Baked Tomatoes with Cheese

Yesterday Lewis returned to work, officially ending our vacation.  A vacation that began with 2 days of  tantrums and whining, causing the adults to grumble, often loud enough for the children to hear, about why we go away on vacation anyway.  However then we settled in and had an amazing time.  Sometimes I feel we go away on vacation so we can really notice how the boys have grown and changed in the previous year.  It takes something that only happens once a year to really step back and witness who they are.  This year they are far more independent and confident; as a major vacation milestone they know agree to use all public restrooms, even the ones with auto flush toilets.

Every year they return with memories of the previous years and expectations of what they want to do.  At low tide Julian can often be found building a massive castle with a moat that can be taken by the ocean as the tide comes in.  As the water begins to lap at the sides he starts to scrape at them with a shovel and kicking the tops of the towers.  Unable to let the ocean complete the destruction without his help.  Sebastian often helps Julian to build the castle, but more often he spends his time collecting minnows and hermit crabs.  This year he did not collect them all himself and instead trained other children on the beach.  Once the tide starts to come in he unceremoniously dumps them all back in the water.

This year the WiFi on vacation was not strong enough to reach our cottage.  I could only check my email when we went out for homemade ice cream.  Which of course means it became even easier to convince me we all needed a treat, (that and discovering the amazing expresso ice cream that Lewis and I could not stop ourselves from ordering, even if it did cause me to lie in bed staring at the ceiling).  However no WiFi helped to make us less distracted.

Not having access to the internet also meant I had to wait to share this tomato dish with you.  Every year I bring the vegetables from my CSA share and my garden with us on vacation.  This year that meant I had an entire flat of tomatoes for the week.  I love being able to walk past the produce in the grocery store, smugly thinking of the produce I already have.  At the local farm stands heirloom tomatoes are $7.99 a pound.  As their value went up so did the responsibility.  Just eating all of them on sandwiches or on a salad was not enough, neither was allowing them to go bad.

The baked tomato dish I prepared was simple, peeling them being the most complicated step.  However the end result could be the center of your table, the main dish with a loaf of crusty bread and another vegetable.  The flavor of the mayonnaise becomes more subtle and balanced after baking.  It was subtle enough that Sebastian was happily eating the dish until Lewis said, "Mayonnaise as an ingredient.  Who would have guessed." At which point Sebastian put down his fork and decided he was done with tomatoes and I of course glared at Lewis.

I added fresh thyme to the chopped scallions but you can play with the herbs you add.  At home I would have baked it in a casserole dish, but there wasn't one in the cottage, so I used a cast iron pan.  Now that I am at home I think I will use a casserole dish.

Baked Tomatoes with Cheese
Adapted from Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things: A Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes


4 peeled tomatoes, or more or less depending on how many you want to serve (how to peel tomatoes)
1/2 to 1 Tbsp high quality mayonnaise per tomato half
1/2 to 1 tsp chopped scallions per tomato half (or more to taste)
fresh chopped thyme to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp grated sharp cheddar per tomato half

The amounts of toping are given as a range because tomatoes vary so much in size.  Also, this is an easy rustic recipe, to your taste.

Preheat the oven to 325° and butter a casserole dish or cast iron skillet that will fit all the tomato halves.

Halve the tomatoes from top to bottom. Cut off a thin slice from rounded side of the tomato halves so the tomatoes will stand up better in the dish.  remove the cores.  Place the tomato halves in the buttered dish.  Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on each tomato half, sprinkle with scallions, thyme and freshly grated black pepper before topping each tomato with 1 to 2 Tbsp grated cheddar cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  When serving do not tell children about any ingredient they claim to dislike unless they ask a direct question.  If your spouse spontaneously offers this information glare hard at him or her to bore a hole through their head.

Saffron Green Bean Hash

My childhood memories of Halloween are very simple.  My brother and I made our costumes ourselves and then we went trick or treating with my cousins.  We never had to worry about what the weather was like because we never left our apartment building.  Now it feels like Halloween is a week long event.  As a child we did not attend school Halloween parties and we certainly never went on costumed bike rides with 150 other people and a police escort.  My boys have been treating the start of the school year, and perhaps even the summert as the Halloween season.  They had endless conversations about what their costumes should be.  They even tried to convince me that we should make the front of our house scary.  Given that both of them still gave a wide berth to any house that is even marginally frightening I vetoed this idea.  As a mother who has comforted her terrified children as I carefully escorted them past Halloween decorations, I will never knowingly make my house scary.

All the boys planning and discussions about costumes came to the conclusion I was relying on.  They deferred to my over the top, I have to admit competitive, costume planning.  Sebastian went as himself, a bookworm.  He was a "Bookworm" inside a book.  I spent several hours carefully painting a poster sized cover of Diary of a Worm, although I changed the worm to match his costume.  While trick or treating Sebastian had to suffer for my art as he had to shuffle up and down stairs inside a giant book.

Julian's costume started when he suggested he could be a bunny.  I just elaborated on that idea a little by having him coming out of a magicians hat.  After all without a giant hat around his waist he would be able to walk around far to easily when trick or treating.  As it is each of my children came home with bags filled with candy, I shudder to think how much they could have gotten if they could have walked faster.  Although we have also found sometimes people give you extra candy when your costume is clever. 

For the past 2 years I dealt with the mounds of candy by declaring Halloween night a candy free for all.  Lewis and I would first edit the bags, removing any hard candy that would prolong their festival before letting them go at it.  The first year they both stopped long before I though they would, Julian even ate an apple when he had his fill of candy.  Last year the candy fest continued for longer, but it still wasn't as much as I might have feared.  This year Halloween was on a school night, so our little party has to wait.  However each one of them has been enjoying 2 items of their choice each night after dinner.  After they are asleep their parents eat whatever they want from the collection, childhood really is unfair.

One blogger posted on how to deal with the candy overload, mostly by making it disappear rather then letting your children eat it.  A commenter who spends hundreds of dollars every year on Halloween candy complained.  She felt like she was wasting her money if parents were only going to get rid of what she gave out.  I hope that our approach to the mounds of junk my children collect respects the joys of Halloween as well as the people who gave them their treats.  However I don't want them to be still choosing a dessert of candy over fruit in 3 months.

On Halloween night we planned on having hot dogs for dinner, something that was easy to make between activities with 2 over excited trick or treaters in the house.  I have to admit, hot dogs, even the pasture raised organic ones we now eat, are not much further up the food chain than candy.  At least it would prevent us from going trick or treating without eating first.  It is never a good idea to go out collecting candy when your children haven't eaten.  So I scrounged for something to serve with them, that my children would eat.  Unfortunately the string beans I knew were in the fridge must have shrunk in their container, because I clearly remembered a much larger amount.

Normally I do not serve potatoes as a vegetable, no matter what their role is in the federally funded school lunch program.   However I had a generous pile of potatoes in my fridge thanks to the "extras" at my CSA.  These potatoes were still perfect, if you don't mind peeling heavily and removing brown spots.  So I put together this Saffron Green Bean Hash.  It was a home run with the whole family, just what was needed.  For the record, Julian initially said he was only going to eat the string beans.  However once he tasted it he helped himself to 2 generous helpings.  Saffron is not used much in American cooking so the hash had an elusive flavor that was well balanced by the potatoes and string beans.

Saffron Green Bean Hash

The amounts in here are really just a guide, the amount of saffron was very well balanced but feel free to play with the types and quantities of vegetables

2 cups leftover green beans or blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes with a splash of olive oil

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (you may need more, depends on the pan you use)

1 onion chopped

2 leeks, cleaned and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

6 cups potatoes scrubbed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes (I peeled mine because I had to, normally I leave the peel on)

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

3/8 tsp saffron threads

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan.  Most folks swear by a well seasoned cast iron pan for this, I use my scanpan non stick and see no reason to change.  Saute onions over medium heat in olive oil until translucent, approximately 5 minutes.  Add potatoes and leeks and cook over medium/high heat, stirring occasionally.  Add red peppers after about 3 minutes.  If the potatoes start to stick add more olive oil, be liberal when adding oil.  Near the end of cooking time, when potatoes are starting to brown are are tender when pierced with a fork add crumbled saffron (I crumbled it in the palm of my hand before adding it).  When the potatoes are done add the green beans and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir so everything is well blended and the green beans are heated through.

Mesclun sauteed with Garlic and Optional Rhubarb

Lately Julian has been asking me when it is summer, my answers to him are complicated.  How do you explain to a five year old that summer "officially"  begins on the summer solstice but many folks mark the beginning of summer as Memorial day?  However for me the start of summer coincides with our first summer CSA pick-up at The Intervale Community Farm.  For all his incessant questioning on the meaning of summer I know that Julian feels this as well.  Both Sebastian and Julian where counting down the hours to our first pick-up and telling me about all the areas of the farm they planned to explore.   Our CSA is not the kind where you drive somewhere and are handed a bag or box and leave.  Instead there are tables set up with produce and signs that say how much to take.  Some items involve a choice, while others just require you to weigh out your share.  There are also pick your own crops such as this weeks strawberries and herbs.

Our first pick-up last week was truncated and short as it was not yet school vacation and that evening I had to rush off to principal interviews at The Integrated Arts Academy.  Happily the principal interviews and search committee meetings are over.  I will not be running out to attend interviews where I can hear why a candidate believes "Art is a defendable value in education." or how they create "A positive school culture."  The search committee met on Monday and we selected 2 candidates that we all would feel comfortable having as our interim principal.  Now I am just waiting to find out which candidate the superintendent chooses.  I have a favorite, so being the patient person that I am (ha!) I have been checking the district website obsessively to see if there is an update.

The end of this process means maybe I can spend a little more time in my kitchen.  I feel like dinners around here lately have often consisted of finding food to fling at my children.  But with the beginning of the CSA and the weekly food assignments it creates, plus the end of additional outside commitments, it is time to get creative.  Creative because at this point we are not receiving the glut of produce that I know is coming.  For now we have been greeted by heads of lettuce, a greens choice, garlic scapes and mesclun mix.  All of these items I can use up quickly except the mesclun mix, (okay, I may or may not have problems with the lettuce as well).

The mesclun mix is a battle that in the past has gone on all summer.  I have a basic character flaw that prevents me from not taking my share.  After all there are signs on the mesclun bins that say, "Please weigh accurately."  Obviously this is a valuable item and I should treat it with respect.  However my children do not eat salads and I don't love salads enough to keep up with the mesclun all summer.  So I end up using most of my mesclun mix to slowly feed my compost all summer.

However this last week I went to prepare dinner one night and found we had no vegetables left in the house except the bag of mesclun.  As I stood grumpily staring at the assorted leaves I had a sudden inspiration to treat them like any of my favorite greens (spinach, chard, kale, lambs quarters...) and cook them with garlic and olive oil.  I decided to play with some rhubarb as well and added some at the end of cooking.  The result was good enough that Julian happily ate some, although he did complain about the rhubarb pieces as he did not like the tart lemon and artichoke flavor of them.  Tonight I served it again, this time without the rhubarb.  Julian took thirds.  With or without the rhubarb I am happy to know I will not need to compost my mesclun mix this summer.

As for Thursdays pick-up at the farm, it was just what the boys and I needed to celebrate the first day of summer vacation.  For the last several years my boys have been allowed to roam free at the farm once I walk them through the parking lot.  They have special hide outs as well as elaborate projects they coordinate with their friends.  While they are playing I pick up our produce and practice adult conversation skills.  This week they began, with a group of friends, discovered a wonderful mud puddle and began by transporting shovels of mud to the sand box.  Eventually Julian and his friend Casey decided to stay and play in the mud.  Slowly their group of friends began to migrate over, one by one, where they all dug, and splashed and explored.

Now summer has begun because we have started weekly visits to our farm.  Last year a fierce argument waged when Julian and Sebastian were talking about "our farm" to our neighbor Ada, whose daddy owns and runs another local farm.  She insisted it was not their farm, she has a farm, but they do not.  I stepped in because I know how fierce my children's attachment is to the farm.  I explained that now the ICF is a co-op and so we own one share of the farm.  I was not going to try to explain to her that it is theirs because they love it so much.

Sauteed Mesclun Mix with Garlic and Optional Rhubarb

This is one of those dishes that is more a technique then a prescription.  The basic idea is to saute some garlic (you can use green garlic, garlic scapes, regular garlic, or even omit the garlic and use onions or shallots) in olive oil or butter, then you add the greens and stir until the greens are completely wilted.  If you want to use the rhubarb just chop up a handful and add it for the last few minutes of cooking so it softens but stays firm enough that it retains its own character and 5 year olds can pick it out.  Please treat this as a guide only.

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Butter or other favorite oil

1 minced clove of garlic (or 2 scapes, 1 small shallot, 1/2  a small onion, 2-3 scallions chopped)

1 lb mesclun mix (or whatever your CSA has gifted you with)

1 large or 2-3 small stalks rhubarb chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces (1/8 to 1/4 cup) optional

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add the oil or butter.  Add the garlic or onions and saute until fragrant, then add the washed and dried mesclun mix and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, mixing and wilting as you add it, if it seems dry add more oil.  Once the mesclun mix is all wilted add the rhubarb and put the lid on briefly until the rhubarb is heated through and softened.  Check the seasonings and serve.

Asparagus Cooked in Brown Butter, Again...

We have been back from NYC for a week and back to our Vermont routine. I love the rituals we do once or twice a year as they give me a chance to see how much my boys have grown and matured since the last time. Ever since Julian stopped napping visiting New York has gotten better and better. When everyone still needed to nap, it felt like the whole day was spent either getting people to sleep or figuring out how to feed them. Now we can have breakfast in the morning and spend the whole day exploring without racing the clock to fit in a nap. Both boys are more interested in the places we visit now as well.

On this trip we had dumplings in the village, went to the Museum of Natural History twice, once to visit the butterfly conservatory and once just to explore. We also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the "Bambu" exhibit on the roof. Perhaps the boys favorite was just playing in as many of Central Parks playgrounds as we could. If you go to New York with children you can spend your whole visit playing on the playgrounds. For the record, playgrounds were nowhere near this great when I was growing up in New York.

While we were in the village for Dumplings we went to the Union Square farmer's market. I got 3 bunches of asparagus. Buying asparagus that early in spring felt like an illicit pleasure to my Vermont eating sensibilities. When we are at home I often grill asparagus, however having a grill indoors in an apartment is generally frowned upon, something about fire risks. So I made another favorite, asparagus cooked in brown butter. I shared this recipe here last spring as well, it is delicious enough that it bears a revisit.

Like grilling and roasting this recipe caramelizes some of the sugars, resulting in a sweeter flavor. It also retains some of the crisp tender quality that my children require, or to be more precise is not stringy. In addition the brown butter melds with the asparagus and makes the flavor smoother, silkier and richer. When I make grilled and roasted asparagus Sebastian will not eat the tips and I get extra of my favorite part. With this recipe the sumptuous flavor is the most perfect in the tips and Sebastian eats the whole thing. I have noticed he even saves the tips for last. (This year he has begun shunning the tips in all recipes, yeah I get them!)

Pan Browned Asparagus with Browned Butter

From Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds thin or medium asparagus, ends snapped off where they naturally break

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium heat. Place the asparagus in the skillet in a single layer (I don't always have the space for a single layer, if so shake the pan occasionally to rearrange the asparagus). Season with kosher salt to taste. Cover the pan and cook until crisp tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove the cover, raise the heat to medium high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally to turn them, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the asparagus to a serving platter with a slotted spoon or tongs. Season with pepper and serve immediately. (or, you can tell your family to wait while you just take 30 photos of the finished dish for your blog.)

A Thanksgiving Tradition

My families Thanksgiving is not a quiet, laid back affair,not even before I had children. I have often thought it would be fun to track the routes of the different conversations around the table. The political debates would pass the literary conversations on their way to someone about to tell a loud joke, often about someone at the table. The funny thing about the loud political debates is we all really agree, we just like to declare that loudly as if we have another person to convince.

We are quite the international bunch. My aunt fled her home in Nazi germany as a young child, I imported my husband from England, my cousin-in-law is from Israel and my sister-in-law is from India. This year however for the first time since Lewis and I began dating we are all sitting down to the table as American citizens. That does not mean however that all our traditional Thanksgiving dishes can be found on tables across the country. Like my family our meal contains quirks and idiosyncrasies all our own. The quirks of my family and the whole meal might be part of why it is my favorite holiday. Even before the September 11 Naturalization proceeding, when Lewis was sworn in as a citizen, it has been his favorite as well.

This is the first year I have taken on my families iconic Thanksgiving's ratatouille. I don't know the history of how it became a Thanksgiving tradition for us, however it really blends beautifully with the rest of the meal. As a suitable vegetarian main course it enables us to let our menu remain the same even though my brothers family are mostly vegetarians, except now we use vegetarian stock in the stuffing. Noah, my brother, calls himself, a vegetarian with out rules. For those who have never encountered that phrase before, it means he eats meat whenever he wants. His wife and my nieces are strict vegetarians, horrified at Noah's version of vegetarianism.

Ratatouille is one of those dishes that is more about technique then a prescription you must follow exactly. My aunts version is from a yellowed and ancient clipping from the New York Times, mine is far looser in form, a dish I make in the summer with the vegetables I have on hand. For me the requirements that allow me to call it ratatouille are eggplant, zucchini, garlic and tomatoes, the rest are just options and change with my mood. I prefer to make it with sweet peppers as well but I have been known to do without. The other vegetables I choose to add often have more to do with what I have in my fridge, and how much I was hoping to make. This summer I was trying to cobble together a vegetable for dinner from the bits and bobs in my vegetable drawers. I added chard stems midway through sautéing the onions and I was very happy with the outcome. This time I added finely diced parsnip, its sweetness will help with the lower quality of the peppers this time of year.

The beautiful thing about serving this at Thanksgiving is it tastes better if it is made at least the day before serving, because it gives the flavors a chance to blend and marry. Leftovers are never a problem because they are so versatile. Amongst my favorites is an omelette with sharp cheddar cheese and warm ratatouille. It also makes a fine filling for a pita, sauce for pizza or lasagna, sauce for fish...

When I make it I always cut up the eggplant ahead, place the peices in a colander with a sprinkling of kosher salt and allow to sit. This step makes the eggplant collapse slightly so it does not absorb oil into its air pockets like a sponge. In addition it draws out some of the vegetables moisture and with it the bitterness. Personally I love eggplant whether or not this step is included but Lewis does not, so I salt it. In the summer I often just salt it for the length of time it takes me to prep the other ingredients, however the eggplant I cook with in the summer is less bitter then its winter supermarket equivalent.

Ratatouille (to be used as a guide, no need to slavishly follow)

1 medium - large eggplant peeled in stripes so that some of the peel remains, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 large onion diced (1 cup)

Extra virgin olive oil as needed (I use a lot, olive oil is healthy and really makes this dish)

2 Tbsp garlic minced

3 medium zucchini (courgettes) sliced in half lengthwise and then sliced 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick

2 - 3 small red, yellow or orange peppers, or 1 large

4 cups tomatoes canned in own juice, or 1 large can (or when in season fresh tomatoes peeled and roughly chopped)

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsnip

1 medium fresh or dried bay leaf

1 tsp fresh thyme chopped

Kosher salt to taste plus 1 Tbsp for salting the eggplant

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

(other optional ingredients include: carrots, chard stems, herbs de provence, fresh basil, rosemary, fresh fennel)

Place the eggplant in a colander in the sink and sprinkle generously with kosher salt I used 1 Tbsp). Allow to drain for 1 hour or while you prep the other ingredients. When done the eggplant should have brown liquid on it and some should have drained away. (In the summer I almost never give them a whole hour). Rinse the eggplant thoroughly with water to wash off the salt and either pat dry in paper towels or a cloth towel or you can squeeze it out with your hands. Squeezing it will give you a firmer texture.

While the eggplant is being salted add extra virgin olive oil to a preheated saute pan and add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, over a low flame until pale brown and caramelized. Add 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil to a medium dutch oven (I believe mine was 5 quarts) and add the tomatoes, cook the tomatoes over medium heat while the onions are cooking. Once the onions are almost cooked add the garlic and saute for a minute before adding to the tomatoes along with the bay leaf and the fresh thyme. Heat the saute pan again and add more olive oil and saute the eggplant until browned. Add the eggplant to the tomatoes along with kosher salt and pepper to taste.

Continue to saute the vegetables in olive oil and then adding them to the tomatoes and other vegetables. If the ratatouille begins to get to dry add some water. Once all the vegetables are sauteed cook the ratatouille for a few minutes and then taste and adjust the seasoning. Either serve right away or refrigerate and reheat before serving.