​Recently I received more tomatoes and peaches in my Dreyer Farm CSA box. In my search on the NYT Cooking app, I found a recipe by Alexa Weibel for Tomato and Peach Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese.
 
As crazy as the combination sounded, it was outstanding and perfect for a summer lunch, starter salad or as a bruschetta on top of grilled Italian or sourdough bread. For the recipe you’ll need extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, whole-grain mustard, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, small red onion, goat or feta cheese (I used goat cheese), heavy cream, 2 large heirloom tomatoes, 2 medium peaches, and, optionally, mâche or watercress. If you can’t find either, you can substitute arugula or baby spinach. 

The calendar says that June 21st is the start of summer, but here at the Jersey shore, it’s been very breezy today, overcast and the temperature is in the mid 60’s. I decided that with the yellow squash that came in last week’s Dreyer Farms’ CSA, I would make a Summer Squash Soup with Parsley Mint Pistou that I found on the Smitten Kitchen website. For the soup you’ll need unsalted butter, an onion, salt, 2 pounds yellow summer squash, 2 carrots, 1 yellow fleshed potato (1/2 lb.) and four cups of chicken stock or reduced sodium chicken broth.
 
The soup is quite simple to prepare. You’re sautéing the onion in the butter until softened, adding the vegetables and stock and cooking until they’re soft. When done, you can either use a blender or immersion blender to purée the soup.

My participation in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program sometimes means I carryover produce from one week to the next. I don’t always have time to use everything up in one week and occasionally items such red leaf lettuce and some greens can manage to stay fresh longer than a week.
 
Last week I used the golden beets I received and roasted them to concentrate their flavor. From there I found a recipe on The New York Times Cooking website for Golden Beet Salad with Cider Vinegar Dressing. In addition to the beets you’ll need extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, mâche or other tender greens, walnut oil, freshly ground black pepper, toasted walnuts, ricotta salata or fresh goat cheese.

​Sometimes I prepare so many new and exciting recipes, that we never have them twice.
 
As it’s been so cold the past few days, I would like to suggest a Broccoli and Arugula Soup. This recipe was found in the January 2022 issue of “Charleston Magazine.” The soup was thick and creamy despite there being no cream in the soup. Both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
Some of the best recipes from 2022 came from The New York Times/NYT Cooking. One such recipe is Kay Chun’s Korean Cheeseburgers with Sesame-Cucumber Pickles. These are not your parents’ cheeseburgers. The burgers are flavored with soy sauce, scallions, garlic, pepper and sugar. They’re served with a mayonnaise dressing flavored with the same ingredients as the burgers plus toasted sesame oil. These burgers were incredible. I also made Ali Slagle’s Chicken Parm Burgers that were fabulous. Between the aromatic basil, the intensity of the tomato paste, these burgers were packed with flavor. 

​The last two weeks were busy with Thanksgiving prep. For the Thanksgiving dinner, I rummaged through my files for a turkey recipe that had a little pizzazz, Roast Turkey with Maple Herb Butter and Gravy fit the bill. Although the recipe included instructions for gravy, I was mostly interested in the herb butter.
 
Now that I had my recipe in hand, what type of turkey should I purchase? We were 6 adults for dinner and I opted for a bone-in turkey breast that was hatched and raised in Pennsylvania in Amish country. I purchased at Palmer’s Quality Meats in Neptune. 

For the recipe you’ll need apple cider, real maple syrup, fresh or dried thyme, fresh or dried marjoram, fresh lemon zest and softened butter. Two cups of apple cider and 1/3 cup of pure maple syrup are boiled over medium-high heat until reduced to ½ cup, which the recipe says should take approximately 20 minutes. Using cider by Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck, NJ, took me almost an hour to achieve the desired result (My husband, who was in the apple cider business for over 30 years, says that it can take a long time to reduce cider.) Once the liquid is reduced, part of the thyme, marjoram and lemon zest are added; then softened butter is whisked in. This step of the recipe can be done up to two days ahead, which I’m glad I did. 

As you may recall, I have a wide variety of herbs in my yard this summer. My husband purchased four lemon scented herbs i.e., lemon grass, lemon thyme, lemon verbena and lemon balm. In the April 2022 issue of Charleston Magazine, they published an article called, “A Tasty Trio, Container Gardens.” Garden editor Joan McDonald had some wonderful ideas on how to use the herbs and some recipes. One recipe that caught my husband’s eye was Spring Citrus Salad Dressing made with a combination of the aforementioned herbs.
 
For the salad dressing you’ll need olive oil, white wine vinegar, fresh herbs (lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemon verbena and lemon grass (with leaves removed from any woody stems), fresh garlic, honey, Dijon mustard, shallots, salt and pepper to taste. What a flavorful dressing. The combination of ingredients made for a lovely creamy dressing, courtesy of the Dijon mustard that created an emulsion. The dressing was bright and had a light citrus taste, refreshing for a summer salad.