So I haven’t really been doing much fun stuff in the kitchen.  I’m about 6 months pregnant, and I just don’t feel like cooking.  My mother-in-law says she had an aversion to the smell of bacon when she was pregnant.  Well, I seem to have an aversion to cooking.  I still do it, but it’s rarely inspired, and it’s certainly nothing to share with the world.  I can only hope that my passion returns in a few months (when my time is otherwise occupied, of course!).

There is, however, something new and exciting happening in my kitchen: Carbonation!  You may have seen carbonation systems, most commonly one called the SodaStream.  Well, my creative husband decided to build me a carbonation system for Christmas, and it’s really really fun!  His primary motivation behind this DIY project was basically dedication to flexible, open source usage.  You see, with the store-bought systems, you have to use certain bottles and you void your warranty if you get too creative in your choice of beverages to carbonate.  My system may not be pretty, but Chuck is excited about the prospect of carbonating ANYTHING!  I am more enthusiastic about creating flavors than carbonating things like iced tea or coffee this summer.  And so I’ll be posting my trials here.  I’ve got some clementine syrup cooling in the kitchen right now!

Wow, eating and cooking Mediterranean was fun!  It was a little complicated because of the number of dishes, but the prep was relatively quick and easy.  The best dish we ate was a delicious Sicilian-style grilled squid, which, unfortunately, we didn’t photograph.  Our favorites are listed here:

White Beans and Green Onions in Olive Oil

I drastically reduced the amount of olive oil in this recipe.  The intro to the recipe explains that this is quite authentic and one of the Turkish “olive oil foods,” but I just couldn’t do it.  I also found that I had to use quite a bit more water to get my beans softened, but it was still very flavorful.

Olive Oil-Bathed Fava Beans with Tomato and Lemon Juice in the Palestinian Style

I used my pole beans instead of favas, and therefore did not cook them nearly as long as the recipe called for.

Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Garlic in the Syrian Style

I probably could have rinsed the salt off this more thoroughly, but the salt was not entirely unwelcome in the final dish.

Cucumber Cups with Eggs and Radishes 

So this was a little fussy, but it was quick and easy and fun.  I used zucchini for the cups instead of cucumber.  If you’re not a “fishy” person, then this is one to avoid.  But if you love anchovies, as I happen to, this is a tasty morsel!

Here is this morning’s modest but varied harvest.  On the menu tonight: Stuffed Squash Flowers with Queso Fresco.  Yum!

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.

Sometimes in the summer, it’s just too hot to cook.  We eat salads almost every day for lunch, so in the interest of a varied diet, I don’t want to also serve salad for dinner all the time too.  I am increasingly turning to my grill as a heat source for everything.

I was inspired by some beautiful peapods I brought home from a friend’s garden, so last night I made an Asian stir fry on the grill.

Unlike my woks, the grill pans I have are full of holes.  To make sure I was getting as much flavor as possible from my sauce, I tossed each of the first few vegetables in the sauce and then poured a bit over everything at the end.  Here’s the story:

Sauce:
Dark sesame oil, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, a small squirt of sriracha, a tiny bit of rice vinegar

Veggies, in the order in which I added them to the grill pan:
Kohlrabi, zucchini, green pepper, garlic scapes, sweet peas, swiss chard
*It’s worth noting that all these veggies were grown locally, either by farmers or friends (thank you Sara and Britta!)

I added each vegetable, tossed it a bit, closed the grill. Tossed the veggies, added the next item, tossed again, closed the grill…add, toss, close, toss, add, toss, close…you get the picture.  I think the trick is to close the grill to keep it as hot as possible, just like you would with your wok.

Serve over Rice:
Brown rice, boiled in water, ponzu and sauteed onions

Yes, yes, yes, I know that sugar snaps are a more traditional option, but Sara’s peapods were so tender that I could not shell the peas and toss the pods.  That would have been a grave injustice and a terrible waste.  And chard is probably not all that prevalent in stir-fry, but I also combined sriracha (which has Thai and Vietnamese origins) and soy sauce (Chinese).  Oh, and I used ponzu (Japanese) in my brown rice.  So I wouldn’t say I was terribly focused on authenticity here.  Just in keeping the heat out of the house.  And in that, I would call this a success!

It was a little breezy and chilly here this morning, so despite the fact that it’s summer, I made hot soup for lunch.  I have been trying out a cookbook that Chuck seems particularly attached to, but, as usual, I varied it quite a bit.  Here’s how it goes:

1 6 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small leek, minced
1 medium celery stalk, minced
1/2 green pepper, diced
3 small red potatoes, skin-on, chopped
6 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, washed and sliced
1-1.5 quarts vegetable stock
Handful of beet greens

Drain the artichoke hearts, pouring a couple tablespoons of the marinade into a medium sauce pan.  Add a touch of olive oil and heat to medium-high.  Saute onion, pepper, garlic, leek and celery in olive oil and the marinade.  Add mushrooms and potatoes.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Add 4-5 cups vegetable stock.  Add more to taste or if you have a larger party to serve.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

While soup is heating, coarsely chop artichoke hearts.  Add to soup and simmer another 10 minutes.  Just before serving add salt, pepper and a dash of lemon juice.

Add washed beet greens to bottom of soup bowls.  Tuck in roots to ensure they are covered with broth.  Pour soup into bowls.  Allow to rest for 2-3 minutes to soften beet green roots.  Serve!

The result was not quite as mundane as I anticipated, and I liked it.  It had more depth than I expected.  You can, of course, use another type of mushroom or other greens, but if you do use beet greens, be ready for the broth to turn orange.  It’s actually quite pretty.

Note: You can find the original recipe for Inspiration Soup in The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen.

I try to have a pretty varied lunch selection throughout the week, and sometimes that means using leftovers.  Here is a particularly successful creation.

I started with orzo that I had used as a side dish for grilled lamb and minty beet carrot salad (not my favorite).  I cooked the orzo and added some olive oil, kalamata olives, green pepper and feta.  So a couple days later, it didn’t seem like such a jump to add a couple more veggies, keeping the mediterranean flavors but enhancing it a bit.  And then I hollowed out a couple tomatoes, put some sharp provolone in the tomato cavities, along with some breadcrumbs to soak up the juices and put them in the oven for a few minutes.  Once they were softened, I put them on a bed of mesclun greens and filled them with the orzo salad, letting the extra salad overflow onto the greens.  It was a beautiful and delicious presentation.  A pretty perfect lunch.

The only thing I will do differently next time is take a photo.

My third attempt at rye in a week was not completely disastrous.  Nor was it a rousing success.

I followed the same method as Attempt 2, but did not melt any plastic wrap or bowls.  A small victory.

The bread rose each time I expected it to.  Baby steps.

However, the final step in no-knead bread is to put the dough into a pre-heated 2 3/4 quart dutch oven.  My dutch oven is slightly larger, 6 quarts, I think.  But I had made this bread before and it worked, right?  Wrong.  My rye oozed across the bottom of the dish.  And that’s how it baked.  It tasted good, but you can’t make a sandwich out of a puddle of bread.  So we came close, but for now I’m taking a break from rye.  When I revisit it in a few weeks, I have a plan:

Step 1: Borrow bread book from my dad.  Indefinitely.  Follow a recipe until I better grasp how to work with rye flour.  Then improvise.

Step 2: Buy a small dutch oven.  I’ve already picked one out.

I don’t think I’m admitting defeat, but I do think I may need to be less stubborn.  It’s not about Bread vs. Elizabeth.  Well, not today.