Homegrown Salsa

My good friend in town had me over for chili this week at her urban sophisticate apartment and she happened to have some homemade salsa leftover from dinner the night before. She had used the bounty from that weeks farm share. Mr. E and I also had a bounty of veggies from our farm share and from our garden so I decided to make a catch for our beach weekend. Delicious!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (any color)
2 cups cilantro
1 yellow onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 jalapenos (seeded) and minced
juice of 1 lime
salt and peper to taste

Mix together and enjoy immediately!

Strawberry Salad... aka my famous family recipe

Strawberry Salad is something that has been a part of every family holiday on my mom's side since I was born. Thanksgiving, Christmas or simply a drive to Grandma's house or a visit from my mom in college always necessitates this dish. I have made this dish for friends and new family members in the last few years and I always get requests to make it again. This weekend at the beach, my brother-in-law requested "that strawberry stuff" and his daughter (my niece) helped me whip up a batch for our honor evening together before the official summer season concludes.

Strawberry Salad

Ingredients
* 2 cups coarsely crushed pretzels
* 3/4 cup melted butter
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 cups whipped topping (small container)
* 1 lg or 2 small pkg (6 ounces) strawberry flavored gelatin
* 2 cups boiling water
* 1 (16oz) bagfrozen strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Mix the pretzels, sugar and butter and put in a layer in a 9x13x2-inch pan. Bake 8 minutes and then remove to cool.

2. Beat sugar and cream cheese together and stir in whipped topping. Spread over cooled pretzels.

3. Mix strawberry jello, boiling water and strawberries together and set aside for 10 minutes. Pour over cheese mixture; chill thoroughly.

Vegetable Lasagna

With the bounty of fresh vegetables from our farm share and our garden, Mr. E. decided that it was time to revive his Sunday evening cooking ritual and make a vegetable lasagna. Lasagna is known as one of those dishes that is easy to prepare... we have yet to create a lasagna that takes less than an hour to prep. However, this one (courtesy of Mr. E's favorite celebrity chef, Giada) was yummy and BIG... aka lots of leftovers!

Individual Vegetable Lasagnas

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis (modified by E)

Serves:
6 servings (we thought it was closer to 8 or 10)

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 medium Spanish onion, finely chopped
* 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
* 1 medium zucchini, finely chopped
* 1 medium summer squash, finely chopped
* 8 asparagus spears, cut into 1/4-inch slices (or spinach!)
* 1 pound fresh plain lasagna sheets
* 2 jars tomato sauce
* 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
* 3 cups shredded mozzarella
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, halved
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saute pan over medium heat, add extra-virgin olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the carrot and cook for 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and squash cook for 5 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat when all vegetables are completely cooked but still have a good crunch. Allow to cool.

Coat the bottom of a 13x9 dish with tomato sauce. Place pasta on the bottom of the dish. Next, a layer of the veggies. Place a second layer of pasta on top and gently press down. Add another layer of sauteed vegetables and top with tomato sauce. Place the third layer of pasta in each ramekin and coat with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, and top each with 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Bake in oven for 50 minutes or until brown and bubbling.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Ease of Preparation: Easy

The Fruits of our Labors...

The vegetables Mr. E. planted earlier this summer are finally starting to reward us with their fine fruits... and that yellow tomato was oh, so delicious!

Monkey Bread

After swim meets in college, the parents would often provide the swimmers with home-baked treats. During my sophomore year of college I lived with 5 other swimmers which meant that on swim meet weekends we were bombarded with sweet treats from our well meaning parents. I was first introduced to Monkey Bread (or as we called it “Monkey Balls”) when one of the other mothers left it at our apartment post meet. Although I have never made this myself until now (for a boating weekend with friends), I still have fond memories of that gooey goodness consumed over a good game of post-swim meet game of tetris with the roommates.

MONKEY BREAD

Ingredients:

* 4 cans refrigerated biscuits
* 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar, packed

Pre-heat oven to 350. Pull your biscuits apart and rip into smaller pieces (roughly 4 per biscuit). Try not to eat too much of the raw biscuit dough, like I always do! Mix your biscuit bits with the cinnamon and white sugar and pack into a buttered bundt pan. In the meantime, heat the brown sugar and butter together until melted, and pour over the top of the biscuit mix in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, let cool, and invert onto plate. Enjoy!

Reference: www.brokeassbride.com

Bullet Hole Cookies

When I was in college, we would frequently head to the cafe in the student union building after swim practice in the evening. Some of the usual dinner options choosen by my fellow swimmers and me were the pizza bagel, the TBLT (turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato), veggie burgers and sometimes even their cheese fries--hey, we were collegiate athletes training from 2-3 hours each day! However, no matter what we choose for the main course, we always finished off the meal with 2 or 3 of the Bullet Hole (sometimes referred to as "the butthole") oreo cookies. Just last week one of my friends from college emailed me with the link to a recipe for these fabulous cookies. I made them last night and it took me right back... they did not disappoint!

Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies*
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 20 oreos, crushed (I used double stuff!)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
4. Add in the crushed oreos. Beat on low speed for just a few seconds to break up the oreos in the dough.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.*
6. Bake for 14minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted (important--you want them to be chewy and not crisp if you are looking for authentic bullet hole taste!). Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.**

* I got 30 cookies but I made mine a lot smaller. I scooped by rounded tablespoons. 1/4 cup seemed way too big.
** I baked them for 14 minutes and they were perfect. Chewy, but not underbaked.

Beach Time!

Mr. E. and I are enjoying some R & R here at the Jersey Shore. As the saying goes "Life's a Beach" and that is truly the case when we find the time to drive the 9 hours to NJ to relax with the sun, surf, family, friends and fresh fish. His family has been coming here for almost 90 years and so this place is truly a place of comfort where life is slow and not much changes from day to day or year to year.
Yesterday while Mr. E's grandmother and I were enjoying some time on the porch leisurely reading our books and enjoying our second cups of coffee, we noticed a wee bit of smoke funneling out of car in the parking lot across the street. The smoke quickly dissipated but not before the police and fireman came out in full effect. Sigh, just another slow day at the beach.
For dinner last evening we enjoyed fresh local scallops in a chive butter sauce with my own special creation comprised of gifts from a friends organic farm and the bounties of our local CSA. I decided to try something different and came up with my own creation comprised of what we had in the fridge--vegetarian zucchini boats.

INGREDIENTS:
2 large zucchinis
2 onions
1 large garlic clove
3 pieces of stale or toasted bread
2 T olive oil
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley.
3/4 disc of Boursin garlic herb cheese or 1/2 c. of any cheese on hand (cream cheese would also be lovely)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and grease the bottom of a glass dish large enough to hold the four boat halves.
2. Cut the zucchini in half length-wise and hollow out the insides to make a boat. Keep the hollowed out zucchini as it will be used for the insides of the boat.
3. Slice the onions and mince the garlic.
4. Heat the olive oil in a pan over med-high heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 min. until fragrant.
5. Add the onions and the zucchini innards to the pan and saute for 7 minutes or until soft and cooked through.
6. Add the cheese and parsley to the onion/zucchini mixture.
7. Fill the boats with the vegetable/cheese melange and fill up the four boats.
8. Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes until the zucchini has softened.