Earlier last week I found myself creating a variety of recipes which my husband and I both loved. In fact, twice my husband said, put an asterisk by this one. Here’s what we ate last week: Cheese Straw Biscuits with Ham, Bourbon-Braised Short Ribs, Wine-Braised Chicken and Vegetables and, lastly, Almond Frangipane Cookies.
 
We subscribe to “Garden and Gun Magazine,” which is published in Charleston, South Carolina. Cheese straws are a popular snack in southern states. Katherine Cobbs, a cook book author from Birmingham, Alabama, re-imagined cheese straws as a biscuit and then filled them with country ham.  ​

In one of our last CSA boxes, I had a small head of cabbage. I came across an interesting recipe on the “Smitten Kitchen” website for Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan.
For the recipe you’ll need a medium-large or two small heads of savoy cabbage, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, walnut halves and pieces, fresh garlic, a large lemon, red pepper flakes (Aleppo, if you have) and grated Parmesan cheese.
 
The cabbage is cut into wedges and laid on a rimmed baking sheet that has been coated with olive oil. Additional oil is brushed on the wedges. The cabbage roasts in a 475° oven until charred, about 8 to 10 minutes); then flipped. In the interim, place nuts on a baking dish and roast alongside the cabbage for 4 to 5 minutes. When done, coarsely chop and add extra virgin olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes. Let flavors meld together before adding a squeeze of lemon; adjust seasonings to taste. ​

​I started this post by making sure I had remembered all the items I prepared last week,  but I got sidetracked by looking through my Instagram feed. Sometimes, I need to bury my phone so I can focus on the task at hand.
 
Many years ago, when I was an aide for a first-grade teacher, a young girl gifted me some delicious sugar cookies. They were so good, I asked for the recipe. Now you would think I would have made them immediately, but 27 years later, I finally made them. I’ve made Neapolitan Cookies from “The Vanilla Bean” blog, however, my cookies were coming out too flat. After several tries, I pulled out my former student’s recipe to adapt to a Neapolitan cookie.

​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.

​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? 

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.

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” was written by Sylvester Stewart, or better known as Sly Stone of the band Sly and the Family Stone. Sly Stewart wrote this song in 1969 extolling the beginning of summer and the fun that one has during these lazy days. I will say this summer so far has certainly been hot, and extremely humid too. Despite the heat and humidity, one still needs to eat no matter how hot it is.
 
Now that New Jersey peach season is in full swing, I tweaked Melissa Clark’s recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Berries and Almonds to work with peaches. First I made a tiny cross on the bottom of the peaches and blanched them in boiling water for approximately 30 seconds. This enabled me to peel off their skin. Next, I cut segments into the peach and cut it away from the pit. In place of almonds, I used toasted walnuts that I coarsely chopped and used 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon in lieu of nutmeg. The baked oatmeal came was delicious and had a lovely sweet taste from the peaches. The peaches were full of flavor and was a great change from using berries. Give it a try while peaches are still available. I’m going to purchase some and prep them for baking, but freeze them in portion sizes for fall and winter when I’m yearning for a bit of summer.

The title of this week’s blog post is credited to Aristotle. I am most happy when I have a list of things to do each day and can cross them off when accomplished. Sitting still isn’t something that comes easy to me. I find cooking relaxing and very enjoyable. From the search for the right recipe, sourcing needed ingredients and a review of how the dish came out is satisfaction for me.
 
Such was the case with Melissa Clark’s recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Crispy Leeks and Capers. In all honesty, I did adjust Ms. Clark’s recipe by using spring onions from my CSA box in place of leeks. Besides the ingredients named in the recipe title you’ll also need extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, drained capers, lemon wedges, fresh parsley, Dijon mustard and fresh garlic.

I’m just getting under the wire for Valentine’s Day recipes. Luckily, the ones I’ve made that I recently made take very little time and a bit of shopping.
 
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and what better way to start off the morning than with an easy to prepare Dutch Baby pancake.  You could make the batter the night before and remix Wednesday morning while you’re preheating the oven.  For this recipe you’ll need eggs, flour, milk, granulated sugar, nutmeg, unsalted butter and to bring it over the top, Woodford Reserve Bourbon cherries. I ordered mine from Walmart, but discovered that Total Wine in Eatontown, NJ as well as Amazon carries it. Contact or visit your favorite liquor store to see if they carry them.
 
The batter goes into a preheated oven proof pan (I used a cast iron fry pan) for 15-20 minutes. Before serving I dusted the pancake with powdered sugar and several cherries with bourbon syrup, delicious!