Cooking suggestions

Not that you need me to tell you what to do but sometimes it's nice to have a links to a few tried and true recipes. Here are some winners that'll use up your bounty of late summer produce!

 

If you have a glut of:

CORN AND TOMATOES--make: Smitten Kitchen's Corn and Tomato Pie. Seriously, this is Mr. H and my new favorite recipe. Biscuit loves it too. (notes: I used sliced havarti cheese rather than shredded cheddar and it was just as good. The biscuit dough crust is a critical element. Don't worry about liquidy produce, just drain the pie after cutting a slice or two--sounds gross but it works)

GREEN BEANS--make: Emeril's Chinese Chicken and Green Beans. (notes: I always leave out the shrimp and it works fine. The Asian Spice Blend is a must but make it once and you'll have it on hand for ages)

ROMA TOMATOES AND ZUCCHINI--make: A recipe Jonniker tweeted. Yes, tweeted. Here it is in Jonniker's tweet words:

So quarter some roma or regular tomatoes, put in a glass baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar....dried basil and garlic (I am generous with all). If you want zucchini, you can roast, or you can sautee, like I do....Roast the tomatoes for 15 minutes at 400. Mix with thinly sliced, sauteed zucchini and drained cannellini beans....then toss with parmesan, salt and pepper. Die happy.

(notes: I roasted thin sliced zucchini in the oven with the (non Roma) tomatoes and some finely chopped onion and tossed in fresh basil at the end. Also used garbanzo beans rather than cannellini and served over pasta)

EGGPLANT- AND BELL PEPPERS-make: Ratatouille. And, I'm sorry, because I know eggplant is pretty gross but this will use it up and feel very virtuous to eat and will taste a lot better than you'd expect from eggplant. (notes: I served over polenta which Mr. H and Biscuit do not like but I do. I also approximated all the vegetable needs substituting liberally between Japanese eggplant, different pepper colors and zucchini vs. summer squash)

DESIRE FOR COOKIES YET NO CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND VERY LITTLE REGULAR SUGAR--make: Smitten Kitchen's Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (notes: This assumes you do have two 1.75 oz bars of Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate to chop up. That's something you should always have on hand so I'm assuming you do. It also assumes you keep coffee powder in your freezer for baking or have some Starbucks Via packets floating around)

A NEED FOR BREAKFAST BUT NO BREAKFAST FOODS--make: Smitten Kitchen's Perfect Blueberry Muffins. Yes, I'm kind of into Smitten Kitchen this week. (notes: substitute a scant cup of MIXED frozen berries from Trader Joe's removing the big ones, like strawberries. Way yummier than straight up blueberries)

 

Comments

[Mike]

Hard to miss with Smitten Kitchen! Here is one of our Summer favorites that is always a big hit wherever we take it:

Spring Salad with New Potatoes
http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/05/spring-salad-with-new-potatoes/

Not as involved as it looks at first; heck even I make it :-)

Mike

[Melissa Haworth]

Mike, thanks for the link--that salad looks great!
Melissa