Bittermelon

... sauteed on sliced onion, garlic and tomatoes.  Two cups of chicken broth poured in and two eggs cracked on top and then beaten with fork until soup thickened.

Summer Salad

Taking advantage of the bounty of summer before temperature starts to fall.

For this salad I used cucumber, corn, edamame, cherry tomatoes, avocado and fresh basil from the windowsill.  The dressing was homemade… extra virgin olive oil, lemon, mustard, chopped shallots and artisan sea salt.

Eaten with salmon.

Ginger Noodles with Tofu

This is a vegetarian dish.  The ingredients are  medium tofu, linguine pasta, broccoli slaw, mushroom,  thinly sliced red onion, thinly sliced garlic,  chicken broth and soy sauce.

Lemonade

On the first Summer Friday, I met-up with a friend and we had lunch at Lemonade.  I ordered lemonade, of course - specifically, blood orange lemonade; along with...

... snap peas, edamame and sesame

... Couscous wild mushrooms, parmesan, lemon truffle

... Butternut Squash chili, lime, coriander vinaigrette

And, a tiny red velvet cupcake.

Meatless Monday: Nicoise-style Pasta Salad

Brought a big pot of salted water to a boil.   Tossed a handful of green beans and cooked until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes then shocked in a large bowl of ice water. Next, I dropped the shell pasta into the boiling water. While the pasta is cooking I sautéed the cherry tomatoes in olive oil on a separate pan.  

On another pot of boiling water, I had the heirloom tomatoes and organic cage-free eggs cooking.

When pasta is done, I drained and tossed in olive oil with capers and chopped anchovies. Sprinkled salt and pepper.  Then,  I added the cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, green beans cut into three pieces, canned tuna and sliced heirloom potatoes.  Tossed a few times, transferred to a salad bowl and then garnished with boiled eggs cut in half.

Quattro Stagioni Pizza

A pizza that has four toppings to represent the four seasons.  In this version, I used artichoke hearts for Spring, tomatoes for Summer, mushroom for Autumn and kalamata olives for Winter.  I bought capocollo/capicola but decided to replace with olives to make it a Meatless Monday.

I placed the pizza on an a preheated stone and then on to a preheated 500° oven until the mozzarella cheese has melted and the crust is brown.

Bon Appetito!

Murshroom & Marsala

It’s meatless Monday! French baguette topped with parmigiano-reggiano and mushroom soup. 

The mushroom soup is cooked with garlic, chopped shallot, bay leaf, lemon zest, lemon juice and a cup of marsala wine.

Tofu, Bean Sprouts and Soba

The secret to a stir-fry is to prepare all the ingredients first.  

For this vegetarean dish, I fried hard tofu on a pan and cooked soba on a pot of boiling water for about four minutes.  On a wok with sesame seed oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce, I stir-fried shredded cabbage and mung beans then I added the cooked soba, tofu and sprinkled a tablespoon of sesame seeds.

There you go... healthy and delish!

Orecchiette, Tomatoes and Peas

Tonight's dinner is orecchiette cooked in a pot of salted boiling water for twelve minutes then spooned over to a pesto sauce with cherry tomatoes cut in quarters, green peas and a cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano.