Boiled peanuts – a slurpy, salty snack

You either “get” boiled peanuts or you don’t. If you don’t, I’m not sure I can help you.  If you do, you might want to try boiling your own. Our first CSA box included green peanuts, which are recently harvested “new” peanuts. My hubby just sort of winged it with about a pound of peanuts, almost a 1/4 cup of salt and cooking the peanuts for about one and a half hours. He let them soak for about an hour afterwards, which is when the salty water does its magic of infusing the nuts with great flavor. Part of the fun of eating boiling peanuts is cracking a semi-soft shell with your teeth and slurping the juice before it escapes down your hand. Sure, it’s messy. But worth it.

Here’s a recipe from a favorite cookbook, “Putting on the Grits,” from the Columbia, S.C., Junior League.

Boiled Peanuts

• 4 pounds green peanuts, in shells
• 6 quarts water
• 6-10 TBS salt

Select and wash green peanuts (available from early summer until early fall). Place in a large stock pot with water and salt. Cover, bring to a boil and boil slowly for 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Water should be briny. Add more water and salt during cooking if necessary. Test for doneness. Peanuts should be soft inside, but not mushy.  Allow to soak for 30 minutes. Drain. Can be refrigerated for several days.

Boiled peanuts

No knead to be afraid

I have a confession. Despite years of trying recipes and inventing my own, I have had a fear of….baking bread with yeast!  I know. It doesn’t make sense. I’ve had good intentions. I’ve bought yeast packets, only to let them expire. I have a thermometer to take the water’s temperature. I know that a good “warm place” is the oven with the light on and a warm pan of water under the bowl. I have gazillons of yummy-sounding bread recipes, but I always fall back on biscuits or muffins or other quick breads.

I can’t trace my reluctance to any yeast-induced disaster (although that would certainly make for a more interesting phobia.) I certainly have no fear of EATING such bread.

The yearn to bake finally overpowered the fear of fermenting fungi.  I wanted to use the last of the tomatoes and basil from my garden on a pizza. I needed a crust worthy of my backyard-garden treasures, not one unrolled from a tube.

I selected this Cooking Light Basic Pizza Dough recipe because it received good reviews and because it had a reassuring note: “don’t worry about rolling the dough into a perfect circle.” (Ah, more time to spend worrying that the dough won’t rise.) I bought the ingredients for Spinach and Ricotta Pizza.

I carefully measured flour and water temperature, kneaded, waited, poked and rolled. I added my homemade pesto to the recipe ingredients. It was surprisingly easy and fun. And bonus – delicious!

It’s nice to now have a comfortable relationship with bread baking, even if it means I’m going to overindulge in bread eating. I guess that could lead to an uncomfortable relationship between my pants and my waistline. Too bad. I’m on a roll.

Spinach and ricotta pizza on homemade dough

The fresh-baked reward

CSA box of treasures

Today was CSA pick-up day! My first box from Pinckney’s Produce in Vance, S.C., included corn, yellow and sunburst squash, zucchini, green peanuts, cucumbers and fresh field peas! Fresh SHELLED field peas. I grew up eating fresh peas and butterbeans from my grandmothers’ gardens and shelling was my least favorite task. Or maybe picking was my least favorite task. No matter — Pinckney’s Produce picked and shelled for me! I’m excited about this adventure for all the right reasons (supporting S.C. farmers, eating fresh food, etc.), but I’ll admit that having someone deliver a box of veggies without any effort on my part is also appealing.

Tonight’s supper was so delicious and so easy. The corn was good, but those peas were SOOOO good. I signed up for a one-person share so I wouldn’t waste any food. There’s plenty of food for two people for at least four days.

Today, fresh peas. Tomorrow, boiled peanuts!

CSA box Week One!

Edamame – easy on the side

Edamame — it’s fun to say (ed ah ma may) and fun to eat. This recipe for Edamame Succotash from Cooking Light is now in regular rotation as a side dish because it’s tasty and easily adapts to whatever I have on hand. This week I made it without the green onions, used dried thyme instead of fresh, cut back on the ground red pepper and increased the lime juice slightly. During the holidays I tripled the recipe and served it at a work function to rave reviews. I’ve never actually served it with mahi as the original recipe does, but it’s great with roasted salmon, grilled chicken and pork tenderloin. Plus, it’s just so darn colorful and attractive!

Edamame succotash - a satisfying side dish

Guacamole!

I love foods that are ready to eat almost immediately, with little or no prep (cherries, bananas). Quick recipes that require little work or thinking are also high on my list, and guacamole is one of them. My favorite guac recipe involves cutting corn off the cob, chopping an onion and roasting both (that’s for a later post), but the easiest recipe is this: Split open two ripe Haas avocadoes, chop coarsely, mix with lime juice, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Add one or two chopped fresh tomatoes and stir. Done.

I’ve been enjoying our fresh tomato fest this summer and this simple guacamole really lets the tomatoes shine. Perfectly ripe avocadoes, tomatoes right out of the garden, lime juice – three star ingredients that combine for a delicious and easy dish. Simple, simple!

Avocadoes and lime ready to guac

Speedy guacamole

Pesto perfected

The slugs have been particularly vicious to my two basil plants this year, shredding nearly every leaf. A few weeks ago, when I threatened to pull the plants out of the pots and start over, my dear hubby suggested cutting the plants back. I reluctantly agreed, fearing that neither new plants nor rejuvenated plants would make it. But both plants rebounded from their shearings (maybe most of the slugs moved when their food supply was cut off) and have produced several handfuls of large leaves, so today, I made pesto!!

Homemade pesto is sooooo good. I make a batch each summer, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then put the cubes in a freezer bag. During the winter, I use the pesto in soups, on roasted vegetables, on bread and of course, on pasta.

I’ve made this recipe for years. I like the fact that it uses walnuts instead of pine nuts. When I first made this, oh, maybe 20 years ago, it was hard to find pine nuts in Columbia, or at least where I shopped, but I always have walnuts in the fridge. Today, I used Asiago cheese instead of Parmesan and we really liked the substitution.

Pesto

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Wash basil leaves and dry thoroughly. Add basil, walnut pieces, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper to a food processor fitted with the knife blade. Process until smooth. With processor running, pour olive oil through cover opening in a slow stream until combined. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for one week, or freeze up to six months.

Basil leaves drying

Everything but the olive oil

Pesto perfection

Chocolate milkshake saves the day

I have been doing SO well in my quest to stay away from fast food during lunch. I’ve been bringing lunch from home or eating a sandwich at one of my favorite local restaurants.

But, then yesterday arrived.

Yesterday began with a bad case of Fuzzy Brain Disorder (FBD).  I am highly susceptible to FBD, usually due to fractured sleep the night before. A mild case of FBD usually goes away around 10 a.m. and returns as Saturated Brain Syndrome (SBS) around 4:30 p.m. Yesterday’s case of FBD lingered through a dentist appointment, a mid-morning meeting and the realization that an after-lunch meeting was looming. Sensing my vulnerability, SBS made an early appearance around 12:45 p.m.

The brain shut down. I needed some nutrients and a lot of comfort. I went to Sonic.

(Now, part of the fast food avoidance is also avoidance of eating in the car. But I was thinking, “I can’t make small talk or subject anyone else to FBD. I must be quarantined.”)

So there I was at Sonic, hiding in the car and feeling like my brain and my body were giving up for the day.

I ordered a chocolate milkshake. Fat, sugar and chocolate (and a little protein) began to beat back the fuzz, with cold and creamy joining the fight. FBD and SBS slowly released their grip.

As I came to my senses, I decided not to feel bad about my lapse. I needed that chocolate milkshake. I managed to fake it through the afternoon meeting and make it back to my office to welcome round two of SBS right on time.

A chocolate milkshake rides shotgun

Summer of tomato love

I love watching tomato plants not much bigger than my hand grow into a giant tomato forest with thick central stems and multiple vines straining against the stakes. After all these years, I still get a kick when I see a green tomato start to turn. After harvesting four Celebrity tomatoes yesterday, I was surprised today to see several Burpee Big Boys that seemed to turn light orange overnight.

Burpee Big Boys racing to be the next ripe tomato

Cherry glamour shot II

This cherry was just begging for its close-up.

One single cherry

Bring on the cupcakes!

Oh boy….we are getting a cupcake shop in Columbia!  I am a big cookie freak, but a really good cupcake can turn my head as well.  We have great sources for cookies here (The Gourmet Shop, Devine Foods, etc.), but a bakery devoted just to cupcakes is going to be popular.  Plus, it’s going to be conveniently located near Starbucks in the Vista!  The sign is in the window; the shop is set to open in mid-August. Here’s the newspaper article.