Tag Archives: summer

Farmer’s Market Farro Salad

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There is something magical about shopping for farm-fresh produce, cheeses, baked goods, and flowers from your local farmer’s market, and now is truly the best time of year to explore these markets and road-side stands because there is such an enormous bounty of produce in season. I love a no-lettuce salad, and this simple Farmer’s Market Farro Salad combines the flavors of warm grilled vegetables, salty olives, fresh sweet peaches, and tangy citrus dressing. Farro is my favorite quick-cook grain as it’s high in fiber, protein, and nutrients and has a delightfully chewy and nutty flavor that makes it ideal for warm or cold recipes. This dish is highly adaptable depending on whatever ingredients you pick up at the market, so don’t be afraid to experiment with produce and herbs and throw in what you have! 

SALAD INGREDIENTS

  • 1 pound of Farro, cook al dente according to package in a medium pot or rice cooker (typically 10-15 minutes)
  • 1 can chickpeas, drained
  • 3 cups mixed grilled vegetables (this week I used eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, asparagus)
  • 1 cup mixed pitted kalamata and green olives
  • 1 cup fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 TB fresh parsley, diced
  • 2 peaches, chopped
  • 1 TB extra virgin olive oil

DRESSING

  • 2 large lemons, juiced
  • 2 TB extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 TB Dijon mustard 
  • ½ tsp maple syrup
  • ¼ tsp salt

Cook Farro according to package and then let cool to room temperature. Chop vegetables into 1” cubes and toss to coat with olive oil, then grill on a sheet pan in oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or grill over BBQ in large slices then chop smaller once fully cooked. Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Add warm vegetables, fresh peaches, chickpeas, and parsley to a large bowl with Farro, drizzle with dressing then toss well with to coat. Serve immediately, and salt to taste.

We celebrated our 13th anniversary last month with a museum visit to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit, vegan and fish sushi, cocktails, cupcakes and a hike!

Father’s Day with a back yard knight’s templar scavengar hunt and escape room activity! More fun for dad than kids methinks, but still a fun find on Etsy. Managed to find some to relax and in the heat.

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Roasted Corn and Snap Pea Salad

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These last few weeks have brought a lot of emotional milestones to our lives. Last day of school. First time eating at a restaurant. Good-byes to friends who are moving, but also hellos to family we haven’t seen in 15 months. And also… summer weather!

I would like to introduce you to my new favorite summer recipe that has been buzzing around the internet lately – the Roasted Corn and Snap Pea Salad. This addictive and versatile dish can be whipped up in less than 10 minutes for a quick and easy standalone meal or served as the perfect side dish to your summer BBQ. Warm sweet roasted corn, cool and crunchy snap peas, and salty feta are all combined with a lush orange citrus vinaigrette that demands you sit outside and bask in that summer garden sun! This easy recipe is full of unexpected flavors and will quickly become your new go to shareable summer salad.

Salad Ingredients 

  • 2 ears of corn
  • 1 bag of sugar snap peas, sliced
  • ½ cup crumbled feta
  • 1 TB olive oil

Vinaigrette

  • Juice of 1 naval orange OR 2 mandarin oranges
  • 1/8 cup champagne vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 TB olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Slice snap peas taken fresh from refrigerator and place in a salad bowl. Using a knife, remove kernels from the fresh corn cob and sauté in pan on medium heat with olive oil, turning constantly until slightly caramelized. Alternatively, you can grill the corn, carefully turning until fully toasted and then slice off cooked kernels. Add warm corn kernels to the snap peas and top with the crumbled feta. In a small bowl, whisk together the champagne vinegar, orange juice, olive oil, and garlic, then toss salad to coat with the vinaigrette. Top with a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper and serve fresh.

  • Chef Everett makes rice and tofu (with sous chef Dad) for family dinner night.
  • Illustrated menu included.

Golden Tomato Pasta

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Heirloom tomatoes come in an array of colors and flavor profiles, and while they are often typecast as a summer cold salad ingredient, they also cook down into a wonderful homemade marinara that bursts with rich juicy flavors. The pale yellow and striped bright orange heirlooms in particular have a low-acid, mildly sweet flavor with a soft meaty texture and when pureed with tiny sweet orange cherry tomatoes along with the humble sweet onion you get this golden rich and creamy tomato sauce that is totally addictive. If you are growing your own heirloom tomato garden in the summer this is a perfect recipe to show off your beautiful bounty. Fortunately even here in the Midwest you can get your hands on a multitude of tomato varieties even in the winter. Interlace your gold tomato sauce with spicy red pepper flakes and fresh cherry tomatoes and basil leaves for an elegant yet simple pasta dish.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lb golden heirloom tomatoes, diced into large wedges
  • 1 pint orange cherry tomatoes, whole
  • 1 pint red cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 sweet yellow onion, slivered
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 pinch chili flakes
  • 2 fresh basil leaves
  • 3/4 lb spaghetti
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a large sauce pan over medium heat and sauté the onion with olive oil until translucent. Add the minced garlic then mix in your heirloom tomato variety and your orange cherry tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover with a lid for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not be tempted to add liquid as these tomatoes will collapse and release sweet concentrated tomato juice for an incredible sauce. Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to directions. When tomatoes are cooked down, use a hand blender to puree into a hot soup or ladle into a blender to process. Toss your pasts to coat with sauce then garnish with your fresh basil, red pepper flakes and cherry tomatoes.

Vegetable Spanish Rice, But Not Paella

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The New York Times featured an article recently titled “7 Ways the Pandemic Has Changed How We Shop for Food”. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Americans are spending more money at the supermarket today than at restaurants where other people prepare their food. Amidst this rise in home cooking, people are also moving to more complex ways of cooking, which includes a variety of grains, a staggering 600% increase in sales of yeast, and an uptick in demand for dried beans which has remained through the summer even after the initial “stock the pantry” craze of the spring. I admit, I purchased a 10 lb bag of rice that I’m stilling working on.

There is no downside to having a 10 lb bag of rice in the pantry. We love experimenting with deconstructed and mixed rice and grain bowls in our house. And my favorite kitchen gadget HANDS DOWN is my Instant Zest Rice and Grain Cooker. This little love has multiple settings that adjust timings for the types of rice or grain you are cooking. I literally switch it on to help the kids with remote learning or finish up a work Zoom or lock myself alone in the bathroom and cry and it makes perfectly hot, fluffy rice every time.

This week I thought I’d try a short-cut version of a paella swapping out the meat for a variety of Mediterranean vegetables. Traditional paella requires cooking the rice directly in a cast iron skillet and simmering it for a long period of time without turning it creating a thick, crunchy rice crust. This quick version infuses the rice with smoky and salty flavors directly in the rice cooker, and highlights all the complex flavors of smoky Spanish saffron, briny olives, sweet fennel, roasted peppers and hearty artichokes but with much less effort. So while this Vegetable Spanish Rice is not a traditional paella, I wasn’t at all disappointed with the results.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 cups brown rice
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 3 cups jarred or whole artichokes packed in water, quartered, rinsed and patted dry
  • 1 yellow and 1 red pepper, seeded and sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 fennel bulb, stalks removed and cut into thin slivers
  • 1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
  • 4 TB olive oil
  • 2 TB lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
  • Salt and pepper

In the rice cooker add rice, vegetable broth, tomatoes, paprika, and saffron. Stir to combine then close lid and turn on cooker. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss artichokes, peppers and olives with 2 TB olive oil on a sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast about 20 -25 minutes, or until vegetables are browned around the edges. In a large skillet or dutch oven (I used my Staub), add 2 TB olive oil and minced garlic with fennel and onion and cook until softened, about 8 to 10 minutes. Turn off heat, add the roasted vegetables and peas to that same dutch oven and combine. Stir in the hot cooked rice and top with fresh squeezed lemon juice. Serve hot.

My son and I both recently celebrated our birthdays and enjoyed the tail end of summer with beautiful views, great food, and home cooked meals.

Summer Rustic Herb Linguini

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It’s August, and that means the long hot days of humidity smelling like wet grass are followed by roaring thunderstorms and heavy rains all through the night. And if you garden, this is most certainly your garden’s favorite time of year! For me, this means harvesting the beautiful bounty of fresh herbs that have been growing wild and with abundance in my planters.

Many summer pasta recipes depend on sweet aromatic basil, but this Summer Rustic Herb Linguini is a simple dish that features an surprising twist by combining bright mint, woody thyme and bitter parsley all tangled with linguini and tossed in a briny sauce of capers, olives, freshly squeezed lemon juice and a fresh pop of garlic. It is a rich and flavorful bite that requires minimal effort, and best of all complements any seasonal vegetables and grilled proteins to help honor these summer months.

The key to using fresh herbs in a recipe is in how you harvest and store the plants. Fresh herbs are best harvested in the early morning before the heat of the day. They will stay fresh wrapped in a damp paper towel in the refrigerator for the day until ready to prepare and serve.

If you do not grow your own herbs, there are plenty of proven tips on keeping herbs fresher for longer from the grocery store. First, trim the stems and place the herbs in a glass of cold water, but be careful not to immerse the leaves. Basil is an herb that thrives uncovered at room temperature sitting on a sunny windowsill in a cup of water. All other tender leafy herbs like parsley, cilantro, dill, and tarragon should then be covered loosely with a plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator. For heartier leafy herbs like rosemary, mint, thyme, sage and chives, you can store these in the refrigerator in a cup of water and then cover loosely with a plastic bag, but the leaves may actually stay fresher if immersed in water. I recently stored fresh mint completely submerged in a covered Tupperware container of chilled water for two weeks and it stayed bright, fresh and crisp. Just make sure to change the water on herbs every few days, like you would for fresh flowers.

pasta close-up

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3/4 lb linguini
  • 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
  • ½ cup finely chopped fresh mint
  • ½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 Tablespoons drained nonpareil capers
  • ½ freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Fine sea salt and pepper

Prepare the herb mixture by placing the olives, capers, diced herbs, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, while pasta cooks. Drain pasta then stir all together in large serving bowl to ensure flavors come together. Salt to taste, and enjoy!

glencoe beach

Summer Herb Garden Ratatouille

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It’s almost the end of July, and that means the long hot days of humidity smelling like wet grass are followed by roaring thunderstorms and heavy rains all through the night. And if you garden, this is most certainly your garden’s favorite time of year!

This summer I set up two planters on our back patio and pretty much threw in whatever plants and seeds I could fit. Along with some festive patio lighting, a clean-up of our table and chairs, and a shrub trimming, the space is finally livable again. It also smells wonderful with a fresh lavender plant, a bountiful herb garden and two very healthy and fast-growing cherry tomato plants beside a lettuce bed and assortment of vegetables that are currently fighting for nutrients and light!

If, like me, your herb garden and zucchini plants are ready to burst forth, this herb garden ratatouille is the perfect summer dish to showcase your summer harvest. I’ve made a few variations of this sliced vegetable ratatouille over the years, but this version from Tasty has a rich sweet tomato sauce base to help soften the vegetable slices as they bake, and is topped with an incredibly robust herb sauce that really celebrated my home-grown herbs. It’s also a beautiful display and can easily be shared for a potluck. My adaptation from the original recipe was to remove the eggplant (not my husband’s favorite vegetable), double up on zucchini and add one sliced potato, but you can easily eliminate that for a simple low-carb summer dish.

Ratatouille Ingredients:

  • 3 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
  • 2 large yellow squash, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
  • 1 Idaho potato, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
  • 6 roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow pepper, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 TB olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, finely diced

Herb Sauce:

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely diced
  • 2 TB olive oil
  • 8-10 fresh basil leaves, diced
  • 2 TB fresh parsley, diced
  • 2 tb fresh thyme, diced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large pan, add olive oil, garlic, onions and peppers and cook on medium heat until onions are soft and translucent, then stir in crushed tomatoes. Transfer this sauce base to bottom of a large casserole dish. Arrange sliced vegetables in alternating patterns on top, however you like! I prefer rows in a rectangular dish, but you can also arrange in a circular pattern in a round baking dish. Mix herb sauce and add to top of ratatouille. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes, then uncover and for additional 20 minutes. Serve while hot, but also tastes great cold the next day!

Final version bubbling up right out of the oven…

Not Yet Summer Cobb Salad

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Well it’s spring here in Chicago which means either it’s the 97th day of January OR the sun busts out after a long, dormant winter and vibrant baby green blooms burst forth! The last few days have been rather fickle, but thinking of summer gardens and long walks on the beach got me in the mood for a nice salad so today I opted for a vegetarian Cobb salad which I especially love because it can be adapted with so many ingredients if you feel adventurous. I used a spinach base topped with freshly boiled red and white baby potatoes tossed in a balsamic vinegar and freshly squeezed lemon dressing. But the biggest surprise here was the salty blue cheese, creamy egg and tart green apple combo which I will definitely be making again!!

Not Yet Summer Cobb Salad

  • Spinach salad base, chopped roughly
  • 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
  • 1/3 cup canned chickpeas
  • 1/2 Granny Smith apple, largely diced
  • 1/4 avocado, diced
  • 1 TB blue cheese crumbles
  • 1 cup boiled red and white potatoes, cut into quarters

Three Bean Squash Chili

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I’ve been making winter bean chili for years with the same tired ingredients. It was SO refreshing to enjoy a summer chili with white beans and butternut squash! The cornmeal added some mild thickness and texture to the broth. Surprisingly this was not a sweet dish,  and it paired perfectly with some white wine while sitting on the porch. Bam! Summer. 


Ingredients 

  • 2 red bell peppers, cut into chunks
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash
  • 1 (28-ounce) can no-salt-added tomatoes, undrained and chopped
  • 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

Add oil to pan and swirl to coat, with pan on medium heat. Add garlic and onion, cook 5 minutes. Stir in dry spices and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring frequently. Add bell peppers, broth, squash, and tomatoes; bring to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cornmeal and beans; simmer 25 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with green onions.

Cold Peanut Noodle Salad

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With Labor Day just around the corner, it seemed appropriate to prepare one final cold pasta salad before bidding farewell to summer. This fresh Asian salad uses good old spaghetti, roughly chopped cool Napa cabbage, crunchy shredded carrots and whole edamame for a family-friendly feast. It’s tossed in a velvety smooth salty peanut butter dressing and is dreamy for a picnic or in the fridge as leftovers. It’s also easily adaptable if you want to throw in fresh peanuts, diced apples, cucumber, peppers or other favorite ingredients. The secret is the amazing peanut sauce, which you could also use as a nice tofu marinade. I like to have some spicy garlic chili sauce on hand to throw on top. So simple!
COLD PEANUT NOODLE SALAD
1 lb spaghetti, cooked and drained
1/2 head Napa cabbage, roughly chopped
1 cup shredded carrots 
1 cucumber, peeled and julienned
1 red pepper, seeded and julienned
1/2 cup cilantro, diced 

PEANUT DRESSING
1 cup creamy peanut butter 
1/2 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup warm water
3 Tbs ginger, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 Tbs toasted sesame oil
1 Tbs honey
3 Tbs rice wine vinegar 

In a small mixing bowl combine all ingredients for peanut sauce and briskly whisk with fork for 2-3 minutes until it is a smooth, consistent texture. In large serving bowl combine cooked spaghetti with fresh salad ingredients, then toss in peanut sauce and thoroughly combine using tongs. Serve fresh!
  

Brussell Sprouts, White Beans and Italian “Sausage”

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brussell sprouts Trader Joe’s has the most amazing selection of vegetarian “meat” products. Their meatless beef crumbles are a steal at $2.99, the Soyrizo is heavenly, and I also favor their Italian Vegetarian Sausages over any other brand. This week I was craving some sweet and salty roasted brussel sprouts and have heard of a meat-lovers Italian dish with which I decided to make vegetarian. It LITERALLY couldn’t have been easier. This was a big hit as a summer lunch that cost around $10 to make, but I will definitely be making it as a Thanksgiving side dish this year too!

BRUSSEL SPROUTS, WHITE BEANS AND SAUSAGE
2 lbs brussel sprouts
1 can cannellini beans
1 package of Trader Joe’s vegetarian Italian Sausage (4 large links)
Freshly shaved Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut each sprout cut in half and toss on ungreased baking pan. Cut Italian sausages on an angle into 1/4” slices and add to the baking pan. Pour olives oil over the mixture then toss with your hands. Season with some salt and pepper, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Drain can of cannellini beans and add to the brussel sprout mixture in a large bowl. Add some freshly shaved Parmesan before serving.