Eat Your Heart Out, Peter Piper

This is my second year of growing my own produce and with each season comes new lessons. The first year, I learned where to plant, when to plant and how much to plant. This year, I tackled 6 varieties of tomatoes and have vowed to try my hand at canning and preserving in order to save delicious little reminders of what summer is all about. Hopefully, these tiny jars of sunshine will get me through the subzero temperatures and the sideways snow. Being a rookie when it comes to canning, I started with a pickling recipe that's as simple as filling the jars and putting them in the fridge. I found the recipe here: Pickle It, Jam It, Cure It. If all goes well, I should have spunky purple string beans and peppers in three days. After that, the real canning begins. Jalapeño pesto, salsa, and yellow tomato sauce are on the docket. I wonder what next year's lessons will be?

A Chef in the Making

When your grandfather is a cooking fanatic, your father is a chili cook-off champion, and your aunt is a food stylist, you have a pretty good chance of becoming a "foodie". This is the story of my 12 year old nephew, Cole. As with most families, culinary traditions run deep in our house. Dad has his famous spaghetti and meatballs, my brother is creating a dynasty at the local chili cook-off, my mom makes a mean crab dip and now Cole has created his signature scrambled eggs. I have seen this kid artfully plate his food, create his own spice concoctions, and study the culinary trends of Native Americans. He recently emailed me his very own scrambled egg recipe and asked if I could incorporate it into my blog. Today is his birthday, so this one is for Cole. Being the stylist that I am, I had to come up with a unique way to present his scrumptious recipe so I carved out one of my garden tomatoes and stuffed it with the eggs. Topped with freshly grated parmesan and a sprig of basil, this was one delicious dinner. Who knows what he will come up with next... you have to give credit to a kid who works on recipes at the age of 12!

Happy Birthday, Cole.

Love, Aunt Mimi.

Cole's Favorite Eggs (yields one serving)

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk

2 tablespoons of your favorite shredded cheese (I chose parmesan)

pinch of salt and pepper

splash of hot sauce

Ecuador... Part 1

To quote the great Bob Dylan... "Times, they are a changing". As of yesterday, my parents are officially retired and gearing up to embark on an extended Ecuadorian adventure. As an homage to their amazing journey, I figured I would try my hand at llapingachos, a typical side dish of Ecuador. What is a llapingacho, you ask? At it's simplest, it's a potato cake. Add the cheese and onion stuffing and top it with an intriguing cayenne peanut sauce and it's a taste revelation. The twist of fate that led me to this recipe has also left me wondering what else I might be missing out there...

Zucchini Boats

This morning started out like most mornings. I woke up early, walked the puppy, and drank my first cup of coffee outside in the garden. To my surprise, after months of anticipation, I finally had tomatoes to harvest! As I strolled around the garden beds, I also found a beautiful zucchini basking in the sunlight. That's when the idea hit me. Today's culinary creation would be... (drum roll, please...) zucchini boats. I grabbed the sun soaked zuke and all the cherry tomatoes I could carry. To create the boat, I sliced the zucchini lengthwise and scooped out the center with a melon baller. Each vessel got a sprinkle of pink salt before being filled. Chopped cherry tomatoes and minced garlic were coated in balsamic vinegar and loaded into each boat. Topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, my veggie skiffs anchored in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. A sprinkle of fresh basil finished off the dish and the taste was delightfully classic, clean, and simple. Hop aboard and see where your imagination takes you.

Summer Sliders

Summertime is burger time. Grills everywhere are fired up and cranking out delicious burger creations with endless possibilities. Turkey burgers, seafood burgers, beef burgers, you name it and someone has probably tried to make a burger out of it. My burger muse of the day was white bean sliders. (For those of you who don't know, sliders are just tiny burgers) I started by sauteing carrots, onions and garlic in olive oil. Once they were softened, I deglazed the pan with a splash of Yuengling Black and Tan, a favorite hometown brew. Honestly, this smelled so good that I could have quit there and ate onions for dinner but, alas, I pressed on. I pulsed the onion mixture in the food processor with cannellini beans, fresh rosemary, and red pepper flakes until thoroughly combined. Breadcrumbs and an egg were added to achieve the correct consistency. Hot off the grill, these burgers were rich in flavor with a wonderful herb aroma. I topped mine with pepper jack cheese, arugula and stone ground mustard. Burgers, beer, and a warm summer evening... life is good.

Sweet Summer Salad

Summer is in full swing and my garden is pumping out arugula like a factory. As a result, I am constantly trying to work it into recipes. Today's concoction is a mixture of strawberries, arugula, and jicama. The sweetness of the berries snuggles right up to the spicy arugula and the jicama adds a much needed crunch. The salad is finished with a simple squeeze of lemon which ties everything together in one delicious package. Boldly flavorful yet surprisingly light, this salad is a little slice of summer that stands up well on it's own or acts as a perfect counterpart to a heavier main dish. It's only four ingredients, people, give it a shot! Your taste buds will thank you.

Kiss My Grits

Granted, I currently live in the Midwest but my soul definitely resides in the Carolinas. I love sweet tea, grits, biscuits, and all other southern delicacies. The recipes are steeped in tradition and once you get a taste of that deep rooted soul food, you never forget it. My recent vacation back to the Carolinas left me with a hankering for grits that just wouldn't leave me alone. Yes, they are delicious as a side note to eggs and bacon but I wanted to do something different with them.... a little south of the border meets south of the Mason Dixon line, if you will. I started with beautiful Anaheim peppers. Slit up the middle and cleaned of their seeds, they served as the perfect vessel to hold grits on the grill. I prepared the grits with salt and pepper and a healthy dose of queso fresco, a traditional Mexican cheese. Each pepper was stuffed with grits and tied closed with a bit of kitchen twine. I slow roasted the peppers over charcoal which softened the flesh and allowed the natural juices to infuse into the grits. Smokey, peppery, cheesy grits bulged from the slit in each pepper. Once there was a nice char on the bottom, I removed them from the fire and cut off the kitchen twine. I rounded out the deep, rich flavor of the Anaheims by serving them with a fresh peach salsa on the side. Now where did I put my glass of sweet tea?....