Tomatoes

It's peak tomato season! Go out to the farmers market or farm stand and buy them and eat them before tomato season ends! With a little mozzarella, basil, balsamic, and olive oil you can have the most amazing salad. I <3 p="" tomatoes="">

And these are from our garden, which did really well this year! We had tomoatoes, snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, strawberries, eggplant, and more hot peppers than ever. Keep an eye out for a Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce - coming to the blog soon and it's incredible. 

Gluten Free Plum Torte

One good thing about the end of summer is that it's time for plum torte! The little Italian plums come into season and this amazing dessert can be whipped up in a little over an hour. It's so good. The plums are tart and the torte is buttery and cakey. You can read the torte's history here. I've put this recipe on the blog before, but this time I tried it with gluten free flour. It was my first foray into gluten free baking and I was surprised - it was actually great! (A girl in my office is gluten free and can never eat any of the snacks I bring in so I wanted to make one she could eat.) I wouldn't choose it over regular flour, but it was surprisingly fluffy and nice. 

Nectarine Shrub

I tried the shrub recipe with nectarines (instead of blackberries) last weekend - yum! It's also the most beautiful color, a bright pinky peach. I topped these with a little soda water to lighten them up. 

Strawberry Balsamic Pie

I love pie season. Some people think it's in the fall or winter, but for me, summer pies are the best. I love a good lattice-topped berry pie (strawberry rhubarb is my reigning favorite). I've been wanting to try this recipe from Four and Twenty Blackbirds but kept forgetting about it during the short strawberry season. Not this year! I finally remembered, bought a bunch of strawberries from the market, and made this delicious pie. It's so good! Even the drippings that come off the pie onto the cookie sheet taste like wonderful, sophisticated fruit roll ups. Strawberries and balsamic go so well together, and the little tiny bit of pepper is not obvious but gives the mix a tiny kick. I used my new favorite cornmeal crust, but you can use regular crust, too (or store-bought if you want - I recommend Trader Joe's). 

Summer Dinner: Grilled Steak, Fairy Tale Eggplants, and Garlic Scapes

Isn't that so pretty? I bought garlic scapes and fairy tale eggplants at the Union Square farmers market Monday night for dinner. I love eggplants and these little guys are so pretty and aren't bitter at all. Dinner was simple and summery and delicious - I'd love to have people over and serve the exact same thing. The eggplants were soft and tender and the scapes were sort of like a garlickly asparagus.

Corn Broth and Frozen Corn

At the end of the summer, I suggest everyone goes out and buys 2 dozen ears of corn to freeze. Late August/September corn is so delicious, and having some on hand in the winter is such a treat. I like to saute it with chorizo, make corn and black bean salad, or make lobster corn fritters. Just throw the husked corn into boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then cut the kernels off the cobs. Put them into several ziploc sandwich bags and throw them in the freezer. So easy.

I also like to take all of the leftover cobs and put them back in the pot of water with a few onions and sprigs of basil and let it cook for an hour or so until you get this amazing corn broth. (You can throw in carrots or scallions or other herbs too.) I put that in the freezer, then use it for corn soups or chowders. It really adds an extra, deep, sweet corn flavor.

Tomato, Chard, and Goat Cheese Tart

I was drooling over this recipe on the Times and couldn't wait to try it with my tomatoes. Due to time restraints and some fresh swiss chard I had, I switched it up a little by adding sauteed swiss chard and onion and doing it in a frozen pie crust I had in my freezer. While I'm sure it tastes better with the olive oil pastry, this was pretty delicious. Served it with a salad full of more tomatoes. It was great and light, and I love the combination of savory tarts and salads in the summer.

Ingredients:
1 large bunch swiss chard, chopped, stems and leaves separated
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
olive oil
frozen pie crust

Garden Week 10 - Memorial Day

Hope you all had a good Memorial Day! Jamie was down in Nashville with friends for his bachelor party and I was out in Southampton biking around with my mom, gardening, walking on the beach, and enjoying the first weekend of summer. Isn't it amazing?

The garden is now looking like a real, thriving garden! Everything is green and growing. On Monday, suddenly the peas were flowering - so we should have some little snap pea pods next weekend!