Much Love to the family of BuffaloDickdy

Richard DeYoung was one of my first blog readers and I owe so much to him for teasing and cajoling me into good cooking and of course, showing Michigan pride. He has passed away and we will remember him as an excellent cook, a great writer, a man with a joke and an inspiration. We are so lucky to have found him through food blogging and will always remember him.

Thank you, Buffalo. From my Detroit heart. You will be missed.

Carb Sunday

Sometimes, all you feel like is baking. It did rain today in Atlanta, so actually we are having a "cool" day of high 80's....perfect! Here's some wheat bread studded with sesame (egg white wash to hold it)
All right--I was lamenting to Christo (and anyone else who cared) that all I make is pizza. He told me that all he makes are eggs--we know that isn't true--BUT this is a tribute to the two greatest foods. An added plus is that this is less than $2 per plate to throw together, depending on your cheese :) Pizza and eggs brunch--both Tavo and I dig it.

As I had all this awesome red sauce to use up, I decided to use my frozen raviolis. Thanks to Buitoni and Foodbuzz for their free coupon for the "For Two" frozen pasta line. We chose the shrimp and lobster kind...why not? By the way, "for two" is fairly generous--we'll easily get 3-4 servings from this. I saved the butter sauce that came with it for later.

Shockingly large chunks of lobster and shrimp--I was quite impressed!

To end our carb fun day, what better than spice cookies? We were watching Amelie during the storm, and sometimes that movie just puts you in the mood for some wine and spice cookies...or maybe it was the storm? At any rate, they're all packed up to go to our respective workplaces tomorrow so we don't eat 20 cookies on our own :)


Hope all of you had a fantastic weekend.

Baba Ganoush and what do I do with all this squash?!

This week, we received the biggest squash I have ever seen!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo. You just have to believe me :) It is all cut up and made into soup now. It's a good thing we (I) like tomato zucchini soup, because I have made it almost every week. I still have 4 huge pitty pans, 3 crooknecks, and one zuke left--so if you have a good squash recipe...

We also received eggplants--some Japanese and one globe. What to do, what to do--I read a few great recipes for eggplant and cheese roll ups, grilled salads, ratatouille...but in the end I decided I'd like to make a dip. Baba Ganoush is one of my favorite middle eastern dips, and I very rarely make it. It is quite easy though, especially if you already have the oven on (for squash pizza, of course!)

First I made the dough for a basic honey wheat bread. Need something to dip, right ;)


I threw the eggplant in with the bread at 375 degrees. Pulled bread and the Japanese eggplants out at 26 minutes and kept the globe in there for about 12-15 more, until it was soft.

Let them cool, and you can scrape the eggplant flesh right out with a spoon.

Into the food processor--looks like some sort of octopus or something, doesn't it? I added the juice of one lemon and a smashed clove of garlic and blended.

Add two T. of hummus, and if you want you can add some cumin and cayenne. It's really a matter of what you prefer.

Not the most picturesque, but wow! That was good. This would be better with parsley chopped on top but someone (me) let their parsley die and had to make do with basil. Odd, but it worked.


Happy Wednesday!

More peas, some bread, some salad

I did have a great run--I'll post pictures as soon as they get them up online :)

Tavo picked up the CSA this week, and there were a TON of field peas. Lots! Luckily, we are big fans of peas. What better to do after work than plug in your fan, turn up the radio, settle down with your husband to chat and shell peas?

Here's an action shot!

...and some detritus... (and random paint cans we really should dispose of or something)

Cooked peas! We like simple--these are cooked for about 45-60 minutes with caramelized onions and vegetable broth.

We also made a rice / vegetable salad to eat with the peas and to throw on some argula or spinach. This is carrots, peas, celery, field peas and basmati with a sweet sour vinaigrette made from the randoms of my cupboard. Not going to post the recipe unless its any good ;) Basil from the garden chopped on top.

Fresh honey wheat bread--I switched to King Arthur as opposed to my regular Kroger brand wheat and was quite pleased with results. A lighter, tastier bread. Even Tavo mentioned that it tasted better than usual. A $1.50 jump--it might be worth it.

More World Cup this weekend--I've actually become quite obsessed with David Villa. ¡Vamanos España!

Have a great week!

a shelling peas kind of weekend

Happy Fourth everyone! We'll be shelling field peas, grilling squash and running the Peachtree Road Race again :) Have a great weekend.