Rustic Measures Roasted Tomato and Truffle Pasta

It's very early fall and the tomatoes are still magnificent in Jersey.  This simple pasta is very satisfying and easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of cherry tomatoes - red, yellow, or orange


• 1/4 cup good olive oil


• 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh basil


• 1 bag of good quality pasta.  I used Rigatoni.  Penne would work well also.


• 2 Tablespoons of finely diced shallot


• 1 Tablespoon of butter


• 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese


• Drizzle of white truffle oil

Preparation:   Heat your oven to 400 degrees.   Cut tomatoes in half and put in a bowl.  Coat tomatoes in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and give them a stir, making sure all are coated.  Spread the tomatoes onto a baking pan (with sides) and season liberally with kosher salt.  Roast tomoatos in the oven for 20 minutes.  After 10 minutes, mix them around to make sure they don't get too brown.  While your tomatoes are roasting, boil water for the pasta.  While that's happening, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and then sautee diced shallots on a low/medium flame for about 5-7 minutes.  Turn heat off.   Cook pasta according to the instructions BUT check a few minutes before they should be done and make it al dente.  Do not overcook pasta - mushy pasta is gross.  Ok, onward.  When the tomatoes are done, add them to your pan with the shallots in there.  Turn heat back onto low and melt 1 T of butter in the tomato sauce.  Add a little more olive oil to loosen it up.  When the pasta is ready, drain the pasta reserving about 3 T of the cooking liquid.  Add the cooking liquid to the tomato sauce and then add the pasta, stirring everything together into one happy mixture.  Once everything is combined, add the parmesan cheese and drizzle the truffle oil on and voila!  Heaven.

Late Summer Gazpacho

So, I broke down and bought a VitaMix and frankly, I'm so pissed at myself for waiting so long to get one! Holy crap this thing is amazing. The time savings alone is worth its weight in gold and what about all the stuff you can make with it!? OK, let's start with late summer gazpacho. I was looking for something to eat with powerful flavors and all fresh veggies. This adaptation of the Joy of Cooking gazpacho did the trick.

Ingredients:

6 ripe roma tomatoes

1 green pepper

1 clove garlic

2 T chives

2 T basil

2 T parsley

1 T taragon

3/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup red or white wine vinegar

4 T fresh lemon juice

1 sweet onion, cut in quarters

1 medium sized cucumber

pinch salt & paprika

Preparation:

With a VitaMix, you don't need to chop very much. Just cut the tomatoes, pepper, and onion in halves or quarters and toss them in. Same for the herbs - grab a bunch and throw in blender with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, paprika, and vinegar. Blend until you like the consistency. If you don't have a VitaMix, then you can either use a food processor or if you are a total beyatch in the kitchen, you need to finely dice all of the herbs and veggies until you are ready to take a gun to your head.

Grilled Corn on the Cob

When sweet summer corn, good olive oil, and sea salt have a menage a trois on a grill, magic happens. Try it, I promise you will leave the table satisfied.

Ingredients:

Corn on the cob - stalks off

Sea or kosher salt

Olive oil

Preparation:

Brush olive oil all over the corn. Sprinkle liberally with salt. Heat up your grill to medium heat. Grill corn right on the grates. I like a fair bit of char on my corn so I cook it for longer but it's really up to you. The whole affair took me about 7 minutes. Can be made ahead for a party and served room temperature.

Quinoa with Balsamic Chicken, Pine Nuts, Currants, and Basil

I was seeking comfort food today but needed something that was summer figure friendly. After all, you can't exactly come off the beach and down a bowl of mashed potatoes. Well I guess you could. It's a free country. But if you want to fit back into your bathing suit tomorrow, I suggest quinoa as a better choice for a carb fix. You can literally mix anything you want into quinoa and it tastes good. I was feeling uber lazy and didn't want to go to the market, so I made this creation with stuff I had on hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup of quinoa - prepare according to the box

1/2 cup currants

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup of fresh basil, julienned

1 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cloves of garlic minced

4 skinless chicken breasts (hormone-free, antibiotic-free, & organic....I mean, duh.)

Preparation:

2-3 hours ahead, marinate chicken in 1 cup of balsamic, 1 cup of water, and 1 of the minced garlic cloves. Make quinoa. When done, transfer to a bowl and mix in currants and toasted pine nuts. Grill marinated chicken - doesn't matter how to you do it. You can even bake it if it's easier. After baking or grilling, let the chicken rest for 10 minutes to seal in the juicy juices. Girlfriend, there is nothing worse than dry chicken and cutting into it as soon as it's done is the fastest way to dryville there is. Believe me, I've been there. OK, once the chicken has rested cut it up into bite sized chunks. Add to the quinoa mixture. Make a quick dressing of 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 clove of minced garlic. Pour dressing over quinoa. Add fresh basil. Stir and eat. It's a highly satisfying, one bowl wonder.

Summerstyle Grilled Veggie Platter

So, it turns out when you go back to work, daily blogging and food journaling becomes, um, shall we say near impossible. When I look back on last summer when I was footloose and fancy free, I remember fondly the days spent cooking and snapping pix of my latest creation. Usually while drunk as evidenced by the oft questionable photos. Anyway, I'm back in the rat race and therefore have no time for hours in the kitchen - so it's back to basics, rustic style.

Any moron with a grill can grill veggies. Period. All you need is three things.

1. Veggies

2. Olive Oil

3. Salt

Slice up your veggies in pieces big enough so they don't fall through the grates. I used asparagus, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers. Coat liberally with olive oil. Kosher salt all around. Heat grill to medium heat and chuck on the veggies. Don't go away - the asparagus will grill very quickly. The zucchini will too. Eggplanties and peppers will take longer. I like to allow the veggies to get nice and charred but do as you like. Artfully arrange on a platter and serve. Can be made ahead and served room temperature.

Spinach, Quinoa, Roasted Tomatoes, and Feta Salad

Shout out to my friend Jodi who opened my eyes to Qunioa in a salad. Quinoa is a fantastically healthy whole grain that adds depth and tooth to any salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes - tossed with olive oil and salt and roasted for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.


• 4 cups of baby spinach leaves


• 1/4 cup feta cheese


• 1 cup of cooked quinoa

Dressing:

• 1 T balsamic vinegar


• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard


• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (or 1 clove)


• 4 T olive oil

Preparation:

Follow directions on quinoa package and make it. Should only take about 20 mins. While quinoa is cooking, arrange spinach leaves, roasted tomatoes, and feta on a plate. Spoon on cooked quinoa (as much as you want). Drizzle with dressing.

Daily Recipe: Whole Wheat Fish n' Chips

I heart fish n'chips. Crunchy, oily fish doused with lemon and tartar sauce makes me feel so tingly all over. The thing is, when you go to a typical Cape Cod restaurant for fish n' chips, it's some "mystery" fish battered to death and then fried in lard of some sort. Not really that healthy and it leaves you feeling like crud. It turns out, making at-home FnChips is super easy, y'all. Here's how you do it:

Ingredients:

• Any white flaky fish you like. (I used flounder cut crosswise into 1 inch strips. A thicker fish might work even better but my kids liked the thin kind)


• whole wheat bread crumbs


• whole wheat flower


• canola oil


• 2 eggs, beaten


• salt

Preparation:

Set up an assembly line just like you were making a veal parm or fried cutlet of any kind:

• Dish 1. Your fish cut into 1 inch strips


• Dish 2. 1 cup of whole wheat flower


• Dish 3. 2 beaten eggs


• Dish 4. 1 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs

OK, first take your fishy strips and coat both sides with the whole wheat flour. Then dredge in the beaten egg. Finally, coat with the whole wheat bread crumbs. Refrigerate the breaded fish for at least 30 minutes to get everything to bind which I think helped keep it all together when I went to fry it up. Now, take a frying pan and add about 1/4 inch of canola oil. Get the oil nice n' hot. Add your fishy sticks making sure not to crowd the pan. As Julia Child once said, "A crowded pan is a cold pan, girlfriend." You know your oil is hot enough when your fish starts to fry up nicely at first impact. Fry the fish for 1 minute per side. Transfer to a paper towel to drain off excess oil. Sprinkle immediately with salt. Serve with your favorite tartar sauce and a side of french fries. I must admit, I did not make the fries. Mr. Orieda took care of that for me. Don't judge....at least the fish was homemade!

Daily Recipe: Mitch's Wings

My husband makes good wings. They are at once crispy and spicy on the outside and juicy on the inside. A bit of a production but who am I to judge. If you are into making wings, here is a great techniquie. It involves steaming the wings first and then grilling them. The result is worth the labor. As you will read, this is not my recipe but a series of baseball metaphores and jibberish. If you can make sense of this and like wings, then godspeed my child. In any case, they are worth it on game day.

Mitch's Buffalo Wings

Ingredients:

• chicken wings


• buffalo sauce - can be bought in any store


• blue cheese dressing


• salt/pepper

Pregame:

spread wings. really. on cutting board. find your largest knife. push it through ligament connecting wing and wingette. discard wingette. don't forget to practice safe poultry. by safe I mean sanitary. assemble wingettes and drummettes piled about yay high in abu ghraib style pyramid on a steamer tray in a steamer pot (like the one you steam veggies in). Steam in pot for 10 minutes. Refrigerate the wings on a tray between paper towels for one hour. If you want to season them do so while refrigerating. you forgot to practice safe poultry, didn't you.

Gametime:

grill on low flame until skin is crispy on each side. if your grill is wieldy you may be able to brush a light coat of olive oil on there to enhance crispiness. if your grill is unwieldy the wings may catch fire, which would suck ass.

Postgame:

Throw grilled wings in a bowl with buffalo sauce and toss them around until they are shiny and red, like Jason Giambi's jumbotron photo circa 2004. Serve with bleu chee dressing and celery. Why? Celery is nature's answer to rolaids.

Oprah's Favorite BBQ Chicken

OK, Oprah has never tasted this chicken. Nor does she know anything about it. I saw the back of Gayle's head once though. Does that count? Anyway, barbequing chicken is not as easy as it looks. It's taken a few tries to get this recipe down and now that it's well, down, I'm passing it along. If you've got a bit of time to spare and a killer BBQ sauce, you too can make juicy, crispy chicken.

Oprah's Favorite BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken parts on the bone. As many as you want. Any part you desire. Go crazy.


• Apple Juice


• Your favorite BBQ spice rub - I use Dinosaur BBQ rub


• Your favorite BBQ sauce - I use either Hickory House, Sweet Baby Ray's, or KC Masterpiece

Preparation:

Dip the chicken into the apple juice and place into a pyrex dish. Sprinkle your rub onto the chicken, covering both sides. Now, it's awesome if you can let the chicken sit in the fridge overnight and let the rub really permeate the meat. If not, no biggie. Just let the rub sit on the chicken for as long as you can. Even 1 hour is good. Set your grill on low, to about 200-225 degrees. We put ours on low and keep the lid open. Place the chicken skin side down on the grill, leave the lid open, and go do your nails or take a nap. The chicken should be left alone, untouched for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Flip the chicken being careful not to leave the skin on the grill. I use a spatula for this. Let the chicken cook another 15 minutes on the other side. Now for the fun bit. Slather your BBQ sauce all over the chicken, both sides. Then crank up the grill to medium and shut the lid. Cook on both sides for about 10 minutes each, until the skin gets all blackened and saucy. Flip once so that the sauce can carmelize on both sides. Feel free to baste with more sauce to build on the flavor. I am a firm believer in 0ver-saucing when it comes to BBQ chicken. Pare this chicken with some cole slaw, corn bread*, and a bottle of beer and you are stoked.

*BTW I tried the Williams-Sonoma jalapeno cheddar cornbread mix and it's awesome. While a total rip at $12, it was really moist, spicy, and cheesy and fed a crowd. I can't find it online but they have it in the stores. How 1996.

Daily Recipe: Cape Cod Chicken Salad

 

Jews love salads - egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, whitefish salad, salmon salad, Israeli salad. I could go on and on about salads like Bubba Gump yammers on about shrimp. Anyway, since I come from a long, not-so-distinguished line of Cape Cod Jews, I thought I'd post a recipe for Cape Cod Chicken Salad. By using shortcuts like a store bought rotisserie chicken, this salad is fast to prepare and loved by Jews and Gentiles the world over. Shalom!

Cape Cod Chicken Salad - serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 store bought (or home made) rotisserie chicken


• 1/2 cup scallions, diced


• 1/4 cup celery, diced


• 1/3 cup dried cranberries


• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise


• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar


• 1 teaspoon of honey


• 1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

Take your little chicky and remove the skin. Take off all of the good looking white meat and cut it into chunks. Proceed to eat the drumstick as a little mid-cooking snack. Now, back to the salad....dice up your scallions and celery and toss it into the bowl with the chicken. Add the cranberries and walnuts. In a separate little bowl, mix together the mayo, vinegar, honey, and salt. Add the dressing to the chicken mixture and stir until everything is incorporated. Now if this salad doesn't bring world peace, I don't know what will frankly.

Daily Recipe: "Raw" Fettuccini with Pesto

Ok folks. I was officially a gluttonous fat-ass this weekend. I drank enough margaritas and ate enough red meat to sink myself into a tubby oblivion. Mondays always offer us a fresh start and as such, I am doing a veggie cleanse today. No, I am not doing a beet colonic. I'm simply eating veggies today. This recipe is an adaptation from a "raw" cooking class I took. "Raw" cooking only uses vegan ingredients (nothing that moos or can look at you). The food is never heated beyond 118 degrees so that none of the vital nutrients are lost. Blah, blah. As I sat in class mentally rolling my eyes, I was turned on to a few things. One of which was zucchini "pasta" which is actually just cute little strips of zucchini acting as pasta. It's refreshing, crisp, and satisfying. Now, let's not kid ourselves...it's not real pasta. But if you are craving a fresh sauce and something healthy to put it on, this will do the trick. A few notes: 1) This is not true vegan food because I am using real Parmesan in my sauce. 2) I skipped the garlic this time because I am allergic to my husband after he eats it. Ok, so let your freak flag fly and cook some raw food today!

"Raw" Fettuccine with Basil Pesto Sauce - serves 6

Ingredients:

• 4 whole raw zucchini, peeled


• 3 cloves garlic


• 4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed


• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese


• 1/2 cup good olive oil


• 1/2 cup pine nuts

Preparation:

In a food processor, combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts - pulse a few times. Slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream while the food processor is on. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then add in the Parmesan cheese and pulse again until blended. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now, for the zucchini. Cut off the ends of the zucchini and peel them. With the vegetable peeler, peel the zucchini lengthwise so you have long, thin, fat strips that should resemble fettuccine. Peel lenghwise until you see seeds and then turn it over and peel the other sides. Stop peeling when you see seeds. When you have a nice bowl of zucchini strips, dress it with the pesto and voila - fettuccine with pesto! Super healthy and delish.

Daily Recipe: Balsamic Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Nothing says summer like a bad sunburn and sand in your crotch. I mean, nothing says summer like a perfectly ripe and juicy tomato. Yah, that's the ticket! I made these little babies to accompany a perfectly grilled New York strip steak. The tomatoes were so juicy and had a little tang on the tongue from the balsamic. They took all of 30 seconds to prepare.

Balsamic Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

 

Ingredients:

• Vine cherry tomatoes - as many as you want


• Olive Oil


• Balsamic Vinegar


• Fresh Basil - julienned


• Salt & Pepper

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place pre-washed tomatoes on a sheet pan and drizzle with lots of good olive oil. Then, drizzle with some balsamic vinegar. Finish with a generous sprinkle of kosher salt and pepper. Roast the tomatoes for 17-20 minutes until they start to blacken just a little bit. You might need to broil them for the last minute if you like them charred, which I do. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with a little more kosher salt and the julienned basil. Welcome to Tomato Heaven.

 

Daily Recipe: Jacked Up Egg Salad

Admit it, folks. You love egg salad even though it smells like farts. The creamy texture and tangy taste is too much to resist sometimes. Here is Wicked Good Food's version of a Jacked Up Egg Salad. Start with farm fresh, organic eggs. Slather it on a toasted whole grain bread or pile it high on some greens and voila...lunch!

Jacked Up Egg Salad - serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 farm fresh, organic eggs, hard boiled


• 1/2 cup red onion, finely diced


• 1/2 cup celery finely diced


• 1 scallion, diced


• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard


• 1 1/2 tablespoons real mayonnaise


• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar


• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a medium sized bowl, mush up your hard boiled eggs. I use a potato masher or a fork. Whatever you have on hand that will get the eggs down to a nice small dice. To the eggs, mix mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar. Finally, mix in the onion, celery, scallion. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like your eggy salad super creamy, add a bit more mayonnaise. Slather on whole grain bread, crackers, or top on a salad. Lunch is served!