Things I have always liked, but now I like more

Cherry Tomatoes: Once I discovered how good home-grown tomatoes are, warm from the sun and sweet, I've bought so many fewer grocery store tomatoes. It's just a completely different animal, and so much less fun than my own.

Pickles: The freezer pickles I made have been heaven. I could eat an entire pint in a sitting if I didn't remember how much salt and sugar is in a pint.

Things I used to not like, but now I do, and why

Eggplant: I think I primarily didn't like eggplant because I never cooked it long enough so I didn't like the texture, and I didn't like the flavor. So basically, I just hated it. When they were visiting, Dave and Kathy told me about the trick of salting the cut-up eggplant, letting it sit for a while, and then rinsing it off to get rid of the bitterness (also works with cucumbers, apparently, although I've always liked the way they taste). I also tried some eggplant Parmesan that I liked a lot, although what doesn't taste excellent smothered in tomato sauce and cheese? Regardless, now I loooove eggplant! I've been getting the long, skinny kind, but might soon branch out to the more eggplant-y shaped.

Chives: Mostly, I think that I like that I grew these chives (which I planted for their pretty purple flower in early spring). The chives, shall we say, thrived, and now I have to like them as I am my father's daughter and can't let food go to waste. They're growing on me, especially with mushrooms.

Brussel Sprouts: All it takes is one good recipe, I think.

Harper the Killer

Only tangentially related to food. I was in the front yard harvesting some chives when I hear Harper barking from the backyard. It was the same bark she uses when she's playing with another dog, and the dog is taking a time out and lying down and refusing to run around. It's sort of her, "come on, play with me!" bark, and is usually accompanied by a play bow. I go to the back to see what the ruckus is and I see Harper poking and barking at a rather dead mouse. Since she left it alone rather quickly once I yelled at her and hadn't already tried to eat it, I'm guessing she didn't see it as a food source, but rather as a playmate (it is very difficult to separate Harper from food. Not that she's protective of it and growls, just that she gulps food down so quickly there's no opportunity). I don't know if I would be more disturbed by her actually going after a mouse to kill it on purpose, or that she accidentally killed what she thought was a playmate.... well, either way, that's one less mouse that we have to worry about getting into the house!

No-Time Bread

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (two packets)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

• In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer put the yeast, sugar, and water and let it sit.
• Heat the oven to 450°F. Put a Dutch oven (or one of these alternatives) in to warm as the oven heats. Get out your flour, salt, vinegar, spray oil, and anything else you need.
• Now that the yeast has had a few minutes to bubble up, add 3 cups of the flour as well as the salt and vinegar and beat for several minutes with the paddle. Add the last 1/2 cup of flour and switch to the dough hook and beat for seven minutes. Alternately, knead vigorously for five minutes, or until the dough becomes extremely elastic. This will still be a wet dough, but not goopy. The dough will clear the sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom.
• Lightly grease a microwave-safe bowl with vegetable oil and transfer the bread dough to it, rolling it in the oil. Cover the bowl with a very wet towel. Cover the whole thing with a dry towel and put in the microwave. Microwave on HIGH for 25 seconds.
• Let rest in the microwave for about five minutes.
• Microwave on HIGH for another 25 seconds, then remove.
• Let rest and rise for another 15 minutes.
• Shape into a ball and plop into the preheated pan. Quickly slash the top with a knife. Cover and bake for about 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the internal temperature hits 210.

RESULTS:
Chris and I are both sick, and our food supplies are awfully low, so bread seemed like a good thing to make. I was more intrigued by this recipe than expecting it to be good--I mean, how can you beat good old regular bread? First impression is that calling it "no-time" bread is a bit of a misnomer. I mean, it still takes about an hour to come together, which is certainly shorter than regular bread, but it's not like you can just pull it together last minute. It's also certainly not simpler than regular bread. I also think it could have used more salt.

Quick Pickled Zucchini

Just the other day I was wondering, "I wonder if I can pickle zucchinis?" and then Beth emailed me this recipe from 101 cookbooks.

Ingredients

• 3 medium (1 pound) zucchini, thinly sliced

• 1 medium white onion, thinly sliced

• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt or pickling salt
  
• 1/4 cup (small handful) fresh dill sprigs
• 1 small fresh red chile pepper, very thinly sliced
• 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 
3/4 cup cider vinegar

• 3/4 cup white wine vinegar

• 1/3 cup sugar

Directions
Toss the zucchini, onion, shallots, and salt together in a colander and place over a bowl to catch the liquids. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Toss once or twice along the way. You're aiming to get as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible.

When you're finished draining the zucchini, shake off any water. At this point you want the zucchini as dry as possible. Place in a 1 liter / 1 quart jar along with the dill, chile pepper, and mustard seeds. Alternately, you can cram them into a 3/4 liter Weck jar like I do, but it's always a bit snug in the jar.

Combine the ciders and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and continue to boil for a few minutes. Pour the liquid over the zucchini and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate. The pickles are good for a week or so.



Makes one quart.

Results:
Unknown. I'm in Stevens Point right now for a conference and I put these together right before I left. At first whiff, they smelled like McDonald's pickles, but better.

Addendum:
These are pretty good! They go really well with, of all things, tuna fish. They don't keep tremendously long, only a couple weeks, so don't hold back when you're eating them.

Peanut Butter-Banana Oatmeal

From the Washington Post:

Summary:

The banana and peanut butter flavors in this creamy oatmeal are quite subtle. It tastes even better the next day, so you might want to make a double batch and keep it in the refrigerator; reheat with a little extra milk.

2 to 3 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal (do not use quick-cooking or instant)
• 2 1/3 cups water
• Pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 1 banana, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/3 cup low-fat milk
• 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

Directions:

Combine the oatmeal, water and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring, over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until thickened and creamy. Add the peanut butter, banana, milk and butter; mix gently to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Divide among individual bowls and serve hot.

Results:
There's already a chill in the air here in the Great Northwoods. The mornings have been brisk, to say the least, and as I don't have to be anywhere today until 9:30, I thought I'd make myself a nice hot breakfast. Peanut butter and banana are in my top most favorite flavor combinations of all time, but I was a little disappointed. They're definitely "subtle," as the recipe claims, in this dish. I kicked it up by adding a little bit of homemade jam that my friend Sally gave me. And it is certainly creamy. I'm not sure how necessary the butter is, I bet you can leave that out.
Addendum:
Having gotten to the end of the bowl, I'm not sure I'd make this again. It was just TOO creamy, if that's possible, and not quite to my taste. But you might like it. :)

Harper does not like Frank Lloyd Wright

Chris and I said goodbye to summer with a trip down to Chicago for a wedding. The wedding was awesome, but also cool was the neighborhood we stayed in, Oak Park. Birthplace of Hemingway and proud show-er off-er of many Frank Lloyd Wright homes and his studio. It was amazing. We stayed at the Write Inn (which accepts dogs, by the way, and it fairly reasonably priced for it's location) which is right at the edge of the Wright houses (quick, how many homophones were in that sentence?). While Chris was helping get the wedding reception music set up, Harper and I went for a walk around this fabulous neighborhood. There were tons of tourists wandering around, and even the houses that weren't Wright homes were amazing. This house in the photo was his first independent contract after leaving his firm.

We also came across a bust of Wright, which had these hollow soulless eyes. Harper did NOT like this bust. She had an immediate distrust of it. It wasn't until I went up to the head and started poking it that she would approach it and sniff it, but she still didn't like it.