I made a really nice chicken soup today--carrot, onion, and fennel thinnings from the garden, a couple of potatoes, two baked chicken leg quarters, the defatted stock from the baking process, some barley, a can of tomatoes, a handful of pole beans, etc.

Then in the evening, I canned a batch of this:

QUINCE PRESERVES
(makes about 4 half-pint jars with some syrup to spare)

3 c. sugar
2 quarts water
7 c. cored and pared quinces, cut in eighths (about 3 lbs. whole)

Sterilize 4 half-pint jars.
Combine sugar and water; boil 5 minutes. Add quince and cook at a low boil until fruit has a clear, reddish color and syrup is almost at the jellying point, about 70 minutes. Stir frequently.
Pour hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims and seal. Process 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

ZUCCHINI SAUCE FOR PASTA
Adapted from another Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe. I have yet to try a recipe of his that I haven't liked.

3 Tbs. olive oil
4 small to medium zucchini, sliced very thin
4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
a couple pinches of salt
3 Tbs. cream
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil and add the zucchini slices and garlic. Salt to taste and cook at a slow sizzle for 30 to 45 minutes, or for as long as it takes for them to get completely soft and cook off almost all their moisture. They should be falling apart.
Add cream and Parmesan and bubble for a few minutes. Grind in some pepper. Stir in freshly-cooked chunky pasta of your choice (it should take about 1/3 to 1/2 lb. dry weight of pasta).

PIZZA SCONES
I think I invented these. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary, let me know! They're really good and I'm very proud of them.

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, plus a bit for dusting
3 Tbs. wheat germ
1/3 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
a handful of pepperoni, julienned
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, cheese, and pepperoni. Toss well, making sure the cheese and pepperoni don't clump. Add the baking powder, basil, and salt and mix well.
Pour in the cream and stir gently with a fork just until a soft dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, knead three times (no more!) and pat into a 7- or 8-inch circle. Cut into six wedges and place on a nonstick baking sheet.
Bake 15 minutes, or until golden-brown. Serve warm.

Chinese-food leftovers today. As that would imply, the significant other and I went out for Chinese yesterday. It was fantastic. No cooking was done.

However, the day before that he made the absolute best barbecue he's ever made. He took an entire pork butt and smoked it on our Weber kettle grill with charcoal and hickory chips for upwards of five hours. He adjusted his sauce recipe from last time (see 4/27) by using more white vinegar, less apple cider vinegar, less lemon, and more white and black pepper. He brushed a little on while it was cooking, but most of it we saved until the tender meat was shredded on the plate. It was epic. We served it with a quick slaw and some green beans.

Since the pork took five-plus hours and we needed something sooner, he also whipped up a couple quick hamburgers from some organic meat our grocery has just started carrying. They were fantastic. You really can tell the difference.

Dinner today was awesome, if I do say so myself. What did I ever do before I grew sorrel?

FOIL-BAKED TROUT WITH SORREL
3/4 lb. rainbow trout fillets
1 1/2 Tbs. unsalted butter, in small pats
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
a youngish onion, white and green parts, chopped small
a large handful of sorrel, julienned

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place the trout on a large double layer of aluminum foil. Place butter pats on the fish, salt and pepper it, then cover with onion and sorrel. Place another double layer of foil on top and crimp it with the bottom layer so the fish is sealed airtight in a packet.
Bake 25 minutes or until fish is flaky-tender and vegetables are very soft.

CRISPY POTATOES
canola-oil cooking spray
2 russet burbank potatoes, sliced very thin
olive oil
garlic powder
salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Spray a jelly-roll pan with cooking spray. Arrange potato slices tightly in a single layer. Brush well with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Bake 15 minutes or until browned and crispy.

FRAGRANT BABY LIMAS
1 c. frozen baby lima beans
water
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. unsalted butter
a few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme, minced
freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Simmer the baby limas in salted water 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Drain. Toss with butter, lemon thyme, and pepper.

This is what the s.o. made for dinner. It was fantastic and really juicy.

MUSTARD-LIME CORNISH GAME HENS
2 Cornish game hens, thawed
salt
2 tsp. butter, melted
1 Tbs. fresh lime juice
1 Tbs. coarse Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
freshly-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Split the game hens between the rib cage and butterfly. Salt what was the inside and place the salted side down in a 9x13-inch baking pan.
Whisk the melted butter, lime juice, mustard, and garlic together and brush it on the hens. Pepper the hens. Cover with foil and bake 40 to 50 minutes, until just cooked through.
Remove foil and bake at 425 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes, until crispy.

It's time for a change. It's summer, and it turns out I don't cook as often or as ambitiously when the weather's hot. And even though we don't repeat ourselves in the kitchen as much as many folks do, we do repeat ourselves eventually.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to clam up unless and until I have an interesting new recipe to share. So keep your eyes peeled as usual, but don't expect the full monty.

Here's what I made for dinner today, though:

ROPA VIEJA
1 1/2 lbs. flank steak, skirt steak, or brisket
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 green or orange bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
a few small cloves garlic, smashed
water
1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 green or orange bell pepper, chopped
1/2 jalapeño pepper, minced
4 Tbs. tomato paste
15-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. sweet paprika
2 bay leaves
1/2 c. dry white wine
Salt and black pepper to taste

Brown the meat in 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large saucepan or stockpot. Add chopped green pepper, sliced onion, and smashed garlic. Add enough water to surround the meat, but not cover it. Simmer, covered, about an hour.

Meanwhile, in a second pan, sauté onions, garlic, and peppers in olive oil until limp. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered.

When the meat is cooked, remove it from the pot and let it cool enough to shred it. Add the shredded meat to the simmering sauce. Strain the broth into the sauce, too. Discard the strained-out vegetables.

Simmer until meat is very tender and flavors are melded. Serve with crusty bread that has been brushed with olive oil and toasted.

Breakfast
Half a berry-flavored yogurt
A few spoonfuls of lowfat cottage cheese

Lunch
Leftover baked chicken (made by my significant other while I was traveling...not sure what the recipe was, but there was rosemary on the skin)

Lunch today was at North Side Cafe, Akron, Ohio. I had a salad of baby greens with grilled chicken, prosciutto, figs, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, and pomegranate vinaigrette. It was delicious. The pomegranate vinaigrette was the house dressing. I substituted it for the vanilla-bean vinaigrette that was supposed to come on the salad, but which sounded nasty to me.

We also sampled North Side's crab cakes, which come with apple butter. Very cool combination--one I would never have thought of.

Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant in southeastern Atlanta. I forget the name of the place. I had char-broiled pork on broken rice and liked it a lot. We also started things off with some nice basil-y spring rolls. The place wasn't nearly as good as Bien Thuy, but it hit the spot just the same.

I had dinner today at the Udipi South Indian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. I would love to describe what we ate, but I can't remember the names of most of the dishes. I know there were a lot of delicious dosais (crispy crepe things with fillings), and there was a thicker savory pancake with vegetables and cilantro that I really liked. There were chickpea fritters and lentil donuts, coconut chutneys, some kind of pickle...

I don't know what it all was, but I do know it was really fantastic and it's going to inspire whole new avenues of kitchen exploration. I thought I liked northern Indian food much better than southern, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Breakfast
Cherry yogurt

Lunch
Leftover spanakopita (see 6/4)

Dinner
Turkey soup
French bread
Plum cobbler

Recipes:

TURKEY SOUP
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large or several small carrots, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 medium red potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces
2 turkey wings, connecting skin cut off (totalling about 2 lbs.)
6 c. water
handful chopped turnip greens
2 handfuls shredded cabbage
1 bay leaf
15-oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
handful of pearled barley
a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce
a couple dashes of red wine vinegar
salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

In the vegetable oil, saute the onion for five minutes in a stockpot. Add carrots, turnip, celery, and potatoes, and continue sauteeing another five to ten minutes. Add the turkey wings, water, turnip greens, cabbage, bay leaf, tomatoes, and barley. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer hard until meat begins to fall from the wings.
Fish out the wings and shred the meat. Return the meat to the soup. Simmer 1/2 hour more, season as desired, and serve.

PLUM COBBLER
8 to 10 small to medium plums, pitted and cut into eighths
1/3 c. sugar
1 heaping Tbs. cornstarch
1 c. self-rising flour
1/8 c. Crisco shortening
1/3 c. milk
flour for dusting
sugar and slivered almonds for the top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut plums up and put them in a souffle dish or similar baking dish. Mix in the sugar and cornstarch.
Put the self-rising flour in a medium mixing bowl and, with a fork or your fingers, cut the shortening into it until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Pour in the milk and stir just until the dough pulls away from the sides. Sprinkle flour lightly over the dough and, with floured hands, flatten it out into a disc. Fold it over twice, then flatten it into a disc again and cover the plums with it. Sprinkle the top of the cobbler with sugar and almonds.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until golden-brown and bubbling.

Breakfast
Cold cereal with milk and a chopped peach

Lunch
Vegetarian burrito

Dinner
Greek lamb
Spanakopita
French bread

**WARNING: FRUIT OVERLOAD...**
So I find myself in a predicament three days before I'm supposed to leave on a weeklong trip. I've managed to acquire one big bag each of peaches, plums, and quinces. I think I'm going to make jelly with the quinces if I can track down some clean muslin. But what about the other fruits? One pie per day sounds nice, but a little excessive. Hmm...what to do, what to do...

Recipes:

VEGETARIAN BURRITO
small handful of diced yellow crookneck squash
small handful of diced green bell pepper
1 scallion, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
pinch ground cumin
pinch fresh or dried oregano
1 large flour tortilla
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, sliced thin or grated
1/4 c. refried pinto beans
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1/4 c. shredded lettuce
4 or 5 grape tomatoes, halved
salsa

In a small nonstick pan, saute the squash, green pepper, and scallion in 1/2 tsp. oil until crisp-tender. As you're cooking the vegetables, sprinkle them lightly with cumin and oregano. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tsp. oil and place the tortilla in it. Arrange cheese in a wide stripe down the middle, then dollop beans and sauteed vegetables on top. Warm until bottom of tortilla softens and just begins to turn golden. Slide onto a serving plate.
Add remaining ingredients and fold into a burrito. If too overstuffed, just flop it over like an omelet.

GREEK LAMB (reprinted from 3/19)
4 Tbs. olive oil
1 1/2 to 2 lb. neck or shoulder pieces of lamb
juice of 1 1/2 lemons
7 or 8 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 c. water
salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Add the lamb and lightly brown it all over.
Add the lemon juice, thyme, water, and seasonings to the pan, then turn the heat down. Simmer with the lid on for about 50 minutes, until the meat is very tender.
Serve with plenty of good bread or potatoes to sop up all the juices.

SPANAKOPITA
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped small
1 Tbs. fresh oregano, chopped small
1 tsp. dried dill weed
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 Tbs. flour
1 c. crumbled good briny feta cheese
1 c. lowfat cottage cheese
2 eggs
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pkg. phyllo sheets, thawed
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/3 c. olive oil

In 1 Tbs. olive oil, saute the onion about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the oregano, dill, and garlic and sautee a couple of minutes more, then add the spinach and keep sauteing until most of the moisture has evaporated. Sprinkle on the flour and stir until well mixed. Remove from heat.
In a large bowl, stir together feta cheese, cottage cheese, and eggs. Mix in the spinach mixture and season well with pepper.
Melt the butter in a bowl with the olive oil. Unroll phyllo sheets and either cover with a towel or resolve to work quickly enough that they don't dry out. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Brush the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan with the oil-butter mixture. Lay one sheet of phyllo in the bottom, brush it with the oil-butter mixture, and repeat until you have eight sheets. Spoon half the filling into the pastry and spread it out.
Lay on eight more sheets of phyllo, brushing each with oil-butter mixture. Spoon on the remainder of the filling and spread it out. Top with the rest of the phyllo, again brushing each with oil-butter mixture.
Trim excess phyllo off the edges of the pan with kitchen shears. Bake the spanakopita 45 minutes or until golden-brown and crispy.

Breakfast
Half a canteloupe filled with lowfat cottage cheese

Lunch
Mesquite-smoked turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread

Dinner
Green salad
Leftover blackened tuna steak (see 6/1)
Half a hazelnut-and-raisin Ritter Sport

Breakfast
Key lime yogurt with graham cracker crumbs

Lunch
Quesadillas (same recipe as 5/23, but substituted chopped avocado and green onion for the cilantro and banana pepper)

Dinner
Sirloin burgers cooked on the grill, served on sliced focaccia (see 5/31)
Grilled "french fries"
Yellow crookneck squash
Salad of romaine lettuce, radicchio, carrots, and frisee with oil and red wine vinegar

Recipes:

YELLOW CROOKNECK SQUASH
2 medium to large yellow crookneck squash
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tsp. butter (optional)

Slice necks of squash into rounds. Cut larger parts in half and slice into half-moons.
Place slices in a medium saucepan and run about a half-inch of water in the bottom. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Cover and bring water to a boil so it steams the squash. Stir every five minutes or so and re-cover. Squash should be soft and beginning to fall apart when it's done.
Grind pepper over squash. Drain and toss with butter if desired (it really doesn't need it).

Breakfast
Wasa ryecrisps with peanut butter

Lunch
Leftover spaghetti
Canteloupe

Dinner
Blackened tuna steaks
Garlicky kale
Steamed carrots tossed in orange juice, honey, and butter

Recipes:

BLACKENED TUNA STEAKS
1 Tbs. sweet paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. onion powder
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
1 tsp. minced lemon zest
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. crumbled dried basil leaves
1 Tbs. melted butter
2 Tbs. olive oil
two or three 1-inch-thick tuna steaks, about 1 1/2 lbs. total

Preheat a cast-iron skillet so it is very hot. Make sure you have good ventilation--open windows and a lot of fans, or a good range hood.
Mix together paprika, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, black pepper, lemon zest, thyme, and basil. Spread mixture out on a plate.
Stir melted butter into olive oil. Dip tuna steaks in butter and oil mixture, then dredge them with spice mixture. Sear steaks for a few minutes on each side so seasonings blacken and tuna cooks through.

GARLICKY KALE
a few handfuls of fresh kale, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
salt for cooking water
Texas Pete hot sauce

Place the kale and garlic in salted water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until greens are tender (up to one hour). Drain.
Mash softened garlic into greens and season to taste with hot sauce.