Candied Tomatoes

A Most Unusual Recipe

Recipe adapted from the Hawaii Kai Cookbook

The words candied and tomatoes are rarely seen together. But once you do see them together, they create a strange and compelling idea in the mind, at least in my mind. Since tomatoes are technically fruits, the candied concept seems plausible. Until you consider that eggplant, green beans, and peppers are also fruits, because they too contain seeds.  And what’s up with sweet onion in the candy part? Clearly this is one unusual recipe. But since it was served in an iconic NYC restaurant specializing in Hawaiian cuisine, how could it not be good?

Baked Tomatoes

Whimsical Side Dish

Recipe adapted from Healing Foods

Sometimes I love it when I’m wrong. Like when I first read Miriam Polunin’s Healing Foods, and dismissed it because some of the nutritional information, from the carbo-loading era, was outdated. I did copy a few of the recipes before returning the book to the library, and throughout the years every one of the recipes I’ve tried has turned out fabulous. So, not only did I revise my review on Goodreads, I’m also going to order the book. Baked Tomatoes follow Carrot-Cilantro Soup, Golden Beet Soup with Herbs, and Healthy Polish Carrot Cake in the string of hit recipes from this book. To try next: Veggie Chowder. If these recipes resonate with you, perhaps you’d like to treat yourself to this bargain price cookbook as well.

Southwestern Three Sisters Stew

Healthy & Delish, with or without Garnish

Adapted from Cooking By Moonlight

If someone told me that I could only cook from one cookbook for the rest of my life, I’d choose Karri Ann Allrich’s “Cooking by Moonlight, a Witch’s Guide to Culinary Magic.” Perfect for seasonal cooks, this book contains full menus with recipes for every moon (month) of the year, including a special section for blue moons. Chapters on developing seasonal intuition, stocking a moonlit kitchen, using herbs and spices magically, and even love foods lead the mind to endless possibilities. Also, every single one of the recipes is absolutely fabulous. I would love to meet this woman!

Fresh Raw Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Herbs

Traditionally Served at Room Temperature

Recipe by Bruce and Robin

While perusing cookbooks and recipe websites I often get the impression that Bruce and I like garlic and herbs more than the average person. Such was the case this week when we researched fresh tomato sauce. America’s Test Kitchen wizard Christopher Kimball fries up garlic in quite a bit of oil, but strains out the garlic and adds only the oil to his sauce. Spendid Table’s food maven Lynn Rosetto Kasper rubs the serving bowl with a clove of garlic, but then discards it before adding the tomatoes. Many recipes use no garlic whatsoever. We wondered: what would happen if we just minced up some garlic and threw it into the mix? So we tried it with two small cloves.

Quick Turkey Hungarian Goulash

With Wholegrain Penne Pasta

Recipe by Mom and Robin

Consider tomatoes as a possible comfort food. Just picked from the garden, still warm from the sun, yes. Cold from the fridge and sliced up in a salad, not so much. With tomato harvests reaching their peak, it’s time to figure out how to use mass quantities, while creating comforting meals that are also healthy. That’s a tall order. 

Peach Raspberry Jam

It's All About the Fruit

Recipe adapted from Sunset magazine, August 2006

Peaches and raspberries, my absolute favorite fruits. Peach melba aside, we rarely see them combined. Since both peach and raspberry seasons are winding down, now is the perfect time to preserve these fruits in a jam to enjoy all winter. As you’ll remember from August’s recipe, raspberry jam is tricky because if it’s cooked down too much, there are too many seeds and too little jellied fruit. Peaches are the perfect foil for this dilemma, adding fruity bulk without seeds and lightening the color from crimson to an agreeable bright red. And the flavor is unique and fun.

September Veggies and Recipes

Dahlia in Calendula Patch

Last Precious Days of Summer, then Fall

Golden days of September have arrived, and with them the bountiful harvests of late summer and early fall. During this transitional time we have a unique chance to mix summer and fall veggies and fruits together in our menus. Combinations such as plums with pears, apples with blueberries, and tomatoes with winter squash and corn are possible during this brief time. Indulge your creativity and invent a mixed fruit crumble or a summer/fall stew!

Peach Cobbler

After Increasing Amount of Peaches

Recipe adapted from Crumbles & Cobblers

Are you baffled by recipes that call for 6 peaches or other fruits? I am, especially when the recipe comes from another country. How big are these fruits, and how much does each one weigh? Are our fruits bigger or smaller than theirs? Does the size of the peach stone matter? If I guess will the recipe come out right? Or wrong? In most recent experience…wrong. But fear not, cobblers aren’t rocket science (like pies and yeast breads are), so for this recipe FAIL there is redemption.

Salade Nicoise Californian with Creamy Lemon Vinaigrette

All This and Romaine Too

Recipe inspired by the Lunch Box

Oddly enough, American versions of Salade Nicoise have evolved so much that they’re no longer Nicoise. Readers who are versant in French (I’m not) know that Nicoise means from Nice, the largest city on the French Riviera. In Nice, Salade Nicoise always contains local Cailletier olives, cured in a salty olive oil brine. The original recipe that I altered, like many American recipes, contains no olives at all. So I needed to add some high quality, salty, oily olives.

Grilled Vegetables & Grilled Peaches

Fill Up the Grill

Recipe by Bruce

It’s almost Labor Day. I know, I know, end of summer is coming too soon, just like last year. But we have one more holiday, and several more grill-friendly weekends before we need to winterize the BBQ. Late summer produce is cheap and plentiful…so let’s get grillin’…veggies! All types of summer squash, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, and onions are classics. Peaches make a yummy dessert at barbecues, with or without vanilla ice cream. Grilled corn is delicious, but remember that it’s typically genetically engineered (a GMO) when grown commercially. GMOs have not been well tested for safety. Buy corn from your local farmer or organic market if you don’t grow it in your backyard.