Ratatouille with Quinoa

  Around our home anything that remotely resembles the recipe below is called Ratatouille. Maybe we're wrong, but one thing is for sure, if any combination of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini is available, we cook it and call it the R-word. I'll list the ingredients for this version, but it isn't likely this exact recipe will be repeated here again. We even cook it different depending on the time of the year. In the summer we tend to use the stove top more and try to get it cooked relatively fast to avoid heating the kitchen up, but in the fall we make it in the oven and roast everything. As many ingredients as possible were used from the bucket garden.

Ratatouille with Quinoa

1 small Lavender eggplant cubed

2 small to medium zucchini cubed

3 small yellow squash cubed

3/4 medium white onion chopped

1 yellow bell pepper chopped (light green really ...)

4 plum tomatoes chopped (seeds removed)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 c canned mushrooms

2 cloves garlic (pressed)

1 1/2 c celery chopped (leaves and all)

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch parsley chopped (reserve small amount for garnish)

1 small bunch oregano chopped

1 small bunch basil chopped

4 c cooked quinoa

grated mozzarella cheese

salt

pepper

  In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Stir until soft and the aromatics are released. Add celery eggplant, and yellow squash. Lightly salt to help the vegetables to weep. Saute for 5 minutes. Add zucchini peppers and tomatoes. Once again, lightly salt. Saute for 5 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley, oregano, basil and mushrooms. Stir well and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serves 4. Plate over quinoa. Melt cheese on top. We use the microwave. Garnish with chopped parsley. Enjoy!

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B

Garden Update 1

  Things are coming along well. Production isn't at its peak yet, but we are starting to get stuff that looks like vegetables. The only real problem I am having at the moment is keeping enough water in the buckets for all the succulent plants. After a particularly sunny day at 90 plus degrees, most of the plants are very wilted and drooping. It takes a gallon or more for each bucket to bring the plants back.

  The tomato plants have really grown and are full of green tomatoes of all shapes and sizes. I noticed tonight the grape tomatoes are starting to ripen. We pulled all but 2 or 3 of the first radish planting and the second planting is coming right along. In another week or so some of the bigger tomatoes should be big enough to make fried green tomatoes. I can't wait. :-)

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B

Kahlua and Cream

 I know it is summer and 95 degrees out, but this is what the girls are drinking. Who am I to question ...

Kahlua and Cream
kahlua (recipe)
french vanilla coffee creamer
milk
ground cinnamon
cinnamon stick
whipped cream
ice

Fill glass with 1/3 ice. Pour kahlua in just until the ice is covered. Add 1/3 vanilla creamer. Add 1/3 milk. Stir. Top with whipped cream and ground cinnamon. Garnish with cinnamon stick. Enjoy!

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Kahlua

  The last time I was at the liquor store I noticed how expensive Kahlua is and since the two ladies in my life like Kahlua and cream I thought I would try my hand at it. I was surprised how good it turned out.

Kahlua

4-5 c strong coffee

4 c sugar

1/4 c pure vanilla extract

1 fifth vodka
1/4 c whole coffee beans

  To make our coffee we used 3/4 c fine ground coffee beans and about 5 c near boiling water in a french press. Pour coffee into a sauce pan. Add sugar and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 1 hour. Turn off heat and cool to room temperature. Combine coffee mixture and vodka in an appropriately sized container and shake well. Add whole coffee beans to the bottle. Makes about 1.5 liters. We used a 1.75 liter vodka bottle to store it in and it has a strainer cap on the top to prevent the beans from escaping. Many recipes call for 'aging' the mixture for 30 days and storing in a dark bottle. I don't think ours will last that long.

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B

Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Mint

  I recently came across an interesting iced tea variant that sounded very refreshing, so armed with Mom's normal iced tea knowledge and a few new ideas I was off to the store to see what I could come up with.

Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Mint

5 Lemon-Ginger tea bags (or whatever floats your boat)

3 Bostons' Original Mint-in-Bags bags

3 pints cold water

1 pint boiling water

3/4 c sugar

juice from 1 lemon

orange slices

lemon slices

chopped fresh mint (coarse)

Steep tea bags in boiling water for 5 minutes. Retrieve and wring out tea bags. Discard. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add cold water and lemon juice. Stir well. Serve over ice with orange, lemon and mint stirred in. Makes 1/2 gallon. Enjoy.

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Quinoa Tabbouleh

 

  Or as we often see it here in the states, Tabouli. This dish absolutely screams spring and summer. I wasn't real familiar with this dish until very recently and I am so glad I was exposed to it. I have a lot of parsley to use up from the garden and I recently started using Quinoa just to check it out, so this event was timely. The recipe I was exposed to planted the Tabbouleh seed, but after some research it was immediately labeled inadequate. The recipe didn't call for enough parsley (Tabbouleh is a parsley salad after all) and it didn't have any lemon juice either, so I made my own recipe:

Quinoa Tabbouleh

1 c parsley (coarse chopped, flat leaf)

1/2 c cilantro (coarse chopped)

1 c quinoa (cooked and cooled)

1 med cucumber (coarse dice)

2 Roma tomatoes (seeds removed, coarse dice)

1/4 med onion (small diced)

5-6 mint leaves (coarse chopped)

1 clove garlic (garlic pressed)

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients well and serve chilled.

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B

Grilled Mediterranean Pizza

  Fresh basil and warm weather bring grilling and pesto to mind , so grilling a Mediterranean pizza isn't that far of a stretch. I haven't tried grilling pizza before, but it seemed a natural next step from making pizza in an oven not to mention it sounded like a whole bunch of fun. The following recipe turned out very well and will definitely be on the menu for this summer's entertaining.

Grilled Mediterranean Pizza

1/2 store bought pizza dough

1/2 c pesto sauce

1 c grated mozzarella cheese

1/2 c crumbled feta cheese

10 pitted Kalamata olives

1 sliced Roma tomato

Warm your grill on a low flame for about 5 minutes before starting to cook your pizza. I use gas. If you use charcoal you will have less control over the end product and the learning curve will be a bit longer, but friends tell me they prefer the taste they get from charcoal. Either way I am sure you will have fun.

I use a similar technique as explained here for managing the pizza dough. Since this is one half of a regular sized dough, the stretching process is a little different. I spread it as best I can with my hands and fingers and get roughly a football shaped pizza dough when finished.

When the grill is warmed and set on the lowest flame, flop the stretched dough on the center of the grilling surface. This process varies from grill to grill and the best term I can think of to explain it is flame management. You don't want to burn it, but you don't want raw dough either. Watch it and when you think the bottom has a nice color to it, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray and flip the entire pizza dough over by whatever means you see fit. I grab an end and flip it by hand.

Start spreading the pesto sauce and then evenly spread the mozzarella cheese on top. Next sprinkle the feta cheese and lay the tomatoes and olives on. While performing this step if I feel the dough is getting too well done I will shut the flame off until I am done putting the toppings on and then I will start the grill up again for the final step.

With all the toppings loaded, close the grill lid so the cheese can melt. This usually takes a few minutes. If burning the dough is a concern, shut the flame off and leave the lid closed until the pizza is done. If you have room on your grill, you can shut part of it off and put the pizza on that 'cool' part and shut the lid. It will act like an oven and heat the top without burning the bottom.

Enjoy!

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B.

Basil Cilantro Pesto

  With plenty of basil and cilantro coming out of the garden, some experimentation was in order. After a little research I came up with the following recipe:

Basil Cilantro Pesto

2/3 c packed basil leaves (washed)

2/3 c packed cilantro stalk and leaves (washed)

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp roasted sunflower seeds (instead of pine nuts)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

Blend the first 7 ingredients in a food processor (about a minute). With the food processor running, slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture (about a minute).

I was really happy with this recipe and will definitely make it again. There are plenty of uses for pesto including pasta sauce, pizza sauce and crusty bread topper to name a few.

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B.

Bucket Garden

  Alright, I don't like to weed and I get called out of town unexpectedly, so I decided to grow a garden ... in buckets. It has worked out pretty well and if I get called out of town it shouldn't get too out-of-hand. The weeding has definitely been lessened and most of the big critters seem to stay away. All-in-all there is 4 different kinds of hot peppers, 4 different kinds of regular peppers, Lavender Eggplant (looks like Antigua), 6 different kinds of tomatoes, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Butternut Squash, Watermelon, Carrots, Beets, Radishes, Cucumber, Brussel Sprouts, Thyme, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Basil, Cilantro and Rosemary. Take a look ...

Herbage

Eggplant

Hot Peppers

Yellow Squash

Watermelon

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Peppers

Brussel Sprouts

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