War with Eggplant

The battle to use our veggies was a tough one tonight.  Eggplant!  Not that I don't like eggplant, but eggplant six weeks in a row gets old.  I guess I am slightly less tolerant of eggplant than others because when we were first married, my husband had planted eggplant in our backyard.  He was doing all of the cooking at the time and in my memory, fixed nothing but eggplant until I swore I would never touch another eggplant again!  I'm exaggerating a little, but besides ratatouille (which gets old real quick in my opinion) and eggplant parmesan (which takes a long time to make and is very rich) what else are you supposed to do with the little suckers?  I found a recipe tonight which uses eggplant and also our plethora of tomatoes.  Best serve it over pasta as it wasn't very filling on its own.  If you have any ideas for eggplant, please let me know.  Summer isn't over yet which means we have at least 4 more weeks of eggplant coming!

Roasted Eggplant Casserole  adapted from The French Market:  More Recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harries and Fran Warde.

4 garlic cloves, peeled

6 tablespoons olive oil

4 small to medium eggplant

4 large, ripe tomatoes

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper to taste

15 oz. can of vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rub an earthenware baking dish (about 10 inches square) with 1 garlic clove and 1 Tbs. olive oil.  Dice the remaining garlic and sprinkle a little in the bottom of the pan.  Slice the eggplant and the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick.  Put all the vegetable ends in the bottom of the dish and arrange the slices in alternating layers seasoning with garlic, salt and pepper in between each layer.  Pour the stock over the dish and drizzle with the remaining oil.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes more.  Serve hot or cold over pasta.

Summer abundance

My family and I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Basically, one buys into a farm at the beginning of the season thereby taking on some of the risk of the farmer and supporting the local guy.  In turn, you get a box of produce every week throughout the growing season.  August is always the time of year that we struggle to use all of the produce as the abundance is almost embarrassing.  For example, this week's box contained the following:

Peaches

Onions (both bulb and green)

string beans

kale

eggplant

purple potatoes

red cabbage

hot peppers

bell peppers

squash

cucumbers

tomatillos

tomatoes

2 melons

sweet corn

carrots

We are not talking just one of each either.  There were 6 ears of corn, 4 huge cucumbers, a plethora of eggplant, a huge bunch of kale, you get my point.  In order to tackle this bounty, I have gotten in the habit of making my weekly menu and shopping list after I know what is coming in the box.  I thought I'd share my dinners this week with you.  Last night was a very simple melon and shrimp salad, a cucumber dill salad, and some chocolate pudding chocolate chip cookies.  Enjoy the recipes and stay tuned for more recipes from this week!

Shrimp and Melon Salad adapted from The French Market:  More Recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde

Serves 6

1 ripe melon

1 lb. shrimp cooked (I used baby shrimp)

A bunch of dill, chopped (probably about 2 tsp)

2 Tbls. olive oil

Juice from 1 lemon

Slice the top and bottom off of a melon so that it stands flat on your cutting board.  Carefully cut away all of the rind.  Cut the melon in half, scoop out the seeds, then cut melon into serving sized slices.  Arrange melon slices on a fancy plate or plate individually.  Top with shrimp and dill.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Serve immediately.

Cucumber Salad  taken from The French Market:  More recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. 

Serves 6

2 large cucumbers

A bunch of dill, chopped (probably 2 tsp)

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Peel the cucumbers and slice in half lengthwise.  Run the tip of a teaspoon down the middle of the cucumber halves to remove the seeds.  Slice the cucumbers finely at an angle and place in a bowl.  Add the dill, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper.  Toss well and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Pudding chocolate chip cookies by Joie de vivre!

Made a lot....not sure, but at least 4 dozen

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 c. butter

1 30z. package instant chocolate fudge pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. chocolate chips

2 1/4 c. flour

1 c. walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Soften the butter and mix well with the brown sugar.  Add each ingredient in order, mixing well before adding another ingredient.  Roll into walnut sized balls and place on cookie sheet.  Flatten cookies with spatula or fingers (they do not spread much)  Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.  (Mine baked in exactly 9 minutes)

Enjoy and stay tuned for more recipes using this week's produce!

Camping food Part II

Perhaps my penchant for eating good food has gone too far (or maybe, not far enough?).  On my last blog post, I had a friend ask where I bought the freeze-dried salmon.  Blech!  When I say we eat fancy when were camping that means no freeze-dried foods!   (I must confess though that for the second morning of our camping, I did plan a cold cereal day.)  I think the secret to eating well while camping is just advanced preparation and a good storage technique for cold foods.  That being said, our most recent camping adventure sported this menu:

Friday night:  Black bean salad, Grilled Steak tacos with salsa and guacamole.  Roasted marshmallows  (pictured above sans marshmallows, served with a glass of red wine (don't tell the camp host!))

Saturday:  Breakfast:  Egg and cheese sandwiches

   Lunch:  Hot dogs, chips, birthday cupcakes, leftover black bean salad

   Dinner:  Beer marinated pork shish kabobs with zucchini, squash and red onion, crusty bread, White beans with chanterelle mushrooms

Sunday morning:  Cold cereal with rice milk.

My advanced preparation consisted of making the black bean salad, marinating the steak for the tacos, pre-cutting the cheese and wrapping up the eggs for the egg and cheese sandwiches, marinating and cutting the pork and veggies for the shish kabobs and putting all the ingredients together for the white beans with chanterelle mushrooms.  I then packed everything in the cooler starting with Sunday's breakfast items on the bottom and ending with Friday's dinner items on the top.  The beer marinated pork shish kabobs was definitely my favorite meal and the white beans with chanterelle mushrooms smelled as heavenly while cooking as they tasted.  Here are some of the recipes to try on your next camping adventure.

Black bean salad  adapted from Campfire cuisine:  Gourmet recipes for the great outdoors by Robin Donovan

Juice of 3 limes

2 Tbs. honey

1 Tbs. ground cumin

1 Tbs. ground coriander

1 Tbs. dried oregano

2 14.5 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed

2 green bell peppers

6 green onions, thinly sliced.

Mix the lime juice, honey, cumin, coriander and oregano in a large ziplock bag until well combined.  Add the beans, diced pepper and onion and toss until well combined.  Close this ziplock and then put this ziplock into another one to get it ready for the ice chest!

Red wine Marinade for steak taken from Campfire Cuisine:  Gourmet recipes for the Great Outdoors by Robin Donovan

Juice of 3 limes

1/2 cup red wine

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Tbs. dried oregano

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Mix all ingredients in a large ziplock, drop in the steak, seal the bag making sure to get most of the air out.  Put this bag into another bag to ready steak for the ice chest.

Grilled Steak tacos by Joie de vivre

After your coals have gotten hot, put the steak on the grill and grill on each side for about 7 minutes, remove steak to a plate and loosely cover with foil for a few minutes.  Thinly slice steak, put into a tortilla with guacamole and salsa.  Wrap up and enjoy!

Beer-Marinated Pork and Veggie Kabobs adapted from Campfire Cuisine:  Gourmet recipes for the great outdoors by Robin Donovan

For the marinade:

1 1/2 cups water

1 bottle beer

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbs. dried oregano

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs. course salt

1 tsp. pepper

Mix all ingredients in a large ziplock bag and mix.

Add to marinade

1 1/2 lb. pork loin cut into 2 inch chunks

Shake bag to combine.  Seal well removing as much air as possible and put this ziplock into another ziplock to ready meat for ice chest.  Once ready to cook kabobs, thread meat chunks onto skewers with cut onion, zucchini, squash, etc that has been drizzled with olive oil.  Put on grill over hot coals!

White beans with Chanterelle Mushrooms taken from Campfire Cuisine:  Gourmet recipes for the Great Outdoors by Robin Donovan

2 14.5 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

3/4 lb. chanterelles, sliced

1 small red onion, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 Tbs. chopped thyme

1/2 tsp. salt.

Olive oil spray

Heavy duty foil.

Mix beans, mushrooms, onion, olive oil, thyme and salt in a ziplock bag.  Seal, removing as much air as possible.  Seal this ziplock into another ziplock to ready beans for the ice chest.  When ready to cook, make a foil packet by taking a long piece of foil, folding it in half, and then crimping the two sides.  Spray the inside of the foil packet with the olive oil spray and put the bean mixture in.  Crimp the remaining side of the foil packet to seal leaving enough room for steam to circulate.  Put the packet over hot coals for 20 minutes.  

My weakness and laziness in camping is definitely breakfast foods (I think it's the lack of coffee so early in the morning) so for my next post, I'm going to be researching and trying some out.  Bonne chance with the camping food and let me know if you try anything!