Today is my older sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Peggy! She is coming for a visit in October. I am looking forward to it. I had such fun with my younger sister a few weeks ago. I anticipate a great time with my older one as well. I did not get in much cooking, though.
Just plain old boneless, skinless chicken thighs on the grill tonight cooked by John. I made cole slaw and cherry tomatoes with oil, basil, and Trapani sea salt.
Grilled chicken thighs, cole slaw, and cherry tomatoes
Wow, did this come out well! In fact it is so good that our daughter ate it for breakfast this morning. Granted this is not exactly summer fare but it has been pleasant here for a few days so I thought I would make this on a cool day and then make vichyssoise for the hot days ahead. They share some of the same ingredients.
Although I do use 1/4 cup of cream in the soup, I think it would be almost as good with no cream at all. The pancetta gives it a nice undertone but next time I might just use olive oil and see how that works out. This is originally a Gabrielle Hamilton recipe but I have simplified it so much that it really bears little resemblance—for instance hers has real clams, guanciale, and 3 cups of heavy cream!
Marymom’s Light Clam Chowder
Marymom’s Light Clam Chowder
Makes 4 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces finely chopped pancetta (Volpi makes a prechopped pack of two)
1/2 finely chopped onion
1 rib celery finely chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, cut into discs and washed well
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes cut into cubes
1 sprig tarragon
2 springs thyme
6 oz. white wine
2 cans chopped clams with liquid
2 bottles clam juice
3/4 cup milk (reg or 1% or 2%)
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
toasted rustic bread
Heat the olive oil. Add pancetta. Saute until brown. Remove only pancetta and leave the pancetta fat in the pan. Add the onion, celery, leek, potato, tarragon, and thyme. Cook until the onion and leek are translucent. Add the white wine and let it steam off. Add only the juice from the canned clams and the bottled clam juice. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Add the cream and the milk keeping the mixture below a simmer. Add the clams and pancetta. Heat through on low. Check for seasoning and add salt if needed.
Ladle over a piece of rustic bread that has been toasted. Grind pepper as desired on top.
This week’s menu starts with a couple of re-dos. Last week on Friday and Saturday we were supposed to be having chicken thighs and clam chowder but it was too hot and we just did not feel like cooking. So this week and Sunday and Monday we are trying them again. After all, I bought all the ingredients last week and they need to be used!
Friday night is a date night for John and me after which I am going to be on hiatus for a bit. I’ll drop in occasionally with some tidbit but otherwise I am on blogcation.
I am running out of steam for doing actual cooking at the end of this week. Maybe it is the hot weather that has gotten to me. On Thursday we were supposed to have chicken on the grill but John said he was not going to go out in the 100+ degree weather and stand over a hot grill cooking chicken. So the chicken went into the freezer to be grilled another day. While we were in the freezer we pulled out the MichelAngelo’s frozen eggplant parmesan, microwaved it for 20 minutes and had a no mess, no cook dinner. Keeping an emergency dinner in the freezer is a good idea!
MichelAngelo’s frozen eggplant parmesan with a fresh tomato, basil, and tomato salad
Saturday’s dinner fare is influenced by our son coming over for some tennis with John and lunch with his sister and us. That means a bigger lunch than usual which leads to a smaller dinner.
After throwing out a number of options, John and I settle for an appetizer type dinner—bruschetti, one of tuna salad and one of cherry tomatoes with basil. I love dinners like this! It is like you are having a party and there is no heavy hunk of meat or starch afterward.
Bruschetti of tuna salad and cherry tomatoes with basil
Although I cannot tell you the exact quantities of what I put in my tuna salad, these are the ingredients.
Marymom’s tuna salad
1 5 oz. can water packed tuna
olive oil
light mayonnaise
chopped fresh parsley
capers
sweet relish
lemon juice
thinly sliced scallions
dash of salt
It is in the 100s again today. Late August and September are the hottest months here in Northern California and it is the time of summer that no one looks forward to.
We are not going to be heating up the kitchen in these temperatures so poor John is outside cooking over a hot grill in this awful weather. According to this week’s menu I am supposed to be making Caesar salad with croutons but since we still have leftover Texas caviar and tabbouleh I am taking the easy route and serving them. I have added a little serrano chile to the Texas caviar since John thinks it is to mild.
Grilled hamburger with Texas caviar and tabbouleh
I get a lot of accolades from the family when I make this parsley-forward tabbouleh based on a recipe for a Lebanese Tabbouleh from NYTimes Cooking. For tonight’s version, here is the recipe:
Lemony Parsley Tabbouleh
1/2 cup bulgur wheat
2 bunches Italian parsley, thick stems removed, smaller stems okay
1/4 cup mint (a handful of mint leaves)
5 scallions, cut into 2 inch lengths
2 cloves garlic, cut into smaller pieces
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 lb. tomatoes, chopped
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
Cover the bulgur with hot water and let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients, about 20 minutes. Wash vegetables. Using a food processor whiz up the parsley, mint, scallions, and garlic in two equal batches. About 8 pulses until finely chopped. Remove each batch to a large bowl. Stir in the salt and the lemon juice. Drain the bulgur thoroughly through a sieve, pressing to remove as much water as possible. Add to the parsley mixture. Add the chopped tomatoes. Stir until everything is incorporated. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Right before serving add olive oil. Stir. Makes 4-6 servings.
You will have to play around with the seasoning, acid, and oil to see what combination works best for you. My recipe is the way we like it.
Lemony parsley tabbouleh with hummus, pita, roasted golden beets, tomatoes, and feta
In addition to the tabbouleh I also served store-bought hummus, toasted pita, and a salad of roasted golden beets, tomatoes, and feta dress with balsamic vinegar and EVOO. (For a vegan version omit feta.)
This is an excellent dinner for a hot night.
Tonight’s dinner is easy for me. I have to mince 4 cloves of garlic, heat up some leftover rice, and zap the Stouffer’s spinach soufflé for 10 minutes. John, on the other hand, has to peel and de-vein the shrimp, make a stock out of the shells, and cook the shrimp in the stock, white wine, and garlic. Oh, and I have to chop up some parsley for garnish. So it seems like an even division of labor, right?
We do all those things and somehow it is after 8 PM when we finally sit down to dinner. I keep telling John that I need to eat earlier because I spend between 5 PM and whenever we have dinner noshing on this and that. It is no good for my diet plan!
Anyway the dinner is super tasty and actually pretty simple to do.
Shrimp scampi with rice and spinach souflle
On this hot meatless Monday we are minimizing the heat in the kitchen with microwaved corn on the cob, a salad, and portobello mushrooms grilled outside.
Let’s start with the corn. It is so easy when you do it in the microwave. Just shuck the corn and put it in a zip-lock bag (partially zipped) with a tablespoon of water, some butter or margarine, and zap it for one and a half minutes per cob. Done.
The Texas caviar is a rinsed can of black-eyed peas, small dice (about 1/2 cup each) of carrots, celery, red bell pepper, poblano pepper, scallions, tomatoes, corn, and jalapeño pepper (if you like it spicy), one minced garlic clove, five drops of hot sauce, chopped cilantro, and a lime vinaigrette. If I am making it for a crowd I add a rinsed can of black beans and more veg. Mix it all together and let it sit for a while before eating. Delicious and healthy to eat and beautiful to look at.
Texas caviar
John makes a marinade of 3 tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt. He brushes the cap tops of the mushrooms with the marinade and puts the rest on the gill side. After one half hour in the marinade John cooks the mushrooms on the grill – 8 minutes cap side down, turn, 6 minutes gill side down. They look dark but are not burnt.
I have some toppings waiting in the kitchen – onions, spinach, tomato, and feta cheese (omit if making a vegan recipe.) Using the feta as a spread on the bottom roll keeps the roll from getting sogged out.
Summer on a plate!
Portobello mushroom burger, Texas caviar, corn on the cob
In case you have too much zucchini from your garden, here is a tasty salad to use some of it. Leave some time to marinate the zucchini before you eat the salad. At least 4 hours would be best. In addition to the zucchini I included some slivered fennel and onions plus cherry tomatoes. All this was piled on a bed of raw spinach.
Lemony zucchini salad
Lemony Zucchini Salad
Adapted from NYTimes Cooking recipe
2 medium zucchini, sliced very thinly lengthwise or sliced with a mandoline
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
various other salad vegetables to garnish
Slice the zucchini either by hand or with a mandoline very thinly into ribbons, Salt the zucchini strips and let them drain for 20 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. Make the lemony dressing and pour it over the zucchini ribbons. Marinate for 4 hours. When it is time to serve make a bed of spinach or salad greens. Pile the zucchini in the center. Add other salad vegetables if desired. Pour remaining marinade over entire salad. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.
Tonight we ate our salad with Trader Joe’s bratwurst on Cobblestone sausage rolls. Use your favorite mustards and relishes on the bratwurst.
Lemony zucchini salad with Trader Joe’s bratwurst
It is going to be extremely hot this week. Supposedly we are going to see around 100F (38C) for at least 4 days. Depending on how hot the house gets we may have to switch around or change some dishes.
Omnivore 