Cookout!

We had a cookout today!  I'm still enjoying the novelty of this.  I roasted the corn on the grill and it was fabulous.  We shucked it, soaked it in water for about 20 minutes, wrapped it in foil, then put it on the grill with the meat (for others).  It takes about the same time to cook.  I also had a Jeff Novick burger with "ketchup" (chopped tomato and grape), "pickles" (sliced cucumber, d'angou pear vinegar and dill), and no-salt mustard; and Jeff Novick's potato "fries" with a little soy yogurt and "ketchup" (added after I took the picture.  Housemate had a bratwurst and potato salad with her corn.   This was very enjoyable!

I later had a big salad for dinner to get some greens in.

food lately

I've had lots of visitors lately and was busy at work so didn't have much time to post about food.  One of my visitors liked my food and asked me to post the recipes.  I didn't use any recipes,  or write down what I did, but I did snap a few photos.  So hopefully I can re-create them from the photos.  It was more of a method than a recipe which I can describe here.

The meals lately usually consist of beans, greens, salads, and corn on the cob, pretty much all locally grown.  and fruit for dessert (not so much local).    The beans are prepared on the weekend and frozen into daily containers.  Right now I have two batches in the freezer.  One is made with "runner cannellini" beans from rancho gordo.  This is what they looked like after soaking--gigantic!

 I cooked them up with mushrooms and onions.  They are creamy and yummy.   The other batch of beans I made with yellow-eyed beans (I don't see them listed right now on the rancho gordo site), and carrot juice, onions, mushrooms, and a little unhulled barley and black rice--really good!  I describe how to cook this up here.

That's the beans.  Then for the most of the veggies, I've been using kale, collards and herbs from the garden (basil, rosemary, chives, dill, cilantro--no rhyme or reason to this besides it grows well), and local produce from the co-op or garden which lately has been summer squash and zucchini and eggplant.  If I use the white beans, I add tomatoes from the garden.  I cook up the veggies in the pressure cooker while the corn on the cob is prepped and boiled.    After the veggies are done, add the beans and 1-2 Tbsp of seed mixture.

Here are some beans & greens:

Here's another batch served up with our usual corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes:

Salads consist of lettuce, maybe some cabbage because the local cabbage is real sweet right now, fresh garden tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, bell pepper, occasionally broccoli from the garden, maybe peas or edamame, and dressing made from a little fresh squeezed orange juice (optional), vinegar (d'angou pear, riesling raisin or a good balsamic) and seed mixture.  Here's today's salad (with cabbage and spinach, forgot to buy lettuce):

We often add some Penzey's no-salt seasonings to the veggies, salads, corn and tomatoes.   Our favorite is mural of flavors, but we also have been trying out sunny paris.

Sometimes instead of greens and beans, we'll have fresh green beans from the garden and salad and corn.  I'll combine the green beans with potatoes and herbs for housemate and guests.

Here's something I made up one night when I was concerned that my guest might be tired of greens and beans.  This was a vegetable curry:

I didn't have much in the fridge so the vegetables were summer squash and cabbage, onion, mushroom and frozen peas.  It looks like there's a potato in there too.  I don't usually make potatoes for myself but I probably thought the guest would like it.   Eggplant would have been good too.  Now I know from experience that curry without salt and sugar tastes bitter and bland.  Since I don't use salt, I needed a sweetener.  I had banana and frozen mangos which I thawed.  I cooked up the squash, cabbage, onion, mushroom, and potato in the pressure cooker with about, 1 tsp of curry powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala.   Then added the peas to cook in the hot veggies as they cooled.  I blended up the water that the veggies cooked in with 1/2 banana and some seed mixture (1-2 Tbsp).   Then pulsed it with about 1/2 cup mango.  Added that back to the veggies.   As usual, we had this with corn on the cob.  This recipe was a big hit, which is funny because I just made it up spur of the moment.

I think that describes everything except my latest yummy breakfast which I'll describe in my next post.  I also like to eat raw veggies:  carrots, kohlrabi, and sugar snap peas.  Today I added some lime and cilantro but I don't think it's worth the bother. They are great all by themselves.

For fruit, I usually buy what's in season and on special (discounted that is).  Lately it's been delicious organic cherries, both from Washington state and our own Door County.  Blueberries have been on special too.  And grapes occasionally.  Earlier we had a fabulous strawberry and raspberry season.  They are both still good, just no longer on special.    Local watermelons and muskmelons are in season now.  Fresh figs are available (from California).    We are getting peaches from Door County which are wonderful.  I'm sure I'm missing something. There's so much to choose from right now.  It's a great time of year.  I think the cherries are my favorite though---they are really good right now.

Green and Gold Dessert

If I called it peas and corn and vinegar, you wouldn't want it.  But just try it once with exactly these ingredients:

1/2 cup Sno Pac Organic sweet corn (the sweetest frozen corn I know of)
1/2 cup sno pac organic peas
1/2 tsp D'angou pear vinegar

Combine the corn and peas in a bowl.  If frozen, microwave 30 seconds to thaw.  I like to eat mine partially frozen but you might like yours warm so microwave however long you want.  Stir in the vinegar and mix it up.   Now eat some.  Doesn't it taste good?  Isn't it surprising how good it tastes?

frozen sweet corn

Wow, is this ever good! This weekend, a friend of mine offered some of her frozen corn as a snack and it was good. Since we only have 1 week left of sweet corn at my local corn stand, I decided to freeze some of my own. I blanched the ears of corn (cooked in boiling water for a minute), then scraped off the kernels, and froze--super easy.

A knife would work, but I happen to have a corn scraper, shown at left in the picture (got it at Williams-Sonoma). At right is my bag of corn. This was about 6 cobs. It made about 2.5-3 lbs of corn. When you eat this straight from the bag out of the freezer, it is like candy! Wow. I hope the genetic engineering of this corn hasn't made it so sweet as to be unhealthy.

heaven

beans from the garden, sweet corn picked today from a farm 10 miles away. heaven.

I use mashed avocado (1/2 of one) for butter. yum. Resist the temptation to add anything to the avocado (like herbs, lime juice etc). The corn flavor is most important!

This wasn't enough calories of course. I also had a peach and some leftover beans, greens, & seeds dish (I need a new name for this dish?). Then I resisted the temptation to eat more. I have some food to get rid of before my trip and have a new dessert planned for later on. I was tempted to try it now. I'm full enough...

By the way, this smoothie tastes good. I had a frozen one that I thawed overnight in the fridge and had for brekky today.

okay, I said I wouldn't do a food log as much, but it's the weekend. Plus, I am in such a habit now...