From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I am completely slammed again this week. Though I am hoping to escape early today and head out to Chainsaws and Chuckwagons to see some of the artists. We take our old tree stump carving very seriously here. Since I didn’t have time to cook this week, I decided to raid JeffreyW’s recipes and photos.
Let’s start with his Stuffed Anaheim Peppers, pictured above and recipe here.
Then there is his Homemade Sauerkraut, for instructions click here.
I bought ribs on sale and am going to make my slow-cooker Polynesian Ribs this weekend, the complete dinner menu and recipes are here. Even if I can’t find time to cook, these are easy and quick.
JeffreyW took some of his garden harvest and made a fresh batch of Hot Giardiniera last week, click here.
Have any recipes to share using fresh from the garden bounty? What’s your recipe for fun this holiday weekend? Cooking up anything special?I picked two featured recipes tonight, both taking advantage of fresh garden veggies and herbs, like JeffreyW’s lush basil, above. They are simple and quick to make, so you can get back outside to take advantage of the last unofficial weekend of summer.
Pasta w/Fresh Basil
10 oz bow-tie pasta
3 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch basil (1 loose cup)
2 tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup grated parmesan
saucepanCook pasta in saucepan according to package directions. Drain well. In saucepan, heat oil, basil, tomatoes and sauté for 1 minute, add pasta and toss with cheese. Serve immediately.
Collard Greens w/ Bacon
4 slices bacon
6 green onions, chopped
1 bunch collard greens (or spinach)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
salt & pepper to taste
skillet, saucepan, steamerWash collard greens. In skillet, cook bacon till crisp, remove, cool and crumble. In bacon drippings, sauté onions, remove. In saucepan, place steamer and enough water to come to the bottom of the steamer, add greens and steam until tender. Mix honey & vinegar, and a little of the bacon drippings if you like. Toss all ingredients together and serve.
Aren’t JeffreyW’s photos fun? I’m so lucky he came on board years ago. That’s it for this week. Have a safe and fun holiday weekend. – TaMara
schrodinger's cat
Does any one have a good recipe for chocolate cake that doesn’t use tons of butter/oil. I have to make dessert for the cookout we are going to on Sunday.
Steeplejack (phone)
I survived Bear Happy Hour! Now at Lauriol Plaza, sucking on a marg and waiting on some high-end Mexican food.
redshirt
@Steeplejack (phone): Sounds nice. Mexican food is the best of all foods.
RandomMonster
Wow, is that the mother lode of basil! While our basil plants aren’t anywhere near as voluptuous as the ones in that photo, I am planning on harvesting what we have this weekend to make thai basil chicken. It’s my favorite thai dish, and the first recipe I ever learned, practiced, and mastered (in an amateur way).
benw
@redshirt:
Definitely in the top 3. The collard greens w/bacon sounds easy and yummy. In honor of Betty Cracker a few posts ago, I might try it with some tempeh bacon.
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman:
The variegated Sausage plants I put in this year have given a bumper crop. The Italian Chorizo is outstanding. :)
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman: They have improved the spaghetti plants since that video was made. I had two very prolific capellini al forno trees this year and they are still producing a small platefull every couple of days. They are a little al dente because of the lack of rain the past few weeks.
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman: I noticed that too. I feel like we’re the last guys at the bar just before closing.
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman: I don’t know — there was a lot of talk up-thread about Mexican food, maybe somebody had too many beans and cleared the place out. My sense of smell is sometimes not too great, so I might not have noticed.
So I guess I’ll say goodnight, will you turn the lights out when you leave?
Jane2
Tons of tomatoes? Best Texas-style salsa here. The bonus is you get to eat it with breakfast tacos!
Anoniminous
@schrodinger’s cat:
Is 1/2 cup of oil “a ton?”
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
Ha! I knew it was going to be that.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Felonius Monk, @efgoldman:
Hey, I’m just getting home from dinner and driving four gorgeous Brazilian chicks home. Oops, sorry, chicas. Chicãos?
redshirt
Hey! Who’s still here?
redshirt
@efgoldman: Have you seen Mad Max:Fury Road yet?
redshirt
@efgoldman: It’s available on DVD/Blue Ray.
Just watched it, again. What a movie!
redshirt
@efgoldman: Doubtful. But I’d totally be up for a Portland meet up. It’s such an awesome little city everyone in New England should make the trip.
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
My brother married a Brazilian, and it was his (BIL’s) birthday today. Also at dinner were an aunt, two cousins and a woman who I still don’t know who the hell she is but she shows up at every family/social function. I drove downtown by myself; the others came by a combination of taxis and Uber. We consolidated for the trip home, and I got the senhoras.
trollhattan
@Anoniminous:
If chugging, yeah.
redshirt
@efgoldman: I could also be persuaded to attend a Portsmouth, NH, meetup. If that makes the NE meetup a more likely thing.
BillinGlendaleCA
What, no comments in the last half hour?
I decided to take another late afternoon hike in the local hills. What a nice hike, maybe my favorite so far.
I got a little surprise on the way up the hill: Oh, deer!.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: How cool is that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: It goes to dropbox and then loads the photo.
ETA: It might take some time on a slower connection, it’s the full 16mp file.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I really, really liked this trail(the main trails up there are fire roads). Not a lot of direct sun, lots of trees. It’s the first time I’ve hiked on that side of the hills, it’s a big difference compared to the southern side.
BillinGlendaleCA
Here’s the view from the top.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: I am jealous. I don’t have anything like that near me. Any cool hiking trails, but I got deer.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Eh, we call it haze. A lot of that is the marine layer.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I saw 2 deer about a year of so ago, though that was down in the city and on the other side of the hills.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Damn it!!! /UW alum.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: My parents are scared to drive after dark because of deer. Fearful of hitting said deer. I assume many don’t understand what that is like.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Speaking of after dark; I got back to my car just before it got dark and there were people headed up at that time. Damn crazy, there are mountain lions up in those hills.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: Well we might have to agree to disagree here. Clearly we are not always at the top of the food chain. But you are not going to get mauled by a cat.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: People here have been both mauled and killed by mountain lions around here.
NotMax
Saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in he Night-time Friday night.
Aside from the lead actor, who carries about 10000% of the show (and is an amazement), less impressive than anticipated. Lots and lots of technical wizardry but like CGI in movies too often used as a substitute for dramatic development, rather as showing off via digital masturbation.
Play takes place entirely in England, yet the vast majority of the small cast didn’t even attempt British accents. Several repetitious directorial affectations stood out like acne on a supermodel as well.
May have been a bad night but the clarity and quality of the audio for the dialogue was erratic as well
Still and all would give it an A minus on the strength of the talented and almost entirely mesmerizing performance of young Tony winner Alex Sharp in the lead.
Jerzy Russian
@Tommy:
I think of a mountain lion as more of a lion than a cat. As Bill said, many attacks have happened. For example, see this list. One woman was even attacked while riding her bike.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Tommy:
A mountain lion is the size of, well, a lion. Like great white sharks, they don’t attack people very often, but they need to be respected as potentially dangerous.
Zinsky
The Stuffed Anaheim Peppers look delicious, Anne, but I would have to pop a handful of Zantac before I took my first bite! LOL
J R in WV
@Tommy:
I got stalked by a big cat one night in high desert Arizona. Ran for the door when the wind changed and I smelled it. I carried a big pistol the rest of that trip out, and subsequent trips, any time I was outside in the mountains.
Our camp is at 5500 feet just southwest of the Dragoon Unit of the Tonopah National Forest, I think I have that name right. You can look up Gleeson AZ on Google Earth, and then move NW. The Dragoons top out around 9000 feet. Neighbor took a photo of a paw print with his pack of king Lucky Strikes, and the footprint was larger top to bottom than the pack of cigs.
I was stalked at my cousin’s when we had an RV in the back yard as bunk house for building the camp over 3 winters. It was after a big fire in the Chiracahua Mountains drove the game and predators into the valley floor west of the mountain range. Cousin once had a pet dog eaten in the front yard by a lion. Just the smell scared me !!
schrodinger's cat
@Anoniminous: More than what I want, but since it is for company it should be OK.
SWMBO
@Tommy: My late brother-in-law was on a deer hunt with several friends a few years ago. Some of them went to town for supplies and hit a deer. Killed the front passenger and injured most everyone in the vehicle. Deer hooves are sharp and they thrash a lot when they’re dying.
ETA he wasn’t the one killed. He died years later from smoking, drinking and refusing medical treatment. Conservative/Libertarian asshole syndrome. “It’s just a government plot to get my money” when he had heart problems.