Pickles and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. No, I'm Not Pregnant!

I've been canning this week. I have been putting food by. That's the name of the book I took out from the library on canning, and I love the title! Putting Food By. It's a science and a bit scary because you can make big mistakes like BOTULISM. Anyhow, I've canned garlic dill pickles, sour pickles, dill pickle chips, and diced heirloom tomatoes so far.

Canning! 

And then I ran into my friend Jen, who told me she made mint chocolate chip ice cream from the mint in her garden. I said, in my head, game on. I have so much mint, it's outrun almost everything except the chives in the herb garden. So I found this recipe online and we started in today. The custard has to cool overnight before I run it in the machine. But it tasted amazing.

Mint infusing with the milk, cream and sugar

What else did I do? Last night I made bronzino that I marinated with the garlic and basil from the CSA. Baked it in a 400 degree oven with some tomatoes. I stuffed the fish with the basil, smeared olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic all over. It was great. I was going to grill it wrapped in grape leaves from the garden, but then I just didn't feel up to grilling.

Before roasted

Last week I had so many tomatoes that I think we had them at every meal. I made sauce, then braised squash in the sauce. I made panzanilla salad, that was awesome. That's toasted good bread, tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt, capers if you like, more salt. So good!

Panzanilla salad. Cukes, tomatoes, bread, olive oil, salt, basil.

These are the squash I'm growing. I eat then raw (so fresh), but one time I stewed them in sauce I made from tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil. I forced the kids to try them, and they loved it. Jack usually won't touch squash, but now he's a believer!

Coleslaw revisited. There was a recipe in the NY Times yesterday for a coleslaw that I made. It was a new twist. Called for cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, scallions, mayo, a touch of mustard, horseradish, cayenne pepper. It was not shredded, but diced. It was very good.

Coleslaw with tomatoes and scallions

Last week I simply grilled some chicken kabobs with chunked up onion. We got six onions last week in a share. So I had to use some! I alternated the onion cubes with chicken thigh meat that I had marinated in soy sauce, ketchup, lemon, and olive oil. 

Chicken on the grill

And then tonight I made a Thai curry with the eggplant, onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and squash from my garden. Sauteed it all, added lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, lime. Ate it over rice and it was wonderful. Arielle tried it, Jack wouldn't touch it, but they ate the brown rice and corn that were sides.

A bit soupy, but perfect over rice

I can't wait to see what comes in the next few weeks until the CSA ends. My garden is almost done. It's been a plentiful garden summer! And I almost never had to water except in the beginning.

It's all about the cucumbers (and cabbage)

Forget the CSA. My garden is crazy with cukes. CRAZY! I pick like 10 a day. So I've pickled them, for real. The first time I actually bought canning stuff at the hardware store. Today I made kimchi stuffed cucumbers. I sadly, which is crazy because this never happens, had no fresh ginger. I can't really imagine kimchi without ginger, but the recipe didn't even call for it, so we'll see.

cukes stuffed with carrot, onion, scallions, red pepper flakes, fish sauce. yum.

Okay, that celery we got was, hello, celery to the nth degree. It was like celery from the grocery store on steroids, as far as flavor, right? A lot of it was too woody, but the edible pieces were great dipped in cream cheese.

The cabbage was great too. I have the best coleslaw recipe ever.

Heat 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar in a saucepan until it reduces to half, let it cool 5 minutes, add 2 tablespoons honey. mix to dissolve.

Shred a head of cabbage. I use half a head of red and half a head of green if I can. Add a half a red onion, sliced really thin. And one grated carrot.

Pour vinegar mix over. Then add about 1/2 cup mayo, some salt and pepper to taste, cayenne pepper, chives an parsley, if you have.

I have a photo, but it doesn't do it justice. I'm just not a photographer, and my Blackberry, well...

the best coleslaw you ever had!

I also sauteed the swiss chard in olive oil and rolled it inside a pounded, flattened chicken breast. Baked it for 20 minutes. It was awesome. No photos.

Then I baked a challah with my kids. Just for fun, we used half whole wheat flour, walnuts and raisins.

challah!

Fried Pepper Tapas & Baked Green Tomatoes

My biggest desire with this CSA is to get my kids to eat the stuff. Sometimes there are just, by no means possible, like the hot peppers today. So I sauteed them at a real high heat in olive oil, splashed on kosher salt, threw in the tomatillas (I've never liked them an there was no way I was making salsa - if I was going to eat them, it had to be cooked), it was great, like a perfect tapa for me and Rob. I think I had this dish at Boqueria in the city. I did!

fried peppers & tomatillas with splash of kosher salt

breaded tomatoes on baking sheet

And so last week I made baked green tomatoes. They taste no different than fried ones, much less mess too. They are seriously addictive and awesomely delish. I sliced them, salted them, dipped in flour, dipped in egg, dipped in breadcrumbs. Coated a baking sheet with olive oil. Placed the tomatoes on top, and baked for 30 minutes.

Baked Green Tomatoes

I also made this awesome corn salad. It used many CSA ingredients. The recipe is from Susan Goin of Lucques in LA. I had the pleasure of eating there last time I was in LA and it was one of the best meals. She's a tiny little waif. Who knew waifs could cook?

Corn salad with edamame, sauteed summer squash, red onion, basil, tomatoes,
watercress, lemon & shallots

I'm having an overabundance of tomatoes in my garden, and eating a tomato salad every night sounds wonderful if it was winter, but we're kind of getting sick of them. So as a variation, I made a tomato pie. I think this was originally a Paula Dean recipe, but I changed it.

Assembling the pie. Those green tomatoes are ripe green zebras.
The best and sweetest!

Tomato decadent!

The recipe calls for a pie shell. I save all the heels of bread from loaves to make croutons, so I used 4 of them instead of a pie shell for this square baking dish. Then I covered the bread in tomato slices. Sprinkled with salt. Then I shredded cheddar cheese and gouda, it's what I had, into a bowl. Mixed it with mayo. I happened to have some homemade on hand from the weekend (I make it like once every 2 years, and it happened to be last weekend). Then to the mayo cheese mix, I added some finely diced onion. Spread this over the top of the tomatoes and baked it in the oven until it was bubbly, about 30 minutes. It was so good. And I had the leftover piece for breakfast this morning.

My kids ate all the peaches already, and most of the sungold tomatoes. The lemon verbena is sitting in a little vase on my windowsill. Most likely to be unused. It smells wonderful, but I fear it tastes like citronella, and I just don't want to eat something that tastes like bug spray from Whole Foods.

So much lettuce this week. How many salads can I make? I remember Mark Bittman had some recipes at some point with cooked lettuce. I need to Google those!

Oh, fun thing (NOT). One of my ears of corn had a huge wiggly worm tunneling between the nice rows of kernels. Thank God it was at the tip and I cut the top off. That was some sweet corn today. I actually ended up nuking it for 2 minutes because I thought it was too fresh to boil. It was sweeeeet!