Green Beans with Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette

I love green beans. Lightly cooked and served on the side, they add a welcome green simplicity to any meal.

At Thanksgiving, however, nothing is plain, so I dressed them up with a simple mustardy vinaigrette. Mustard goes well with ham, I figured, so it was a good match.

I confess that I do not steam my green beans. I throw them in a pot of boiling water for 8 minutes, then drain them. Served like this, they are delicious. A pat of butter and a little salt and pepper gilds the lily.

Of course, if you have really young fresh beans, like the ones I hope to be harvesting this winter, steam them for a mere 3-5 minutes to keep their tender taste. The organic green beans I've been buying at the Hollywood Farmers Market are more mature and benefit from a good boil.

Green beans in vinaigrette make a nice room temperature side, and can also be chopped up and added to cooked rice or salads. Leftover lemon mustard dressing is also good on green salads or bean salads, or poured over any cooked vegetable.

On Thanksgiving, I strolled through the garden picking a lemon and some tarragon to garnish the beans. If you don't have fresh tarragon, use any herb you like  – dried is fine, just use 1/4 tsp to start and then add more to taste.

Green Beans with Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette
1 lb green beans, ends trimmed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp minced red onion
1 clove garlic, minced (opt)
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
3/4 tsp salt
pepper

Cook beans. Either steam until tender, or cook in boiling water about 8 minutes until tender. Drain, refresh in cold water, and pat dry. Arrange on a platter.

Make the vinaigrette by whisking together the remaining ingredients.

Pour the vinaigrette over the beans, and serve.

Serves 4

Roast Pumpkin and Cipolline Onions

I wanted to serve pumpkin at Thanksgiving, but not in a pie, and not stuffed like usual. So I chose a small pumpkin with minimal ridges, and peeled and diced it, roasted it, and served it as a side dish.

I did the peeling and dicing the night before, then stored the cubes in a bag in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I picked some fresh herbs from the garden, peeled a few cipolline onions, and tossed it all together on a roasting pan in the toaster oven for about 45 minutes.

I then just plated it and served it as a side. But when I've served this pumpkin dish previously, I've tossed it into leafy greens with a walnut vinaigrette and toasted walnuts for a good main dish salad. The roasted pumpkin is also good stirred into hot rice or quinoa.

Roasting diced pumpkin is a simple way to add a good dose of antioxidants and fiber to a meal. The key is to buy a smooth pumpkin that is easy to peel. Then this dish takes care of itself.

For the cipolline, I cut off the root end and peeled off the dark skin and cut out most of the stem end. But I didn't obsess with the peeling. They were delicious.

Roast Pumpkin and Cipolline Onions
2 1/2 lbs pumpkin, peeled, 1/2 inch dice
10 cipolline onions, peeled and halved
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
pepper
leaves from a few stems of thyme
a few sprigs of rosemary, coarsely chopped, and more to garnish

Toss all the ingredients together. Roast at 375°F for 45 minutes until tender and browned.

Serves 4-6

Goat Cheese and Spinach Phyllo Extravaganza

I'm not sure what to call the delicious vegetarian entrée I served at Thanksgiving. Layers of phyllo pastry top and bottom, a filling of spinach, goat cheese and mushrooms - all baked free form on a cookie sheet. I think Extravaganza is the only word for it.

I'm not really good with phyllo - to make it good and crispy requires a lot of melted butter, and I find myself going with the minimum. It's still delicious, even if the layers of dough don't hold together as well as they could.

Like lasagna, once all the parts are assembled, it's a quick dish to prepare. The longest part is cleaning the spinach and mushrooms. Working with whole food takes more time, but it's worth it for the great taste.

This dish is great leftovers - fortunately because it makes enough for 8-12 people. I've been enjoying it cold for lunch - the crust is not as crisp, but the flavor is great.

Here's the recipe in case you want to serve your own Extravaganza!

Goat Cheese and Spinach Phyllo Extravaganza
1 packet whole wheat phyllo (16-18 sheets)
2 tbsp olive oil, divided use
1/2 red onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced, divided use
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
2 bunches spinach, washed and heavy stems removed
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, marjoram and thyme
1 lb ricotta
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1/4 cup melted butter (or more)
1/3 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/4 lb goat cheese, crumbled

Take phyllo out of freezer to thaw in its box.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onion, 1/4 tsp salt and a little pepper. Sauté about 5 minutes until onion begins to soften and release its moisture. Add half the garlic and cook another 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Heat another tbsp in the unwashed skillet. Sear mushrooms over high heat with 1/4 tsp salt and a little pepper. Cook about 7 minutes until golden-brown. Add remaining garlic and sauté another minute. Add wine to deglaze pan and cook until pan is nearly dry again. Add the mushrooms to the bowl of onions.

Again, don't wash the skillet. Add the spinach, 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook over high heat, letting the spinach wilt. Then drain well and let cool a little. Squeeze out the moisture - it should be damp but not wet. Coarsely chop and add to onions. Stir in the fresh herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the parmesan. Mix thoroughly.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Unfold phyllo and cover with a damp towel.

Grease a 9x13 inch baking sheet. Lay a piece of phyllo on it, brush lightly with butter, and sprinkle with a few pistachios. Continue with 8-9 more sheets, brushing butter and sprinkling nuts, using about half of each.

Spread the ricotta mix on the phyllo, almost to the edges. Spoon the spinach mixture on top. Sprinkle the goat cheese over all.

Layer on the last sheets, brushing each lightly with butter and scattering with nuts. Brush the top layer thoroughly with butter.

Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Cut off excess dough at edges if necessary. Cut the Extravaganza into 8 squares, but don't separate them. This makes it easier to serve.

Bake at 375°F for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cut each square into triangles or rectangles, and serve.

Serves 8-12

Sunday Shopping

The weather was brisk this morning, although the sun was bright at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

It being the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we did not need a lot of food, and the farmers did not expect a lot of customers. (The Hollywood Christmas Parade doesn't help – it goes along Hollywood Blvd. at 5 p.m. but roads are blocked off at 11 a.m., making getting to the Market difficult. Fortunately we were in and out before 8:15 a.m., so we had no troubles.)

After doing our shopping, we always stop at the newsstand on Cahuenga near Hollywood Blvd. to buy the Sunday New York Times. Over the years, the cashiers have entertained us with stories of overnight police activity and crazy party-ers. We often navigate people leaving clubs (scantily-dressed, blinking in the morning light, waiting for their ubers) as we make our way to the market wearing flannel and carrying cloth shopping bags. This morning, as I stood in line waiting to pay for the paper, the young hipster in front of me grabbed it and insisted on paying for it.  I resisted, but the cashier indicated he just wanted to end the transaction with this addled party-er who couldn't say which cigarettes he wanted because he was so busy talking (talking!) on his phone. So I thanked the nice young man, took my paper, and went on my way. He wished me a good night. I wished him one too.

Just another Sunday morning in Hollywood.

Here's what we bought at the market:

1 red butter lettuce; 4 bunches of scallions; 1 bunch cilantro; 1 bunch radishes; 1 celeriac; 1/4 lb each of cremini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms; 5 cameo apples; 2 anjou pears; 2 bartlett pears; 1 dozen eggs; green beans; 1 bunch red russian kale; 13 oranges; 1 bunch parsnips.

Thanksgiving

Filo tart before the top is added

I thoroughly enjoy Thanksgiving – a holiday centered around food. No gifts to buy. Minimal decorating to do –flowers and candles on the table, a pot of mums on the patio and you're good to go.

Just food, food and more food.

That I can handle.

Wednesday night found me dicing pumpkin, making pie, and stirring together relishes. All while watching hockey. It felt good and winter-y.

Thursday, Trace arrived at 11 a.m. and we enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch on the patio. Larry had moved the table into the sun – there was a cool breeze and temps in the 60s, but it was lovely to be outside under the blue sky.

I thought I had restrained myself this year, but Trace allowed as to how I had made too many dishes for her to fit on her plate. Hmmm. Isn't that the point?

Our fridge is now full of a week's worth of leftovers – awesome!

This is what we ate this Thanksgiving holiday:

Appetizers while I did the last of the cooking:

corn chips with this year's salsa

orange-cumin almonds

Main course:

Whole Foods honey-roasted ham for Trace and Larry

filo-crusted spinach and mushroom squares (technically for me, but everyone enjoyed them)

pomegranate relish (instead of cranberry sauce)

green beans with lemon-mustard dressing

scalloped potatoes

roast pumpkin and cipolline onions

creamed corn and poblanos in the slow cooker

salad of butter lettuce, arugula and nasturtium leaves with oranges and cranberries

Dessert:

Apple Tart with Maple Creme Brûlée

I cooked while listening to Lynne Rossetto-Kasper's Turkey Confidential on NPR – my personal holiday tradition whether I'm cooking or gardening. That woman has spontaneous creativity: What do you do when your jello won't set – call it jello spoon-sweet, of course!

I love this because my cooking rarely turns out the way I expect. Wednesday morning I tried roasting walnuts with hot paprika and rosemary in the toaster oven, but I let them cook a minute too long – blackened! The creamed corn got lumpy in the slow cooker – not sure why, it's worked fine before. Fortunately it tasted great.

I went out in the cool of the morning to harvest the finishing touches for our meal: lemons, basil, arugula, rosemary, thyme, mint, marjoram, nasturtium leaves, tarragon. But I left the small young arugula leaves on the table and they wilted before I put them in the salad. I added them anyway, because we grew them and even though they were limp they were still spicy.

The highlight was when I opened my new butane torch to brûlée the tart. In the past I have used the oven broiler, but I have always yearned for a torch. This year I treated myself to one. I didn't actually get around to opening the package until we had eaten the main course. It was a little challenging to get the butane into the torch – the instructions were very unclear – it took both Trace and me together to get it to work. But we managed to brown the sugar on the pie, and then we took a stroll around the garden while it hardened. Larry made excellent coffee and we had a lovely dessert. Maple sugar and maple syrup really improve apple pie.

Then Trace went home and we passed out on the sofa in front of football. Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

Thanksgiving on the patio

Thank You

Larry and I eat really well. And we are healthy because of it.

For this, I thank the organic farmers whose produce I buy each week at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

It's a lot of work to leave home at 7:20 every Sunday morning, drive the dangerously curvy 110 freeway and the Hollywood Freeway, walk through the homeless and hipsters to get to the market, and then haul pounds of produce to the car.

But the farmers work even harder. I am in awe of the bounty they bring to market. As I revel in the single excellent tomato Larry picked in our garden this week, the farmers steadfastly produce bushels of them from their fields.

It takes hard work, knowledge, intuition, courage and commitment to grow food organically – in rhythm with the seasons of the earth; in harmony with the organisms of the soil; in these times of drought.

I think organic farmers are the bravest people in our culture. They should be rewarded far more than they are.

Which is why on Sunday mornings I go to the Hollywood Farmers Market and put money directly into their hard-working hands.

And today, Thanksgiving, I thank them. As I do every day of the year, at every meal, when I prepare the healthy food Larry and I love.

Thank you Ha's Apple Farm for apples, eggs, pears and chestnuts; T and D farms for onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash and more; Finley farms for world-famous spinach, lettuce, peppers, cukes, parsnips, greens, strawberries, corn and more; South Central Farmers Cooperative for amazing collard greens, amaranth, cabbage, beets and more; Jorge for the grapefruit we eat every morning and the oranges we squeeze on Sundays, as well as limes, pomegranates, persimmons and my favorite pomelos; Flora Bella for nettles, chickweed, arugula, turnips and other greens; the Lompoc Farmers for the excellent beans including barbecue beans and heirloom pinquitos; Kuroda Farms for the brown rice that is unlike any other, along with barley and chickpeas; and the other farmers whose produce we buy and enjoy. We are lucky to have you in our lives.

Sunday Shopping

It's been too hot to eat. I come home in the evenings and sit out in the garden instead of cooking dinner. I'd rather watch the antics of the birds and the squirrels than think about food.

So we took a short list to the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning.

We also agreed we'd make one more batch of salsa today so we came home with 10 pounds of roma tomatoes from Tutti Frutti farms in addition to our week's organic produce.

Here's what we brought home: 1 kabocha squash, 6 ears of corn, 3 maui onions, 1 red onion, 1 dozen eggs, 1 persian cucumber, bunches of cilantro and parsley, 2 mutsu apples and 3 other excellent apples whose name I've forgotten, 3 mountain-grown peaches (the last of the year), 1 cantaloupe, 1 bunch red amaranth which I'll cook like spinach - a first for us, 16 oranges, 3 limes, 3 red peppers and 4 poblanos - time to start stocking the freezer with roasted peppers, 2 anaheim peppers, 4 habaneros, 3 jalapeños and 7 serrano peppers.

Green Salad with Peaches and Pistachios

When we barbecue in peach season, as we did Sunday night, I like to serve this simple salad dressed with orange juice and scattered with pistachios. It makes a sweet juicy foil to whatever the grilled entrée is, and I can make it ahead and then just toss the salad with the dressing right before serving it. That's my kind of easy summer eating.

Green Salad with Peaches and Pistachios
2 tbsp pistachios
juice of 1 orange (about 1/2 cup)
juice of 1 lime (about 2 tsp)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
red butter lettuce, torn (about 4 cups)
1 ripe peach

Toast the pistachios in a small heavy skillet until fragrant and very lightly toasted. Set them aside to cool.

Pour the orange juice into the hot skillet and let it bubble down until it reduces to about a tablespoon of juice, about 10 minutes. Pour the juice into a heat-resistant bowl and set aside to cool.

Whisk the lime juice and olive oil into the cool orange juice and season with a little salt and pepper.

Just before eating, line a plate with the lettuce. Half the peach and take out the pit. Cut the flesh into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle the pistachios on top.

Either toss the dressing with the salad, or serve it on the side so everyone can add their own.

Serves 2

Sunday Shopping

There is nothing like September at the Hollywood Farmers Market with the piles of red peppers and heirloom tomatoes gleaming in the slanting morning light.

Here's a list of the organic produce we brought home with us:
2 limes, 1 pomegranate, 5 small red potatoes, 1 avocado, 4 red peppers, carrots, 6 plum tomatoes, baby arugula, parsley, cilantro, 6 ears of corn, scallions, 4 mountain-grown peaches, an assortment of apples (3 bramley, 3 blondee - similar to golden delicious-, 2 McIntosh, 1 empire, 2 honey crisp and 1 summerland), 20 oranges, 2 heirloom tomatoes, 2 shallots, 2lb black beans, 2lb black-eyed peas, 1 watermelon, spicy jack cheese from grass-fed Jersey cows in Petaluma, 1 dozen eggs from orchard-raised hens, strawberries, 4 small plain yogurt and 4 mountain-grown peaches.

Sugar-Sweet Peaches

I think peaches are my favorite summer fruit. I remember in the '70s my mother buying Ontario peaches in cardboard trugs - 2 layers of luscious fruit that needed to be picked over daily to make sure none were starting to decay. The picking over included eating, of course, and there was nothing better than a sweet juicy peach with that light downy fuzz as a pick-me-up on a hot humid afternoon.

The peaches here in Southern California are twice the size of the ones I remember from my childhood (isn't everything bigger in America?) but still well-flavored and in need of daily monitoring.

This week, I noticed the peaches I was buying had freckles on them. I've been told that these brown dots are areas of concentrated sugar - sugar spots - that occur when the peach is really ripe when picked. (Most peaches are harvested underripe to give the farmer more time to get them to market. They continue to ripen after being picked.)

I snapped up a few of these freckled peaches, and they have indeed been extra delicious in our morning fruit.

Rice Salad with Eggs and Green Beans

It's been too hot to cook, so I've been relying on salads at dinner time.

This one, with eggs and rice and corn, was a truly complete meal. We ate almost all of it in one sitting, and I took the leftovers for lunch the next day. That is the sign of a good salad.

A note about the rice: Usually I make this salad with brown rice, but I had spent the early evening puttering in the garden so to get this salad on the table in a timely manner, I used white jasmati rice – an organic rice from Texas that my local independent grocery store carries. It has a great flavor, and I had dinner on the table in under 45 minutes.

Rice Salad with Eggs and Green Beans
1 red pepper
1/2 cup onion, sliced in rings
2 cups cooked rice
4 oz (large handful) green beans
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
2 eggs
1 small avocado
butter lettuce
1 tbsp capers
6 olives, sliced

Dressing:
1  clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp dijon

Cut the red pepper in half. Remove the seeds and membranes. Place cut-side down in a small roasting pan. Add the onion rings. Sprinkle the onion with a little olive oil, then cook them under a broiler for 5-6 minutes until the pepper starts to blacken. Stir the onion a couple of times so it turns golden, not black. Put the pepper halves in a pot and let them steam gently. Cut the onion rings up and stir them into the rice. Put the rice on a large platter.

When the peppers are cool enough to touch, scrape off the skin (as much as you can) and cut them into thin strips.

Pierce the eggs with a pin and put them in a pan of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and refresh in ice water. When cool enough to touch, peel off the shells and cut the eggs in quarters.

Cook the green beans in a little boiling water for 2 minutes, then add the corn and cook another 2 minutes. Drain and put in a bowl with the red pepper strips.

Stir together the washed and torn lettuce leaves with the peeled and diced avocado. Pile them on the rice.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Put about half into the bowl with the green beans and toss gently. Pile this on top of the salad.

Decorate the platter with the eggs, olives and capers.

Serve the extra dressing on the side.

Serves 3-4

Sunday Shopping

It's cooled off a little in the last couple of days, which makes us happy because this is the weekend we turn 10 lbs of tomatoes into salsa in our annual canning marathon.

Usually this is the hottest weekend of the year and we sweat from the heat as well as the steaming pots and chiles, but this year it's cooler and the salsa-making experience more pleasant. (I've written about our salsa-making in previous years - you can read that post here.)

The market was surprisingly full for a Labor Day weekend. We parked on Cahuenga and weaved our way among the clubbers waiting for their Ubers after a long Saturday night in Hollywood. Usually we carry all our produce to the car at once, but today we had to make two trips because we were so loaded down – a 12lb box of tomatoes will do that to you.

When we got home, a green pepper and an onion went in the pot with the black beans I'd left to soak while we went to the market. We'll be eating them tonight at our Labor Day weekend cookout. (I've written about these black beans – Larry's favorite – before. Find the recipe here.)

And after breakfast we started peeling the tomatoes and dicing peppers for the salsa. It's bubbling on the stove as I write this. Larry's gone to Trader Joe's for organic corn chips so we can sample the fruits of our labor this evening as we sit in the cool twilight on our patio and grill eggplant from our garden on the barbecue.

Here's a list of the organic produce we brought home with us today:
1 red onion, a bag of heirloom spinach, 2 green peppers, parsley, cilantro, red butter lettuce, red sails lettuce, romaine, assorted hot heirloom chilies, 2 cucumbers, 4 mountain-grown peaches, pistachios, 16 oranges, 1 avocado, 1 lb Guatemalan coffee, 4 tsugaru apples, 2 bulbs garlic, red potatoes, 6 ears organic corn, 3 onions, 2 poblanos, 12 lbs early girl tomatoes from Finley Farms, 6 red peppers, 1 yellow pepper, 1 orange pepper, scallions, green beans, asparagus, eggs, 1 cantaloupe.

Apple and Goat Cheese Salad

Even the evenings have been hot over the last week or so. Too hot to even think about barbecuing or turning on the stove for dinner.

So we've been eating a lot of main course salads. Sunday night I combined honey crisp apples, walnuts and goat cheese to make a nourishing meal that tempted our appetites despite the heat.

I added a little honey to the salad dressing, which I don't usually do. But we needed a little sweetness after the heat of the day, and it balanced the lemon and tarragon well. The dressing would be good on any green salad. It will last a few days in the fridge.

Apple and Goat Cheese Salad
5 cups torn romaine lettuce
1/2 Haas avocado
1 honey crisp apple
1 hard-boiled egg
3 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup toasted walnuts

Dressing:
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 olive oil
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped

Arrange the lettuce on a serving platter. Peel and slice the avocado. Core and slice the apple. Peel and quarter the egg. Arrange the avocado, apple and egg on the lettuce. Crumble the goat cheese in the center and then the toasted walnuts on top.

Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisking constantly, add the olive oil until the mixture emulsifies. Whisk in the tarragon.

Drizzle 3/4 of the dressing over the salad and serve the extra dressing on the side.

Serves 2 as a main course.

Cookbook Delight

Although it was hot and crowded at the used-cookbook stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market yesterday, we managed to find a few books to bring home with us.

These will be inspiring me over the next few months:
The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan (1973)
Long Ago in France by MFK Fisher (1991)
The Fiery Cuisines: the world's most delicious hot dishes by Dave DeWitt & Nancy Gerlach (1984)
French Cheeses: the visual guide to more than 350 cheeses from every region of France (1996)
Modern Mediterranean Cooking: a culinary collection of fresh flavors by Elena Balashova (2010)
Mediterranean Hot and Spicy by Aglaia Kremezi (2009)
Pasta Sauces from the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library (1994)
Favorite Indian Food by Diane Seed (1990)
Sunset Low-Fat Vegetarian Cookbook (1995)
A Passion for Cheese by Paul Gayler (1999)
Hot Vegetables by Hugh Carpenter & Teri Sandison (1998)
Savoring Provence by Diane Holuigue (2002)

Sunday Shopping

It was already warm at 8 a.m. this morning, and the Hollywood Farmers Market was more crowded than usual. I think it was a combination of people wanting to beat the heat, and the attraction of the second-hand book sale. We browsed the books a little, but with the heat and the crowds I just wanted to buy our food and get home.

This is what we bought from the wonderful organic farmers who feed us:
2 cucumbers, 1 green pepper, 1 romaine lettuce, 3 bunches of fat asparagus, 3 red peppers, green beans, a dozen limes, 4 yellow apples whose name I forget, 4 tsugaru apples, 2 honey crisp apples, 15 oranges, cherry tomatoes, 6 ears of corn, a dozen eggs, an avocado, and 1 smallish watermelon.

Grilled Cantaloupe

I love grilled pineapple, so I thought grilled cantaloupe would be great too.

I peeled a section, sliced and seeded it, and threw it on the grill while we were eating dinner.

When it had grill marks - which took a while - we tried it. Bleh. It didn't do anything for either of us.

It turns out we prefer our melon chilled, not warm.

Trying new things is part of what I like about cooking. And if the experiment doesn't work, the compost pile is ready to accept contributions and turn them into excellent fertilizer for the other plants we grow.

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots

Grilled carrots are really awesome. They're almost worth lighting a barbecue just for them.

Sunday night we cooked a full meal on the barbecue and I grilled some carrots and served them with a kale salad. The warm buttery carrots were a wonderful foil to the greens. And the salad made good leftovers for lunch the next day.

This is what I did.

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots
Grilled Carrots:
6 carrots, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Kale Salad
juice of 1/2 lemon (and more to taste)
juice of scant half an orange
1 tsp chopped shallots
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch Tuscan kale

Cut carrots in half lengthwise. Blanch them in salted boiling water until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and cool in ice water. Dry them off and toss with the olive oil, oregano and balsamic. Grill over medium-high heat until grill marks appear, 3-5 minutes. Keep warm.

Whisk together lemon juice, orange juice, shallots, balsamic, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.

Stem the kale and cut the leaves in half lengthwise. Stack them together and cut them in 1/4 inch strips crosswise. Toss the ribbons into the dressing, massaging the leaves well to absorb the oil and soften.

Mound the kale on a plate and place the warm grilled carrots on top.

Serves 4-6

Good as cold leftovers.

Padron Chilies on the Barbecue

When we barbecued Sunday night, I tossed a few Padron chilies on the grill for a speedy appetizer.

I find barbecuing is conducive to appetizers, because cooking over fire tends to be a leisurely activity.

This veggie appetizer is low-calorie so it doesn't spoil the appetite, but it's fun to eat because while Padron chilies are generally mild, the occasional one has quite a kick. No way to tell without biting it.

I washed and dried the chilies, and then put them on the grill with no seasoning. When they were nicely browned in places, I took them off the heat, sprinkled them with a little fleur de sel, and served them with a few freshly-picked Chadwick's Cherries cherry tomatoes from our garden.

Summer suppers and simplicity really go together.

Sunday Shopping

It was cool and slightly muggy this morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

We were happy to see the stand of Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch. They were back with the fresh harvest, including some branches of unripe dates - which were delicious and less sweet than the fully ripe ones. The new almond crop from Yemetz Almond farm was in too, so we stocked up.

I also bought a basil plant because my basil is very small. I complained to the farmer about my slow-growing summer vegetables. I thought it was lack of water, but he said I should be feeding them every couple of weeks. I feel bad I'm starving my vegetables, and plan to rectify that this week.

In the meantime, I once again am exceedingly grateful that there are many professional organic farmers to grow my dinner for me.

Here's what we came home with today:
16 small oranges for juice, 1 small melon whose name I forget, 1 small cantaloupe, 1 red butter lettuce, 1 orange pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 large cantaloupe (I plan to try grilling slices of it for dessert tonight), 1 lb raw almonds, scallions, 2 dozen eggs, 1 zucchini, 4 small plain yogurt, 1 lb khadrawy dates, 4 ears corn that the farmer tells us is so young and sweet we can eat the whole thing raw - even the cob - we're dubious, 4 tsugaru apples, 2 gala apples, 4 small red potatoes, 4 mountain-grown peaches, 2 maui onions, 2 small eggplants, 2 avocados, 3 grapefruit, 1 bag mixed salad greens, celery, padron peppers to throw on the grill tonight as a simple appetizer.

Buy organic for the bees

Organic corn is grown from seed that does not have the
a toxic coating of neonicotinoids. All other corn
probably does, even if it's no-spray.

I just finished reading in the latest Rolling Stone a story about yet another link between agricultural pesticide use, bees and colony collapse disorder (CCD).

One of the latest agricultural pesticides to be used extensively (since 2000) are neonicotinoids, a derivative of nicotine.

These chemicals, also called neonics, are used as a seed coating. The plant that grows from a neonic-coated seed contains neonics in all its tissues. Insects try eating a part of the plant and die. The plant survives to bear fruit and go to market. Agri-business thrives.

A couple of questions though. First, what do neonics do to humans? They are neurotoxic, but we are assured that we are absorbing them in such small doses they won't hurt us. According to the article by Alex Morris, a 2012 US Department of Agriculture survey found neonics in 22 percent of cherry tomatoes and 25 percent of bell peppers. They're also found in baby food. Studies show that unless you eat solely organic food, you have these neonicotinoids in your blood. This might be okay for grown people, but potentially quite damaging to the developing brains of babies.

More urgently, they seem to be killing bees. They're not an instant killer, like many pesticides. Instead, the bees seem to survive a few weeks while dining on the flowers of the neonic-infused flowers. In fact, some observers think bees actually prefer these flowers - they are full of addictive nicotine after all. They take the pollen back to their hives - which means the honey is neonic-tainted too - but then after a few weeks they die while off on their travels, leaving the beekeeper to wonder what he has done to lose his bees.

Needles to say, these toxic seed-coatings have been banned in safety-conscious Europe pending future testing on the effects these chemicals have on humans and the environment.

In corporate-friendly USA however, the EPA has decided neonics are probably safe, and continues slowly investigating while agri-business uses them extensively. Neoniotinoid-coated seeds are being used in both Canada and the US.

Fortunately, under US and Canadian law, organic seeds cannot be coated with neonics or other chemicals.

This is yet another reason to support your local organic farmers.