Caperse Sandwich

This year we grew tomatoes from seed, and it was too hard to "kill" the extra plants that we grew.  But with 10 surviving tomato plants, we were bound to have a few tomatoes more than we could eat... So I've been trying to find creative ways to use multiple tomatoes at once. I found this recipe but it used Texas toast and blue cheese. Not being a fan of either, I made this variation.  One slice would be plenty as a side during brunch.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Inevitably, Sacramento gets some pretty hot days. Between the last week of June an first week of July, we had 8 days of temperatures 105F and over. But as much as tomatoes love the heat, they too can get sunburnt. This typically only effects the green ones, but it's still sad to see so many hurt tomatoes. And what can you do with sunburnt green tomatoes? Fry them, of course!

Panzanella

At the same time I was living in Rome, a friend of mine was living in Tuscany.  We didn't know each other at the time, even though we went to the same university, but we now work together.  She shared this recipe with me, which she learned while living in Tuscany.  Tuscany has some of the best farming country in all of Italy.  And because of the all the farms and natural woodlands, a lot of the food is much more earthy and gamey than in other parts of Italy.  These seems like one of those recipes that you whip together when you have leftover bread that's about to go stale and a few too many tomatoes.  But it is a delicious snack or side dish!

Stuffed Zucchini

Every summer, we plant zucchini.  And every summer, we are up to our eyeballs in zucchini.  Last year, all that we knew to do with it was sliced in pasta sauce, grilled or in zucchini bread.  Being so abundant in Northern California, we figured there had to be more ways to utilize this delicious summer squash.  And there are!  This recipe is best with slightly bigger and fatter zucchini than what you'd find at the grocery store.  Homegrown zucchini that were left to grow a day too long are perfect. If you use smaller ones, you'll probably need more of them.  Or use smaller ones as a side dish.

Gnocchi

As a kid I thought gnocchi was really fancy.  It wasn't like regular pasta... it was like a little pouch of carb-y goodness.  Come to find out, it's made out of potatoes... one of my favorite foods.  It's commonly served with pesto because it coats the gnocchi better than a red sauce (though ragu is a pretty commonly used red sauce with gnocchi).  Since I originally posted this over a year ago, I've improved my gnocchi and pesto recipes.  I've actually moved the pesto recipe here.

The Fanciest Turkey Burger I've Ever Had

Last month, I went to visit my sister who is currently doing a study abroad program in Paris.  Since it was her spring break, and since I've already been to Paris, we decided to meet up in London and explore the British Isles.  While in London, we visited the Borough Market for lunch.  Besides the usual produce for sale, a few vendors were cooking up food for the local lunch crowd.  This is a recreation of a delicious chicken burger we had.  I was quite impressed by the simple yet flavor-packet street food London has to offer.