Oh, tomatoes. How I love thee...

Woke up early on Saturday, had a lazy breakfast with Fred and ended up at Findlay Market. It's my favorite Saturday morning activity. We were a but rushed, unfortunately, but I picked up these beautiful tomatoes. At left are green zebra and garden peach varieties.
Heirloom tomatoes, with all their unconventional beauty, put supermarket hot-house varieties to shame. The memory of a cold, mealy, watery pink beefsteak tomato quickly fades. The grower let me try a garden peach, and I ate it, like a peach. Sweet, with a yellow color and a lovely peach blush that tells you when they're ripe, these are mild and delectable. The skin in slightly fuzzy, too.
The green zebras are quite good, too. I've had them before, and the first time I tried them I was a bit intimidated. They are striped with lime green and goldenrod, juicy, with a pale green interior.
Best part: These are grown without pesticides!
Then I walked to the next booth, where they had these little darlings:

Tiny salad tomatoes in every shape, size and color, including several yellow pear varieties. So sweet, so rich, like nature's candy.
Tonight for dinner, I made a slightly decadent but terribly simple pasta.
1 package fusilli (this kind is whole wheat and flax, from Trader Joe's)
5 tomatoes (garden peach and green zebra)
handful tiny tomatoes
fresh basil, from the growers who sold me the green zebras
olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
salt, pepper
fresh mozzarella

Cook the pasta. While it's cooking, quarter the large tomatoes. Leave the small ones whole. Chop or tear the basil and cut the cheese. (Stop laughing? Are you 12?)
When the pasta's done, quickly drain it, reserving two tablespoons of pasta water. Immediately toss back into hot pot with basil, tomatoes and cheese. Drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper, stir well and put the lid on the pot. Let sit one minute in the pot, then serve. The residual heat warms the tomatoes and softens and starts to melt the cheese.

Oh, so marvelous. Fred and I dined in the living room, silently, to a soundtrack of Madeleine Petroux. It's rare that we don't converse during dinner. But the tomatoes were that good. They required our full attention.
Stop reading this. Go to the nearest farmers market and enjoy the bounty of tomatoes. I've still got about half of them left. Tomorrow night's dinner will be avocado and tomato salad, I think. I've got a ripe alligator pear in there just dying to be used.

blueberry-zucchini bread experiment

I picked up this monster of a zucchini at Findlay Market. At a foot long and too big to wrap my hand around, it ended up yielding six(!) cups shredded. It's the right time of year to start baking with zucchini. Mmm, with the leftover zucchini, maybe I'll splurge on some brownies!
I'm altering this recipe...
3 eggs, lightly beaten (2 eggs, 1 tablespoon flax seed plus 2 tablespoons water)
1 cup vegetable oil (2 bananas)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar (1 cup)
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour (2 cups white-whole wheat flour, 1 cup oat bran)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries (plus a couple of handfuls of red raspberries)
Bake at 350 until a knife comes out clean.
I know that sugar is necessary when baking. It helps baked goods brown, obviously adds sweetness and is necessary to maintain the proper balance. But 2 1/4 cups?! It negates all the goodness that the zucchini is doing in this recipe. Sigh. I subbed the fat with bananas, mostly because I only have olive and sesame oils right now.

It turned out well. The bananas are nice and sweet but still retain their flavor. The berries held together nicely, as did the zucchini. It's dense but not too dense, moist and chewy! Yum!

Back, after an Internet diet

Finally, my computer is fixed (thanks, Dad!) so I'm back online with renewed energy and a slew of new recipes and favorite ingredients. I awoke early last Saturday and drove to Findlay Market to find something to make for a work barbecue. I planned on getting some feta and tomatoes for a pasta salad, but instead I retirned home with two paper bags bursting with produce and local goods: tomatoes, yes, but also shallots, garlic scapes (see below), massive zucchini, lemons, fennel, local honey and organic eggs, plus a whole-grain multigrain boule from Shadeau Bakery.

I get so excited for breakfast on the weekends. I love big brunches or breakfasts, especially frittatas and omelets. Since I no longer eat meat, a lot of the traditional dishes are out, but it opens up such a world of delicious flavor combinations. Eggs -- always vegetarian, free-range, certified organic for me -- are a great blank slate. They're full of protein and high in omega-3 fatty acids. I sauteed half a large zucchini with garlic and olive oil, then chopped tomato and some red onion. With Fred and a really good cup of strong coffee and the multigrain bread, it made for a perfect weekend morning. The only thing missing was a newspaper.

What I love about omelets is how versatile they are. They're fabulous for breakfast, obviously, but also with salad for lunch or dinner. Just about any vegetable goes well in them.
On Fourth of July, I threw together broccoli kale, rainbow chard, garlic and tomatoes with organic cheddar. Yum! Other favorites are spinach and tomato with feta, potatoes with Dijon mustard and kale.

One Friday night in early June, actually the night that my computer died, Fred and I came home starving and pressed for time. I'd seen a recipe for chickpea pasta -- spaghetti alla ceci -- and played around with it. It turned out to be a really easy, tasty dinner. With white wine, a sprinkling of parmesan and fried garlic, oh, rich and simple!

Pasta alla ceci

1/2 package whole-wheat pasta (cook according to package)

1/2 c white wine

6 cloves garlic, sliced

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 t red pepper flakes, to taste

salt and pepper

3 T olive oil

Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Heat oil over medium-high heat in large saute pan, then add the garlic and cook until brown and toasted. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

Next, add the chili flakes and chickpeas. Turn heat to high and saute chickpeas for 2 minutes, shaking pan frequently. Add white wine, reduce heat and stir. Mash a few chickpeas to create a sauce.

Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the pasta. Thin with reserved cooking water, if necessary. Sprinkle with parmesan and the fried garlic. The garlic gets sweet and crunchy. And it's only friend in a bit of olive oil, so it's not that bad for you.

I am mentoring a 13-year-old girl through Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and last month I taught her how to cook. Well, we made dinner together. It wasn't really a cooking lesson. She was more interested in watching Disney Channel than cooking. Who can blame her? She's 13! She's a meat-eater, so I made this Rachael Ray chicken recipe, modified a bit.

We went to the grocery store and picked out things for dinner. I let her choose which vegetables we ate. She tried for the first time mushrooms and broccoli.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Extra-virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper

1 T dried tarragon (I didn't have any rosemary! Now I grow a pot of it!)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1 package button mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large shallot, chopped

1 T flour

1/2 cup soymilk
Heat iron skillet over high heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place in skillet. Cook five minutes each side.
In a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat then add garlic and shallots. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until browned. Add flour and tarragon and cook one minute. Flour should be browned and coating the mushrooms. Add broth and soymilk and turn up heat to medium-high. Cook until sauce has thickened, about five minutes.

Serve with rice, steamed broccoli and the chicken. I ate mine over a veggie burger; Tabitha had chicken.