Easy does it: Salsa-grilled flounder fillets

One good idea often leads to another. Yesterday my boss asked my advice on how to cook fish fillets. I said I like to brush them with olive oil, lemon juice, sprinkle with dill, then wrap them in olive-oil-coated foil, very loosely, and grill for about 15 minutes at high heat. She took that idea and created a variation: She coated her fillets in salsa, then wrapped them in foil and grilled them. When she described that to me today, it sounded so good, I did the same with flounder fillets when I got home tonight. The result was low-fat, low-calorie, so delicious. To go with our fish, we grilled sweet potatoes flavored with fresh-grated parmesan. To cook those, I stabbed each a couple times, wrapped them in foil too, and grilled at high heat for about 30 minutes.

Is it still summer? Roast chicken with gravy

I'm feeling a certain pre-Labor day eagerness for fall. I find myself looking forward to a return to cool mornings when I will dig out my favorite sweaters, and warm socks, too, and then a few weeks later, maybe even mittens. It's still 90 degrees in Kansas. Kind of hard to imagine cool days will ever come again.

Given this mood, we cooked a winter kind of dinner tonight. Actually, I got everything ready during my lunch hour, and while I was still working, Dave put dinner into the oven to roast for 90 minutes. Yes, it's still too hot to be roasting anything, but man, by the time I got home, dinner was delicious.

Here's what I did at lunchtime: I put a whole farmers' market chicken into a foil-lined baking dish, dabbed it with olive oil, and rubbed the skin with a crushed garlic clove and dried rosemary leaves. Then I covered the chicken with foil and put it into the fridge. Late in the day, Dave put this into the oven, uncovered, to roast at 375 degrees for about 90 minutes.

When I got home, I cooked some rice and steamed some broccoli, and made gravy from the chicken drippings. Yeah, summer's not over yet. But I can feel autumn coming on.

Homemade chicken gravy

Pour drippings from a medium-sized roast chicken into a deep skillet. In a Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup, combine 1 cup milk, 3 tablespoons flour and 1/4 cup white wine. Whisk 'til smooth. Heat drippings 'til boiling, then slowly add milk-flour mixture to drippings in skillet. Stir quickly with a wire whisk 'til thickened. Pour into a gravy boat. Serve over rice or potatoes.

After a workout, zucchini slaw hits the spot

We went to the gym for an hour-long workout tonight, so we didn't eat 'til nearly 9. Fortunately, we had some pretty righteous leftovers on hand: two ears of corn and a marinated turkey breast tenderloin we grilled last night, and grated zucchini I had left over from baking my cake on Sunday. (The grated zucchini had stayed good and fresh refrigerated in an air-tight ziploc bag.) I made a nice slaw salad with the corn and about a cup of the grated zucchini, adding a chopped garden tomato, half of a diced crisp red pepper, a tablespoon of white vinegar and two tablespoons olive oil. I just stirred all that up and served it with slices of our excellent cold turkey. Dinner was as low-cal and quick as Lean Cuisine, and more appetizing.

(Yesterday before grilling the turkey, I soaked it in the Joy of Cooking recipe for chicken marinade-- it was perfect.)

No-hassle dessert: Chocolate zucchini cake

One of the best ways to get into the rhythm of relaxed home cooking is to keep the kitchen well-stocked. Always have eggs, butter, yeast, flour, cocoa, lots of fresh vegetables, cans of chicken broth, tomato sauce, and in the freezer, a variety of meats. Then you can be creative day to day about what to cook.

I don't bake a lot of sweets, but I do keep bags of walnuts and chocolate chips in my cupboard at all times, just in case I need them. Yesterday we were invited to dinner with friends, so I offered to take a dessert, though I didn't have anything specific in mind when I made the offer. I took stock of what I had on hand, and figured I'd make good use of a nice-sized zucchini that was taking up space on the kitchen counter.

I found a delectable chocolate zucchini cake recipe on epicurious.com. It was easy to make (I grated the zucchini effortlessly in my food processor) and didn't require a run to the store for anything. I used mini-chocolate chips, and I didn't have any buttermilk, so I used 2 percent, no problem. Dessert was beautiful and delicious.

A change of scene: Cox Farm fresh produce

Slept late today. So instead of going to the Kansas Grown Farmers Market out west of town (where you gotta get there early) we drove about 12 miles south of town to check out Cox Farm produce market. This wonderful vegetable market is open seven days a week 8 am. to 7 p.m. except during the winter.

It was a fun excursion. We found lots of beautiful garden-grown tomatoes, onions, squash , yams, garlic and other veggies, as well as plums, cantaloupe and Northwest peaches. And I appreciated the luxury of being able to load my choices into a shopping cart. At the farmers market, I get a good workout hauling bountiful sacks of produce and meats to my car, then going back to the stalls to buy more stuff.

As Dave likes to say, it's all good.

Comfort at the end of a workday: Meatloaf

Dave made dinner tonight. All I had to do was email a makeshift recipe to him while I was still at work: "In the standing mixer, or in a bowl if you prefer to mix it with your hands, mix two pounds hamburger with a cup of chopped onions, a clove of minced garlic (we may be low on garlic, if so, go without...) an egg, 1 cup of bread crumbs or smashed crackers (I have storebought breadcrumbs in the cupboard in a couple different packages-- use the Kroger ones in the cylindrical package-- seasoned or not is fine) , 1/2 cup of chili sauce (there's some in the fridge), 1 tablespooon Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon or so Italian seasoning, 3/4 cup milk. Mash all together. Put into a foil-lined baking dish, leaving space around the sides for the grease to drain. Spread more chili sauce on the top, smooth with a spoon. Sprinkle with parmesan and dried parsley. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. My amounts are just estimated. Do what looks right. "

He did a great job. And it was so nice to come home to a serving of comfort food I didn't have to cook.

A break from routine: Pasta primavera

We are in something of a summer rut, albeit an appetizing summer rut. Most nights, we grill some sort of meat and throw some corn, zucchini, peppers, onions, whatever we have on hand, onto the grill as well. And then the next night, we do pretty much the same thing. This is all very tasty, yes, but after all these summer months, well, it's getting a tad monotonous.

So tonight, I used our daily allocation of summer veggies to create exquisite pasta primavera to go with our (yes, grilled-- and very nicely, I might add) pork chops. I used wide Amish-style noodles, which worked just as well as any fettucini I've ever cooked, and a big orange tomato, which added a hint of sweetness. It's fun to mix things up during the summer, when ingredients are so fresh.

Garden fresh pasta primavera

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
Three large tomatoes (preferably at least one an orange tomato), coarsely chopped
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh zucchini
3/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons capers
3 cups uncooked egg noodles or fettucini.
1 cup dry white wine
Fresh grated parmesan

Cook noodles according to package instructions. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add 3 cloves minced garlic. Add remaining vegetables and capers. Simmer for 10 minutes, while pasta boils. Add wine to sauce. Simmer. Drain pasta. Stir pasta into saucepan with vegetables. Stir. Garnish with a few fresh basil leaves. Serve with fresh grated parmesan.

Stir-fry chicken with veggies you have on hand

Stir-fry is about the easiest way to cook dinner fast, short of hitting a drive-thru lane. Tonight I cooked up chicken laced with assorted vegetables: carrots, onions, asparagus and broccoli. It doesn't seem right to even write up a recipe, since the secret of quick-hit stir-fry is raiding the fridge and mixing up whatever you can find to add to the mix on any given day.

That said, there are a few tricks to guarantee success. I have an electric wok that works beautifully. I chop up vegetables into separate stacks, and then in some canola oil heat up three shakes of sesame oil. First, I fry carrots, broccoli, onions-- or any veggies that take a little extra time -- for about 4 minutes. Then I add veggies that take less time to cook, such as asparagus or green beans or slices of zucchini. At this point, I add some liquid. Tonight I tossed in about a half cup dry white wine, then covered the wok and let the veggies steam in the wok for about 4 minutes more. (Chicken broth would work too.)

Then I set those veggies aside in a bowl. I then added a bit of extra oil to the wok, let that get good and hot, and then added a clove of pressed garlic and diced pieces of two boneless chicken breasts. I cooked the chicken on high for 3 minutes, then turned the meat and cooked about 3 minutes more, 'til nicely browned. I tossed in the cooked vegetables, added about 3/4 cup of bottled stir-fry sauce, and heated everything together for about a minute. I spooned this onto a platter, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, and served over rice with a little soy sauce.

Gave Dave a nice break from our summer grilling routine, and dinner was ready about 30 minutes after I got home from the office. A nice, easy and delicious mid-week supper.

Keep it simple: tomatoes, cucumber, avocado

The flavors of summer are so appealing, they require no complicated effort. Slice up some garden-grown tomatoes, fresh cucumber, top with a little avocado and olive oil, and you have a perfect salad.

Want fries with that? Absolutely not.

Bucking a trend, with excellent pasta salad

I've come to the sad realization that pasta salad is a food trend on the decline. Do you suppose future generations will think back on this once popular summertime fare the way we today think sneeringly of green-bean casserole covered in mushroom soup and canned french-fried onions? Or Jell-o laced with fruit cocktail? Seems hard to imagine, but I'm thinking... yeah.

For about 15 years, starting around 1984, I'd take a pasta salad to any potluck occasion. But I realized yesterday I hadn't made a pasta salad all summer. And I haven't eaten any anywhere else either. Now, instead of adding summer vegetables to pasta to create salad variations, we're just adding vegetables to vegetables. We mix corn with beans and cucumber and red pepper to make a salad. We mix eggplant with olives and capers and zucchini to make a salad. We throw basil and tomato and mozzarella together to make this season's trendiest potluck offering, a Caprese salad. We're simply dispensing with the empty carbs and time it takes to boil up noodles to distract from all this vegetable goodness.

I gotta say, I feel bad about this. I've been a big fan of pasta salad through the years. So, since we had a potluck to go to yesterday, I decided to buck this newly identified trend, and I made the best pasta salad I think I've ever produced. I started with a recipe for an eggplant salad, cut back some on the eggplant, and added cooked mostaccioli. It was wonderful.

Not surprisingly, no one else brought a pasta salad to last night's party. And as good as my creation was, most of it went uneaten. We're having the leftovers tonight for dinner. Could this be evidence that America has really lost its appetite for this favorite side dish from the 1980s? Say it ain't so...

Pasta salad with grilled eggplant, tomatoes and feta

Half of a 1-pound eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch rounds (about 6 slices)
Four medium-sized tomatoes, diced (I used two orange tomatoes and two red)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons capers
One medium-sized sweet onion, diced fine
12 pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
1/4 cup extravirgin olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1 pound mostaciolli or ziti

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a collander and rinse. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil. Grill on medium-high heat for five minutes per side. Cool slightly, cut each slice into four quarters. In a large bowl, combine remaining olive with basil, olives, onion, vinegars, capers, garlic, tomatoes. Add eggplant and pasta. Mix well. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Hearty breakfast plays into B&B fantasy

On weekends, I love cooking a big breakfast. This plays into a fantasy I have that I could run a B&B (and maybe I could, except that this would involve doing many chores outside the kitchen for which I have no knack or appetite...) Late this morning, I made us a feta cheese omelette with pieces of orange tomato folded in and a sprinkle of parsley on top. (I picked up a sack of orange tomatoes this morning at the market. They're quite appealing.) I also sauteed a few baby potatoes (left over from last night) in olive oil with some diced sweet onion. And we enjoyed some cantaloupe, which we eat morning and night lately, no complaints, and homemade wheat bread with strawberry-rhubarb jam. The jam also came from (where else?) the farmer's market. Now we won't need to eat again 'til dinner. We may not need to eat for the rest of the weekend.

On an unrelated note, a bit of a rant: After my big breakfast, I caught a few minutes of Paula Deen on the Food Network, showing how to make a no-bake cheesecake using a storebought graham-cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk and a can of cherry pie filling. Looks easy, looks good, looks awfully familiar. Isn't that basically the time-honored recipe on a box of Philadelphia cream cheese? Don't people who watch the Food Network expect to see something a little more inspiring?

We always have thyme for grilled potatoes

Tonight we skewered little itsy-bitsy new potatoes and cooked 'em on the grill, seasoned with thyme. They were wonderful.

First I boiled the potatoes for 15 minutes. Then I rinsed them quickly in cold water, put them whole onto my stainless steel skewers and brushed them with a mixture of olive oil, a teaspoon of dried thyme, and salt and pepper. On separate skewers we cooked fresh red pepper and chunks of sweet onion, brushed with the same olive oil mixture. And I threw some zucchini rounds onto the grill as well, and corn wrapped in foil, 'cause we just can't get enough corn these days. Everything grilled up on medium heat in about 12 minutes.

Olive oil is so delicious and healthy. I couldn't get through summer without it.

So tonight we had lots of vegetables to accompany tasty bites of the cold salmon left over from yesterday, doused with fresh lemon juice. Not a bad way to wrap up a long work week.

Good groceries: Lunch, latte & dinner too

Today at lunchtime Dave and I went to the grocery store. We'd run out of a few essentials, most notably coffee, so we decided to do a little noontime shopping and check out the deli offerings at the newly remodeled and lavishly expanded Dillons store near our house.

We enjoyed good sandwiches and soup in the deli, and then picked up some salmon and avocado for dinner (and coffee for breakfast). I am loving this refurbished grocery store. It's a store that screams "food should be beautiful, aisles should be wide, many, many clerks should be tripping over themselves to help you, and you should shop here instead of WalMart." I love walking into a sparkling clean grocery store where I can do my banking, get a prescription filled, have easy access (even in Kansas) to a liquor store, enjoy a Starbucks latte, buy sushi and beautiful fruits and vegetables, iPod accessories, patio furniture, anything else I want, and run into friends every time I set foot in the place. It's a store that makes me happy.

Tonight for dinner, we had salmon grilled in foil, avocado slices, corn and tomato salad (with some rice thrown in) and cantaloupe we bought Saturday -- not at Dillons, but at the farmer's market. This time of year, perfect Kansas cantaloupe is an excellent complement to anything you might pick up for dinner at the grocery store, or anywhere else.

Fall, when a bit of pressure hits the air

I feel autumn creeping up on me just a little bit. I'm sensing a hint of that back-to-school pressure in the air, hot and humid though the air still is. I don't know why I feel this way. Though school started for little children today in Wichita, my grown-up children don't live within 1,000 miles of here. Summer's not supposed to end for another month.

Maybe I'm feeling the onset of fall because this week I've had to drive slowly again through school zones on my way to work, and church choir practice is about to start for another season. I'm a faithful Episcopalian, which means I'm not very good about getting to church during the summer time. Fall prompts a return to routine. Our choir had a potluck dinner tonight to begin easing into our Wednesday night rehearsal schedule. I had meant to come home at lunchtime to make some excellent dish to share, but ended up so busy at work that I ate vending machine munchies for lunch and resorted to buying something somebody else made to take to the potluck.

Picked up a takeout order of spinach artichoke dip and chips at Larkspur, an excellent restaurant across the street from my office. Good food, even if I didn't make it. No fuss, no pressure.

The perfect burger, and perfect sides

What's better on a summer night than a burger hot off the grill? A burger of Kansas-raised beef laced with bits of sweet onion, garnished with garden tomatoes and feta cheese on a homemade French roll, with a side of just-picked sweet corn, slices of roasted red pepper, and chunks of fresh cantaloupe. Served with a glass of chilled Columbia Valley Fume Blanc. What a perfect dinner.

What are we going to do come October when the farmers' market closes for the winter?

Worth the effort: Butternut squash lasagne

Dave believes it's a bad idea to try new recipes out on guests. Go with the tried and true, he reasons. Don't risk a disaster when company comes. I prefer life on the edge. If I'm going to go to the trouble of making something new, especially some recipe that's at all complicated, it's not worth it unless I'm going to share it with a crowd.

I'm wishing we'd invited guests over last night, because I made a side dish that was so labor-intensive I'm not sure I'll ever make it again. It was delicious, lasagne with butternut squash, garlic and rosemary, an Epicurious recipe my friend Felicia flagged to my attention some months ago. Felicia, who lives in Missoula, is the best home cook I know. She has such an elegant touch, and never complains that any elaborate dish wasn't worth the trouble. In fact, when she sent me this recipe, she didn't mention that I'd be dirtying lots of dishes and using up most of an afternoon to cook this.

Actually, I have to admit that this lasagne was so good, I'm sure I will make it again. The rosemary-garlic sauce is such a perfect subtle complement to the sweetness of the butternut squash. What I will do next time is cook the sauce and squash a day in advance. The next day, this would go together pretty easily. And I'll invite company over.

This is a side dish, not an entree, so we grilled pork chops to go with it last night. Felicia recommends baking your unpeeled squash for 40 minutes at 350 degrees before peeling, dicing and roasting, a good idea. I used four medium squash, and ended up with about five cups of diced pieces, less than the recipe recommends, but it was plenty. The last step in this recipe involves spreading whipped cream evenly on top of the casserole, so it looks like dessert when you put it into the oven. Very strange. But it works.

Simple, fresh food is ultimate convenience

I love cooking with fresh ingredients. They're better in every way than pre-packaged foods, even when it comes to convenience.

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting column this week by Tara Parker-Pope: "The Myth of Convenience: Why Instant Foods Don't Save Time."

"While it's true that a frozen lasagna dish is usually faster to make than homemade lasagna, researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles wanted to find out how convenience foods are used in the real world," she wrote. "After they videotaped family cooking habits, the researchers saw that convenience foods weren't used as a time-saving substitute for the same dish made from scratch. Instead packaged foods offered a way for families to eat more elaborate meals than they would normally have time to prepare."

Since pre-packaged convenience foods tend to be high in unhealthy fats, preservatives and sodium, it makes sense to cook simpler food from scratch, with fewer -- and fresh-- ingredients.
Parker-Pope writes that UCLA researchers videotaped the cooking habits of 32 families with two working parents. "The study showed that meals with little or no convenience foods took 26 to 93 minutes to prepare. Meals that used a lot of convenience foods took 25 to 73 minutes to prepare. While convenience foods were time-savers on very elaborate meals, overall, there was no statistically significant difference in total preparation time."

The study noted that "the biggest time savings of convenience foods may be at the grocery store, where it's faster to grab a frozen entree than to collect six separate ingredients to make the same dish from scratch. " People who cooked from scratch offered fewer items per meal; "One family made a simple meal of sandwiches and edamame, using bread, cheese, greens and salmon and tomatoes. That meal took about a half-hour to prepare. Another family had a six-dish convenience-food meal of microwave barbecued ribs, macaroni and cheese, prebagged salad, bagged dinner rolls and a cookies and ice cream dessert. That meal also took a half-hour."

Not difficult to determine which meal would be healthier, and in my view, more appetizing. The key for working families who want to serve dinners from scratch is a little planning, and keeping things simple.

Hot sausage and beans on a summer night

Dinner tonight took just a few minutes of prep time. During my lunch break, I opened two 15-ounce cans of diced tomatoes, threw these into my slow cooker with a chopped onion, a 15-ounce can of black beans, 2 cloves minced garlic, about a cup of frozen corn and four pre-cooked jalapeno beef sausages, cut into chunks, that I bought last week at the farmers' market. I also added about 3/4 cup uncooked rice. I stirred all this up, set the slow cooker to high and cooked from about 1 p.m. 'til 6 p.m. The sausages spiced up this pot o' goodness just right.

It was maybe a little bit too warm tonight to be serving a hot bowl of beans and spicy sausage. But it was delicious. I'm saving this recipe to use again when winter hits.

Fruit with my spinach; I'm good with that

It's hot in Wichita now, too hot to grill, too hot to turn on the oven. 100 degrees. What better time to mix up a salad for dinner, heaped with every fresh ingredient I can think of?

Dave and I have a disagreement when it comes to green salad. I like adding pieces of fruit to the mix-- bites of oranges, grapes, strawberries, sliced apples. He's not big on combining sweet stuff with carrots, spinach, avocado, radishes. He said tonight I might as well top my salad off with maple syrup or chocolate sauce. Very funny. (A spritz of vinaigrette was just perfect, of course.)

I took my sister's advice and used an egg slicer to slice my strawberries. It works perfectly. And you can use the same handy gadget to slice a hard-cooked egg to throw onto the same plate.

Prepwork makes for easy eggplant dish

My poor cats. Whenever I fry anything, I set off the smoke alarm in my kitchen. This upsets them a great deal. They're both in hiding now-- I've just fried some eggplant slices during my lunch hour to have for dinner tonight. (Yes, it has been a big summer for eggplant at our house. I'm a zealous convert now that I've figured out how to cook this stuff.)

Instead of doing a fullblown baked eggplant parmesan, I'll store the fried rounds in the fridge 'til I get home later. For dinner, I'll put them onto a cookie sheet and top them each with grated mozzarella and a few tablespoons tomato sauce, and broil them til the cheese melts.

Here's how I cooked the eggplant. I took out three cereal bowls. In one, I put about 3/4 cup of flour. In the next, two beaten eggs. In the third, a cup or so of seasoned bread crumbs. I dredged each eggplant slice in flour, eggs, then crumbs, and put them into a skillet with hot olive oil. I fried for three minutes per side. Set a timer to do this. The secret to perfect panfrying is get the oil good and hot before putting whatever you've breaded into the pan, and then resisting the temptation to poke and push and flip everything over too soon.

Add olives, cheese to zucchini and tomatoes

Overloaded with tomatoes and zucchini? 'Tis the season. The other night I took baked zucchini, tomatoes and feta to a dinner party-- it's one of my favorite summer recipes, best in August, when tomatoes are so good. (Our hosts served a Caprese salad, with both yellow and red tomato slices from their garden. Delicious. You gotta enjoy these vine-ripened gems while they last. They also served cooked-to-perfection marinated flat iron steak-- a cut that seems to be the hottest food trend of the summer.)

Our friends, who had invited 15 people for dinner, found another great use for cherry tomatoes. Poke a toothpick into a ripe specimen, and attach a little name card for each dinner guest. Ingenious.

Tomatoes with zucchini, olives and cheese

Four large tomatoes, cut into chunks, or
4 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 medium-sized zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices
3 tablespoons olive oil
10-15 Kalamata olives, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
2 cloves pressed garlic
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Arrange rows of tomato and zucchini to form a layer on the bottom of a 11-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with a layer of feta. Top with a second layer of tomatoes and zucchini. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, olives, thyme, garlic. Spoon evenly over vegetables. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake in 425 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Mmm, peach-blueberry crepes for breakfast

One of the things I love best about having a party is enjoying leftovers the next day. This morning we have just enough of last night's peach-blueberry crepes to serve as a lovely breakfast. Crepes are a great make-ahead food. You can cook them up, refrigerate until needed or freeze them.

To construct my dessert, I made a dozen crepes and filling ahead of time, then while decaf was brewing for our guests, I rolled the filling into the crepes and placed them side-by-side in a single layer in a buttered 9-by-13-baking dish. I heated my dessert for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, and served with sifted powdered sugar and whipped cream.

And this morning I can heat what's left in the oven again for breakfast.

Sweet crepes

1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lukewarm water
4 large eggs
1/2 stick melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Whisk well in a mixing bowl. Over medium-high heat, melt a teaspoon of butter in a crepe pan. Remove pan from heat, pour in about 1/2 cup butter, tilting pan to cover entire bottom with a very thin layer of batter. Pour any excess back into mixing bowl. Return to heat, cook for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, til edges are slightly browned. Carefully turn with a stainless steel spatula. Cook for 1 minute more. Remove from pan, stack on a plate covered with waxed paper. Repeat the drill 'til batter is used up, stacking waxed paper on top of each cooked crepe, adding butter to pan as needed. Cover stack with plastic wrap, refrigerate 'til needed. (Adapted from Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary edition. )

Peach-blueberry compote

In a heavy saucepan, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Add four cups fresh sliced peaches and 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until thickened and bubbly. Refrigerate until ready to use. To fill crepes, use 3-4 tablespoons per crepe. This is also good on ice cream or French toast.

French bread lends a certain joie de vivre

We're having friends over for dinner tonight, so I made French bread today. Grocery store baguettes are lovely, but it's more rewarding to bake my own fresh bread. And French bread is such simple stuff-- just flour, salt, water and yeast.

For dinner, I'm serving Alanna Kellogg's parmesan chicken, a corn-tomato-and zucchini salad, and I think roasted potatoes. For dessert, because these are friends who are joining us on our trip to France in the fall, I made crepes to fill with peach-blueberry compote. Crepes are fun to make and delicious, but a little labor-intensive. Next time we have them it will be in Paris, hot from a street vendor's cart. Oh la la.

French bread

6 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (125 degrees)
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

In mixing bowl of standing mixer, combine 2 cups flour with yeast and warm water. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Add remaining flour. Knead with dough hook for 10 minutes.

Form dough into ball. Put into a buttered bowl, turn dough to coat all sides. Cover. Let rise for one hour, 'til doubled in size. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover, let rest 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 15-by-10 inch rectangle. Roll up from long sides, seal well. Pinch and pull ends to taper. (To make rolls, cut one loaf into portions to make single servings.) Place seam-side-down on a cookie sheet covered in parchment. Cover. Let rise 35 -45 minutes. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes in tops of the loaves. Mix egg white with water. Brush on loaves. Bake at 375 in convection or standard oven for 20 minutes. Brush again with egg white and water mixture. Continue baking for 20 minutes more or until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. (Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook ,1989 edition)

Egg salad calls for real mayo and a bit of crunch

Made myself an egg salad sandwich for lunch today, with farmers' market eggs and a bit of fresh sliced red pepper for a bit of requisite crunch. Dave can make his own sandwich if he wants one-- he favors Miracle Whip, and I will not go there. For me, tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad all call for real mayo (and homemade bread.) To make perfect egg salad, mash up two hard-cooked eggs with a shake of salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons mayonnaise. Lite mayo is fine. Miracle Whip is not.

More veggies than we could eat? Not quite

Last Saturday I took a snapshot of all the vegetables I had on hand for the week ahead. Summer rocks, doesn't it? It's been a good week. It's Friday and I'm about out of groceries. I'm down to just one yellow squash and four small onions. We've had roasted corn- red pepper-zucchini-tomato salad, grilled eggplant with feta, steamed green beans, spaghetti squash as a side dish once and as a main dish twice, grilled onions, mmm... I feel very healthy this week.

Farmers market offers one-stop shopping

Last night, I came home, started dinner, the phone rang and I had to head back to work . Such is life in the news business. Fortunately, I was planning simple fare for supper-- I had just put a steak into a bag with some bottled 30-minute marinade, cleaned up some green beans to steam and prepared corn for the grill. By the time I got home to stay, we had dinner ready in about 10 minutes.

Again, everything on the menu was from the farmers' market. I've been buying meat at the market every week; chicken, pork chops, sausage, steaks, roasts, all USDA-approved, all free of hormones and antibiotics. (I bought eggs out there too this week.) Vendors sell their meat frozen, so I can thaw what I need throughout the week. Though I don't go to the market expecting bargains, the flat iron steak I cooked last night was $6 a pound, same as Dillon's, and the chicken breasts I picked up Saturday seemed to be priced at about what I'd pay at the grocery store. I love buying from local vendors who raise their own livestock. A couple vendors sell venison and buffalo meat; I may have to try some of that before the summer is over.