does not sound terribly appealing, and that may be true, but it’s an apt description.  The noodles are rice vermicelli (just thin noodles made from rice, cooked quickly with a soak in hot water), and the salad is shredded lettuce (some herbs mixed in), cucumbers, carrots and bean sprouts.

The most important element, however, is the sauce.  It’s a bowl of Nuoc Cham, the standard Vietnamese dipping sauce.  It’s salty, sour and sweet, and potentially spicy.  It’s one of those things that comes on strong, and once the taste leaves your mouth, you get desperate for more.  And more.  You’re willing to drink the remaining liquid straight from the bowl, much to the chagrin and disgust of some of your coworkers (those poor bastards don’t know what they are missing), and indeed, when you wake up at 2:15 A.M., still burping limey fish sauce and dreaming of pork logs, you know you’re well on your way to an addiction and may find yourself whipping up a batch for breakfast.

This is what I hear anyway.

When I get my hands on this dish, the nuoc cham is poured over the top, as a dressing, the pork is removed from its skewers, delogged, and mixed in, so the flavors can come together in the bowl.  I then disappear into a state of unawareness and bliss.

In the end, my rendition was not nearly as good or as flavorful as Pho’s.  That’s fine with me.  It was still delicious.

To go with it, I went for a German Riesling.  A white wine that can go from cloyingly sweet to dry, Riesling is known to be a food friendly wine, especially with flavorful and spicy Southeast Asian dishes, because of its sweetness and acidity.  It’s also one we were already fans of, and in fact, is a wine that flourishes in one of the few places I’ve been outside of the country.  The Mosel River valley in Germany is known for its Rieslings and the picture below was taken on a trip there back in May of 2001.  My crappy camera and I simply didn’t do justice to the land.

This Riesling was delicious on its own, with citrus and melony flavors.   It wasn’t bubbly by any means, but seemed to have a bit of a sparkle to it.  Once it met the dish, the lime flavors in both the nuoc cham and the wine exploded.  Literally, yes, our kitchen was aflame.  It was like they were destined to meet, the wine both emphasizing the flavors and cooling the spiciness.

And finally, the recipes..

Nuoc Cham

1/4-1/3 C water
1/4-1/3 C fish sauce
1/4-1/3 C lime juice (gotta be fresh)
Sugar to taste, I start with 1-2TB and work up from there
Julienned/shredded carrots
Minced garlic, to taste
Minced chilis/chili rings, to taste

Mix everything together well (might need to whisk in the sugar.)  It’s that easy.  I usually start with equal amounts of the 3 liquids and then add more of them to change the flavors once the rest of the ingredients are in.  The flavors are strong, so more water is always an option.  You don’t need alot of garlic – sometimes I just leave it out, or float a smashed glove in there.  In the pictured version, I used a bunch of green garlic.  Same with the chilis – I like using the rings, as they can be eaten or avoided and don’t completely overwhelm the rest of the sauce.

The Pork (Logs)

1 lb ground pork
Handful of minced shallots
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, peeled to the core, minced
2 TB fish sauce
1 TB oil
Salt/pepper
Small handful of bread crumbs (enough to bind the pork)

Mix all the ingredients together – if you want to grind the pork from scratch and get more pork fat in there, go for it.  Fry a small piece to test the flavors and adjust if necessary.  Refrigerate the mixture, squeeze onto wooden skewers using the palm of your hand, and grill/broil until cooked through.

The Salad

Lettuce
Carrots
Cucumber
Bean Sprouts
Mint & Cilantro

The Assembly

Cook some rice vermicelli according to the directions on the package.  Rinse with cool water when done and set aside to drain.  Shred some lettuce (in this case, iceberg works great), add some chopped mint and cilantro, and julienne some carrots and cucumbers.  Put some of the noodles at the bottom of the bowl.  Top with lettuce, carrots, cukes, and bean sprouts.  Lay a couple skewers on the top, sprinkle on some crushed peanuts and cilantro and serve with a big, overflowing bowl of nuoc cham.

In Blackberry Heaven

It was a heartbreaking day when the last strip of Calvin and Hobbes ran.  For years, Calvin provided daily humor, a reminder of the richness, excitement, wonders and terrors of childhood, instructions for crafting the perfect snowball, and more than anything else a message that felt personal and came in the form of quotes like this one below, spoken from Calvin to Hobbes while reviewing his personal appearance at bath time:

“If your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously reexamine your life.”

That’s what the picture of Molly above reminds me of. 

Green knees, juice-stained hands.

We got blackberries this week from the CSA along with sweet/sour cherries, a TON of chard, 1/2 lb of basil leaves and some big golden beats.  We’re heading out of town for a wedding tomorrow, so I wanted to tackle a bunch of the chard tonight.

Enter the omelet and the frittata.  Along with wraps and stirfries, they are at the top of our list for sheer ability in using up any leftovers, happily welcoming bits of vegetables and protein to the party. 

In this case, I opted for a frittata and it wasn’t left over vegetables, but fresh chard.  What follows is a description of the process, more than a recipe.  The basic plan can be followed with all sorts of items in different quantities.  Just don’t lose the onions or the herbs (um, or the eggs).  They would be upset with you. 

Throw in some toast, and you’re all set.

Chard Frittata With Fresh Herbs

-  Heat an oven-safe pan over medium heat. Preheat oven to 350 (or use the broiler, but keep the rack towards the middle of the oven).

-  Melt a couple TB of butter in the pan.  While it’s melting, separate the stems and the leaves of the chard and thinly slice a small onion.  Chop the stems thinly also and add the onions and stems to the pan along with a big pinch of salt.  Cook for several minutes, until soft.

-  Shred the chard leaves, add them to the pan with more salt and stir them in.  Cook until tender.

-  Beat 6-8 eggs (depends on how much other stuff you’ve got in there) with some cream/milk, salt and pepper.  Add a bunch of minced fresh herbs – I used a little mint, a little more chives, and a lot of parsley.

-  Add the eggs to the pan and tilt it to spread them around.  Cook until the bottom is set, using a spatula to pull in the sides, allowing some of the uncooked eggs on top to move around.

-  When the bottom is set and it appears to be cooked about halfway through, put the pan in the oven and cook until it’s done – you want the eggs somewhere between runny and overcooked.  They will fall apart and get all watery and that would be bad.  Better to take it out a little sooner than necessary.  It can always go back in.

…

I don’t think Calvin would have anything to do with a frittata…

Cherry & Yogurt Clafoutis

A quick note before we talk clafoutis:  About last week's entry in Paper Chef #31 – sweet merciful crap, I won!! 

Still in a bit of shock about the whole thing, but there’s a big smile on my face, as every dish looked great.  After making, tasting and writing my entry up, I felt pretty good, but then after seeing the competition, I would have bet on someone else.  Hank did a fantastic write up of all the entries (and fish steak seemed to be a truly inspiring choice) and I had some similar thoughts – sauerkraut strudel?  How could you turn that down?  Magnus’ dish looked incredible and I was immediately struck by the composition of it.  But of all of them, if I had the opportunity to try just one, I probably would have sunk my fork into Natashya’s Moroccan Salmon dish – the flavors looked fantastic.  From start to finish, this was a ton of fun, can’t wait to have another go at it, and especially looking forward to judging (a little nervous too) and picking an ingredient for next month’s round!

…

I had previously threatened a sour cherry dish, but when we got our veggies this week, there were no sour cherries – just 4 lbs of sweet ones.   A let down maybe, but not a big enough deterrent to completely knock me off the target of a cherry-related dessert.

Clafoutis is a great word.  Its appearance takes enjoyment in defying pronunciation – at least for me.  The spellchecker wants nothing to do with it.    But the spellchecker has never tried one, otherwise, I believe, it would find nothing to complain about.

Clafoutis is a classic French custardy dessert.  So custardy, in fact, that when Julia Child translates it in Mastering the Art… she calls it “flan".  To me, it’s basically a pancake batter with fruit that bakes up thick and well…custardy.  Depending on how long you bake it, you can end up with a consistency somwhere along the custardy to cakey continuum.  This came out with a solid, dense custard feel to it, and that seemed perfect to me.

The big change I’ve made from standard clafoutis batters is the substitution of vanilla yogurt for some of the milk/cream.  It’s a favorite key ingredient in our standard pancake recipe, so I figured it would be right at home here.  It lent a great tangy flavor and the vanilla and cherries were made for each other.  It’s your simple, beautiful fruit dessert.  The only thing easier would be eating the fruit straight, and there’s nothing wrong with that either.

Cherry & Yogurt Clafoutis

2-3 C of pitted black cherries, depending on your desired ratio of cake:fruit
3 eggs
3/4 C milk
1/2 C whole milk vanilla yogurt
2/3 C flour
1/2 C sugar
Salt, a big pinch

- Preheat oven to 375

- Butter a 10 inch casserole pan, pie pan, or oven safe skillet.  Scatter cherries along the bottom.

- Beat eggs, milk and yogurt together

- Mix flour, sugar and salt and whisk into egg mixture

- Pour over cherries, shake pan to distribute and bake for 40-50 minutes (maybe longer depending on depth), at least until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Pizza, Pesto and a Plethora of Plants

A quick post tonight…2 weeks ago in the CSA basket (literally at this point, as we’ve been picking up in a flexible laundry basket) we got a ton of arugula.  We also have a bunch coming up in the garden. So...

Arugula in a salad? Excellent.

Arugula pesto?  Oh baby.

This was just thrown together the same way we do our basil-based pesto.  Dump the ingredients in the food processor and go.  It seems to be quite impossible to overdose on any given ingredient.  That goes for the garlic, the cheese, the nuts and the basil (in this case the arugula) – in fact, the only limitation seems to be the size of our Cuisinart bowl.

What? Food Processor?  I’m sorry if you're one of the 67 enraged Italian Grandmothers flinging their mortars, pestles and soppressata at their computer monitors right now.  This is how my mother taught me, and how it will always be done here.

What’s the best thing to do with arugula pesto?  Sure, it’s up to you, but if you ask me, it goes on a pizza.  We try to do a homemade pizza per week around here and I’ll be damned, but it’s one schedule that we seem to have no problem keeping on top of.

Here’s what went into the pesto:

-  Several huge handfuls of arugula, stems below leaves removed (basically fill the food processor)

-  Handful of walnuts

-  Handful of pine nuts

-  6-8 garlic scapes (6 cloves is fine – we didn’t have any)

-  2 handfuls parmesan

-  Salt and pepper

Turn on the food processor and drizzle olive oil in the top while it’s going.  You’ll use a good amount of oil (1/2 cup?).  Stop processing once it’s still a little chunky, but all brought together well.

Once it was made, it was slathered on stretched out pizza dough.  Store bought is fine.  Let it sit in the fridge for a few days to flavor up and get nice and gassy.  Ha…moving on…if you want homemade, the very first recipe here, Molly’s basic bread, will also make a great pizza dough.  Add some olive oil to it (along with the water) and if you can let it sit in the fridge for a couple days before using, that’s fantastic. 

So, pesto down, torn chunks of soft/fresh mozzarella go on top, a couple halved grape tomatoes, a few spoons of leftover ricotta, a little oil and salt and into your oven at it’s hottest possible setting.  I like to stretch it on parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan, and then slide it onto a baking stone.

If you want a nicely written up arugula pesto recipe, check out this one on Kalofagas.  While you’re at it, make the rest of Peter's recipes too.  We're doing his Kolokithokeftedes (zucchini fritters) tomorrow.

....

Yesterday in the CSA, we got 5 heads of assorted lettuces, collards (or kale), dandelion greens, herbs, a huge bunch of rainbow chard, and 4 lbs of cherries.  All the non-lettuce greens were wilted down and packaged up.  As I said, there's a pizza per week, and the chard and last weeks spinach went onto the pizza tonight.  No photos...yet...but here are some of the veggies, and a little friend that made his escape on a dandelion leaf.

Braised Tuna with Walnut Socca

Last week I discovered Paper Chef.  What’s that you ask?  If you don’t already know (Congratulations!  You were under the same rock as me apparently…), the idea is simple – you’re given a list of ingredients – make something out of them, blog about it and let it be judged against everyone else’s entries.  I discovered it via Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (the June winner) via Simply Recipes.  How have I not come across this before?  It’s only been going on for almost 4 years at this point.    The idea caught my eye and so did the list of ingredients for the month:  Fresh oregano, chickpeas / chickpea flour, walnuts and a fish steak.  “Hmm…” you say. 

That’s what I said too.

Before I get any further with my recipe, I’ll note that I misread the rules until just now as I was putting this post together– my dish is really two dishes, but the rules are pretty clear (ahem, reading them now, at least) that it needs to be one dish.  However – all the of the ingredients are in one of the dishes, so I guess my effort needs to be judged solely on the braised tuna alone, and not the socca.  Oh well.  If I had served the braise on top of the socca would it have counted?  Eh, it doesn’t matter.  Except that the socca is damn tasty – so although it can’t be judged, it should definitely be eaten.

** UPDATE (7/8, 10:00 AM) **  I heard back from Paper Chef World Headquarters this morning, and it turns out the two dishes are to be considered as one, as they are served together and not really two full blown entrees.  Woot!  (Thanks Ilva)

So...what’s socca?  Well, that’s one of the reasons the contest caught my eye – it’s a flatbread made from chickpea flour (besan).  There are French and Italian (farinata) versions of it and It’s been sitting on the top of my list of dishes to try for awhile after reading Bittman’s recipe.  The lightbulb above my head lit up again a few weeks ago when there was both a follow up column on his blog and I had stumbled on some chickpea flour at the store.  Now with the contest, the stars now seem to be aligning.  Is it lame that my stars align in terms of unusual flours?  Speaking of which, I swapped out some of the chickpea flour for toasted and ground walnuts.  The effect was awesome, and the dark, rich, nuttiness came right through.  The socca experiments will definitely continue.

For the main dish, I had to fight every grill-loving, smoky-charcoal-dreaming bone in my body not to grill the fish steak.  It was almost painful not to and in fact, I probably should have, instead of having both the oven and the stove cranking away when it’s 85 outside.  Anyhow, I had never tried braising fish, so this seemed like the time to do it.  It was also lovely having an excuse for buying a fish steak.  We usually end up having fillet cuts of your standard white fishies (trout, tilapia, snapper, etc), so this was a treat.  The braise is based on tomatoes and chickpeas, and finished off with a nice dose of oregano, lemon zest, and walnuts.  It was very quick and I think the flavors and textures came together really well:  The soft tomatoes, slightly firmer chickpeas and the crunch of the toasted walnuts.  While not served with its typically delicious raw-red interior, the cooked to faintly-pink tuna in the braise was tender and still moist.

So, thanks for the contest, the inspiring ingredients, and an excuse to cook a few new things.

And finally, thanks for reading!  What would you have made??

I can’t wait to see what others turn in…

Tuna Braised with Chickpeas & Tomatoes

1 tuna steak (about 3/4 lb)
14 oz can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
28 oz can diced tomatoes (if you’ve got honest-to-god, in-season reds, use them by all means!)
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Chili flakes (I used aleppo – not too hot)
Dry white wine
1/4 C heavy cream
1 TB roughly minced fresh oregano
Zest of one lemon
1 C chopped walnuts

- Toast the chopped walnuts either in a toaster oven (or regular oven on a sheet pan) until they start to get a little crunchy and firm up.  Careful – it’s a quick step from here to burnt bits.  Set aside.

- Get a heavy, medium sized pan with a lid over medium heat (I used a 3.5 qt dutch oven).

- Add swirl of oil, onions, a big pinch of salt, small pinch of chili flakes.  Saute until golden and soft.

- Add garlic and stir for a minute.

- Add a big splash of white wine, bring to boil and cook for a couple minutes.

- Add the chickpeas and a little more than half the tomatoes.  At this point, mine was a little dense and needed some liquid.  I was debating more of the tomatoes, but instead added about 1/3 C of water and that worked.  If you want it more tomatoey, go for it.

-  Bring to boil, turn to medium-low and place the tuna on top, nestling it in about half way.  Cover the pot almost all the way and cook at a steady, low simmer until the tuna is gray up the sides, but still pink on top (took me 10 minutes roughly).  Flip tuna over and go until tuna is as desired (I did about 5 minutes more).

- Remove tuna and set aside, covered.  Add the cream, oregano, lemon zest and a big handful of the toasted walnuts.  Stir to combine.  Add salt and pepper as needed.  Serve along with the socca.

Walnut & Oregano Socca

3/4 C chickpea flour
1/4 C walnut flour (see steps below)
1 C warm water
E.V. Olive Oil
2 big pinches salt
Several big grinds of pepper
1 TB or more minced oregano

- Place a 12 inch cast iron skillet in a oven at 450

- Take half of the toasted walnuts, and pulse them in the food processor until very small (couscous sized?).

- Sift the the chickpea flour into the walnut flour, add the salt and pepper

- Whisk in the water, a couple glugs of olive oil and the oregano.

- Take the hot skillet out, pour a couple more glugs of oil into it, swirl, add the batter, and swirl again. 

- Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges brown and start to curl up.  Turn on the broiler to get the top browned if necessary (it was for me both times I’ve made it)

- Remove and cut into wedges.

This Week in Veggies

Here's the minimalist photo of the CSA share for the week.  A little sample of each, instead of a giant pile of green.  There were lots of options this week - a couple pounds of spinach, herb choices, scallions, and a choice of kale, red and green mustard greens, mizuna, collards and komatsu (which I thought was the name of a tractor manufacturer).  I went for the kale - Molly picked the mizuna.  I have no clue what we're doing with the kale.  Way back when, I made some joke about eating kale salad to make up for 2 meals of welsh rabbit in a row.  I guess this is payback time.  Mother nature's a bitch, eh?  I'm thinking some kind of rice bowl with the shredded, sauteed kale in it.  Egg on top?  We'll probably saute the mizuna and have it with something off the grill.  The spinach will go into some pasta probably, or even just a salad.

So, any great kale recipes out there? 

And we had our second round of strawberries (woo-hoo!) and a choice of 1 1/2 lbs of either sweet or sour cherries.  Excuse me while I drool on the keyboard.  I didn't have anything in mind already for sour cherries, so we'll brainstorm this week and opt for some next week.

Here's a couple quick veggie dishes we had last week.  Neither was from the share, but both were from local farms.  First the potatoes. 

This is adapted from a potato recipe in All About Braising by Molly Stevens.  This is one fantastic book, if you haven't seen it.  In addition to some incredible recipes and flavors, she does a great job on general techniques and approaches to braising.  I would eat a pair of dirty Chuck Taylors if they were nicely braised.

We had some new potatoes, red and white, some tiny, some a little bigger.  Just rinse them off, halve/quarter any big ones and put them in the pot.  Add some garlic (minced, whole, chopped greens, whatever), salt, pepper and any herbs you want.  If you've got some duck fat, you're my hero.  Put in a scoop.  If not, a couple TBs of butter or olive oil will be good.  Fresh herbs are great - save them for the end.  Put water in the pan so it's about halfway up the potatoes.  Heat on high, bring to boil.  Turn down to a pretty good simmer and put a lid almost all the way on.  You want them to braise (keeping the heat in) but also want some of the moisture to escape.  Stir them around every now and then.  When they are just about done, crank the heat back up and boil away all of the liquid with the lid off, tossing the potatoes occasionally.  They will finish up all glossy from the reduced liquid along with whatever fat was left.  Add your herbs now, more salt and pepper if necessary, and you've got my favorite side dish made from potatoes.

The second one was baked tomatoes.  These were originally going to have baked eggs (ham, tomato, herbs, goat cheese with an egg on top) done inside of them, but they seemed a little too small.  So instead, they got restuffed with that stuff, minus the egg.  Use a knife to cut the top of the tomato off, aiming it in diagonally towards the center as you go around.  I poked my hand right through the side.  Don't do that.  Once the top is off, scoop out as much as you can without breaking the skin.  Chop what you've removed and put in a strainer to get out the liquid.  At this point you could do all sorts of stuff.  For these, I mixed some of the chopped reserved tomatoes with some sliced ham, cubes of bread, fresh basil, marjoram, salt and pepper.  Sprinkle salt and pepper in the tomato bowl, put a little spoon of ricotta in the bottom, fill it with your stuffing and sprinkle the tops with grated parm.  Bake at 400 until done.

That was really pretty easy.

Tonight felt like summer.  A late dinner on the front porch, Molly dancing on the lawn and feeding strawberries to Abby, the band across the street in the park playing Sousa for a crowd in lawn chairs, kids running in circles like a swarm of flies and the breeze coming in from the west, straight off the lake, nice and cool. 

We're even supposed to have some thunder tonight.