Happy 4th of July to everyone. Today is actually the 4th, but we had our BBQ/4th of July party on Saturday. Most of the neighbors were present at some point of the day or evening, and, we even met some new neighbors from the 'hood! I didn't actually make a whole lot this weekend. We had some customary dishes like a salad of mixed greens. Jenny & Bob brought their slaw and Vicki made a potato salad. This was good because the week before I had made both coleslaw and potato salad for my mother's birthday party and I really didn't feel like doing it again. I decided to make my "Greek Salad" since it is now summer and I have had a hankering for it. I make mine with peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, sliced red onion, black olives, garlic (since I'm using the garlic raw, I leave them whole and cracked, so people can pick them out) olive oil, oregano, and salt & pepper. The oregano is actually from Turkey that was brought over by Joe's nephew's in-laws who visited us this year for Easter. They also brought ground cumin, red pepper, ginger and sumac. I actually used the cumin and red pepper in the black been recipe below. I love gifts like that! Anyway, back to the Greek salad - this is usually best after it sits for awhile. I usually add the tomatoes shortly before serving as well as some (or in my case a lot) of feta cheese. You get great "juice" with this salad so I will warn you now that you will need a loaf of great - and I mean great European style - bread for dipping.
In addition to the salads, we roasted some cauliflower and broccoli and made an asparagus dish prepared with pignoli nuts, leeks, prosciutto, and orange & lemon zest. Joe BBQ'd some chicken on the Weber Kettle, some baby lamb chops (lollipops) on the open wood grill and some ribs on the smoker. He also smoked up some squab he had in the freezer. I think everyone had enough.
As for trying new recipes this weekend, I didn't do much but I did discover a new way to make ice coffee. My problem in the past was always that after I added the leftover coffee from the morning to the ice in my glass, it became very diluted. And, after adding the milk it became even more diluted. But, you needed the hot coffee to dissolve the sugar I like to put in my ice coffee. Apparently, the way around these obstacles is to make espresso ice cubes and a simple syrup to keep in the fridge for such occasions. This is really good ice coffee.
I also tried a recipe Sunday morning for black bean pate that I had seen in the paper the week before. It was pretty good and something I think I will make again to put out prior to dinner. If you are interested in the recipe, go the NY Times and search for Black Bean Pate'. It is one of Martha Rose Shulman's Recipes for Health.
I almost forgot about the Blackberry Caipirinha's that I couldn't wait to try. Doesn't that sound wonderful. Anyway, I ran to the store last week to pick up a bottle of Cachaca to make them because when I saw the recipe on the food52 website, I knew I had to try them over the 4th. You simply muddle some blackberries - about 6-8 plump ones - with 2 wedges of lime and a teaspoon of sugar. Add ice and 2 ounces of cachaca. Sounds good, but I didn't care for them. They were a bit strong for my taste. However, if you add a little of that simple syrup you made for the ice coffee and some cold Pellegrino you have in the fridge, they're pretty good. So, now that I have all of these blackberries that I wasn't going to use, I had to put them in the food processor with a little sugar and lemon juice to make a syrup and keep in the fridge to add to my Prosecco, which I am having right now.
The only other thing that I really wanted to have this weekend was strawberry shortcake. When I went into town this morning, I was reminded that it was Monday and therefore the Schroon Lake Farmers Market, and, guess what - someone had fresh strawberries. I just finished making the biscuits (I used Marion Cunningham's cream biscuits) and tonight I will finally have my strawberry short cake.
In addition to a couple of new recipes that were tried and tested this weekend, I also just finished reading a great book titled: Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. This memoir was fascinating because she has not lived the "normal" life, but what I really connected with is her desire for food prepared simple and fresh. She feels the same way about food that I do and that is that real food doesn't really need to be fussed with very much to taste good. She doesn't do "foam" on her food. I am also never going to feel uncomfortable about making dinner reservations for the 6:00pm time slot - which is when I really want to eat - not at 8:00pm - after reading her book. I have not yet eaten at her restaurant (Prune) but I am so encouraged that food being served in restaurants may be coming back to this way of thinking since she was the winner of the James Beard Foundation award for best NYC chef this year!!!!! Congratulations to Gabrielle. If you like food and, the story of how someone discovered their love of food and food preparation, you should pick-up this book. If nothing else, her life and her style of writing is great entertainment.
So that's it for my 4th of July weekend 2011. I hope yours was a good one and a healthy one spent relaxing and with people you enjoy. Until next time.....
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