The weather so far this summer can be summed up as hot and steamy. What this weather does do is inspire me to find recipes that are either no cook, stove top cooked or can be grilled.
 
If you have not discovered them yet, you must find your way to Jersey Artisan Company whose retail store is located in East Hanover, NJ. Owned by Salvatore Pisani, he creates cheeses and dairy products using milk from Spring Run Dairy Farm and sour dough breads with grains from River Valley Community Grains. The assorted variety of cheeses are created in Whippany, NJ. If you can’t make your way to East Hanover this summer, you can find Sal and his products at farmers markets in Jersey City, Weehawken, Monroe Township, Parsippany, Sparta, West Windsor, Scotch Plains, Blairstown, Summit and Asbury Park. The hyperlink will direct to the specific markets for days, times and which months the markets operate. Although Sal brings a variety of cheese and baked goods to the AsburyFresh market, so far I’ve only tried his semolina and ciabatta breads, fresh burrata and mozzarella. ​

I’m winding down watching my second granddaughter one day a week. The weather has been most uncooperative this spring, and we’ve had more cloudy and rainy days than I care to remember. Last week, I thought it would be nice for her to decorate some sugar cookies. The recipe is from the cook book, “The Official Disney Parks Cookbook: 101 Magical Recipes from the Delicious Disney Vault.” My son-in-law was on a recent business trip to Orlando and picked up this book. We had taken my daughter’s family to Disney two years ago, so this was a nice remembrance. Thinking ahead, I planned on making Pop’T Art Sugar Cookies and have my granddaughters decorate them.
 
While you don’t necessarily need to follow the Disney recipe, you do need to prepare a sturdy sugar cookie base. Also, consistency in thickness is important too. I rigged up a system using a paint stirrer and a 12-inch ruler, which were approximately the same thickness, and rolled my cookies between the two. The recipe yields six cookies that are 3x-5-inches, but I opted to prepare half a batch. For the recipe you’ll need sugar, butter, an egg white, all-purpose flour and salt. The glaze consists of powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. ​

Back in 2023 I took on the challenge to prepare a Turkey Porchetta from the cooking show
“America’s Test Kitchen.” Patience was the key to executing this recipe, but it turned out fabulous. I recently came across a recipe by Kay Chun, of The New York Times, for Porchetta-Spiced Roasted Potatoes. These potatoes were scrumptious. They had all the seasonings of a porchetta, minced garlic, fennel, dried thyme, fresh rosemary, fresh sage, freshly ground black pepper, red-pepper flakes with the baby potatoes (such as creamer, baby white or new potatoes) tossed with extra-virgin olive oil.
 
The pieces conveyed a taste similar to that of an actual porchetta roast, but without the hassle. The recipe takes 40 minutes from start to finish and crisped up very nicely in my oven.
 
I was looking for something different to make with ground beef when I stumbled upon Kevin Pang’s recipe for Loose Meat Sandwich. The sandwich is popular in Iowa and will remind you of Sloppy Joe. ​

Perhaps you’ve decided to celebrate mom at home this year. I’ll also be at home as I’ll let my son and daughter enjoy the day with their own families. If you’re someone that will be hosting mom and others, here are some suggestions to make the day enjoyable for you too.
 
Brunch is a great option for celebrating. Here are my suggestions for Mother’s Day.
 
If blood oranges are still available, Blood Orange and Grapefruit Juice makes for a wonderful switch from the normal orange juice. ​

​I can’t believe that April is just about over and the start of the summer season at the Jersey shore is in the not-too-distant future. My daughter and her family have had a busy spring, what about yours? Between softball practice and games, soccer and birthday parties how do young families deal with their kid’s busy schedule. My daughter tries to cook ahead for the week, but if you can’t I found some easy to do weeknight meals. I’m also sharing a recipe I found in Cook’s Illustrated Magazine that I made for Easter dessert.
 
There’s nothing like a one pot meal such as Lidey Heuck’s Chicken Potpie with Cornbread biscuits. Eric Joon’s Pepper Steak is a two-pot supper, one for the stir fry and another if you want to serve it with rice. Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin “Filets” from Southern Living Magazine was a delicious meal that took about 35 minutes to prepare. 

​As a belated birthday gift from my son and his family, he took me to Mabel at Bell Works in Holmdel, NJ. Bell Works is in a pastoral setting just off the Garden State Parkway at exit 114. Once off the parkway you head for Crawfords Corner Road and look for the signs for Bell Work which leads down a long serene drive. The Bell Work’s interior has a huge inner atrium surrounded by various levels of offices. On the main level you’ll find restaurants and retail shops. Mabel sits in the middle of the building. They’re open Wednesday through Sunday with lunch service through Friday, dinner service through Saturday and brunch on both Saturday and Sunday.
 
We had a reservation for a Friday evening. The restaurant is quite large with several dining rooms. We sat in the room off the deck which was  spacious . We began with a cocktail with me ordering the Rotary (Woodford Reserve bourbon, cola syrup, angostura and orange bitters) and my son had the Rum punch. Although the punch wasn’t currently on the menu, the bar was able to make the drink. By the way, they also have several non-alcoholic beverages.

Back in 1961, there were 17 straight days of temperatures below freezing. This week, weather forecasters are calling for sub-freezing temperatures Sunday through the remainder of the week. Hopefully your pantry is stocked with things that help you prepare easy to make dinners that are hearty and healthy.
 
I recently prepared a delicious recipe from the public broadcasting show, “Cook’s Country”, Stovetop Chicken with Lemon-Cornichon Sauce. Melissa Clark of The New York Times had a recipe for shelf-stable potato gnocchi, Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Sausage and Peppers. A hearty and heartwarming recipe by chef Clare DeBoer appeared in The New York Times for One Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles. I also found a new turkey meatloaf recipe from Lidia Bastianich.

Next week marks the end of the 2024 CSA season from Dreyer Farms. It has been a truly wonderful experience trying the variety of produce that our box holds each week. I’ve tried not to repeat recipes, but to find new ways to prepare the old standards sprinkled with exciting flavors.
 
Such was the case with the apples that came in our last few boxes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell what variety they gave us and after eating one or two, I realized they would be better baked. My husband enjoys breakfast baked oatmeal casseroles that I’ve been preparing. I came across one recently on “The Southern Living Magazine” website for Baked Oatmeal with Apples, Cranberries and Pecans. For the recipe you’ll need eggs, whole milk, vanilla extract, apple pie spice, kosher salt, light brown sugar, melted butter, an apple, uncooked old-fashion rolled oats, pecans (I substituted walnuts as that’s what I had) and dried cranberries.

​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.

​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.