Field Trip: Asheville, North Carolina

Fall Has Fallen

Fall is such a pretty time of year, and that is particularly true in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.  Asheville and neighboring Black Mountain have been getting a lot of press lately: NY Magazine talked about it in its Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan and Martha Stewart Living focused on this southeastern gem in its October issue.

I Wish I Was In Dixie

Well, they both missed the boat, as neither of them mentioned the charming and delightful store tucked away off Cherry Street in Black Mountain called Chifferobe Home and Garden.  Full disclosure, the knowledgeable and friendly owner is my mother, and the one I credit the most for my love of antiques, folk art, gardening, and as my boyfriend will attest to, baggy fit red corduroy pants.  What? They're comfortable!

Chocolate Ginger Brownies

What Abby could have been eating if she hadn't been exercising.

First, my apologies for a lack of posting lately.  Though we said we'd never neglect our project here at TwoTastes, neglect we have.  I could give you many excuses; work, fall yard clean up, chicken shows, fall television beginning, naps, etc... and though they would all be highly valid, better to just apologize, right?  I'm sorry!

Better than an apology though, is chocolate.

Two Variations: Pasta Al Pomodoro Crudo, or RAW baby!

heirloom cherry tomatoes

Tomatoes are so hot right now.  Seriously though, it's that time of year when you get the really delicious tomatoes that have a deep flavor, firm texture and gorge color.  It's the perfect time in the season to really feature raw tomatoes in recipes, and one of Jeffrey and Abby's favorites is pasta with raw tomato sauce.

Cantaloupe, Prosecco and Mint Granita

Cantoloupe, Prosecco and Mint Granita

If there's anything better than an icy desert when it's hot and balmy outside, it's an icy desert with alcohol in it, and not just any alcohol...PROSECCO honey!

Cantaloupe is nice this time of year, and using it as a base flavor, I built complexity with jalapeno simple syrup, chopped mint and prosecco.  Trust me, it helps make the end of summer go down a little easier.  The only problem is what to do with the rest of the bottle!  And by problem of course I mean...

Field Trip: Blue Hill at Stone Barns

grapes on the hill- mountains on the horizon

Jeffrey and Abby took a jaunt 30 miles outside the city to visit Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a beautiful working farm just 30 miles north of the City.  Run, don't walk...it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon! 

Cocktail O'Clock: Strawberry Basil Lemonade with a Kick

I realize this is two cocktail o'clocks in a row; perhaps that says something about our mindset lately here at two tastes.  Going back to work is stressful! Fortunately, I have Rob to make me wonderful drinks just when I need them.  All I need to do is pick the appropriate herb from the garden. This was his most recent creation, and though I'd like to give him full credit, it has to be said that when I told Abby about the drink she said, "Oh you mean almost the same drink I made a few weeks ago?"  Well, let's just say Abby inspired us!

Cocktail O'Clock: Cucumber Basil Cooler

fresh cucumbers and basil

I like the taste of cucumber, which is very pronounced in this recipe.  For a more subtle taste, I think it best to make a cucumber infused vodka, or if you are short on time, buy a vodka that has already been infused.

for 4 servings:

Juice 1 kirby cucumber and 1 lime in a juicer.

In each tumbler, muddle 4 tbsps of cuke/lime mixture plus
4 tbsps Jalapeno simple syrup (recipe below)
and 1 large basil leaf.

Shrimp with Black Beans and Cucumber Mango Relish

shrimp with cucumber mango relish

Summer fruits and vegetables are some of my favorites, and farmers' markets have been overflowing with gorgeous selections of the season.

I won't get too explicit regarding my love of cucumbers (lest the post be misconstrued or taken out of context) but they have been calling my name recently. Tired of the same old traditional southern cucumber salad, I came up with this simple recipe for a relish that could easily be put on other fish, pork, or chicken or even baked tofu.  The entire meal was ready in around 45 minutes, and didn't heat the kitchen (thank goodness, since the other fruit of summer- the ridiculous electric bill- has really been putting a crimp in my wallet).

Pickled!

Pickles, almonds, brunost cheese, and owls!  What more could you want!

No, I’m not referring to Abby or my current state of inebriation.  In fact, as you may have noticed, since returning to work last week I haven’t been doing much of anything else, hence the lack of posts.  I don’t know what Abby’s excuse is. Though it’s been a busy couple of weeks with school beginning and a new position at work, I have found time to throw a few things together.  Most notably, I managed to find a use for the endless cucumbers growing in the yard.  I swear, I pick them and turn around and there’s five more.  The problem is I don’t use cucumbers that often.  I like them ok, but I don’t love them, so they were just going soft in the refrigerator.  Then Rob asked me why I don’t just make pickles.  We both love pickles and of course cucumbers are the primary ingredient.  I’m sure he regretted I instantly, as I began pulling out pots and pans and jars and searching the ipad for recipes.  All he wanted to do was watch a movie in peace.

Leftovers, Failures, and Back to Work

Today is Wednesday, August 8th, 2012. To many, this just means tomorrow is Thursday and yesterday was Tuesday. For me, this means the end of a particularly nice summer vacation. For the first time since beginning my career in education, I took a summer completely off work and graduate school. I spent the entire 6 weeks enjoying multiple and varied experiments in gardening, cooking, baking, and creating, as well as reading, hanging out with Sara and the Ladies, and, most importantly, spending time with friends and Rob unclouded by stresses related to work (or at least greatly reduced, a teachers job never ends). Of course, there is much about my job that I truly love (I know you are reading this co-workers), but to pretend teaching doesn't involve a great deal of stress as well, would simply be dishonest. I only wish there were more hours in a day, or at least more minutes in the hours. As much as I have schemed, I can't figure out a way to make that happen, so today I find myself scrambling to tie up loose ends and prepare myself to return to a regular work schedule tomorrow morning beginning at 5:30 am.

With time being limited as such,

Wallpaper with Textiles

Having thoroughly enjoyed the wall decal project, but not even beginning to put a dent in my textile reserves, I thought I’d try a similar technique for creating some easy to remove wallpaper in my bathroom. Easy to remove being key, as I am a renter and not an owner, and will someday have to restore the walls to their original state or forfeit my security deposit.

The transience of living in the city is becoming a theme in my posts, and I am ambivalent that blog has begun to imitate life: as we add more content and with the changing of the month, old entries disappear and then are replaced with Jeffrey's recipes and gardening insights. Well, Jeffrey, some of us don't have summers off, but I get it, the gauntlet has been thrown...

Ricotta Bread

Yesterday I tried my hand at making homemade ricotta cheese. Maybe I'm just spoiled by living in the neighborhood where some of the top chefs in the country buy their ricotta (well Martha Stewart does anyway), but I was unimpressed. It wasn't terrible, it just tasted like the cheapest ricotta in a plastic tub I could find at a convenience store on the side of a highway. You get the picture. Fortunately it wasn't a ton of work so I wasn't as devastated as my recent gnocchi mishap (more to come on that one). I chalked it up to a relatively painless learning experience and began to stalk the cheesemakers in my neighborhood, and, after a lot of pushy behavior, I think I found the secret. Watch for it in an upcoming post.

So what do you do with a bunch of so so ricotta? Well, you feed some of it to Sara and the ladies, and then you bake bread! I've made this bread a few times over the years, and it always turns out well. The lighter and fluffier the ricotta, the lighter the bread. This was a bit heavier than I like, but so was the ricotta.

When squash vine borers attack!

This being my first year gardening in a long, long time, I have had many battles learning experiences. Some have turned out better than others, and some are still to be determined. Perhaps the most epic so far, has been my battle with the dreaded squash vine borer. These evil little worms are actually the larvae of a common moth, Melitta curcurbitae, found in gardens throughout the united states. This year I planted a somewhat rare Japanese pumpkin, Tetsukabuto. I promise to write a detailed post about these treasures of the cucurbit world as soon as I begin harvesting them in fall. For now, I'll be chronicling the journey.
Having done my research, I knew the squash vine borer was a possible problem. Still, I didn't take it too seriously. After all, I'm growing squash in the middle of Brooklyn with no sign of any other members of the same plant family anywhere in sight. I figured it, like all the other pests I was reading about, would stay far away from my little patch of dirt in the city. I couldn't have been more wrong. Nearly EVERY pest I read about has come to visit; swarms of aphids guarded by armies of ants, nauseatingly slimy slugs and snails, wily leaf miners, and many other destructive little beasts yet to be identified, all have made their home in my yard. If I don't become an expert at organic pest control by year's end, I will at least have put up a brave fight.

Vintage 50's Textiles Wall Decals

Bird Decals nee vintage fabrics

In fall of 2010, I was part of a team building puppets for a new opera about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, which was set in a modern day urban environment. To illustrate St. Francis’ belief that God was in everything and everyone around us, our concept as puppet builders was to create puppet birds from discarded objects that had been repurposed into something beautiful. It was a lot of fun going to Materials For the Arts, and scavenging the streets and thrift stores for objects deemed garbage or cast offs, and turning them into something with aesthetic (at least I think so) value. Unfortunately for my roommate, I’ve since made it my beeswax to up-cycle textiles (they are a pretty big problem in landfills), and have been known to go into our trash to fish out old t-shirts he’s thrown away. You know, now that I’ve committed that to paper, or computer screen or whatever, I realize it sounds a little self-righteous/psychotic, but bear with me…

Chicken Run

Liz Lacy and Irma!

In a small lull between posts, I thought I'd keep you entertained with this short video of the ladies running. I never tire of watching them, especially Liz Lacey, running.