I Could Eat These All Day Long!

What do you get when you combine a zip lock bag of frozen fruit with a high-powered blender and a tiny bit of lemonade?

This is a frozen, zero point (for those following weight watchers) treat that I could eat ALL DAY. This batch included frozen apple, grapes and strawberries and a very small amount of lemonade.

Ingredients:

Some suggested combinations:

• Fuji Apple
• Strawberries
• Red Grapes

 OR

• Cantaloupe
• Mango
• Peach

OR

• Watermelon
• Blueberry
• Grapes

Directions: 

• Cut fresh fruit into similar-sized chunks. 
• Freeze in zip lock bags.
• Put frozen fruit into high-power blender
• Add small amounts of lemonade or other liquid of choice
• Blend on frozen drinks setting until smooth
• Serve. 

One half of a zip lock quart bag of frozen fruit makes two medium servings. 

Caprese Salad

Bruce is out tonight and I didn't feel like a big meal. With fresh farm tomatos,  locally made mozzerella and garden picked basil in the fridge, there was really only one thing to do. Caprese Salad.

Ingredients

• Tomatos, the fresher the better, chopped
• Mozzerella, the fresher the better, cubed
• Basil, the fresher the better, hand shredded
• Olive Oil, 1 tbsp
• Balsamic Vinegar, to taste

Mix. Pour wine. Eat.

Assuming all the other ingredients are fresh, the only way to ruin this meal is to use sub-par balsamic vinegar. Mine comes from Di Bruno Brothers. If you haven't heard of them, go here for their mail-order website. This is a great place to find gifts when you just can't send another basket of fruit or boquet of flowers and you're looking for something different and yummy. I can personally attest that the Abbondanza gift box is out of this world.

Talking Spices Again: Piquant

Someone asked what "piquant" meant in describing spices, and I didn't have a very good definition.

According to Wikipedia, "Piquance (pronounced /ˈpikəns/)[1][2] or piquancy, is the sensation commonly referred to as "spicy" or "hot" which is found in foods such as chili peppers. It is associated with the sense of taste, and in various Asian countries it has traditionally been considered a basic taste.

Use of the word "piquance" eliminates potential lingual ambiguity arising from overlap in meaning with the words "hot" and "spicy" which usually requires a determination or assumption of meaning based on context.

Instead of "hot" simply referring to temperature, and "spicy" being used to refer to the presence of spices (many of which are not actually piquant), the former two words are often used as synonyms for the latter, a word less commonly employed in reference to the characteristic which in regards to taste it solely defines, which is pain associated with the sense of taste.

For instance, a pumpkin pie can be both hot (out of the oven) and spicy (due to the common inclusion of ingredients in its recipe such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace and cloves) but is not actually piquant. Conversely, pure capsaicin is piquant, yet is not naturally accompanied by a hot temperature or spices."

Reference:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquance

You'll recognize a spice as piquant when you get that feeling of prickliness or burning in your mouth and you wish someone would spritz you down with an old-fashioned bottle of seltzer, like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.  Now we know!

Learning the Indian Spices

Welcome to my spice cabinet.  You'll notice that everybody is in a matching container. I've employed the same organizing design principle to my spices that I've used in my freezer: Using standard sized containers saves space! 

Now, meet the Indian spices. From left to right: Madras Curry Powder, Turmeric, Garam Masala, Coriander, Cumin, Cardamom Pods, and Black Mustard Seeds. Don't be scared.

Lets take them one by one. 

• Madras Curry: I use Sun Brand, which lists the ingredients as Coriander Seeds, Turmeric, Chilies, Salt, Cumin Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Black Pepper, Garlic, Ginger, Fenugreek, Cinnamon, Cloves, Anise, and Mustard. This spice is piquant and peppery, so go slow when you add it.
• Turmeric: This spice comes from another plant in the Ginger family, which is dried, oven roasted and ground into a powder. This spice has a pungent flavor, and is used as a dye, so be careful not to spill (or use wooden utensils) because it will stain. I use small amounts.
• Garam Masala: In Hindi, garam means "hot" and masala means "mixture". Garam Masala is a mixture of a number of other spices and the variation varies from north to south in India, and from family to family. Typically, garam masala includes black and white peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, black, green and brown cardamom pods. These are roasted together and ground. We've tried several brands but keep coming back to Williams-Sonoma's version (believe it or not). Your local Indian grocery will likely have several varieties to try.
• Coriander: Coriander is the dried, ground seeds of our favorite herb, cilantro!
• Cumin: The cumin plant grows from the east Mediterannean to India, which explains it's appearance in a variety of cuisines. The Spanish brought it to the Americas, which led to our preference for it in our modern day chili recipes. Cumin also has a peppery, pungent flavor, so add to taste.
• Cardamom Pods: Cardamom is often used in sweet dishes and appears in Nordic baked goods. I first had cardamom in a Finnish easter bread. We add it to our spicy chick peas where it helps bring out the sweetness of the sweet potato along with the rich flavor of the garam masala.
• Black Mustard Seeds: According to Wikipedia, four of the major religions include references to mustard seeds. Mustard seeds have the sharp flavor of our common mustard. I use only a few, and heat them in oil till they pop.

Now you've met the spices - time to experiment!

A Celebration of Food: Goshen Fair

Is there anything that says "end of summer" more than a visit to a local fair? We visited the Goshen Fair this morning, beating the crowds by several hours, and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the fairgrounds.  Here are some vignettes from this glorious celebration of all things agricultural.

Lovely fresh organic produce

 Things we didn't know existed

 

Our favorite goats from Goatboy Soaps. Goatboy not only makes the best soap on the planet, but they also make the best fudge. We know this for a fact - we've performed extensive taste tests.

 Various competitions of bovine, equine, canine and porcine varieties...

 Hand on ham

 Spiderman

 The carnival version of my typical work day:

 Things we didn't eat

A clear, blue sky

 A different perspective of the fairgrounds

 Self-portrait from the ferris wheel

 Sunflowers

 Dahlias

 Pie pumpkins

 The best beets in Connecticut

 A cornucopia of produce

 And another

 My lands, the tomatos!!

 Possibly my favorite vegetable:

 I do not like them, Sam, I am!

 Sign on the giant pumpkins: "make great boats"

 Where our will power gave in...

 ...and we ordered Cinnamon buns as big as our heads!

Labor Day Lake Brunch

This lazy Sunday morning was the perfect day for breakfast on the water. 

Fruit packed into the insulated bag in the picnic basket. This basket makes me feel like a cross between Sally Pinkston and Ernie King, two grand ladies from Christ Church, Corning. 

 

These egg and cheese sandwiches are a low-calorie version of what we normally would get at the deli. These are on weight watchers whole wheat bread, using tofu cheese and egg beaters. I wrapped these in waxed paper, added an insulating layer of paper towels, then aluminum foil and packed these into another insulated bag.

Supplies all stowed on the Thunderduck: 

 

 View from the breakfast nook - my sandwich and current read: 

Bruce surfing the internet from the boat:

View towards Sherman, while at anchor.

Happy Labor Day weekend!

Pumpkin Chowder

Tonight on my stove is a large pot of pumpkin chowder,  adapted from Country Living Magazine. This is a great soup to use those odd squashes from the farm co-op box that you just don't know what to do with.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 leeks, trimmed of green tops and chopped

3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 medium green bell peppers, chopped

2 1/4 pounds pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 by 1 inch thick pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/4 cups frozen corn

6 cups vegetable broth

Directions

• Heat olive oil in large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
• Add leeks and cook until very soft, about 5 minutes.
• Add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
• Stir in green peppers and reduce heat to medium-low until peppers soften, about 8 more minutes.
• Add the remaining ingredients and cook until pumpkin is tender, about 30 minutes.

Notes from my kitchen:

• Tonight, I made this with no pumpkin at all, but sweet potato, acorn squash, delicata squash and zucchini. 
• I usually add a cup or so of chopped carrots, some celery and a cup or 2 of chopped baby red potato to the above, adjusting the vegetable broth to make sure everything cooks through.
• Sometimes I throw in some chopped kale. Tonight, I added some chopped swiss chard. 
• Also, I've substituted onions for leeks, and red bell pepper for green, based on whatever I have in the fridge.
• I add more corn than the recipe calls for, for a total of 2 cups or so. We like our chowder with lots of veggies.
• As you might guess from reading any of my other recipes, I increase the spices...sometimes by 100% or more. We like our spice around here and the marjoram makes for a nice, robust peppery chowder (not piquant, just peppery).  
• I cook this waaaay longer than 30 minutes - usually for several hours on simmer with an occasional stir, but you could probably cook it in 30 minutes over a higher heat if you needed to.
• Great served with buttermilk bisuits!