Sunday Dish

Some Times Cheap Just Means Goooood

I've recovered from summer overload and strep throat.  Yet still, my posting regularity is lacking. I'm not a slacker, it's just that I haven't recovered from my new job.  I've been working from home up until this week.  To put in perspective how out practice I am at getting myself and little chef out the door each day, I actually let the poor kid go without milk for 4 days.  But don't call social services on me, she finally got her milk and I felt so guilty I let her have chocolate milk and left over for pizza for breakfast  the other day (her idea, not mine!)

Anyway, I'm rambling, I guess when I'm out of the loop for a few days I store up all these things I have to say!  Tonight was the first night I got home early enough to cook.  Little Chef requested pasta, shocking...  But I just didn't have it in me.  So, instead, I reached back for a Sunday Dish family classic.  Hamburger Pie.

A couple of my friends have asked me why I haven't put this dish, one of my favorite comfort foods of all times, up on the blog.  I had to think long and hard about it.  Most of my recipes are fairly simple, home cooking type of dishes - nothing "haute cuisine" - but Hamburger Pie?

This humble dish has humble beginnings - I think my Mom thought it up when we were little.  We didn't have alot of money but we were always well feed.  Hamburger Pie is a poor mans version of Shepard's Pie (already a poor mans dish, no?)  Or maybe it's a quasi white trash version!  Whatever it is, it's cheap, it's easy, and it's damn good.

I've made a few modifications over the years but for the most part it is, as they say, just like Mama used to make!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs. ground beef  (for this dish don't splurge on the lean stuff - buy it cheap, buy it fatty.  Trust me it tastes better)

1 large yellow onion - diced

2 cloves of garlic - minced

1 large can of corn - I like the mixed white and yellow niblets.   Corn, living in harmony - does it get better then that?

1 lb. button mushroom - sliced (optional - this is a Todd addition, good, but not traditional.)

POTATOES:   here's the controversy... you can either purchase a box of instant mash potatoes which is what my Mom did.  I'm not gonna lie, there's something about their delicious other worldly flavor that I love.  Todd thinks instant potatoes are basically sacrilege.  He's created this dish a few times, always whipping up potatoes from scratch.  Will I say it sucked?  No way.  But I must,  for history sake, provide both options.  So...

EITHER:

1 box of instant mashed potatoes - cooked according to the manufacturers directions

OR

6 cups of mashed potatoes (I will not put the recipe here.  Basically boil some russet potatoes, remove the skins, then mash them up with lots of butter, cream, salt, pepper maybe some garlic -  you know the drill.)

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

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Note:  If you are going to make mashed potatoes from scratch - make them first then set them aside and keep them warm while you cook your beef.

Cook the meat, onions and garlic over medium heat until the hamburger is brown and the onions soft.   Don't over cook the the hamburger at this point as it will cook more in the oven later on.  

Note #2:  If you are going to add mushrooms to the dish cook them in a separate pan until they have released all their moisture.  Add them to the meat and onions once they are done cooking.

Season it with salt and pepper.  Drain all the fat off and set it aside.

If you are making this with mashed potatoes - cook them now.

Open the can of corn and drain.

The simply assemble it all.  Hamburger  mixture on the bottom, corn, then mashed potatoes. Then put a generous amount of grated cheese on top.

Pop it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.

Last but not least, dig in.

What is your comfort food,  humble or gourmet?  I'd love to know!

Two Summer Salads

I'm gonna confess, I made these salads for a post Father's Day feast last month.  That just goes to show you how far behind I've fallen in posting.   But, it's summer which means I'm spending more time with Little Chef and not quite as much time in the kitchen.  It's been pushing 100 degrees here practically every day, so I'm cutting myself some slack.

I've written that I identify pretty strongly with my Greek heritage, and have posted 4 of my favorite Greek dishes already (there will be more in the future).  But in fairness to my good ol' Dad I've got more than my fair share of German blood running through these veins. 

It's true, most of my growing up years were spent with the Greek side of my family, but a few years back my Dad got all cranky with me and my sister about our "Greek-ness".  He put his foot down, proclaiming that we should cook German food for him at least once a year, "God dammit".    And, well, when ones Dad stomps a foot, one wisely listens.

We've made sauerbraten, weinerschnitzel, sauerkraut and more.  We usually do the German feast for Dad's birthday which falls in February.  It's cold then and the idea of things bubbling away on the stove, all steamy and warm, is super appealing.   

But when it's a billion degrees outside, well need I say more?  For our little post Father's day gathering I grilled up some Bratwurst (which takes about 10 minutes on the grill, a real no brainer) and these two easy salads.  The best part?  I put them together early in the morning when it was only a million degrees outside.  By dinner, they had time to sit in the 'fridge for hours, meaning they were even tastier.

German Potato Salad:
This can be served warm as well, but it's equally good cold.

- 2 lbs. waxy potatoes - halved or quartered, depending on the size.

- 3-4 stalks of celery - diced

- 1 yellow onion - diced

- 1/2 bunch fresh dill - fronds removed from the stems and chopped

- 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley - chopped

- 2 tablespoons course ground mustard (the kind with the seeds)

- canola oil

- apple cider vinegar

- salt and pepper
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Wash the potatoes, cut them, and place them in a large pot of salted, boiling water.
Cook them until they are fork tender, drain and rinse.
While the potatoes are still warm toss them with all the remaining ingredients.  Use enough oil and vinegar to coat the potatoes, keeping in mind that they will soak up much of the moisture and you don't want them to dry out.
You can serve it immediately or cover and let it chill for several hours.

The Finished Product:

Simple Cole Slaw:

- 1 head cabbage - finely chopped

- 1 red onion - diced

- 2 carrots - shredded.  (I actually bought the pre-shredded kind in a baggie, a bit more expensive, but worth my sanity.)

- canola or vegetable oil

- white wine vinegar

- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard

- pinch sugar

- 2 teaspoons celery seed

- salt and pepper

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Simply combine all the ingredients (using the oil and vinegar to your liking, depending on how wet or dry you like your slaw.)  Adjust the seasonings according to your taste.  I like alot of celery seed, I think it adds a great flavor, so I actually put in a bit more that the recipe calls for. 

The End Result:

Plantains, Simple Goodness

I was at the market the other day and walked by this gigantic pile of "Macho Bananas."  So pretty, I thought, and so fun to say!
Macho Bananas are another name for plantains or plantanos.

I love plantains yet have never made them.  So I grabbed one, took it home and decided to see what I could come up with.   Writing this blog has made me much more eager to cook different things and to branch out beyond my daily norms, it's such great incentive.

Are there any dishes, or ingredients you've been meaning to try, but haven't done it yet?  I'd love to see what other chefs out there are itchin' to try.

Anyway, after a bit of preliminary research, I was on my merry way.

You've got to love it when a dish only has 4  ingredients:

- Plantains - don't buy them too yellow.  On these bananas, black spots are good.

- Butter and vegetable oil - enough to cook the plaintains in

- Salt & pepper
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First was peeling the plantain.
 

It's odd, but my reading led me to believe it would be difficult to peel.  It wasn't at all.  The skin came off quite easily.

Then came the cutting.  I was curious how the cut of the plantain would change how it cooked.

So I cut some thin slices... and some even thinner slices. 

The other half of the plantain I cut into bite size chunks.

From there, I heated up butter and vegetable oil in a good, heavy bottomed skillet.

I made sure to let it get nice and hot.

I then slid the slices into the pan and salted them generously. 

They cooked quickly and sort of wobbled in the pan which was cool. I wanted to make sure they got toasty, golden brown so that they'd have that lovely caramelized coating that makes plantains so damn good.

Flipping them was not so easy and after trying two kinds of spatulas, I eventually found that tongs worked best.

I put the slices out to drain on paper towels and gave them another shake of salt.

I cooked the chunks the same way.

These turned out better than I thought they would, I was giddy at how yummy they were.  They were a perfect combo of sweet and salty. 

I ate half of them as is, and then mixed up a bowl of black beans, rice, some spicy red salsa and tossed the rest of the plantains in with that.  Oh!  It was so flavorful. 

I am pretty sure plantains are going to make it into that repertoire of things I now cook on a regular basis.

As you can see, this is the simplest of recipes, a good thing in my book.  Does anyone have something wonderful they do with plantains?  I'd love to hear about it if you do!

Salud!

Basil, Sun Dried Tomato & Hazelnut Pesto

One of my favorite things in the world, the food world that is, is basil.  It's so versatile.  It's easy to grow in the garden and it lends itself to savory and sweet dishes.  For these reasons and more, it's pretty much on of my top five favorite herbs list.

As a newbie food blogger, I've been trying to get involved, and one of the ways to do that, is to participate in "food events"  a la  Tuesdays with Dorie or Martha Mondays from Mimi on the Move.

There is a lot of baking in those two food events, and while I'm working my way up to baking on a regular basis, when I stumbled upon a pesto contest, I was immediately much more in my comfort zone.    This contest  is being put together by Tony Tahhan at Olive Juice.

I scoured my cookbook collection and the internet looking for inspiration and some basic pesto guidelines.  What I discovered is, that basically, the sky is the limit.  Ingredients, measurements, and techniques all varied from recipe to recipe.  Very loosey goosey, I might say.   Just another example of why cooking is fun and baking is haaaard.

Of course, as I've said before, I'm determined to become a better baker, hopefully in the near future my posts will begin to reflect that. 

In the mean time, I created a Basil, Sun-dried tomato and Hazelnut Pesto, that I then used 3 ways.
First....

The Ingredients:

- 1 cup basil

- 1 cup spinach

- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes. I used the kind you reconstitute with hot water, but you could also use the ones packed in olive oil.

- 1/4 cup roasted hazelnuts.

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1/3 cup good quality Parmesan cheese

- juice of 1/2 a lemon

- salt and pepper

- olive oil - enough to blend your ingredients together

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The only real preparation for this recipe is toasting the hazelnuts.  I did this in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. 
I also had to rinse and dry the spinach and basil.
After that, simply pop all the ingredients, except for the olive oil, into the food processor and roughly chop them up.  Then, while blending, drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto is the consistency you like.

The Results:
Any recipe, whether you get it from a fellow blogger, online or your favorite cookbook, can almost always be tweaked to your personal taste.  If you change this in any way - let me know!  I enjoy seeing peoples take on things. 
For me, I loved the earthy color and the rich flavor the sun-dried tomatoes and spinach brought to the pesto.  I don't like things overly oily, so for some the final consistency may be too "spread-like" but was perfect for me.  I will definitely make it again especially because once the pesto is done it is easy to use in many different ways.

Here are three different ways I used it:

Fusilli Lunghi Bucati Con Pesto:
I simply cooked up the pasta, reserved some of the cooking water, then tossed the pasta, the water, and some pesto together.  I put it on a bed of spinach, sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on and called it a day. 

Grilled Chicken Marinated with Pesto:
I coated boneless, skinless chicken breasts with the pesto and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour.  I then cooked them on a gas grill.  The pesto added a gorgeous color to the chicken.  It turned out tender, juicy, and incredibly flavorful.

Pesto Crostini:
This one is pretty self explanatory, no?

Enjoy one, enjoy them all!!!
And thanks to Tony Tahhan for the fun contest, I had a really great time putting this recipe together.

Chicken with Artichokes and Tomatoes

Originally I was going to make a scallopine recipe, but due to my own forgetfulness, I forgot the chicken breasts.  I was cooking dinner for me, my girl Vanessa and the kids.  Luckily, she had chicken tenders in the freezer so we just went with that.   Yeah Vanessa!  And since scallopine truly means thin cuts of meat, I decided to be more vague, if you will.  So, after all was said and done I went ahead and made this recipe the way I originally intended, before the chicken fiasco, and in the end it was a success with Moms and kids alike. 

We served it with pasta, but it would be equally good over rice, or if you are watching your carbs, by it's little ol' self. 

In all honesty, I made this dish so I could use artichoke hearts which I had been craving for days.
I'm a big sucker for these babies, so I'll definitely be making this one again. 

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. chicken cutlets (or chicken tenders)

1 can artichokes hearts - packed in water, not oil, drained and quartered

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 white onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup white wine

1/3 cup fresh sage - chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

juice from 1/2 a lemon

salt and pepper

flour - enough to dredge the chicken.
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Pour about a cup of flour onto a plate or shallow dish and season it generously with salt and pepper.  After cleaning and drying your chicken pieces, dredge them in the flour, shake off the excess and set aside.

Put the butter and olive oil into heavy bottomed skillet then brown the chicken tenders.  Once browned remove them from the pan and set them aside.  Put the onion and garlic into the same pan and cook until the onions are soft, add a bit more butter or olive oil if you need to.

Next, add the wine and deglaze the pan.  Let the wine cook down for about 5 minutes.  Then add the tomatoes, artichokes and sage to the pan.   

Put the chicken back in the pan, cover and let cook for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.  In the last 2-3 minutes of cooking add the lemon juice

Serve over pasta  of your choice.

Spanikopita

Ah, Spanikopita.  There are no words to describe how much I love this dish.  It's sister recipe, Tyropita, (or just plain "pita" as we call it in my family) is definitely our holiday indulgence.  It's basically nothing but butter and cheese wrapped up in phyllo dough and baked to a delicious goodness. Ain't nothin' wrong with that people, ain't nothin' wrong with that!

We often get together, sometime in early November, and form a big assembly line.  Grandmas, moms, cousins and nieces, all lined up folding lovely little triangles of cheesy goodness.  I promise you, I'll share that recipe with you sometime near the holidays.

In the meantime, Spanikopita, is the healthier version of the two.  Whip of a batch, serve it with a salad and you will feel like you had a decadent dish without all the guilt.  Don't get me wrong, it's got cheese and butter in it too!   But it's also got lots of spinach, so c'mon, it's good for you!   Right? Say it with me now...riiiggghhht! 

There are as many versions of Spanikopita recipes on the web as there are Greek cooks.  This recipe was given to me by my Nana (through my Mom and Grandma) and I have tweaked it a bit.  But I promise you, although it has a few more ingredients then some of the recipes you may have seen, it is worth it.   I hope you like it.  I know I did and Little Chef  (my daughter) did too.

Ingredients:

2 - 16 oz. bags of chopped spinach.  Put the spinach in a colander and let it thaw completely, allow at least 2 hours for this.

1 large brown onion - diced

2 cloves of garlic - minced

1/3 cup fresh mint -  chopped

1/3 cup fresh dill - chopped

 
16 oz. feta cheese.  Please don't buy the pre-crumbled kind, it's too dried out. Buy the kind that comes packaged in brine so it's  nice and creamy.

2 eggs

1 teaspoon each of allspice and nutmeg

salt and pepper

1 package of phyllo dough.  Let it thaw out in the refrigerator overnight.    Trust me, it's super delicate and if you just leave it out on the counter to thaw, it's going to make you pull your hair out later.

1 stick of butter - melted
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1.  After your spinach is thawed, squeeze as much excess water out of it as you can.   I have found the easiest way to do this is to get a bunch of paper towels, scoop up the spinach and squeeze it out over the sink.  It's a bit gross, but it works.  Don't over think it, just get as much moisture out as you can.  Then set the spinach in a large mixing bowl.

2.  Saute your onions and garlic until they are soft, about 7 minutes.  Once they have cooled add them to the spinach mixture along with the mint and the dill.


3.  In a separate bowl, combine the feta, egg and seasonings.   Mix well.

4. Then add the feta mixture to the spinach mixture and fold together.   Set aside.

5.  Prepare your phyllo dough.  Begin by taking 4 paper towels, wetting them, and then squeezing as much water out of them as possible.  You want them to be moist, but not dripping.  Lay your phyllo dough,  in the large stack, onto a cutting board and cover it gently with the damp paper towels. 

6.  Carefully take one sheet of phyllo and lay it on a separate cutting board.  Brush the surface lightly (don't saturate the dough) with butter.  Lay another sheet of phyllo on top of the first and brush that one with butter as well.

7.  Cut the dough - width wise - into 6 strips.  Then place a spoonful of the spinach mixture onto the bottom of each one.  Roll the strips into triangles.

8.  compete this process until you have used all the dough and all the spinach mixture.

Note:  This gets easier with each roll.  Little Chef and I had some really bad ones - here's an example of good and not so good: 


If you want to cook the triangles immediately, heat the oven to 350, place them on a foil lined baking sheet, and bake until golden brown - 20 - 25 minutes.  Otherwise, place the triangles in a single layers, divided by wax paper, into a container. You can freeze them for months.  When you are ready to use them, simply take the desired amount out, and cook them the same as the others.

Spaghetti Bolognese - My way...

Whether you have kids, or are still one at heart, there is always that one dish that hits home, makes you feel good, that you just love, hands down.

For my daughter, that food has been, since I can remember, pasta.  The noodles don't matter, but the sauce does.  It has to be tomato based and it has to be rich.  Meatballs?  Maybe, but they better be just right, meaning, not too big, not too fatty, not too spicy, well, the list goes on.

I'm sure you can identify with me, when I say that it can get pretty boring cooking up the same old pasta sauce month, after month, after month.  Last night though, I got to feeling guilty because I haven't cooked up any sauce for her in weeks, bad mom.   With that, I whipped up a batch of Bolognese sauce, or my version of it, using ground turkey.  It's right up her alley, and just different enough to keep me interested. 

My pasta sauce connoisseur gave it a huge thumbs up.  With kudos like that I felt I must share it with you.

Ingredients:

-  1 - 2 thick slice pancetta, ground up in the food processor (there are 2 here, but I actually only used 1 and saved the other for another dish.)

- 1 carrot - finely diced

-  1 celery stalk - finely diced

-  1 large yellow onion- diced

- 2 cloves garlic - minced

- 1 lb. ground turkey

- 1 1/2 cups white wine

- 1 cup milk

-  2 cans whole or diced tomatoes pureed in blender/food processor

- salt and pepper

- 2 teaspoons allspice

- splash of white wine vinegar

- Pasta of your choice

-  cheese of your choice - Pecorino, Parm, or even a little Feta is nice.
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In a heavy bottomed pot, cook pancetta over medium heat until it is not quite crispy.  Remove pancetta from the pan and set aside.  Lower the heat and in the rendered fat, saute the carrot, celery, onion and garlic until they begin to soften. 
Add the ground turkey to the pan, breaking it up and letting it cook until all the pink is gone from the meat.
Put the wine into the pan and let it cook down for about 5 minutes or so.  Then add the milk and let that cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Next, add the tomatoes and seasonings and bring the mixture back up to a good simmer.  Put the pancetta back in the pan and let the sauce simmer uncovered for about 1 hour.
Before serving - add the splash of vinegar and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Check your seasonings at this point as well and adjust as necessary.

Cook pasta according to directions and serve sauce over the pasta with your choice of cheese ( I used Feta, not traditional, but it's what I had on hand and it was very compatible with the sauce).

MANGIA, MANGIA!   

Southwestern Chicken Salad with Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

The weather in Los Angeles has been absolutely craaaazy lately.  Earlier this week, we tipped the scales at close to 100 degrees, flip flops and tank tops were the order of the day.  Then, a few days later?  Cloudy with random rain and thunderstorms.  What's up with that?

I don't know about you, but much of my inspiration for what I'll cook up on any given day, is weather related.  Cool and overcast?  I'm thinking comfort food, a nice stew bubbling on the stove or a big batch of lasagna.  If it's warm, then I'm definitely in the mood to grill, have a salad, go for something light. 

But when the weather is pulling a Jekyll and Hyde, Sybyl, split personality thing on me, it just gets my knickers all in a knot!

I shopped earlier in the week (um, when it was seriously like mid summer) and bought all the fixins for a grilled chicken salad.  I had visions, of me, manning the grill, glass of Sauvignon Blanc in hand,  q-ing up some chicken, corn, onions, and these gorgeous tomatillos I picked up.  Then throwing them all together in a salad.  Girls night rolls around (and my girls do enjoy keeping it light with a salad) and it's anything but balmy.  I'm not going outside, dammit, and risk getting pummeled by a freak hail storm.

So, instead of manning the grill, I roasted everything in the oven.  It wasn't quite my mid-summer's night dream fantasy, but, well, in the end, the damn salad tasted good.  And the creamy tomatillo dressing?  Ooooh!  I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but BEEP! BEEP! 

Alright, enough of the chit, chat....on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

4-6 tomatillos (depending on size) husks removed.   (Aren't these stunning????  I'm so in love with how pretty they are.)

1 large yellow onion, cut into wedges

2 chicken breasts (see recipe for marinade below)

2-3 ears of corn -silks removed, husks left on  (let them soak in water for at least 30 minutes)

1/4 stick of butter, melted.

1 large tomato - diced

1 can of black beans - rinsed

1 cup Cotiija Anejade  - crumbled and divided. ( This is a Mexican Cheese - if you can't find it, Feta is a decent substitute)

Greens of your choice.  I used Romain but any dark green leafy lettuce will do.

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing (see recipe below)
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Marinade:
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
1/3 cup diced red onion
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 Tablespoon cumin
salt and pepper

Rinse Chicken, pat it dry and place in a roasting pan.  Mix all the marinade ingredients together, pour over chicken, and rub the mixture into the chicken thoroughly.   Cover, and chill for at least an hour, and up to  4.

Meanwhile,  preheat the oven to 425  degrees.
 
Place your onion wedges and tomatillos on a cookie sheet that's lined with parchment paper (this is optional, but it makes clean up so much easier.) 

Take the corn, gently pull back the husks, and baste the ears with the melted butter.  Also give them a good seasoning of salt and pepper.  Place the ears on a separate cookie sheet.

Place both cookie sheets in the oven. 

The tomatillos and onions will be done in about 30 minutes.  Remove those, but let the corn cook for about another 1/2 hour.

Once you've removed the onions and tomatillos, place the chicken in the oven.  Let it cook, along with the corn at 425 degrees for that remaining 30 minutes.  Then, remove the corn, set it aside to cool, and lower the oven temp to 350.  Let your chicken cook for an additional 30 minutes (or a bit longer if you have very large pieces.)

While the chicken cooks, you can now make the dressing....

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing:

Roasted Tomatillos
Roasted Onions
1/3 cup cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
2 table spoons red wine or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup of water
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic
pinch of cumin
1/4 cup of the crumbled cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream

Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. 
Side note:  I made this recipe up as I went along, measurements are not exact.  So have some fun, and do a little experimenting with this dressing. I'd love to hear if anyone does a variation of this!

Let the dressing sit for a bit and then give it a taste and adjust your seasonings accordingly.
 
Once the chicken is done, remove it from the oven, let it cool, and then shred it or dice it, whatever you like best.  I'm a dicer, Todd's a shredder.  Hey, we can't see eye to eye on everything! 

Now is also a good time to cut the corn, from the stalks, and put it in a bowl. 

Whew!  Now it's time to put it all together!

Putting the salad all together.

You can do one big, family style salad, or individual servings.  I change my mind from day to day on which I like best, and that's my womanly prerogative, right?  The one thing I never do is pre-toss my salad with the dressing. 
Remember "When Harry Met Sally"?  She liked everything "on the side?"  Well, I'm down with that.

So, place your greens, tomatoes, chicken, beans, corn, in a bowl and dressing with the creamy tomatillo dressing.  Sprinkle a little cheese on top and you are good to go. 
To accompany our salad, we had corn chips and Vanessa's tasty guacamole.  (I'll have to get the recipe from her and share it with you guys!)

Enjoy.  It sounds like a lot of work for a salad, but really, it was more work writing it all down then it was making it!

Oh, and next time, I'm going to roast another onion, and put the second one in the salad, I think it would have been a great addition, don't  you?   

Peach and Tomato Bruschetta

I love Spring!  It's a toss up between Spring and Fall, but right now, today, Spring wins.
It's like winning the lottery when walking through the produce section, or the Farmers Market - all that fabulous fruit, all those amazing veggies, it makes me giddy like a little school girl.

So yesterday, it was peaches that called my name.   

Pretty, fuzzy, sweet little peaches.   Oh yeah, peaches and the baguettes they were piling in a basket, fresh out of the oven.  I'm sorry, if you can pass up the smell of fresh baked bread, let me know how you do it...  Bread-aholics anonymous perhaps?

Anyhoo...with peaches and bread in hand I then set to thinking.  I've really been craving  bruschetta.  So, I thought to myself, why not mix some of those fabulous little peaches into it?  I did it, and I share it now with you.  The mixture turned out quite nice and my daughter and I had a lovely dinner outside eating our peach and tomato bruschetta.  Mmm, mmm, MMMM!

Ingredients:

4-5 tomatoes (depending on size) diced

3 peaches - Peeled and diced (see my tips for peeling peaches below)

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1 clove garlic - minced

salt and pepper

pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil
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To peel your peaches...

create a small X on the bottom of each peach, then carefully place them in a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute. 

Using a slotted spoon, lift the peaches out of the boiling water and place them in a bowl full of ice water.  Let them sit for about a minute. 
Remove them from the water and the skins should pull off, easy as pie! (aren't those pretty??)

Mix all of your ingredients in a large bowl, adjust your seasonings accordingly and place the mixture in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

  In the mean time, cut a baguette into 1 inch slices, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush them lightly with olive oil.  Put them under the broiler, until they begin to brown, then flip them over and brown the other side.  Keep a close eye on them, they toast up quickly.

Add your tomato and peach mixture, to the toasted bread and enjoy!
   

Smashed Grape Tomato, Cilantro & Orange Coulis

This is another of those "necessity is the mother of invention" recipes.  And it turned out quite tasty. Although a "coulis" is, strictly speaking, a thick puree or sauce,  I let the ingredients cook way down and I did smash the tomatoes, somewhat pureeing them by hand.  But, I may be stretching it a bit by calling this a coulis, considering I did not, in fact, put it anywhere near a blender.  But hey, breaking the rules is half the fun!

My kid, who is beautiful, fickle, amazing and quite the connoisseur, was craving a little Mexican food.  I didn't quite find the time to make it to the store (you know how that goes) so I turned to the refrigerator to see what mamacita (we're feeling Mexican, can  you handle it?) could whip up.

To start I thought I'd make a little something to go along with a simple quessadilla. Tomatoes?  Check.  Cilantro?  Check.  Lime?  Dammit.  No lime, but some gorgeous oranges, that'll do. Let's see what happens when we pop those in a pan and turn up the heat.   Here's the results...

Ingredients:

2 cups grape tomatoes

1/2 red onion - diced

1 jalapeno - seeds removed and finely diced.  (optional, I left it out since it was for my kid-lette)

1 clove garlic - minced (or put through a garlic press, we're easy here folks.)

1/2 cup cilantro

Juice of 1 orange

1/2 cup (or so) of chicken broth

Pinch (or two) of each:  oregano and cumin depending on your particular taste buds

Salt and pepper to taste
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Spray a pan with some non-stick cooking spray (or olive oil either will do fine)
Add the tomatoes (leave them whole) the onion, garlic, jalapeno if you are using it, and juice from 1/2 the orange. 
Cook over medium until the tomatoes begin to burst.
Add the rest of the orange, the chicken broth and seasonings.
Cook until all the tomatoes have burst and are quite soft and broken down (while they cook, I continue to mash them down with the back of a wooden spoon).
Check your seasonings and adjust accordingly.

I served the coulis with a simple cheese quessadilla and some beans that I doctored up with red onions, cumin, garlic, a little chicken broth, orange juice and s &  p.
If the clean plate my daughter left behind is any indication - it went over quite well.