Nanny’s Dish

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My Italian-American (Calabrese) grandmother (we called her nanny) was a lousy cook. I know, it’s counter to what everyone wants to believe about her type but she made greasy tomato sauce, tough pork chops and tasteless baccala. But she made one delicious, memorable favorite dish: peppers and onions, usually with sausage or potatoes. I updated it with Wolfe Spring Farm bell peppers, fingerling potatoes, and some regular old supermarket onions. And since it’s August and I’m doin’ everything on the grille in my new dumptique enameled metal pan……… Slice everything up as shown, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, throw in some fresh oregano, rosemary and whatever else you have around, thyme would be nice, and then put on the grille on high heat. Toss every so often until looks done. This could easily be done on the stovetop or in the oven, OMG……..memories……. light the corners of my mind……..greasy oily-tasting memories……of the way we were…..

Beautiful ingredients!

Ready to go……

Maybe after 30 minutes on high heat

EAT! You’re so skinny!!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, no Time

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Next, we made an amazing grille-roasted chicken with a Wolfe Springs Farm naturally raised chicken, some WSF fingerling potatoes, some herbs from our garden and some WSF tomatoes.

Slip a few herbs under the chicken’s skin, cram some lemon wedges and whole herbs in the cavity, salt and pepper everything in sight and throw it in a pan (this one was a wedding gift that we dedicated to the grill) cook for a while, add some sliced onions and crushed garlic, cook until done, serve with sliced fresh WSF tomatoes and chopped basil. The whole cooking time was about 1.5 hours – just enough time to have a bloody mary or two. This was a truly sublime feast.

The raw ingredients

“How Easy is That?” Dave at the grill, channeling Ina Garten.

Work in Progress

Add onions and WSF garlic

BOOM! Dinnuh!

Cole Slaw

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OK, so the first thing we did was make a quick cole slaw with the WSF red cabbage, WSF jalapeño and some epazote for our garden. Its super easy and fresh and delicious tasting. Slice up the cabbage, finely chop the jalapeño and the epazote, grind some fresh pepper and salt on top, add a dollop of mayonnaise (we used Hellman’s but if you are more ambitious that we are, make fresh) and a drizzle of white vinegar. Toss, let sit for a few hours in the fridge and enjoy!

The basic ingredients

Cabbage Chopping in process

Blurry pic of the chopped cabbage, jalapeños and mayo.

Tangy…..

An Embarrassment of Riches

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Take a look at this awesome haul from Wolfe Spring Farm! Organic corn, eggplant, string beans, garlic, tomatoes, red cabbage, jalapeños, zucchini, bell peppers, fingerling potatoes, edamame, and beautiful sunflowers. Thanks so much to Paul and Debra for letting us pick up their CSA produce while they are on jury duty.  While at the farm, we had a nice chat with Jim, who told us that they had naturally raised chickens for sale. We bought two. Stay tuned for what we do with all this gorgeous produce. Thanks!

Embarrassment of Riches

And sunflowers too

Grilled Fish at Altitude: Branzino in Montagna

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Ever grilled a whole fish? Easier than you think if you have a trusty fishmonger and a hot fire. I’m visiting dear friend Alyce Henness in the Italian Alps. Alyce and her snowboarding superstar husband Luca live in a cozy, Alpine-style home with all the mod cons in the town of La Salle, which is in the region of the Valle d’Aosta. Imagine clean mountain air, soft green grass, a river roaring past and Mont Blanc in the background. One could do worse…
Not eating meat is a rarity in Italy, but actually extremely easy to do with all the readily available fresh produce, pasta and fish. Even here in the mountains, Alyce picked up a beautiful whole branzino for me at the local supermarket.

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Branzino is Italian for sea bass, and let me tell you, we are hours from the sea and this guy looks like he blew his last bubbles this morning. The branzino weighed in at a hefty pound an a quarter and thankfully Alyce had the foresight to ask the fishmonger to clean it for us. Like I said, need to have a good fishmonger, because no one wants to scale a fish in the kitchen. I stuffed the fish with sliced lemon, branches of rosemary, and some sliced garlic. Drizzled it with olive oil and some salt and pepper and it was ready to go.

Luca grilled it to perfection on the charcoal grill in their garden – about 6 or 7 minutes per side and voila.

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I removed the flesh from the bones and placed the delicate white meat on a clean plate, drizzled it with a little more olive oil, squirt of lemon and some salt and pepper. Cooked perfectly. Delicious – even Alyce and Luca, who were happily eating grilled fillet, agreed. Bravo, Luca!

And to accompany our meal, Alyce prepared yummy baked zucchini boats topped with melted parmiggiano. The recipe was passed along from Alyce’s mom Susan, in Erie, PA. Maybe Alyce could share her timely recipe as we are all overloaded with zucchini at this time of year…and to drink, we had a local, light and refreshing Muller-Thurgau with our meal.

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And as if that weren’t enough, hostess extraordinaire Alyce served homemade strawberry ice cream, made with tiny pieces of local fragole. I couldn’t get a picture because my 2 scoops were consumed too fast. Whoops.
Thank you again, Alyce and Luca!

Grilled Branzino

Take me to your Raw Bar

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If there’s one thing I love, it’s a good Raw Bar. And a Raw Bar at a cocktail party with breathtaking water views…now we are talking.

Boys in Seersucker, Harbor Views and Cocktails

Hubs and I had the good fortune to attend a beautiful wedding last weekend in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Friends Liz Creelman and Rob Patterson celebrated their wedding in classic New England style with a tented outdoor reception, gorgeous harbor views, tons of seersucker and seafood galore. I could go on about the beautiful bride and the handsome groom, the thoughtfully-selected reading selections at the ceremony, the happy families, blah blah blah. And it’s all true. But I’ll focus on one specific detail: the Raw Bar.

Raw Bar in a Row Boat

The Raw Bar was awesome. During the cocktail hour, and in addition to very tasty passed hors d’oeuvres, there were 3 pros shucking Wellfleet oysters, Littleneck clams and another local oyster from Chatham [somebody help me here] all beautifully displayed in a wooden row boat. Hot sauce and classic mignonette on the side. Step right up and help yourself. What a great “of the place” addition to the event – what could be more local at a New England seaside village? The boat photographed above should be laden with oysters, but I may have been single-handedly responsible for keeping the Wellfleet supply low. So briny, juicy, fresh and scrumptious. Is there nothing better?

Thanks again, Liz and Rob. It was a fantastic event and we were delighted to be included.

Next stop: ITALY!!

Hot Town, Summer in the City: Dinner Out @ Jeffrey’s Grocery

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While Dan’s been keeping it real and hyper-local, Hubs and I have been letting the others do the dirty work for us. On a sultry summer night, we hit a West Village hot spot called Jeffrey’s Grocery for dinner.  And when I say hot spot, I am not only referring to desirability, but also the temperature. The restaurant has an open kitchen which is great for the curious diner, but it doesn’t help you dry  on a hot summer’s night. The restaurant’s on a cute corner in a historic building, and you almost feel bad for the struggling AC. Jeffrey’s Grocery is a sister restaurant to Joseph Leonard’s, Fedora and Perla. Media darling owner Gabriel Stulman is a lover of all things local, sustainable and hip.

Sitting at the corner of the bar with 2 friends, we started our meal with oysters on the half shell and the Coho Wild Salmon appetizer. Our bartender and waiter had the obligatory pencil-thin mustache and an easy smile. He insisted on the Salmon appetizer, which was good, but not a stand out. I also had a glass of rose’ cava served in an old school champagne glass.

From “Sometimes I Crave” – Jonah Crab Salad

For our entrees, we had roast chicken, Jonah crab salad, pork loin and an outstanding side dish – Roasted Creamed Corn. Let me tell you about this Creamed Corn – it was awesome. It was creamy and rich and crunchy all at the same time. The chef topped it with popcorn. Nice touch, I thought.  Thank you to blogger Yijia for taking the photo above last month. Check out Yijia’s review of Jeffrey’s Grocery here.

Dinner was good, with a festive ambiance and tasty flavors. Definitely worth a return visit in the fall when the mercury drops.

Pizza for Breakfast?

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I don’t think I’m the only one who loves a slice of leftover pizza for breakfast. What about a fresh, grilled pizza for breakfast? The thick meaty tomatoes from Wolfe Spring Farm prompted us to give it a try. Our weekend guest had brought a few cheeses. A buratta which we used on our bruschetta and a nice fresh mozzarella from Murray’s in Grand Central Terminal. Tomatoes, mozzarella? Fresh basil in the garden? Caprese salad? No, PIZZA! We had two crusts from Berkshire Mountain Bakery in the freezer and did this: Sliced the tomatoes, pushed out most of the seeds, salted them and let them drain for an hour or so in the sun. They got nice and tender and dried out a bit. Fortunately, I had roasted some garlic this week so we smeared a few cloves of roasted garlic on each crust, then rubbed some olive oil on them too. Sliced and layered on the mozzarella. ;aye red on the cheese, added a little salt and lots of freshly found black pepper, and grilled the whole thing for about 15 minutes. Then, we sprinkled one of them with fresh basil from the garden, and the other one with basil, fresh chopped oregano and some nasturtium flowers. I have to admit, the nasturtium flowers were for looks. Even though they are edible and have a delicate peppery taste, it was unnecessary and, frankly, weird. The pizza had a delicious blackened crust and a simple earthy taste from the garlic, tomatoes and cheese. Tonight, we’ll have leftover breakfast pizza for dinner!


PS – Deb, blogging is hard! I don’t know how you keep up!

Nearly Rained-Out Bruschetta Bar

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It was so hot and humid Saturday night. It drizzled and cleared up so many times we didn’t know whether to stay outside or not. Just in time for some wine and snacks, the weather stabilized. Low heavy fog, sunny up on the top of the hill, wine and bruschetta. What’s not to like?

So, back to the point of all this. With the lovely cherry tomatoes from Wolfe Spring Farm we made a classic, simple bruschetta. We quartered a quart of the tomatoes, tossed them with some salt and drained out the liquid for an hour or so. Then, we tossed them with a little bit of chopped fresh garlic (one or two cloves) black pepper and a bit more salt, let them sit and drain for another half hour then tossed in some fresh chopped basil from our garden and, presto! It was summer on a piece of grilled toast (Berkshire Mountain Bakery sourdough baguette, sliced, drizzled with olive oil and grilled until crispy). We also served some buratta (courtesy of our weekend guest) and some homemade hummus (nothing local or fresh except the parsley……nobody is perfect.) this was supposed to be the first course but we were so satisfied we stopped and went straight to the banana black pepper ice cream.ImageImageImageImageImageImage