Love and Kindness from Start to Finish, part 2

Friday night's dinner offered more than salad. I started the evening making a huge batch of marinara sauce, according to my Italian grandma's recipe. This sauce is best in the summer when I can make it with fresh, seasonal tomatoes and herbs. This time, I didn't have enough tomatoes for an entire pot of sauce, so I used canned sauce. But the fresh basil and oregano from Karen's garden gave it a fragrant twist. Here's a shot of the herbs:

Unfortunately, big pots of sauce aren't very photogenic. But ask any good Italian, and s/he will tell you it's the most beautiful site in the world. Such is how I feel about this photo:

Rosalie had a spaghetti squash that we decided to bake and eat with the sauce. I'm not sure how long she had it... Those kinds of squashes have long shelf lives, right? Anyway, it tasted delicious with the red sauce paired excellently with the salad. Here is the final product:

Love and Kindness from Start to Finish, Part 1

If I were to choose someone who is kindness personified, it would be my friend Karen. Today, I went over to her house to get some much-discussed kale. There wasn't much kale left, as it is on its way out for the season. Karen ended up giving me cucumbers, lettuce, basil, and oregano, too. She lives only a few blocks away -- only about a 10 minute walk from house. When it started to drizzle, she insisted on driving me home. She might just be the nicest person I know.

With all this garden-grown goodness, I was inspired to make a full dinner, and my roommate Rosalie spontaneously joined in. While all three of my roommates are good friends, we don't often eat together. It was really nice to share food tonight, and Rosalie and I put together a lovely salad and spaghetti squash with marinara sauce.

For tonight's post, I'll focus on the salad. (I'll post on the spaghetti squash tomorrow.) Here's the lettuce, which was a tad bitter (greens get more bitter as they adjust to the summer heat), but it was still quite edible:

And here are the cucumbers. Aren't they cute? The yellow tomatoes are also local. They're from Johnson's Backyard Garden here in Austin. I bought them at Wheatsville.

Rosalie made the salad dressing out garlic, ginger, honey, and olive oil. It turned out sweet and tangy, which balanced out the bitter greens. The sweet, fresh flavors from the cucumbers and tomatoes complimented the dressing, and I topped the salad with sliced almonds to give it a nice crunch. It was one of the best salads I've ever made, plus it made some pretty pictures:

The New Adventures of Old Zucchini

If you are a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower of mine, you've most likely seen these pictures already (and you're probably the only people who read this blog, so excuse the cross-cross-posting). But I had such fun with the zucchini-squash fritters (recipe from Smitten Kitchen), I figured I should post the pictures here.

The first night, I topped them with a lovely fried egg from Vital Farms. (When I can't get eggs from Ryan, I get Vital Farms eggs from Wheatsville Co-op.) A fried egg is the perfect topping -- the runny yolk soaked into the fritters. Words can't really describe it, honestly.

Two days later, I heated some up in the toaster oven -- they save and reheat much better than I expected. I topped them with some of Julie's tomatoes, Greek yogurt, and backyard basil.

The zucchini and squash came from my friends Jess and Jeremy. As I am now in the habit of describing my friends as sustainable food archetypes, the term urban homesteaders best applies to Jess and Jeremy. Their pioneering spirit means they'd also be good people to know during the apocalypse.

They plan to eventually run their own farm, but for now, they're managing a hefty backyard garden. Jess has taken to canning and pickling much of her garden produce, so I hope to feature some of her home-made pickles in later posts. In the mean time, I'm happy to put her fresh zucchini to use.

Omelets: How to Deal with the Aftermath

While I am trying to incorporate as much locally grown food into my diet, I'm also trying to eat up all my leftovers, something I've been bad at in the past. The problem with leftovers is that I get tired of eating the same thing over and over again, but there's one foolproof way to make them into something new and satisfying: omelets.

A good omelet starts with good eggs. Austin has a backyard chicken craze, and I know a lot of people raising chickens in town. One happens to be my next door neighbor Ryan. If Julie is a classy Renaissance woman, then Ryan is a mountain man on crack. He has raised pigs, ducks, and calves, slaughtered them, and roasted them -- all in his backyard. His backyard. I'm just happy to keep a basil plant alive, while this guy has pretty much maintained a farm. He also throws really great parties, and when the apocalypse happens, I hope I still live next door to him because he will not only help us survive but provide beer as well.

Anyway, he has a number of chickens roaming around our yards and has graciously shared some of the eggs. Take a look at 'em:

I know that second photo isn't very good but take a close look at that yolk. It is bright orange. If you examine a factory farm egg's yolk, it will be a pale yellow. It's the difference in nutrients. True free range chickens get a lot more nutrients than factory farm chickens, and it's the lovely yolks that make farm-fresh eggs taste so good.

Here's the final product:

 

I topped it with leftover tomato-caper sauce and shaved parmagiano. Inside is leftover avocado. I added green beans from the other night, making for a hearty lunch. 

Oh, the Joys of Cucumber Juice

My brave friend Anslee recently completed a 60-day juice fast. (Read about here.) Out of solidarity with her and masochistic curiosity, I joined her for a week back in March. I bought a juicer and experimented with different recipes. Now that I'm back to eating solid food as God intended, I still juice from time to time (that machine was expensive!), and it's a great way to use up fruits and veggies that are starting to get a little too ripe.

This morning, I made a cucumber, pear, and apple juice for breakfast, and it was delicious! The cucumbers came from Julie's garden. I'm going to say a little bit about Julie, a true Renaissance Woman. But first, take a look at these cucumbers:

The green one was about 18 inches long. The other was a white cucumber and about 3 inches long and about 2 inches wide.

Julie uses the French Intensive gardening method, which is as intense as the name suggests. Not only does she manage a garden, but she cooks most of her meals from scratch, is getting a PhD in economics, volunteers with local non-profits to trap stray cats for spaying and neutering, and voluntarily does the accounting for our church. Oh, and did I mention that she's about to give birth to her first child any day now?

I can only hope my meals live up to Julie's high standards, and I try very hard to make sure I use all the vegetables she gives me. I foolishly let these cucumbers sit in my fridge too long, so juicing seemed a good idea. I added an apple and two pears, plus some lime juice and bit of the backyard basil, to make this lovely concoction:

Clarifications

Before I write about today's culinary adventure, I thought I clarify a few things:

1. I'm not a good photographer.
I know everyone but me has an Instagram account, and that means people can make their photos look professional just by making them grainy. But let's face it - they're just kidding themselves. They're as bad as I am. The difference is that I don't have a smart phone. Instead, I'm borrowing a fancy camera from a friend (who actually is a professional), and I'm terrible at using it. But, hey, this is just a little experiment while I'm funemployed, so I don't really care if the photos are professional looking.

2. Why am I doing this exactly?
Because I really like cooking with garden-fresh vegetables. For the past four years, I've been experimenting with garden veggies that friends gave me. This year, I got lots of kale, and I used it in everything from quiche to baked ziti to cole slaw with tamari dressing. Then in April, I took a crappy photo of the breakfast tomatoes (made with kale) and put it on Facebook. People liked it, so I thought I'd keep making updates. I really enjoy cooking and talking about food, and if I can encourage people to eat locally and seasonally, all the better. 


3. Why didn't I create a new cooking blog?
In short, because I'm lazy. This little blog was a place for my snarky rants for a few years, then I abandoned it for grad school. I didn't want to bother with a new account, and everyone has a Tumblr, so I thought I'd be "old school" and go back to Blogspot. Google already knows everything about me anyway, so they might as well know what I'm eating, too.

Summer is for Sauce

So now for tonight's dinner, and I am very proud of this dish. It features a divine tomato-caper sauce (courtesy of the NYT's Recipes for Health blog), topping whole wheat Israeli couscous and some steamed green beans.

The tomatoes and green beans came from my friend Julie's garden, and the basil came from my backyard. Here's a shot of the tomatoes before cooking:

Aren't they lovely? They were a pain in the ass to grate, but they made a sweet, tangy sauce that is perfect for summertime. Here's the final product: