Recent Recipes and Eats

This is for Lisa, who said she likes my food posts. These summer nights have been busy, so there hasn't been a huge amount of cooking. But, there has been some.

This year I bought two basil plants instead of one, so last week I made a big batch of pesto from our plants and some leftovers we got at the end of the farmer's market. In addition to having it on pasta, I made tomato, mozzarella, pesto paninis one night.

One of my all time favorite recipes, dilled potato and pickled cucumber salad (make it, its amazing!) yielded Anthony's new favorite snack: easy refrigerator pickles. Just slice up your cucumbers, mix together white vinegar and kosher salt, then combine the vinegar mixture, cucumbers and dill. Let them sit for 24 hours in the fridge, then snack away and add more cucumbers as needed. Picture from Smitten Kitchen.

Our tomato plants have been slow growing, but our Carolina Gold and Sweet 100 plants have been producing mellow yellow tomatoes and sweet little grape tomatoes respectively. I made chicken scampi, plus this new recipe from Iowa Girl Eats, which combines lemon dressing, brown rice, tomatoes and fresh corn. I used Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe, which was a great way to ensure flavorful and fully cooked brown rice.

I can't wait until I have enough tomatoes to make Missy's marinated tomatoes from the Pioneer Woman.

After a way long drought, I baked up some sweet things, too. The Bing cherries I bought at the grocery store a few weeks ago ended up being too tart for snacking, so I made two cherry crumbles. The recipe calls for cherry pie filling, but I just mixed the cherries with 2/3 C sugar and some tapioca to thicken the filling. I also made Mark Bittman's brownies, which are pretty spectacular and densely rich. I like Betty Crocker, but you can't beat these brownies.

I've had this peanut butter swirl bundt cake on my mind for the last few weeks, just need a reason to make it. Same goes for this gin cocktail called The Cuke. Pictures from those respective sites.