fresh tomato sauce

If you’ve visited your local market lately you’ll notice something. Tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes in all sorts of shapes and colors. Each week I’ve been buying bags full and bringing my treasures home to make homemade tomato sauce. I’ve been playing with a few different ways to make it and I just kind realized something. You don’t have to do much to just-picked tomatoes to make a delicious sauce. The hardest part about this recipe is deciding when the best time to turn the heat of the stove on.

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Filed under condiments/sauces and eat by kelly. August 18th, 2009 . 12 Comments

olive oil granola

I saw this article in the New York Times about granola made with olive oil a while back. It sounded tasty but I was in no hurry to make it. Then I picked up a bag of Early Bird Granola, the granola in which the aforementioned recipe is based on, and I suddenly realized why that olive oil granola warranted a whole article in the food section of the Times. Ummm… this stuff is crazy awesome. Like jump up and down in the kitchen and hand me that bag. I pulled up that article and got to work making my own batch. The result is a salty and sweet concoction that is one heck of a way to start the day.

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Filed under breakfast and eat and snacks by kelly. August 17th, 2009 . 16 Comments

happy hour: blueberry smash

Oh boy, today we have one heck of a delicious happy hour. Fresh blueberries smashed up with ginger ale and vodka just sounds like the right thing to do, right? I think this would make a super lovely party cocktail or even punch. The blueberries around here are nice and sweet and with the addition of a little simple syrup they get even sweeter, but that gets cut by a splash of ginger ale and a little more than a splash of vodka. I used this fancy ginger ale I’ve had in the fridge for a while and it was good, but I couldn’t help but think how awesome this drink would be with some of my homemade ginger ale. Heaven!

Cheers to you! Have a wonderful weekend!

Blueberry Smash
makes 1 cocktail

2 Tablespoons blueberries
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz vodka
2 oz ginger ale
ice

1
In a cocktail shaker, smash together the blueberries and simple syrup until the blueberries are mostly flat.
2
Add a few cubes of ice and vodka. Shake for about 5 seconds.
3
Pour into a short glass, straining the ice, and top with ginger ale.
4
Enjoy!

Filed under happy hour by kelly. August 14th, 2009 . 3 Comments

read: plenty

I picked up this book during market week, right after I’d finished Omnivore’s Dilemma. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to get and then I saw Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. It’s a book about one couple’s quest to eat within 100 miles of their Vancouver home for one year. It seemed like an interesting book, especially when I was attempting to do a similar thing that very week.

As I started to read it I was a little mixed on what I thought of it. There were times when I felt the writers were going overboard, but then I grew to really enjoy it. I liked looking forward to their next adventure in search of ingredients we take for granted like flour or honey. It’s a great book to read if you’re interested in local food economies, a connection to where your food comes from and the interesting places you might just find it.

Filed under read by kelly. August 13th, 2009 . 8 Comments

crispy garlic toast with ricotta + basil

Ok, so we had some veggies yesterday, but you were probably thinking you needed something to go with them. Well, have I got the most delicious and crispy garlic bread for you. It works perfectly with the tomato salad to make a delicious lunch or with just about any salad for that matter. Just think: crispy, olive oily toast with a hint of garlic, topped with warm ricotta cheese and bits of fresh basil. Come on, let’s go make some.

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Filed under eat and sides by kelly. August 12th, 2009 . 8 Comments

101 salads: #15 (tomatoes with soy sauce, sesame oil + cilantro)

Believe it or not, before this year I wouldn’t have dared to toss a cherry tomato in my mouth. I was just a little too wimpy, but I’m on the up and up with this whole not being picky thing and it’s really working out for me. This weekend I spotted these oh-so-pretty tomatoes and was torn between these and some slightly more yellow ones. I asked the farmer which he recommended and he told me I should choose, handing me one of each. I easily popped one in my mouth, then the other, made my decision and had a little celebration in my head. I love this new attitude towards trying things, it just makes shopping and eating so much more fun. Speaking of fun, this little tomato number is tasty one and quicker than quick to whip up.

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Filed under eat and sides by kelly. August 11th, 2009 . 2 Comments

redesign your farmers’ market

Good Magazine along with The Architect’s Newspaper, The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, and The Los Angeles Good Food Network is sponsoring a contest to improve the modern farmers’ market experience. Do you have a great idea or is there something that always bugs you when you go to the market? Do something about it and enter by September 1, 2009 by emailing your idea to projects[at]goodmagazine[dot]com.

For more details, visit Good Magazine now.

Image by Michelle Park and Manny Garcia
Filed under events by kelly. August 10th, 2009 . 0 Comments

fancy salt brownies

I love brownies. You just can’t deny their deliciousness. I’ve made many recipes, each of which has been mighty tasty. Then something amazing happened. I was introduced to perhaps the best brownie that has ever touched my lips at a little cafe near my office (dangerous!) called City Girl Cafe. It is an intense chocolate overload in the best way possible. Apparently they use valhrona chocolate, an ingredient I’d heard about but never used. After tasting that brownie I just had to try to make it at home. I picked up a container of the chocolate and set out to recreate those brownies. The result turned out to be different than I expected, but a star in it’s own right due to the use of a different ingredient, Maldon salt.

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Filed under eat and sweets by kelly. August 10th, 2009 . 18 Comments

happy hour: basil plum fizz

I picked up a little jar of sugar plums when we were at blue hill and I’ve been itching to use them. I decided a cocktail was a good place to start, so I whipped up this little drink, something I’ve named the basil plum fizz. It’s pretty tasty, perhaps still a work in progress.

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Filed under happy hour by kelly. August 7th, 2009 . 3 Comments

summer pizza + tomato sauce

Yesterday I wrote about how all I want to do is cool off. There are only a few things that tempt me to turn that oven knob in an unair-conditioned kitchen in August. Pizza is one of them (sweets are another, but that’s a whole other story). This pizza is the perfect way to use all the delicious vegetables that are in their prime. Although it means turning the oven on, if there’s only two of you (like in my apartment) it also means leftovers so you don’t even have to think about dinner the next night.

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Filed under dinner and eat by kelly. August 6th, 2009 . 3 Comments