Recipes

(2023) Victory Sandwich Bar’s Watermelon Salad  

Published at In Category Cucumbers, Recipes, watermelon

So, so happy to see more melons this week. Cantaloupe and watermelon for us, alongside a spaghetti squash, red potatoes, slicer tomatoes and Kirby cucumbers.

I’ve got the perfect salad for two of those items. A watermelon and cucumber salad. Salads combining those two are not new, but I’ve never seen a recipe with a dressing like the one at Victory Sandwich Bar. AJC will be publishing this recipe Sunday and it will be online August 16, but down below is a sneak preview. So delicious! Substitute, or add, cantaloupe to the salad.

(2023) Tomato Tonnato

Published at In Category Recipes, Tomatoes

And I leave you with one tomato recipe from “Salad Pizza Wine” by Janice Tiefenbach, Stephanie Mercier Voyer, Ryan Gray and Marley Sniatowsky. Delicious. And not as complicated as it might seem, but a very impressive dinner dish. It’s just a tomato salad with a few delicious extras.

(2023) Lentil Soup

Published at In Category Carrots, celery, Onions, Recipes, Tomatoes

We’ve returned from a ten day road trip to the Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) in Ontario. In addition to a week full of daily paddling instruction, their kitchen kicks out homecooked meals three times a day. I grabbed some of their recipe cards from the gift store. 

The boys have chosen the following recipe for this week. Looks easy, uses that single old leek, celery, and the tomato from yesterday that was a little bruised, and can get served with leftover rice and pan-fried okra tossed in cornmeal, my favorite okra treatment.

NOTE: The leftover lentils were delicious in a salad with Ceasar dressing, and mixed into ground beef for burgers and meatloaf.

(2023) Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing and Croutons

Published at In Category garlic, Lettuce, Recipes

We’ve returned from a ten day road trip to the Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) in Ontario. In addition to a week full of daily paddling instruction, their kitchen kicks out homecooked meals three times a day. I grabbed some of their recipe cards from the gift store.

MKC puts their freshest produce forward by serving cut fresh veggies with a dip at every lunch and dinner. The recipe cards didn’t include my favorite dip from the week, but this Caesar salad dressing can be served with the sliced peppers, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes from this week’s box.

(2023) Pan Con Tomate

Published at In Category Recipes, Tomatoes

And there’s a Pan Con Tomate recipe below which I love as an alternative to a tomato sandwich that’s actually easier to eat (tomato sandwiches, at least my tomato sandwiches, are always so messy) and a perfect accompaniment to a salad or a big glass of basil lemonade. From Anne Byrn, once the food editor for the AJC, now living in Nashville and writing cookbooks.

(2023) Poolside Sesame Slaw

Published at In Category Cabbage, Recipes

Down below is a recipe from Smitten Kitchen (one of those Northeastern writers) for Poolside Sesame Slaw. That’s the first thing I’ll do with part of our cabbage (and a cucumber, and a pepper or two). I have just been craving sesame this summer – so the toasted sesame oil and tahini in the dressing are very appealing to me right now.

(2023) Summer Skillet Corn, with Peppers, Eggplant, Tomato and Za’atar

Published at In Category corn, eggplant, peppers, Recipes, Tomatoes

I am tempted to just chop everything up and make a big salad with a little of everything in it – yes, raw corn, and YES, raw okra. And that will be dinner tonight. But eventually we’ll want something else, so I’ve got three ideas here – two from my go-to New York Times (cold noodles with tomatoes!) but one that was demonstrated at the Decatur Farmers Market. I have to say that I truly miss restaurant chef demos at local farmers markets. At once time that was a mainstay of the markets and always a source of creative inspiration … now they’re extremely rare, but the Community Farmers Market folks have local cooks who do demos most every week, and their recipes are perhaps a bit more practical and maybe easier to pull off.

So here’s the loosely written recipe for “summer skillet corn, with peppers, eggplant, tomato and za’atar” that was demonstrated at the Decatur Farmers Market. We don’t have eggplant in this week’s box, but you’ve got everything else and if there’s no za’atar at your house, just use whatever seasoning mix is on hand.