CAPRESE Y'ALL

So little known fact the annual Beer Bourbon and BBQ festival was held on 8/6. What is this festival you ask? Well essentially you buy a ticket and then in beautiful Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheater you trot around in the 120 North Carolina heat and sample the best beers and bourbons around. You either get 3 oz of beer to try or 1 oz of bourbon. Now I am not a bourbon fan per say- but I don't mind it in small quantities. The key is to ice that sucker down and take small sips or you. will. burn. your. esophagus. Made that mistake in 2009. Never again.

So what's the point you ask? Well prior to the festival we decided to meet up with our friends who we were going with for a quick causal cookout.

I had some mozzarella left over from my stacks I made and we had JUST gotten our hydroponic basil so hmmm- what to make, what to make. A HA! CAPRESE SALAD Y'ALL!

What you'll need- EVOO, Tomatoes, Basil and fresh Mozzarella. 

Lessons from an accident inclined chica: how to cut basil.

Chiffonading zee basil
Or I call it cigar rolling.

Stack your basil leaves.

Roll in to a cigar shape.

(Notice my robins egg blue nails -aren't they fab?)

And slice with a sharp knife into strips.

Aren't they cute?

Ok done with that! Cube your fresh mozz.

Seed and cut your tomatoes into small cubes. 

Add to your cubed mozz and basil slabs.

Salt, pepper and add some EVOO.

Toss to mix. And Voila!

Fresh. Delcious. Refreashing. 

Turns a tomato hater into a lover. 

YUM.

It's 9 o clock! On the Dot! I'm in my drop top crusin' the streets!

Actually. It was 9 o clock and sadly I was in no drop top, nor was I cruising the streets. It was 9 and Todd and I realized we hadn't eaten dinner yet. Opps. Todd usually doesn't get home until around 7:30, so we are used to eating late. And.... I usually come home and take a nap because while I have been out of school for over a year, I just can't shake my naps. I feel like I making up for all the naps I lost as a child.

Story time! 

As legend has it I did not sleep for more than an hour until about 4 years old. Opps. Sorry Mama and Papa Shute! While Papa Shute has a flair for the hyperbole (and now y’all know where I get it from) this apparently has some truth to it. My sister and I are 1 year and 17 days apart and girlfriend had to be relocated to my brother’s room so that she could get some sleep.  This was largely due to my refusal to sleep, a pinch of not wanting to be a part of any of the action splashed with taking a friend traveling down that slippery slope of insomnia with me. I also did not nap. Ever. Nap time was the worst! Now I can’t believe at one point in my life I was REQUIRED to do so.  And now what I wouldn't give to be able to curl up on a soft mat under my desk and siesta mid-day. If I had only known then what I'd be missing as an adult I would have taken every napping opportunity I could!

THE END.

What was I saying? Oh yes. It’s late and I needed to make dinner quick. So how about shiitake mushroom and brie frittatas!??! YES!  Preheat your oven to 350.

Sautee ½ cup of chopped onion until soft.

Add your chopped mushrooms and cook until they start to turn to a darker color.

In a separate bowl beat together 2 whole eggs with 4 egg whites. (or 4 whole eggs if you’re not watching your waistline). Add in 3 tbsps of grated Parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp rosemary and salt and pepper.

Slice your brie and place on top of the mixture. It will stay on top. Cook almost all the way through until the top is still liquid.

Place in the oven to finish cooking. It is done when cooked through, brown on top and the cheese is gooey.

Cut into sections and serve. So good. And ya’ll know I love the brie and shiitake combo!

Inappropriate Summer Meals

I love hot things. Why? I am routinely cold, and I am not talking a touch on the chilly side, I am talking my fingers or your bare skin results in frost bite. I’m talking there are throw blankets in every room of my house and in every car that I own. People: I have a space heater under my desk which has been turned on... in July! With record highs in North Carolina! Obviously I have to deal because I married a person who if I could harness their body heat into electricity I could power my house for free. It’s not natural how hot-natured he is and how cold-natured I am. It defies all logic. 

One of the ways I deal is I drink coffee like it is going out of style and eat soup for lunch on a daily basis. And yes I realize this is a totally normal thing-if you live in Sweden whose average temperature in July is 70. Pheft! 70? We’re lucky if it stays 70 degrees for 5 days in the spring. Which P.S.-- I would like to say I am officially mourning the loss of the season formally known as Spring in North Carolina. This year it went from 30 to 100 in a week.  Thou dost displease me weather! Make a note of it.

While I love a calm chowder, I wanted to make my own summery hot soup. So I did.

So it’s summer- this means summer squash and the last of those pesky acorn squashes from my produce box.
Preheat your oven to 400. Grab your food processor, one sauce pot and a saucepan and as P. Diddy says: LET’S GOOOOO!

Cut your acorn squash into 3-4 pieces and roast for 15 minutes. While this is roasting you can go ahead and cook the other vegetables.

Cut up 2 summer squash and add to a hot saucepan with EVOO. Cook on medium heat until soft. About mid way through add chopped onion and minced garlic. (I cheated and used already cut frozen onions) Once soft, add in shredded carrot and cook until all the vegetables are soft.

In your pan, cook down 2-3 chopped large field tomatoes on medium heat. I didn’t bother to remove the seeds, because usually this removed the goo that holds the seeds. I like to get all the moisture from the tomatoes that I can. Next: to this pan I add the scooped out flesh of the acorn tomatoes. I let these fuse together.

We’re ready for the food processor! Assemble and add the tomato and acorn squash mixture first. Turn on and mix until smooth. I then add the summer squash and carrot mixture along with 7-9 springs of FRESH basil. (You could also use cilantro if you were feeling funky) This will start to incorporate nicely.

This goes back into the pot where you can now decide how thick you want this to be. Dilute to your preference with stock (I wound up using about ½ cup of vegetable stock because I wanted this to be hearty soup.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Once finished, I knew I was missing something…you guessed it! TRADER JOES ROASTED CORN! Hate on it all you want- it definitely gave the finished product some needed texture and man do I love it’s flavor!

And there you have it! A soup that normal people could enjoy in the summer! And it was yummy!

Easy like a Sunday Morning

These stuffed peppers are as pretty as they are easy to make.  Both peppers are hot banana peppers. One is red because it sat in the refrigerator for longer and started to turn colors. Nevertheless, I deemed it still appropriate for cooking. I have made stuffed bell peppers before and thought it would not be any different for stuffing these. Todd made his weekly trip to the meat house and had purchased some ground grass fed sirloin, thus came the inspiration for the meal! One meatless and one with meat.  For hybrid households like mine- I like to cook up a lot of meat at once and then I can add it where I see fit for the remainder of the week so that the carnivore does not begin to froth at the mouth unnecessarily.


Preheat the oven to 350. Cut off the tops of your peppers and set aside. Go ahead and brown your meat in a separate pan. In another pan sweat your onions on medium heat with a little olive oil and salt and pepper (this means cook them until they are translucent and is different than caramelizing them- but if you take it to that level of doneness, it will add a sweet flavor to the dish). Add some minced garlic to this and cook. To this mixture add 1-2 diced tomatoes and cook until soft.  Add 1 cup of brown rice.

Now it’s time to add spices! You can customize this to your taste buds. We like spicy things so I added pepper flakes, the habanero sauce del gary and some Sriracha. (On fire!) BUT if you could take this Italian and add rosemary, basil or oregano- it just depends on what you like. 

For the meat-less variety- stuff this mixture into your pepper with a spoon. For the meat lovers variety- add the mix to ¼ cup of your browned sirloin and stuff your peppers accordingly.

Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until the peppers have softened- as you can see below they are slightly wrinkled. They also get slightly brown, which is not evident from the picture below.

ENJOY!

Bull Shiitake

Of course I added on the Shiitake Mushrooms when I had the chance last week, and they arrived in my cooler on Friday. The brie and shiitake mushroom pizza recipe that came in the newsletter sounded promising, so that is what I decided to make- with the Sara spin, of course! (Well maybe Mama Shute had some input...)

I chose the baby brie because it was on sale. It was just that simple. $2.99 at Kroger? Well then! Let's go ahead and get you comfortable in my basket! Don't mind if I do! This was the basis of the whole meal. I pre-heated the oven to 350 and let that bad boy pre-heat. In the mean time I grabbed two tortillas and spread the brie on the tortillas. I left the rind on- because I like the flavor, but take that off at your own discretion.

Don't worry about making it pretty, the cheese will spread once the cooking process has begun. Go ahead and get your mushrooms ready. I take off the stems and store for a rainy day, then slice the caps. I also added some sliced roma tomatoes onto my pizza pie.

Mmmm. Next I sauteed some chopped white onions with garlic and thyme in about 1 tbsp of butter. Once these are soft I poured this over top the cheese and mushrooms. 

Put them into the oven and cook for ~15-20 minutes.

And they're done! So simple. So good! And if you're wondering what do do with the extra brie cheese- may I recommend reading up on Lady Bird's poor and hungry farmer sandwich's. 

I finished off the meal with my absolute. favorite. summer. dessert. ever. The end. Kiss the baby because you're d-o-n-e! What is it you say? So simple. So fresh. It's.....

GRILLED PEACHES WITH A HONEY LIME MINT DRIZZLE. 

Perhaps a little anticlimactic for you too? I tired. Anyways... What fruit screams "summer" harder than a tween at a Justin Bieber concert? Peaches. And let me tell you folks, a good peach could be the answer to world peace, just saying. (We could call it world peach... heh heh heh. I slay myself).

If you are anti-fuzz drop the peach in boiling water for 30 seconds and the skin easily peels off. I happen to like the fuzz so I just slice these in half and throw on the grill. You just want to grill them until they are warmed through and have nice grill marks- about 5 minutes. 

Put them on your plate and then drizzle your honey over top. Tip: if you store your honey in the refrigerator- microwave it for 30 seconds, and it makes it easier to handle.  Zest some lime and garnish with fresh mint. To. Die. For.

And they are so sweet already that the honey with the lime and mint makes it feel like a 15 dollar dessert at a fancy restaurant. So good. 

What do you call a nosy pepper?

JALAPEÑO BUSINESS!

I love a stupid joke. But seriously I am dying with what to do with all these peppers. I received some squash last week, so how about tri-peppers with squash? Now watch my pepper stash dwindle! 

Aside: And no I did not choose the box with more peppers, I decidedly chose the one without. 

Here we go! Tonight I channeled my inner Bobby Flay and came up with this little dish!

Here are tonight's contestants: squash, poblano pepper, banana pepper and jalapeño pepper. I had some lemon already cut because being that it is summer the citrus population in the house has a tendency to find their way into seasonal ales. More recently they have been spotted floating in brews poured from the Oberon Bell's mini keg Todd purchased from Total Wine. 

Chop these four and throw them into a bowl with salt pepper and EVOO.  Since I used lemon I thought this needed some spicing up.

CONFESSION: I googled "herbs that complement lemon." Gasp! Why? I couldn't remember if it was thyme, rosemary or oregano that went best. Turns out I was 2/3s right! So thyme and rosemary went in with the mix along with my trusty friend Trader Joe's roasted corn. 

While this cooked I decided to pair it with sea scallops. And then I decided I needed a sauce, preferably one that could use up some more produce. This is where I needed some good ole Bobby Flay in my life. Senior Flay loves toning down spicy with some sweet. Lord knows I have jalapeños coming out of my ears, naturally that was the pepper of choice, and I had some left over coconut from a cake I made. Perfect! (PS the cake got some pretty rave reviews: get this it was a pineapple, macademia nut coconut cake. Yum and it smelled like I would imagine Hawaii would).

Here we go. Few handfuls of sweetened coconut, splash of EVOO, 1/4 c vegetable broth, 2 chopped jalapeños and a few shakes of some habanero hot sauce. Sim sim simmer away.

Toss into the food processor and let it run until smooth. And when I say smooth I men until the hunks of coconut are no longer visible. In hindsight, I realize using coconut milk would have been a better choice, but you have to use what you have. The result is below.

Cook your sea scallops with a little EVOO, salt and pepper. 

Put your sauce down with your scallops on top.

  

Add your squash and tri-peppers and serve with sliced avocado. The avocado will cool down some of the heat, in a similar fashion to how the coconut offsets the jalapeños. Such a bright and colorful plate, almost too good to eat.

Final thoughts for the evening. I almost feel like I should rename this blog: cooking for the carnivore. Truth be told, I feel like I have to get extra creative so that my other half gets enough flavor in hopes he won't notice that there is not much meat being cooked nightly. Don't get me wrong, last night he spent half of the night slow roasting himself a half rack of pork ribs to get his meat fix and openly gaffed that the fact that the price of bacon is steadily rising. I can't remember the last time we bought bacon, honestly.  Not to mention I feel like I pass a truck full of sows or barrows on their way to the slaughter house daily on I-40.... so I know it's not a supply issue. And North Carolina IS the #2 pig producing state behind Iowa, so keep buying the pork? I am very conflicted with that last statement.... more on that in future posts!

Tomorrow's blog: Coop's on the loose! Blount street homes and why I love Oakwood.

Sara, what should I do with my acorn squash?

Just like your sixth grade bra....stuff it! 

This question was asked by TPrizzy today at work, and she is in luck because two of these bad boys arrived in my produce box on Wednesday. Acorn squash are really tasty on their own, with a natural sweetness that I feel many people ruin by adding extra sweetener via brown sugar or molasses. BUT when you scoop out the seeds it creates a little bowl which just seems like it is itching for something other than your fork to be placed in it.  I usually reserve most of my gourd eating for the winter, but apparently they are in season, or else I would have not received two of them. Being it is the summer time and I am still up to my eyeballs in jalapeño peppers, I thought I would do a zesty spicy mixture with my old friend quinoa.

Pre heat your oven to 350 and grab your squash

Cut it longitudinally and scoop out the seeds

Beep beep beep. That's your oven saying it's ready. Drizzle some EVOO over each halve and place bowl side down on a baking sheet and cook about 30 minutes, or until easily stabbed with a fork.

While your vessels are roasting in the oven, go ahead and start your qunioa. I like to cook mine in a broth, so you can choose chicken or even beef, obviously I choose vegetable. You can even cook the quinoa in water but remove half the water and sub a juice that complements your dish. For example: cooking Caribbean? Make 1/2 c quinoa with 1/2 c water, 1/2 cup pineapple juice. Cook and toss with cilantro and diced red pepper for an easy tasty side dish.

I did 1 c broth to 1/2 c quinoa. Boil your broth and rinsed quinoa and then simmer until the liquid is absorbed.

While the quinoa is bubbling away go ahead and begin your add-ins.

1/2 onion (I chose a red one, you can also use shallots)

1/2 c roasted corn (or regular fresh corn for all of you who have a ton frozen from earlier in the season)

1/2 c garbanzo or black beans 

1 diced pepper (a green one came in my box this week)

2 jalapeños (hahaha you're numbers are dwindling!)

bunch of chopped cilantro

2-3 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper

Add your garlic and chopped onion to a little EVOO and sauté over medium heat until it is nice and carmelized

Go ahead and dice your peppers. For the jalapeños I cut off the tops and take out all the seeds and membrane. If you want it spicier leave more of the membrane in or add some of the seeds in. The hubs is a spice freak, so I try to keep it spicy, but not burn off your taste buds spicy.

After the peppers soften, throw in the corn and beans. Go ahead and season with your salt and pepper and at the end add in the cilantro. For variations feel free to add in some chili powder, lime juice or cumin for some flair.

Looking pretty good huh? Well you're just in time because it's been about 30 minutes and the acorn squash are ready to make their entrance.

Yum yum! Let's stuff these suckers!

Now you're going to have stuff left over. I'm taking mine for lunch tomorrow, and it is just as yummy on it's own.  For the meat portion we had ahi tuna steaks flash marinated in fresh lime juice, ginger and red pepper flakes. So simple. So easy. So delicious.

Can't you tell which one is mine and which one is Todd's? Oh yea, I decide to add some cheese as a last minute addition to the goddess vessels. And you want to know something else? Todd announced at the end of the meal... "Sara? You know what was my favorite? The actual squash. Even without all the stuff on top." And if that is not enough to at least purchase one of these then I don't know what else is.

Disclaimer: Before Todd met me his relationship with fresh vegetables was limited at best. In fact it is safe to say the most interaction he had was solely with canned vegetables. Oh how things have changed!

Seafood sausage.... say what!?!

Before we get into today's blog post I would like everyone to give a warm welcome to Cooper. Sadly this hunk of fluff is not mine, but I do call him my pseudodog. He belongs to the kids for whom I used to nanny...but I not only get to still see the kids on the reg, but from time to time get to take care of Cooper as well. Just look at him! And also notice the vacuum on standby for his visit because when he comes so does a considerable amount of shedding.

Ok onwards to today's post. Side story:  Sir Rupert, our cat, had to have some surgery... with the surgery came twice daily syringe squirts of pain meds directly into his mouth (fun fun) and an antibiotic to be given in wet food. Sir Rupert usually only gets dry food, but when you need some dank pet food where do you go?

TRADER JOE'S!!!

For those of you who shouted pet smart just leave this website now. Fun Fact: Trader Joe's started in Los Angeles. I for one am not surprised in the least bit.

One cannot possibly go in and just purchase pet food, which is how the hubs and I found ourselves in the frozen foods section looking at this:

Once again, don't adjust your cheater reader's, this says: "seafood sausage." When Todd and I saw this my reaction was: "Ughhh", and his was; "Ewww! We gotta try this." So in the basket it went and in the freezer it stayed until last night when I decided this was what we were having for dinner.

I slapped those babies on the grill and waited to see what this "shrimp, scallop, and mild white fish" concoction tasted like. It is wrapped in pork casing, so those with strong aversions to pork products you can easily remove the casing and gently grill without falling apart.

As side items I decided to make spicy broccoli in order to finish up the pepper's I received in my produce box. I wish I could say I chopped a head of fresh broccoli, but to be honest I came home from work, started reading my book, passed out and napped like it was sophomore year of college.  Since it was almost 8 when I started cooking I went the fresh-frozen route. (Don't judge me too hard, I am human remember? I am the one who can't get themselves to the farmer's market). I cooked the broccoli and drained the water.

I then cut up one of these bad boys and tossed it in:

I then chopped 2 cloves of garlic and put that in the pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tsp of red pepper flakes.

Mmmm- roasty. Other side item was a simple spinach salad with feta, cucumber, grape tomatoes and shredded carrots. And this my friends is what the finished dish looked like:

Ok let's get real. What did I think of the seafood sausage?

  (Disclaimer: I ate really weird things as a kid: in my lunch box there may or may not have been several instances of celery with cream cheese and olives or perhaps multiple sardine with a dab of mustard on a saltine moments) 

It was ok.... tasted mainly of shrimp. Now I am not a calorie maniac by any means (there's a good chance I let out a chuckle or too when I wrote that), but each sausage only had 110 calories, 370 mg of sodium and 3.5 grams of fat. So not bad health-wise when you compare it to a comparable size Johnsonville sausage which has 270 calories, 810 mg sodium and 22 grams of fat. I'm pretty sure I could feel my feet swell and cellulite virtually manifesting itself onto my thighs and just by typing that, but that is neither here nor there, the important thing is I would probably buy this again, but would not serve straight up. I would switch it up and serve over some type of noodle and perhaps a little of "Sara's Bangin' Noodle Sauce." 

Just to keep your interested piqued, Miss ladybird herself has agreed to guest blog with some of her food travels down in Nola (that's New Orleans Louisiana for those not down with the lingo). So get pumped!

Adventures in the produce box

Truth: People say they want to buy locally grown produce.

Question: Can all of you actually say that you visit your farmer's market on the reg? 

Fact: No.

This includes me. So, before all the hippies get their dreads in a twist, I found an even better solution thanks to my good friend Tiffany who introduced me to a little service called The Produce Box. What I get weekly is a box full of in-season fruits and vegetables picked the morning that and delivered to my door. Don't adjust your cheater readers, I said delivered to my door. No worries, it's still eco-friendly. They have neighborhood coordinators who pick up the boxes and then delivered them.  They also offer items made with the weekly harvest. So this week I will be getting a jar of spicy pickles made with cucumbers harvested just right down the road, and last week I ordered some honey to be included into my box for a few bucks extra. So for 22 dollars a week I get to pick from 3 options and bam just like that no trip to the farmers market needed folks.

What I have had to do is get uber creative with how to use all of my goodies in a week. So this week I am introducing you all to "Sara's bangin' noodle sauce." This is not copyrighted.... yet.

Disclamer: my food photography skills are lack luster at best. I promise to work on this.

Ingredients:

5-6 ripe tomatoes, cubed, skin on

A handful of basil, julienned (I roll them and then cut into strips (unless your pacman jones then I cut them into scrips)

Peppers of your choosing, these came in my box and are spicy, so adjust to your taste, I cut them into rings

While I know you are all marveling over the artistic placing of the above pictured items please know that this is my best work to date, but oddly food advertising community has yet to get in touch with me.

Ok! I throw these items into a large non stick pan and let them simmer for about 20 minutes. I then add 1 chopped red onion, ~tbsp each of raw chopped garlic,  garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. That's it. I was feeling funky the other night so I threw in some spinach just for funsies. I then put everything into my food processor and pulsed it until it was still chunky but was more or less the consistency of store bought Prego. I served mine with sauteed shrimp, freshly grated parmesan-reggiano and served over quinoa noodles. (Which is a tasty alternative to whole wheat noodles, quinoa being the awesome super food that it is)

So before you go and buy store bought pasta sauce- try making your own. I was pleasantly surprised! Oh and sign up for the produce box, you will LOVE it.