Bacon Caprese or Make Cheese While the Sun Shines

While food trends wax and wane (Remember cupcakes?), I never-ha!-fall into the kitschy traps other foodies do.  I did make gingerbread cupcakes for Super Bowl a couple of years ago, but I would have done that anyway.  And you aren't reading about pork belly here, though I've nothing against it.  But I fall off the wagon a bit about bacon.  While I am definitely NOT a bacon fanatic (and it's on menus in quite odd places), my husband definitely IS.  But he has been a bacon fanatic since Eisenhower was president.
His favorite movie moment is in "Grumpier Old Men,"

Grandpa: What the... what the hell is this?
John: That's lite beer.
Grandpa: Gee, I weigh ninety goddamn pounds, and you bring me this sloppin' foam?
John: Ariel's got me on a diet because the doc said my cholesterol's a little too high.
Grandpa: Well let me tell you something now, Johnny. Last Thursday, I turned 95 years old. And I never exercised a day in my life. Every morning, I wake up, and I smoke a cigarette. And then I eat five strips of bacon. And for lunch, I eat a bacon sandwich. And for a midday snack?
John: Bacon.
Grandpa: Bacon! A whole damn plate! And I usually drink my dinner. Now according to all of them flat-belly experts, I should've took a dirt nap like thirty years ago. But each year comes and goes, and I'm still here. Ha! And they keep dyin'. You know? Sometimes I wonder if God forgot about me. Just goes to show you, huh?
John: What?
Grandpa: Huh?
John: Goes to show you what?
Grandpa: Well it just goes... what the hell are you talkin' about?
John: Well you said you drink beer, you eat bacon and you smoke cigarettes, and you outlive most of the experts.
Grandpa: Yeah?
John: I thought maybe there was a moral.
Grandpa: No, there ain't no moral. I just like that story. That's all. Like that story.

 So last week when I shelled out the big bucks for a pound of Nueske's bacon at the butcher counter at Widmer's for the summer BLTs, I didn't blink.  In fact, I kept cooking that bacon daily to make sure it was all used before any stray pieces went bad.  You know how good your house smells when you cook bacon (Try it when you have a for sale sign out front..)?  Well, my house still smells like that.  The scent is fixed in the rugs and on the dogs, who can't stop walking around with their noses up in the air.  Dave acts the same way.  And if there's a fine layer of fat sprayed all over my stove, he doesn't wipe it up.  "A little bacon grease never hurt anything."

In the middle of that bacon for breakfast, bacon for lunch spree came a trip to the Saturday Farmer's Market in downtown St. Paul.  For all of you who've never been, this is the most beautiful market in the United States.  The food that you can't buy there doesn't need to be bought.

Spring market bounty

Perhaps I exaggerate.  But not by much.  At the market, I gently loved a few more Minnesota tomatoes enough to coax them out of their owner's hands and came home to make cheese for caprese.

(See how on my Dinner Place blog.)  But that bacon called.  And before I knew it, I'd fried up the last of it to tuck in between the caprese layers.  Not only that, I threw the haricots verts in a pot of boiling water for two minutes, drained them and topped them with a dop of herb butter.  (Here's how Ina does this. Why should I reinvent the recipe?)  I couldn't resist making a beautiful salad of the entire thing with the beans in the middle.

I don't see a reason for putting up a recipe for the caprese either; here's one from epicurious.com. Just add the bacon!   I will say this about my caprese:  I place the salad on a bed of spinach and I squeeze lemon over all and dust the whole thing liberally with ground sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper.  I then drizzle not too much of my balsamic vinaigrette over everything but the green beans, which are already well-seasoned with the herb butter.  Lemon on the beans--yes.  One of my favorites.

 

Love summer, my friends.


Two-Dog Kitchen and Around the 'Hood

The end of August isn't the end of summer, but there are signs.  The flowers look too tired to continue blooming, despite fertilizing and watering.  The road crews appear in a big hurry to get it all done.  There are Christmas decorations out in a few stores.  I'm looking for a guy to plow my driveway.  Acorns are dropping and the squirrels are very squirrely. The big tubs of mums are for sale at Ace.  Our floor refinishing (and installation in the kitchen) is scheduled so that we can do it while windows can remain open.  And, of course, in Minnesota, it's State Fair Week!  (Half a million sticks for food used so far.  And if you don't know what that is, it's anything edible that will stay on a stick.  See what you dream up.)

Neighbor's Victory Garden (from my driveway)

I close today with lovely news!  I am now newly employed as a choir director at Prospect Park United Methodist Church, which is a church just across the line in Minneapolis.  I'm thrilled, excited, and don't have words (right) for how light my heart is.  Watch this space for news of their fine singers and what fun stuff we're up to.   Thanks be to God.  And:  thanks to all who supported me and prayed for my employment.  Cyberhugs as you
Sing a new song,
Alyce

Pesto, Pistou -- Presto!

Whirr, whirr, done.  Talk about no cook.  It's done PRESTO!

If it's mid - late summer, I'm gunning for basil.  (If it's earlier, I'm planting it and watering it.)  I've got pots full myself, but I also have to hit the farmer's market for more.  At a buck for a big bunch, I get arm fulls.

My piano teacher and I hit the farmer's market.

Here it is taking a bath in my kitchen sink with the Japanese eggplant and yellow zucchini I'm cleaning for the ratatouille I blogged on the  Dinner Place blog (The Solo Cook.)  They really like to get in the tub together.  I loved looking at this gorgeous mix of veg.  Could the colors get any better?

What is pesto?  Lots of you DO know.  But!  If you don't:
Take the basil, whirr it in the food processor (traditionally mortar and pestle) with lots of garlic, pine nuts and/or walnuts, olive oil, Parmesan, and you have saucy green love.  In Italy, it's pesto.  In France, pistou.  And it's Presto! (Very quick, indeed, in the language of music) wherever you make it.

When I decided to blog pesto, I almost didn't.  Pesto isn't something new.  It may be four hundred years old in Europe and it's certainly no culinary upstart in the United States.

The first time I ran across pesto was in the late '70s in THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK (by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin.  Workman, 1979; 362p).  This was a life-changing cookbook not only for me, but for women everywhere who cooked.  If you want to know why, check out the cookbooks that were written and printed before this one.  It's so important in my life that I have nearly worn out my paperback copy and, while I still use it, bought a hardback copy for a back-up and for my kids later on.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided to just go ahead and put pesto on my roster of blog posts.  How could something I love so much not be here?

I still basically make pesto from that recipe, though I use others, too--the one from THE GOURMET COOKBOOK (edited by Ruth Reichl and published in 2004 by Houghlin Mifflin) comes to mind.  By this time, I've adjusted any and all of them to my own tastes (as should you) and am purely and simply summer-happy whenever it's time to use all that basil. 

Pasta with Pesto....the most popular use, I'll guess:

Here with 365 (Whole Foods brand) whole wheat pasta

  Other ways to use pesto:

•  on/in an omelet
• as a veggie dip
• on grilled chops
• as a sauce for fish or chicken
• on pizza
• with crackers
• on grilled vegetables
• topping lamb chops
• gracing grilled baguette
• dribbled on sliced tomatoes or sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzerella in place of basil leaves.

 Or...  well, you go next.  How about in a spoon in your mouth-- or mine?

Fried Cheese-Snake Squash Salad or I'm Sure This Has a Better Name

 Last Friday night was a use-what's-on-hand night:

• The first of the Minnesota corn (very tiny kernels, but yummy)
• One of the pork tenderloins I'd gotten on sale at Kowalski's (froze 4 of them in April)
• Salad makings that wouldn't be good the next day. I sautéed the greens with garlic and lots of fresh herbs:

My own garden herbs:  marjoram, sage, chives, tarragon, basil, and thyme.

I added raisins and chopped cashews to the sautéed greens.

The first of our tomatoes went in at the end.

 Despite heat and humidity that all Minnesota is ready to get rid of, we ate outdoors under our big maple tree that reaches toward the house and garage, creating a canopy to cover the patio.  That soft, shady spot is often the coolest place anywhere and you can bet I've looked.  Along with everyone else on Wheeler Street.

Next night, a quick look-see in the frig assured me I had enough to throw together some sort of salad as I had a snake squash (can't find right name) from my victory garden neighbor:

Tastes like a cross between a mild zucchini and yellow (summer) squash.

Some asparagus (now out of season, but still my favorite) was sagging in there and a little bit of the pork tenderloin called me.  What really appealed was the rest of my fresh cheese (blogged at Dinner Place), which I knew would fry.   Could there be anything bad about fried cheese?
 

Alyce's 2-1 cheese

 What about a salad of greens, sautéed squash and asparagus, with avocado, blueberries, and thinly sliced pork tenderloin topped with fried cheese?  With a perky, ramped up orange vinaigrette?  I was sold.  Moral of story:  make up your salad as you go along.

I cooked the squash and asparagus in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, and set that aside.

Sliced up my avocado.  Creamy and fatty, it would be a good foil for my spicy greens.

Blueberries for color, texture, contrast of taste, and sweetness.

About 3-4 oz cooked pork tenderloin--or how much of whatever meat you have.

My homemade cheese fried in olive oil and black pepper.  Dave was so excited.

Et voila--

 Fried Cheese Snake Squash Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

MAKE YOUR VINAIGRETTE FIRST:

Place the following ingredients in a small jam jar, close tightly with lid, and shake well until emulsified. I like to do this to "America" from West Side Story:  Shake to this rhythm..123,123, 1--2--3--. (Thanks, Leonard Bernstein.) Set aside while you make the salad.

• 1T fresh orange juice
• 1/4t kosher salt
• 1/8 t freshly ground pepper
• pinch crushed red pepper
• 1/2 t honey
• 1/2-1 t minced shallot (or garlic)
• 2T extra virgin olive oil.

MAKE THE SALAD:

•  2 T olive oil, divided
• 1 cup each:  sliced zucchini (or snake or summer squash) and  chopped asparagus (or green beans)
• Kernels from 1 ear of fresh cooked corn (you can cook it in unshucked in the microwave.)
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
• 6-8 cups baby greens, your choice
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs of your choice, optional
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts chopped
• 2-4 ounces sliced, cooked pork tenderloin, steak or chicken
• 2T fresh lemon juice
• Kosher salt and Freshly ground pepper
• 6-8 small pieces fresh cheese
• Orange vinaigrette (above)

1. In a large skillet, sauté squash and asparagus in oil over medium heat for five minutes.  Dust with salt and pepper.
2. Remove veggies from pan and place in a large bowl.  (Keep pan out; you'll use it for the cheese)
3. To the squash and asparagus, add the corn, chopped avocado, blueberries, walnuts and pork, keeping the ingredients at the center of the bowl.
4. Around the pile of veggies and meat, place the salad greens and fresh herbs.
5. Set aside or in refrigerator.
6. In the skillet, pour another tablespoon of olive oil and heat over medium heat once more. Grind some black pepper into the oil as the pan heats.  Place the cheese slices in the pan and cook a few minutes or until nicely browned.  Turn carefully with a spatula and let the other side brown.
7. Take the salad and drizzle with the lemon juice.  Dust the whole thing with some salt and pepper.  
8. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and top with the browned cheese. 
9. Eat immediately.  Won't keep.
10. Take downstairs and watch movies.   

Wine:  The Wine Thief  (2 doors west of me on St. Clair)  has a lovely, palepalepale rosé called "Whispering Angel.  Drink it.

  

Two-Dog Kitchen and Around the 'Hood

Fern garden.

On the wall ladies' room in restaurant The Angry Trout

In our south garden

Heavy, heavy hydrangeas after rain-- next to drive

As my mom would say, "Morning, Glory."

This incredible flower showed up in my corner garden yesterday.
My pharmacist's assistant tells me this is a perennial hibiscus.

I've been making blueberry jam, actually blueberry-orange conserve.

Miss Gab

Tucky-Bucky

Hot and muggy.  Lots of storms and rain.  Tomatoes are coming. The first ones weren't so good.  Wonder if it's like pancakes--throw out the first ones?

Sing a new song; enjoy August,
Alyce

Peaches and Cream (and Cake) Two Ways or Have Your Cake and Eat it Two

 I don't want to live in a world without peaches.  Really.  And I only like canned peaches pureed into Bellini Soup (is there such a thing?) or on top of cottage cheese for lunch in the winter if I'm just desperate and out of time and am feeling tres fat.  And while, "Sorry don't get it done, Dude," is one of the more famous John Wayne quotes, I often remember him in front of a campfire, "Open me up a can of those peaches."  Poor cowboys.  They didn't have fresh peaches.  Just cooked, peeled, old canned things.

In St. Paul, we've had peaches from several places for a few weeks.  And some of them have been glorious.  We're still waiting for Colorado western-slope, but that's as it should be.  Having lived in Colorado for years, I'm not addicted to those peaches.  In fact, I like peaches from other states better.  (These are fighting words, I know.  Sorry, Colorado.)  There's just not enough rain in Colorado for fruit trees.  Around Penrose,  (south of Colorado Springs) there are some apple orchards that nearly bite the dust every few years despite large-scale irrigation.

Here are some of my favorite ways with peaches:

Unadorned and sweetly loved

Into a salsa for fish or pork or chicken or as a salad all alone with avocado

.

 Here's the link for the salsa recipe here at More Time at the Table.

Grilled with a little fresh cheese, thyme and a squiggle of honey

Here's the salsa served with a grilled pork chop and my mustard tarragon green bean salad.

 This year, I've been baking in the wee, small hours of the morning. (Don't you love that song?)  It's the only way to get something in and out of the oven without adding to the heat index.  I tried Peaches, Cream, and Cake in two varieties, taking each to friends' houses for dinner.  I can always be counted on to bring dessert.  Besides, it transports easily.

First off was Peach Shortcake and I recommend it highly if only because the shortcakes bake quickly and you could even do them in a counter top oven should you be blessed enough to have one.  I am not.  Second was Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake with Peaches and (homemade) Ginger Ice Cream.  For some reason (not wanting to appear the forever blogger at dinner)--I only have a pic of the cake.  But you'll get the idea.

Golden Beet Ricotta Salad with Fresh Cherries and Carmelized Shallots or What's in a Name?

Could this have a better name?  How about "Delicious?"

 

I know.  This sounds like something off a froofroo menu, right?  I couldn't think of another name for it that said what it was. When you're naming a recipe, it must

• catch the ear
• catch the eye
• represent the dish accurately in a thrice (or right away, you might say)
• not be too long (ha)
• end up in the right place in the index (or..today on google)

Of those things, the most important one for me is that you know what you're making just by the name. There's no sense being halfway through making something and saying, "Geez, this is full of walnuts!" with your jaw dropped.  On the other hand, I'm sometimes taken in by coy, cute, or gimmicky recipe titles like

• Funny Bones
• Babysitter's Spaghetti Casserole (You can google either of the first two; they're real.)
• Chocolate Nut Heavens  (This one being my own; I held a contest for the name on fb.)

I mean, think of it.  Sally Lunn Cake.  Anadama Bread.  Brunswick Chicken.  Pagliacci's Cheesecake. And I make those.  How about Anzac Biscuits?  Slippery Soup?

To say nothing of Pasta Puttanesca, Grandma Clark's Soda Bread, Sabayon, Pavlova, Mother's Pie, Ruffled Ham, Oysters Ernie, Rose D's Mushroom Monterey, Hot Toddy, Chatham Artillery Punch, and so on.

Compare those to:

• Chicken and Potatoes
• Fried Clams with Tomato Sauce
• Scallop and Artichoke Soup
• Cheese Omelet

If you see "Chicken and Potatoes," you know what you're getting.  If you see "Mystery Soup," in the index, it' a mystery.  (Heat, mixing well, 2 cans beef broth and 1 8 oz package cream cheese.  --That's the entire recipe from THE EASTERN JUNIOR LEAGUE COOKBOOK.)

To some of us (who grew up in the mid west, for example)  Quahog Chowder sounds like something out of Star Trek.  We didn't know from clams. We probably weren't picking that name out of the index.

Two friends  this week kindly invited us to a  potluck for a group that typically meets once a month to try a new restaurant.  Somehow, backyards, mosquitoes, and vegetable gardens beckoned an outdoor summer gathering and a homemade potluck was the July event.  Because summer fruit is coming on and I love a reason to fix a big dessert, I brought (more than a) pound cake with sliced fresh peaches and homemade ginger ice cream.  (Ok, come over; I'll make it for you, too.)  The cake, I kid you not, was called "Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake."  Would you have jumped to the conclusion that this was a regular old, if delish and huge, pound cake?

Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake

The recipe's on epicurious.com, and probably in other places as well.  And if your berries are in, get up early and make this baby.  Invite the neighbors; it'll serve 12-14.

Eat and Run

Guess where?!

 
Want to follow wonderful cooks around on their summer adventures?


Check this out:   Foodily has a great list for you to click and armchair eat and travel today.  Enjoy.


Sing a new song,
Alyce

Pagliacci's New York Cheesecake

Pagliacci's New York Cheesecake--Made and photographed this year in St. Paul

I don't double blog.  Or if I do, I do it rarely.

This cake, however, belongs on both blogs.  I've made it for Dave's birthday since l984 and for lots of other occasions since.  In different reincarnations.  Chocolate, pumpkin, toffee, cranberry compote.  You get the idea.

For some reason, the recipe ended up on the Dinner Place blog.  Forgive me.  So if you need the recipe, go here:

More later as you sing a new song,
Alyce