Monday, July 26, 2010

Plumble

This year, the plum tree in our backyard has hundreds of plums.  When my sister came to visit, we decided we had to use some plums in our dinner.  We found a recipe for pork loin with poached plums (from Walla Walla!).  Somehow this recipe calls for 6 plums (for a total weight of 2 pounds.)  If any of you have seen such large plums, I'd like to know what they look like.  We had to use at least 20 plums to make 2 pounds - and that was a lot (see exhibit A.)  We served the pork with brown rice and green beans - as shown in Exhibit B. 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B
This recipe resulted in lots of yummy leftovers, which we enjoyed for several days.  This would be a great meal to make for 8 people.

For dessert, we made a plum crumble (we called it plumble) that also called for 2 pounds of plums.  It was tart and delicious with vanilla ice cream.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Hot Summer Supper



With the heat wave all over the east this week we,too are doing what we can to keep the house cool. One easy solution is to cook outside. The grill can handle all aspects of a meal so no heat is added to the kitchen. If you then eat outside a well you, hopefully, enjoy a breeze as you watch the sun set. for this meal a couple of days ago we grilled local lamb chunks with red peppers, zuccini and onions. We also grilled a couple of red potatoes coated in olive oil and chipotle chili powder. We made a salad from our garden greens, radishes and snow peas.For dessert, sub duck made raspberry ice cream to use up berries we froze last year. Tomorrow we'll meet here again for chicken salad with green grapes and toasted almonds. Summer enjoyment with cooks to spare.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Comfort Food

Besides the pizza and sushi kick we have been on lately the one dish that is always a huge hit in our house is macaroni and cheese.  I think this was one of the first dishes that I learned to cook as a child (using the Betty Crocker recipe.)  What is it about mac and cheese that all children love?

We have found a healthier version in the Eating Well recipe for Baked Mac and Cheese and we make this at least twice a month.  Recently I started added some sauteed onions to the milk sauce and it adds a little bit more complexity to the flavor.  We generally use sauteed fresh spinach rather than frozen.  On this occasion - we used whole wheat shells and they work well.