TWENTY-THREE & TWENTY-FOUR : HAM PARTY!

PLENTY

NOVEMBER 02 2012

TWENTY-THREE : EGGPLANT CROQUETTES
TWENTY-FOUR : QUINOA & GRILLED SOURDOUGH SALAD

It's Friday night and I'm cooking up a ham the size of my head! The big boy, slathered in a mix of jalapeno jelly and whole-grain mustard, has been slowly baking for the last couple of hours and requires little attention. So I can focus on the other dishes while keeping an eye on the Blazer game. I'm planning to greet my dinner guests with hot, crispy eggplant croquettes then serve the ham with mashed potatoes, sauteed kale, Mr. O's Quinoa & Grilled Sourdough Salad and lots o' wine.

The croquettes worry me because I never deep-fry at home. Don't get me wrong, I really, really love fried foods, but I just know I'll run into trouble... grease splatters, left-over oil to deal with, realizing how easy it is and eating everything breaded and fried from now on. But tonight, it's on! First I need to blacken the eggplant but the broiler isn't really getting the job done so I transfer them out to the grill. The recipe calls for "4 medium eggplant"; I had two small ones from the garden and bulked them up with another three from the store.

garden eggplants in the front

SIXTEEN : GREEN GAZPACHO

PLENTY

SEPTEMBER 18 2012

SIXTEEN : GREEN GAZPACHO

It's that time of year again when the tomatoes are popping and evenings are still warm enough to make a me crave a cool and refreshing dinner. Perfect time for gazpacho! But wait, this green gazpacho doesn't even have tomatoes in it. Is it still gazpacho? I guess so since Wikipedia tells me there are "many modern variations of gazpacho, often in different colors and omitting the tomatoes and bread in favor of... cucumbers, parsley... and other ingredients." Well, at least this will give me the chance to use up some of those cucs taking over the crisper drawer.

TWELVE : CUCUMBER SALAD WITH SMASHED GARLIC & GINGER

PLENTY

AUGUST 7 2012

TWELVE : CUCUMBER SALAD WITH SMASHED GARLIC & GINGER

I've had to be pretty darn creative this year to keep up with all the cucumbers bursting out of the garden. Other than simply tossing in a salad or dipping into hummus, I've snuck lemon cucumber into a fruit salad and have an ongoing fridge pickle laced with mustard seed and sliced onion. Then there's the jar of Bubbies pickle brine that I started filling with my own little pickling cucs and my first attempt at homemade kimchi featuring paper thin slices of the larger Sultan cucs and radish. Next I'm thinking some kind of chutney and I can't wait for my tomatoes to catch up so we can keep cool on hot days with fresh gazpacho.