Wine Snitch Wine Blog

Because I have been doing so much wine tasting, traveling and general imbibing I've created another blog dedicated purely to wine. Its called Wine Snitch and I just posted my first review today. Please check it out.

I may have planted too many cucumbers | Japanese Cucumber Salad

Last year my cucumbers performed miserably. I don't know why, but it was frustrating as I think nothing is as good as a fresh cucumber with a little salt on it in the middle of a hot summer afternoon. This year, I clearly overcompensated for my cucumber failure last year because I literally walk out of the back door and get slapped in the face with cucumbers, which exploding overnight are testing the endurance of their vines, begging to be picked. 

Sunday was Hot As Balls and I was not about cook, so I broke out the trustee mandolin slicer and made this quick and refreshing cucumber salad. Super Simple and Refreshing, that's really the best way to describe this salad, which I found on the Eating Well website located here.

Let me know if you make it, and also if you have any favorite cucumber recipes, I'm gonna need them, also, Japanese Eggplant, mine have become almost as big of a nuisance as the cucumbers.

Rating = Good

Broccoli Rabe

Now that I have three summers of organic gardening under my belt I have discovered a few things that should be filed under "Shit That Is Not Worth Growing On Your Own!" and, Broccoli Rabe is one of them. I love it and its kind of spendy in the market, but you know what - don't plant it jut pay for it. From last years garden adventure, watermelon and broccoli are added to that list.


Over the winter I became mildly addicted to the brocolli rabe with mushrooms and red pepper flakes in the prepared food part of Russo's in Watertown so I decided instead of paying $6 per pound for it in the summer I would grow my own and I would be in Broccoli Rabe heaven all summer. Not so much, I can't seem to get to the rabe before it bolts and flowers, and at that point it's too bitter to eat - the picture above is broccoli that was harvested in my garden right before it bolted, and it was still very bitter. 


I tried to recreate the dish by sauteing red onion (home grown) with a little garlic and then adding quartered button mushrooms and then adding the broccoli rabe (blanching it first) and then at the last minute adding salt and a good dose of red pepper flakes. It tasted like what I buy from the market, except for the fact that the broccoli rabe was so bitter.


So - I'll just continue to buy it,  Boo Hiss! And I will rip up the rabe and replace it with Swiss Chard because I cannot get enough of it now.


Also, on a complete side note, if you happen to go out for sushi and end up eating about two pounds of seaweed salad because it's so good and you just can't stop yourself - your bathroom the next morning will indeed smell like Casey Anthony's trunk. Just saying, open a window, give it five or ten minutes.

Swiss Chard Erin's Recipe

This conversation between Chris and I should give you a little insight into how many times I have cooked Swiss Chard since Chris and I have been together.

Me: I hope you like Swiss Chard because that's what were having for dinner tonight?
Chris: Swiss Chard, Is that a fish?
Me: (blank stare) - (I mean I guess there is a fish called Artic Char, so maybe its not that big of a leap to think Swiss Chard might be a fish.)  - (Yes it is, that was terrible Chris)

So I made Erin's recipe that is in the comments with just a few minor tweaks due to lack of ingredients, I used sunflower seeds instead of almonds, a red onion from the garden instead of shallot, and cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, and you know what? It rocked. I ate the whole thing....I can't wait to make the other suggestions that were left in the comments or sent to me, including the rolled stuffed grilled chard and some sort of card augratin that someone told me about.

Seriously, I would have this as a side dish everyday of the week. I didn't plant chard, I've been eating my neighbors while I tend to her garden while she is away. Next year, chard will be front and center in on of my raised beds.

Next challenge....KALE, we've got lots of it, suggestions?

Rating = Damn Good

Swiss Chard

Picked it yesterday. Never made it before. Going to try tonight. Send recipes if you've got em.

Grilled French Toast with Stone Fruits and Pineapple

Good,  

God, I know, this picture is atrocious! That's what happens when you are running around putting on Fathers Day brunch and you ask your husband to take a picture with his Iphone. Sorry. Please, take my word for it, this french toast rocked the brunch hard - it was so awesome, and grilling it made it so cool and charred and man like. (Insert fake growl sound here, and that stupid claw hand thing...you know, like, Rawwwrrr and you paw with your right hand. [No, just me, well]).

Therapy. Real quick, a lot has happened, and its going very well, but I have been diagnosed with Perfectionist OCD. A hard thing to hear for sure because there are a lot of negative stereotypes about people with OCD, and there are so many ways in which OCD presents itself, but nonetheless, that's my diagnosis. The day I was diagnosed I came home and at the dinner table told him that Dr. Diana had diagnosed me with OCD, and without skipping a beat, he just looked at me and said "Ya Think". So, he's not surprised, and everyone else I have told seems to think that perfectionist OCD is a spot on diagnosis for me. So, from here, I learn how to control it - or better yet, not let it control me - and then we'll figure out why I have it. I can hanker a guess, but I don't want to jump to conclusions here, I'll wait for the doctor to do that.

So, for the grilled french toast I used this recipe from the ever popular Sandra Lee (yes, that was sarcasm you heard in my voice) Grilled French Toast I didn't use Grand Marnier, I added cardamom and vanilla to the egg mixture, and instead of strawberries we grilled peaches, plums and pineapple. So good, I highly recommend that you try grilled french toast - it was really awesome.

PS. If you have not tried a Zumba class, get your ass to a gym, it is so much fun. I can't wait to go again tonight with my little sister, its the most fun in a workout class you'll ever have.

Rating = Damn Good