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Summer is here and that means one thing:  slow cooked, rich and hearty stew!  Kidding.  Yeah we all know summer is a time to eat a little lighter what with the warmer weather and increasing abundance of fresh summer vegetables.  Also as newbies to the whole CSA (community supported agrigculture) movement we get a weekly supply of vegetables some of which are familiar and some kind of new.  Our first week we got three different heads of lettuce and ended up eating big main course salads four nights in a row.  Here’s one of them.

Salad with three different lettuces, grape tomatoes, onions and feta cheese and steak. I think I made a simple dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper and dijon mustard.

And then last week we got rubarb which I’ve never actually cooked.  In fact, I know of only one thing that calls for rubarb and that’s strawberry rubarb pie.  So, lacking originality and inspiration that’s what I made.  I made my own crust (2 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 sticks of butter, 1 and 1/2 tbspns of sugar, 1 tspn of salt and about 6 tbspns  of ice cold water).  For the filling I loosely followed this recipe.  And here’s the pie fresh out of the oven:

I was pretty excited to see how well this pie held up through the baking. Nothing overflowed or oozed out the side or over the top.

Oh snap! I guess a combination of the filling still being hot and not using enough thickening agent (I used 1/3 cup of corn starch – more than the recommended 1/4 cup), the filling just kind of came spilling out. My excitement turned to pissed offedness. But at least it was delicious. Next time though, I'd use less sugar. It was a bit sweet for my taste. Maybe one cup of sugar instead of the 1 and 1/3 cup called for in the recipe.

I figured by tilting the pie, the contents would be forced back into the crust. It kind of worked.

As, promised and in record time (as far as blogging turn around time for me) I give you the second installment of Memorable Meals (late 2009).  This one is focused on a few delicious dinners that we cooked at home for ourselves and our friends.  As with any middle chapter in a trilogy, you’ll find this segment a bit more profound and complex wherein the hero’s journey takes  perhaps a dark and unexpected twist.  Or not.  We just had a lot of fun and ate some really good food. Click on the cheesecake below for the full skinny – or in this case, the full fat.

Pumpkin Cheesecake from Juniors.

Say what?  Exactly.  Until last year, Katie and Bret (aka Meatball Hands) had never cooked with Jerusalem artichokes.  But they got them last year in their CSA vegetable box.  Wondering what to do, they perused their copy of the venerable Silver Spoon Cookbook which lists recipes by their main ingredients and they found a recipe for Jerusalem artichoke risotto which they made and said was absolutely delicious.  This year, they got Jerusalem artichokes again and I was fortunate enough to be invited for the encore preparation of the delicious meal.  And fortunately for all of you, I documented the cooking process so that you all might enjoy and perhaps duplicate.  Click on the delicious tuber below for the full dish.

Mesdames et Messieurs, c’est avec plaisir que je vous presente mon ami Channon. How that for some busted up French? Alright so check out my friend Channon’s first report from France where she’s spending the next five months living the good life. Be sure also to check out her blog, “From Right Here” for more detailed accounts and beautiful photographs of her time en France. But first, check out her first review…

… and welcome to my humble website/ blog. It’s still a bit of a work in progress so I hope you understand the general lack of slickness of this site and the fact that certain aspects could change at a moment’s notice. Think of it as you would improvising in the kitchen. Or think of it is as the endeavor of a totally amateur cook and slow-to-learn-basic-web-stuff guy. I welcome any comments suggestions and contributions (of the web content variety – though I wouldn’t turn away monetary compensation – sheeeeit!). Well, I hope you brought your appetite. Enjoy.

-CT