Imitation Quiche

I had to post this because it truly exemplifies my cooking style- use whatever you got. The garden is surrendering great kale (a leafy green vegetable) and we had a bunch of eggs and a Costco-sized bag of shredded mozzarella. So, of course you make quiche! BUT, we had no pie crusts laying around and I sure as hell did not feel like making one, so I used the pizza doughs mom picks up from the local bakery.

I just combined 2 doughs and filled a deep dish pizza pan and threw in sauteed kale,cheese, and the quiche mixture(eggs, little cream, tons of fresh herbs, salt n pepper) placed a few slices of tomatoes (NJ greenhouse tomatoes courtesy of Whole Foods Princeton) and topped it with some grated cheese and baked. It took a while - I would give it an hour -1.5hrs at about 350.

FYI- Went incredibly well with a Sauvignon Blanc (specifically Cupcake from Marlboro) ...mmmmmmmm

Not-so-beautiful strawberries? NO problem

My mom is nice, but she's pretty slow. When the strawberries come in and we go away for the weekend she insists on picking a bunch of them and just letting them sit in a container on the counter for a few days. So, of course we get home and they're not looking too good so nobody eats them and boom they are wasted. But, are they? Instead of just throwing those sad strawberries in the compost pile, bake with them! Obviously, the "end of life fruit" is certainly the sweetest and after it's baked nobody can tell they were the nasty looking ones on the counter.

I made an amazing strawberry bread pudding- perhaps the easiest dessert out there.

Ingredients-

1. Enough diced bread to fill the dish you want

.......I literally used a few kaiser rolls, an end of a sesame seeded sub roll, and the end of one of those round loaves---use whatever you got and it's better if it's stale!!

2. About 8 eggs
......Depends on the size of your dish; you can always add more liquid if it's not enough

3. About 1 cup half&half

4. About 1/2 cup milk

5. About 1 cup sugar

6. About 1.5 tsps vanilla extract

7. Pinch of salt
8. I probably used about 12 oz of strawberries

Cut up the bread and throw in a buttered, square baking dish. You can make it however big/small you want your bread to be. Mix everything else except strawberries in a bowl with a whisk. When the bread is stale (feels dry) mix in the sliced strawberries with your hands. Then pour in the wet stuff and press bread down to absorb all the liquid and to moisten EVERY piece of bread. If you don't have enough of the wet stuff (it should really come 3/4 of the way up the sides of the dish) just crack a couple more eggs and add a little more milk, whisk it up, and pour it in. Bake @ 350F until browned...IT IS THAT EASY.

When life gives you ugly fruit- throw it in bread pudding!

Tofu Parmigiana...yeah, I said it

I have been doing the sustainable meat only thing for the past couple of years. The price of it, however, keeps me from really eating a lot of meat so I have been enjoying a primarily vegetarian diet. This led to the use of tofu instead of chicken in this awesome Italian-American staple.

It was [surprisingly] very good. I marinated the tofu (one block sliced in 3 pieces width wise) in red wine, olive oil, salt n pepper, and tons of fresh herbs until it took on the light purple color...maybe an hour or 2. Then, I let it dry on a cookie rack and patted them dry before breading. For the breading I used the "standard breading procedure" (the technical culinary school term)- includes one dish of seasoned flour, one of whisked eggs, and one of seasoned panko bread crumbs. Take each slice and cover in flour, then eggwash, then panko and throw them into a hot pan with about 1/4 inch of oil. Let them brown and flip...real quick and tofu doesn't have to be cooked through, so it saves a lot of trouble! Take out and put them on the cookie rack (so they can drain excess oil and stay crispy).

Later on, (I did the browning ahead of time) throw them in the oven with some grated cheese- I use pecorino roman- on top until warmed. Then , I took them out and smothered them in marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, and some more pecorino romano. Then bake/broil until browned.

Trust me, I know it sounds weird, but I totally recommend this recipe. I'm really not a big fan of turning tofu into something resembling meat (ie. tofu dogs- sick). I'm guessing that the tofu is a great carrier of flavors because the dish gets most of the flavor from the fresh herbs, crispy breading, sharp grated cheese, sweet marinara, and fresh mozz.

FYI: Served with buttery garlic bread, and sauteed kale, and red wine of course!! Bon Appetito!

Please go local!

People don't realize how important local commerce as we love the prices of bog-box stores and the convenience of one-stop shopping, but the truth is it's best for your community. If you go to Shop Rite and buy bananas where does the money go???? Chiquita headquartered in Lord knows where (probably a country with no corporate taxes). If you go to a farmers' market, on the other hand, that money is staying in the area.

You might brush this advice off as hippy nonsense, but a professor on NPR yesterday, was talking about such a study; he went around to different towns all around the country and studied the affects of big-box stores as opposed to mom & pop shops. The conclusion: local is crucial for economic success of a community. Keeping money flowing in the immediate area is better for everyone and most importantly, you. My mom always said it was best to keep money in the family....so let's think of our community as one big family. By the way, the expert on NPR recommended everyone spend 10% [of what they would spend] locally to have a huge impact.

Here is a website to find local food near you:

http://www.nj.gov/jerseyfresh/searches/urban.htm

On deck

The strawberries are slowly turning red. Unfortunately, the 169 days of rain in a row have slowed the reddening process as it's encouraged by the sun. On deck though, is the raspberries which have incredible amounts of flowers already....I am expecting the best harvest yet. KNOCK ON WOOD! CROSS MY FINGERS!

They should be coming around in 1.5-3 weeks I would say, being the botanist I am. (yea right, I'm just hungry)

Slugs...they party?

As the strawberries come in I wage a never ending battle with baby slugs for the incredibly sweet fruit. Actually, the reason they call them strawberries is that because they grow on the ground and contain no hard rind, (like a watermelon) farmers would cover the ground with straw. This would ideally give the fruit a dry bed to mature on as opposed to the dirt which could cause them to rot prematurely.

But, anyway, those damn slugs- to keep them distracted(yes, I mean dead) I put out some beer for them. Yes, those slimy little things go crazy for the stuff as much as I do. As seen in the pics, I just throw out some containers of a fresh beer (open and put out right before dark) and retrieve them in the morning to see what reminds me of Saturday mornings @ college...drown slugs. Also, citrus rinds, or in my case a rotten orange piece, can be put out at dark and then scraped of slugs in the morning and composted-of course.

So, go buy local strawberries!!!!!! Jersey Fresh !!!!!!! Better yet plant a patch for next June!!!!