Craving something fresh, Paul picked up a basket of summer squash at the market on the way home from work yesterday. Marinated Herbed Zucchini is a beautiful and flavorful summer starter that transforms summer's bounteous zucchini and squash into something unexpected and delicious. Whether you're looking for a creative new salad...or just searching for something other than zucchini bread to make with the summer squashes piling up in your kitchen, this is a winner!
In our experience, snacking is the natural accompaniment to binge TV watching. With new seasons of Game of Thrones and House of Cards out this month, we are in prime snacking mode. This weekend, we made a homemade version of the addictive (but expensive) Boursin cheese we sometimes buy at the grocery. Boursin was created by Francois Boursin in Normandy, and is a soft fresh Garnay cheese with flavorful additions. Our version uses a combination of goat cheese and cream cheese to achieve a creamy, tangy texture, and is liberally studded with fresh herbs, garlic and lemon zest. We devoured our Homemade Garlic & Herb Boursin on sourdough bread with crunchy watermelon radishes from our CSA, and when we ran out of bread, made up a batch of crackers so we could keep snacking.
I am mad for potatoes and have found myself, on more than one occasion, defensively sputtering to Paul that 'of course I absolutely NEED to bring back that bag of potatoes in my suitcase!' In contrast to my gung-ho consumption of potatoes, I would consider Paul to be more of a casual appreciator of the humble spud, but we both love this Herb Potato Salad. It is a light and vivacious, mayonnaise-free potato salad, with a snappy garlic-mustard vinaigrette lavished with herbs. Think of this recipe as an an outline that will easily adjust to different amounts and types of herbs and alternative vinegars and oils.
Sometimes a dish is inspired by a single perfect ingredient. Or in our case, a dozen. This week we were delighted to have sourced a carton of fresh beautiful brown eggs from a local Amish farm cooperative. These are not our everyday supermarket eggs...coming from free range chickens, their deep yellow yolks and rich creamy whites called out for a meal that would let them star. While our ideas ranged from creme brulee to omelets, hollandaise sauce to meringues, we finally landed on the humble egg salad. This Creamy Egg Salad with Bacon and Avocado is sumptuous and smooth, with smokey crisps of bacon adding textural contrast, and the avocado giving a cool velvety finish. This is decadence on a plate, with the eggs in center stage. It is as easy to make as it is satisfying.
Sometimes you just need a mouthful of umami: that indescribable savory unctuousness, even meatiness, that defines many of our favorite foods. This dish is quick to prepare (about 30 minutes if you've got a bread/dough on hand), and will leave you satisfied without feeling heavy. It was inspired by the the last delivery of our winter CSA from Penn's Corner, which included chives, local pecorino style cheese, and fresh crimini mushrooms. Mushrooms and aged cheese each pack an savory wallop, and when you bring this together with deep browning of the mushrooms and flat-bread crust, it makes for an unbeatable combination. For those less inclined toward vegetarian cooking, this recipe will not let you down.
As the weather warms up we are putting the grill back to use and bringing back color to our diet. We opted for a lighter dinner of grilled chicken with lettuce, cucumber, and stunning watermelon radishes from our CSA. The dressing was a creamy herb buttermilk ranch.
