Fall was unseasonably warm this year. With temperatures hovering in the mid 60s, Our plum tomato plants just kept producing fruit, but the diminished sunlight ensured that they never reddened. Our solution? Pickles! Here's how:
The green tomatoes were oblong in shape and smaller than their red summer counterparts, more like grape tomatoes than the traditional Italian plum variety. We washed them, removed any stems, and quartered them lengthwise.
All together we had about two quarts (eight cups, when quartered) of tomatoes. We packed these tightly into sterilized (washed in the dishwasher on the sanitize setting) eight ounce mason jars.
with the space left in the jars, I needed between four and six cups of brining liquid so I put the following in a pot:
2 c. of white vinegar
1 c. of apple cider vinegar
3 c. of water
1/4 c. sugar
3 tbsp salt
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp black pepper corns
5 peeled and smashed garlic cloves
Then I brought the pot to boil and let it simmer for about ten minutes. I transferred the liquid to a large pyrex measuring cup so it would be easy to handle, then poured it into the jars, making sure to cover the tomatoes completely. I screwed a lid tightly on each one.
At this point I could have put them in the fridge, but I wanted to be able to store them in my pantry, so I brought out my pasta pot, filled it with water, and brought it to a vigorous boil. I placed the jars in the pasta insert, lowered it into the boiling water, and kept them submerged for ten minutes of vigorous boiling to vacuum seal the jars.
The pickles are delicious (almost like a light salsa). I love them with eggs, toast and avocados, or as a relish alongside tacos. Sometimes I just snack on them with a Saturday afternoon beer.
Who knew something so green could taste so full of sunshine?
My supermarket recently started carrying non-GMO frozen corn. This made me pretty happy. For starters, my husband loves corn. (He was born in rural Maryland and literally grew up in a corn field.) Additionally, corn's sweet, yummy, can perk up a rainy day, and is a great staple to have at the ready for a quick dinner. I also usually have a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer as an add in protein for dinner salads, pasta, or in this case soup.
QUICK SHRIMP CORN CHOWDER
2 c. frozen corn
2 medium potatoes (I usually use red or yukon, but what you have on hand will do)
1 red onion
3 stalks celery
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 pound frozen shrimp
1 tsp. Old Bay
olive oil, salt, pepper
Finely chop onion. Medium dice the celery, reserving any leaves for garnish. Peel and small dice the potatoes. Slice the tomatoes in half longwise. Sauté the onions in two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan. When the onions have wilted slightly and started to become translucent, add the old bay, the celery, the potatoes, the corn, and slat and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally for about five minutes. Add in 1 quart of water (or vegetable or fish stock) and bring to a rollicking boil. Turn heat down to simmer and boil about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add in shrimp and tomatoes. Continue cooking until shrimp turn pink and flat to the top of the pan. Taste and add salt, pepper, and Old Bay to your liking.
Garnish with chopped celery leaves.
I love cranberry beans and use the dried version quite often. When the fresh ones arrive at the farmers' market in late summer and early fall, I snap them up for recipes like these:
QUICK "CASSOULET"
Traditional cassoulet cooks for hours and usually contains pork, duck, or rabbit. This quick stove top version makes use of chicken thighs and fresh market produce.
1 lb. chicken thighs
1 lb. fresh cranberry beans (or substitute soaked or canned and rinsed white beans)
1 medium yellow onion
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
2 medium tomatoes
2 sprigs thyme
2 c. chicken broth
olive oil
salt & pepper
1/2 c. white wine (optional)
Chop the onion, carrot, and celery into a fine dice. Shell and rinse the beans. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Remove the thyme leaves from the stems. Rinse and pat the chicken dry, season with salt and pepper and brown on all sides in a large frying pan in 2 tbsp olive oil over high heat. Remove the chicken from the pan, reduce heat to medium, and add in the onion, carrot and celery. Cook the vegetables in the chicken fat until they begin to soften. Add the beans, tomatoes, and thyme to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken atop the beans, pour in the chicken broth and add in wine, if using. (If you choose not to use wine try adding in a few tablespoons of lemon juice, or one of vinegar to brighten the flavors.) Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and let cook over low heat for 35 minutes. Check occasionally to make sure that the liquid is not boiling away. If it is, add water a little at a time, and reduce heat.
A trip to a friend's house on the Massachusetts coast included this marvelous lunch salad picked from her garden. When her husband wished aloud that he had croutons, we quickly baked some up.
FRESH CROUTONS
1 cup of old bread cut into cubes
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp minced rosemary
1/4 c. olive oil
salt
Place the garlic and rosemary in the olive oil and mix together. Let sit for a few minutes to let the flavors absorb into the oil. Meanwhile heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the bread cubes into the oil, season with salt. Spread in a single layer in an oven-proof frying pan or on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Remove and let cool slightly.
Sometime in July our friend and neighbor, Ace, called me up with a conundrum: after three years of living with an unidentified tree in his back yard, he had a discovered that that tree was an apricot tree — and it would not stop producing apricots. He issued a desperate plea “Can you teach me how to make jam?” A week, several pounds of sugar, dozens of mason jars, and four five-gallon work buckets of apricots later, we produced quite a bit of sticky apricot goodness. Like most jam, it’s quite yummy on toast. I like it as a glaze for pork, and it spurred me to invent the following yummy chicken dish.
APRICOT CHICKEN
2 lbs. chicken thighs
1 onion, peeled and cut into eight pieces
1 cup apricot preserve
1 tbsp. dried or 2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
olive oil
salt & pepper
Pre-heat oven to 375. Brown chicken in an oven-safe pan in 2 tbsp. olive oil. Remove chicken from pan. Add onions to pan and cook until softened (about 3 minutes). Add chicken back to pan. Season with salt and pepper, Cover with jam, add vinegar and thyme. Roast in oven for 30-35 minutes.
A friend's mother had a milestone birthday. What is a birthday without a cake? This one is chocolate with raspberry buttercream frosting. I made the flower from heavyweight paper, simply elegant.
Fresh raspberry buttercream gives a dash of color and a punch of flavor to any cake or tray of cupcakes. The bold color, the smell, the taste. It’s a sure way to bring spring into a room. I like to use a dash of triple sec instead of vanilla extract in mine. The zippy orange taste gives it a nice bright pop.
RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM
1 stick of softened butter
1 pound of powdered sugar
1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 tsp. salt.
1 tsp. triple sec or vanilla extract
Wash and dry raspberries of using fresh. Be sure berries are thoroughly dry. Beat butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined and fluffy. Mash berries into a puree. Add in extract and salt. Beat puree into buttercream until color is even throughout.
This is my comfort food. Fresh sauerkraut with apples, onions, and juniper berries is the perfect complement to the meaty chop.
Sauerkraut is probably one of the easiest things to make. To start, get a clean glass or ceramic bowl or two quart mason jar. Remove the outer leaves from a head of cabbage and core cabbage. Cut into thin slices. Place half of cabbage in a bowl and spring with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Repeat with second half. Make sure your hands are really clean and massage the salt and cabbage together until the salt seems to be distributed evenly throughout cabbage. Pack cabbage down into glass or ceramic bowl or mason jar. Fill a 1 quart ziplock bag with 2 cups of water and 2 tsp. salt. Seal tightly. Over the sauerkraut with a piece of parchment paper. make sure edges are sealed. Place ziplock bag atop sauerkraut. Let rest on a cool shelf or in the refrigerator for about 5 days checking it everyday to ensure no mold is developing. Push cabbage down every other day to compact tightly. At the end of the week it can be eaten or sealed in jars covered by a 1 tsp. salt to 1 c. water brine.
There just isn’t a comparison to the fresh stuff.
One of the best parts of planning a wedding is cake-tasting. This was a taster cake I made for friends, a buttery cake filled with pink grapefruit curd and ensconced in elderberry buttercream. A bite of this with champagne was like a perfect summer cocktail! So the weekend after I made this tester cake, I invented the following cocktail for brunch:
PUCKER UP!
one ounce pink grapefruit juice
one ounce St. Germaine
two ounces champagne
pour grapefruit juice and St. Germain in a champagne flute and top with champagne. Garnish with a twist of grapefruit peel
This is me putting final touches on my wedding cake the morning I got married. Talk about no fear! I had so much fun planning and building this cake (alternating dark chocolate cake, flavored with Cointreau, filled and frosted with green tea butter cream and a chocolate/ginger ganache and almond cake filled with fresh raspberry jam and frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting). At my third anniversary, friends were still talking about how good it tasted.
Nothing bottles the sweet warm joy of summer quite as well as fresh berry jam. The year before our wedding we picked twelve quarts of blueberries and cooked them up into jam to give away as favors. Luscious!
When two people fall in love, it's a thing worth celebrating. For this couple, who found each other in their Autumn years, a small, flavorful cake reflected the deep, light-hearted, demure joy that shone through their love the day they wed seemed the perfect match.
CONSTANT COMMENT CAKE
(serves 40)
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
grated zest from two oranges
1 tsp. ground coriander
6 eggs at room temperature
2 1/2 cup whole milk
non-stick baking spray
Pre-heat oven to 350. Combine all dry ingredients except sugar and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, salt, extract and zest and mix until eggs have completely incorporated into batter and mixture appears fluffy. Add flour and milk a little at a time in turns. Mix until well combined and smooth. Spray two 6 X 1.5” and two 9 X 1.5 cake pans with baking spray. Fill each pan until half full. Bake 15 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool for ten minutes before removing them from pans. This recipe is for a two tiered small wedding cake. For a regular cake, cut it in half. If you’d like to make a bigger wedding cake, or an additional sheet cane to serve guests, double or triple it. Happy Baking!