Phun in Philly: Days One and Two

Ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? I'm feeling that way right now. E and I got home yesterday from a four day mini-vaca to Philly, and my legs are jello. I wish I'd worn a pedometer because I feel like I walked a hundred miles. Two hundred maybe. Anyway, it's a good thing, because I definitely needed to walk off everything I ate: milkshakes, cheese steaks, Thai, and Mexican, plus the best brunch in the history of brunches. Philadelphia is foodie heaven, people. Luckily for us, it's only a two hour drive, but if you get a chance to swing by, do so immediately! It's a really fun city, full of amazing American history, great shopping and food, and too much to do in only a few days. I took a ridiculous amount of photos, so I'm just going to highlight a few of them and add links so as not to lull you to sleep with my grandiose photo stylings :P Every place we went I would go back to, so hit them up if you can!

Day One: We checked in to our hotel right across from City Hall, and then hit up La Scala for Happy Hour. We ordered these insane little risotto and mozzarella arancine (basically risotto and cheese rolled into balls, then breaded and fried) and the calamari, which was also good. Then it was on to McGillin's Olde Ale House, the oldest bar in town. They opened in 1860 and still serve beer made from original recipes, plus they serve sauerbraten, which makes E happier than a pig in sheisse. It's charming and full of locals, so you won't feel surrounded by tourists.

Day Two: Our official sightseeing day and the day of a million footsteps. We started at the National Constitution Center, which is so interesting, even if you aren't a big history dork. It takes about an hour and is right downtown, so you can stop there after seeing the LOVE statue and head over to Reading Terminal Market aka Heaven. 

I could have spent all fricking day in this place! Holy crap, you guys, food for miles. Fresh and local produce, meats, specialty foods, tons of little places to sit and eat any kind of cuisine you want, plus adorable Amish girls hawking bread, old dudes with homemade sausage, and it smells some kind of amazing I can't even describe. Basically, I want to move in. If you dig food, this place is a must see. 

From there we walked through Chinatown to Liberty Bell Center, then stopped for beer at City Tavern. This is another place that has been around forever is is full of history, and they make the poor staff dress up. It's a little like traveling back in time, and the food is supposed to be great. 

Next we wandered over to Penn's Landing, where we had cheese steaks at Campo's and milkshakes at Franklin Fountain. Honestly, cheese steaks don't do much for me, but that little ice cream shop was the cutest thing ever. 

By then I needed a nap. Instead we went to Ben Franklin's house, shop hopped, and went out for Thai food. See what I'm saying about needing the walking? We had lemongrass soup, lettuce wraps and green curry at Aqua, which was all so good. It was a little loud thanks to a couple of big loudmouth parties, but the pricing was really reasonable for the area and the food we had. It's BYO, which it seems like may of the smaller restaurants are in town, so stop for booze on your way! After that, we went back to the hotel and I passed the f out. Philly made me tired! 

Stay tuned for Days 3 and 4, when E and I go to jail!

Bringing Sexy Back

Ok, so maybe a big bowl of pasta isn't as sexy as Justin Timberlake in a leotard shakin' it with Beyonce (oh, you didn't find that video sexy? Fine then.), but it's pretty close. It's Sexy Food week at IHCC and yes, you read that correctly. While many people may instantly read this and think of foods believed to be aphrodisiacs (sorry but there is no miki fiki way I'm cooking oysters) or chocolate desserts or something you could eat in bed, I just thought pasta. This one specifically. Maybe it's the "Lady and the Tramp" fan in me. Maybe it's the fact that the last time I made this pasta from The Minimalist Cooks at Home, E was totally over the moon for it. It's pretty sexy when people love your food. And I guess, if you're a rebel, you could eat this in bed, too.

Feta Stuffed Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/4 cup feta cheese
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 Tbls fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbls. fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. sriracha
1 egg
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

Preparation:
In a large bowl, whisk all ingredients except turkey and feta until combined. Add turkey and fold seasonings into the meat with your hands gently until just combined. Using a large spoon or a batter scoop, scoop out 2 Tbls. portion of turkey mixture. Make an indentation with your thumb and fill with 1 tsp. of feta. Fold turkey over to seal and roll gently to make a ball.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a saute pan with a little bit of oil. Brown meatballs on all sides over medium high heat. Transfer to a baking dish and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Now get moving on your pasta while these bad boys cook!


Linguine with Yellow Zucchini 
Adapted from Mark Bittman's Spaghetti with Zucchini from The Minimalist Cooks at Home
Ingredients:
1 lb. whole wheat linguine
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup feta cheese
Salt and pepper
1 medium yellow zucchini, sliced

Preparation:
Whisk eggs, half of parmesan, and feta together and set aside. In the same pan you used to cook the meatballs, cook zucchini over medium heat until lightly browned. Set aside.
Cook linguine in boiling water until al dente. Drain (reserving a bit of pasta water) and return to the pot. Immediately add egg mixture and zucchini and toss for several minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a few spoonfuls of pasta water and toss. Season with salt and pepper and serve with meatballs, remaining parmesan, and herb garnish.

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The Other Wife and the LaLa

Nothing like finishing off your Labor Day weekend with a festival right? Food, fun, rides, games, sunshine, it all sounds awesomesauce! That is unless you are at the West Warwick Portuguese Festival, lovingly called "The LaLa" by those in the know. The LaLa is an event that one of E's cousins has been going to for years, being from the Portuguese side of the family, and he clearly has fond memories of the place. When we got an invite to tag (Ha! I just typed gag instead of tag, Freudian, no?) along this year, we jumped on board. I should have given it a second thought when I realized it is held in West Warwick (I realize for non-Rhode Islanders this is meaningless info, but trust me). By the way, that girl up there? That's me with my hair straightened, which happens all of 3 times a year and freaks everyone out. That girl is lovingly called the "Other Wife" by E. As in, "Hey Other Wife! Make me a sandwich!" He can dream.

So back to the LaLa. It started with a bang. The parade, if you can call it that, was full of local politicians, little girls in gowns, and five minutes gaps between groups. There was a band that played no music, and a crew of young dudes in suits and sashes, all wearing gold sunglasses, all talking on cell phones. Turns out they are the board of the Portuguese Club, elected officials you might say. Elected officials who later cut all the lines with their girlfriends and yelled at the teenage food vendors for not speaking Portuguese, cause  "Yo! If you gonna work the LaLa, you gotta speak the language, ammiright?" Classy.

The rest of the event featured highlights like the oddly inappropriate Wacky House ride:

Why are there legs in the house's mouth? And why does it have a mouth anyway?

Someone explain to me how a drunk cop without pants is kid friendly. Please.

Oh and then, then guys, were the tee shirts:

Too bad he's never actually seen any. Oh, and he was helping run one of the kids fishing games.

Wait, I though Hulkamania ended in the early 90's? I'm so behind on the times. It still freaks me out that a guy in his fifties would actually attend an event where he could purchase a brand new Hulk tee shirt and then wear it proudly in public. 

Sigh. I did find the time in the middle of all of my stunned people watching to stuff my face with a big caramel apple and the only thing that actually made the place worth visiting, a cacoila (which everyone around pronounces like caserla, just FYI). It's a very typical Portuguese American sandwich served on those awesome soft rolls, dripping sweet juice all over you and the ground. It's pork, so how can it not be good? I'm going to make some in the crock pot this week, cause I just can't get enough. 

Portuguese Cacoila Sandwiches

Ingredients:
2 lbs. pork (butt, shoulder, whatevs)
2 onions, sliced into rings
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (unless you have a Portuguese market nearby and then you can use Pemento Muida)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup OJ
1/2 cup red wine                                                      
1 cup water

Preparation:
Slow Cooker: Add all ingredients to a slow cooker and toss to coat. Cook on high for 4 hours or until pork falls apart easily. Shred and serve on soft Portuguese rolls.
Stove Top: Add all ingredients to a large pot and cook over medium heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If liquid begins to reduce too much, add a bit more water so that the meat will not dry out. Shred and serve on soft Portuguese rolls.


*Note, the above sandwich photo is borrowed from Jim and Mary, cause I ate mine too fast to take a picture if it. Apparently the New Bedford Portuguese Festival is where it's at. Next year I'm headed north.

Gone too soon...

I apologize to all of you non-New Englanders for what you are about to see. I understand your jealousy. As noted previously, Labor Day's annual Lobster Fest is all about pigging out with our family. Generally, it's a good idea to fast for several days in preparation, much as I assume Kobayashi does before a hot dog eating competition. The guys were particularly excited about drinking Sam's Octoberfest instead of Summer Ale this year, that and the fact that they got to eat fried stuff. Occasionally we play a few lawn games (which have occasionally become drunken lawn games, I did mention beer!), but really, we just sit around and eat all day long. I'm not apologizing for that, not even to myself, but that's just because I'm avoiding my scale for the rest of the week.

Our menu tends to be pretty standard cook-out fare: chips and guacamole, potato and garden salads, corn on the cob, some burgers and hot dogs for the kids and, of course, a ridiculous number of lobsters. We always end up with some new and exciting standouts.  This year, it was my brother's fried green beans with bacon horseradish dipping sauce and my sister's herbed blueberry garden salad. I'll post those once I nag them to give me the recipe so I can recreate them! We also had the obligatory buttload of desserts, including my aunt's chocolate chip cookies, my grandmother's apple pies, blueberry pie, peach pie, ice cream, and a cake I found on Fork Spoon Knife. It's insanely chocolatey, super moist, and a sneaky way to get rid of any lingering zucchini in your garden. Serve it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and some strawberries and you're money, baby.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf Cake
Adapted from Fork Spoon Knife


Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups zucchini, grated
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips, semisweet
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the eggs, oil, and yogurt in a small bowl. Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add zucchini and chocolate chips to the dry ingredients. Add the wet mixture in three parts to the dry and fold until just combined. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on rack to room temperature before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar.

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Tuesday Twister, Alicia's Tasty Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesdays

September? WTF?

Labor Day celebrations are like getting shots at the doctor's office. Sure you get a lollipop, but it hurts like a kick in the pants. It's the official end of summer cook outs, time for kids to head back to school, and time for warm weather to start slowly (hopefully slowly) melting away. Not that I don't heart fall, especially in New England with all the leaves changing colors and apple picking and pumpkins, but I'm a summer girl at heart.

Our family celebrates this last bash of summer every year with a big Lobster Fest at my uncle's house in RI. We (well, the boys) drag a bunch of picnic tables over from the local Boy Scout camp, cover them with plastic sheets, and gorge ourselves on sea cockroaches that were swimming just that morning. Well, everyone else does. I don't do lobster. I know, I know, the horror! Growing up surrounded by the stuff and I can't even stomach it. The carnage left by 15 lobster guzzling adults is pretty disturbing. Every year I bring something else to cook for myself and the few finicky little kids who would rather have a hot dog than wrangle with a red shelled beast. They like playing with the live ones and screaming when they snap their claws, but they aren't about to eat the things. I totally get it. I don't want my food glaring at me, either.

This skirt steak is a super quick dish that takes literally minutes to cook. If you do the marinating and the chimichurri before you head to a party, this is a great option for a Labor Day cookout. And it won't require tools and swearing to eat.


Marinated Skirt Steak with Tomatoes and Chimichurri


Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. skirt steak
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled
Juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper
1-3 Tbls. olive oil

Preparation:
In a large ziploc bag, combine extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, red pepper, basil, salt and pepper. Add steak to the bag and toss to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
Place cilantro, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 Tbls. olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add more oil if needed to make a paste. Add chopped tomatoes to herb paste and stir to combine.
Cook steak over a preheated grill for 2-3 minutes per side. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes before slicing on the bias. Serve topped with tomatoes and chimichurri.

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From the Archives

I've started combing through old files in an attempt to organize and clean up my computer. In doing so, I've found a bunch of photos of food I never posted, recipes I may have partially forgotten, and some really crappy lighting. At least I've fixed that problem, for the most part! This one is from last October, and I remember, at least vaguely, that they were really good. They have bacon in them, so how could they not be? I must have planned on posting them, since I have in-progress shots, but who knows why I never did. Lazy? Me? Never.

BBQ Bleu Cheese Mini Meatloaves (aka Meat Muffins)

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey

3 slices of bacon. cut into quarters

1/2 cup bleu cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup BBQ sauce, divided

salt and pepper

Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1 egg white

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. In a large bowl, gently mix turkey, garlic, egg white, 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce, and bread crumbs; season with salt and pepper and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Divide into twelve portions. Place each portion into muffin cups, making a small well in the center. Divide bleu cheese evenly among muffins. Fold turkey mixture over the cheese and pinch to seal. Top each muffin with a piece of bacon and brush with some of the remaining BBQ sauce. Bake for 25 minutes, basting again with remaining BBQ sauce halfway through cooking and at the end.

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Sloppy Joe, Sloppy, Sloppy Joe

Did you guys know that Mark Bittman writes a monthly feature for Cooking Light Magazine? I somehow missed that fact, even though I have a stack of recent issues sitting on my coffee table. Could be because that stack is 47 issues high and includes 90% food magazines. They get kind of lost together, and even though I skim through each issue as it comes in, I never really read through most of them. I started editing the pile this week. I set aside issues by month and started with the oldest, pulling out any recipes I want to try  and tossing the rest in my Freecycle pile. (What? You don't Freecycle? Get on it, girl!) I stumbled upon this recipe in the middle of all of my shredding and filing and drooling. So good, you guys! It's just as saucy and flavorful as the typical Sloppy Joe, but so much better for you. I even used ground turkey instead of sirloin, so that took the fat level down even more. If you want to make this dish vegan, I suppose you could use tofu or some Smart Ground or something. It's worth it, just grab some napkins before you dig in!

Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes
Mark Bittman's Less Meat, More Flavor, Cooking Light, May 2010

Ingredients:
2 Tbls. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped white onion
1 Tbls. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
6 oz. ground sirloin, pork, turkey, or tofu
1/2 cup grated carrot
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 c. crushed tomato
1 (15.5 oz.) can red beans, drained and rinsed
HBin5 Avocado buns for serving
red onion for garnish

Preparation:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic, salt, pepper and ground meat to pan. Cook 5 minutes or until meat is browned and veggies are tender, stirring occasionally to crumble meat.
Add carrot, chili powder, sugar, oregano, and red pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until thickened. Partially mash 1 cup of the beans with a fork. Stir mashed beans and remaining whole beans into the meat mixture. Cook about a minute or until heated. Serve over buns with red onion garnish.

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Seriously, this is your last chance

Fresh corn is already getting difficult to find around here and September is disturbingly close. Some of your kids may already be back in school. It's disgusting and terrifying, and this is pretty much your last chance to throw a late summer cookout before you have to get into full back to school mode. Run, don't walk to your market and grab some corn, some burgers, and a big bottle of tequila, cause if your September stress is anything like mine can be, you're gonna need it. 

Now to make the side dish that will become your go-to summer side dish for ever and ever amen. You guys all know how to grill corn, right? If you haven't done it this summer, you'd better get your butts in gear. I've made this salad at least a dozen times and it is always gone too fast, much like 85 degree sunny beach days. Just make sure you remove all of the hanging leaves and silk from the top of your ears of corn (grab hold tight and twist your wrist, that should take care of it) and soak them in water for 5 minutes or so. If you wanna go crazy, pull back the husks a bit, smear the corn with butter, salt, pepper, and cumin, and fold the husks back up before grilling. For this salad, I don't bother because there are so many other components. You can mix them up any way you want to; substitute soy beans for black beans, use yellow squash or green peppers. It's all good.

Grilled Corn and Black Bean Salad
Ingredients:

4 ears of corn
2 large red peppers
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbls. honey
2 Tbls. red wine vinegar
2 Tbls. olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. cumin

Preparation:
On a preheated outdoor grill or grill pan, cook ears of corn in husks for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn every five minutes. Remove and allow to cool 5 minutes before handling. While corn cooks, grill peppers and zucchini until just blackened. About 5 minutes per side. Remove and slice into 1/4 inch pieces. When corn has cooled enough to handle, remove husks and slice off the cob. Toss corn, pepper, zucchini, and onion with all remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk honey, juices, oil and vinegar in a small bowl and pour over vegetables. Toss to coat.

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Side Dish Saturdays and Tasty Tuesdays!

Put 'em up

Back in college, I always thought of myself as an independent spirit. I worked full time while in school full time, paying for my own apartment, going out all the time, and generally enjoying myself through all sorts of tomfoolery. I never took a class before 10 AM, my weekends started on Thursdays, and there was never a shortage of girlfriends to take out dancing. Through some sort of miracle, my head stayed screwed on through it all, and I managed to graduated with honors and land a job right out of school. I could say with confidence that my job and fun were at the top of my priority list.

Oh, how things change. It only took about a year for me to realize that I would be completely burned out by the time I was 25 if I kept moving at the same speed. Little by little, I started to slow down. Nowadays, I feel like I can actually sit still. We may not even move this year. I'm as domesticated as a Guernsey cow. I never thought I'd be baking my own bread, canning jams, and making pickles. I'm turning into my great grandmother, and it's a very comfortable place indeed.


Sweet and Sour Pickles
Adapted from Southern Living Magazine, August 2010

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ( 4 or 5 depending on size) cucumbers, sliced into rounds
2 cups rice vinegar
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 Tbls. black peppercorns
1 Tbls. sesame seeds
1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Preparation:
Combine, vinegars, sugar and salt in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Set aside.
Toss cucumber slices with all remaining ingredients in a 9x13 baking dish. Pour hot vinegar mixture over the top and toss well. Let stand two hours.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Transfer to pint jars and store in the fridge.

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This post is linked to Magazine Mondays!

Peachy Keen

I'm kind of a spazz when it comes to visiting the farmer's market. I usually go with a few things in mind, like a recipe I want to try or a certain seller I want to see, but then I get there and get distracted like a toddler and start touching and smelling everything and get dizzy and forget what I originally wanted. I guess it's not really a bad thing, unless you end up coming home with almost 10 pounds of peaches and 3 gourmet pickles. Yeah. That was the bounty E and I came home with this week. We couldn't carry anything else.

So, what does one do with that many peaches? Even the farmer guys wanted to know. One asked if I was making a pie. Yeah dude, I'm making a 10 pound peach pie! Going for the record! Which, by the way, is apparently held by someone in South Carolina, while the World's Largest Peach Cobbler was made in Georgia. No surprises there. But no, no pies here, and no cobblers, either. I decided to can most of them and use the rest to make jam. Last year I made Caramel Spiced Jam with my peaches, which was part of pretty much everyone in the family's Christmas gifts, but I wanted to try something different. This new jam came out so stupid delicious, I don't think I'm giving it to anyone. Make your own.

Ginger Peach Jam
Ingredients:
6 cups peeled, chopped peaches (about 9-10 peaches, depending on size)
3 cups sugar
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into large chunks
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Equiptment:
4-6 8 oz. jars with lids
large, heavy bottomed pot
Pressure Canner, or another large pot
Potato masher, immersion blender, or food processor

Preparation:
Add all ingredients to a large pot and stir over medium high heat. Bring to a rolling boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Mash peaches using a potato masher or immersion blender (Don't have one? You can use a food processor. Just remove jam from the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer peach chunks to the food processor. Pulse a few times and return to the pot.). Continue cooking and stirring for 5 more minutes until jam thickens*. Remove ginger and cinnamon sticks. Pour immediately into hot, sterilized jars.

Wipe the rims of jars with a clean towel and twist lids on tightly. Place jars in the second pot or your canner. Pour in hot water to cover jars by an inch or two. Boil for 5 minutes, remove jars and let sit at room temperature. Listen for the little pling sound as each lid pops. If any of the lids didn't seal, just put them in the fridge and eat before the month is up!

*Testing jam: If you've never made jam, you'll want to test it before pouring it into jars. Just pop a plate into the freezer before you start. Once it looks thick, place a teaspoon of jam on the plate and freeze for 2 minutes. If the jam has thickened and doesn't run down the plate, you're good to go. If it is runny, cook for 3 more minutes and then test again.

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Seaside

Every once in a while I get struck with a thought that scares the holy bejesus out of me. It happened a few weeks ago when I was sitting in my beach chair, eating cherries, soaking up the sun, and digging my toes in the sand in Ocean City. It happened when I drove along the shore later that day, windows down, sucking in deep breaths of sea air. It happened again when I went to the fish market and bought these sea scallops, dry packed and caught literally that morning. I thought to myself, "Thank God I live in New Jersey."

What? Shut the front door! Me? Loving New Jersey? It's like I've become a pod person. Who the hell do I think I am? I'm meant to hate this Yankee lover's armpit of the country, but lo and behold! It is growing on me, not unlike a fungus, albeit a tasty one. I think it's got to do with being land locked in Michigan for two years (I know, I know, Michiganders, it's the Great Lakes State! But seriously people, you can't get farther from the ocean and we all know that Whitefish you all rave about is just that. White fish). The lack of fresh seafood was incredibly painful for a girl who can wade out into the bay for clams whenever she wants (not that I ever did that in RI, to be honest. I let E and his step dad take care of the heavy labor). Being back shore side, especially in the summer, has brought me back to a place I can actually enjoy the food and the landscape. Amazing. Who knows, Jersey may actually end up like home.


Seared Sea Scallops with Spicy Peach Salsa
(say that one three times fast!)

Ingredients:
1 lb. sea scallops (preferably dry)
2 peaches, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup diced red onion
2 Tbls. honey
1 Tbls red wine vinegar
dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1 Tbls. olive oil
butter

Preparation:
Toss peaches, jalapeño, onion, honey, and vinegar in a bowl. Season with cayenne, salt, and pepper and set aside.

Heat olive oil and a pat of butter in a large skillet (preferably not a non-stick skillet!) over medium high heat. Wash scallops and remove any of the little muscles clinging to the sides. Pat dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Once your pan is very hot, add scallops flat side down, being sure not to crowd the pan. By now you've all watched enough Food Network to know to leave them alone. Resist the urge to touch them and turn them! Give the scallops at least 3 minutes to brown before you peek. If they are nice and crusty, turn them. Give them another 3 or 4 minutes to brown on the other side and remove immediately from pan. Trust me, the last thing you want is a tough, overcooked scallop!

Arrange on plates and serve with a generous scoop of peach salsa.

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I like it raw

Ok, so it's raw foods week over at IHCC. I have to admit, the whole raw foods movement makes me shake my head. Maybe it's only because one of the most vocal spokesman of the whole affair is Woody Harrelson. Don't get me wrong, I dig Woody. He was funny on Cheers and I enjoyed Zombieland, but I don't care about how he eats. The man lives on a private island compound where they produce their own energy and grow all of their own food, so he's not exactly dealing with what most people consider reality. I sometimes wish celebrities would just hide out in their little imaginary universes and be quiet, but then there wouldn't be any Talk Soup or E channel, and I couldn't handle that. So anyway, while this isn't a food lifestyle I'd ever adopt, I certainly appreciate the idea of utilizing fresh local foods in a minimal effort, super fast way. I just couldn't stop singing Wu Tang while I made this salad, shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yeah shimmy yay. I'm so hardcore.

This isn't much of a recipe, to which anyone can attest. More like an assemblage, but you know it's good. Make sure, as Mark advises, you get the very best heirlooms you can, the very freshest basil, and some good cheese. Otherwise this easy five minute dish is a waste of five minutes.

Heirloom Caprese Salad
Inspired by Mark Bittman's 101 Summer Salads

Ingredients:
2 or 3 heirloom tomatoes
1  ball of fresh mozarella
6-8 basil leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut tomatoes and mozzarella into thin slices. Arrange in alternating stacks. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and top with a pile of chopped basil.

Happy National Hot Fudge Sundae Day!

I just love me some random food celebration holidays! But honestly, who comes up with this stuff? It's like a group of food execs just gathered in a conference room one rainy day and started assigning things to empty calendar slots. "Hmmm, May 17th is open, how about National Jalapeño Poppers Day?" Actually, May 17th is National Cherry Cobbler Day, just so ya know. I'm way too lazy to scan the whole list for Jalapeño Poppers, but if they do have a day, let me know. I also love me some Jalapeño Poppers.

In honor of National Hot Fudge Day though, I'm making you a pie. Not just any pie, but a pie featuring one of my favorite flavor combos and one of my favorite cookies. When I was a kid, my mom always bought Archway cookies, and the Dutch Cocoa were the ultimate. I used to sandwich huge globs of peanut butter between two of them and go to town. Since Archway is hosting a little recipe challenge through BakeSpace, I had to give it a go. This is attempt numero uno, and yes, I'm going to save most of it in the freezer until E comes home from his scandalous business trip during which he crashed a Days of Our Lives party and was hit on by Chloe Lane. More on that later.

Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundae Pie

For the crust:
8-9 Archway Dutch Cocoa Cookies, pulverized to make 1.5 cups of crumbs
1/4 c. melted butter

Mix crumbs and butter and press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool and Set aside.

For the ice cream:
1 c. heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
generous pinch of salt

Pulse all ingredients in a blender until well combined. Pour into ice cream maker and process according to instructions for a soft set ice cream.

To assemble:
12 mini or 6 full sized peanut butter cups, roughly chopped
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
1 cup whipped cream
Maraschino cherries
Hot fudge sauce

Pour ice cream into cooled crust. Sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups and freeze for at least one hour. When ready to serve, spread a pool of hot fudge on each plate. Top with a slice of pie. Top pie with whipped cream, sprinkle with peanuts, and add a cherry.

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