kindred kind

Two weeks, two weeks! Can you believe that? We are already midway into July! I am enjoying my summer so much, I really don't want this season to go.

Friday I woke early, went to spin class, meandered around the farmers market (picking up spiced dill pickled carrots from hyhope, peaches, cherries, apricots and sugar plums), picked up our csa (romaine lettuce, raspberries, yellow and green beans, zucchini, broccoli, garlic, tomatoes and baby cucumber), came home made Gwenyth Paltrow’s peach bbq sauce (so good), went to a friends for lunch (more on this in a minute), went to the park with my niece, picked Ryan up at the train station, went out for sushi and to see Horrible Bosses – hilarious and lastly stopped to congratulate our friends Nicole and Owen on their engagement!

No work, no deadlines, no bells; just simple enjoyment of great friends, great family, amazing weather and delicious food.

I know this sounds like a busy day but the funny thing is, in there I had a 4 and ½ hour lunch. I met Nichole this year when I started teaching high school. She is one of those friends that you swear has known you your entire life simply because they “gets” the crazy that is in your head.

I had to drag myself away from her table but I could have easily sat there for another 4 and ½ hours and never run out of things to talk about…our last Starbucks visit lasted 6 hours. Friday we talked over tea, a summer salad and an amazing parmesan zucchini loaf with ricotta cheese. If you frequent this blog often you know I started a love affair with zuchinni last summer.

And, as I’ve posted before, if I leave a friend’s house with a recipe – I know they are a keeper! The picture above isn’t great quality; I took it on my iphone when I was at Nicole’s for lunch. But I think iphone pictures are real memories; no time to stop and find the perfect lighting or setting; they say this is so amazing I’ve just got to capture it!



This loaf is so good I had to make it yesterday with the zucchini from our csa so Ryan could try.
This is how mine turned out. I had to adjust the cooking time significantly – I added an extra ½ hour as the loaf was still very wet after 70min.

Martha Stewart’s Parmesan Zucchini Loaf

Ingredients

o 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
o 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
o 1/3 cup milk
o 2 large eggs
o 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 ounces)
o 2 teaspoons baking powder
o Coarse salt and ground pepper
o 1/2 pound (about 1 medium) zucchini, coarsely grated

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (6-cup capacity) with oil; dust with flour, and tap out excess.

2.In a small bowl, whisk oil, milk, and eggs. In a large bowl, whisk flour, Parmesan, baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; mix in zucchini, then egg mixture until just moistened (batter will be very thick, like biscuit dough).

3.Transfer batter to prepared pan; press in gently. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes (tent with foil if loaf starts to brown too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan; turn out loaf onto a rack to cool completely.

Pile it on

I found a new blog and I have been glued to it for days; Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks. The premise behind Heidi’s blog could not be better suited to me; a girl who has bought a ton of cookbooks and suddenly realizes it is time to stop buying and start cooking.

I love cook books. Taking a pile to the couch with a cup of tea and flipping for inspiration, in my opinion, is an ideal Saturday morning. Last week’s CSA included fresh zucchini. Last summer zucchini became one of my favourite things to cooks with. It is so versatile; sweet or savory, crispy or smooth, raw or cooked any way you slice it: simply delicious.

When I stumbled upon Heidi’s blog and found this recipe I hadn’t intended on writing a post but after I tried them, I just had to share.

I toasted an english muffin, spread some goat's cheese and topped with the zucchini pickles - so good!

Heidi Swanson’s Zucchini Pickles

3 medium zucchini (1 pound / 16 oz / 450 g), thinly sliced

1 medium white onion, thinly sliced

3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup (small handful) fresh dill sprigs
1 small fresh red chile pepper, very thinly sliced – I substituted some dried red chillie peppers
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
3/4 cup / 180 ml cider vinegar

3/4 cup / 180 ml white wine vinegar

1/3 cup / 1.75 oz / 50g natural cane sugar – I used double regular sugar


Toss the zucchini, onion, shallots, and salt together in a colander and place over a bowl to catch the liquids. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Toss once or twice along the way. You're aiming to get as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible.
When you're finished draining the zucchini, shake off any water. At this point you want the zucchini as dry as possible. Place in a 1 liter / 1quart jar along with the dill, chile pepper, and mustard seeds.
Combine the ciders and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and continue to boil for a few minutes. Pour the liquid over the zucchini and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate. The pickles are good for a week or so.

Instant Gratification

Sweet summer, oh how I love you!

CSA season is so full of delicious bounty it is almost impossible to not have something beautiful to eat at every meal. I love cooking fresh. I love eating fresh.

I. Love. Summer!

I’ve been thinking about making a lettuce pot for a while now. My friend Kate saw one on Breakfast Television and ever since I saw her picture I’ve wanted one. Yesterday, when I saw a pin on Pinterest for a DIY wine box herb garden I thought - perfect!

Today after school, I stopped by the liquor store, picked up some free vintage wine boxes, stopped by the nursery bought basil, parsley, mint, oregano, thyme, sage and chives. Then, I grabbed some red and green leaf lettuce, some arugula, endive and radicchio. Came home planted...and...viola!

Tonight we had simple salads with lettuce from our new lettuce box, tomato’s and parmesan slivers.

A few hours later a little snack was calling. Back to the bounty we went and quickly pulled together some zucchini chips with basil (also from our new herb box) mayonnaise.

Zucchini Chips

1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup milk
2 small zucchini cut in 1/4-inch-thick slices
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425° F. Grease a large oven-proof wire rack set on a baking sheet.

Whisk together bread crumbs, parmesan, salt, garlic salt, paprika and pepper in a medium bowl. Place milk in a separate shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk then in breadcrumb mixture patting the crumbs on. Place slices on wire rack.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Basil dipping sauce

fresh basil, chopped
paprika
lemon juice
mayonnaise
dijon mustard
salt and ground black pepper

What Summer Would Taste Like

As enthusiastic about this blog as you dear readers have been, no one has been more encouraging and at times patient than Ryan. When I’m trying out a new recipe my favourite time to cook is in the early morning or late at night, never ever around meal times.

The problem is I like to take photos of whatever I've made. When someone is waiting for their dinner, watching you walk around the house trying to find the best light for a picture isn’t exactly ideal. Unfortunately for Ryan this was the case tonight.

Iget so excited when summertime comes, the fruits and veggies at the market are bursting with colour and I tend to grossly over-buy; i just can’t resist. After picking up our csa today (zucchini, baby cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, tomatoes, raspberries, cauliflower, broccoli, green onions, and green & yellow beans) I just couldn’t help myself, I added fresh peas, basil and corn. I know I should write a post about one of the other tasty veggies but I don’t know if I have ever enjoyed zucchini season as much as I have these past few weeks. I have been scouring cookbooks high and low for zucchini recipes.

When I stumbled upon this one I had no choice I scrapped all ideas for dinner and ran with the zucchini!

The end result of trying a new recipe at dinner time can be dangerous but today, thankfully, Ryan was so infatuated with the falvours he forgot all about the wait.

You need to have a few things in the house to create this but as soon as it’s ready you have instant indulgence. It was almost impossible to keep Ryan at bay long enough for me to snap a few pictures to share with you.

I started with the recipe from Krisitin via the kitchen sink but found the quantities to be more of a guideline (i differed greatly in mine).

Zucchini-Corn Quesadilla with Goat Cheese and Basil

2 whole-wheat tortillas
1/4 cup shredded monterey jack cheese (i used more)
1 ounce goat cheese (i used more)
2 ears of grilled corn, kernels cut off the cob – see note below
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded (i used the grater insert in the food processor)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the grill on high. on one tortilla, spread half the monterey jack cheese. Layer the corn kernels, zucchini and basil, dotting the goat cheese on top of the basil. Spread the remaining monterey jack cheese on top, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and cover with the remaining tortilla, pressing slightly.
Carefully move the quesadilla to the grill. Grill for three minutes per side. For a criss-cross pattern, rotate the quesadilla halfway through each side’s grill time.

Note: to grill corn on the cob, remove husks, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sugar. grill for 7 minutes, rotating half way through.

Share the Love

Have you ever gone over to someone’s house for dinner and while sitting there enjoying every single bite ask politely, what did you put in this? I did this recently. I was in food heaven, loving the texture, the flavours, the colours and I just wanted to recreate this little serving of heaven some other time. The answer was: “oh some stuff”.

Some. Stuff. Seriously? I was no longer experiencing deliciousness. With each bite all I could taste was secrecy and contempt.

There should be no such thing as a secret recipe, the very idea of this boggles my mind. You work hard creating a fantastic dish and now you don’t want to be forever immortalized in recipe boxes around the neighbourhood as “name’s famous apple pie” or “name’s chocolate chip dream cookies”?

I’ve never been one to guard my passions. If I love something, you know about it. So in the spirit of sharing the love, here is something I tried out today.

Happy Friday!

zucchini pasta with walnut pesto (adapted from Emma Petrie at pro bono baker)

3 small - medium zucchini (I used yellow and green)

pesto

3 tbsp walnuts

2 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove finely grated

1 cup packed parsley leaves

1 tsp fresh lemon juice (and more at the end to taste)

salt and pepper

Lightly toast walnut pieces in a pan with some olive oil.

In a food processor, process the walnuts until they have the consistency of sand. add the olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and parsley leaves. Pulse until they come together in a green paste.

Using a vegetable peeler to shave off thin ribbons of zucchini. Add to salted boiling water for about 2 minutes. (just until zucchini is tender - be careful not to over cook). Strain zucchini and add 2 table spoons of the pesto, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 2-3 servings (you will have left over pesto). This would be great with a rotisserie chicken and some mini red potatoes.