A Mountainous Feast

It's funny what happens when you get together with family and friends to put together a big meal. You wake up early before the sun is high in the sky to harvest fresh veggies from the garden, last minute trips to the store are made, and finally a small army of people descend on the kitchen to lend a hand in preparing dinner. Everyone pitches in, chopping and mixing and skewering, all to prepare this feast they have been waiting all day to enjoy.

This particular feast featured the bounty of my Mother's home garden, supplemented with fresh corn from a farm just down the road. On this particular morning, we picked no less than 63 pounds of tomatoes, from Early Girls to Romas, Better Boys, Whoppers and beautiful heirloom Copias. A few peppers came along for the ride,and before 10 A.M. we had half of the ingredients we would need for that night's dinner. We would be serving 12 people at this dinner, a celebration of my Father's retirement, and a simple summer dinner that featured the amazing fresh vegetables of the season seemed to be the perfect thing.

On the menu for that night was chicken, pork and vegetable kebabs and corn on the cob. The veggies were primarily from my mother's garden, and we seasoned the kebabs with the lemon garlic vinaigrette we used for the Panzanella. A few Portobello mushrooms (not from the garden) were also thrown onto the grill with a little olive oil for the few of us that enjoy fungus.

The corn on the cob, meticulously prepared for our meal by T, E, & M, is one of my favorite things to make during the summer. After the corn is shucked, place it on a sheet of foil about 16 inches long. Add a pat of butter, a couple pinches of minced garlic, the juice of 1/2 of a lime, a couple shakes of chili powder, salt & pepper, then roll the foil up around the corn making sure to close it up tight. We cooked it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 - 60 minutes, and it was perfect. The grill works too, if you have room.

The caprese salad featured a collection of fresh, ripe and beautiful tomatoes from the garden, including the amazing Copia and those succulent Whoppers. The basil was grown on the back patio, and picked right before we made the salad. Drizzled with olive oil, it made the perfect compliment to the other dishes.

This weekend was all about good fresh food, and getting to share it with friends and family. And it was about harvesting copious amounts of tomatoes and other veggies. I had a great time harvesting the garden and working in the kitchen with everyone pulling this feast together in honor of my dad, and even more fun eating it. Thank you to the Oldhams, Criders, and Megan for making it out to celebrate my dad and helping to prepare this amazing meal. Enjoy!

Garlic-Lime Chicken and Corn On The Cob

I love corn on the cob. I love to cook it, I love to eat it, and I love that you get to eat it with your hands. But this ain't your grandmother's corn on the cob. (I am fighting the urge right now to call it "kicked-up" corn on the cob. I just can't let myself do it. I've got to stay strong.) Despite my internal struggle with the urge to start talking like some obnoxious celebrity chef, I have been making this corn for my wife and friends for a while now, and I just can't get enough. And the best part? It's easy! Just throw the ingredients into some foil, drop it in the oven, and you are done. Nothing to it. The ingredients for the corn are not set in stone, so add or subtract things for your taste.

As for the chicken, I was just going for something edible that paired well with the corn. As it turns out, it was pretty damn tasty on it's own. Nothing all that complicated about this one, either. The most work you will have to do is chopping an onion and peeling some garlic. Oh, and shoveling it into your mouth. So here we go.

Corn On The Cob
2 ears of corn, cleaned
4 - 5 cloves of garlic, diced
2 Tbs. butter
Juice of 1 lime
Dash of paprika
Dash of chili powder
Sprinkle of chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper
2 20" (approx.) long sheets of foil

Give each ear of corn it's own piece of foil. Divide the garlic between the ears. (Of corn. Not your ears. Nevermind.) Use 1 Tbs. of butter per ear, as well as the juice from 1/2 lime for each ear. Sprinkle paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper in as well. Finish it off with some chopped cilantro. Wrap foil tightly around the ears of corn and other ingredients, place on a baking sheet, and cook in the oven at 375 deg. for 20 minutes.

It's probably a good idea to do the corn before the chicken. The corn takes a little longer in the oven.

Garlic-Lime Chicken
2 chicken breasts
Juice from 2 limes
2 pinches of chili powder (to taste)
Several pinches of Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt (also to taste)
Ground black pepper
6 cloves of garlic
1/2 red onion, cut into wide 1/2in slices
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Mix the lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper in a large ziplock back. Add the chicken breasts. Marinate for ONLY 10 minutes, any more and the lime juice will start to cook the chicken. You want the stove to do that. Reserve the juice in the bag for later. In a large pan on high heat, sear both sides of the chicken breasts for about 3 - 4 minutes per side. Remove from heat.

Put the chicken breasts, garlic, onion, and marinade into a foil lined baking dish. Cover with a sheet of foil, and cook for about 10 minutes at 375 deg. Cook uncovered at the same heat for about 5 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with the cooked garlic and onion. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

At this point, I bet you're thinking you remember seeing what looked like tomatoes in the picture above. No need to scroll all the way back up, I'll help you out. While not part of the original recipe, I found some amazing heirloom tomatoes while I was at Whole Foods picking up the rest of the ingredients. Seriously, these things were as big as a baby's head. So, what the heck? Slice 'em, drizzle some olive oil over them, liberally sprinkle them with salt and pepper and there ya go. Maybe you cook them, maybe you don't. Your choice.

Enjoy!

Veggie Goodness

In the spirit of cooking with good, fresh local produce this summer, I picked up one of my favorite summer vegetables, okra, at the Rainbow Grocery Co-op in San Francisco. Rainbow has become my new favorite place to go grocery shopping. You will find an amazing produce section, an unparalleled selection of bulk goods including oils and nut butters, and all things fresh, healthy, and sustainable. What you will not find there, however, is meat. No bother; the plethora of goodies found at Rainbow easily make up for not having a meat counter. Really, Rainbow is probably the next best thing to a farmers market.

Anyway, back to the veggies. I don't cook with okra very often, although I'm not sure why. Okra is a strange vegetable, a cross somewhere between a pepper and a zucchini, with a tacky exterior and sticky paste that oozes out when cut open. One of these days I am going to have to find out what that goo is all about.

That sticky interior makes it perfect for clinging to other things, like breading, which is probably why it is so often found coated in corn meal and sizzling in several inches of oil. For this dish, I was going for something slightly less fattening than the southern classic fried okra. I think these veggies might just make it on our list of regular favorites in the Tiny Kitchen, and it reminded me of just how much I love okra. And tomatoes. Oh, and garlic and corn.

The recipe below is pretty adaptable; add, subtract or change for your tastes, or for what's in season. Remember, they're just vegetables.

Broiled Okra with Tomatoes, Corn and Garlic

Ingredients:
12 - 18 grape tomatoes
6 - 8 okra stalks, cleaned and cut into rounds
8 - 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
Kernels from 1 ear of corn
6 basil leaves, roughly chopped (for garnish)
Olive oil

Slice tomatoes in half and place halves and garlic cloves on a jelly roll pan. Drizzle in olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Broil about 5" from heat for 5 minutes. Toss corn and okra with about 1/2 tbs of oil, season with salt and pepper. Add to jelly roll pan, and return to oven. Broil for another 5 minutes, or until veggies start to brown. Sprinkle with basil, and serve.

Note: If grape tomatoes aren't your thing, use a regular tomato, halved, and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Or whole cherry tomatoes. Or add some red onion. Or whatever. What am I, your mother?



The pork chops were really just so we would have a meat to go with these yummy veggies. The greenish sauce on top is my feeble attempt at a light tomatillo salsa, and it could use some tweaking. But the chops, for what it's worth, went a little something like this:

Season pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper.
Pan sear the chops for a few minutes on either side, until both sides are browned. Put chops in a 375 deg oven with some olive oil and garlic cloves for about 15 - 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

My Rough Tomatillo Salsa:

12 tomatillos, halved
6 - 8 cloves of garlic
1 poblano pepper, chopped
A handful of cherry or grape tomatoes
The juice of one lime
A handful of basil leaves
1 tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Throw all ingredients into a food processor, pulse until it becomes a sauce.

So the sauce was good, very fresh tasting and light. But it was just a wee bit too spicy. Maybe not so much pepper next time. Maybe an onion. This is what makes cooking fun, right? But the veggies were the real point of the dinner, and they were perfect. The bright, fresh flavors really mixed well together, and the only real problem was that I didn't make enough for leftovers.

Enjoy!