Zippy Cucumber and Corn Salad

I come from a long line of "good cooks" and there are two things that stand out in both my mother and grandmother's recipe boxes, of which I am the lucky heiress: a love of fresh vegetable-laden summer "salads" (although lettuce is rarely an ingredient in these sort of PA Dutch salads) and a talent for creative naming. My grandmother didn't make Sloppy Joes (already a creative moniker.) She made Wimpies. Tuna Casserole? Try Fish Wiggle, instead. You get the idea.

So when I threw together this refreshing and healthy salad for lunch last week, I decided it was zippy. Yes, zippy. This would be a nice side to some grilled chicken or maybe some grilled salmon. But for just me, it was a healthy and light lunch with a dollop of ricotta that I had leftover from a recent gathering. Plus, with the basil from our terrace and the corn, onion and cucumber from the CSA, this budget-friendly dish helped me empty out the overstuffed vegetable drawer in the nick of time.

ZIPPY Cucumber and Corn Salad

1 medium onion, diced

1 cob corn, kernels sliced off

1/2 large cucumber, diced and skin on

10-12 basil leaves, washed

1 Tablespoon honey

3 Tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Dollop of ricotta cheese

In a saute pan, heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil and cook the onion and corn until just cooked. Cool.

Meanwhile, in a food processor (my mini Cuisinart is salad-dressing sized) blend the basil, honey, 2 T. olive oil and salt and pepper. If you have trouble mixing you can add a little more oil or water, depending on how healthy you want to be.

Combine the cooled onion and corn with the cucumber. Toss with basil-honey dressing and top with ricotta cheese.

You could probably have the corn and onion uncooked for a raw dish, but uncooked corn can be tough on tummies, so go easy with it. And be sure to save the corn cob for soup...it's what my grandmother would have done.

Tally:

Zippy salad that's healthy and filling

Summer "salad" cleans out the fridge

Using a rich leftover in small quantities = sort of healthy

Tart Tartier Tartest

As I've mentioned about our CSA hauls, we sometimes reach a limit-- a point at which Mr. Lemon and I start wondering who to pawn, I mean, share our produce bounty with. So when we found ourselves in week two of The Great Plum Purge (in more ways than one Mr. Lemon will tell you) from the CSA, something had to be done. Fortunately invites had been out for a while so we would be spared eating all those very tart plums by our lonesome.

Who were our lucky plum-eating pals? Last weekend, we had invited two couples over, one for a sit down dinner and the other for a brunch with their adorable baby son. If that seems ambitious and very un-lazy, allow me to explain why it is neither. I'm a big fan of the double-header weekend, either entertaining both Friday and Saturday nights, or Saturday night and Sunday brunch. There are several key advantages to be had. Perhaps most importantly, the dusting only needs to be done once for two visits. Win!

Another advantage is that I can put on my baking hat and eat all my naughty handy work over the weekend, but get back on track with the healthier stuff the rest of the week. And on the time-saving not-buying-many-different-ingredients spectrum, I can sometimes get away with baking once for the two separate meals.

So what's nice enough for dinner, but not too fancy for brunch and, of course, uses a lot of the too-tart-to-eat plums that we'd been juggling all week in our fruit bin? Only the easiest tart with the somewhat exotic name (don't be afraid to say it with gusto): crostata.

If you haven't seen a crostata, allow me to explain. It is the lazy person's tart. Yes, pie dough must be made from scratch, chilled and rolled. That's actually pretty easy once you realized that the dough does not need to fit a pan and doesn't have to be a specified thickness. Just roll and go.

Next, shift the rolled dough over to a parchment covered baking sheet. Drop fruit (cut, mixed with 1-2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, juice of 1/2 a lemon, pinch of salt) in the center of your dough blob and start to fold up the sides around the fruit. To seal the overlapping edges, brush with one beaten egg.

Next step: into a 375F oven for 40-50 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling.

I've been using Martha's corn meal-inflected crostata crust from her Baking Handbook. Here's the adapted recipe for Cornmeal Pate Brisee

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar (I bump this up to a 1 Tablespoon)

2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water (I always use the full 1/2 cup)

Pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor until well combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture "resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds." This happens quickly so pulse about 4 times for several seconds. I just make sure the butter is no longer visible. With the machine running, add the ice water through the feed tube and don't process for more than 30 seconds. I used to dribble in like the recipe recommends, but honestly I use the 1/2 cup every time, so I just add it in two parts.

Remove dough from the food processor and shape into two disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour. Martha et al say at least 1 hour and up to 1 day for the chilling time. I'm going to tell you a dirty little secret: this dough is pretty much indestructible. I've left it in the fridge for a couple days and had good results and I've frozen it, too.

Finally, dust liberally with powdered sugar, especially if your plums/fruit are super tart.

Tally:

Tart plums get a little sweeter with lots of sugar and caramelizing

Easy dessert that doesn't risk sticking to a pie pan

No new ingredients to buy, just the pantry standards makes this thrifty

Crostata is fun to say, add as many accent marks as you want. They're free.

Salsa Verde Very Green Salad

We joined a CSA, which means our fridge this summer is full to the brim with greens--in more ways that one.** And while I love that this forces us to eat more vegetables (helping along that goal of 8-9 servings a day), well, it can sometimes seems a bit forced. So there's a lot of salad and also a lot of wondering what to do with the non-lettuce produce or the items we've never cooked with (hello, ramps!)

The solution seems to be to go even greener. I've been putting together salads with both raw and cooked CSA finds, but to pull it all together I'm throwing Salsa Verde on top. This dressing/sauce usually accompanies fish or chicken, and this night, pictured below, I threw it on top of salad with sugar snap peas, leftover cooked beets, roasted ramps and lettuce from the CSA, cold leftover tilapia and a fresh homegrown tomato. Delicious, refreshing, healthy and easy.

Salsa Verde

1/2 c. parsley

1/2 c. basil

2 cloves garlic

1 Tablespoon capers

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil, glug it in

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. (I use the mini Cuisinart). Be sure to add enough olive oil that the sauce can come together easily. I'd guess about 3 Tablespoons.

Tally:

CSA vegetables make it out of the fridge

Delicious and healthy sauce makes salad a little less boring

Thrift-tastic way to use leftover bits of fish, chicken or pork

Five servings of vegetable and counting...

** And its green-friendly in a couple ways: Our CSA costs about $17 a week for 6-7 vegetables a week. Some we use up in one meal (sugar snaps) but others take a while to work through and we often have the longer-lasting vegetables such as turnips and cabbage well into the following week. And don't get me started on the kohlrabi!!

I think we're breaking even on what we would normally spend vs. the CSA, but so far it makes life a little more interesting. The other green factor is that its all coming from an organic farm, which certainly offers health benefits when you're eating this many greens.