Gazpacho

What do I make for dinner when the temperatures are over 90 for a week straight and the humidity is stifling? Gazpacho! This gazpacho recipe is quick, easy, and healthy. It can be served right away, but since I like my gazpacho super cold, I prefer to make it several hours or a day ahead.

Ingredients:
2 cups tomato juice, fresh or canned
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 large tomatoes (preferably heirloom and I usually try to use a mix of yellow and red)
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 small white onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, peeled
5-6 dashes of Worcestershire
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a blender. Start on low speed and quickly increase the speed to medium. Blend until almost smooth. (Note: Although I use a regular blender, I'm sure you could put all of the ingredients into a soup pot and use a stick blender instead.) Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add a couple dashes of hot sauce or more dashes of Worcestershire, depending on taste preference. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish with finely diced cucumbers, and/or fresh basil, and/or crumbled goat cheese.

Sour Cherry Pie

It's been way too long since I've posted! Between the house, work, travel, and getting ready for the baby the summer seems to be flying by.

Here in Michigan, July means cherry season. Normally, I just stick to eating the sweet, red cherries, but this year I've been inspired by what they have at the farmer's market so I've been using the sour cherries as well. The sour cherry season is short, so I've taken full advantage by making this same pie the last two weekends in a row. The first time I made it just for Joe, my parents, and me. It turned out so well that I made it again last weekend for our block party. I'll definitely be making it again next summer since it's simple and delicious. *Note: I used a store bought pie crust both times since I didn't have time to make one from scratch, but there are tons of good recipes out there for homemade pie crusts.*

Ingredients for the topping:

2/3 cup old fashioned oats, ground to a flour in a food processor or blender (yielding 1/2 cup oat flour)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup unsalted, sliced almonds, chopped medium fine by hand or ground in food processor

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

dash of almond extract

Ingredients for the filling:

1 quart + 1 pint of sour cherries

1/2 cup sugar

2-3 tablespoons cornstarch (depending on how juicy the cherries are)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Remove pits from cherries and place pitted cherries in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, all purpose flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and chopped almonds in a bowl. Stir well. Melt butter and allow to cool slightly. Add dash of almond extract to the butter. Pour butter into flour mixture and stir until well combined and crumbly.

In the bowl of pitted cherries, add the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gently stir until cherries are well coated. If there appears to be too much liquid, pour a little of it off, but not all.

Pour cherry mixture into prepared pie crust. Using your hands, crumble the topping evenly over the cherries.

Place in pie plate on a sheet pan to catch any drips as the pie starts to bubble. Bake for an hour and 10 minutes or until the juices are bubbly and thick. If the crust appears to be getting too browned, place a sheet of tin foil loosely over the pie at the halfway point. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

*Recipe modified from Smitten Kitchen

My New Favorite Granola

In the summer one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is Greek yogurt, drizzled with a little honey, and topped with granola and fresh berries. I never buy store bought granola though since more have unnecessary fats, sugars, and preservatives. I've experimented with several homemade granolas over the past couple of years and this recipe from Baked is my current favorite. It's not totally healthy since it does contain some oil, but it has a great flavor and texture. I'll post the recipe below the way that I make it, but keep in mind that you can always substitute other types of nuts and dried fruit. I happen to like almonds the best, but I've also made granola with walnuts and cashews and liked those a lot as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup dried cherries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.

In a small bowl whisk together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and gently stir.

Then use your hands to combine the mixture (squeeze small fist fulls) until all of the oats are well coated. {Note: using your hands really makes a huge difference in the final texture of the granola. Something about this step results in granola with more "chunks"}

Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and spread out evenly.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the over and add the almonds. Using a metal spatula, flip the granola over and incorporate the almonds.

Bake for another 10 minutes and then remove from the over to stir again with the spatula.

Bake for a final 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the cherries and raisins over the granola and transfer to an airtight container for storage.

*Recipe adapted from the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Recent Reads

The nice thing about spending lots of time on airplanes is that I have time to engage in one of my favorite hobbies, reading. This seems to be the summer of non-fictions reads for me.

I just finished a book called Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein. I found this book interesting not just because I’m pregnant, but because I’m very interested in how our doctor-patient relationships have evolved over the centuries and how ideas about what is “good medicine” seem to always be changing. The book traces childbirth practices from the middle ages until present day and relates stories that show how science has advanced the process, but also how cultural norms, fads, and customs have had such a big influence. Hutter Epstein is a medical journalist who combines sarcasm and whit with medical history into what I thought was a very engaging book.

Currently I’m reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Again, this book speaks to my interest in healthcare and medicine. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the story of a Hmong immigrant family who was living in California when their three month old daughter Lia developed epilepsy or as the Hmong call it “the disease where the spirit catches you and you fall down”. The book explores the cultural clash between the beliefs of the Hmong regarding illness and the way in which the Western medical community understands illness and chooses to treat it. It’s a wonderful insight into Eastern vs Western medicine and culture. I’m a big believer in holistic medicine and that there usually is more than one way to treat an illness. I’m also a firm believer in a lot of Eastern medicine practices and often feel that Western doctors take a one-sided approach that is all about finding a cure instead of focusing on prevention. (ok, stepping off my soap-box now!) Dr. Dan Murphy, one of the doctors in the book wrote this in his review of the book, “Having experienced Lia Lee's saga personally, and then having read the book, I can only refer to Anne Fadiman's talent as astounding. Anne walks an incredibly fine, and very well documented, line as she describes what happens when American medical technology meets up with a deep and ancient Eastern culture. My team (Western medicine) failed Lia. Never have I felt so fairly treated in defeat, and never have I felt so much respect for an author's skillful distillation of a tragically murky confrontation of cultures.” I haven’t finished this book yet, but I can already say that it’s one of my favorites.

Social Eatz

While Angelo Sosa was not my favorite on Top Chef due to his personality, I did think he came across as a passionate chef. His talent added a lot to the competition. Since Social Eatz is conveniently located one subway stop away from work, and because I like to leave my desk at lunchtime, I headed over there last week for lunch. I tried the Imperial Hot Dog – made from organic chicken with sweet and sour relish. And yes, I know that just because the chicken was organic does not mean that this was by any means a healthy lunch option, but it sounded like the most appealing menu option at the time. I liked the "hot dog" itself and the dipping sauce it came with but the relish was disappointing in that it was neither sweet nor spicy, just bland. I ordered a side of the pickled vegetables and loved them. The dish reminded me of kimchi without quite as much punch. The spice was slow to build, but by the end my mouth was pleasantly burning. I was amused by the fact that all of the waiters were dressed just like Angelo – who I could see in the back – thin, cotton, vneck tshirts and skinny jeans. My meal at Social Eatz didn’t blow me away, but for a flavorful fast-casual lunch in Manhattan it was worth the money.