Pesto is the Besto

In a week of late nights and uninspired meals the highlight may have been this ravioli from Nuovo.



The shrimp and Chardonnay ravioli were pretty tasty for the five minutes they took to prepare.

Today we spent the bulk of the day driving all over Connecticut and Westchester. Staying in the city and enjoying the fruits of community sponsored agriculture was just not enough to fill our yuppie quota for the weekend. Walking through the streets of various little towns in Connecticut rounded out our yuppie numbers quite nicely.



When we arrived home we had some farm veggies to use up. I made a tremendous amount of pesto with the remaining basil and garlic from the share that I used to coat and sear a nice piece of halibut. Along with that I cooked up the remaining farm onion, yellow, and green squash.

Maybe inspiration will return tomorrow. Tonight Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is on and that could kill anyone's inspiration to do anything. Perhaps by tomorrow night the dullness will have worn off.

Seeing all those fish-headed guys kinda makes me want to continue the seafood theme with a nice bouillabaisse.

Three Week Capotouille

The heat wave continues as the air conditioner blasts at 100% power to keep it at a breezy 83 degrees in our living room. It has rolled around to the tenth week of this year's farm share. Unfortunately the heat wave, immediately following the wettest summer on record, have not done wonders for our crops.



This week we got: Sungold tomatoes, regular tomatoes, Juliet tomatoes, cucumbers, white onions, lettuce (the lady before me got the last head), celery, potatoes (which were rotten and moldy so I opted to abstain), basil, squash, and peaches. Due to the lack of lettuce and potatoes we doubled up on celery and basil. I guess we can make pesto but I'm not too sure what we're going to do with all that celery.



I used the Sungolds and the Juliets along with some basil to make a simple tomato salad for a first course.



I had marinated this extremely inexpensive beef top round steak in salad dressing over night. I don't like marinating things in salad dressing as a rule as it is a little Sandra Lee-esque. That being said, there is a time and place for everything and tonight was about efficiency.

I also made a dish that I will call Three Week Capotouille. I used an eggplant from two weeks ago, a yellow squash from last week, and a zucchini from today to create this ratatouille/caponata hybrid. It's like the bastard child of the two dishes mixed with basil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, olive oil, and tomato.

It worked well as a vegetable accompaniment to the beef as well as a spread on slices of Italian bread.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to start thinking of non-disgusting ways I can use two enormous heads of celery.

Hot Time, Summer Salad In The City

Today it was 135 degrees in New York City with 111 percent humidity. Since Mother Nature decided to store up all of the heat this summer and use it up in a four day span I decided to add as little auxiliary heat as possible in creating tonight's dinner. And, no, I did not make any raw foods.



We had some kale (not pictured) on its last legs so I cooked that in a little olive oil and white wine then added some marinated salmon to the pan. I also employed Jen's corn on the cob cooking technique (which she taught me last night): wrap husked corn in wax paper, microwave for two minutes. I then made a baked potato (also in the microwave) and sliced up the remainder of an heirloom tomato.

I served all of this on top of a floral salad mix which will undoubtedly earn me a fair amount of scorn from my father-in-law, though not as much as if I had served it with a form of red meat.



For a summer beer we had the 21st Amendment Brewery Hell or Highwatermelon Wheat Beer. This beer was described to me as "surprisingly good" and I think it lived up to that description. While I'm generally not a huge fan of flavored beers this was delightfully refreshing for a hot summer evening.

Watermelon beer? It's almost as if tonight's dinner was designed to drive Jen's father crazy. I can almost hear his cries of outrage all the way from New York City.



For dessert I made a crust with crushed graham crackers and Lyle's Golden Syrup. Then I served fresh blueberries, peaches, and whipped cream on top with just a slight shake of cinnamon.

The only thing that could have made Jen's father more angry would have been if tonight's dinner was served warm. If I'd done that he may have boarded a plane to New York to personally give me a piece of his mind.

West Side Burgers

Today began with a 10:00 AM departure to Governors Island. For seven years we've been saying we were going to go to Governors Island and today it finally happened. That's five islands down, twenty-eight to go!



We had a quick lunch on the island near a food truck that was blasting some C&C Music Factory. Even in the shade it was exceptionally hot, only the second or third day over 90 degrees we've had this summer. Cycling around the island for the rest of the afternoon may not have been the best way to beat the heat.



I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it when we were half way into our day. Yet somehow we summoned the strength to not only move on but to go grocery shopping and make dinner. We didn't know what we were going to have for dinner until Jen spotted some bacon cheddar cheese at the store. She thought, "Wouldn't that be delicious on a burger!"



Jen made her traditional burger patties which I "grilled" on the George Foreman. I also made a quick sweet potato salad with garlic scapes, onion, celery, mayo, whole grain mustard, and bacon. Jen steamed some corn and got together all the burger accompaniments.



Jen was kind enough to stuff my burger with this delicious smoked Oregon blue cheese. I didn't know the blue cheese was smoked which was an unexpected treat. We purchased the bacon cheddar but didn't actually use it with our burgers. Partly because we were too tired to slice an additional cheese. It was all we had to keep our eyes open long enough to watch the offensive portrayal of Puerto Ricans in West Side Story.

The best part so far is the tomboy who is always yelling, "Pow! Pow!" at everyone.

She is a favorite.

Peachy Keen

When I got home this evening I opened the fridge and found a miniature Chairman Kaga standing there. It was kind of like that scene in the Ghostbusters except instead of growling the word "Zuul!" he took a bite out of a miniature bell pepper before exuberantly unveiling tonight's theme ingredient:

Peaches!



The first course was a peach and almond salad with shaved Parmigiano Regiano, cider vinegar, and olive oil.



For the main course: pork chops with curried peaches and cumin-spiced green beans. For the curried peaches I simply cut them up, tossed them with curry powder, dijon, cayenne, cider vinegar, and salt. For the green beans I steamed them, then tossed them in the pan I roasted the pork in, and seasoned them with a little masala spice and cumin.



The dessert was vanilla yogurt with fresh peaches and Jen's amazing granola that she made this weekend. We were initially worried that she may have made too large a batch but I think we may breeze through the two giant containers in no time at all.

I can't wait to see what Ghostbusters-style Chairman Kaga shouts out at me tomorrow!

It may involve needing to go to the grocery store.