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.

Spicy Cabbage, Tomato, and Radish Salad

Light and Summery Salad

Recipe from The Cooking Decade

Like the Thai Napa Cabbage Chicken Salad, I have no idea where this recipe came from. Unlike the Thai Salad, it’s a magazine clipping, not scribbled in my handwriting. This is another recipe from The Cooking Decade, a looseleaf binder of family recipes given to me by my sister Chris, who says she’s in her second non-cooking decade. You didn’t hear it from me, but she’s a fabulous cook when she chooses to be, and all of the recipes from her Cooking Decade have been triple tested and family approved. Plus this particular recipe is great for using up those tomatoes that are coming in like crazy right now.

Low Sugar Raspberry Jam

(Almost) Instant Gratification

Recipe Adapted from Happy Girl Kitchen

Red raspberries: my absolute favorite fruit! They’ve been scarce this summer compared with golden raspberries, which are also delicious but too subtle in flavor to make good jam. Since raspberry season is so short, preserving them in light honey sauce is a way to eat them almost indefinitely. This year I also tried raspberry jam, adapted from the Happy Girl Kitchen recipe for Low Sugar Strawberry Jam that I posted a couple of weeks back.

Sherried Nectarine Crumble

Crumble Served with Whipped Cream

Recipe adapted from Crumbles & Cobblers: A Celebration of the Simple Joys of Crumbles & Cobblers

What’s not to like about crumbles and cobblers? They’re easy to bake, can be made with almost any fruit even if it’s overripe, and are loved by almost everyone. Recipes can be doubled or cut in half successfully because their chemistry is simple. Also, as authors of the cookbook Crumbles & Cobblers point out, they’re more economical than pies because they require less flour and fat. I’ve noticed they also require a LOT less time.

Strawberry, Arugula, and Spinach Salad

Pine Nuts and Parmesan Add Contrast

Recipe by Robin

We’re in the time that old-timers call the dog days of summer: hot, sultry days that are noticeably shorter than June’s. It’s the final hurrah, the wrap-up of summer, a time to appreciate being outdoors in shorts and sandals, sitting around the yard relaxing, tending the garden, or heading to the beach for some sun and fun. Cooking elaborate dinners in a hot kitchen? Not so much.