Fall is upon us. Ashy gray skies are the daily standard and funky shaped gourds have taken over the farmer's market. Autumn on the East coast means different things to different people, but here's what comes to my mind when I forage through mental photographs of fall past: Read more »
apple+bacon+cheddar grilled cheese
zucchini fritters… a summer send-off
I popped into the farmer's market on Thursday with a plan to pick up some zucchini, onions, and shallots for this weekend's feature and was stunned to see how drastically the stands before me had changed in just a couple of weeks. Long gone were the overflowing baskets of peppers, piled ears of corn, and rainbow colored tomatoes. In their place were various shaped and colored gourds and hearty thick-skinned squashes. Summer, and consequently, zucchini, left New Jersey so abruptly, I didn't have a chance to tell either goodbye. I didn't have the opportunity to feature these rockin' zucchini fritters that carved out a little space in my heart this season. With this in mind, I grabbed the shallots and onions, and made a decision to bend my own rules in the name of a good recipe: I picked up my zucchini at the super market; far from local, but in a pinch it would just have to do. Read more »
fig tart
Nature works in mysterious ways. Despite my mother coddling the fig tree in her yard last year, it produced a scant yield of figs in 2010. This summer, however, she has not paid much attention to the tree and it is overflowing with gorgeous plum-hued fruit.
I went for a visit this weekend and she told me to pick as many of these aubergine jewels as I wished. Well, you don't have to tell me twice. With the assistance of my mom, niece, grandfather, and a pair of shears, I whittled the fruit off the tree, yet we still couldn't seem to make a dent in the burgeoning fig population. As grandpa picked and murmured away, I discovered something very interesting about this tree... Read more »
