Omlet Sandwiches

Ingredients: For Filling number one:

• About 1/2 LB or so cremini mushrooms
• 1 clove garlic
• Fresh basil
• salt
• pepper
• parmigiano reggiano

Filling number two:

• 2 slices applewood bacon
• 2 or 3 red baby romas
• 2 or 3 green baby romas
• about 1 tsp agave nectar
• cheddar cheese

For the omlet:

• 6 eggs
• A splash of milk

Directions: Filling number one:

• Saute the garlic in olive oil, and then add the other ingredients, except cheese.

Filling number two:

• Chop and fry the bacon, add the other ingredients, except cheese, and saute.

• Make the omlet.
• Cut omlet in half, put one half aside.
• Put filling number on one half of the first omlet, filling number two on the other half.
• Sprinkle on cheese, if necessary, melt under broiler.
• Put the second half of the omlet on top of the other, and cut into four sandwiches.
• Serves two people, one sandwich with each filling.

Oven Dried Tomatoes with Green Tea Noodles

I adapted this dish from a recipe in Biba's Italy by Biba Caggiano. The version in her book is from the Hotel Hassler in Rome, by chef Paolo Londero. His has shrimp, we but just had ours with the tomatoes. I plucked about 8 baby roma's from the garden, cut them in half and then in half again, and dried them in the oven at 250 degrees for two and a half hours before dinner.




About half an hour before dinner I made Egg Pasta with the addition of 2 TB of Japanese green tea, that I ground into a powder in my spice grinder.



While cutting the pasta, I put water on to boil.



When I got done cutting the pasta I chopped up a clove of garlic and tossed it and some crushed red pepper in some olive oil, and then added the dried tomatoes. A dash of salt, a splash of white wine vinegar, about a tablespoon of butter and some chopped parsley finished the sauce. I cooked the fresh pasta for about two minutes before it was al dente and then tossed the pasta with the sauce and served with Parmigiano Reggiano. The dried tomatoes were bursting with flavor.

Hen of the Woods and Tomato Sandwiches

When I asked a fellow blogger (Dianne at A Stove With a House Around It ) who mentioned that her Italian American grandfather used to forage for hen of the wood, what she suggested I do with the next batch of it I bought, here's what she had to say:

"I just consulted Dad, who is my hen of the woods expert, to remind me of how he cooks them. After cleaning them, he blanches them in boiling water for about five minutes, then drains and cools them. When they're cool enough to handle, squeeze out any excess water.

You can then proceed with cooking them, or you can freeze them in plastic baggies in single-serving sizes to use later. Regardless of how he's going to eat them, Dad always begins by sauteing the cleaned, blanched and drained mushrooms in olive oil with a little garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper until the mushrooms are tender and a little crispy on the edges.

His favorite way to eat them is to add some fresh tomato to the sauteed mushrooms, near the end of the cooking time. Cook the tomatoes gently, combining them with the mushrooms. He eats the mushroom-tomato mixture as a sandwich, on some fresh Italian bread with a little mayo.

He also adds the sauteed mushrooms to tomato sauce to eat with pasta, but says that mushroom sandwiches are his favorite. He reiterates: the key is to blanch them in advance of however you're going to cook/prepare them. Otherwise they won't be fully cooked and the texture/flavor will be off."




I served them for dinner tonight with hen of the woods from the farmer's market, tomatoes from the garden, home made mayo, potato cakes cooked with oregano and parmesan melted on top, and cucumbers from the garden in a dill vinaigrette.

Dianne, tell your Dad I think I love him. I don't know if I'll ever bother eating hen of the woods another way.

My first taste of cucumers grown by myself.

I had them on the side of my Asian style Potato Cakes along with Duo Gai and Nuoc Cham.

The Garden--June 23nd

I found this cicada shell on the bottom of one of the okra leafs this morning when I was weeding. I remember collecting these shells like crazy with my niece and nephew one year when we went camping at Petit Jean State park, so immediately thought of the kids this morning.



Aren't okra blossoms beautiful? Forgive the dirty fingernails--I was weeding!



My cucumbers and tomatoes are certainly going to be the crops that yield the most produce in my first garden!





I'm afraid the pole beans are probably going to yield the least! :(

Happy Birthday Utah!!!!

Today is my nephew's birthday. I can't believe he is nine! He accompanied his Dad to a grown up dinner the other night. His dad is in the field of entomology and this was a meeting of "bug people." The foods were all locally grown and prepared by a local chef (local being where my sis and family live, which is too far away from me!). one of the appetizers (cooked and seasoned, I believe) for these bug people's dinner was grubs.



Yes, bugs.

He said they tasted like shrimp!

I think my little guy is going to be an adventurous foodie like his Auntie M. He ate five of these guys!

Zinnias from Wye Mountain

We met our friend Michelle at the farmer's market again, because we were all craving huevos from the Casa Manana taqueria in the River Market. And, of course, I ventured off my list again. The zinnias were to beautiful to pass up!

The Big Stack!

We are infatuated with Blueberry Pancakes !!!!

My First Harvest

I was very excited today when I went out to the garden and saw that I had three ripe romas. I had planned on making a recipe on another blog with my first tomatoes, but unfortunately I didn't have mozarella in the house, so I whipped this up instead, using some basil from the garden and some garlic from the farmer's market.

Ingredients:

• Fresh egg pasta for two
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 5 Roma tomatoes, small dice
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup basil chopped
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano grated

Directions

• Boil water for the pasta.
• Heat the garlic in the olive oil until tender, medium heat.
• Add the tomatoes, black pepper, and vinegar.
• Meanwhile cook the pasta, if using fresh this should take between 30 seconds to two minutes.
• Drain the pasta and return to pan.
• Pour the olive oil and vegetable mixture over the pasta and mix.
• Add the basil and mix.
• Add the cheese and mix.
• Serve in two bowls with additional cheese on the side.

Thai Basil Pesto

This is one of my mad "foodie" science experiments! I had a huge amount of Thai basil from my last trip to the farmer's market and wanted to use it before it went bad. So I thought, why not make a paste based on Italian style pesto? I substituted common southeast Asian herbs, peanuts for the pine-nuts, cut down the amount of oil since I wouldn't be including a cheese, and voila! And I would like to acknowledge that I based some of my measurements on Dianne's Arugula Pesto at A Stove With a House Around It.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup peanuts
• 1 cup Thai basil
• 1/3 cup cilantro
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 TB lime juice
• 1 small red chili (I left the seeds in, if you aren't a spice fiend you might want to scrape the seeds out)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (although, next time I'm going to try peanut oil, I was out when I made this)

Directions:

I am sans food processor right now, so I just tossed all peanuts, herbs, garlic, and pepper in my spice grinder, tossed the resulting paste in a mixing bowl and added the lime juice and the vegetable oil and used a hand mixer to combine everything. I used half of it for Rice Noodle Stir Fry with Thai Basil Pesto , and froze the other half in a ziploc bag in the freezer.

Note: Because of the lack of a substitute for the cheese in Italian style pesto, this paste doesn't have much in the way of a salty flavor. Next time I make this I may add a TB of fish sauce--but then again may not, since almost everything I will probably cook with this with with have Nuoc Cham on the side.

Rice Noodle Stir Fry with Thai Basil Pesto

So after I created my Southeast Asian style pesto, what to serve it with but noodles? The dish I came up with has some similarities with pad thai.

Ingredients:

• 2 Dried mushrooms (to be honest I'm not sure what they are called, I get them at the Asian market and the writing is all in ideograms)
• 1 Cup hot water
• 1/2 Package of flat rice noodles
• 8 Scallions, cut in inch long pieces
• 1/4 cup Thai Basil pesto
• 1 TB Fish sauce
• 1 TB Lime juice
• 1/2 Package of flat rice noodles
• 2 eggs whisked together
• 4-8 Oz. thinly sliced pork depending on how big of a meat eater you are (I used pre-cooked pork slices that I had marinated in oil, lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper and had frozen earlier for future use)

Directions:

• Heat water to boiling and add mushrooms to hydrate. I do mine in a little jar to add steam into the mix, you can also do it in a bowl, just put something on top of the mushrooms as a weight because they will float.
• Also bring 4 quarts of water to boil on the stove. Turn the heat off and add the noodles. Leave to sit for 8 or 10 minutes, or until al dente.
• Remove the noodles and drain in colander. Spray with cold water so they will stop cooking and allow to drain.

• Slice the scallions.

• Slice the pork.

• When the mushrooms are hydrated, slice them thinly.

• Heat some vegetable oil on medium high heat in a wok, or other heavy pan, and add the scallions and the mushrooms.
• If you are using raw pork, add it to the mix at this point.
• Then add the pesto and heat it through until fragrant, and (if using raw) the meat is browned.

• Add the noodles, and stir fry until will coated with the pesto.

• Flatten the noodles out around the pan, and add the egg and let it cook until it is starting to set.

• I used pre-cooked and pre-marinated pork, and added it at this time.
• Continue stir frying until everything is warmed through.

• Divide into 4 bowls and serve with chopped peanutes, Duo Gai, and Nuoc Cham.

The Garden--June 17

I know I've already posted once today--but I'm just so excited since coming back in from the garden, that I had to share these pictures. This is the first time I've ever attempted gardening and I can't believe how well everything is doing!

My first tomato is ripening!

Little Cucumber!

Okra

Peach Blossom Green Tea Cookies

Ingredients:

• 5 tsp peach blossom green tea (or another fragrant tea, jasmine or Earl Grey for example)
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 5 Tablespoons, plus one tsp butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:

• Steep 1 1/4 tsp of the tea in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain and dispose of leaves.
• Place the tea in the refrigerator to cool.
• In a blender combine the sugar and the remaining tea and blend into a fine powder.
• In a medium bowl beat together the butter, and tea sugar at high speed until pale yellow and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, 3 TB of the brewed tea, the vanilla extract, salt and flour.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes to let the tea flavor develop.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Lightly grease two nonstick cookie sheets with butter.
• Drop scant teaspoonfuls of the batter onto one of the sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Using the back of a spoon or your fingers, spread the cookies out to make 2 inche\ circles.
• Bake for 9 or 10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown.
• Let the cookies cool on the pan for 1 minute and then using a thin metal spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

This recipe is based off a recipe for Earl Grea Tea Wafers in one of my favorite cookbooks A New Way to Cook by Sally Schneider.

Kung Pao at Michelle's

So, my old friend Michelle (and by old I mean around a quarter of a century since we met on that playground back in . . . . ) has a recipe she is known for. Before she got her job here in Arkansas she was working in Iowa for awhile and her friends there begged her to make it one last time before she left. My hazy memories of Kung Pao and Michelle include a night at my parent's house (sans parents), yummy food, alcohol, and being surrounded by one hell of an amazing mess! I mentioned this to Mom the other night, and felt like a teenager when she laughed and said she was glad we hadn't burnt the house down!

I wasn't much of a cook back then so I was really excited when Michelle invited my husband and myself over to her house to do Kung Pao and meet her friends Aga and Jerzy. I was ready to see it demonstrated!



Michelle has a great setup in her kitchen for hosting a "foodie" get together. We felt like we were on the set of Mario Batali's show, sitting around the stove/counter eating tidbits and asking questions. Maybe if we are all really lucky Michelle will post the recipe in the comments section!



But we were in for a treat we weren't expecting as well. Aga and Jerzy brought dessert--an absolutely amazing pavlova. I had never had pavlova so I was really excited. Aga borrowed Michelle's "kitchen god", a kitchen aid mixer she got severely reduced at Williams and Sonoma, and whipped up some cream and Jerzy scooped out the passion fruit. We all agreed that the inside of passion fruit looks a lot like a sack of tadpole eggs (some of us were tom boys before we were foodies), but after tasting it agreed in was yummy--although I think Richard is still trying to decide. Jerzy said that the passion fruit must be named that because people who like it are passionate, which I think is why his face is bright red in the picture below, since I said I would have to mention that on my blog! I definitely need to get the recipe from them and possibly a lesson as well--this was an absolutely divine dessert.

Silk Road Cookies

These are spicy--and would make great Christmas cookies.

Ingredients:

• 12 TB soften and unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 TB milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup ginger spread
• 1 TB finely round black pepper
• 2 tsp ground star anise
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp finely ground cayenne pepper
• 3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup plus 2 TB honey
• 2 TB mollasses

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 340 degrees.
• Cream together the egg and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
• Mix in the baking soda, ginger spread, black pepper, star anise, cloves, nutmeg, and,cayenne pepper
• Mix in the flour one cup at a time.
• Mix in the honey.
• Mix in the molasses.
• On a non-stick cookie sheet dot a scant teaspoon of dough, spaced 2 inches from each other.
• Bake for 9 minutes.
• Makes about 64 cookies.

Sunday Brunch--Blueberry Pancakes

Mom and Dad dropped by to visit for a little while on their way home from a trip to Little Rock yesterday . Mom very thoughtfully brought along 2 quart size bags of blueberries that she picked at my Uncle Jeff Marlow's blueberry farm outside of Hagarville, Ar. After reviewing several recipes online for blueberry pancakes, I went with my old everyday pancake recipe and just dropped 8-10 blueberries evenly on top of the pancake as it cooked on the griddle.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 TB sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• Vegetable oil

Directions:

• In a large bowl mix the first four ingredients.
• In a smaller bowl beat the egg and stir in milk and 3 TB of the vegetable oil.
• Add to the flour mixture and stir until flour is just moistened.
• Heat griddle over medium high heat and brush with oil.
• Pour batter by the 1/2 cup onto the hot skillet.
• Cook until the top bubbles, and the sides look try.
• Turn over with a flipper and cook until underside is golden.
• Serve with honey, maple syrup, or syrup of your choice.

The Garden--June 8

Everything is really starting to take off now. I don't think it'll be too much longer before I'm posting up recipes using home grown veggies.

Cucumbers


Cucumber blossom

Cucumbers and Okra

Pole Beans


Pole Bean blossoms



Roma Tomatoes

There are flower's blooming all around the yard as well.

Camellia

Trumpet Vine

Tiger Lily

Athelia or Rose of Sharon