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ElainaA

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Posts posted by ElainaA

  1. My brother and his wife are here for several days so it was dinner for 4 rather than the usual 2. (Actually 5 rather than 3 - I always think of my husband's lunch as another serving.)

    A tomato, onion and cheese (fontina, mozzarella and parm) pie from a recipe by Emeril. The crust included a spice/herb blend he refers to as "Essence" - paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, thyme, cayenne, salt. The amount of crust seemed not enough for a 10" pie plate - I was correct - it was so thin it crumbled, as you can see. The pie tasted good but was very wet - it needed something to absorb the moisture or bind it together, I think.

    Also chicken spiedies and a (slightly out of focus) salad of red and golden beets, apples, celery and pecans. The salad was served over endive and chicory with a lemon vinaigrette.

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    • Like 15
  2. This is fun Shelby! Thanks for doing this. :)

     

    7 hours ago, sartoric said:

     

    My Italian MIL coated eggplant slices in seasoned flour, then beaten egg, then shallow fried. 

    Melanzane en carrozza, very easy and yummy.

     

     

     My Italian husband does the same. He cuts the eggplant quite thin. Sometimes he adds bread crumbs after the egg. I love it.

    • Like 2
  3. 16 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

    I wasn't able to find it with a quick search.   I do recommend the bookir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=030759948, if you happen to see it.  

    Here's the basics of the plum liqueur recipe:

    1 lb small dark plums (I used Dapple Dandy pluots, also marketed as Dinosaur Eggs)

    1 bottle Chilean Sauvignon Blanc ( I used an inexpensive dry Chilean rosé)

    3/4 cup sugar (I used ~ 1/2 cup because those pluots are so sweet)

    1/4 teaspoon allspice berries, crushed

    a few black peppercorns, crushed

    2 cups gin (for the pluots I used, I was very tempted to use tequila and substitute a de arbol chile for the allspice and peppercorns, but I stuck with the gin and it worked very well)

    Optional:  the cracked plum pits or 20 blanched apricot kernels.  (I set the plum pits aside, got lazy and threw them away)

     

    The recipe calls for halving the plums (I cut them up a bit more, as you can see in the photo) and simmering them in the wine for 5 min, along with the sugar, allspice and peppercorns.  

    Add the gin (and cracked pits, if using), cover and set aside for a week.

    Double strain (the recipe says to use a colander and fine mesh sieve, I used a colander and nut-milk bag) and bottle.

    The recipe says the liqueur will throw sediment so I just put it in larger bottles for now and will strain it again before bottling up small gift bottles.

    There's a note that suggests replacing the gin with Irish whiskey and the white wine with something like Cabernet Franc.  I plan to check out today's farmers market to see if there are any late-season plums left or maybe just try the black plums from the grocery store.

    Thank you. I'm heading to the farmer's market tomorrow - then a stop at the liquor store for gin. (Maybe I better get some tonic too, just in case of leftovers. :P)

     

    Concerning the question of yellow tomatoes in chutney - I almost always use a mix of red and yellow tomatoes for my chutney - and it always ends up dark red. I once made a batch using almost entirely yellow tomatoes - and it still came out red. My yellow tomatoes are actually a deep gold (BHN 871) so maybe that is significant. I've always found it rather mysterious. I don't think green tomatoes would work unless you use a recipe designed especially for them. There are multiple recipes on the internet. The Ball Blue Book also has recipes for green tomato relish and green tomato mincemeat. I haven't made any of these but they sound interesting. 

    • Like 2
  4. Several meals:

    Grilled chicken breast with tomato chutney, grilled veggies (zucchini, tomato, onion, red bell pepper) and white/wild rice pilaf with leeks, topped with fried leeks.

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    Grill smoked steel head trout with golden beet/horseradish relish, potatoes and salad.

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    Grilled pork chop with creamed leeks, apples sautéed in butter and finished with brandy and garlic mashed potatoes. Not the best plating. It isn't something I usually think about.

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    • Like 18
  5. 1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

     And at a Lebanese restaurant in the tiny burg of Cortland, NY (are you listening, @ElainaA?) I had a really nice lentil soup that warmed me up nicely before we headed into a very cold rink to watch a hockey game. 

    Pita Gourmet. I love it for lunch - we rarely go there for dinner. It was highly recommended to us many years ago by a good friend whose father, who was born and grew up in Lebanon, ate lunch there every day up to the day before he passed away at age 92. (He was always - up to that day-on his lunch break from work.)

     

    Like @Lisa Shock  I dislike beans with pasta - it tastes sort of redundant to me. 

     

    @Anna N  You have no more reason to feel bad about disliking beans than I do for my dislike of brussels sprouts and anchovies. And if you really think you need intervention consider the advice of my favorite  t-shirt " Gardening - it's cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes." And  you only grow things YOU like. 

    • Like 5
  6. I like cooked dried beans but for me they are an occasional food. Since I started (4 years ago) growing my own beans for drying I just can't eat super market beans. I have never had the fabled Rancho Gordo beans ( and, due to cost probably never will) so perhaps they would be acceptable.

    If the texture is a problem, try refried beans. Or hummus as @blue_dolphin suggested.

    Or, simply say -"I don't want to eat these" - That is the nice part of being an adult. You get to make your own choices.

    • Like 1
  7. I somehow forgot to take a picture but it would have looked like generic pasta with red sauce - which it certainly wasn't! The sauce was plum tomatoes (Plum Regal) , red sweet peppers, onions and garlic, all roasted at 300 degrees with a little olive oil for 6 hours, seasonings (salt, pepper, oregano, lots of fresh basil, red wine) added and pureed with an immersion blender. I made about 4 quarts of this - most going into the freezer. It should help us get through the winter. 

    Served with a salad. 

    (Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic. basil, salad ingredients: fennel, tomatoes, green pepper, bitter greens - all from the garden. I will so miss the garden soon.)

    • Like 10
  8. WOW. I look away for just a couple of days and I'm 4 pages behind! What amazing meals. Life has been very busy here but I do take pictures.

    On Satueday we spent the day at a (relatively - an hour drive. When you live out in the country that is "relatively near") art and music festival. (Colorscape , at Norwich, NY - if you live anywhere near I recommend it.) 

    After a sun soaked day I didn't want to cook so dinner was left overs and stuff hanging around.  Some left over steak, a few spears of left over asparagus, the usual tomatoes ( I have about a bushel on the kitchen counter) with some cucumbers and some potatoes that I boiled and tossed with a vinaigrette. Bitter greens (endive and chicory and some fennel) from the garden.

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     Monday: slow roasted cherry tomato sauce with penne. Probably the last of this year as the cherry tomatoes are almost done. i guess I could make this with purchased cherry tomatoes but I never have.

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    Tonight- Grilled lamb tossed with a dressing of pureed tomatoes, roasted mustard seeds, ginger, basil and a little vinegar (the vinegar was not in the recipe but I thought it was needed) over bitter greens, roasted potatoes and a tomato and cucumber salad.

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    If you notice that Sunday is missing - we went out for pizza. Our favorite local place where somehow everyone there (and the place was full) connected somehow to each other. That's Cortland.

    • Like 17
  9. 7 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

    Here are my shell beans before and after shelling.  They are beautiful.  Some of the smaller ones I will try planting next year.

    I cooked all three cups that I harvested and made a bean and tomato salad with basil infused oil.  They are really, really good.  Too bad they don't stay red when cooked.

     

    I always feel sad that the beans (fresh or dried) lose all their color when cooked. Black beans are the exception. But they all taste really good.

    • Like 1
  10. The only recipe I have done this with is for zucchini bread where, following a suggestion I found on line with the recipe (at GardenWeb's Harvest board) I replace half the oil with applesauce. In that case I think it improves the end result. But in brownies? No. I lived through the 70's in northern Vermont - it was the era of everything 'natural', 'back to the land' - and therefore 'healthy'. Some of the food was good but the baked goods were generally awful.

    • Like 3
  11. 1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

    Thank you for the great information.  I found my bill for the beans and I think they are the Anasazi.  The Appaloosa are more slender.  I don't think I have ever had fresh beans so I will cook them fresh and freeze some, but after I taste them fresh. Not sure how many I have.

    they probably take 20 minutes to 30 minutes to cook?  IP for 7 min?

     

    i just picked the ones in the picture.  I can leave them in the garden longer.

    I don't think you need to cook them anywhere near that long, Fresh shell beans cook quickly. My dried tongue of fire beans cooked in about 25 minutes after an hour's soak. Here's a post from David Liebovitz's blog:  (I love his blog.) He does say about 20 minutes - that surprises me. 

    http://www.davidlebovitz.com/fresh-shelling/

    • Like 1
  12. @Okanagancook I have no idea what variety they are but they look great! No, they don't have to be dried. You can harvest them fresh. The pods in the picture look very fresh - I tend to wait until the are shriveled and dry looking. Fresh shell beans are considered a delicacy in Italian cooking (and probably other ethnicities as well) but I never seem to get to harvest mine when there are enough still fresh. You can't really mix dried and fresh beans. I let mine dry because they are so much better than store bought beans ( and cheaper than expensive varieties - about $1.50  for seeds gives me about 4 cups of dried beans, which equals 4 meals.) I actually like the taste of beans that have been dried over those cooked fresh but that's just me. 9_9  If you can easily puncture the shell with your fingernail then they are 'fresh' - either cook them right away, freeze them or dry them. If the skin of the bean gives resistance then they are getting dry. Your dry beans look a lot like pictures I find of appaloosa beans. Whatever they are I bet they will be delicious - SO much better than store bought beans. 

    • Like 2
  13. Garden dinner: Tongue of Fire Beans cooked with tomatoes, garlic, onion, sage and parsley, a salad of bitter greens and lettuce (endive,chicory, romaine) and red onion, bruschetta with seasoned ricotta, oven roasted tomatoes, red onion and oregano and a salad of fennel and apples.  The beans,tomatoes, garlic, onions, endive, chicory, onion, fennel and sage all picked just before they were cooked.

     

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    • Like 17
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