Month: August 2011

This time of year Vermont is full of gorgeous produce.  We have waited all summer, tending gardens, watching as stalls at farmers’ markets fill up a bit more each week.  I dare say this is the peak.  Of course, we don’t have the luscious asparagus of early summer, and we have lots of fall crops to look forward to, but when corn and tomatoes are so plentiful in the farms all around me, I sleep better at night.

Last week, I had a dream about coming home to ripe tomatoes. Nope. I came home to tomato plants so full of bright green fruit that they had toppled over, stakes and all.  My tomatillos are threatening to follow suit.

While those crops, along with a few others, are testing my patience, my basil, pole beans, radishes and wax beans are anxious to make it to the dinner table.  I had never grown pole beans, and I wasn’t quite expecting them to be quite so long.  Below you can see their flat, very long pods, especially in comparison to wax beans.  I also plan to make some pesto, given the bumper crop of basil I just harvested.  I have never had much success with purple basil, but all my basil in the garden just won’t quit.  Even after today’s pruning, the plants look healthy and leafy and will certainly need harvesting again soon.  I will be happy to oblige.

Now if I can just figure out how to make dairy-free pesto…

Last week Chuck and I were on vacation.  We consumed meat and cheese daily and ate a very different, albeit delicious, style of cooking from my own.  But now that we are back in control of our diet, we are dramatically cutting our meat consumption, and, at Chuck’s request, completely eliminating dairy this week.  Personally, I think cutting dairy entirely is a ludicrous proposition and have no intention of trying to survive a week without cheddar.   But I am happy to oblige his request, given its allergy-driven nature.

So the question was: what are we going to eat all week, given that butter and cheese are out?  I dug out one of my favorite cookbooks for answers: Little Foods of the Mediterranean.  It screams olive oil and lots of vegetarian salads and dishes.  And it’s not your typical Italian and Greek fare.  It includes dishes from Syria, Lebanon, and Morrocco, to name a few.  Last night we ate Fresh Shrimp in Garlic and Olive Oil (Italian) and Lentil Salad in Olive Oil with Egyptian Spices.

Other items on the week’s menu include:

• White Beans and Green Onions in Olive Oil
• Olive Oil-Bathed Fava Beans with Tomato and Lemon Juice in the Palestinian Style
• Poor People’s Summer Squash
• Tomato and Avocado Salad from Andalusia
• Green Bean Salad with lemon and Dill in the Greek Style

If there are any standouts, I’ll be sure to post pics and recipes.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Today was an epic cooking day, even by my standards.  I spent about 6 hours in the kitchen.  Here’s what I accomplished:

• Broke down last night’s chicken carcass and turned it into chicken stock.  I made about 5 quarts.
• Made chicken salad with toasted slivered almonds.
• Trimmed and ground 5 pounds of chicken breast.  Dumplings in vast quantities coming soon to a freezer near me!
• Made two jars of refrigerator dilly beans.
• Toasted walnuts for tomorrow’s lunch.  As a special birthday treat I’m making a pear, walnut, blue cheese salad.  Can’t wait!
• Made  green curry paste.  If you think ginger is tough, try working with fresh galangal (Thailand’s answer to ginger).  I actually broke a sweat peeling and slicing it.  I also used fresh lemongrass.  Yum!
• Currently in progress: lime-basil granita with a cup of freshly-squeezed lime juice and basil from the garden.