Golden Like the Summer Sun

It's no small secret around these parts that I dream of having my own backyard chickens. The sad fact remains that we don't actually have a backyard, hence...no chickens. However, we do have friends with backyard, chickens and consequently...eggs!

I was told the breeds of the various chickens that created these eggs & promptly forgot as I ooh-ed & ah-ed over them. doh.

Over the weekend we received 2 dozen of these backyard fresh eggs, and I have to say, there's a real difference.

A hard boiled egg was demanded immediately upon receiving the eggs. Done and done.

They taste fresher and the yolks are this amazing, fabulous golden orangey-yellow color, bursting with flavor.

When potluck arrived Monday, I knew I would be using these eggs in some capacity, but had yet to make a decision as to exactly what. Would I devil them? Boil and chop them into salad? Souffle them? Then, my Joy Of Cooking calender told me exactly what to do...

Frittata!

Easy peasy, able to change up the flavorings in a pinch and a total crowd pleaser. I quickly scanned the garden and came up with the two different types I would make.

The first was a tomato, basil, mozzarella frittata. The basil came straight from the garden, but sadly, our tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet, but we always have a container of grape tomatoes around. The "recipe" is simple really...for this one I beat 7 eggs, added a splash of milk, salt, pepper and handfuls of chopped tomato, basil & shredded mozzarella. I oiled up an oven safe skillet, poured the egg mixture in, stirring it around for a bit before it started firming up. Then, once the bottom is mostly cooked (and it's runny on the top), I popped it into a 350* oven until cooked through (10 minutes or so). 

Yum, yum, and more yum.

 The 2nd frittata was a total experiment that turned out really well.

We used chopped garlic, local goat's milk feta cheese, and broccoli leaves! I had wanted to use kale, but the kale in our garden is not quite fully grown. While the actual broccoli is only partially grown, the leaves of our plants looked full and lovely, so I thought "why not?" and I'm so glad I did. Cooked, they tasted just like collard greens and went perfectly in this frittata. I sauteed the garlic 1st before adding the egg mixture.

nom.

The frittata worked perfectly with green salad, soba noodles & tofu (not pictures) and pesto pasta with peas. The perfect meal for a pre-Solstice potluck!

Happy Summer Solstice, everyone!!

Birthday Bash

I absolutely love when we celebrate a birthday at potluck. The food always tastes *that* much better and you know there's going to be a fabulous dessert. This past Monday did not disappoint in either regard.

We celebrated Rio turning 4 with delicious food and the creamiest birthday cheesecake ever.

In addition to the fresh pita, homemade hummus & spicy pickles that we brought, we dined (al fresco, yay spring!) on some cheesy rice/lentil casserole, quinoa salad, cabbage salad and spaghetti & meatballs.

Afterward, with party hats in place, we wished Rio a happy birthday before tucking in to the chocolate and strawberry covered perfection that was the cheesecake!

Holyland Hummus

This past weekend we were in NYC, and since we were staying in the East Village, we had to make a stop at the Holyland Market on St. Marks Place. They not only make the freshest pita, but they also have Israeli brands of tahina and pickles that I love. (They also sell pickles from a kibbutz where some of my family lives!)

When it came time to prepare something for potluck, it was a no brainer. I grabbed some chickpeas and whipped up some homemade hummus. If you've never made hummus before, stop what you're doing and try it now - it's easy and well worth it.

Tahina(sesame paste), chickpeas, lemon, garlic & olive oil

All measurements are approximates and will vary based on your own tastes. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, reserving a little bit of liquid for the hummus. Mince one clove of garlic and place in food processor. Add chickpeas, 1-2 tablespoons of tahina, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and some salt & pepper.

 

Then - puree! As it blends, add some of the reserved chickpea liquid until the consistency is to your liking.

I ended up making this into hummus masabacha. I took a cup of whole chickpeas and mixed them with the other half of the lemon juice, some cumin and salt and then topped the hummus with them. Drizzle some more olive oil and sprinkle some paprika over it and you're good to go. I personally enjoy eating hummus masabacha slightly warmed, but room temperature will do in a pinch.

Holy yum.

It seemed like a hit at potluck and went well with the rest of the festive food (we celebrated a birthday! More food pictures/details to come...)

Jammin'

Sunday was the first day of the PYO strawberry season around here and we just couldn't resist. We spent the morning filling quarts with juicy, ruby red berries while we plotted what to do with them.

Talk of pie, turnovers and sorbet occurred, but we kept coming back to: jam. While I've made fridge/freezer jam before, I've never actually made canned jam, and I was eager to try. I was also a little nervous. While canning is amazing stuff, it's also intimidating...making sure you do everything properly so you can correctly and everything preserves. I figured jam was an easy place to start (who knows...are pickles next?!)

And you know what? It was. So much so that I can see myself making another batch of strawberry jam and probably some blueberry as well. And who knows...perhaps some jelly is in our future as well.

The process was pretty simple. (but, it helped I had a second pair of hands to help in the form of my friend Hannah)

I destemmed and hulled about 2.5 quarts of freshly picked strawberries. We then mashed them (with a potato masher) to the consistency we wanted (still a bit chunky!).

After adding a packet of pectin (we went with the "no sugar needed" kind), cup of apple juice and a few squeezes of lemon juice we brought the mixture to a rapid boil, stirring the whole time.

While the strawberries were cooking, we prepped the jars, steeping the lids and jars in warm water so they wouldn't cracked once we added the jam.

Prepping the jars

After adding about 1/2 cup of sugar to the strawberry mixture, we stirred and cooked for another few minutes. I shut the mixture off and got to working prepping the jars. I already had a huge pot of water boiling away on another burner, reading to process the jams.

I filled each jar almost all the way to the top, leaving about a 1/4" of space. I carefully placed the lid and then twisted on the band. I gently dropped the filled jars into the pot of boiling water. Once all jars were in, I added a bit more water so it covered the jars by 1-2" and brought it back to a steady boil.

Jam filled jars ready to be processed.

Covering the pot, I let it go for 12 minutes. Once done, I shut off the water, let it cool down and then placed the jars on a towel to finishing setting.

I was happy to see that all but one sealed properly, and one more dip in the boiling water bath with a second batch of jams solved that problem easily. In the end we had 10 jars of jam, ready to sit up on our shelves (or to be consummed asap, which is the more likely scenario!).

 

Upon first taste, I've decided that the consistency is more like a really thick topping rather than a fully firm jam, but I think it's because we used too many strawberries. It still tastes absolutely phenomenal and works perfectly on toast and drizzled over ice cream, so overall, I'd call my first experiment with canning a success!

Buggy, yet Blissful

It was the perfect day yesterday.

 

It was everything Spring should be: warm but breezy and filled with backyard potlucks. The food was perfect, the weather was perfect, the bugs were...not perfect. But, c'est la vie when you live in Western Mass and the weather has alternated between tons of rain and heat. We slathered on the neem infused bug repellent and hoped for the best. (The best included waking up with a few red bumps, but what can you do. It was worth it).

We made some pasta salad with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil from our garden. It went perfectly with savory mushroom bread pudding, coconut rice/avocado burritos, curried deviled eggs and sauteed greens.

Picnic perfection

We topped the meal off with homemade strawberry lime sorbet (recipe below) made with strawberries we picked this past weekend (more on that later this week).

I kind of winged it with the strawberry sorbet, but it came out perfectly (I figured that it's pretty hard to mess up sorbet, but this ended up being insanely awesome, and I'll be making another batch tomorrow. yum).

Hull/chop a quart and a 1/2 of strawberries and mix with 1/2 cup of sugar. Fridge for about an hour or 2, stirring occasionally. Zest one lime into the bowl of strawberries and add the juice of said lime. Blend/puree the strawberry mixture till smooth. (I used our hand blender and it was easy peasy and little mess). Then put in ice cream maker and follow the directions for sorbet. I use a Kitchen Aid mixer ice cream attachment and churned it for about 20 minutes before putting it into a container and into the freezer for a few hours before serving. Dee-lish.

Peanut Noodles

We had plans. Big plans. Visions of grilling fish and local asparagus. I may have even planned a mango relish to sit atop the planned grilled fish.

And then...

Tornado.

Actually...what changed our plans was the storm before the storm. The golf ball sized hail that pelted the tin roof of the food co-op we were shopping at clued us in to the fact that grilling was not in our future. The torrential downpour and eventual tornadoes that touched down only miles south of us confirmed the fact.

We switched our plans and instead decided on a quick meal of peanuty noodles. Something we could take with us into the basement if, heaven forbid, we had to make our way there.

It was simple, quick, and both belly and soul satisfying which helped somewhat as we watched via the TV what was happening to our neighboring towns.

No real recipe this time...just approximates (I wasn't really measuring).

The sauce:

I used a hand mixer and blended some smooth peanut butter (prob about 1/4 cup), soy sauce, warm water, 1 clove chopped garlic, some sesame oil, rice vinegar and honey.

I also boiled some soba noodles and assembled the add-ins.

Snap peas, chili pepper flakes, chopped cucumbers, sliced scallions, sesame seeds and shaved carrots all made their way into our bowls (how much of each depended on who's bowl it was). 

My bowl.