Cubanos & Garbanzo Bean Salad

Last week's dinner Zoom was an attempt to create our favorite Cuban take-out at home. It was delicious, and excellent with mojitos made with mint, fresh from the garden.

Cuban Sammies (AKA Cubanos) 

Good cuban sandwich bread (recipe from Allrecipes.com is amazing)

Roasted or pulled pork (made with Mojo, ideally)

sliced deli ham (3-4 slices per sandwich)

Swiss cheese slices (1-2 slices per sandwich)

whole Kosher dill pickles (sliced thin by you)

Yellow mustard

Horseradish (optional, but delicious)

Butter for grilling sammies, and sandwich press, panini grill, or two cast iron pans and some hot pads

Assemble sammies, butter outsides, and grill. If using cast iron pans, heat both, and put one (smaller) on top of sammies, using it to press down the sammies in the pan. Use hot pads to press down hot pan on sandwich. Grill to golden and melty, and enjoy with Garbanzo Bean Salad and a mojito with LOTS of mint and lime!

Garbanzo Bean Salad

(about 8-10 servings as a side)

Salad  

2 (15 ounce ) cans of garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
2 flame bell peppers (or whatever color you prefer)
1 c. of diced sweet onion
1 c. of  quartered cherry tomatoes

1 c. fresh corn (blanched or grilled and planked off the cob)

1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

1/4-1/2 c. chopped cilantro

Dressing

1/4 c. lime juice

1/4 c. olive oil

1.5 tsp. of ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3-4 pressed garlic cloves

 
Combine the beans, peppers, onion, tomatoes, corn, and chopped cilantro in a large glass salad bowl.

Blitz dressing in a small blender (or whisk by hand), pour over the salad and toss. Best flavor comes from letting this salad chill in the fridge for at least a couple hours. Lasts several days in the fridge.

Summer: Blackberry Pie

Summer: Kids in the Kitchen

Uncle Andy's smoked salmon and Ritz crackers got Erik to try cream cheese again. Which he loves now... So, after eating two batches of these this weekend, we had to make these with dinner last night.

Summer: Grilled Kabobs

He lit the grill, he sliced veggies and fruit and garlic, and he made a few kabobs. He loved the chicken, and the regular mushrooms, hated the shiitake (my gain there), and didn't choose any of the other veggies for his skewer. He did have some corn though. Someday he'll love more things. I'm ever hopeful. Regardless, it's only my job to provide the healthy meals - it's his job to eat them. 

The Walla Walla sweet onions and the grilled apricots were especially amazing, as were the pork kabobs. I also did oregano garlic potatoes and two small pork loins on the grill tonight for tomorrow's dinner, and they all look amazing. 

Radicchio, fennel, zucchini, white and shiitake mushrooms, apricot, sweet onions, potatoes and corn. 

Wordless Wednesday: Kids Making Lunches

Summer: Making Lunch for Camp

Summer: Kids in the Kitchen

E loves crepes. So much so, that the recipe is taped inside the kitchen cabinet where our pancake recipe is posted.

So tonight the dinner he chose to make and learn was crepes. He got a lot of spatula practice, and stovetop/hot pan practice, and while waiting for each to cook, he set the table and got toppings on like I do. Excellent. He was so proud of himself, and rightly so.

Summer: Kids in the Kitchen

Rainbow Pasta. They loved it. And, they still aren't big fans of pasta. Plus, it invoked teamwork, math, art (color mixing), and cooking.



I used the technique from this post: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/66782/easy-rainbow-pasta.


**And, luckily, no one but the kids will be eating this, since M's hair dipped into it during the picture... At least she's just showered too.

Wedding Cookies: Peanut Butter

6 dozen. Only 27 dozen to go! Easy peasy.

Summer: Kids in the Kitchen

Mads learning her favorite Caesar dressing. It was fantastic.

3/4 c. mayo
2-3  cloves crushed garlic
3 Tbs. Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
4 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
Salt & pepper to taste
Romaine hearts
Croutons

Wordless Wednesday: Strawberry Fields...

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Picnic

Wordless Wednesday: Rainbow Salad

Singapore Sling

Jamie mixed us up some Singapore Slings last night while we were all prepping dinner... they were dangerously delicious!

Jamie's Singapore Sling
(makes 2)
2 shots cherry brandy
1 shot triple sec
2 shots Cascade Mountain gin
2 shots pineapple juice
1 shot lime juice
1 shot grenadine
And, Club Soda to fill the shaker...
serve over ice, and beware!

"Pie. Me, o my. I love pie!"

Name that movie quote... it's one of my faves.***

I made fresh peach pie this afternoon with the kiddos, and as ever, they loved it. The recipe called for blind baking the crust first, then cooling and adding the filling to bake for 30 mins, then the topping for another 30. A bit fussy, but it turned out to taste just like Summer!

We also made these...

... when I was little, and my mom made pie, we always made these tasty treats. Always. And Nick and I got to make them. Basically, roll out the dough scraps, brush on soft butter, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar, roll up, have mom slice, then bake until golden and delicious! Perfection. The kids love 'em!


*** From the movie, Michael with John Travolta. I love that he's an angel. He's such an excellently hilarious angel. A sexy, cigarette-smoking, bar-brawling, two-steppin', line dancing, pie eating sugar-fiend of an angel that is... and the song (according to IMDb) sung my Andie MacDowell:

"The Pie Song"
Music by Steve Dorff
Music by Lyrics by Roy Blount Jr.
Published by TNT Music Publishing, Inc./Techwood Music, Inc.

Lyrics:

Pie
Pie
Me oh my
Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry
all at once o well it's pie
Apple!
Pumpkin!
Minced
an' wet bottom. ("Wet Bottom" is Amish Shoofly Pie)
Come to your place everyday if you've got em'
Pie
Me o my
I love pie!

Plum Cardamom Kuchen

I love the Smitten Kitchen blog — fabulous recipes, inspiring stuff, really. And, as Deb always has the best recipes, and I'm always looking for a plum recipe this time of year to accomodate the bounty of our tree... I made her Plum Kuchen tonight (and roasted some zucchini and did my fave chard recipe too... harvest time in our garden!)
Uh-MAZE-ing!! Amazing depth of flavor, perfect tart-sweetness of plums, light but hearty... really. I didn't have lemons to zest, so I ground up some cardamom to throw in. Fab. Try it.

A Side of... Rainbows

Rainbow chard has been my fave veggie this summer, and I created a really easy recipe that is delicious and a power-house of nutrition!

Rainbow Chard Saute

1/2-1 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 large bunches of Rainbow Chard, ribs removed
1 can S&W Pinquinto beans (pre-seasoned with cumin, garlic, etc.)
4-6 oz. of crumbled goat cheese

Chop the chard into small pieces (maybe 1/2-inch square), then toss in preheated olive oil - in a saute pan. Wilt it down fairly well, then dump in the can of beans. Toss and cook a couple minutes more, then remove from heat. Sprinkle goat cheese of top and toss once. Serve immediately.

Plum Crazy

I'm doing all sorts of wonderful things with the bounty of Italian Plums off our tree in the backyard. The preserves I did last night are the most gorgeous color and they are delicious!! As the plums cook, the beautiful purple of the skins burst into the orange-ish yellow fruit pulp and mix into this pretty and vibrant red. At one point in the cooking, it looks like foamy raspberry and orange sherbet punch! I canned Plum Marmalade with Rum a couple years ago, and it's wonderful. Everyone that I shared it with loved it. It's amazing on crepes, vanilla, ice cream, waffles, or even toast.
Plum Marmalade With Rum (modified from Anne Gardon's recipe in Preserving For All Seasons)

2 pounds of Italian plums (pitted and coarsely chopped)
2 large organic oranges, sliced thin on a mandolin (use your guard!)
1 cup water
3 cups sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla
1/2 cup rum (or 3 tsp. rum extract)

Soak sliced oranges in the water overnight, then dump into pot the next day. Add sugar and plums and bring to a boil. Then, stir occasionally and cook over moderate heat until mixture thickens up. Remove from heat and add vanilla and rum. Seal in hot, sterilized canning jars and store in a cool, dark place. For best results wait at least one month before using.
"End of Summer Custard Pie" (strawberries, plums - from our yard, and blackberries - from our hike), and Plum Upside-Down Cake (3 Tbs butter, 1/4 c. brown sugar melted and poured into the bottom of a greased 9x9 cake pan; add halved plums in rows to fill bottom on pan then pour Jiffy yellow cake mix on top - with cinnamon and vanilla added. Easy. Delish).

Pete's Beets

Thanks to Pete for these gorgeous beets from his garden, and to Jamie & John who delivered them. I gave them a wash, a peel, and mandolined them up (I always use the guard now... learned my lesson), and Erik HAD to "help" I also sliced his apple with the mandolin. He was a safe little apprentice too. We shook the beets in a Ziploc with olive oil and S&P, then roasted at 425-degrees F for about 20-ish minutes... or maybe less. The time it took to put the baked macaroni and cheese together and get it in the oven for about 10 mins, and sautee the shrimp in a little butter and a lot of garlic. Delish. And fitting since today felt very Autumnal.

Tempura Squash Blossoms

Just Tempura batter mix from the grocery, and assorted pumpkin, zucchini and other squash blossoms from our garden. They were delicious. I didn't stuff them, just dipped and fried in some peanut and canola oil. They were surprisingly sweet and very tasty. Erik declared them "dee-li-sus!"