Musk Melon and Ice Cream

Stroll down memory lane alert! A summer memory. Sitting on the front porch on a very hot summer night and my mother hands me a bowl. In that bowl is half a Musk Melon, or cantaloupe, filled with ice cream. The flavor was usually vanilla, my Dad's favorite. After my Mom passed one of my cousins send me a note saying one of her favorite memories of staying at our house was that dish of Musk Melon and ice cream.

 

Today was the Feast of the Assumption. It was my Mom's favorite feast day. Tonight seemed an appropriate night to have a dish of Musk Melon and ice cream.

After mass this morning I peaked in the Rectory garden to see how the fig tree that my Dad had planted there was doing. It looks like it will be a good year for figs at Saint Lawrence Church.

Grilled Steak, Corn and Mom's Green Bean Salad

A perfectly grilled steak. Perfect corn on the cob. Thank you Cole's Farm Stand. And that Green Bean Salad. One of my favorite summer memories, aside from the Musk Melon with Ice Cream, more on that later this week, would be my Mom's Green Bean Salad. 

Tonight I think I hit the nail on the head. I added celery and celery leaves and my Mom's signature ingredient. Olives. Sliced olives. There was just the right amount of olive oil and vinegar. Salt, pepper, oregano. I tossed in some fresh chopped parsley too. Damn it was spot on! The dinner plate was filled with so many delicious things it was hard to pick what to eat first. Of course, I started with the Green Bean Salad.

Fresh Tomato Sauce, Almost

On Saturday my Brother-In-Law, Ralph, gave us a bag of tomatoes from his garden. They were not that big but they were beautiful. I wanted to use them to make sauce. So I did. 

After peeling and seeding the tomatoes there was not as much meat to work with as I had hoped. I had to add a can of diced tomatoes. I also added some sautéed onion, fresh basil and oregano.

 What a delicious meal this was. Some homemade bread helped round out the plate. And of course a glass of red wine.

Better Than Take-Out Chicken Fried Rice

I thought the best way to use up leftover roasted chicken was Chicken Pot Pie. Well there is a new recipe in our rotation. Chicken Fried Rice. This one is from the Recipe Critic, Better Than Take-Out Chicken Fried Rice. I got home at 6:20. Dinner was on the table by 6:45. I did cut up the Chicken this morning and I made the rice last night but still it was an easy meal to make. And it was tasty!

Ingredients-
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded
3 cups cooked rice
2 Tbs sesame oil
1 small white onion, chopped
1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
2-3 Tablespoons soy sauce (more or less to taste)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp chopped green onions (optional)

Method-
Shred the cooked chicken.
Preheat a large skillet or wok to medium heat. Pour sesame oil in the bottom. Add white onion and peas and carrots and fry until tender.
Slide the onion, peas and carrots to the side, and pour the beaten eggs onto the other side. Using a spatula, scramble the eggs. Once cooked, mix the eggs with the vegetable mix.
Add the rice and chicken to the veggie and egg mixture. Pour the soy sauce on top. Stir and fry the rice and veggie mixture until heated through and combined. Add chopped green onions if desired.

Summer Squash, Bacon, and Mozzarella Quiche

Yes those are cat cutouts on the top of the quiche. 

Today is Archie's 17th Birthday!

This was very, very good. The original recipe is from Cooking Light. I made a couple of modifications. I knew the original recipe would make too much custard filling for one of my pie plates. The custard came out nice and light. I think the addition of the egg whites attributed to this. This is not something I had added before. Having the crust in the freezer helped make the construction move along faster.

Ingredients (with my modifications)-
 Pate Brisee
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups (1/8-inch-thick) slices yellow squash
2 cups (1/8-inch-thick) slices zucchini
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 cup 1% reduced-fat milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 slices center-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 large egg whites
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Method-
Make the Pate Brisee. Wrap in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Slightly overlap 2 sheets of plastic wrap on a slightly damp flat surface. Unwrap and place chilled dough on plastic wrap. Cover dough with 2 additional sheets of overlapping plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, into a 12-inch circle. Place dough in freezer 5 minutes or until plastic wrap can easily be removed. Remove top sheets of plastic wrap, and fit dough, plastic wrap side up, into a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate coated with cooking spray. Remove remaining plastic wrap from dough. Fold edges under, and flute. Pierce bottom and sides of dough with fork. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

For the filling, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add squash, zucchini, shallots, and thyme; saute for 5 minutes or until squash and zucchini are tender, stirring frequently. Cool the squash mixture slightly.

Combine 1 cup reduced-fat milk and the next 5 ingredients (through eggs) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Arrange squash mixture evenly over crust, and sprinkle with 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Pour the egg mixture over cheese. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until filling is set. Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack.

Happy Birthday Archie!!!

If It's Sunday It's Pizza

Not just any pizza. This one had the works on it. Onion, Bacon, Sausage, Roasted Peppers, sauce, cheese. Not bad at all. And not a lot leftover. The pizza dough was the Jim Lahey recipe. And I keep forgetting that I have his pizza book on my Kindle. Oh well, next time. Maybe next Sunday.

Let's Talk Breakfast

This morning I woke up and of course grabbed my phone. Instead of checking emails I clicked on Pinterest. I saw a pin for 1 Hour Cinnamon Buns. I read the recipe and yes I had all the ingredients. I got up and immediately started baking. Well, I did have a cup of coffee first.

And the recipe took me an hour and 15 minutes but who is complaining? Not Chris or I. Darn this was a delicious Saturday morning breakfast. The dough is just amazing to work with. Here is the link to the recipe. I did make half the recipe. No way we could eat a whole batch!

This Is My Favorite Summer Pasta Recipe

Okay, I LOVE this recipe. It is so flexible. I made a couple of changes from the last time I made it. That is what makes this the perfect recipe. Instead of Pancetta I used Andouille sausage and omitted the lemon. I had the homemade pasta in the freezer. Just perfect. Chris loved this. It was just spicy enough. Just remember NOT to toss the pasta water. You will need it for your sauce.

Ingredients-
¼ cup olive oil
2 pounds assorted summer squashes and zucchini, quartered lengthwise, sliced
Kosher salt
1 diced Andouille sausage
12 ounces ziti, or other large tube pasta
2 ounces Parmesan, grated (about ½ cup), plus more for serving
½ cup basil leaves

Method-
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add squash; season with salt. Add the Andouille sausage. Cook, tossing occasionally, until squash begins to break down and gets jammy (they may start to stick to the skillet a bit, which means you are there!), 12–15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until very al dente.
Transfer pasta to skillet using a slotted spoon or spider and add ½ cup pasta cooking liquid. Cook pasta, adding 2 oz. Parmesan in stages along with more pasta cooking liquid as needed, until sauce coats pasta and pasta is al dente. Toss in lemon juice and most of the basil.
Divide pasta among bowls and top with more Parmesan and remaining basil.

My Perfect Vacation Day

Yeah, vacation day! And it was cool out. Not what you are usually looking for in a vacation day. But I was able to make bread, pasta, and sauce. All three were part of very delicious dinner.

The bread was the No Knead French Bread. The recipe can be found on the Noshtalgia website. It is an amazing dough to work with.

The pasta was from Tide and Thyme. The only pasta recipe I use. I had more than enough for tonight's dinner and I was able to put some in the freezer.
 

The sauce was, of course, the Marcella Hazan Onion, Butter and Tomato Sauce. This time I diced the onion after it had cooked for almost an hour. I sauteed some Pancetta cubes and cubed zucchini and added that to the sauce. Wow!!!

A Very Easy Clambake

I have a couple of food blogs that I follow. One of my favorites is the Proud Italian Cook. Whenever I see the email notification in my mailbox of a new post I know my eyes will be treated to delightful and very delicious looking photos. The most recent post was Easy Clambake on the Grill.

I had to try it. The shrimp were on sale this week and so were the clams. Once the prep was finished the foil packets were ready for the grill. They were on the grill about 15 minutes when Chris popped his head in with the news that we had run out of propane. Yeah, it was low but thought we might have enough for one more night. So we popped packets on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven. I had been baking cookies so it took no time to heat it up to 450˚. Not sure if that was the right temp but I was taking a guess. They took longer than the time on the recipe. We checked twice to see if the clams were opened. Finally, they opened and we enjoyed a delicious dinner. I used Old Bay spice for seasoning. The shrimp was fantastic. Still too early here for the corn but we will try this again in a couple of weeks when the local corn is on sale.

The recipe is the perfect amount for 2 people. I could put the recipe here but I think you should check out the Proud Italian Cook blog. You will not be disappointed.