What's cooking?

Slow roasted duckling, orange sauce, wild and brown rice stuffing, salad.

[Robin Garr]

Mary is making a tomato and onion tart on a paté brisée crust to take to a meeting tonight.

[Jenise]

Tonight we're having a vegetarian couscous with farmers market vegetables: summer squash, baby carrots, broccoli rabe, English peas and fava beans.

Pizza di Scarole...just harvested the last of the escarole. Perfect for the double crusted torte of garlicy escarole, pine nuts and black olives. Fresh cucumber and tomato salad. Granite di limone. Perfect summer fare.

Grilled, wild salmon, with lemon, rosemary, tarragon, and olive oil, grilled sweet corn on the cob and a grilled panzanella salad (red, yellow bell peppers, sliced red onion, and bread are grilled) tossed with fresh tomatoes and cukes, basil, marjoram and a lemon vinaigrette.

[Robin Garr]

Pulling together a recipe based on Facebook advice from Marcella Hazan: Zucchini stuffed with ground lamb and arborio rice, browned, then braised in a fresh San Marzano sauce. If it turns out, I'll post the recipe later.

We had absolutely fabulous charcoal and mesquite grilled 80% burgers, the best corn of the season (the ripe crops are creeping closer and closer), and wonderful sliced tomatoes along with a couple of our first Summer Golds; all washed down with a large bottle of Newcastle Brown. Way to go Tuesday night!

[Robin Garr]

... Zucchini stuffed with ground lamb and arborio rice, browned, then braised in a fresh San Marzano sauce. ...

Worked out pretty well! I'll post the recipe later on.

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I haven't made these in a couple of years, but I like to take really big zucchinis - cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and bake (or nuke) until cooked. Sautee onions, garlic, tomatoes and sweet peppers (herbs of your choice) with Italian sausage and stuff the zucchinis. Top with mozarella and bake until cheese starts to brown.

Robin, are they your homegrown San Marzanos? They look wonderful!

[David M. Bueker]

In my continuing endeavour to use up the CSA veggies, I baked a dish of layered zucchini, yellow squash & thinly sliced chicken breast with some highly herbed/garlic infused tomato sauce. It turned out a touch watery the first night, but the leftovers were really nice (lots of squash to use - too much for 2 people to eat in 1 night).

[Robin Garr]

Robin, are they your homegrown San Marzanos? They look wonderful!

Celia, they ARE our own home grown, and they really are the San Marzano variety. Now, it should be noted that when I diced them, I tossed the pieces that had green or white bits attached.

Were they hard to grow, Robin? We'd read the San Marzanos were a bit finicky - can't remember why now, maybe they tended to get more pests or something?

[Robin Garr]

Were they hard to grow, Robin? We'd read the San Marzanos were a bit finicky - can't remember why now, maybe they tended to get more pests or something?

Celia, we got these as bedding plants this year from a friend who grew them last year and saved the seeds for re-use. They've been find so far. They did have a little problem with blossom end rot shortly after they started fruiting, but Mary zapped them with some kind of organic Magick (calcium, I think), and it sorted that right out. They're interesting tomatoes, sort of like large plums but almost cylindrical until they taper to a curly point. We used up a bunch today to cook with okra and onions, but I'll shoot and post the next one we harvest.

They're THE pizza tomato - don't know if you ever watched Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection. He went on and on about them.

[Jenise]

Pasta Pommodoro--penne tossed in an intense sauce of butter-cooked fresh tomatoes with a whole lotta garlic and fresh basil.

For breakfast this morning. I discovered whole grain wheat tortillas at Trader Joe's, only 80 calories and 12 grams of fiber. I cut it in half, crisped it up and layered a tomato and basil from my garden,and avocado slices. I spread some tomato paste from one of those squeeze tubes on the tortilla, a bit of salt and YUM. This was so nice after our 2 mile walk with the pooch.

Last night we had kangaroo fillet for the first time - marinated in white wine vinegar and olive oil, then panfried and served with tortellini, spinach and homemade medlar jelly. The fillet was a little overcooked, but very tasty nonetheless!

[Jenise]

Karen, I wish I'd had your sandwich for lunch.

Celia, I take it Kangaroo doesn't taste like chicken...more beef like? Would you do it again?

Judging by the one time I ate kangaroo, I'd say it's a bit more like lamb than beef. It was perfectly fine.

WoW, Celia, I had no idea one ate kangaroo.

[Robin Garr]

Dang! We were out of kangaroo tonight but Mary took over the kitchen again, stuffing garden green peppers with the rest of a pound of ground (local) Dreamcatcher Farm lamb, bulghur and toasted pine nuts, topped with Gruyère and baked.

Yes, we would definitely eat kangaroo again, as much for the ethical choice as the taste (which was fine). It's very lean, which is great, but means you've got to be carefully not to overcook it. More importantly, it's a very eco-friendly choice, and it's very good for you!

A couple of interesting articles:

http://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/news/news/2 ... escue.html

http://www.csiro.au/files/mediaRelease/ ... roofat.htm

Celia, as interesting as kangaroo is, it's the Medlar jelly that I need to hear about. I planted a Medlar 2 years ago and it has a very small crop this year. Surely not enough to do anything with but I am hoping that next year will be the year it "leaps".
How do you handle these fruits ? Is there something I might do with a dozen or so - probably only 1/4 #.