Peach Salad

The peaches are extra good this year - so sweet and flavorful. We are enjoying them in our morning fruit, and the other day I added them to this salad.

It's a slight variation on a recipe from Jack Bishop's wonderful book A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. He cooks vegetables with a flair, yet simply enough for everyday eating.

The dressing has a base of reduced orange juice, an excellent way to use less oil without making too tart a sauce. The sweet orange juice and peach balance well with the salty cashews.

It's a great salad to serve with a barbecue, or with a simple dinner of bread and cheese and corn on the cob.

Peach Salad
1/2 cup orange juice (from 1 orange)
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp olive oil
4 cups butter lettuce
1 ripe peach
2 tbsp roasted, salted cashews

Heat orange juice in a small heavy pan over medium heat until it's syrupy, and reduced to a couple of tablespoons, about 15 minutes. Let cool a little, then whisk in the lime juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Toss lettuce with some of the dressing and spread on a plate. Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with cashews. Sprinkle remaining dressing over top and serve.

Serves 2

Organic corn

Finley Farms had organic corn on the cob on Sunday - the first of the season. We grabbed some to eat for dinner that night, boiled and served with butter and a little salt and pepper. Yum.

I only buy organic corn. Non-organic corn (or no-spray corn) can be grown from genetically-modified corn kernels. I don't know what genetic-modification will do to my body or to the earth, but I don't trust it. Also, I don't want to give a dime to the multi-nationals who create gmos.

Eating only organic corn means most of the year we eat it frozen. And then for a couple of months we enjoy it fresh off the cob.

Shoppers often rip open the top of ears of corn to check for complete ears and insect damage. I don't bother. I figure most organic corn has insect damage - because it's not sprayed with poisons that kill insects. And the kernels might be a little erratic from faulty pollination - because it's grown in a field not devised in a factory. I prefer my food to look real.

Which is a good thing, because we brought a caterpillar home with the corn. You can just see it hiding in its little hole in the front cob on the left.

It's a harmless little thing, as long as it's not eating my corn. I threw it over the fence to the neighbor's chickens. You can also just put it in the trash or kill it and add it to the compost.

You can see the top ends of the corn where the silk tassels emerge looked pretty unsightly. It's caterpillar damage. Not harmful. I just cut the end off the cobs and serve the beauties you see below.
In fact, until I showed Larry these pictures, he did not know that the corn we brought home had a little editing done before I served it to him, delicious and sweet and beautiful.

So remember, organic corn can be ugly. But cut off the ugly part and you have something truly delicious, and you can feel good about where your food dollar is going.

Avocado and Strawberry Salad

It was too hot to cook the other night, so I rooted around in the fridge. Strawberries and butter lettuce from Finley Farm, avocado from Jorge --  that's the making of a great hot-weather supper.

I used equal quantities of oil and vinegar because I wanted a tart dressing to off-set the incredibly sweet berries. The goat cheese toasts mellowed the tartness and gave a rich earthiness that matched well with the toasted almonds.

Best of all, it went together in a flash

Avocado and Strawberry Salad
lettuce for 2 people
1 ripe avocado
1 cup strawberries
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup almonds
2 oz goat cheese
crushed peppercorns
6 slices baguette


Wash the lettuce and tear into bite-sized pieces. Peel and dice avocado. Remove the stem from the strawberries and halve them. Toss lettuce, avocado and strawberries together.

Toast the almonds in a dry frypan on the stove. When they smell toasted, remove from heat and chop coarsely.

Lightly toast the baguette slices in the toaster oven or under the broiler. Turn the slices over. Cut the goat cheese into 6 and pat it into rounds. Roll the edges of the rounds into the crushed peppercorns (this is messy, but worth it.) Put the goat cheese on the baguettes and warm in the toaster oven.

Combine the oil and vinegar. Season with a little salt and pepper and toss with the salad.

Arrange on a serving plate, sprinkle the almonds over top, and arrange the goat cheese toasts around the edges.

Serves 2

Stewed Summer Beans

We came back from our trip to find our green beans had been prolific. They were not tender young beans, but long tough ones.

So I stewed them in tomatoes and basil to bring out their sweetness, served them with cheese-y toast, and we had a feast.

Old recipes for tough green beans usually contain added sugar, but if you caramelize the onion a little, and add enough dried basil (which I find is sweeter than fresh), the dish is sweet enough.

(I write this as if it was a solid recipe. It's not. It's something for you to riff off, depending on how many beans you have, how tough your beans are, etc. If your tomatoes are producing, use fresh instead of canned. It's hard to mess this recipe up.)

Stewed Summer Beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb green beans
14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.

Trim the green beans, and cut into 1 inch lengths. Add to the pan, along with the can of tomatoes. Add a splash of water if necessary. Stir in the basil. Cover and cook until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally, and adding more water if necessary to prevent scorching. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 2-3.

Montreal Cheese

Larry and I spent the last couple of weeks visiting my mum in Montreal.

Montreal in the summer is all about sitting outside, preferably with un bon café or a cold drink, watching the world go by.

We sat outside on great terrasses - McAuslan's pub on the Lachine Canal, Brûlerie St. Denis on rue St. Denis, Winston Churchill's on Crescent St., The Black Lion Pub on the Lakeshore, Juliette et Chocolat on Laurier.

Possibly the best terrasse was my mum's patio, where we watched the fireflies dart around the garden in the twilight. (We don't have fireflies in L.A., so this was a real treat.)

The hot humid weather made simple meals attractive, and some of the best meals we ate started at the fromagerie Atwater in the Atwater Farmers Market.

It was one of our first stops after we landed, and we picked up enough cheese for a few days.

I walked up to the cheese counter and announced that I was visiting with my husband - un Américain - and I wanted him to experience the bon goût du fromage québécois. My French is rusty, but the young man behind the counter was up for the challenge.

He suggested a sampling of Quebec cheeses, starting with the mild and moving to the more flavorful. He selected his favorite mild cheese, came around the counter, and gave us each a piece. Mum was off wandering the store, but he tracked her down to give her cheese. What a good guy. She stayed next to the counter after that.

He described each of the cheeses in French and again in English to accommodate Larry. (As the visit wound on, there was less French and more English. He knew his audience.) We bought a little of each of the four cheeses he recommended: Pied-de-Vent, a raw cow's milk cheese from the Magdalene Islands in the St. Lawrence River;  Louis d'Or 24 mois, a washed-rind raw organic cow's milk cheese from Ste. Elizabeth de Warwick,  Cheddar Brittania (Larry's favorite - a good sharp cheddar, $42.99 a kilo, but we only bought $2.59 worth), and Victor & Berthold, a semi-soft cheese with a washed rind from Notre Dame de Lourdes.

Cheese, baguette, salade verte. Lunches don't get much better than that.

Zucchini and Carrot Salad

Zucchini and basil are thriving now. Why not combine them in this easy summer salad?

Basil protects chromosomes from radiation damage and protects the whole body from unwanted bacteria. We should probably eat it daily in the summer.

Zucchini helps lower cholesterol, and has beneficial fiber that protects against forms of cancer. Walnuts are good for the cardiovascular system. Carrots are great for the eyes.

Yes, this is a healthy salad. But it actually tastes good too. It's a great accompaniment to a sandwich or bean burger. Combined with a green salad it makes a nice light meal when appetites are suffering from the heat. I adapted it from Season to Taste by Jeannette Ferrary and Louise Fiszer. I hope you enjoy it.

Zucchini and Carrot Salad
1 zucchini
1 carrot
2 tbsp basil, packed
2 tbsp walnuts
2 tsp capers
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp dijon
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor (or on a grater if you prefer) shred the zucchini and carrot. Turn out into a bowl.

Shred the basil. Toast the walnuts lightly in a heavy frypan for 4-5 minutes until they are fragrant. Chop them coarsely. Add the basil and walnuts to the bowl, along with the drained capers.

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and dijon. Season to taste. Pour over the salad and toss well.

Serves 2

Cheese and Tomato Sandwich

Our tomato plants are doing great this year.

The other day we celebrated with our first cheese and tomato sandwich of the season.

I defrosted a loaf of Hawaiian bread to commemorate the event.

I'm not sure I would go out of my way to eat coconut and tomato together, but the hazelnuts in the bread were great with the cheese, and the whole sandwich was pretty darned good, especially with the fresh basil - the extra touch that took it over the top.

Veggie Burgers on the Grill

Usually when Larry barbecues a burger, he grills a portobello mushroom for me.

Today will be no exception.

It will be a noisy day in our neighborhood - fireworks, M80s, firecrackers and other loud bangs will start before 10 a.m. and go on until after midnight.

With all that sound stress, we need an easy meal which we can eat while manning the fire hoses. So we'll have our traditional barbecue dinner of burger / mushroom, potato salad, green salad and black beans. (You can read about a previous holiday barbecue and get my excellent black bean recipe here.)

On Memorial Day weekend, however, Larry stretched his grilling prowess and barbecued a homemade veggie burger for me. Usually I fry these on the stove or bake them in the oven because they tend to fall apart.

But it was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, a relaxing day, and Larry said he was up for the challenge.

(On Memorial Day Monday, we had Tracie over for a Mediterranean-inspired cookout. You can read about it here.)

I sat quietly (and, I like to think, supportively) reading the Sunday papers while Larry grilled the burgers. I did not hear a lot of cussing, which I took as a good sign. But he did have to keep squishing the burger together in order to stop pieces falling off into the fire.

It looked a little messy open-faced on the bun, but it tasted great. I've put the 3 other burgers into the freezer for another day when Larry is up for a barbecue challenge.

Mushroom Carrot Burger
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
3 cups mushrooms
3 large carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs
3 oz feta
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Chop the onion and garlic in the food processor - they need to be very fine. Empty them into a bowl and chop the mushrooms. Put the mushrooms in another bowl and grate the carrots.

Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft but not brown, 3-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook another 5 minutes. Drain off any accumulated liquid, but don't squeeze the mushrooms dry.

Place the grated carrots and breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Crumble in the feta. Add the mushroom mixture, basil and thyme. Stir well and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the eggs.

Shape the mixture into 4 burgers the size of hamburger buns. They will look huge. It's okay.

Brush the grill rack with olive oil, and cook the burgers over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, turning often, until they are golden.

Alternatively, you can bake them in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes, or fry them in a little oil on the stove.

The burgers can be frozen uncooked. Thaw before cooking.

Makes 4 large burgers.