​Last week at the Asbury Fresh farmers market, I picked up a bunch of golden beets from Rolling Hills Farm. I did a web search and found an interesting recipe, Moroccan Cold Beet Salad with Vinaigrette. The recipe was found on the “The Spruce Eats” website and is by Christine Benlafguih.  For the recipe you’ll need, red beet roots, fresh parsley, fresh lemon juice, vegetable oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and red onion. Although the recipe calls for red beets, it works perfectly with golden.
 
The vinaigrette was delightful, it was light and refreshing. Using lemon juice in lieu of vinegar was a wonderful change. Also, the substitution of yellow onion, didn’t alter the taste. I also added slivered almonds for a bit of crunch.

Our neighbor, Jeff, just retired and my husband wanted to have he and his wife over for dinner. This couple has been our neighbor for more than 30 years. What was on the menu you ask? For hors d’oeuvres I made my late cousin’s stuffed mushrooms, crab spread from Mr. Shrimp (Belmar) and Alexian’s Pâté’s Wild Forest Mushroom Pâté served with cornichons. A Stilton and Pear salad was our first course. For dinner,  Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew, a recipe from the New York Times, served atop garlic mashed potatoes along with popovers. Dessert was the Financiers that I recently blogged about.

​My four-year old granddaughter was due to visit and my daughter mentioned she was craving pasta e fagioli. As I had some time before her visit, I picked up the ingredients and the recipe from “Naples at Table,” by Arthur Schwartz. For the recipe you’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, 2 large cloves of garlic, hot red pepper flakes, 3 canned and peeled plum tomatoes, 2-1/2 to 3 cups cooked cannellini beans and pasta.
 
Instead of making cooked cannellini beans, I opted for canned beans (minus their liquid). The other change I made was to use a 28-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes instead of just 3 tomatoes. This resulted in thick tomato sauce that I thinned out with pasta water. Per Mr. Schwartz, in Campania this dish is made “dry;” it’s not soupy or saucy, which may be how some restaurants prepare it here. 

In a previous blog, I wrote about our dining experience at the Poached Pear Bistro in Point Pleasant, New Jersey and the wonderful Jersey Corn Bisque. Recently in the New York Times, David Tanis had a recipe for Creamy Corn Soup with Basil that is to die for! As for ingredients, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sweet corn, onions, water and, as an option, squash blossoms are needed. 

In these waning days of summer, I am using the best the season has to offer in my cooking. For guests the other evening, I prepared Basil Pesto Cream Cheese Filled Cherry Tomatoes...yum! Week 15 CSA box from Dreyer Farms had ingredients in which to make pizzas:  Antonio’s Mozzarella, The Breadsmith Pizza Dough, plum tomatoes, arugula and corn. I did my take on two pizzas that Medusa’s of Asbury Park makes. One with prosciutto, nectarine, goat cheese, mozzarella, arugula and a drizzle of Villa Grimelli’s White Balsamic Glaze. The other pizza was topped with sweet corn, sliced plum tomatoes, mozzarella, goat cheese and basil. I had forgotten to pick up a small container of ricotta cheese, however, the tang of the goat cheese played well against the sweetness of both the corn and tomato. ​

I had a friend call me the other evening to make sure my husband and I were okay. She hadn’t seen posts from me in awhile and she grew concerned. I assured her that all was well and the reason for the gap was we’ve had our daughter and granddaughters visiting us each week for a few days each week since July. My goal was to have quick suppers on Thursday evenings after my granddaughter’s swim lesson and for the other days, you prepare what’s appealing to a one- and four-year-old.
 
Here’s a review of what’s been going on in our culinary life.

The challenge of purchasing a share in a CSA box (community sustained agriculture) is finding recipes for produce that you never have eaten before; this week, Swiss chard, was one of them. As I still had zucchini left from a prior box, I needed a meal that would utilize both vegetables. I found a recipe on the New York Times Cooking webpage from Martha Rose Shulman, Provençal Zucchini with Swiss Chard Tart. For those of you who may have never heard of Ms. Schulman, she writes cookbooks that focus on eating healthy with inspiration from the Mediterranean and Mexico. Her recipes focus on produce that is both fresh and seasonal. In looking through the index of my copy of her book Mediterranean Light, I noticed her recipes featured chicken, fish and vegetables.