Everyday Food Magazine - July / August 2009

The Summer issue of EDF was for July & August so I had twice as much time to get through it. I'm not sure I did much better - but here's my recap!

A little known secret about me is that I don't really like chicken. I don't dislike it, but I rarely eat it and love it. I almost never make recipes with chicken, but I did stop to make the Chicken Burger with Roasted Poblano and Onion. I didn't bother to buy buns, so you can see mine on bread. It was actually really good and roasting the poblano was really fun!

The in-season food was corn (pretty obvious choice for the summer). I flagged the recipe for Corn and Shrimp Chowder with Bacon, even though I knew I'd probably never make it. It's a pretty heavy dish for the summer and even in the winter I always feel guilty making stuff that rich.

Also in the in-season section was a recipe for Corn & Zucchini Sautee with Basil that I made the same night I made the Pork & Chorizo Kebabs. Except my kebabs were made with pork & turkey sausage! My local farmer's market has a guy that sells turkey in all forms, one of which is a spicy sausage. I've gotten to be pretty dependent on having some in the house at all times because its an easy way to add protein without spending very much energy at all! I'll have to remember to fill my freezer at the end of the farmer's market season. There was a whole section on kebab's in this issue, but the only other pairing that looked exciting to me was the one for Lamb, Tomato, & Mint Kebabs. The lamb was much tastier than the pork. I highly recommend these!


I also tried their recipe for BBQ Sauce which came out really well. Sadly I made it right around the time my fridge died so it was one of the things that needed to be thrown out that night! One of my most favorite blogs ever is The Pioneer Woman. Often, with the recipes she posts, she posts a "cast of characters" photo that shows everything that went into the recipe. Since, when cooking, I always feel the need to pull everything out ahead of time, it felt really easy to snap my own "cast of characters" picture for the BBQ sauce. Good thing I did, because there's not much to photograph when you're done with BBQ sauce. It looks pretty boring in a jar. So, without further ado, my BBQ sauce cast of characters:


And finally, as always, a list of recipes, I flagged, but never got around to making:

• Chipotle Chicken & Rice (I really intended to make the Quesadilla variation listed in step # 5)
• Grilled Pork Chops with Spice Paste
• Soy-Marinated Flank Steak
• Tuna Nicoise Sandwich
  
• French Toast with Red Wine Nectarines
• Eggplant, Tomato, and Mozzarella Salad
  

Pearl Barley Salad

When I'm organized, I like to make a lot of something on Sunday to have for lunches all week. Whenever I do it I feel like a genius because I don't have to panic every evening trying to find something to bring for lunch. I've made couscous and quinoa salads similar to this so I looked for something with a different grain and I decided to try this one. It turned out to be so good! It's pearl barley with roasted veggies - eggplant, zucchini, and onion - with a basic dressing. It even looks gorgeous too, with all the veggies. I did roast the onions with the other veggies, and I think next time I would roast the tomatoes too. It was so good and everyone commented on it too! You should try it.

Ham & Egg Fried Rice

One night I just happened to find myself with a slice of ham, a tiny bit of rice, eggs and some scallions in my fridge (and prob not much more!). Somehow inspiration struck and I made the recipe for Ham & Egg Fried Rice in the April 2009 issue of Everyday Food. Ok, fine it wasn't really inspiration, but I did some how magically recall the recipe. It ended up being super easy and fast to make - not to mention yummy!

Everyday Food Magazine - June 2009

** I wrote this post ages ago and never remembered to go back and add the pics and then publish it! Oops!

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Clearly they publish these things faster than I can keep up with them -- trying the recipes or blogging about the issue! Here's a belated recap of the June 2009 issue.

I made Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables and decided it would be a go-to summer recipe for a quick and easy dinner. See I even remembered to take a picture:



I also tried their recipe for Strawberry Jam. I'd been meaning to make my own jam for awhile. It really is as easy as the recipe suggests. I scrimped on the sugar a bit and haven't missed it. I did break out my new (to me, hand-me-down from my mom) food processor to chop the strawberries and in my excitement of now owning the gadget I think I over processed a bit, but its still yummy and goes on my toast each morning.

So now, what I didn't get to:

The obvious in season fruit of the month was strawberries and they included a recipe for Strawberry Icebox Pie that looked easy and yummy.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Emeril does a recipe or 2 in the magazine each month and this one's recipe was for Pork & Chorizo Burgers. I'm waiting to have a group of people over to make them.

Also flagged by me:

-Baked Onion Rings
-Salmon Cakes
-Sauteed Shrimp with Scallion Rice
-Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
-Grilled Steak with Tomatoes and Scallions
-Spinach Phyllo Pie
-Roasted Eggplant Dip
-Honey Chipotle Glazed Ribs
-Jerk Chicken Wings
-Roasted Eggplant with Basil
-Almond & Orange Yogurt Cake
-Brownie Cookies

I promise the next EDF recap will have more recipes actually tried by me - I've already made more of a dent in it than the June issue. Plus - its a July / August issue so I have 2 months to work my way through it!

Tomato Goat Cheese Tartes

I saw this on Barefoot Contessa about two weeks ago, and made it myself this past week. Omg, rarely do I make something so CRAZY DELICIOUS. And, it was easy as pie to make!

Here is the original recipe, but let me tell you how easy and tasty it is!

Need:
2 medium onions or 1 large one
thyme
pepper
Pastry dough (go out and get it in the freezer section, next to frozen pie crusts)
One thick tomato
goat cheese
Parmesan cheese
basil (optional)

1. Cut onions in half, and then chop them into thin long strips cross wise
2. Saute onions in olive oil on low/medium heat until they turn yellow/yellow brown (the key here is that this can take 15 minutes or more. Be patient! The flavors are knock out.
3. Add thyme and pepper and saute just a little longer.
4. Take pastry dough and cut into sections that are 6 inches across and put on parchment paper on a baking sheet. (note: the BC uses 6 inch diameter circles. This is all nice and aesthetically pleasing except all your leftover dough then will be wonky shaped. So, if you plan on making more than just 2 circles, I suggest doing squares. The puff pastry looks just as cool even if it's angled, but you want to have at least an quarter inch of dough around the food in the center.)
5. Take a knife and score a circle in the dough at least a quarter inch from the boarder. (I prefer at least an inch) This will be your "landing pad" for all the food!
6. Shave Parmesan cheese into circle. Be liberal!
7. Heap caramelized onions on top of cheese. (mmm!)
8. Put goat cheese on top of onions (like 1 tbs to 3 tbs depending on your love of goat. cheese.)
9. cut a nice thick slice of tomato and put on top of goat cheese
10. Shave more parmesan cheese on top of tomato. Basil can be added here too.

It will, at this point, look like a little tower which is cool. Don't worry, the puff pastry will do exactly that--PUFF!

11. Put in oven at 400 for 30 minutes or so. Check after 20 to make sure it's not burnt.
12. EAT.

it is amazing.

Blackberry Mini Muffins

Today a bunch of things came together and told me I was destined to make blackberry mini muffins.

1. First, this morning at a yard sale I found a bunch of cooling racks. I have never owned cooling racks because I never thought it was worth it to buy them. I've been waiting for the day when I would find some at a yard sale or on the free table and that day was today.

2. We went to Duxbury to visit some relatives and one of their main attractions (yes, aside from the soft sand beaches) is the "Duxbury Mall" which is the free stuff pile at the dump. Mining this place is like a career for some people there, but I was lucky enough to come away with a mini muffin tin.

3. Mom was over to visit and she brought lots of fresh picked blackberries from her backyard. We had some for breakfast but there were a whole bunch leftover.

I knew the blackberry mini muffins were meant to be. I used this recipe but substituted yogurt instead of sour cream because that's what I had, and of course they are very good. It was serendipitous!

Chipotle Beans

This one's probably not something Julia Child would have made, not quite enough butter for her. None at all actually. It's another one from 101 Cookbooks: Giant Chipotle White Beans. The unique thing about this is you have to buy a can of chipotle peppers but then you just use the smoky sauce. It's kind of a waste because I had to toss the peppers, but the sauce does add a different flavor. Plus the giant beans are really fun and this queso fresco is really good. I used to have queso fresco with my Mexican roommate but I never knew it was also called farmer's cheese or that it was popular and available everywhere these days. So, a great discovery! I've been eating this dish all week for lunch, it's a great find!

Julie & Julia

I just saw Julie and Julia tonight at a preview showing, thanks to the WGBH-Julia connection! It was great. How could you not love Julia Child, and Julie was just like us! Great cooks that sometimes mess up and have meltdowns. I don't think I'll be trying many of Julia Child's recipes anytime soon, and I'm still trying to stay away from all that butter. But the chocolate cake I would definitely go for. If we made more than one recipe a day, maybe we'd have lots of fans on our blog, but I still love it the way it is! So get motivated everyone, and keep posting! Here is a video of the actual Julia Child's cooking show - The French Chef.