Note: I am well aware it is September. I started this in the beginning of August only to find my life delightfully interrupted by the birth of my fifth grandchild. Meet Mia Jayne Adams! She is definitely a priority so the post is late being finished but the message is still good--as is this Easy Zucchini Tart! What can I say about August? Growing up, it was the month of vacation for my family before the start of the school year in September. We piled into the family car and drove the long road from Connecticut to the barrier beaches of North Carolina, stopping along the way at ...
Salads and Sides
BBQ SEASON CLASSIC SIDES: POTATO SALAD WITH OLIVES AND TURMERIC, AND VINEGAR COLESLAW
We’ve been eating a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs around here lately. It’s quick and easy and pleasing to people of all ages. When it’s a spur of the moment meal, I am apt to purchase some sides. But when I have time, I would rather make potato salad and coleslaw myself. These two recipes are among my most requested from family and friends. Potato Salad with Olives and Turmeric Interestingly, when I went to google turmeric, almost everything that came up had to do with the health benefits of turmeric It has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which may be beneficial for a ...
MY FOOD CHALLENGE
I went to the grocery store today and it was boring. Same old, same old doesn’t begin to say it. The fruits and vegetable aisle looks so inviting with its bright reds, greens, oranges and yellows. But once you start to walk down the aisle you will notice that there isn’t a lot of variety. Sure you can get carrots five different ways: organic, regular, mini-carrots, unpackaged with greens on, and topped and bagged (5 and 20 pound bags). And there is a small display of “tropical fruits”. But even that suffers from a steady diet of mangoes and passion fruit! To be fair, I am a part of ...
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Perfect Brussels Sprouts: sweet from natural caramelization, enriched with butter and given a slight tang from cider vinegar! Brussels Sprouts. They look so appealing in the market, all bundled up in a little green net bag. Or better yet, strong and tall, on their stalk, like a large green pussywillow branch. They speak of the harvest and just seem like something that would be good to cook. It’s almost Thanksgiving and, as I do this every year, I bought some. And as I do every year, I get home and put them in the produce drawer of my fridge and there they sit. Because I am ...
COOKING ON THE FLY: TOMATO AND ZUCCHINI GALETTE
Tomato and Zucchin Galette in its simplest version: commercial pie crust and a few ingredients from your pantry come together to create a rustic pie rich in the flavors of summer. I’ve been busy. I am not kidding about that. In the space of one month Rick and I are selling a house, buying a house, finishing building a house and renting a house. It wasn’t meant to happen this way. These things were not supposed to all come together at the same time. Because they have, life has been a mad dash to get everything ready. We have been masters at planning: our days are scripted, our ...
TOMATO TART TATIN
If you are looking for a great big punch of tomato flavor, look no further. In this tart there is no question that tomatoes are the star of the dish. Meaty tomatoes are oven roasted in a vinegar syrup, then topped with pastry for a final cooking, before being turned out onto a plate with the tomatoes back on top! Tart Tatin originated in France. It started as an apple tart in which the apples were caramelized in butter and sugar before being topped with pastry and turned into a tart. Needless to say this technique is easily adaptable to other fruits, including the tomato ...
TOMATO PIE: IT’S A SOUTHERN THING
Recently I asked my Instagram followers (@awomancooks) what they would make with a big tomato harvest, and I got a resounding chorus of “Tomato Pie!”. Tomato pie is not something I am very familiar with. I am purist when it comes to home grown tomatoes. I eat them sliced with a little salt, in a Caprese salad, or in a sandwich (tomato or BLT only!). The idea of layering them in a pie crust and cooking them with a mixture of cheese, mayonnaise and fresh herbs seemed a sure way to hide the flavor of the tomatoes. But I was wrong. After a lot of research I made some tweaks ...
CILANTRO AND LIME AVOCADO SLAW
Replacing mayonnaise with avocado in the Cilantro Lime Sauce for this creamy slaw results in a rich and healthy Asian style slaw, perfect for using with fish dishes, in sandwiches or by itself! The seeds for this recipe were planting in Hong Kong in 1986. On one of my first forays into the local cuisine, I took a boat to the island of Lantau where I sat in a plastic chair at a rickety table on the waterside of the South China Sea. I was served a dish of fried rice with the freshest possible shrimp. It was delicious. But there was something in it I had never experienced before, a green ...
WATERMELON CHICKEN AND SPICED GRILLED WATERMELON
A visit to Glen Falls in Highlands, NC is the inspiration for this Watermelon Glazed Chicken with Spiced Grilled Watermelon Slices I went to Highlands in the mountains of North Carolina this weekend where, due a fortunate accident (a tree fell across the road about a mile from the parking area), we were able to see Glen Falls in relative seclusion. It’s a spectacular three-tiered waterfall which drops about 700 feet in total and is, understandably, very popular. The tree had fallen the night before after a torrential rainfall. We were there early, before it was cleared, and few people ...
SUMMER IN THE SOUTH: PIMENTO CHEESE TOMATO PIE
When I think of summer in the South, I think of my childhood days at the beach where the food seemed to center around fresh ripe red tomatoes, slightly spicy pimento cheese, and fresh fruit pies. The days were filled with salt air and ocean and the evenings meant family around the table. This summer I am up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Other than that little has changed. I make a mean pimento cheese; my tomato plants are laden with deep red orbs of deliciousness; and pies are my thing. So I put them all together and created a Pimento Cheese Tomato ...
