Greetings! I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far. I’ve been on the go so much (note to self: practice what you preach), that I haven’t had nearly enough time to get out to the farmers’ markets and pick-your-own farms to enjoy the bounty of summer. Although, several weeks ago, I did have the opportunity to share two delicious and easy recipes at Common Good City Farm during a cooking workshop that I taught. Both recipes are nutritious and make for great summer side dishes.

The cucumber and tomato salad with sweet Vidalia onions and Italian dressing has a vibrant cool taste and crunchy texture. Making the Italian dressing from scratch guarantees that it’s only made from natural ingredients — no preservatives, and allows you to use high quality extra-virgin olive oil, which boosts flavor.

My new favorite recipe is this one for honey glazed carrots. Steaming the sliced carrots makes this dish very easy and quick to prepare, and the honey and steamed carrots tossed with dried dill and sliced almonds add a slight crunch, sweetness, and contrast of color.

Make these dishes right away while we still have delicious cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh carrots in season. Freshly picked, seasonal produce always offers up the best taste. Enjoy!

Cucumber Tomato Salad with Homemade Italian Dressing

2 large cucumbers
5 ripe tomatoes
1/2 small Vidalia onion, finely sliced
1/2 cup homemade Italian dressing
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the cucumbers into thin 1/8” thick slices. Half the tomatoes horizontally, and then quarter and core them (making 8 pieces per tomato). Add the cucumber slices, tomatoes and sliced Vidalia onion in a large bowl along with the Italian Dressing and toss all ingredients together well. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Homemade Italian Dressing

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove, finely minced and smeared
1 tsp Italian seasoning (dried herbs)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper (about 1/8 teaspoon)
1 light squeeze of fresh lemon juice (only a few drops)

Add the vinegar, garlic, Italian seasoning, onion powder, salt and honey to a medium sized bowl and whisk together. Whisking continuously, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Add the lemon juice and whisk some more. Taste for flavor and add salt or pepper if necessary.

Honey Glazed Carrots with Dill and Almonds

1/2 pound carrots, rinsed and scrubbed
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon organic butter
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Bring a pot of water (fitted with a steaming basket) to a boil. Slice the carrots on the diagonal into 1/2” slices. Add sliced carrots to the steaming basket. Cover and steam for 5 minutes. Transfer the steamed carrots to a large bowl, shaking off any excess water from the steaming basket and carrots. Sprinkle the dried dill over the carrots and add the sliced almonds to the bowl.

In a small sauté pan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium low heat. Once the butter is melted, drizzle the oil over the carrots along with the honey, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

I’m sure the parents of the 3rd and 4th graders from two D.C. area public charter schools would be amazed by their children’s enjoyment of asparagus and cherry tomatoes, sautéed spinach, and fresh mint tea. Being that I only started enjoying asparagus last year, I was definitely impressed, but that just goes to show the power of fresh picked vegetables straight from the garden.

Last week and the week before, I had the pleasure of giving a cooking demo to students in the Washington Youth Garden’s Garden Science program. Located in the beautiful National Arboretum, the Washington Youth Garden provides environmental science and food education programs for D.C. youth and their families. These programs include teaching gardening and how food gets from farm to plate, how to start a school garden, how to be good stewards of the environment, and how to prepare fresh nutritious food.

All of the kids were very eager and happy to help me cut up asparagus, tomatoes, lemons and herbs. Some of them helped harvest the vegetables and herbs from the garden, while others helped to gather the scraps for the compost pile. In addition to the beauty of the garden and superior taste of freshly picked vegetables, the gratification that comes from eating something you helped to prepare was another big factor that likely contributed to the students liking the lightly cooked vegetables and even asking for seconds!

With the increased attention school gardens, childhood nutrition, home gardening, and local foods are receiving nationally from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and White House Garden, opportunities are increasingly becoming available for everyone to join in the efforts to improve our own and our children’s eating habits, food choices and awareness of how and what we eat.  Among national and local efforts to improve school lunches, establish community and school gardens, and advocate for better food policies, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved where ever you live.

Here are some resources to help you find such an opportunity, as well as a recipe for fresh mint tea, which the Washington Youth Garden kids definitely enjoyed!

American Community Garden Association
Let’s Move Campaign
Slow Food USA (Chapters nation-wide)
Time for Lunch Program (Slow Food USA)
DC Field to Fork Network
Google.com (Just do a search for your city and “community garden” or “school gardens”)

Fresh Mint Tea

4 quarts water
5 -6 single serving bags of black tea
1 bunch of fresh mint (about 1 to 1-1/2 cups packed), leaves removed (discard stems)
1 cup evaporated cane juice sugar, plus more to taste

Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Once boiling, turn off heat and add tea bags and loose mint leaves. Let steep for about 5 – 10 minutes. Strain the tea into a heat-proof pitcher and stir in sugar. Serve warm or allow tea to cool and serve over ice.

Hopefully, where ever you are the weather has been as beautiful and uplifting as the gorgeous spring weather we’ve been experiencing here in the D.C. area. The breakthrough of sunny skies, gentle winds and comfortable warmth has been a refreshing detour from the harsh winter we experienced this year. Now with all the snow melted and days warm enough to leave the jacket at home and breakout the sandals, it’s time to ease up on soups and stews, and move on to lighter and refreshing dishes.

The first touch of spring and lighter fare in my kitchen comes from this nutritious whole wheat pasta salad. Working well as a light side dish for lunch or an afternoon snack, a tasty pasta salad is also a good thing to have in your collection of dishes for your first cook out or BBQ of the season.

Made with whole grain pasta, my spring fresh and summer ready pasta salad includes a variety of flavorful, fresh ingredients like diced tomatoes, green onions, tangy black olives, and a homemade vinaigrette of extra-virgin olive oil, white whine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Easy to make in all of about 30 minutes, you can eat it warm, but it gets that cool and refreshing taste of a salad once you refrigerate it or allow it to come to room temperature. Enjoy!

Spring Fresh, Summer Ready Pasta Salad
Serves 8

3 cups whole wheat corkscrew (rotelle) pasta
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 small ripe tomatoes seeded, peeled and diced
2 scallions (green onions) thinly sliced (green parts only)
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup diced red onions
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Dressing
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup quality white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of salt

Fill a large pot with water, add 1/2 tablespoon salt, and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, add white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey and dried thyme. Then slowly drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil while quickly whisking all dressing ingredients together. Season dressing with a pinch of salt and taste to adjust flavor as needed.

Add olives, green onions, red onions and tomatoes to your bowl of pasta and add in dressing (you may not need to use all of it). Stir all together and mix well. Season pasta salad with salt, pepper and lemon zest to taste. Set aside or refrigerate to cool completely before serving.

Last week I served this tasty pulled chicken sandwich along side my bowl of butternut squash soup. With the weather getting cooler and cooler these days, hot soup and warm sandwiches are ideal for weeknight meals and leftovers to take for lunch. So what makes this sandwich or any sandwich for that matter tasty and more than just the standard luncheon meat on bagged sliced bread like the kind I grew up on (think bologna or ham and cheese)? The answer’s very simple … the bread and the extras.

I’ve found that simply making your sandwich with fresh baked bread from a bakery can add a new dimension of flavor to your sandwiches if you’re used to making sandwiches at home with your regular packaged bread. My favorite bakery breads to use for sandwiches include wheatberry, rosemary Italian or foccaccia, sunflower or multi-seed boule (like the one I used for the photos here), or ciabatta. Also, I like to buy the bread whole rather than have it sliced at the bakery. I read the tip somewhere that slicing the bread as you need it allows it to keep longer than if you have it pre-sliced, and I’ve discovered that to be true.

The extras that I speak of, another key to good homemade sandwiches include breaking out of the jar of your simple mayo spread. Instead, add a little extra flavor by using pesto or avocado as a spread on your sandwiches or mixing in seasonings to your mayo. For this pulled chicken sandwich, I added one minced clove of garlic with fresh ground black pepper to my mayonnaise and those additions alone elevated the “deliciousness” of my sandwich. You can also try dried herbs, a splash of lemon juice, or a diced sun-dried tomato. Be creative, and enjoy!

Pulled-Chicken Sandwich with Garlic Mayo

1 loaf fresh baked bread of your choice
2 – 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Pulled chicken from one roasted or rotisserie chicken
Green leaf lettuce
Vine-ripened tomato, sliced
Thin-sliced red onions (optional)
Garlic mayo (see recipe below)

Drizzle olive oil over one side of two slices of the fresh bread and lightly toast in the oven under the broiler, remove from oven and set aside. On the untoasted sides of the bread, spread a thin layer of garlic mayonnaise and top one slice with pulled chicken. Then sprinkle chicken with a little pepper. Add lettuce and a few tomato and red onion slices. Top with the other slice of toasted bread and cut sandwich on a diagonal. Serve with hot soup.

Garlic Mayonnaise

1/4 cup quality mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, finely minced (almost to a paste)
2 dashes of fresh ground black pepper

Mix the finely minced garlic and pepper well into the mayo and use on bread for sandwiches or as a dip for fresh vegetables or (eek!) … fries.

Until this past weekend, I never realized just how beautiful the Virginia countryside is. Last fall I took a trip to Culpeper, VA with a friend to visit their cute shops and pick apples. We had such a great time that I wanted to share the experience with some of my family members. So this past weekend I, my parents, a cousin and several aunts and uncles took an overnight trip to Culpeper and Madison counties for a few farm and winery tours. Blessed with sunny and pleasantly crisp fall weather, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and as we took the “back” roads from place to place, the sights of the wide open and beautifully manicured fields accented with wooden fences and gorgeous homes added to our enjoyment.

Culpeper County was having their official Fall Harvest Farm Tour, and although we didn’t include all 12 site visits on our trip, we made it to several including a few unofficial stops to two wineries and to Graves Mountain Farm for apple picking. Between the nine of us, we left the orchard with about 10 or 11 boxes of apples – staymen, red delicious, golden delicious, fuji, and granny smith. So needless to say, a few of my upcoming posts will include apples!

First up, apple pecan chicken salad. I’ve wanted to feature chicken salad for a while because it’s always great for using up leftovers from roast chicken (waste not). In addition, it’s also good to make when you’re short on time or want to make a batch to last you for enough lunches or afternoon snacks through the week. Just simply buy a whole roasted or rotisserie chicken from the supermarket – a great short cut.

The Corner Bakery has a delicious chicken salad that includes apples and currants, so along with the apples I picked, that is the inspiration for this recipe. The sweetness and crunch of the apples add a pleasant taste to this chicken salad, and my favorite flavor note in this recipe comes from the toasted pecans. So enjoy, and take a look back at my apple recipes from last fall – apple pecan salad with apple cider vinaigrette (apple pecan is a great flavor combo) and apple crisp.

Apple Pecan Chicken Salad

1 whole roasted or rotisserie chicken (4 – 5 pounds),  shredded or well chopped into small pieces
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 cup diced apple
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon quality mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 light dashes smoked paprika
1/4 cup dried currants
1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Toast the pecan halves in a small sauté pan over medium low heat. Remove pan from heat once the pecans become fragrant (about 3 – 4 minutes). Allow pecans to cool slightly, then chop.

Working piece by piece (breast, legs, thighs, wings) and with your hands, separate the meat from the bones and chop the meat of the cooked chicken up into small pieces, then add it to a large bowl. Add the celery, diced apple, currants and half of the salt, thyme, paprika and some fresh ground black pepper along with the mayonnaise and stir well with a rubber spatula to combine.

Add the remaining half of salt, thyme and paprika along with the chopped pecans and stir to combine once more. Taste for additional salt and pepper. Serve apple pecan chicken salad on bread as a sandwich or with crackers or toasted bread. 

I’m back! Every now and then you just have to take a break. That was the case for me last week. After pushing hard in August to maintain my blogging schedule of posting twice a week and working to win the 2009 Black Weblog Awards for best food blog (which I did – thank you!), I had to slow down for a moment to regroup. Also, I had to make an adjustment to a new endeavor added to my schedule – yoga teacher training.

I’ve written about my interest in dance and yoga before, which both go hand in hand with my passion around food, nutrition and good eating. All of these things are about nurturing your health and well-being. I study dance and movement regularly (multiple classes a week) and have been practicing yoga on some level since 2000. So wanting to deepen my own yoga practice and prepare myself for teaching others about using movement for feeding mind, body and spirit, I’m now working on my 200-hour-level certification with Shakti Mind Body Studio.

This has inspired me to share the recipe for this post – a quinoa-millet hot breakfast cereal, which I first came across during a recent yoga retreat I attended. Definitely uncommon and associated with health food stores, you might be wondering, ‘what in the world is quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) or millet?’

Quinoa is a grain-like seed native to South America and high in protein and various minerals. It’s fluffy when cooked and has a nutty flavor. It can be eaten like oatmeal as in my recipe or like rice or cous cous. Millet is a grain that’s also a substitute for rice or cous cous and can be used in baked goods such as breads and muffins.

Cooked together in water, similar to how you might make oatmeal; this combination makes a great hot breakfast cereal that adds some variety to your mornings – variety in taste and in the nutrients provided. I’m from the south, so I love grits for breakfast (savory preferred – butter and salt), but I also enjoy oatmeal topped with chopped nuts, brown sugar and dried fruit. That’s exactly the same approach I use when making quinoa-millet cereal. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Quinoa-Millet Hot Cereal
Makes about 4 servings

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup millet, rinsed and drained
2-1/2 cups water
Chopped nuts
Currants, raisins or cranberries
Dried apricots, diced
Maple syrup, agave nectar, or brown sugar

Bring water and a pinch of salt to a boil in small sauce pan. Add quinoa and millet, stir, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add a little hot water if it cooks too quickly. The cereal should be neither too watery nor dry (more like porridge).

Serve in a bowl with chopped nuts, dried fruit such as raisins, currants and apricots, along with one to two tablespoons of maple syrup or agave nectar. You can also use brown sugar instead.

Roasted French green beans with cherry tomatoes; this is truly a seasonal dish. These tender, yet crisp green beans, also known as haricots verts or French filet beans, are thin and slender and as a result, cook quickly. That should be some solace over the fact that they can be a little hard to find.

I bought these beans at the farmers’ market this past Sunday along with some bright red cherry tomatoes that were very tiny, but full of flavor. In fact, I’ve never tasted a cherry tomato that tastes so good.

I know that I’ve made some similar comments in several of my posts over the summer, but believe me, it’s the honest to goodness truth. I guess that’s just a testament to how much there is to discover about food that’s fresh picked and in season.

Inspired by a recipe for roasted vegetables by Ina Garten in her latest cookbook, I simply tossed these beans and cherry tomatoes with a little extra-virgin olive oil and kosher salt, and then roasted them at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes. They came out of the oven cooked, but still a little crispy with the warm tomatoes bursting their tart, yet sweet flavor onto the pan.

If you aren’t a big fan of crisp green beans, you can boil the beans first for about five minutes before roasting them with the tomatoes.  I wouldn’t roast them for more than 10 minutes because then they tend to wilt and overcook.

Also, if you can’t find French green beans, the next best thing are young, small green beans. Since these beans aren’t always readily available in supermarkets, so don’t plan to make this recipe and then shop. Go shopping first, and if you come across some beautiful haricots verts or small green beans that catch your eye, come back to this reference on how to enjoy them.

French Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Oven-Roasted Vegetables

1 pound of French green beans
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Rinse and drain vegetables and spread them out in one layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the beans and tomatoes and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Toss the vegetables to coats, and then sprinkle with the other half teaspoon salt. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add a little fresh cracked black pepper and serve.

The classic backyard-bbq comes standard with smoky beef burgers and hotdogs. While these summer mainstays will likely never go out of style, you might want to provide options for yourself and your guests and add the increasingly popular turkey burger to your menu.

Turkey burgers can either be great or horrible — easily. Without good seasoning and at least some fat, your burgers might come off the grill tasting more like cardboard than anything tasty. But, with a few additional ingredients and a little more attention than you would give to beef burgers you can overcome the dry-turkey-burger challenge.

When making turkey burgers, you’ll want to use ground turkey that is at least 97/3 (as in 3% fat). Stay away from 99% lean ground turkey, which is more likely to dry out. Ground turkey that includes turkey thighs is even better if you’re striving for the juiciest turkey burger you can make. I used 97/3 ground turkey for this recipe and the juiciness of the burgers was pretty good.

I recently came back from a visit to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health where they have very tasty and healthy food, and when I returned home, I went on their website to take a look at their recipes. That’s where I discovered their recipe for sun-dried tomato turkey burgers, which inspired me to write this post. My recipe, containing fewer ingredients, is a little simpler than theirs.

The chopped, sun-dried tomatoes add a few bright notes of flavor throughout the burger and the sautéed shallots and flat-leaf parsley add to the flavor as well. As with any burger, whether you’re cooking the burgers on the grill or on the stovetop in a pan, you’ll want to be sure not to overcook it (otherwise get ready for a dry burger).

Do you have any other tips or ways to make tasty turkey burgers? One of my cousins adds ground chicken sausage to his, which is another way to add good flavor.

Sun-Dried Tomato Turkey Burgers
Adapted from a recipe by the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Makes about 4 – 5 burgers

1.3 pounds of lean ground turkey (no leaner than 97/3)
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 olive oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2 clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small pan over medium heat; add shallot and sauté for about 1 minute or so. In a large bowl, add ground turkey, sautéed shallot, and remaining ingredients. Stir with a fork to mix well. Break off a handful (about the size of a baseball) of seasoned ground turkey at a time and form 4 to 5 burger patties. Cook over a grill or in a pan on stovetop over medium to medium-high heat.

To cook by stovetop, set patties aside and heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick pan. Add patties to the pan being sure not to overcrowd the pan. You may have to cook two patties at a time depending on the size of the pan. Cook on one side for about 3 – 4 minutes and then flip patties to cook on the other side for another 4 minutes. Flip once more to cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Check one patty for doneness. If it’s not done, cook a little longer. Let burgers rest for a few minutes before serving on burger buns with lettuce, tomatoes and your other favorite burger toppings.

Sometimes, ripe fruits and vegetables are just too good to be cooked or sugar coated. They’re delicious in their own right and packed with nutrition. I came real close to featuring a pound cake with peaches in syrup or a peach cobbler (I probably will later), but in honor of the peak of summer and the bounty of seasonal produce available, I dedicate this post to the unadulterated peach.

This season especially, I’m coming to realize that ripe, fresh picked fruits and vegetables have so much more flavor than the produce you normally find in the grocery store year round. The latter has often been prematurely picked and is several days or a week old before it gets in your shopping bag, which means less flavor and less nutrients.

Fresh, local peaches are just now beginning to show up on market stands, and they’ll be with us through August. I couldn’t be happier. Their fragrance reminds me of home and when I used to help my grandfather sell South Carolina peaches at the local farmers’ market. Oh, and that’s a helpful tip for you when purchasing peaches — if you can’t easily smell their fragrance, then they’re probably not going to be the best pick. That I knew, but here are a few other tips: 

“Look for ones with a creamy to gold undercolor that indicates ripeness. The amount of red on peaches depends on the variety, it is not always a sign of ripeness. Look for fruit that has a well-defined crease and a good fragrance. Unripe peaches have a green undercolour and will never ripen.”

- The Fruit Pages

Originally from China (fascinating), peaches are high in potassium and contain vitamins C and A. They also contain fiber, are low in calories, have high water content, and are considered to be a natural diuretic. All good for you and your taste buds, so find yourself a good peach and indulge in the natural beauty of summer.

Crunchy, lightly sweet granola can be found prominently displayed in supermarket cereal aisles for about $3.99 to $5.99 a bag. The cheaper variety contains high fructose corn syrup and the more expensive variety is … well, more expensive! However, I’ve discovered that granola is very easy to make yourself at home.

Associated with hippies and health food stores, granola is a great food for anyone and goes well with yogurt and berries to make a parfait, with milk (cow’s milk, soy, almond, etc.) for a breakfast cereal or even on ice cream. Granola is also great to carry for a mid-morning or afternoon snack. 

The base ingredients for granola are rolled-oats and honey or maple syrup, usually nuts and some type or a combination of dried fruit. When it comes to nuts and dried fruits, the options are endless for what you can add to granola.

Nuts used often include pecans, almonds, cashews or peanuts. You will also find seeds used such as pumpkin or sunflower. Dried fruit options include raisins, cranberries, pineapple, grated coconut, apricots, dates, mango and apples. 

The recipe below is for a very simple granola with a toasty flavor. I’ve discovered that the key to making good granola is to be sure to stir it every 10 minutes or so as it’s baking. This allows for even cooking. Also, depending on how accurate your oven is, the granola might bake quicker than what the recipe states. If you start to smell a burnt smell, take it out – it’s done.

Toasty Homemade Granola
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup chopped nuts (such as pecans or almonds or a mixture)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup banana chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place the oats, nuts and salt in a large bowl and stir well. Add honey and stir well again (1 – 2 minutes) to combine and evenly incorporate all ingredients. On a non-stick baking sheet, spread the mixture evenly. If you’re not working with a good non-stick sheet, lightly spray the sheet with cooking spray before adding mixture or line with parchment paper.

Bake for 25 minutes stirring the mixture every 10 minutes to ensure even cooking. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Then transfer the toasty granola to a bowl and stir in the raisins and banana chips. Allow to cool completely.

Serve granola with yogurt and fruit to make a breakfast parfait or eat with milk as a breakfast cereal. Granola also goes well with ice cream or eaten alone as a snack.