cucumber salad, a clean kitchen, and homemade vanilla

When I whipped up this salad for a last-minute dinner the other night and brought it to the table, it conjured up memories of our grandmothers and the farm for both Ryan and I. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions reign in Texas's summer gardens, and neither of us had any shortage of this sweet, tangy, refreshing salad growing up. My mom's version of this salad always said, "Summer is here." And this summer, it feels like it's here to stay.The cucumbers and onions from my mom's garden and the tomatoes from our own made for a spectacularly crunchy and fresh side dish. The salad is laced with white vinegar,...

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the gumbo success

I taunted you with that whole "live blogging" thing, didn't I? And then to wait a few days to even mention it again... It's just cruel. And I apologize.So I'm here to make it up to you, recipe in tow, and to tell you that it turned out almost just like my mother's rendition of okra gumbo. Armed with the fond memory of summer dinner at home, a pound of fresh okra from mom's garden, and a recipe by Mark Bittman, I got to work in the kitchen on Sunday night. I decided to prepare a vegetarian dish with a roux base, and it went a little something like this:5 tbls butter3 small onions, thickly sliced2...

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live blogging fresh okra gumbo

This cannot wait. On the stove, at this very minute, is a simmering pot of roux, okra (picked yesterday from my mom's garden), organic tomatoes--hold that thought, I've gotta go stir--farm onions, and garlic. It is the very incarnation of what I grew up calling gumbo; Ryan just said, "I've never had a gumbo with tomato sauce in it." His version of gumbo looks like Mississippi mud and offers bits of crawdads and shrimp in every bite. My version of gumbo--the stuff my mom ladeled into our bowls on the summer dinner table without restraint--is chock-full of veggies and, to me, tastes like heaven.It's...

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zukes or cukes?

I was way ahead of the game on this one, folks. Way ahead of the game. Waking up early on Saturday lent itself to reading a few cookbook pages and food blogs, which gave me the craving for cool Vietnamese noodle salad, which then inspired me to wake Ryan from his peaceful slumber and accompany me to the Farmers' Market. (Best girlfriend ever, right?) Though I felt like I was cheating on my mother, I bought carrots, cucumbers, peaches, red chiles, watermelon, mushrooms, spring onions, and smoky jalapeno and cilantro goat cheese. What a bounty!After a quick stop at 'ho Foods for rice noodles...

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rustic peach tart

As promised, I tested a new pie crust recipe over the weekend. Following the advice of you wonderful readers (both of you), I tried an all-butter crust. The result? I super-flaky and flavorful crust that was a near-perfect base for a simple peach tart. Last week I ordered Ratio and got straight to baking from it. While I'm not convinced that this is the end-all, be-all of cookbooks (that is, however, how I feel about Bittman's How To Cook Everything, but you already knew that), the idea of cooking by ratios is, in theory, a great one. So I followed Ruhlman's advice and went...

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the truth about apple pie

Folks, I've told you before that I make a pretty mean apple pie. But in the last year, I think I've been taking one very, very bad shortcut: I've been taking the pie out of the oven way too soon.  For Father's Day (yes, I'm aware that was almost a month ago...), I made my dad an apple pie, as is tradition, and it wasn't quite up to par. All the flavors were there, but--and this is a BIG but--the apples were a little on the crunchy side.  And let me impart something to all you fine folks out there: that is NOT how you want the apples to be for a supposedly fantastic pie. ...

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happiness is a KitchenAid mixer

After three weeks of feeling under the weather, I am happy to report that I am back. And last night's little stint in the kitchen (a loaf of pizza-dough-like bread and a pasta dish from our garden that you'll hear about soon enough) got me ready to tackle a slew of new recipes I've been chomping at the bit to try. Coupled with the fact that my tastebuds are functioning again, I'm ready to rev up the burners.Tonight I'm planning on a home version of pizza with jalapenos and pineapple, along with a batch of zucchini bread and possibly some treats for Fin. And here is a short list of other fanciful...

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fig jam: it's delicious.

My first foray into fig preserves turned out to be a success; last night, some impromptu biscuits (glorious in their own right) were topped with spoonfuls of golden fig preserves. The preserves are sweet and have a lovely texture. They're just the right consistency, if I do say so myself. I think the frozen plate test does the trick. (I learned it here--thanks, Kristina!)The biscuits started out as two-ingredient biscuits, until I decided to consult Mark Bittman and found a similar....but different...recipe to follow. A Riff on Mark Bittman's Quick Drop Biscuits2 cups AP flourscant 1...

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from the tree to the jar: fig preserves

I'll come clean with you.  I went a little crazy this weekend, but I had to. You see, fruits and vegetables wait for no one--not the sick, not the busy, not those trying to enjoy a holiday weekend. So even though I'm on (hopefully) the tail end of the worst summer cold in my memory and have been taking every OTC medication on top of antibiotics that the pharmacist told me I can handle, not to mention about eight Neti pot adventures daily.... I decided that my plans for the long weekend--to harvest and can and pickle produce from my mother's garden--had to go forward.  Friday morning...

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where have i been?

So you're hungry for the next recipe, eh? Me too, but I've been too busy making mistakes like these in the kitchen:Ok, things aren't quite that bad. But I have been sick, and out of town, and...Alright, enough with the excuses. I've got a strawberry jam post in the works, and I of course have to show you the apple pie I made for my dad for Father's Day, right? We're making a big trip to the farmers' market this weekend, as well as I'll be picking up cucumbers in Taylor to pickle. There's plenty on the dockett, and I promise to pick up the pace here at The Sustainable Diet!...

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