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​The other day I shared a recipe for an Almond Croissant Focaccia. You may have sat there and sighed over the time it would take to make. Fear not, Claire Saffitz shared on The New York Times/NYT Cooking website an easy recipe that takes store bought all-butter plain croissants and turns them into almond ones and they’re wonderful. It takes approximately one hour and even my four-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, can put them together.
 
For the recipe you’ll need 8 stall croissants, cut in half horizontally. For the frangipane, an almond cream,  you’ll need almond flour, unsalted butter, light brown sugar, eggs, almond extract, all-purpose flour and kosher salt. For the syrup, granulated sugar, dark rum and water. Sliced almonds are needed to top the croissants before baking.
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​I can’t believe how dark it is in the morning with sunrise after 7 AM and sunset just after 6 PM. I don’t know where the day has gone and yet there are things left on my “to do list.”
 
Recently my daughter saw an Instagram post by @schoolnightvegan for Almond Croissant Focaccia. It’s a vegan recipe although I substituted butter and milk. The recipe’s ingredients are listed in metrics, but I converted to standard measurements. The conversion and substitutions are listed in the recipe.  It does take time to make as your preparing not only the focaccia, but almond paste filling and a simple syrup.
 
For the focaccia you’ll need warm water, granulated sugar, milk, yeast, all-purpose flour, salt and butter. The almond paste filling is made with ground almond meal, granulated sugar, butter, almond extract and milk. The focaccia toppings are butter and sliced almonds. The simple syrup is made with Amaretto, granulated sugar and water; but more on this later.
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​I’m still taking advantage of the last of the summer vegetables. Matt’s Farm Market in Belmar estimates that tomatoes should be coming in until the end of the month. In the past few weeks, squash (green, yellow  and spaghetti), corn and hardy greens have been in our CSA box.
 
I couldn’t resist, or should I say punish myself, by making yet another tomato sauce recipe. This time I opted to try Chunky Fresh Tomato Sauce, a recipe from the cook book “Naples at Table,” by Arthur Schwartz. For the recipe you’ll need ripe plum tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, an onion, salt and basil leaves. 
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​Now that school is back in session, I’m on the road once a week to babysit my granddaughter. I also help my son and daughter-in-law by picking up my grandson two days a week after preschool, busy life!
 
Our CSA box continues through mid-November and I’m still taking advantage of the last of the summer produce. I recently tried my hand at making homemade ketchup, light and crispy zucchini fritters, helped my granddaughter Lucy make “oat balls,” as she calls them, and meat sauce Bolognese. Phew, that’s a lot of cooking.
 
My husband suggested that I try making different recipes using tomatoes. When I was looking through my NYTCooking app, I found a recipe by Melissa Clark for Tomato Ketchup. For the recipe you’ll need 4 pints of grape tomatoes, red wine vinegar, dark brown sugar, salt, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Ms. Clark says you can use plum tomatoes in lieu of grape, which is what I did. I used 4 pounds of San Marzano style tomatoes that I found at Matt’s Farm Market in Belmar.
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​I don’t like loose ends; so today I’m going to bring you up to date with my dining and baking adventures.
 
I promised our oldest granddaughter that when she turned 7, I’d take her to see “Wicked” on Broadway. It seems like that promise was so long ago, that I forgot. But she turned 7 in August and  I kept my promise and bought tickets for myself, daughter and granddaughter to attend a Saturday matinee performance. I had seen the show about 10 years ago; although I recall most of the show, there were some things I had forgotten.
 
The Saturday we went in was fortunately not as hot as it had been in August. We took the train in from Metropark to Penn Station. We had lunch before the theatre at Bar Primi. I follow food and travel journalist @thisgirlcaneat on Instagram and she had posted her visit to Bar Primi that was very close to Penn Station. They do not have a kid’s menu, but my granddaughters have sophisticated palates, how many kids do you know eat duck poutine? 
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​I wanted to share with you a short vacation my husband and I took at the beginning of June. We decided to visit Boston to see an old friend of mine who used to live at the Jersey shore, tour the city and take in a baseball game at Fenway Park. 
 
My friend’s daughter went to college in Boston and remained there after graduation. Although my friend drove a few times by herself to Boston, she decided to take AMTRAK from Metropark Station in New Jersey to Boston. I convinced my husband to give it a try and he agreed. We booked a trip from Friday to Monday leaving at approximately 9 in the morning. We selected two aisle, business class seats to allow for extra leg room and assigned seats.
 
We arrived at the station and found our car. The car was comfortable and spacious. The trip took approximately 5 hours, but we arrived relaxed and my husband wasn’t exhausted from driving.
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​It’s been a busy start to September and I can’t believe how far behind I am in updating you on the wonderful recipes I’ve been making. I’m hoping that you can find some late season peaches to prepare Pork, Pistachios and the Perfect Peach recipe. Matt’s Farm Market in Belmar had sweet, juicy peaches from Idaho that were fabulous and Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck also had some peaches from out of the local area.
 
The recipe is from the “Financial Times,” which is a British daily newspaper. This past August, they published a recipe by Ravinder Bhogal (on Instagram @cookinboots). For the recipe you’ll need pistachios, panko bread crumbs, lemon zest, salt, pepper, an egg, Dijon mustard, pork loin steaks, olive oil, fresh sage and fresh peaches. One thing to note on their recipes, is that some of the measurements are in metrics. Not to fear, you can Google for conversion or use a digital scale switched from grams to ounces. 
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​The summer season ended with my granddaughters visiting for a week, which curtailed my cooking. However, I did squeeze in a few new recipes that you may enjoy.
 
I prepared a delicious recipe from The New York Times/NYT Cooking website for Grilled Chicken Thighs and Corn with Lime-Basil Butter.  The recipe, by Clare de Boer, actually calls for thighs, but my husband and I prefer breasts. For the recipe you’ll need skinless and boneless chicken thighs, garlic cloves, olive oil, kosher salt (Diamond Crystal), black pepper, zest and juice of limes, unsalted butter, basil leaves, fresh corn that is shucked and flaky sea salt. Corn season is just about over and the basil and your garden is starting to wane, but if you can find some at your local farm market, go for it. 
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I am friendly with my former coworkers at a local school. Two of my friends still work at the school were lamenting that the new school year begins in a mere three weeks. How can it be that summer is almost over? In fact, my husband was asking me when I was going to start making my fresh tomato sauce.
 
During the summer months, most of my produce comes from two sources either Dreyer Farms in Cranford or Matt’s Farm Market in West Belmar. As I have mentioned before, the tomatoes, peaches and corn have been outstanding. In a recent CSA box, I received a container of cherry tomatoes. Luckily for me I had the perfect recipe from The New York Times/NYT Cooking for Lemon and Garlic Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes. The recipe, by Martha Rose Shulman, calls for extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, boneless and skinless chicken breasts, dry white wine, cherry tomatoes, sugar, all-purpose flour, a neutral oil, fresh parsley.  Parmesan cheese is optional.
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It was beautiful Saturday afternoon as I sat on my porch typing and glancing over to view the river. During the past several weeks, I found some tasty salad recipes in which to use the wonderful produce from my Dreyer Farms’ CSA box of Cranford and Matt’s Farm Market in Wall Township.
 
There was no need to blanch and freeze any more broccoli. I previously made a broccoli salad recipe by Trisha Yearwood, but  I found a recipe by Kay Chun of The New York Times and realized while typing this blog post, that it’s almost identical to Ms. Yearwood’s. Ingredients for Ms. Chun’s recipe are kosher salt, bacon, broccoli florets, mayonnaise, red onion, apple cider vinegar, granulated sugar, coarsely grated cheddar cheese, golden raisins and roasted, salted sunflower seeds. In some instances, the quantities are the same or slightly increased and she uses a red onion whereas Ms. Yearwood just calls for “an onion.” Ms. Chun also added grated cheddar cheese to her recipe. Though Ms. Chun is a native New Yorker, her recipe for “Southern Broccoli Salad” clearly comes through as southern. How did it taste you ask? Quite yummy. I like the fact that there are different textures and mouthfeel from the shredded cheese, to the softened raisins. I use Duke’s Mayonnaise, a southern product, for the nice twang it lends to the broccoli. Overall, a recipe just as good as Ms. Yearwood’s. ​


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

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