The Best of 2013: Summer

Recipe Roundup 2013: July, August, September

There were some good late summer finds this year...

On the way out the door for the July 4th holiday, I made Smitten Kitchen's pickled vegetable sandwich slaw with a mess of leftover vegetables -- 1/2 cabbage, onions, carrots, and some red peppers. An easy pickle (especially if you have a mandoline) that's great on sandwiches and especially burgers and sliders.

This Vietnamese flank steak with cucumber radish salad from Melissa Clark via the Times was outrageously good on a warm evening.

If you get kohlrabi in your farm box, or you seek it out, don't forget about this recipe, which appeared in the Mariquita Farms newsletter, the Ladybug Postcard: Roasted Kohlrabi with Crunchy Seeds

This Smitten Kitchen recipe for one-pot farro is a keeper! I used my summer farm box bounty: roasted roma tomatoes and shredded zucchini.

August tomatoes are perfect for panzanella and the Barefoot Contessa recipe is a good one!

Make this Zucchini and Green Chile Breakfast Casserole for a casual brunch or to eat for the week.

A really good Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

This spicy Moroccan carrot salad from the LA Times

Chickpea of the Sea vegetarian "tuna" is great for sandwiches or on toast for breakfast

These Japanese Stuffed Peppers from Just Hungry are a great technique for a cute app or easy dinner, but the filling needs punching up a bit

From my cookbook collection:
- I adjusted the zucchini bread recipe in the America's Test Kitchen healthy family cookbook to great effect: use coconut oil, sub out full cinnamon for 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/8 t each allspice and cardamom, and 1/4 c shredded, unsweetened coconut

- A refreshing smashed cucumber salad with garlic and ginger from Ottolenghi's Plenty

- the Moroccan Green Bean Tagine from Splendid Table How to Eat Supper

- Many moons ago, when our kiddos where very small, two amazing moms in our neighborhood produced a community cookbook, Bernal Eats, and a third contributed a recipe for a tasty ground pork and longbean stirfry that has become a family favorite.

Recipes to keep track of...
I made up a recipe for curried grated kohlrabi with yogurt, which was a great vegetable side with grilled meat and chapati. I used a mandoline to cut the kohlrabi, which I sauteed with chopped onion, garlic and ginger as well as curry powder, and finished it with some nonfat yogurt.

Zucchini risotto was hit, the zucchini was almost undetectable and my family ate this up -- I just added 4 medium grated, salted and vigorously squeezed zucchini to my basic risotto recipe, and finished it with lots of parm.

... and in the Meh category:
- The Kohlrabi Salad in Ottolenghi's Jerusalem cookbook