It’s right around this time in the summer where I’m completely smitten with all the bountiful fruit and vegetable treasures that surround me. The colors and flavors of the summer are truly inspirational to me when it comes to throwing down in the kitchen. I can’t help but get excited about the brightness of the color, the richness of flavor, and the freshness that each bite encompasses.
Since it’s been a really busy summer on our end and I’ve really been missing cooking and writing about it, I decided to throw in a quick entry today. I was also inspired by my friends Casey and Adam Zeigler from Indianapolis who I just learned yesterday have a food blog of their own, Indy Foodies, on tumblr. You can check it out at www.indyfoodies.tumblr.com
At lunch today, I was craving something but couldn’t decide what I wanted. When all the sudden it dawned on me, Israeli salad! Yum! It’s so fresh, beautiful, and tastes amazing. It’s absolutely one of the best things you could eat for lunch taboot. 

I’m going to straight up tell you, I did not take these pictures. When big daddy Z is gone, no iphone camera kitchen shenanigans go down. I’m using google images for this one. So thanks to whomever else besides Zach and I that finds vegetables fascinating and beautiful enough to take pictures of and post them to google images. I salute you.  

First, I took some red leaf lettuce that I had washed and salad spun the shit out of.  

Clean and Dry Red Leaf Lettuce

Next, I thinly sliced some ribbons of Radicchio.  

Bright and Crisp Radicchio

 Next, I chopped up an a ripe and super creamy avocado. It’s important that the avocado be ready. The creamyness is going to help add to the not quite dressing later on and if it’s not ripe, it’s not going to work. Besides, let’s face it, a not quite yet ripe avocado tastes like shit anyway.  

Avocado

 Then I take some baby cucumbers. These little suckers are so crispy and go perfectly in a salad. They are quick and easy too since they are such little guys.  

Crunchy Baby Cucumbers

Let’s not forget the grape tomatoes! I like to chop them in half lengthwise so that their little seeds and juices mix with the creamyness of the avocado. This allows me to use the mixture as a dressing rather than using an oil. I don’t know about you, but I’m not huge on oil dressings as it were, but using this method also helps save on calories without scrimping on the delicious factor. If I do pick out a dressing at the store though, it’s usually garlic expressions.  

Garlic Expressions Dressing

So Colorful and Juicy

One of my last steps for this salad before mixing everything together is to squeeze some lemon juice on my ingredients. Use however much you want. I used about a half of a lemon today and it was perfect.  

A Nice Citrus Bite Melds the Flavors

When the lemon juice mixes in with the Avocado and small amounts of tomato juices and seeds, it does amazing things in your mouth. It’s the perfect flavorful and low-fat option over regular oil based dressings. Besides, you’re only doing your already beautiful and flavor filled veggies a favor by not polluting them with anything they don’t possibly need to shine.  

Don’t forget to add a pinch of salt and pepper and some whole grain croutons if you please.  And don’t forget to celebrate and appreciate your veggies!

The Ingredients

Yields 1 1/2 cups of dressing

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 tbsp honey

1 cup boiling water

4 tbsp rice vinegar 

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 small jalapeno (Serrano or Habanero depending on heat desired)

1/2  cup of chopped scallions

Combine peanut butter, honey and 1/2 cup of water in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until blended well. Cover and refrigerate. Whisk well before serving.

Sesame Peanut Sauce

Currently listening to:

LCD Soundsystem

Now, making a cheesecake ain’t cheap. When you consider all the cream cheese in it, it amounts to a little over a pound of rich and creamy cheese. Not to mention all the time you must invest into it. I made this on Thursday night for dinner on Friday. This particular recipe called for 8 3/4 oz. of marscapone, which is about $4.00 for only 8 oz. Naturally, I got a bit anxious thinking about all the ways I could fuck up the cheesecake. Cracks, and dryness, and falling, oh my!     

So what did I do? I spent the entire day beforehand reading up on creating the perfect cheesecake. There were lots of interesting tips and hints that I’d never heard before and after reading all day, I felt like I had a good handle on what method I was gonna take. There are so many conflicting views on the proper ways to make cheesecake. There are those that believe a water bath should be employed so that the cheesecake bakes at an even temperature throughout, while others think that baking a cheesecake at a lower temperature slowly will make a perfect piece of art. I decided that I would go with the low and slow method, which I’m learning a lot lately     

Once I finally had my ideas about what should be done to create a thing of beauty and wonder, I got to work.     

I threw some graham crackers, butter, and sugar into the food processor and gave it a few pulses until the mixture stuck together at the touch.     

Pulse graham crackers, butter, and sugar in the food processor.

Once I create the crust mixture, I push it all into an even layer in a 9″ springform pan and bake it on 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. I recommend watching it closely though, since all ovens have different temperature settings and this crust is prone to burning easily.     

Once the crust is done baking, let it cool completely on the counter. It’s very important to let it cool. If you don’t, the heat will help destroy the consistency of the soon to be added cheesecake center. When making a cheesecake, it’s crucial to follow every step and not skip out on the seemingly unimportant things like cooling time. Every little step to the recipe and each second put into the process makes it worth it in the end. I promise you.     

Next, I put 4 blocks of cream cheese, along with an 8 oz. container of m cheese into a large glass mixing bowl and beat it on medium speed until it was light and fluffy. Then I creamed in one cup of sugar, lemon zest (to taste), and some vanilla seeds scraped fresh from the bean.     

Mixing in the vanilla bean

Once the mixture was 100% creamy with no chance of lumps, I added the two eggs. Now, this is the part that’s really important. First, the eggs need to be at room temperature. Give them about 3 hours out on the counter before you even consider mixing them. Mixing in cold eggs is what causes cracks in the cake. Since the cream cheese is such a delicate ingredient, temperature is of the utmost importance.     

Mix the eggs into the mix until they’re just mixed in. Overbeating the eggs will also have some not so desirable consequences. When you’re spending this much time and money on something, you want it to turn out perfectly.  Or maybe that’s the just the super anal side of my personality speaking.     

With the crust cooled and the cheesecake mixture ready, it’s time to pour the cheesecake into the crust and put that bitch in the oven! Be sure to have the oven preheated at 350 degrees to begin the baking process. When I baked my cake, I started out baking it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I employed the low and slow method that I talked about earlier. I turned down the temperature to 200 degrees and put the timer on for one hour. After the hour was up, I decided that the cake could use about 20 more minutes.     

When the cake was finally finished baking, I turned the oven off and let the cake sit in overnight to cool down. Since it was already 1 a.m. by the time it finished baking, I figured leaving it in the closed oven for 5 hours while I slept couldn’t be that bad for it. When I rose bright and early for work on Friday this is what I found:     

No cracks.

It was absolutely stunning looking. All day Friday at work, I was itching to sample my creation but I was more excited for Zach to try it than anything. Since he’s a real chef, his opinion means so much to me. And since cheesecake is his favorite dessert the pressure, I felt, was really on. And finally, it was Friday night and dinner was over.     

Before cutting into the cheesecake, I took a little bit of lemon juice and sugar and coated some fresh raspberries with it. This created a nice, sweet tartness to contrast with the creamy richness of the cake. It was heavenly. I’ve never made something that had so many layers of flavor and richness.     

A creamy slice

Lemon juice and sugar coated raspberries finish it off.

I’ll definitely be going on a cheesecake kick from here on out. Expect to see mad flavors and colors in the near future.     

Currently making my morning pretty:     

Fleet Foxes

When we drove down yesterday, we picked up a friend along the way. Steve is one of the owners and operators of a greenhouse in Caledonia, Michigan called Vertical Paradise Farms. They grow living lettuces, herbs, and season vegetables and they deliver it locally to restaurants in Grand Rapids, and they will also ship anywhere in the United States. They also sell their goods at Forest Hills Foods. You can check out their website at www.vpfarms.com. I highly recommend their products. They are gorgeous and have unbelievable amounts of flavor. 

Getting to see a greenhouse in action was pretty awesome. There were rows upon rows of fresh and aromatic basil. The smell was flowing around the warm room and when I shut my eyes, I swore I was going to open them to tubs upon tubs of pesto. It smelled that great. They also had a large showing of tomato plants and beautiful hanging baskets. It was neat to see the different stages of the very same lettuce that we order in restaurants or shop for in the produce section a the grocery store. Seeing the greenhouse made me realize how much I take for granted being able to go to the market and pick up fresh ingredients. We all forget how much love and sweat go into growing our favorite herbs and vegetables. It was inspiring really. 

When it was time to leave, we were fortunate enough to be given gifts of  some wonderful lettuces and some fresh-cut basil right out of  greenhouse. We brought a cooler down with us so that the lettuce and basil wouldn’t wilt before we made the hour drive back to Big Rapids. As soon as we got home, we just stuck it in the fridge. Tomorrow, we plan on making up the biggest batch of pesto possible. Pictures to follow. 

Not wanting to make too heavy of a dinner, we decided to use the basil, some leftover heirloom and cherub tomatoes, and some fresh mozzarella to make up a colorful and juicy caprese salad. 

I started out by cutting the tomatoes. The mixture of the orange, yellow, and greenish-blue baby Heirloom tomatoes and the bright red Cherub tomatoes was absolutely stunning. 

Baby Heirloom and Cherub tomatoes

Next, I cut the basil up into tiny ribbons (chiffonade) and scattered them on top of the tomatoes. 

Basil picked fresh from the greenhouse this morning!

Next, I cut a fresh ball of mozzarella in half and chopped that into small pieces. Using fresh mozzarella is important for the texture of the salad. It’s also crucial to the authenticity of the caprese salad. Once I chopped the cheese, I added it to the tomatoes and basil. 

Add the fresh mozzarella

After the three main ingredients get added, it’s time to season the dish. All you need for this particular salad is sea salt and fresh ground pepper. You can obviously use regular old salt and pepper, but after watching someone pick your dinner out of their garden in the morning, you want every single ingredient perfect. Since there are so few ingredients in this salad, you’ll want to use the very best things you can possibly find. Besides, it’s extremely satisfying to grind up pepper over an entirely fresh salad. There’s something about the smell of all the ingredients together that can take you over the edge before you even take a bite of this dish. 

Right before you mix everything together you’ll want to toss in about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. The oil adds a nice dressing to the salad and brings out the flavors off all the other ingredients. It also adds a nice sheen and makes the gorgeous colors of the salad pop out at you.  

Add salt, pepper, and olive oil

Stir it up!

You can make one at home very easily and cheaply with very little time and effort. I recommend eating it as soon as possible after preparing it. The fresher, the better. 

Currently inspiring us: 

Monsters of Folk