Oh Hurricane Irene!

Well just when I thought I was back to regularly posting Hurricane Irene blew into town which required two days of preparing, one of enduring (which wasn't that bad) and then 5 really, really long days of no power!!!  Since I work from home that meant no work, no play, no hot shower, no cooking - well I did use the gas grill one night.  Which meant that all last week was lots of making up for lost time.  So I will again post a list of what I've been up to . . and once again promise to get back to posting more regularly.  Oh wait I'm out of town all next week :)  But we already got the first of fall vegetables in last week's haul - delicata squash - and I LOVE fall and all those flavours so I'll be cooking up a storm.

Oh and one of these days I'll have to take some time and make batches of pesto.  My basil is still looking beautiful and I have a huge bush. I also have lots of parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme and Greek oregano.  Most should last into the fall but the basil needs to be used sooner rather than later. 

For lunch last week I had a slice of turkey and a slice of bread so I made a delicious open faced sandwich.  I used thick slices of green heirloom tomatoes, big leaves of basil, smooth slices of avocado and some slices of American cheese over everything.  Then put it under the broiler for a few minutes.  So yummy!!

OPEN FACED TURKEY SANDWICH

We have got kohlrabi the last two weeks so the other night I made a slaw using the kohlrabi, fennel and red carrots - it was super crunchy and fresh.  Check out the recipe at the bottom of the blog.

KOHLRABI & FENNEL SLAW

Last night we had some of the last sweet corn of the summer with ribs and the kohlrabi slaw. So tonight I wanted to use the rest of the corn to make a corn salad to accompany our skirt steak tacos.  I ended up surprising myself with the corn salad.  After I added the other vegetables and I included cucumber which wasn't in my original plans, I was about to add cilantro but decided against it.  Since I use cilantro so liberally in my tacos (in place of lettuce) I wanted the salad to have a a different flavour profile.  With the abundance of herbs I still I have I used a mixture of basil, mint and parsley.  Part of the vegetables I used was a jalapeno pepper.  The combination of the heat of the pepper with cooling cucumber and the sweet corn highlighted with the sweet mint and basil made for a great, complex mouthful.  And it was a great compliment to the skirt steak taco that I had marinated in lots of ancho chili powder.  I also used thick, peels of the red carrot for crunch along with creamy avocado and cilantro with a squeeze of lime to finish it off.  Yum, yum, yum!

SWEET CORN SALAD

KOHLRABI & FENNEL SLAW
1 kohlrabi, sliced into thin strips
1 fennel bulb, core removed & sliced into thin strips (reserving some of the frowns)
3 red carrots, peeled & grated into long strips
Olive oil
Tarragon Vinegar
1 T of Dijon Mustard
Salt & Pepper
Handful of fresh parsley, rough chopped
Fennel frowns, chopped

Combine kohlrabi, fennel and carrots and toss. Make a vinaigrette using dijon mustard, vinegar and olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Toss the herbs into the salad mixture and add vinaigrette until coated.   Taste and season with salt & pepper.

SWEET CORN SALAD
4 ears of corn, cooked and the kernels cut off
1/4 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/2 of red bell pepper, diced
Handful of grape cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
1/4 English Cucumber, peeled and diced
Good handful of parsley, basil and mint; finely chopped
Olive Oil
1 lime, zested and juiced

Combine corn, both peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs.  I typically like things rustic and wouldn't ask you to chop grape tomatoes but in this case I wanted everything the same size as the corn kernels so I diced everything to just the same size.  Add zest and juice of lime and then olive oil to coat. Let salad sit a bit before serving so flavours can blend.