Pinot & Pineapple

The people who know me very well, know that I have a fixation on all things Iowa.  Everything from caucuses to cheese.  I’m just joking about the caucuses, but I am serious about the cheese.  My favorite American blue cheese comes from Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, Iowa.

I first learned about Maytag blue cheese when I was in college (in Iowa) and I was watching Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network cooking with Maytag blue cheese.  I heard him say “…Iowa…” and I was shocked that Iowa made a cheese that I had not yet heard of.  So, the next time I went home for a holiday, my mom and I hunted down this cheese and made ourselves every recipe we could find that called for blue cheese.  I’ve been hooked ever since.  It is the only cheese I use in my traditional blue cheese dressing and Buffalo wing dip.  I also love to make Maytag blue cheese butter to dress up steaks.

You can find Maytag blue cheese in most specialty cheese departments but if you can’t, you can mail order it directly from Maytag Dairy Farms.  Now that football season is here, why don’t you make some homemade blue cheese dip to go with your Buffalo chicken wings?  But be careful, once people taste the Maytag, they’ll want to come to your house every time to watch the game!  That being said, Go Iowa Hawkeyes!

Good Morning! Our box this morning reminds me of Christmas, with all the shades of red and green. This morning was a bit chilly too, which really puts me in the spirit!

Today we received red Swiss chard, a bag of baby arugula, carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 3 red onions, and 3 red tomatoes (2 of which have been abused, as you can clearly see in the bottom photo).

Poor tomatoes. They didn’t stand a chance at the bottom of the box. I guess I have to accept my fate of receiving abused tomatoes. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though. These careless box packers are standing between me and my Lycopene!

Well, this week’s farm share ended better than it started. As you may recall, my red tomatoes were smooshed beyond use and had to be sacrificed to the compost gods. Very sad. It took me a couple of days to get over the loss. But, I moved on to give the surviving vegetables the attention they deserved…

The yellow plum tomatoes were used to make yellow gazpacho. Of course, I had to go to the market to get a yellow bell pepper, a cucumber, cilantro and literally everything else necessary to make gazpacho, but the soup was really delicious. The mixed baby greens became a really yummy salad with sliced apples, walnuts, red onion and homemade honey-mustard dressing. The beets were thinly sliced and deep-fried to make chips and were served with a goat cheese/chive dip. Oh my, I am still dreaming about that dip. The Swiss chard was used in an impromptu dinner of shrimp and orzo all cooked separately then tossed together in a large saute pan with garlic butter. I don’t know what to call it, but it was super tasty. Last, but not least, the carrots and green bell peppers were used to make my Great-Grandma Hollingsworth’s carrot relish. Grandma used to always make this relish for big family meals and I always looked forward to it. It has a sweet and tangy dressing and is a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables. Here is the recipe (as well as a photo). I hope you’ll give it a try.

Carrot Relish

2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

Boil the carrots in salted water until they are tender-crisp. Drain and cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine the tomato soup, oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and keep hot.

In a large bowl, combine carrots, peppers and onions. Pour hot sauce all over, cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Serve cold.

This relish will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Good Morning All!  Before you read this post, grab a cup of coffee or tea and make yourself comfortable.  I suggest some coffee or tea from this week’s Link of the Week, Taylor Maid Farms, a purveyor of organic coffee and tea, located in Sonoma County.  I first learned of Taylor Maid Farms while my husband and I were  honeymooning in Sonoma a couple of years ago.  The inn we stayed at served Taylor Maid Farms coffee with breakfast and we thought it was some of the best coffee we had ever tasted.  It was so lovely to sit on the inn’s terrace in the cool morning mist and sip our hot coffee and let it warm us from the inside out.  We loved this coffee so much I even surprised my husband with a huge bag of their Sonoma Roast blend for our 1 year anniversary.

Besides roasting some of the best organic coffee I have ever tasted, I appreciate the fact that most of Taylor Maid Farms’ coffees are shade-grown and fair-trade certified.  Additionally, Taylor Maid Farms is dedicated to supporting small family farms.

If you are a tea drinker, I recommend their Herbal Gardens blend.  This is the tea I drink when I’m soaking my feet in my foot spa.  Too much information, perhaps, but I wanted to convey the relaxed feeling this tea gives me.  It is so floral and aromatic, it is perfect for your own personal “spa day”.  It’s like aromatherapy in a teacup!

If you are looking to improve your coffee or tea experience, I highly recommend you give Taylor Maid Farms a try.  I simply love them!

It’s lucky Week 13! Unfortunately, some of the tomatoes were not so lucky as they were placed at the bottom of the box and were a bit smooshy by time I received them. It’s a real shame, actually. I would hope that the individuals packing these boxes would have more respect for food than the recent packing jobs I’ve seen would indicate.

Sorry for the negativity. I try to always be positive, but smashed produce offends my foodie sensibilities.

Today we received Swiss chard (mostly yellow with some white), carrots, yellow plum tomatoes, bell peppers, red tomatoes (the smooshy kind), red beets and mixed baby greens.

Those are some gorgeous yellow plum tomatoes, huh?!? I’m going to spend the rest of the day fantasizing about what I’m going to do with them

As we only received 5 items in this week’s farm share, it was super easy to get it all eaten in time for tomorrow’s delivery.

When my husband cut into the watermelon, we discovered it was canary yellow inside! What a happy surprise! One of my friends kept suggesting that I make margaritas with it, but I am not one to succumb to peer pressure. My husband and I simply ate the whole thing, by the slice, with our bare hands. It was so incredibly juicy, the sweet liquid poured out with every bite, rolling down our hands and all the way down our arms. YUM!!! Here are some photos:

The tomatoes and green bell peppers were used to make chicken cacciatore which was a perfect Sunday family (my husband and I, with our cat looking on) meal. One of the carrots was thinly sliced with a mandoline and topped a salad of mixed baby greens with a ginger-soy vinaigrette. The rest of the carrots were cut into sticks and were happily packed in my lunch throughout the week.

That’s all folks. Not a lot of cooking, but that was fine by me. It’s nice to be able to enjoy vegetables (and fruits) in the raw. Now, let’s see what we receive tomorrow…

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Link of the Week!  Each week I will feature one of my favorite websites and provide a link to it so that you may enjoy it as well.  The featured website may or may not revolve around food and wine but it will be enjoyable.

This week’s featured website is Save The Legs!!!.  Save The Legs!!! is a cycling blog that covers the in’s and out’s of professional cycling from the enthusiast’s point of view.  It is intelligently written while also maintaining a good sense of humor.  I have learned a lot about the world of professional cycling from this blog and highly recommend it to my readers as well.  Professional cycling is such a civilized sport (read: non-contact) with awesome culture, tradition and camaraderie associated with it.

Growing up in Florida, I used to always ride my bike to the beach with my brother and never considered my bike to be anything more than a source of cheap transportation.  Now I have learned the value of cycling as an excellent source of aerobic exercise.  In inclement weather, I can be found in my gym’s spinning class and in warmer, drier weather, I can be found buzzing up and down the Hudson River Park bike path.  I’ve even biked Bike New York’s Commerce Bank Five Boro Bike Tour.  All 51 miles of it!

If you are a cycling fan, whether professional or amateur, I encourage you to check out Save The Legs!!!.  It’s quite an inspiring read…

My husband and I have just returned from enjoying this month’s Foreign Food Night at A La Turka on the Upper East Side.  This month was my husband’s turn to choose which cuisine we would explore and he chose Turkish.  We used to live in the same neighborhood as A La Turka and we always said we’d like to try it sometime but never got around to it.  It was nice to get back to the old neighborhood and after the meal we just had, I think we’ll be doing it more often…

We arrived in a deluge of rain thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Hanna.  We almost thought of postponing Foreign Food Night until tomorrow night but we were feeling particularly adventuresome and set out to enjoy our evening.  As soon as we entered the restaurant, we could smell the heavenly aroma of grilled meats.  My mouth started watering and my stomach started growling.  We were sat at the front window, per our request, and perused the menu, taking note of the soulful music in the background.  As soon as we ordered, we were brought a basket of soft, warm flatbread with 3 dipping sauces (chili sauce, yogurt sauce with cucumber and dill, and flavored olive oil).

We shared a couple of hot appetizers - Sigara Boregi: pan-fried phyllo scrolls stuffed with feat cheese and dill; and Spicy Cigars: pan-fried phyllo scrolls stuffed with ground lamb with a garlicky yogurt sauce.  Both appetizers were out-of-this-world good!

With appetizers as good as these, our appetites were properly whetted and ready for our entrees.  My husband had the Beyti Kebab: hand chopped ground lamb seasoned with garlic, red pepper and parsley.  He L-O-V-E-D it!  I had the Fresh Turkish Okra with Lamb: baby okra cooked with tomatoes and onions served with rice.  Oh my… the lamb was so incredibly tender, I was in rapture.

For dessert, my husband had Baklava.  He can not see Baklava on a menu and not order it.  I ordered the rice pudding, which is my new comfort food dessert of choice.  It was so rich and creamy I would love to have some of it while sitting in front of a fireplace in my pajamas.  But, I digress.  Needless to say, we both enjoyed our desserts very much.  I do apologize, we did not take photos of our desserts as I, acting like a deranged woman who must have her dessert NOW, dug into my rice pudding before my husband could grab the camera.  So sorry.

As far as service is concerned, we were delighted by the wait staff that served us.  Everyone was exceedingly friendly and knowledgeable.

I must point out that we had to use our point-and-shoot camera this evening as our new digital SLR is simply too large to discreetly take photos in a restaurant.  Still, I think the photos turned out nicely.

My rating (out of a possible 5):

Yes, you read correctly, I have awarded this restaurant 5 TC’s.  The first 5 I have given since starting this blog!  That is high praise indeed.  I implore you to try this restaurant soon.  We were so thrilled with our meal and I want you to experience it for yourself!

This week’s Farm Share delivery had a huge surprise in it… a watermelon! See the photo below:

The watermelon pulverized one of our 4 tomatoes and made a humongous mess in the box so we had to clean off all of the vegetables and discard the box immediately (hence, no box shots). In addition to the watermelon and tomatoes, we also received carrots, green bell peppers and a bag of mixed baby greens.

I can not begin to tell you how excited we are to have received a watermelon. Especially my husband as he is more of a fruit eater than a vegetable eater. We can not wait to enjoy this unexpected treat!

As I told you last Wednesday, the tomatoes we received were on their last leg and had to be used ASAP.  So, that night, after work, I went to the market and got 1 pound each of ground beef and ground pork, 1 can each of black beans and kidney beans and a bottle of vegetable juice and set about making a big pot of chili.  For this dish, I used all the tomatoes, the tomatillos, the bell peppers and the onions.  The chili was fantastic and there was left overs for Thursday night’s dinner too.

So that only left me the patty pan squash, beets and mixed baby greens to work with.  The patty pans were sliced and added to a stir-fried chicken teriyaki dish on Friday night.  The beets were roasted and used in a salad with the mixed baby greens, pecorino romano and balsamic vinaigrette.  See the photos below…

Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see what we receive!