Tag: easy

Summer Lunch

Summer has been cooler here than in prior years. So while tomatoes are really just starting to ripen and yield – finally!!!! – for real (a good 2 weeks past my usual tomato target date though), cabbage, kale (kale!!! in July! edible!) and lettuce greens 

Making Radishes Lovable

There is somebody in the house who’s not so fond of radishes, especially radish leaf soup or stir-fried radish pods, but I’ve just hit the jackpot! I made something with radishes where the reaction was: “I can eat radish like that all day long!” I 

Presto Garden Buckwheat Noodles

garden-buckwheat-noodle-002

I don’t know about you, but when I am home working and need a quick lunch, I want it QUICK. It’s often throwing together a green salad & omelet, or fajitas (or quesadillas), or – in winter – reheating some soup and making a sandwich (tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich being a favorite). Sometime, I want a little more, though, and that’s when stir-fry come to the rescue. Like today.

All one need is some noodles, a couple of veggies to keep the taste simple, some seasoning, and a little protein – today, it was eggs. At other time, left over meat or chicken works just fine.

So I put a big pot of water to boil. Run to the the garden to see what I can get and settle on some baby kale and tatsoi (raiding the fridge will do, in a pinch); I’ve got plenty of shallots, garlic and ginger on hand (I know, it amazes you that I keep ginger on hand); soy sauce? here. Sesame oil? check. Looks like we are leaning towards “Asian” flavors here, so let’s use some buckwheat noodles… yes? yes! Let’s go. Stir-fry eggs, then the veggies as the pasta cooks, add pasta, add seasoning. Serve. Eat.

Oh, and do note, that this is very flexible. Adjust the quantities to fit your needs and appetite. I only provide quantities for those people who can’t do without. You know who you are. Ah, yes, I need to call this something too, right? How about Presto Garden Buckwheat Noodles? I am hungry, so that’s good enough. Continue reading Presto Garden Buckwheat Noodles

Pork Chops with Chunky Pepper Tomatillo Sauce

Friday night’s dinner often requires little thought as it often consists of homemade pizza – not much to think about: make the dough, let rise 45 minutes, flatten, spread some toppings (variations are endless). Bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile mix a salad, set the table 

Roast Chicken on Sunday = Tex-Mex Chowder on Day 4

Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 4 and we are using the remaining Day 2’s Chicken Tomatillo Soup of which we made a big batch. With the help of onions, potatoes and corn, 

Chicken on Sunday = Fall Rainbow Stir-fry on Day 3

Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 3 and we are using one cooked breast from our Roast Chicken. You can still make this stir-fry using an an uncooked chicken breast. You just need to stir fry it longer to ensure it’s cooked through, before adding back the vegetable.

The idea behind stir-fry is to use what you have. Pick 3 or 4 vegetable with contrasting colors, that remain firm when cooked (not tomatoes), that cook quickly (not potatoes) and that do not “bleed” (not beetroot). I picked yellow beans, broccoli florets and red Italian peppers (in addition to onion), because they made a pretty colorful plate, and I had all of them on hand. Other choice at this time of the year might be: corn, green beans and orange bell peppers. Or green bell pepper, shredded cabbage and julienned carrots… you get the idea.

When making stir-fry, it’s important to have all the ingredients trimmed and cut to size, i.e. ready to go into the pot – that, by the way is called “Mise en place” in restaurant lingo – because each ingredients cooks fast. It’s also important to cut/slice/dice each ingredient into the same size to ensure even cooking. Finally, while a wok is nice, it’s not necessary: a cast iron skillet (which is what I use) works just as well. However, do not overcrowd the pan, or the result will be steamed ingredients, not stir-fried. Much better to cook in small batches! Each ingredient is first cooked separately, and set aside. Finally everything is added back to the pan with the seasoning liquid and cooked for a couple of minutes.

A plate of Fall Rainbow Stir-Fry

Fall Rainbow Stir Fry Continue reading Chicken on Sunday = Fall Rainbow Stir-fry on Day 3

Chicken on Sunday = Chicken Tomatillo Soup on Day 2

I love visiting other people’s gardens and tasting food they cook from their garden. So when I went to visit Pat D.’s garden in Castleton, VA, I was in for a treat. She asked me to stay for lunch, and served a most intriguing Tomatillo 

Not Yet Peached Out

I promised more peach recipes. If “recipe” is the word to use. You got to do a lot of things – fast – when you got a bushel (close to 60 pounds!) of peaches. Perfectly ripe fruit call for a very simple treatment. Why mess 

Ruby Lemonade

A glass of blackberry lemonadeI don’t like to throw out (I mean compost) food – even things that other people may not see as still edible.

I went wild berry picking earlier in the week (that’ll make a post fo another day) and decided to make a sorbet with some of the wild blackberries I picked. (By the way, if you ever wonder why berries seem so expensive, go pick some, and you’ll get a much better understanding of that price…)

The wild blackberries have a lot of seeds, so I strain the puree before mixing it with my syrup. But although I tried to squeeze as much pulp as I could (getting purple hands and a new color pattern on my apron in the process) there was still too much pulp left for me to throw those seeds in the compost without a vague guilt feeling.

I had lemons left. We had Spirited Lemonade over the week-end as well as marinated lemon chicken. Sooo… How about blackberry lemonade?

I put water in a bowl, drop the whole seed mass in there, swish them around, strained again, and voila! blackberry wash! Then I squeezed a few lemons, use the blackberry wash instead of water, sugar to taste (not too much: maybe 2 tablespoon for the quart I was making, as I prefer my lemonade tart), and we had a beautifully ruby-colored lemonade, tasting of both lemon and wild blackberries.

Locavore log: blackberries from the hedgerow