Strawberries in September??

I bought a strawberry plant or two for our deck this year.  The summer went by, we got a couple of small berries, but the woodsy creatures got to them first.  I'd pretty much given up on it when Brian told me last week that there was one ripe strawberry on the plant.  I promptly went outside and ate it.  It was the sweetest little strawberry that I have ever tasted!

Then more berries came.  Brian ate a couple, and I put the rest on my Cheerios yesterday.

Then I looked outside this morning and guess what?  MORE!  It's a Strawberry Miracle!

Guess I *will* try strawberry plants again next year.

As for the rest of my plants, I got a ton of cilantro, basil, parsley and oregano.  Good lord, the oregano!  Apparently basil needs to be harvested quicker than I did though, because I chopped some up for chicken soup the other day and it tasted "woody."  Which is a shame, because it's my favorite.

The green beans were a mostly-fail.  Bugs or critters got most of them, we got one handful and steamed them for dinner one night.  I had several jalapenos and anaheim chilies, so I'd try them again, too.  Nothing on the blueberry plant, but tons of cherry tomatoes.  Too bad only a few would ripen at a time, so they became a snack every day instead of in a salad.  All in all, not a bad year!

New Cookbook in the House!

Last week was Brian's birthday and Will picked out a new cookbook for his gift.  Since  Dad is a big fan of the Food Network show "Chopped" why not a cookbook from that show?  He loved it and we tried two recipes this weekend.

The first was a warm banana pudding with caramel sauce.  I love that I'm married to someone who, on a Saturday night will spontaneously decide to make treats from scratch.  :)  Let me tell you, it smelled incredible.  The taste was good too, though it felt weird to be eating pudding that hadn't "set."  And if you are eating hot banana and caramel topping, watch out!  My tongue and throat are still slightly scorched. 

Next up was grilled chicken sandwiches for lunch, with a parsley pesto spread.  I had a ton of parsley to use up on the deck so this recipe seemed like a no-brainer.  I'd never had anything other than basil pesto, and clearly I've been missing out!  This also had a great way of toasting the bun using an egg white instead of butter or just dry in the toaster oven. 

This cookbook has a lot of potential.  And obviously,  since I've marked it up, it's here to stay. 

Peachy Keen

This past weekend we decided that it was high time to bring the ice cream maker out again.
This time, we went for a summer favorite that we'd never tried:  peach ice cream.  And whose recipe was the obvious first choice?  That's right, Alton Brown....who just hit a million Facebook "likes" last week and celebrated with some live videos!

Alton Brown's Burned Peach Ice Cream

This was fantastic, though we did have to melt it and re-churn so it wouldn't be rock-solid.  No pictures, it didn't last long enough.  I would definitely do this again.

From (My) Plant to (My) Table

Ta-Da!  Pesto, made from MY home-grown basil!

It wasn't bad for my second try.  I'll tell you....using a food processor makes all the difference.  Anyone who tells you that you can make it in a blender is crazy.  This is actually the first time I ever used the food processor myself.  And man, did it show....I couldn't get it running and Brian had to show me that I had it assembled backwards!

This called for half a cup of pine nuts, three cups of packed basil, a couple cloves of garlic, half a cup of grated fresh parmesan cheese and half a cop of olive oil, along with salt and pepper to taste.  Three cups of packed basil is a lot more than I thought, it wiped out more than half of my deck box:

The recipe also said "The more the merrier" when it came to garlic, so I used four cloves.  Two of them were huge though, so I'd say that it was closer to six.  So I'd politely disagree, that's a lot of garlic.  Didn't stop us from eating it though, we're no strangers to garlic and love the taste.  It's a good thing that we both had it, though.  :)  It might be different if you roasted the garlic the night before you assemble the pesto, but I'm not sure what that would do to the oil and other ingredient ratio or if it would work.



Now I'm off to find out if you can freeze pesto....because if you can I know what I'm putting in the freezer for this fall and winter.

Herb Harvest!!!

This is the first year that I've been successful at growing herbs in deck boxes.  And having herbs that you can just snip and add to your cooking is awesome!

First the cilantro....we have so much of it.  I love it, especially in guacamole or tacos.    There was a sweet cilantro salad dressing the other day too.  Homemade salad dressing tastes SO much better and is apparently better for you, too.

Brian made a quick homemade spaghetti sauce the other night and used fresh parsley and basil. It was delicious.

Next up:  cilantro in homemade salsa and perhaps a basil pesto.  I'm loving this!  Now, if my tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini come up, it will be a perfect growing summer.

Brewin' the Tea

In the "I never knew I wanted that!" department:  the kids got me an iced tea brewstation for Mother's Day, so I can make my own unsweetened iced tea.  It gets expensive to buy it bottled from the store!  I find it surprisingly easy to use, and convenient too.  And I also received an infusing pitcher.....basically a plastic pitcher with a lid and a column with holes down the middle.  You fill it with fruit to infuse your drinks with flavor.  So far I've only made strawberry tea but it's delicious.  (It had to sit overnight in the fridge to get there, though.)

I've got big plans for the mango and raspberries in my fridge later this week.  And maybe later, lemon and blueberry.  :)

In the Name of Healthy Eating

The last few months have been about establishing healthier eating habits.  I haven't shared a lot because healthier sometimes is a bit dull.  I will say that we've been more adventurous in our eating, such as willingness to try things like tempeh. Yesterday it was roast chicken enchiladas from ATK ' S Healthy Eating cookbook, last week it was mixing spaghetti squash with pasta.

Tonight was something new that I'd never think that Brian would suggest:  portobello mushroom burgers.  Yep....a big grilled mushroom cap on a whole wheat bun.  I thought that it was so-so, but he really liked them. 

I'm willing to try anything once, and this healthier game is no exception.

Summer Wrap-Up

Look at that!  A whole month went by with no posts.

That's not to say that we haven't been eating.  Obviously, we ate, or I wouldn't be here to write this!  We had a lot of good stuff, not that I can remember all of it for this post.  I found a bangin' recipe for chicken caprese that was out of this world good.  I'd post a pic, but every since I replaced my phone a couple of months ago when my youngest dropped it at Disney World, I can't auto-update photos from my phone.  So here's the recipe:  Chicken Caprese.  Normally I'm not a fan of grape tomatoes, but they really worked in this dish.

Another Pinterest recipe that I tried this summer:  Nectarine and Basil Pizza.    I substituted peaches which was a mistake, because the peach crop this year was abysmal.  Well, at least in the grocery stores it was, I have YET to go peach picking!  Another tip....don't try to make it a quicker dinner by using a Boboli crust.  It just didn't work.  Eating weird-textured peaches on a boboli feels like you are eating a very sad cracker.

Now we're starting to get towards fall, and tonight I made chili.  It wasn't quite "chili weather" but it still tasted good.  oh, and meatballs for the freezer.  Now THOSE came out well!

Tomorrow night we're having a chicken ginger stir-fry, and trying a new recipe on Tuesday.  It's chicken with artichokes and red potatoes.  Looking forward to it.  And though I don't update often, I'm glad to be back!

July Eats

Well.

I haven't been doing so well in keeping up this blog this month, but vacation and stuff will do that to you!  That of course doesn't mean that we haven't been eating good stuff.

Fourth of July was super-rainy.  So instead of having a cookout or something, we stayed home.  And Brian made these homemade fish sticks.  They were SO much better than the frozen kind.  And I made a tartar sauce to go with them, which the kids of course wouldn't touch.  Tartar sauce surprisingly has few ingredients.  Mayonnaise, chopped pickles and capers.  That's it.

And for something fun, we decided later on to make lumpia.  Brian was looking for something different with ground pork and he came across this recipe--it's like spring rolls.  They came out awesome!!  There was pineapple fried rice to go with it, which needs improvement as it's a one-note wonder.  Still was delicious, though.

Now we've just gotten back from vacation--Orlando!  We stopped at Perkins once we got off the plane, which Brian and I both love.  Sadly, the closest one I've ever seen to us is Pennsylvania.  Their pies alone are worth the trip.  I just ordered a chicken tender plate, I had been craving fried chicken for some time but was trying to behave.  (Vacation is not for behaving.)  This is how I knew that we were in the South--when saying "Yes, I'd like gravy" I had to specify what kind.  Turkey, beef, brown, cream or plain.  This is what I love about the southern part of the country!

 Orlando brought us Disney World, with our first dole whip.  Pineapple juice and ice cream...I must have one again!  (I actually did see a recipe on Pinterest, will have to try.)  Food at Disney World, though expensive, is mostly delicious.  I say "mostly" because of course we did eat a lot of "kid friendly" stuff.  Will and I took a "Mom and Will Day" at Universal Studios to see all of the Harry Potter attractions, and one of the things that we experienced was butterbeer.  I always wondered what butterbeer was, exactly.  I can now tell you, butterscotch!  They had two versions, frozen and non.  Will and I shared a frozen one and it was incredible.  We stopped at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley (that is really fun to say, by the way!) and had a very British lunch of fish and chips for me, and macaroni and cheese for him.  (the other two items on the kids menu, Meat Pie and Fish and Chips, did not appeal.  Not surprised.)  The fish and chips was surprisingly one of the best I've ever had, and I had a non-frozen butterbeer.  It's still butterscotch but carbonated.  Incredible.

Another restaurant worth mentioning is Carrabbas.  It's Italian food, which is a crowd-pleaser in my family.  I always judge a place by their chicken marsala and this place didn't disappoint.  What was disappointing, is that there aren't any in the area.  In Massachusetts, yes.  In Central MA?  No.

Now we're back home and getting into the swing of things.  Got some new recipes to try in the next week or so, but tonight's an easy night:  Will's favorite, cheese ravioli.

Summer Salads

In our house, we eat well.  In fact, I think a lot of the time that the food that Brian makes is better than most restaurant food that we get to have.  I'm not being braggy...ok maybe a little.  But in terms of cooking, I've always said that he is exceptional whereas my cooking is good for everyday.

Speaking of restaurant food...there is one food that I've always found better at a restaurant than at home.  Salads.  

Salads just taste better at a restaurant.  The produce is fresher, the presentation, the variety of ingredients.  Until recently, salads at our house were just green salads with a little tomato and cucumber on top.  Maybe some celery or carrots, and almost always featured "bag-o-salad."  You know, the big bag of mixed lettuce that you buy at the grocery store and pray that it will still be good in two days.  (It usually isn't.)

I'm starting to change my mind about salads....a couple of weeks ago Brian and I made a Chinese chicken salad using romaine, rotisserie chicken, oriental noodles, toasted almonds, mandarin orange slices, etc.  It was delicious!  It was also huge--and would've made great leftovers if we hadn't dressed the whole thing.  It was a soggy mess the next day.  So I've learned a few things:  the secret to a great salad is in the dressing.  Homemade is best, and honestly, it's not difficult or really time-consuming.  Plus, you know what's going into it and can adjust it to your taste.

So Brian and I have resolved to a salad dinner once a week, and here was last night's:

Rib-eye steak over watercress, radish and a little blue cheese, with a wine vinegar dressing.  

It was quite good and surprisingly, filled us up.  Can't wait to see what the next salad turns up like!

Guac Talk

Hi, I'm Ginny and I'm a guacamole fan.  Make that a guacamole addict, and I'm roping my husband in on it, too.

Good LORD I love guacamole.  And if it's homemade, even better!  Actually, now that I've been making it myself for some time, I don't think I'll ever buy store-made again.  I don't even use a recipe.  Just a few avocados, a chopped tomato, finely-chopped onion (red is better but white will do in a pinch), fresh lime juice and salt, and fresh cilantro.  I mix 'em together and bring on the chips!

I didn't think my husband would ever eat avocado, but now we edge each other out at the bowl.  Funny how things change over the years!

I'm thinking now that the avocado could shine in other dishes.  Perhaps a salad with avocado and either grapefruit, orange or mango, and definitely the red onion.  My wheels are turning for this summer.

Food from This Weekend

My friend Maureen was here this weekend, and we ate out a lot.  A lot, A LOT!  Usually Brian or I cook, but this weekend was a flurry of activity and we didn't get around to getting groceries.  And everything we had was full of AWESOME!

Three places worth mentioning:

Friday night we went to Ronnie's in Auburn, MA.  I'd been before and this place is worth raving about.  It is the BEST fried seafood around.  It doesn't taste greasy but honestly, like they change the oil in the fryer in between customers.  Clean, delicious and exactly how it should taste.  Brian and I had fried clams, she had clam fritters, and Kid 1 and Kid 2 had a burger and fish strips, respectively. Sean normally likes fish sticks at home, but he proclaimed these "too fishy."  Ah well.  After we finished our meals we went to the back of Ronnie's where they have the ice cream.  The ice cream is certainly worth raving about!  I had just enough room for a twisted soft serve cone, and I decided to share with Sean.   That boy....if you get him his own kiddie cone he'll refuse to eat it.  Offer to share your small cone and the child will devour it as if it's the last cone on Earth!  The funny part of the evening was when Will asked us if he had ice cream on his face.  Um.....not your whole face per se, buddy.  But pretty close!

Saturday evening we found this place in Oxford called "Oxford Casual Dining."  What a find!!  It had lots of Italian specialties, plus a decent kids menu.  An added bonus is that no one seemed to care around us when the kids weren't perfect angels.  I got my ultimate favorite, chicken marsala.  They did not disappoint!  And there's leftovers for lunch tomorrow so that's great.  :)  And dessert....authentic key lime pie.  Not the kind that makes your mouth pucker as soon as you taste it, just smooth and citrus-y.  We will definitely go back to this place.

On Sunday, we went to Uncle Jay's Twisted Fork for breakfast, in Cherry Valley.  This place was rated a "Hidden Gem" by the Phantom Gourmet.  And they totally deserve it!!!  Will's already asking if we can go again next weekend.  What a treat.  This place is certainly NOT a "greasy spoon."  Everything is made to order, and to die for.

My lobster Benedict.  I had it in Maine several years ago and have always wanted to have it again.   English muffin, lobster meat, poached eggs and fresh hollandaise.   Call it a "once in every six years" treat.

Will was super-impressed with his "Wicked Awesome Waffle."  It was a waffle, sliced banana, chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream.  He ate as much as he could, stopping twice and coming back for more.

Homemade Lemonade: Is it Better?

67.  make lemonade from scratch (7/29/13)

As a kid, I can remember my mother bringing out a bottle of Minute Maid lemon juice at dinner time, to put on broccoli with a little butter.  I'd read the back of it, and there would always be a recipe for lemonade.  Always intrigued me, but I never did it.

Brian and I love fresh lemonade, but the closest thing we come to is Newman's Own.  And let's face it, Newman's Own extra virgin lemonade is pretty awesome stuff.  Still, I thought that someday, someday I'd like to make my own.

Well, tonight was the night.  I had purchased 12 lemons at the grocery store last week for that purpose last week, and I just wasn't going to let $6.00 worth of lemons go bad!

The Lemons.

I've always thought that cobalt blue and yellow are a cheery combination.  As is navy blue and yellow.

The Helpers

These two are always willing to lend a hand in the kitchen.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook in hand, we moved to turn these into drink!

They were a little harder to juice than I realized....but we got the job done.  While we were juicing, the simple syrup boiled on the stove.  After that cooled for a bit, we mixed it with the lemon juice.

It's important to note:  this just makes lemonade base.  If you drink this straight, you'll pucker for sure.   Equal parts base and water is key.  I made sure to tell Hubby that before he just grabbed the pitcher in the fridge and helped himself to a cold cup of base.  (bleeecchhhh)

First Tall Glass

One sip and it told me two things:  1, it needed more sugar.  and 2.  sooooo fresh!

Look at it....it's pale and not at all yellow.  That tells you how much artificial coloring is added to lemonade mixes.  I'm not afraid of some artificial color....it certainly has its place.  But lemonade mix just doesn't taste like this.  Hubby said it tasted like summer.  And it does!

So....was it worth it to make my own?  I'd say yes.  I certainly won't be doing it like this all the time.  But it makes for a happy treat.  And now, I want to make limeade.  I love fresh limes!

Zucchini Feast

What do you do when you have a bumper crop of zucchini?  Well for starters, you share it.  So far my daycare provider and coworkers have both benefitted from the tons of zucchini that I've managed to grow this year, as well as two of my neighbors!  After that, you start to cook with it.  A lot!  Although I love zucchini grilled or sauteed, we need some other ideas.

We had friends over for dinner the other night and I tried something I'd never done before:  fried zucchini.  It was, in a word, awesome!  I never realized how delectable fried zucchini is.  The recipe came from Joy of Cooking  and was very simple.  Flour, club soda, parsley and dill.  Dip the zucchini in the batter and fry for a few minutes.  We dotted it with a little cider vinegar and the four of us polished it off!

Chocolate zucchini bread.  This recipe yielded two delightful loaves of bread, and they smell heavenly!  Plus the boys have been fooled before....can Mama pull it off again?  Only time will tell...

Mark Bittman's Lemony Zucchini Risotto.  Fried eggs this time instead of poached, and it was every bit as good as the first time!  I seriously wanted to lick the bowl.  There's leftover risotto for lunch at work tomorrow, sans eggs.  If only it wasn't messy to bring an egg to fry!

Guess what?  Still have a ton of zucchini.  Some of it is shredded in the fridge, waiting to become Cheddar Zucchini Bread.  The rest?  Not so sure.  I'm still looking for new and exciting recipes.

Sunshine Pie

mmmmmm......pie.

I love pie.  It doesn't matter what kind, I pretty much love it all.  But a summer "peach and cream" pie with fresh peaches?  For breakfast, even?

Yes, please.  I baked this pie on Sunday, and the house smelled heavenly while it was in the oven.  I got the recipe from allrecipes.com,, which I go to often.  I did tweak the recipe a little bit, after reading other pie maker's notes.  I cut the sugar down to half a cup instead of a whole cup (there's six peaches in there, so enough natural sweetness.  I didn't miss the excess)  and instead of baking it for an hour at 300 degrees, I did 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then 45 minutes on 350 degrees.  The top was golden and everything was perfection.

Peaches are perfection in fact, they taste like warm sunshine.  

Brine Time

From the first time I saw Alton Brown's first Thanksgiving episode, Brian and I have wanted to brine something.  Not a turkey first try out per se, but maybe a chicken?

Instead,Brian brined corn tonight.  I didn't even know that one could brine vegetables.  But do you know what?  Brined corn is awesome.  And if you grill it, it's even better.  Char-grill marks on an ear of corn, and having that corn be super soft as you bite into it is incredible.  We just had regular butter, salt and pepper on it but there's a flavor opportunity there somewhere.  The brine liquid that Brian used was just four quarts of water, half a cup of kosher salt and a quarter cup of sugar.  The ears of corn had to soak for at least half an hour, then drained and grilled.  Perhaps next time (And there WILL be a next time!) we could add some cider vinegar to the liquid, or try a compound (read:  flavored) butter.  Some flavor ideas:  barbecue and scallion, or perhaps chipotle and lime?

I'm getting hungry all over again just imagining the possibilities.

Sunday Summer Supper

Three of my favorite summer foods on one plate:  grilled sausage sandwich, corn on the cob and homemade potato salad.  :)  So, so, good.

I did top the sandwich with sauteed green pepper and onion.  They're invisible here, and no, you can't have the recipe for invisible peppers n onions.  :)

Zucchini by the Pound

To say that our zucchini plants are thriving is kind of like saying that Big Ben is well....big.  Three HUGE zucchini plants, and I've already given some away.

Our new favorite side dish:  grilled zucchini.  Slice, salt, grill, serve!  Even Brian, who is not overly fond of zucchini, enjoyed them.

One thing to be careful of......the zucchini cook quickly and smoke up fast, too.  I needed to run the fan and open the doors to get rid of the smoke.  (Disclaimer:  No smoke detectors were tripped in the making of this meal.)

Grilled zucchini is extra-special when you dot it with balsamic vinegar and a little shredded Parmesan.

Cherry Pork

I had to work this past Saturday morning.  I honestly cannot remember the last time that happened, which is a good thing!  I attended the dedication ceremony for my new job, which went very well.  Afterwards there was a cookout at the church that sponsored the new building that I will be managing.  I didn't stay, and I'm glad for one reason:  if I'd filled up on hot dogs or hamburgers, I would've missed this beauty for lunch:

Pork Chops with Cherry Sauce

I love cherries, they're my second-favorite of summer fruit.  (Peaches first, watermelon third.)  I don't eat them often, because they're usually ridiculously expensive.  Also, it's another food that only gets eaten by me, so I end up wasting part of a bag of cherries.  This was the first time that either of us had attempted cooking with cherries, as cherries are not easy to pit.    Brian put this together from an online recipe, with ingredients like honey and tarragon.  He's not usually a fan of cherries, but proclaimed the sauce delicious!  I saved the leftover sauce to pour over a little vanilla ice cream.  That will be a great little sweet treat later on.  :)

Day Seventeen: Father's Day

Father's Day is usually spent at my parent's cottage, and it's all about grilling and relaxing.  Ribs have been the meal of choice for the past two years, so we can call it tradition if we have them next year, too!

We all LOVE ribs.  They're not great for you but are a great splurge.  This year also included garlic mashed potato (with actual roasted garlic) corn on the cob and salad.  Dessert was a choice:  brownie sundae and strawberry shortcakes.  Naturally, I ate too much.  Hubby had two desserts, he couldn't choose just one.  But it was all so delicious, and Father's Day is only once a year.