Abby's amazing grilled cheese with avocado butter (thanks again AltonBrown)

 
















I think Alton Brown has put us under a spell. He gives us directions and we follow through. We also seem to complicate his directions by letting our brilliant culinary minds create plans for luscious grilled cheese sandwiches with his amazing ideas.

Take for example this sandwich.
 
















This sandwich is a thing of beauty.
 
















It contains luscious melted cheeses ...
 
















... along with fried sage...
 
















and Alton Brown's avocado Butter.... (RECIPE here)
 

































 




















































and fried in the sage oil.
 

Clams

Fermenting Pickles

Alton Brown made SP do it.
I blame him.
We are bravely entering the world of fermented foods.
Wish us luck.
Recipe HERE.

Herbed Feta Corn Fritters

This is a lovely early autumn recipe by Maine cookbook author Kathy Gunst. We made this for supper last night and I doubled it for the four of us. Everybody loves left over fritters!

Herb and Feta Corn Fritters
A simple batter is made by mixing corn kernels with egg, flour, and milk and a handful of fresh garden herbs, crumbled feta cheese, and scallions. The savory fritters are served with a lemon-herb butter and are delicious served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You could also add a finely chopped sweet or spicy pepper to the batter. The fritters are delicious served on top of an arugula or spicy greens salad.

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup milk, plus 1 tablespoon
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut off 2 to 3 cobs
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs (basil, sage, rosemary, chives, oregano)
2 tablespoons very thinly sliced scallions, white and green parts
1/2 cup finely crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, canola oil or grape seed oil, or a combination

Process
1. In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder.

2. Add the milk and whisk until smooth.

3. Beat in the egg and then gently mix in the corn, herbs, scallions, cheese, salt and pepper.
 
















 4. In a large skillet heat the oil over moderately high heat.

5. Drop 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter into the hot oil and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Serve hot.





















Makes about ten small fritters; serves 3 to 4.

Garden tomato Bloody Mary's

Smitten Kitchen's Most Amazing Raw Tomato Sauce over Angelhair

This is the most amazing raw tomato sauce ever, and a perfect summer recipe for home gardeners. Angel Hair with Raw Tomato Sauce will fill you and leave your body and soul humming. Please go and make it tonight, with the garden warm fresh tomato hanging heavily on the vine. Go now. You know you want to!

Angel Hair Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Gourmet


Ingredients

3 pounds fresh, best-quality tomatoes (results are uneven with less fresh ones)
1 small garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste (I used 2 teaspoons total Diamond kosher salt)
1 teaspoon sugar (optional, I found this unnecessary)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 poud dried capellini or angel-hair spaghetti
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
To serve: grated ricotta salata (my choice) or Parmigiano-Reggiano and a drizzle of your favorite olive oil

Process
1. Halve the first pound of tomatoes crosswise, then rub the cut sides against the large holes of a box grater set in a large bowl, discarding the skin.

2. Core  and chop the last two pounds of tomatoes and add to the grated tomato bowl.

3. Add garlic, lemon juice or vinegar, salt, sugar (if using) and pepper and let marinate at room temperature until ready to use, at least 10 minutes but also up to 2 hours if you’re planning ahead.

4. After it has steeped for a while, taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
 
5. Cook pasta in salted boiling water as package time recommends.

6. Drain then toss with fresh sauce and basil. Serve lukewarm (as it is now) or at room temperature with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly grated cheese on top.

Enjoy.  

Cherry Tomato and Ground Cherry Salsa

I just stumbled upon this recipe on my blog feed and I am so excited for it! A Farmgirl's Dabbles posted this recipe today and it is so timely because I just started to harvest them last night and almost freaked out because not only did I buy 6 plants, but had several new volunteers come up in the garden this year AFTER we got down the weed matt. I'm very excited to try this!

Broccoli and Cauliflower Stem "Pasta"

This was such a fantastic and sustainable supper! I will always save my stems and make "pasta" from them - brilliant use of resources that save for a long time. After my recent harvest of almost all of my broccoli heads and some of my cauliflower, I have all the ingredients ready to go in the refrigerator for this recipe. I just wish it would cool down enough for me to want to cook.

From De Ma Quisine, here is Broccoli and Cauliflower Stem "Pasta"

Breakfast for dinner

This meal can look like many different things.

On hot and humid August nights, when the last things you want to do is heat your kitchen one more degree, cooking outside is a luxury. 

Pan made individual omelettes with feta and garden fresh veggies tossed in 

...

 Heaven on earth

Grilled Feta and Watemelon Salad

As I pondered a grilled water melon and feta salad, I recalled this recipe I did a few years back. A quick search of the blog proved I failed to save it, so without further ado, here they both are.

Grilled Feta with Thyme  from Framed Cooks

Grilled Watermelon from The Food Network

although this one from Alton Brown looks like its even better!

Sweet and Savory Tomato Jam

I just found this recipe for Sweet and Savory Tomato Jam on dear Jennifer Perillo's website In Jennie's Kitchen.  Yes this is the same Jennie as the Peanut Butter Pie post. My heart still breaks.

Veggie Roulade

Never before have I been involved in such a beautiful culinary adventure. It was truly a tarty party.  The vegetable roulade was a magnificent undertaking and was of course another example of Abby's unending bravery! How many people in this world could be so bold and NOT follow a recipe. The best attempt at a recipe would be to follow some of these links below, otherwise I learned from the master by just doing! That deserves a Yoda quote.

The crust is made from many layers of filo and melted butter (at least of stick per tart) and we used layers of thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots.

Food Republic

Vimeo

YouTube

Yes it was all done using the mandolin, but this is picture shows it with onions which are not in this recipe. I used the mandolin and the onions for another recipe. Lesson learned: I won't do that again.
 
















 



 

 



 

 

 
 

 
 










 

 

 

 


 

 


 



 

5-Minute Pizza Sauce from Crunchy Creamy Sweet

This recipe is from one of my favorite new blogs! Crunchy Creamy Sweet is the find of the summer and with excellent communication skills. You should have see how quickly she replied to me when I let her know her blog was down. We had instant email exchange where she shared with me the zucchini recipe I was after.