​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.

​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.

​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. 

​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.