It's Not Easy Being Green : Parmesan-Garlic Polenta Croutons

Lately I've been wearing my black cotton dress with the cross-over front a lot and that's not necessarily a good thing. Now don't get me wrong, it's a super cute frock and I get complimented on it often but I know when it becomes my "go to outfit" that usually means I've put on a pound or two (or three) around the midsection. The dress in question is comfy, loose and black---and hides a multide of sins (and bulges). So what to do? Try and go healthy, I suppose. In an attempt to exercise good nutrition and lose the bulge, I usually try and up the salad and veggie intake which is pretty easy given the accessibility to the farmers' markets this time of year; but sometimes I just really want some (gasp!) carbs on my salad...just a little. something to give it that satisfying crunch...but something just slightly different then your average ol' boring crouton. That's where polenta croutons come in. They're like croutons...only better. Still not sure? Ok...close your eyes---now, picture a crouton, then picture a crouton with a superhero cape...and now you know what a polenta crouton  looks like. ;)

Parmesan-Garlic Polenta Croutons (recipe from You're Gonna Bake It, After All)

Ingredients:

Instant polenta (1 cup)

Grated Parmesan cheese (1/4 cup)

Herbs to taste (I used fresh rosemary)

Olive oil for drizzling

Garlic powder & salt, to taste


Directions:

1. Prepare instant polenta according to package directions, using a whisk.

2. Add in herbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

3. Coat a baking sheet or pyrex/ceramic dish with cooking spray. Spread the polenta mixture into the pan quickly, and spread evenly with a spatula. Place pan in refrigerator to cool and set for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400F.

4. Cut the polenta into squares or triangles.

5. Drizzle both sides of polenta pieces with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder/salt (if using). Bake at 400F for about 45 minutes, or until crispy. Turn them half-way through to make sure they get crispy on both sides. Cool on a rack when done.

6. Best if used the same day, but you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and reheat them until crisp the next day.
 
 

Home Is Wherever I Am With You

I recently purchased a piece of art for my home that looks similar to this :

(photo by emrooney)

It's a piece by an Arizona artist named Emily Rooney and is made of weathered tin mounted on a wooden frame. The piece itself is nothing fancy but the lyrics on it hit a soft spot with me. They're from a song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. It's a ditty that first I got hooked on, then Mr. S. then the kidlets followed suit....now you'll often find the four of us singing it at the top of our lungs on car trips. Although one of the lead singers looks like a cult leader, the song's so melodic and the lyrics, well like I said, they hit...home.



Soooooooooooo if you've been wondering where I've been the last few days, I've been vacationing with Mr. S. and his fam up in Sierra City (it's about 1.5 hours past Truckee). His family's been going for a couple of decades up to these cute cabins (kind of like the ones in Dirty Dancing but minus Patrick Swayze...and well, the dirty dancing) called Herrington Sierra Pines Resort. Surrounded by the mountains, river and several lakes...it was so beautiful and serene. I loved it. The boys caught lots of trout, we saw (and almost hit) a deer, had campfires and even played some pool--it was great. (I didn't partake in the fishing this vacation, instead I lounged and caught up on some reading by the lake---I finished A Girl in Translation [a good, easy read] and started A Year in Provence.) Anyhow, we got back yesterday afternoon and it's nice to be home, sweet HOME!

Stay tuned- tomorrow...polenta croutons!

A Girl and Her Fork's First Ever Giveaway!

Discovering canning this past year has been such a blast that I want to share the canning fever with you too, readers, and what better way to do that than to give away a copy of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving!

This giveaway will run through August 19th and entering it is super simple. There's 3 ways to do it:

- "Like" A Girl and Her Fork on Facebook. (If you're already a fan, you're automatically entered.)
- Post a comment on A Girl and Her Fork's Facebook page stating what your favorite item to can is or what you'd like to learn to can.
- Post a comment on the blog itself in regards to a particular post.


* The details:
Open to US residents, 18 & older only. The giveaway will end at 11:59pm PST August 19, 2011. The winner will be randomly chosen and will be notified by the email that they provide on the comment. If the winner does not claim their prize within 72 hours, another winner will be chosen and the prize will be forfeited.


Cheers & good luck!

Summertime Jams : Peach Gin Jam

Remember when you were a kid and you got to have summers off? It was all about laying poolside with your cousins or having sleepovers with your friends. Well my friend Katy is a teacher and is still lucky enough to get those long summers off. And lucky me got to spend this Tuesday with her. Last year Katy made this amazing rosemary plum jam which we decided to try and recreate this year. We picked up 2 big bags of plums at the Co-op. On the way home we stopped by the Fremont Park Farmers' Market and scored a flat of beautiful peaches. They were ripe and wonderfully fragrant, just right for jamming! So in addition to the rosemary plum jam, we decided to make a spicy peach butter, a vanilla bean peach butter, a peach gin jam, and a few white peaches in light syrup. Talk about a long day- almost 12 hours total. I was seriously waning towards the end, but Katy was like the Energizer Bunny, her energy never ran out nor did her happy demeanor.

Peach Gin Jam  (recipe from With a Glass)

Ingredients:

1 kg very ripe peaches weighed without stones and peel

40g pectin in powder (not necessary if you like a runny jam or if you cook it long enough to be dense)

300g sugar (or more if peaches are not very ripe)

juice from 1 lemon

100ml gin (we used Bombay Sapphire)


Instructions

- Put the peaches in boiling water for two minutes. Take them away with a slotted spoon and place immediately in cold water. After a couple of minutes the peel will come off easily with fingers.

- Remove the stones and cut the fruit into small pieces (do not throw away the juice!). Weigh it.

- Put the fruit, the lemon juice and a couple of tablespoons of water into a non reactive pan and cook on a rather high heat until the peaches become soft. Stir it often and watch the pan constantly (if there is not enough liquid they will burn). Add the sugar and simmer on a low heat for ten more minutes.

- Add the pectin and more sugar if the jam is not sweet enough, stir it and cook for another ten minutes. Put aside.

- (Here you can pour the gin and stir the jam once more before filling the jars).

- Spoon hot jam into sterilised jars, cover with lids.

- Leave the jars to cool.

- Place the cool jars into a big pan, cover up with hot – but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid.

- Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.

*  Share with cousins, friends and neighbors! :)

Tasty Tomato Sauce

Wondering what do with those all beautiful tomatoes that are starting to ripen in your garden or all those luscious tomatoes you see beaming at you at the farmers' market? Try this super easy recipe for tomato sauce! I made this recently made this at my night at Community Tap and Table and am now using it on everything- pizzas, ravioli, or my current fav- throw a dollop of the tomato sauce and a some goat cheese on some sliced baguette, pop it in the broiler for a flash and bam!- you've got some tasty grinds to munch on while relaxing in your backyard.

Tasty Tomato Sauce (recipe adapted from Community Tap and Table class)

Ingredients

Fresh Tomatoes

Fresh Basil, torn into small pieces

Fresh Oregeno

Fresh Garlic, peeled & diced

Salt and pepper

* Tip: Handle tomatoes with care, don't store them in the fridge (it slows the ripening process) and don't process them in metal, the acids can react.

Instructions

- Bring salted water to boil.

- Cut crosses in the non stem side of the tomato and blanch in the water. Blanch means to put them into the boiling water for about 15 seconds, then drop them into a bowl filled with ice and water for another 15 seconds. Then when you lift them up, grab the skin from the crosses you cut and peel them. Peel over the pan you're going to sauté in.

- Once they're added, sauté them with olive oil and garlic. Add in basil, oregano and salt & pepper to taste. Simmer down until cooked to desired consistency. The longer you cook it, the smoother & "saucier" it'll get.

Community Tap & Table



http://communitytapandtable.com/

Every so often my friend Beth and I get together for a drink and some eats in the Grid and catch up but this last time around we were looking for somewhere/something new to try. So when I happened upon the Sacramento Press' article about Community Tap and Table I decided to run the idea by her to see if she'd be interested in checking it out. After all it did have the major components we look for- food and beer...the only difference was we would have to do the cooking ourselves but that might turn out to be kind of fun.

Community Tap and Table is described as a club for "beer bellies with a cooking problem." It was started by couple, Emily Baime and Darin Michaels, and offers cooking classes, brewery tours and beer dinners. The cooking classes can range from four to eleven people. The night we went was a Tuesday and the class consisted of five "beer bellied cooks". Both Baime and Michael were quite welcoming when we showed up at their South Land Park home and extremely hospitable throughout the night. The class we chose to attend was called, " Grilled Flatbreads and Homemade Summer Flavors," and the menu consisted of:

- Green tomato jam served with sliced baguette (not what I expected at all- the cinnamon made it almost dessert-like, yummy!)
- Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote served with goat cheese and water crackers (absolutely divine!)
- Tea-Smoked Salmon, Homemade Ricotta & Fresh Tomato Sauce on Grilled Flatbread (yum, the salmon was so good I could have eaten it by itself)
- Wild Plum Cardamom Syrup & Pork Belly over ice cream (crisp chunks of pork belly!!!...seriously, need I say more?)

Baime handled the food portion of the evening. Several stations were set up and ready to go in their gorgeous kitchen with the appropriate ingredients (all fresh seasonal fruits, veggies and herbs from the farmers' market) and needed tools. As we started our respective dishes and chatted with each other; Baime circulated and talked, joked, and answered questions. Baime's laid back nature makes the cooking fun and stress-free, so don't worry if you haven't spent much time behind an apron, you'll be fine. Once all the courses are ready, Michaels takes over at the dinner table with the beer pairings. We received a brief but informative overview on beer making, then he describes each American craft or micro brew that's been chosen for the course we're eating. We got to try- Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat, Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale, Imperial Barley Wine Ale and Trumer Pils. They were all tasty but I think the Lagunitas was my favorite both in taste and in back story.

On the whole, I love what Baime and Michaels are doing. They're marrying the concepts of food, beer and people. What's not to love about that? If you're looking to meet new people, looking for a fun night of beer tasting or to hone a few cooking skills give CTT a go I think you'll have a great time. You'll definitely come home with a full belly, a big smile and maybe even a few recipes and a leftover or two. It's a great addition to the Sacramento food scene and I look forward to attending another one of their events.

Israeli Couscous Salad

This gorgeous weather has been holding up and Mr. S. and I just wrapped up our 2nd annual big summer BBQ this weekend. We each got to invite a couple of friends and their kidlets over for some eats, drinks and merriment in the backyard on Saturday night. We ended up with around thirty five people and it was great to see everyone intermingling and getting to know each other. It was a good amount of people- enough to make it a party but not too many where it was overwhelming. The dog was on cloud 9 chasing after all the kidlets and getting fed under the table; in fact post-BBQ, he snuggled up against me all tuckered out and his breath reeked overwhelmingly like tri-tip. Bad Pepper-pup! :)  It was a fun time but man was I pooped the next day.

Anyhow, I wanted to have at least one colorful dish on the table that showcased some bright summer veggies from the farmers' market so I decided to make an Israeli couscous salad that I came across on Bon Appetit (* I subbed in some red bell pepper for the frozen green peas to give it some extra pop of color).

Israeli couscous, also called "p'titim", is a tiny pearl shaped, semolina pasta. If you've never cooked with it before- it cooks fast, it's versatile and it's cheap (you can buy a box of it at Trader Joe's for a few bucks and many places sell it in bulk). Give it a whirl!

Israeli Couscous Salad

Ingredients


- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

- 2 large garlic cloves, minced, divided

- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

- 1 1/3 cups Israeli couscous (6 to 7 ounces)

- 1 3/4 cups (or more) vegetable broth

- 2 1/2 cups slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut diagonally into 3/4-inch pieces

- 2 1/2 cups fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed 

- 1 cup shelled fresh green peas or frozen, thawed

- 1/3 cup chopped fresh chives

- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese


Instructions

- Whisk 2 tablespoons oil, lemon juice, 1 garlic clove, and lemon peel in small bowl; set dressing aside.

- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.

- Add couscous, sprinkle with salt, and sauté until most of couscous is golden brown, about 5 minutes.

- Add 1 3/4 cups broth, increase heat, and bring to boil.

- Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed and couscous is tender, about 10 minutes, adding more broth by tablespoonfuls if too dry.

- Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over high heat.

- Add asparagus, sugar snap peas, green peas, and remaining garlic clove.

- Sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer vegetables to large bowl.

- Add couscous to bowl with vegetables.

- Drizzle dressing over.

- Add chives and cheese; toss.

- Season with salt and pepper.