The secret to good coleslaw

I recently watched an episode of Good Eats by Alton Brown and he talked about how to make good slaw. He claims that the secret is salting your cabbage and letting it sit for a few hours before making your slaw. This draws the moisture out and keeps your coleslaw dressing from getting watery and disgusting. Amazingly, the cabbage stays crunchy. It also allows the slaw to sit in the refrigerator for days and stay crunchy and delicious.

I decided to try it out. I adapted one of his recipes and came up with the following slaw that I really love. Using the whole head of napa cabbage gives a variety of colors, from the dark green of the outer leaves to a pale yellow in the center of the head. The carrot adds beautiful color as well.

Napa Cabbage Slaw

1 large head napa cabbage, thinly sliced

2 carrots, grated (or more if you like)

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

2 T. pickle juice (I used the juice from my zucchini relish)

2 t. dry mustard

2 T. chopped chives

• Generously salt the cabbage and put it in a colander to drain for at least 3 hours (or over night.) Rinse well with cold water.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, mayo, yogurt, pickle juice, dry mustard and chives.
• In a larger bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and half of the dressing. Taste to see if this is enough dressing. Keep adding dressing until you like it. Save the extra dressing for adding the next day. Over time, the salad soaks up some of the dressing, so it's nice to have more on hand to add as needed.

Zucchini Relish

I got this recipe from Cooks.com, but instead of canning it, I just made some as a refrigerator pickle, i.e., I cooked it, put it in a glass jar, and stuck it in the fridge. It is really delicious and we have been using it in place of sweet relish on hamburgers and hot dogs. It made one quart, which will probably last for quite a while.

I changed the recipe just a little. Instead of using green and red bell peppers, I used these very small sweet red peppers I've been getting from my CSA box. They have a little bit of a nutty flavor and they are just wonderful in everything.

If I make this again, I think I will try cooking it a little longer to see if the sauce will thicken more.

ZUCCHINI RELISH

2 cups chopped zucchini (about 3 medium) 1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium) 1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper (about 1 small) 1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper (about 1 small) 2 tablespoons salt 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 teaspoons celery seed 1 teaspoon mustard seed 1 cup cider vinegar Combine zucchini, onion, green and red peppers; sprinkle with salt; cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Add vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Makes about 4 half-pints.

A new cocktail - It needs a name

I've recently been making a new cocktail that my husband and I love. I need your help coming up with a name for it.

1 part creme de cassis (black current liqueur)

1 part St. Germain liqueur (elderflower liqueur)

2 parts gin

3-4 parts sparkling water

Serve over ice.

The sparkling water makes it light and refreshing, but the liqueurs make it sweet and floral. The juniper berry in the gin adds to the floral character.

I await your contributions to naming this concoction. If I choose your name for it, I'll make you one.

Zucchini Bread or How many things can you put zucchini in?

My garden keeps producing these giant zucchini that I just can't keep up with. I recently weighed one and it was 9 and a half pounds. I used the new grater attachment on my KitchenAid stand mixer and grated it into a little over 10 cups! There are 4 more like that waiting for me. Oh dear. And I only planted ONE zucchini plant.

So far I've made zucchini bread, zucchini relish, zucchini fritters, and I've snuck it into tomato sauce, soup, and stir fry. I bought canning jars and other canning supplies to try making zucchini pickles, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Here's my recipe for zucchini bread. It has gotten rave reviews. I tried to put some in the freezer for winter, but my husband found it and it is almost gone. I guess I need to make some more!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

• • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 1/4 cups white sugar
  • 1 T. vanilla extract
  • • 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 T. ground cinnamon
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, combine the eggs and oil. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until well combined. On low speed, add in the dry ingredients a little at a time. Stir in the zucchini, nuts, and chocolate chips by hand.

Pour the batter into 2 loaf pans that have been greased and floured. Bake at 325º for 45-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and remove from pan. Freezes well.

Does anyone out there have a recipe for zucchini bread that is lighter and more lemony? The cinnamon and chocolate all tastes like cold weather food. I'd love to make a more summery zucchini bread.

Garden Ragout for Midsummer with Marjoram Pesto

This yummy summer stew can be served hot, warm, or cold. It doesn't take long to make, aside from chopping the vegetables, and it is a great way to use some of summer's bounty. It only cooks for about 15 minutes, which leaves the vegetables still crunchy and fresh. The marjoram pesto is bright and flavorful and really makes this dish sing. One of the best things about it is that you can use a variety of summer produce - nearly whatever you have in your garden or can get at your local farm or farmer's market.

This recipe calls for white beans, which I had in my freezer, along with some broth I had made with leftover leeks a few weeks back. You can use canned beans, but be sure to rinse them first, and canned veggie or chicken stock (if you're not a vegetarian). If you cook your own white beans, save the bean broth to use in this recipe in place of the stock.

Here's how I did it:

Cut into small dice 1 new, fresh onion (rather than an old storage onion), 3 small zucchini or summer squash (I used the little yellow ones), 2 medium carrots, and 4 white mushrooms. Tip and tail a handful of green beans and cut them into 1-inch pieces. You can also add a couple small white turnips if you have them - which I didn't. Sliver 2 smallish garlic cloves.

While you're at it, cut up one large tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes. Have one marjoram sprig standing by.

Heat up 2 T. olive oil in a soup pot. Add the vegetables and the garlic and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, just to warm them up. Season with salt and pepper, and add 2 cups broth. Bring everything to a slow boil, pull the leaves off the marjoram sprig and add them in, and then lay a piece of parchment paper across the top to keep the veggies on top from drying out. The broth doesn't quite cover all the veggies.

Let that cook for about 10 minutes. While it's cooking, make the marjoram pesto. Deborah Madison recommends making this in a mortar and pestle. I started it that way, but then realized that my mortar was too small to make the whole thing, so I switched to a food processor. Either way, you just keep grinding stuff in.

Marjoram Pesto: Put one small slice country bread, crusts trimmed off, into a bowl and sprinkle 2 T. red wine vinegar over it. Leave it to soak. In your mortar or food processor, add 1 clove chopped garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 cup marjoram leaves. (I used all the leaves from the whole bunch I bought at the store.) Then add in 3 T. rinsed capers, 1/2 cup pine nuts, and 1 cup chopped parsley. Add the vinegar-soaked bread and 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil. Add a little pepper and taste for vinegar.

After the 10 minutes are up, stir in the white beans and a cup more broth. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are a pleasing consistency to you. Don't overcook them, though. Ladle the vegetables into soup or pasta plates and add a big spoonful of pesto to the top of each one.

We had this hot the first night, cold for lunch the next day, and room temperature a few days later. All three ways were terrific. We also had some leftover marjoram pesto which was wonderful on crackers.

We didn't bother making anything along with this, though Deborah recommends starting the meal with crostini, adding a salad, and a nice fruity white wine such as a Dolcetto from the Piedmont region of Italy, and having fruit for dessert.

I realized while I was eating that the whole dish is vegan, since there is no cheese in the pesto. While this isn't technically a soup, it is my current favorite non-creamy soup. The crunch of the vegetables and the zing of the pesto is just a fabulous combination.

Things I'd do differently next time:

I'd use the food processor to make the pesto. I might even make a double batch of it and put half in the freezer for later. It is REALLY good and I'd like to try it on pasta.

I might try making this with some other vegetables in the fall or winter.

Cost to prepare: (I'm really guessing here since most of this came from my CSA box, my garden, and my freezer)

1 new onion - $.25

3 small summer squash - $1.00

2 carrots - $.25

4 mushrooms - $.25

handful of green beans - $1.00

garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil - negligible

1 cup white beans - $.50

Broth or water - $.50

1 large tomato - $.35

TOTAL - $3.85

Marjoram pesto:

1 bunch marjoram - $1.85

a slice of bread and some vinegar - $.20

3 T. capers - $.30

1/2 c. pine nuts - $1.00

1 c. parsley - $.50

1/2 c. olive oil - $2.00

TOTAL - $5.85

GRAND TOTAL - $9.70 for 4 people or for several meals for 2 people

Tomato Sauce & the Olive Oil Hypothesis: A Short Story

When I was in Italy last year, I fell in love with the Italian people and their food. My two favorite things about Italy is that people sing anytime, anywhere, just for the joy of singing AND there's no such thing as too much olive oil.

The latter of these (the no-such-thing-as-too-much-olive-oil hypothesis) got put to the test by a mistake I made in my latest recipe. Since it is finally becoming tomato season, I decided to make a big batch of "Long Cooked Tomato Sauce," one of the recipes from the Basics section of Vegetarian Suppers. The recipe calls for 4-5 pounds fresh tomatoes. I had about 7 pounds from the CSA and from some heirlooms at my local market. This meant I needed to make a one and a half batch. The recipe starts by asking you to put the whole, unpeeled tomatoes in a large Dutch oven, pressing down on a few of them to get the juices flowing, and then covering them and cooking over medium heat for about 20 minutes until they are broken apart. Then you put them through a food mill to get rid of the skins and seeds. I did all this.

The recipe then says to rinse the pan, return it to the heat and add the olive oil. Somehow I thought I was supposed to put the tomatoes back in the pan and add the olive oil, so that's what I did. Had I read the next sentence (or actually read the recipe all the way through before beginning - which I highly recommend, by the way) I would have understood that the olive oil was for frying the onions and celery. Then you add the tomatoes back into the pot.

Now, here's where the olive oil hypothesis comes into play. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of olive oil, but since I was making a 1.5 batch, I dumped 3/4 cup of olive oil into my tomato puree. That's actually a lot of olive oil. I read the next sentence and realized that not only was I supposed to use the olive oil for sauteing the veggies, but the recipe actually said 1/4 cup of olive oil, not 1/2 cup. Now I have chopped onions and grated zucchini standing by that needs to be sauteed and I have just dumped 3 times as much olive oil into my tomatoes as the recipe actually called for. What should I do?

Well, I decided to see if my supposition about olive oil was correct. I got out another pan and put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in it over medium heat and sauteed the 3/4 c. onions and 3/4 c. zucchini. (I was supposed to be using celery, by the way, but it is zucchini season so zucchinis seem to be finding their way into everything I make.) I seasoned these with salt and added them in with the tomatoes, along with a couple small bay leaves, a big thyme sprig, and a big basil sprig.

I also learned from this recipe, that if you add a whole carrot to your tomato-based sauces, it does the same thing that adding a teaspoon of sugar does - it cuts the acid. The recipe called for 1 whole peeled carrot, so I used 2 small whole peeled carrots. At about 5 o'clock in the evening, I left the whole thing to cook over low heat, wondering if the sauce would be oily and disgusting.

I had people coming over for the evening and I always love to cook to make the house smell good before people come over. Another thing I learned in this whole process is that I really don't like the smell of cooking tomatoes, so I would advise doing this on a day when no one is home.

The recipe says to cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened as much as you wish. I had no idea how long this meant. A couple hours maybe? I wandered by every 20 minutes or so and gave it a stir. My guests arrived at 7:00 and we went out into the back yard. At around 10 p.m., I was chatting with a friend when I looked over at the stove and realized the sauce was still cooking, 5 hours after I had left it there. I leapt from my chair, with an exclamation, and rushed over to the stove. There in the pan was about half as much sauce as I had started with, and it was a deep, luscious red color. There wasn't any oil floating on top. I gave it a stir and stuck in my (clean) spoon for a taste. It was heavenly. Maybe the best tomato sauce I have every tasted.

So the olive oil hypothesis holds up. Yes!

Here is the original list of ingredients with the cost of each as close as I can guess. I will be using this sauce to make the Eggplant Gratin recipes (three variations) from the cookbook. I'm not a big eggplant fan, but I'll let you know how it turns out. You might try making it the way Deborah Madison suggests, though I dare you to try my new recipe!

Cost to Prepare:

4-5 pounds fresh tomatoes, rinsed - $10 ($2 per pound?)

1/4 cup olive oil - $1.00

1/2 c. diced onion - $.50

1/2 c. celery - $.25

1 whole peeled carrot - $.25

1 bay leaf, 1 thyme sprig, 1 basil sprig (these all grow in my garden, so I'm guessing) - $1.00

sea salt - negligible

TOTAL - $13 for a big batch of sauce

Things I'd do differently next time: Hmmmm.... Use celery?

Baked Kalamata Olives

I've been making these wonderful olives for years. This recipe comes from another of Deborah Madison's cookbooks, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone". I know it sounds odd to bake olives, but once they've simmered in the oven in the wine, olive oil, garlic and spices, they get plump and juicy, and the smells in your kitchen elicit sighs of happiness. I usually make these in the winter, but they're a wonderful accompaniment to any meal. I have put them in gift baskets at the holidays and served them at Thanksgiving. Every time my daughter's boyfriend comes to visit, this is what he wants me to make.

The recipe calls for Kalamata olives with the pits in. This is how I usually make them, but lately I've gotten lazy and used pitted olives. They are usually cheaper and they save you some time since you don't have to poke each one after they come out of the oven. If you're making them for the first time, I recommend that you use Kalamata's with the pits still in.

Here's what you do:

Rinse 2 cups kalamata olives and put them in a baking dish large enough for them to be in one layer. Add 1/2 cup dry red wine, 2 T. olive oil, 1 clove sliced garlic, and 1 bay leaf. Cover and bake at 375º for about 45 minutes.

While they're in the oven, chop 2 cloves of garlic and pound it in a mortar with 2 T. marjoram, 1 T. parsley, and a few grinds of pepper. When the olives come out of the oven, poke each one with the tip of a knife. Stir in the garlic-herb paste, 2 T. olive oil, and several pinches red pepper flakes.

Serve with crusty french bread. You can dip your bread in the extra juice from the olives.

Cost to prepare:

2 cups kalamata olives - $5.00

1/2 cup dry red wine - $1.00

4 T. olive oil - $1.00 (?)

3 garlic cloves - $.50

bay leaf, red pepper flakes, 2 T. marjoram, 1 T. parsley - $.75 (?)

Total - $8.25 and SO worth it

Cucumber Salad with Lemon and Dill

Since I have been getting cucumbers from both the farm and from my garden, I have been eating this salad all summer. It is simple to prepare and very addictive.

Peel as many cucumbers as you think you'll eat at one sitting. Discard the peels. Using your peeler, keep peeling long strips of cucumber into a bowl. Discard the seeds in the middle when you get to them. (Or just eat them.) Sprinkle the long strips with a little salt, squeeze a little lemon on top, and add some chopped dill. Fresh dill is best, but dried tastes great, too.

This is cheap, summery, and fresh.

Cost to prepare:

2 cucumbers - $1 (I'm guessing)

1 lemon - $.40

1 T. dill - $.20

Total $1.60

Golden Grilled or Sauteed Cheese

I had never even heard of Halloumi Cheese before, but this grilling cheese is SO delicious. It is quite expensive, though. I paid $8 for a 8 ounce package. This takes only a few minutes to make. You just slice the cheese lengthwise into pieces about 1/2 inch thick. Heat a skillet and brush with a little olive oil. Add the cheese and cook until golden. This goes well with a salad of cucumbers, lemon, and dill. It also pairs nicely with Romesco Sauce.

The recipe says you can use queso blanco, a Mexican cheese, instead of the Halloumi. I will try that sometime.

Cost to prepare - $8, serves 2

Julie-O Cocktail

This has become one of my favorite cocktails, and other people seem to love it, too. It is very floral and light, featuring lavender syrup, elderflower liqueur, and champagne. Serve it in a champagne glass with a sprig of fresh lavender.

You can make this cocktail for one by mixing the following proportions of chilled ingredients directly in a champagne glass.

1/2 oz. lavender simple syrup (recipe below)

1/2 oz. St. Germaine liqueur

1 oz. gin

3 oz. champagne

To make it for a crowd, mix the following in a pitcher and chill until ready to serve:

1 part lavender syrup

1 part St. Germaine liqueur

2 parts gin

Fill a champagne glass 1/3 full with the chilled mixture, and top up the glass with champagne.

To make the lavender syrup:

Mix 1 cup sugar, with 1 cup water and heat over medium flame until mixture is clear and sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in 1-2 teaspoons culinary lavender. (I use lavender harvested from my back yard.) Cover and let steep until mixture is completely cooled. Pour into jar with the lavender still in it and refrigerate for a day or two. Strain out lavender before using. Keeps for several weeks.

Mezze Plates for a Mid-Summer Birthday Party

When I decided to do a dinner party for my daughter's 25th birthday, I wanted to spend time with the guests rather than in the kitchen, so I decided to do a whole meal of appetizers. This is one of the meals from "Vegetarian Suppers" and I decided to do it up big. You can scale down and just select a few if you're trying to use up leftovers and leave the oven off during the summer time, or you can dress it up and make it elegant. For the party, I opted for a combination of elegant and playful - fancy cocktails, flowers, party hats, play dough, temporary tattoos, and bubbles.

Here's the spread I provided for my guests (10 people total). Click on hyperlinks to go to the blog post for that item:

From the Garden

Cherry Tomatoes

Sliced, salted radishes

Pickled carrots

Roasted red peppers

Cucumbers with salt, lemon, and dill

Fennel slices

Green beans with herb vinaigrette

From the Pantry and the Fridge

Tamari Almonds

Humboldt Fog Blue Cheese

Bread from the local bakery

Tiny dill pickles

Make Ahead Salads & Other Recipes

Cool Rice & Cucumber Salad

Baked Kalamata Olives

Cabbage Leek Gratin with Mustard Cream

Watermelon Mint Feta Salad

Fried Halloumi Cheese

Feta & Ricotta Skillet Pie

Romesco Sauce (Went great with the bread, the feta and ricotta skillet pie, and the fried cheese - maybe other things, too)

Beverages & Dessert

Julie-O cocktail

Wine & beer

Birthday cake from a local bakery

Smores around the campfire late in the evening.

And here's the happy birthday girl!

Curried Couscous Salad (Giada deLaurentis)

This salad sounded delicious, so I decided to give it a try. Turns out, it IS really delicious! I thought it needed more dressing. After we ate dinner, I made another batch of the dressing and added it to the salad and I like it much better. The only cashews I had in my freezer were the chili lime kind from Trader Joe's and they provided a nice kick. That's a great substitution! Also, I forgot to add the cucumber (drat, since I have about 6 cucumbers in my fridge right now). It didn't have enough time to get really cold, so we'll have some tomorrow and see how we like it after the flavors have blended more.

Warning: This recipe makes enough for about 10 people. This would be perfect to take to a potluck. Very colorful, tasty, and interesting. This would also make a great Thanksgiving dish.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/curried-couscous-salad-recipe/index.html

Zucchini Skillet Cakes

I made these when the first zucchini showed up in our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box. Now I have zucchini coming fast and furious from the garden, so I'm trying them again. There's zucchini bread in the oven right now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The first time I made these it was with cute little tiny zucchini, but this time I'm using one of the giant, monster zucchini from my garden. This worked really well and is a great way to use the big zucchini. The capers and pine nuts in these give them a nice tang, and the fresh herbs provide a clean, summery aroma. You can serve these with cherry tomatoes on top, or with ranch dressing. This time I used some of the mustard cream left from another recipe, and it was a perfect match. We ended up with 3 leftover cakes, so I'm going to try freezing some. I think they'll make excellent "veggie burgers". I'll let you know.

You start by grating 4 cups zucchini (about 2 pounds). Sprinkle it with 2 teaspoons salt and set it aside in a colander to drain while you get everything else ready.

Beat 2 eggs in a large bowl. Add in 3 T. snipped chives, 1 clove garlic (minced), 1/2 cup parsley, 3 T. chopped marjoram, and the grated zest of 1 lemon. Toast 1/2 cup pine nuts and set aside to cool. Rinse 1/4 cup capers and set aside to dry a little. Rinse the zucchini that you left draining in the colander, and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Toss the zucchini with the egg mixture. Stir in 1 cup dried bread crumbs, the pine nuts, and the capers. Season with salt and pepper.

Film 2 large skillets with olive oil. When hot, fry a little dab of the mixture to see if the seasonings are right. Scoop 1/2 cup of the batter into the hot pan and fry on both sides until golden.

A rice pilaf or a quinoa dish would go well with this. Tonight we had it with Curried Couscous Salad and it was terrific.

Catching up again

I haven't blogged in over 2 months! I have been cooking a little, but this summer has been both busy and difficult for me. I'm now ready to begin catching up on the dishes I have prepared this summer. I am more than half way through the cookbook "Vegetarian Suppers" and I have also made some things from other cookbooks. I thought in the next few posts I would include some cocktails we have been enjoying this summer.

I hope you enjoy getting back into the swing of things with me. Be sure to let me know that you're out there and cooking along with me.