Cool and Collected

It's mid-summer and the celebrations seem to be piling on faster and faster, squeezed in before the dreaded end-of-fun-times, Labor Day. That means that the weekend found us sharing steak at an unexpected sibling reunion, ribs to celebrate a boys' night in (and this girl's night out), and a burger in honor of a bachelorette.

It was time to detox. I'm not a big fan of "green" juice. I leave the wheat grass for cats.

But much tastier and in a similarly healthy vein of the vegetable mash-up is gazpacho. I make a version that is no where near authentic, but I'm going to call it gazpacho all the same. So there.

Mostly I go for a proportion (so you can make more or less):

3 parts tomato : 1 part green pepper : 1 part cucumber.

So that's 3 medium to larger vine-ripened tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 medium cucumber (or 1/2 a big one)

I throw in 3-4 cloves of garlic, a hefty grind of black pepper, salt and 2 Tablespoons each red wine vinegar and olive oil.

If you want a richer tomato flavor, you can add a cup of v-8 juice (I usually don't have any.) A dash of hot sauce can also be nice.

Put all ingredients in the Cuisinart and that's it. Serve cold.

Cool, collected and completely ready for the next end-of-summer chowdown.

Tally:

CSA now stands for Cool Soup Always

So many veggie servings I stopped counting

With some salad or greens, a quick and light dinner

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

The Other Thing Best Served Cold

When I was growing up, my mother was not only a pro at cooking delicious, quick dinners (faster than 30 Minutes, Ms. Ray, so there), but also at turning them out twice a night. My father often worked and, therefore, ate later in the evening, and my brother and I, being young, didn't. So she often cooked two dinners or made something that could easily heat up fast.

Me? I'm a bit lazier. So when Mr. Lemon was going to be out later than usual, but would still need dinner, I turned to dishes that could cool their heels, so to speak, until he was ready for them. Better yet this was a chance to make some dishes that actually improve off the heat and with time, but frequently don't get the chance with this hungry cook in charge. And with the return of the humid weather, dishes best served cold are not only handy, but refreshing.

So, cold poached salmon**, pesto orzo and cucumber salad were on the menu for dinner, whenever that happened.

Cold Poached Salmon

Salmon filet (any size fits this recipe)

water

1/2 lemon, sliced

In a saute pan fill almost to the top with water and lemon slices. Bring to a simmer--steaming, no bubbles--and then slide in the salmon filet. Turn back the heat to medium to keep from boiling. My filet always sticks out a bit so I do something that is probably verboten, but it works for me. When only the part sticking out is still bright pink, I turn over the filet and turn off the heat, but leave the salmon in to keep poaching about 3 minutes longer. This is a lovely and super easy way to have moist, just cooked salmon.

You can poach in leftover white wine, with bay leaves and peppercorns, and probably a dozen other possible ingredients, but really the lemon and water have always served me well. Plus, I always have lemons on hand, and the wine doesn't last long enough in these parts to be leftover.

Pesto Orzo

This dish does not really need a full recipe and is entirely forgiving, so add away.

[In a food processor: 10-12 leave basil + 2 cloves garlic + 3 Tablespoons olive oil] + 1/2 cup cooked orzo pasta + sliced tomatoes (from our little plant on the terrace.)

And here's another easy one:

Cucumber Salad with Basil

1 cucumber cut into 1-inch chunks + 5 basil leaves + 6 mint leaves + 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar + salt

**I don't always go into great detail here about cost (blame my upbringing), but as I've mentioned I keep the weekly expenditure to around $40 give or take. I really admire the creativity and thrift-inspiration of the folks at 30 Bucks a Week, and reading their fine grocery-cutting work got me revisiting my own grocery bills after I had already started this blog and aimed for $40. If they could do $30, my "challenge" of $40 certainly was in reach! We're not totally strict, and sometimes we go a little over when there's a good deal that I want to stock up on, or if a nicer staple needs to be refilled. This week, with about $23 going to our CSA for fruit and vegetables, the rest went to milk and eggs, pork chops, black beans (tonight), lemons. So in short, almost a 1/2 lb. of salmon at $9/lb was totally within reach.

Tally:

Succulent salmon, but we're still on budget

Omega-3-rich meals make us Fat Resistance happy

Cold dish for a hot night meets cold dish for a late night

In a Pickle

A while back, I had the opportunity to take in a lovely pickling crock from my mother's family. Now, to be clear, this was no country affectation. Her "people" (yes I am from people who refer to other folk's families as their people, which caused me a great deal of confusion as a child) are pickle makers from way back and I grew up expecting a relish tray at each and every one of our family gatherings in Pennsylvania. If you've never been to a table with a relish tray, you are missing out.

Modernizing the process, my grandmother had turned to stove top and refrigerator methods by the time I came along, so the smell of slow simmering vinegar means I'm home (that plus a heady cloud of bacon fat lingering in the air.) But back to the crock which had been sitting pretty in my bedroom for months, mocking my pickle-less life.

That all changed in the past week. First, I picked up a wondrous bag of Kirby's from that good ol' bargain bin, and then I saw what the always-inspiring Smitten Kitchen had up her apron with some bread and butter pickles. Clearly pickles and their briny scent were on the early summer breeze.

Of course, I didn't have all of the right ingredients, and I wasn't about to go out and buy the spices I needed. But that's ok. The pickle is a pretty resilient recipe, and these semi-sweet, mildly garlicky pickle chips brightened up the snack hour on our terrace. Yes, there was a relish tray. I'd put them somewhere between sweet & sour and dill (minus the dill) refrigerator pickles. Make sense? Sure it does.

Cumin-Garlic Refrigerator Pickles

10-12 kirby cucumbers

2 Tablespoons course salt (sea salt)

3 cups watter

2 cups white vinegar

¾ c. sugar

4 cloves of garlic, minced

pinch of cumin*

Clean and slice cucumbers into ½ inch slices. Place in a colander or sieve over a large bowl. Toss with salt and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Drain the cucumbers and wash off the salt. Dry the cucumbers and place in a large bowl. Mix in a pinch of ground cumin.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the water, vinegar, sugar and garlic. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool 5-10 minutes.

Pour liquid over cucumbers and let sit in refrigerator, covered, overnight or for 8 hours.

Keep for up to a week in the refrigerator, if you can.

* A pinch is in the fine tradition of my grandmother's recipes, which also included smidgens and dollops. This pinch is for you, Grammy Ru.