Tomatillo Salsa
Just the other day I was wishing that I had some Tomatillos because I was craving a green salsa! That day just happened to be a Friday and I was getting ready to go over to our CSA. Lo & Behold we got a pound …
Tag: fresh
Zucchini Baba Ganoush
Baba Ganoush is a traditional Mid Eastern dish – similar to Hummus, only instead of being made with Chick Peas – you make it with Eggplant. BUT – cooking is all about being creative, so when life hands you Zucchini you get creative like Hannah …
Cucumber Boat Appetizer
Rich always come home from work hungry. His first move is usually to go straight to the freezer and take out ice cream (sorry Rich – your secret is out). In an effort to try to give him a healthier alternative (in addition to using some of our beautiful goodies from our [and our neighbor’s] garden) I decided to whip up some of these Cucumber Boats for when he got home.
This is the season of carefree entertaining and although I love me some roasted veggies (the house smells awesome from roasted veggies right now – look forward to those posts in the coming days & weeks) we don’t always want/need to heat up the house! This recipe easily serves 1 or 2 as an appetizer, but is obviously very easy to adapt for more. Just count (about) a whole cucumber per person as you adapt this for your next gathering.
Enjoy these the next time you get a few extra veggies laying around – super fast and easy and tasty (and good for you too)
Stuffed Cucumber Boat Appetizers
(adapted from Jenn’s Cuisine)
- 2 cucumbers
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 1/2 medium [red] onion, finely chopped
- 1 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese (or shredded from the bag) AND add in some fresh grated parmesan if you have it
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 T good Olive Oil
- 2 T balsamic vinegar
Slice cucumbers in half vertically, and core out the seeds. Three of these halves of these will be the “boats” to serve the salad in. Take one of the halves and peel the outside, then dice. Dice the tomatoes with the same small size dice you used on the cucumbers. Mix in a bowl diced cucumber, tomato, onion, mozzarella, and the dressing ingredients. Let sit about 10 minutes. Drain the liquid & carefully scoop into the 3 cucumber boats and serve.
And I leave you with this Question of the Day… What is your favorite “after work snack” and how do you fix your unhealthy cravings and turn them into healthy ones?
Zucchini, Tomato, Sausage & Orzo Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed Peppers – I am sure that many of you have a go-to recipe for these. How many of you have a Stuffed Pepper recipe that would help you use up some of the over-abundance of Zucchini you are now faced with!? Well, this recipe …
Zucchini Cakes with Jalapeno Ranch
Who needs to plant your own garden when you have good neighbors! I know that this time of year many people feel they are over-run with Zucchini – if you find yourself in this situation, then I am sure you are already being a good …
Pickled Snap Peas
After getting a bag of Snap Peas a few weeks ago from our CSA I was wondering what to do with them, since I did not thinkI liked Snap (or Snow) Peas. The most interesting thing happened as I started to clean and work with the peas though… I started to taste them and realized that these things are awesome!!
Even though I found out that I liked the flavor of them raw, I already had my heart set of making Whitney’s version of Pickled Snap Peas. I always seem to have my heart set on pickles, so I knew I would not be disappointed! (The rest of the peas which escaped pickling, made their way into my Sesame Snow Peas with Asian Crab Cakes)
I tasted these a day later and they were good enough to eat, but resisted temptation and let them sit another week or so and they were worth the wait! These are nice and crunchy still with all the taste you would expect from something pickled. So get your harvest of peas (or go ahead and make this with the green beans that are currently in abundance) and make up a jar of these to enjoy in a few days – YUM!
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Pickled Sugar Snap Peas
Adapted from The Joy of Pickling via Epicurious
1 1/4 cups white distilled vinegar
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 tablespoon kosher or pickling salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pound sugar snap peas, stems trimmed and strings removed
4 garlic cloves, sliced
at least 3 -4 dashes dried red pepper flakes
In a nonreactive saucepan, heat the vinegar with the salt and sugar until they are dissolved. Remove from the heat, and add the cold water. (This gives you a leg up on getting the liquid to cooling the liquid.)
When the vinegar mixture is cool, pack the sugar snaps, garlic and chile peppers or flakes into a 1-quart jar or bowl, and pour the brine over it. Cover with a non-reactive cap, or, er, plastic wrap.
The original recipe suggests you store the jar in the refrigerator for two weeks before eating the pickled peas, but good luck with that. They’re quite delicious and already lightly pickled by 24 hours later.
And I leave you with a Question… What is YOUR favorite pickled food (and do you have an easy recipe on how to make it)!?