The Persian cucumber plant profiled in our cucumber salad with grapes and almonds recipe continues to thrive, and daily threatens to grow over, inside, and around every other plant in the garden bed. At least once a week I find a couple ginormous cukes, hiding under the mass of leaves; this is what happens when you don’t pick every day. All is good; these cucumbers make their way into numerous cucumber salads, which are particularly refreshing on hot summer days. Continue reading "Cucumber Salad with Tahini Dressing" »  From the recipe archive, first posted July 2010. Oh the joys of summer! On the top of the list is fresh, ripe tomatoes, garden cucumbers, and basil that the more you cut, the more it grows. (Ever notice that basil is like a hydra? Cut one stem and two grow in its place.) And the tomatoes. Beefsteak tomatoes, early girls, heirlooms, plum tomatoes, not to mention the little ones like sun golds. Anyway, the heat has come, the garden has finally started to act like summer, and this classic Tuscan bread salad is a perfect thing to make with the bounty. Panzanella at its core is really a way to use up crusty bread that has gotten hard and to celebrate perfect summer tomatoes. It is a cooling summertime salad that relies on the bread as the "filler" to soak up the juices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as the olive oil you pour over everything. Continue reading "Panzanella Bread Salad" »  Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares his favorite way of preparing cornish game hens, grilled! Absolutely delicious. ~Elise Cornish game hens. Almost everyone has seen them at some point, either sitting next to the chicken at the meat counter or hiding in the freezer section like little poultry-shaped hand grenades. They kinda-sorta look like chickens, but are they? Despite their name, Cornish hens are not a game bird — although they are, more or less, the size of a partridge. No, they are merely young birds (about five weeks old) from a small breed of chicken. Disappointed that they aren’t actually something exotic? I was, too, until I began eating them, many years ago. Continue reading "Grilled Cornish Game Hens" »  | | |
