Garden Fresh Relish

This relish, made from some of my garden tomatoes, zucchinis, and parsley, was easy to make and delicious.

For this fresh summer garden relish, I diced two small tomatoes, two small zucchinis, and one orange bell pepper. The vegetables were tossed with a little extra virgin olive oil, a few sprinkles of white balsamic vinegar, juice from half a lemon, a pinch of sea salt, a little freshly ground pepper, and some chopped Italian parsley. The vinegar and seasonings were all added to taste. 

The relish was great on top of an open faced grilled local* beef burger on a grilled portabella mushroom.

Oh, and this book, Second Nature, by Michael Pollan, is very good reading. Especially by the garden!

For another meal, organic hot dogs, I freshened up the relish a bit with two small diced shallots and one diced celery stalk. We added some spicy ground mustard after I took this photo and that finished off these dogs with a zing!

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*The local beef is from Matthieu's Custom Cuttings, Vermont.

Mussels In Red Sauce

I hope you enjoy this mussel dish as much as we did. I've been trying to find a good recipe for mussels in red sauce and hope to soon create my own because this is my daughter's favorite meal. This recipe was a great starter and she gave it two thumbs up! It tasted fresh and was easy to make. 

Mussel Soup (Zuppa de Cozze)  
From Angela's Italian & Sicilian Recipes (easy printable version, a little different from below, though, can be found here).  I named it Mussels In Red Sauce because that's what my daughter likes to calls it.

2 lbs mussels
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, (I minced mine)
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 large ripe tomatoes (I used one 28 oz can whole tomatoes but fresh will be really nice when garden tomatoes are available. For fresh tomato instructions, go to link above.)
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (loosely packed)
6 basil leaves (I chopped them)
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper, optional (I added)
Extra virgin olive oil as needed
Freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt


Scrub mussels clean, pull off beards, if any. Our mussels were pretty clean already by the fishmonger, making this part a breeze.

Dice onions and mince garlic. Saute onions in a little olive oil until translucent in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and cook through.

Add wine, canned tomatoes with juice (break up tomatoes with hands first), pepper, crushed chili pepper and heat to a gentle boil.

Add mussels, cover pot and steam until mussels open. It doesn't take long for them to open. Check mussels in a few minutes and gently stir. Cover and check again in a few minutes. Remove from heat when all mussels are open.

Gently stir in parsley and basil (the recipe I followed left out the basil from the instructions. Since it's fresh, I added the basil at the end). Add salt to taste. This recipe served all four of us.

Bruschetta:

Use an Italian loaf or French baguette, extra virgin olive oil, and about 3-4 garlic cloves, halved.

To make bruschetta: Slice the bread to accommodate servings. Brush a little olive oil over one side of each slice. Lay slices out on a baking sheet. Toast until lightly brown under the broiler or your preferred method. Rub garlic halves over each slice.

After we eat our first mussel, we like to use a mussel shell as our spoon!

Crustless Spinach Quiche with Rosemary Olives

Spinach quiche, farmers' market bread toasted and
drizzled with lemon olive oil

Crustless Spinach Quiche
6 medium eggs
2 cups 2% milk, I used Lactaid (or whole milk)
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 7 oz package organic baby spinach
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese (look for lowest sodium, locally, Narragansett Creamery is the lowest I can find at 180mg/oz)
About 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Pepper to taste (salt comes from the cheeses)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk. Saute onion in about 1 teaspoon olive oil in a medium pan for a few minutes until translucent; add to egg mixture. Rinse spinach in a colander but don't dry. In same pan, place wet spinach and steam down over medium heat until tender (takes less than a minute), place in colander to drain then squeeze in your hands to remove liquid, getting it as dry as possible or the quiche will be soggy; dice and place in same bowl. Add cheeses, parsley, pepper to taste. Coat a 9 or 10 inch quiche dish (or other heat-proof glass or ceramic dish, mine was 10 inches) with butter or oil. Pour quiche mixture into dish, place dish on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes, until middle is cooked (press center for firmness or test with fork - it should come out clean).

Spinach quiche, farmers' market bread toasted and
drizzled with lemon olive oil

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Local lemon oil we purchased at
Taste of Rhode Island in Newport

Olive bar assorted olives, farmers' market cherry tomatoes,
minced fresh rosemary, lemon olive oil

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A Special Bread Board

This bread board set is special not just because it's recycled but because my daughter's music teacher made it. We bought the set at a fundraiser Saturday night for my daughter's school. Her music teacher makes various beautiful household items out of old wood from their school which are always popular auction items.