Late Summer in the Garden and Peach Tart

I never want to wish summer away, because I love so much about these sultry, sunny days, with brilliant flowers in bloom (top) and friendly green visitors in the pond (above). Plus I remember oh too well, the frigid white Ohio winter expanses of ice and snow, when I would longingly look out at my patio and remember summer days, watching the fish in the pond, the sun on the flowers, the doggie (Rio, below) at my feet. It has been, however, an incredibly hot and humid season, and I'm happily thinking welcome thoughts of fall. Autumn has, actually, always been my favorite. Crisp, clear days. Blue skies. Brilliant reds and oranges and yellows. The crunch of leaves underfoot. Fires in the firepit. Football. New theatre season. Bubbling soups on the stove.

And I'm suddenly seeing signs of a changing season everywhere. The sweet corn is not quite so good. Fields of corn and soybeans are slowly turning yellow. My morning glories are this close to blooming (finally). Black walnuts are dropping off my neighbor's tree (onto my roof in the middle of the night, ker-plunk). Mums are breaking out in bloom. The stars look brighter. Boys are donning cleats and pads and heading out on the football field. And all you see are "back to school" sales everywhere.

But last night Barista and Chip and I celebrated the end of summer with two fabulous things -- summer pasta (see previous post for recipe) which I made with some amazing yellow heirloom tomatoes (soooo good!) and an Ohio peach tart with a gluten-free sugar cookie crust. Hooo baby, it was great. We gobbled it all up and then went to see an old favorite band (that I grew up with in the '70s) outdoors called McGuffey Lane. Pretty nice late summer day if I do say so!

Here's the tart recipe:

Peach Tart with Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Crust

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup gluten free flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and blend well. Add flour and salt. Form into a disk, wrap in waxed paper and chill in fridge for at least a half hour. Remove, roll out between sheets of waxed paper, about 1/4 inch thick. Place dough in glass 9-inch pie plate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake dough for 10-12 minutes until beginning to set.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water. Plop 3-4 fresh Ohio peaches in water for 30 seconds or so. Remove with slotted spoon and slip skins off the peaches.

Slice peaches. Toss with 2 tablespoons sugar, a squirt of fresh lemon juice, and a dash of cinnamon and dash of nutmeg.

When dough is beginning to set, remove from oven. Pour peaches into crust. Return to oven for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden and completely cooked, and peaches are bubbling. Remove from oven. Let cool slightly. Serve with vanilla frozen yogurt.

Picture Day and Salmon Tacos

Take one gorgeous late-summer day (with much lower humidity thank you very much) and add to it dozens of strapping young men in their new football uniforms, and you have a picture-perfect combo. Today was "photo day" for the football team -- they're looking really tough, above, and a little more relaxed below. I was fortunate enough to be able to pop out of work for an hour to take a few photos for facebooking and blogging. . . and ultimately scrapbooking. Hear me loud and clear, I am not a scrapbooker. I find even the rows and rows of scrap-b supplies in stores to be annoying. But I've decided to create a simple scrapbook for Chip's senior year of high school, so I'm already starting to collect stuff to put in it. (This is primarily fueled by guilt for not creating some sort of memory book tracking his entire high school career.) Oh well.

After such an exhausting afternoon, Barista and I made a simple but incredibly good dinner -- grilled salmon tacos. Using a "grill pan" -- a pan with holes in it that you place on top of your charcoal grill -- you quickly grill spice-rubbed salmon, red and green peppers and onions, and nestle them in charred corn tortillas.

Gluten Free Grilled Salmon Tacos

1 salmon fillet, skin removed, sliced into 1 x 3 inch pieces
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 onion sliced

1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Dash of garlic salt
Dash of lemon pepper
2 teaspoons brown sugar
drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil

4 corn tortillas, each drizzled with a little bit of olive oil
Fresh salsa and sour cream

Place salmon and vegetables in shallow dish. Sprinkle with spices and brown sugar; drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Let marinate in fridge for 1/2 hour or so.

Prepare charcoal grill. When coals are hot, place grill pan (sprayed with Pam) on grill. Add salmon mixture. Stir fry salmon over coals until fish is cooked and peppers and onions are slightly charred. Remove to platter.

Remove grill pan. Place corn tortillas directly on hot grill. When beginning to char, flip and heat the other side. Remove.

Fill tortillas with the salmon mixture. Top with fresh salsa and sour cream if desired.

First Moonflower, Fiery Sunset, Boys of Fall....

There's a change coming, I can feel it. There's a shift ahead. Something's different in the air. Not sure I'm up for it. Yes I am. Noooo, I'm not! Yes, yes, yes. OK. OK.

For one thing, today my moonflower finally bloomed -- a sure signal that late summer is upon us, and fall is just around the corner. The gorgeous, snow-white flower popped out (unrolled actually) in about a 15-minute stretch while I was doing a 45-minute "strength" yoga workout on my screened porch. I kept glancing out at the moonflower vine, and sure enough, there it was -- the first, pearly white bloom!

Add to that, my niece is leaving for college on Tuesday. Barista and I ran into her last evening in a parking lot at the bistro at the bottom of our hill. . . under an unbelievable, fiery orange sky (top photo). I'm going to miss Queen J a lot when she heads to Marshall in just 2 short days, so it was only fitting that mother nature provided a heck of a setting for a serendipituous encounter with our girl.

And that was on the heels of yet another ya-ya moment -- a family picnic that kicked off the football season. Chip is a senior on the football team (after missing his entire junior season due to a torn ACL), and they've just wrapped up two weeks of "2-a-days" in this oppressive heat. (See all the senior boys above, and below being cheesy at the dinner table.) The event last night was a great splash for "The Boys of Fall" (check out that Kenny Chesney video on youtube -- be sure to have a kleenex handy). Around here football isn't just a sport, it's not just a game. It's a religion. It gets in your blood. And for the boys on the team, it's something they will live and breathe, they'll play their hearts out for this, their senior season. They'll mentor their younger "brothers." They know it's their last year together, before they head off to all sorts of different places, different colleges. But for now, it's all about their moment on the field.

And furthermore, Barista and I went up to see my parents today (Grandpa and Barista, below) -- always great to hang out with my mom and dad, as this is the year they both turn 80! A few burgers on the grill, and my green bean salad and a nice visit on a gorgeous Sunday -- that's what it's all about!

So all of this is great stuff, right? But . . . I am slightly melancholy. Lots of changes, goodbyes and final-football-seasons are on our doorstep. The whole of it could make anyone want some comfort food, right? Or maybe a stiff drink. So, here's recipe for a Minted Vodka Lemonade to ease your mind, comfort your soul. And use up some of the gangly mint in your garden:

Minted Vodka Lemonade

1 cup packed mint leaves, chopped
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups vodka

Combine mint and sugar in large bowl. Stir in lemon juice and vodka. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Strain mixture into pitcher. Fill six glasses with crushed ice. Pour vodka mixture over. Place a stem of mint and a slice of lemon in each glass. Enjoy!

Do You See What I See?

See what's hiding in my flower pot? Take a close look. Guess he likes the cool, shady spot next to the pond. . . and maybe he thinks the doggie won't find him there and nudge him into the water (and she doesn't). Cool shade and refreshing pond water must have felt good today -- it is hot, hot, hot here in Ohio and OMG so humid you can hardly stand it. Forget hairstyles; it's frizz weather. I've been doing a great yoga workout (downloaded on my iPhone) on my screened porch in the late afternoons after work -- it's an awesome workout. . . but talk about hot yoga!

Tonight Chip was with some football buddies after 2-a-days so Barista and I made one of our favorite dishes -- Summer Pasta! It's the quintessential summer-time recipe (thanks to my friend Loretta) -- fresh Ohio tomatoes, fresh garlic, olive oil and fresh herbs served over pasta with a sprinkling of shaved parm. Here's what you do:

Summer Pasta

4 oz gluten free pasta (I use Le Veneziene corn pasta)

4 fresh Ohio tomatoes, diced
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
large handful of fresh herbs (basil, mint, parsley, rosemary), choppped
Salt and pepper to taste

shaved parmesan

Combine tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and herbs; add salt and pepper. Let sit at room temperature while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Place in large bowl. Pour tomato mixture over pasta. Place on serving dishes and sprinkle with shaved parmesan cheese.

Queen J Send-Off and Grilled Shrimp and Polenta, Grilled Peaches over Frozen Yogurt

My niece, Queen J, (that's her above, right) is heading to Marshall University in a few weeks. Our little families (she and her mom, me and Barista and sometimes son Chip) have a Sunday night tradition of ending-the-weekend-and-getting-ready-for-a-new-week. During the "school year" -- starting when J was in middle school! -- we watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. During summers we've found other excuses to hang out -- one sultry summer, for instance, was a whole series of '80s movies, including St Elmo's Fire (oh, that girl loves Rob Lowe), Dirty Dancing and Footloose. Other times we'll just sit around the firepit and talk and eat caramel ice cream. Tonight we gave J a little send-off before she heads to West Virginia and Barista heads back to Ohio University. She's going to love college, but I know Chip will miss her at the high school (she was homecoming queen and he was class president) . . . and I'll really miss our Sunday nights!

So, I made garlicky shrimp and polenta on the grill, topped with a bruschetta-like topping of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs. Truly yummy; even Chip liked it and he's not a gigantic shrimp fan. For dessert, I grilled juicy peaches with amaretto and brown sugar and served it over vanilla frozen yogurt. The whole meal just yelled, "It's summertime!"

Grilled Shrimp and Polenta with Bruschetta Topping

Shrimp:
1 lb raw jumbo shrimp (or tiger prawns), peeled and deveined
juice of 1 lemon
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t chili powder

Mix together and let marinate at least 1/2 hour in fridge.

Polenta:
1 tube refrigerated polenta, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
olive oil

Lightly coat polenta slices with olive oil.

Bruschetta topping:
2 tomatoes, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
several handfuls of fresh herbs, particularly basil and mint, maybe a little rosemary, chopped

Parmesan cheese (shredded, not grated)

Combine tomatoes, garlic, oil and herbs and let stand in bowl at room temp.

Prepare charcoal grill. Spray grill thingy with Pam.

Thread shrimp on metal skewers. When grill is hot, place polenta rounds on grill. Cover. Flip when they start charring, which could take about 5 min. Once you've flipped the polenta, place the shrimp skewers on the grill. Grill for 2 min, brush with marinade, flip and grill for another 2 min, or until shrimp are pink and done. When polenta is slightly charred on the second side, remove all to platter.

On serving plates, place 2 polenta rounds, 4 shrimp and a spoonful or more of bruschetta topping. Sprinkle with a little shredded parmesan. Enjoy!


Grilled Peaches and Amaretto over Frozen Yogurt

Take 5-6 ripe peaches from your farmers' market and plunk them in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon, rub off peel, cut in half, remove pit and slice.

In large bowl, place peach slices, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 T amaretto, 1 T lemon juice, dash of cinnamon. Toss well. Layer 3 large sheets of alum foil (or if you were smart, you'd buy the heavy duty foil). Place peach mixture in foil and seal well. Really well because you don't want the juice to leak out on the hot coals, meaning you'd lose out on that lovely carmel-y juice on your ice cream!

Place packet on your hot grill (after you've eaten the shrimp) and cover grill. Let cook for 5-10 min or until you think it's bubbly. Remove from heat and empty foil packet in bowl. When peachers are slightly cooled (warm not boiling!) serve over vanilla frozen yogurt. Mmmmm.