My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Summer is barely past us and I”m already thinking about what veggies and flowers I want to grow next year! It’s part of my winter ritual to browse online and through catalogs, finding something new and different to grow. I love growing stuff. And eating …
Let’s talk about homemade tomato sauce. Somehow, in this world of amplified food awareness, it’s become this complicated, convoluted dish and it really doesn’t have to be. I like to make this sauce in the fall when I have an abundance of tomatoes from my garden. Actually, …
I am buried in a myriad of projects right now and am rushing to complete them as the days grow shorter. I know it’s not technically autumn yet, but once Labor Day has passed us by and NFL games are officially part of my Sunday routine again, I have to admit defeat and call another summer over. I get a bit depressed this time of year because I truly, truly despise the snow and cold. Mostly what I hate though are the short days, when it’s dark when I wake up and dark again before I leave work.
Tending to the last of my vegetable garden is always a bit sad, too, as the wilted squash plant is pulled, the tomato, eggplant, bean, and pepper plants begin their decline and the last of the fennel and kohlrabi are pulled from the earth. Cucumber plants are wilting too, after a bountiful summer which seemed overwhelming at times. Dill, which I planted (intentionally) a few years ago, now shows up every year, much to my husband’s dismay. It’s really not too bothersome though – easy to identify and pull up before it goes to seed again, but I love having it on hand for pickles and such.
One of the ways we enjoyed our fresh cukes this summer was these incredibly easy salmon cucumber appetizers. My husband was the inspiration for these (have I mentioned how much I love that he loves such a variety of food?) and they work perfectly as both an easy appetizer and a light lunch or dinner. I”m sure there are probably thousands of similar recipes out there for these so please customize them however you wish.
This isn’t really a “recipe”, as I’m only going to give you the ingredients – the quantities and portion are really up to you, depending on what you have on hand and what the occasion is.
To make the assembly of these as easy as possible, have the cream cheese, capers and cucumbers ar room temperature. If any or all of them are cold, it makes working with them very difficult, as they’ll chill the cream cheese and make it seize up and stiffen. If needed, you can chill these once you’ve assembled them.
Beautiful and, of course, the salmon is heart-healthy, so you can’t feel too guilty for indulging.
For me, a 5 oz. package of smoked salmon, 1/3 of a brick of cream cheese and 1-2 cucumbers are about enough for 16-18 bites or so.
Also, sometimes I assemble these with the salmon right on top of the cucumber, it just depends on my mood. I think they’re more colorful and, therefore, more inviting with the salmon on top but you can build these really however you want to.
You now have an easy appetizer to add to your holiday menu or, if you’re like me, to just enjoy on a late summer day.
Fresh spring rolls, sometimes called summer rolls, are beautiful, aren’t they? No matter what you decide to fill them with, they become these gorgeous stained glass works of edible art. I’ve made spring rolls a number of times because I love their crunchy freshness as …
Have I mentioned how much I love eggs? Probably. And, rest assured, my cholesterol levels are spectacular. Mix them with some gorgeous vegetables, especially from your garden, a bit of cream and a touch of cheese and hello easy meal. Not only is this a …
Warning: weird vegetable alert. In case you didn’t know it, you can eat the unfurled fronds of an ostrich fern. Yes, you heard that right. You can not only eat them but, if you’re like me, you can enjoy them immensely.
Fiddleheads are, at least to most of us, a delicacy that is only to be had in the late spring months of May and June. Mostly found on the east coast and in Canada, fiddleheads are harvested once a year and, like ramps and morel mushrooms, savored for their taste as much as their scarcity.
We have tried growing ostrich ferns here in our zone 5 area of Northern Illinois but, thus far, have not had much luck. (read: any) We have a relative in a neighboring town who grows them by the truckloads and who we’ve hotly debated pillaging them from but, alas, have not.
All a matter of time, in my book.
But, for now, I order them fresh from a grower out east. As much as I’d love to tell you who, I fear their supply will diminish from my post and, therefore, leave me fiddlehead-less, which is not acceptable. What I will tell you is that to order and ship them isn’t cheap – figure around $50 total price for 2 pounds – but, at least in my book, worth it.
Behold….the fiddlehead:
That, my friends, is a thing of beauty.
I lived in Connecticut for quite a stretch of time and these little beauties can be easily found there while they’re in season. That’s how I stumbled upon them and, to this day, relish in their deliciousness. It is why I pay a pretty penny to still be able to enjoy them.
Rule number one with fiddleheads – if you’re not buying them from a reputable establishment, be sure you’re purchasing them from a reputable seller.
Rule number two: don’t eat fiddleheads raw. They can cause stomach upset if eaten raw and then you won’t be thanking me for turning you on to them.
Rule number three: aside from NOT eating them raw, you can prepare them almost any way you prefer to prepare your other veggies…steamed, roasted, grilled, etc.
I prefer mine roasted or grilled, with a drizzle of olive oil, some roughly-chopped garlic, and some coarse salt. Simple, yes, but divine. 15 minutes or so is all it takes; like most veggies, you don’t want them crunchy but, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t turn them into mush.
What do fiddleheads taste like, you ask? Asparagus, mostly, at least to me. They’re a bit grassy…earthy…green.
They do not, however, taste like chicken. Just sayin’.
It’s been a long time since I looked up a lobster bisque recipe because I’ve always made it (and shrimp bisque) the same way. So what I discovered is that I’ve (apparently) been making it wrong all these years. Every recipe I came across called …