Perfect BBQ Fruit Bowl

Happy Fourth of July USA!

I made this fruit bowl over the weekend thinking it was a cute idea to use the watermelon rind as the bowl. And isn’t it cute! With the fourth coming up I must have had BBQs on the mind and thought what an ideal way to bring something to a party and not burden the host with one more task of finding you a serving dish! This might just be a small peeve of mine having lived mostly in small spaces without excessive serving-wares but also the host wants to enjoy the party too don’t bring them more chores to do–if it can be helped!

Anyway, here i have used a melon baller on the watermelon to remove the the flesh. Using a knife around the edge and then a spoon to wiggle it out at the bottom and cubing would also work and likely be faster. I chopped up a nectarine, a donut peach and mixed in raspberries and blueberries! Was tasty! Next time (and more on the red white and blue theme) I’d use peeled apple in place of of the stone fruit

chicken drumsticks

Ah, it is so satisfying to find a simple, low effort food that tastes great. Chicken drumstick, you are so easy breezy good. Pop those pieces on a parchment lined sheet pan in a 400F oven for 40 minutes and done! To get a little fancy after 40 minutes brush the juices from the pan onto the drumsticks and broil til golden. I just snacked on some cold leftovers I had in the fridge and they’re good cold too!

In the photo I chopped up some red cabbage and scrunched (that’s a cooking term, right) with salt in my hands til it softened some. To get a bit fancier an old favorite of mine (when i could find sesame paste that didn’t give me a gluten reaction) was to mix cabbage with tahini to make a “coleslaw” that doesn’t require yucky mayonnaise. Chicken drumstick with a side of tahini cabbage slaw, now that sounds Summer bbq ready!

Plantain Waffles with the Dash Mini

This waffle batter is so basic and yet the results are so great! If you want to keep it really simple use 2 unripe plantains and 5 eggs, a pinch of salt if you feel inclined. Pulverize it into a smooth batter in a high speed blender and voila! you have batter! I like the outcome a bit more using 4 eggs, a glug of two of oil, and 2 unripe plantains, and a dash 😉 of salt. Depending on the size of the plantains and eggs the batter is going to be varying degrees of thickness but that doesn’t seem to matter too much. If the batter is too thick, thin it with another egg or more oil. This batter also makes great pancakes.

I came across the dash mini waffle craze one day watching youtube and ran out to Target to pick one up. This is probably the best $10 purchase ever! It makes one Eggo sized waffle at a time, taking 3-5 minutes each to cook. So, it does take some time to get through all the batter–I use those extra minutes of kitchen time to do other food prep or kitchen chores. I remove each cooked waffle and let rest on a wire rack. I keep the wire rack in the oven on warm or on the counter and when it’s time to eat waffles, I stick them back in the dash mini to toast up. Eat plain or top with your favs! I sometimes use these waffles for egg sandwiches, avocado toast, and even grilled cheese 😋

And if you are up for more treats… when there isn’t enough batter to make another waffle, you can scrape down the sides and add 5 more eggs to your blender pitcher, zap that together and now you have crepe batter!

Strawberry Lime Ginger Sauce

I made a really delicious ginger chicken stir fry over the weekend and unfortunately (fortunately?) it was gobbled up before any photos were taken! I did have left overs of this on the fly sauce I made. When I was tossing it together I intended to make a marinade for the chicken but the flavor was so crisp, clean, and tasty once out of the blender I decided to keep it as a dressing to top the stir fry. Oh man did it go well with the chicken!

Here is what I combined: juice and zest of a juicy lime–I’m estimating it was about 1/4 c of lime juice, a generous 1+ inch knob of ginger, 1/2 of a seeded jalapeño, 2 large strawberries, a gushing (~1/4 c or so–add some glugs, blend, and taste if the citrus is too sharp add some more) of olive oil, pinch of salt. I blended it together in the Vitamix and tried to give ample time to pulverize the strawberry seeds–one could also strain this through mesh to remove the seeds.

So this was one of those happy accident combos. I was making a lime ginger marinade when I realized I needed a sweetness to cut the sharp lime. Normally I would use orange juice but I was plum out of oranges so I scanned for what I did have on hand. Strawberries were pretty much my only option and I really wasn’t sure if it would work taste or color-wise but I gave it a try and it really worked, hooray!

A quick color lesson on complementary colors. Complementary colors are two colors that sit opposite of each other on a color wheel. When placed next to one another they vibrate and buzz. Van Gogh was into this (unfortunately many of his paints were fugitive and have lost pigmentation over time, especially red) and many of his paintings have pinks and reds against greens, blues against orange, purples with yellows and it creates a real vibrancy and intensity. But here is the thing about complementary colors, when they are mixed together they neutralize each other creating blacks, greys, and browns. All that vibrancy and intensity turns to mud and the same can happen with food! So mixing red strawberries into a green mix of lime, lime zest, and jalapeños I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t make an unappetizing grey and was so happy when the outcome was a bright lovely pink 😄 Has anyone ever made a smoothie with bright intense beautiful colors and ended up with a drink that looked more like bog water or an elixir more suited to the Grim Reaper? This is why.

 “Paintings fade like flowers,” van Gogh once wrote his brother Theo. “All the more reason to boldly use them too raw, time will only soften them too much. ”

Mushroom Quesadilla with Grain free Tortillas From Siete Foods

I typically avoid as much packaged and prepared food as possible since I have found that it almost always makes me feel a little to a lot unwell. My husband and I are super sensitive to gluten and have found most things labeled certified gluten free actually come with a significant amount of gluten, or at least enough to make for some very unpleasant times for us! Anyway, these almond flour tortillas from Siete Foods are a handy treat when I know I will be in a super crunch for time or when I am traveling.

Here I have sautéed some beautiful oyster mushrooms and garlic from the farmer market in olive oil in a small fry pan. I removed the mushrooms from the pan and set aside. Next using the same frying pan I plopped down a tortilla, added some slices of goat gouda, and topped it with another tortilla letting the outside brown and the cheese melt over medium/low heat, flipping after a minute or two so the other side can also brown.

Once the tortilla was browned on both sides and the cheese melted I removed to a cutting board, added sliced avocado, my sautéed mushrooms, and a sprinkle of cilantro from my little herb garden!!! It is very exciting for me to have grown an herb! I cut the quesadilla into quarters, ate a slice 😋 and thought ‘Oh I should take a photo for the food blog.’ And here it is!

What are your favorite toppings for quesadillas? And what are your favorite quick, easy, go to foods when pinched for time?

Stew

Last night we had beef stew for dinner. I used flank steak and it turns out to be the perfect stew meat! I use a good old pressure cooker to make stew. So first chop the veggies. I used: 1/2 large white onion, 3 large diced cloves of garlic, 3 carrots, a bunch of kale, 3 medium sized hana sweet potatoes–about 4 cups worth. I stem the kale and chop the stem into 1/4 inch chunks and save the leaves for post pressure cooking. Now that all the veg is chopped and set aside I dice up the steak (about 1 lb worth) that has been coming to room temp on the counter while i was dealing with the veggies.

So my pressure cooker is an all-clad doo-dad I bought years ago. It is basically a large stockpot with and electric pressure cooker lid (fount it!) and it’s been great! So I brown my flank steak in the pressure cooker pot with a bit of salt and nothing else, then add all the veg except for the potatoes and kale leaves letting them brown a little before adding the potatoes and 40 oz of water. I set the pressure cooker timer for 35 minutes on the meat setting and let it do its thing. Once it is all done and the lid is safe to remove I add the kale leaves, mush up the potaotes, and put it back over heat on the stove to reduce to my thickened liking.

And I do not remember how or why I discovered that as strange as it may sound avocado is delicious in soup, especially stew! Diced avocado is my favorite way to put the finishing touch, taste, and texture on stew. P.S. how cute are these cilantro babies who have been newly sprouting in my patio herb garden?

Oh and if looking for a vegan version of stew I have found substituting the beef with firm mango is delicious

taco salad leftovers

Taco or Guac Salad is a mainstay in my home. Some nights it is kept super simple: plantain bread, chopped lettuce, guacamole. That is the base, the minimum, for feeling like a meal. Some nights the base is a starting point. Last Friday we had the additions of halibut, mango salsa, and tomato salsa. And it was a real treat and it kept on giving to lunch Saturday afternoon! Pictured are the leftovers from our Friday night “tacos” tossed together to make a big salad.

So what is plantain bread? Well it is 2 plantains, 2 eggs, some gulps of olive oil, and a pinch of salt smashed up to a smooth batter in the Vitamix. The batter is then poured onto 4 parchment lined cookie sheets and spread into the rectangle shape with the help of a spatula and baked on 325-350F for 10-15 minutes. We tear the bread into smaller squares and use them as fairly messy but tasty tortillas. We also use this plantain bread as pizza crust! I got the idea years ago from these recipes http://freshtart.com/blog/plantain-tortillas-aip-grain-free-gluten-free-paleo-vegan-delicious/30509600 and https://predominantlypaleo.com/grain-free-taco-shells-paleo-vegan/ but I just do not have the patience to make individual round tortillas so cookie sheet trays work for me.

A thing to note is depending on the ripeness of the plantains the outcome varies from very brittle, crispy, and inflexible (these can make good grain-free nachos!) to sweet and pliable. I prefer something in the middle. To avoid exploding tacos use plantains that have begun to yellow.

I’m pretty serious about the basic-ness of my guacamole: avocados,  jalapeño, cilantro, lime, salt in whatever quantities work to make the flavor you enjoy. Once, years ago I watched my sister add mayo to the guacamole she was making and I am still upset! Why?! why would you do that to perfectly beautiful avocados!?! Anyway, is there anything better than a perfectly ripe avocado?

Apple Sandwiches

Here I have goat gouda pink lady sandwiches. How cute! And SO simple! I think these guys would be great for tea sandwiches, maybe cut into little “crustless” squares. To prevent browning one could drag a lemon wedge across the apple surface–obviously adding a hint of lemon to the flavor. These guys pictured were eaten quickly from creation so the only ingredients are cheese and apple–no bothering with lemon 😋

I think it was 10+ years ago at a little restaurant on the Upper West Side that I had apple, smoked trout sandwiches with pickled onion. Oh, it was so tasty–I would use green apple for that version. I think these are fun and there are a lot of possibilities, though some might be quite messy. I’m thinking a PBJ take would be tasty but also a sticky disaster. Perhaps open faced would work well! Prosciutto with fresh smashed raspberries is making my mouth water! For this goat gouda version you could be a bit French and add some A2 butter. Let me know in the comments what you would put on an apple sandwich!

Apples are delicious and this is a fun way to have one of my favorite foods–the sandwich.

Surf Sweets

As someone who is ridiculously sensitive to gluten I was overjoyed to come across this brand of gummies called Surf Sweets. Surf Sweets are made and packaged in a facility free of the 10 most common food allergens, including dairy/casein, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, sesame and sulfites. This is a big deal for me, I haven’t been able to eat candy in years! It also helps that these gummy worms are delicious. I will go as far as calling them the BEST gummy worms EVER! I found gummy worms, gummy bears, sour worms, and jelly beans at my local Whole Foods. They seem to be widely available and can be found on amazon. My favorite (of those I have tried: worms, bears, and sour worms) are the gummy worms, they are perfection.  Hooray! It is nice to have access to a convenient, safe, sweet treat! Thank you  Surf Sweets!