DIY Bruschetta

Bruschetta is a crowd pleaser, but I admit that it's been of a pain to prep whether you are hosting or if you're bringing it to a party. How do you keep the bread from getting soggy? Or what if someone doesn't want cheese? Here's how I decided to do it and it saves time.


In a tray, I put sliced fresh mozzerella, toasted italian bread, pesto and tomatoes.


I got the idea from Better Home and Garden to bake the tomatoes in a pan with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. Roasting/baking them tends to make them sweeter too.


You can dip your bread right into this, but I wanted to chop it up a bit. I spooned it all into a food processor and gave it a quick pulse.

I sliced up some italian bread, drizzled it with olive oil and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Serve warm!

Caprese Salad

Here are two ways I used up some of my tomatoes and basil.

Caprese salad - layers of tomatoes, fresh mozz and basil which I then topped with homemade pesto.


I did something similar here except I laid it on a bed of lettuce. Instead of pesto, I just did lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil. There's a little thinly sliced red onion and black berries.

Pizza made with heirloom tomatoes

While we were in Milan last year, my friend Elisa made us a pizza using phyllo or puff pastry dough. It was so delicious that I wondered why I never thought of doing it before. What could be better than flaky, buttery, crisp dough in the pizza!? Especially if you like thin crust pizza. She made hers with just plum tomatoes and cheese, but I jazzed my recipe up a bit.



Ingredients:

• a package of Pilsbury puff pastry
• 1/2 cup of crushed tomato (not sauce)
• 8 oz (one ball) of fresh mozzerella
• fresh basil and oregano leaves
• 2 medium or 1 large ripe tomato (in the picture, I used 2 grape tomatoes, 1 small plum tomato and 1 medium Black Krim tomato)
  

Thinly slice the cheese and thinly slice the tomatoes. It's important the tomatoes are very ripe. If you buy them from the supermarket, leave them out on the counter for 2-3 days.


Follow the directions of the package of the puff pastry in order to defrost the dough. Generously, flour the surface of a large baking sheet and lay the defrosted pastry dough out.


Season and spread a thin layer of crushed tomato on the dough. I season the dough now rather than on top of the ingredients because I think it tastes better that way.

Arrange your ingredients on top of your dough. I spread the larger slices of tomatoes and cheese around the edges and leave the smaller ones towards the center since pizza tends to pool to the middle.

Bake for 40 minutes or until brown and bubbly. The fresh mozzerella made these yummy brown bubbles and the deep red of the Black Krim tomatos made pretty looking "flowers" when baked. It was so yummy!!!

Squash "Pasta" Ribbons with Pesto

Here's a low calorie option and a creative way to use up your summer squash or zucchini. It's that time now where the plants are bursting with fruit. So much so that you can't find enough ways to eat it. Tired of ratatouille and grilled veggies?


Scrumptious and satisfying. The ribbons of squash replace pasta and offer more fiber, vitamens and low in calories.


With the heat wave, the squash increase in size very rapidly. These two were hiding under the leaves. In general, these are a tad too large for good eating. The smaller you pick your squash, the more tender and sweet they are. Squashes that are 1.5" in diameter are perfect.



Using a carrot peeler, I gently sliced the ribbons of squash. Blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Top with pesto or your favorite marinara.

Bon Appetit!

7.8.10 Tomatoes

I'm sure you're all tired of hearing how BIG my tomatoes are, but um yeah. They are BIG!


Me taking a photo of myself and my precious tomato plants. One of them is nearly 6' tall. I had to tie it up higher.


Lots of tomatoes! In the very front of the photo are my Roma (plum) tomatoes just on one plant. I'm going to have a lot of tomato salad and sauce to make this summer.

The grape tomatoes are larger than the average grape. I like them a lot because they are great for snacking or cooking with.


Close up of my Persimmon tomatoes. The photo doesn't do justice as to just how plump they are. I can't wait to sink my teeth into one of these. They are so sweet and meaty.

Here's a recipe from Cooking Light using Persimmon tomatoes with halibut. Sounds like the perfect summer dish although I would love to gobble it up just with a sprinkling of salt.



And here's another for a salad with prawns, avocado and persimmon tomatoes. I love avocado too. This sounds like a great combination.

Kale and Escarole Recipes

I have a whole lotta kale and escarole from the garden, so I'm looking up recipes to use it all up. It's a great way to really get me cooking different things and try new recipes.

Using cooks.com, I looked up some recipes using Kale or Escarole. Below are a few that I would like to try.

Kale has a distinct flavor, but it soaks up whatever flavor it's cooked in. I tend to agree with cooking kale in chicken broth and some garlic. It holds up nicely too as a side dish. It's heartier than spinach, but not as tough as collards.

Portuguese Kale Soup
Kale and panchetta

The only way I know how to use escarole is to cook it down in soups. Escarole has the texture of lettuce, but is bitter tasting if you just sauteed it. I always make some variation of escarole-n-chicken soup or escarole-n-sausage soup.

Escarole and Lemon Sauce
Italian Minestra (soup)
Baked Escarole Parmigiana
Escarole Pie


Escarole before I harvested them today.


Basil likes escarole!

Salsa

Apple Dumplings

Simply DIVINE! My friends Mary and Steve are from the Central Pennsylvania area and were talking about how their grandmothers make the best apple dumplings. What's an apple dumplings I asked? They looked at me like I had 10, no 50 heads! And began describing something that sounded so utterly amazing that I had to try it.



Ingredients:

• 5-10 medium apples
• 2 packages (4 pieces) of pie dough
  
• 1 stick of butter
• 3 cups of water
• 2 cups of white sugar
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• Cinnamon

First, I started by coring and peeling the apples. I cut them in half again because I actually didn't have enough apples. For me, that was the perfect size dumpling. I think 1 whole apple is too big. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, 1 cup of white sugar and cinnamon.


Roll the dough out to 1/8" thick. Lay an apple in the middle with a sliver of butter on top or in the center of the apple.


Then fold the dough over the apple and pinch it with a little bit of water to wet your fingers.


Place them in a baking pan. Give them a little room, but if you don't have room, it's ok. They don't puff up that much. In a sauce pan, heat 1/2 stick of butter, water, and the remaining sugar together. Pour over the dumplings any which way. Sprinkle extra cinnamon on top of the dumplings.


Bake for 1 hour. Notice the syrup is brown and bubbly. Mmm


When they are nearly done, ladle the syrup over the dumplings and put them back into the oven. The dumplings will get all brown and crispy.


Remove from oven and eat while warm. My friend Steve told me to put one in a bowl and pour milk over it and eat it like cereal. I loved it this way!!! It was the perfect amount of sweetness! I can't wait to get more apples to do this again.

Have you ever had apple dumplings? Do you eat them with ice cream or milk?

Eggplant Ragu

We had some eggplant leftover from the harvest, so I diced them up and added them to my homemade tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 large or 3 small eggplants
• 1 onion
• 3+ tomatoes or canned crushed tomato
• 1lb of chuck beef
• basil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, garlic cloves, olive oil

1. Slowly brown the onions and garlic in some olive oil allowing them to release their flavor and sweeten.
2. Add your eggplant and cook until translucent, stirring often.
3. Add the beef and tomatoes.
4. Simmer for 45 minutes.
   

Pumpkin Pudding

She's as cute as a pumpkin, but no you can't have her! She's my niece and I love her.



Ingredients:

Pudding:

• 16 oz. can pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Pinch of baking soda
• 12 oz. can EVAPORATED milk
• ½ stick butter
  

Topping:

• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Grease the baking dish with butter.


Stir the pudding ingredients together.


Add the can of pumpkin. Mmmm


After it's mixed together, pour it into the baking dish.


Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and cinnamon.


Bake at 350 for approximately 45 mins.


The edges get brown and crispy which is my favorite part. Mmmm

Spicy Basil Chicken

A simple stir fry served with steamed rice.



Ingredients:

• Tomatoes
• Basil leaves
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Sliced Chicken Breast
• Garlic
• Oil
• Lime Juice

This is so simple and delicious.
1. Drizzle a little oil in a hot pan or wok. Add the garlic and onions.
2. Add the chicken breast and brown.
3. Add the tomatoes and basil and seasoning.
4. Eat with a side of rice.

Pot Roast

These cooler days have had us craving pot roast, hot chocolate and cozying up in sweaters. You can never go wrong with pot roast and it's so easy to make.



Ingredients:

• Beef Chuck
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• 1 Can of Beef Broth
• 2 Onions
  

Throw everything together and turn the slow cooker on "low". After 5 or so hours, it's done! Serve with egg noodles.

Basil-Lime Sorbet

This was so easy and delicious! For someone like me who's lactose intolerant, this is the perfect summer dessert!



Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fresh lime juice
• 20 basil leaves
• Simple syrup (1 cup of water, 1 1/4 cups of sugar)
  

A juicer would be helpful to do this. You must use fresh limes. Old limes are bitter and lime juice is too sour without being "limey" enough.


I used more like 40 leaves of basil because I had it. The more basil you put it in, the more bits of basil you will get in every spoonful, so it's up to whether you like that or not. Some people don't like having pieces of leaf on their tongue.


Chop up the basil first. Then blend it with the lime juice and simple syrup.


It will look mustard green, but don't worry about it. Put the mixture in a closed container and freeze.


When it's icy, stir it up with a spoon.


Then freeze it completely.


Pour the frozen mix into a blender or food processor.


Blend until smooth and it will be light green.


Refreeze.


Then scoop out and enjoy!


It's so yummy. I scoop a little out each night to eat. The funny thing is that it smells like basil, but tastes like lime.