No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

I'm behind on posting recipes, so it's already a little late this year for strawberries. Still, I think this recipe would be excellent with some of the late season raspberries that are available now. It would make a prefect smooth and creamy end of summer treat. You don't even have to turn on your oven! The berry flavor is the most prominent, so make sure to use good ones. This isn't a hard dessert to make, but it does take a little bit of time, so plan ahead. You can find the recipe over at the cooking channel.

Smashed Chickpea Salad

This is a really simple salad to throw together. I love chickpeas. They're an easy and delicious way to add substance to a meal. Canned chickpeas are a pantry staple in our house. Here, combined with red pepper, red onion and olives they make a filling lunch or dinner. The recipe is from smitten kitchen. Deb suggests it as a sandwich topping, but we loved it on some pearled barley instead. If you're not a fan of the intense flavor of red onion, you can soak the chopped pieces in cold water for 10 minutes before using them in the recipe. 

Smashed Chickpea Salad

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

2 tablespoons chopped black olives

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Smash some of the mixture for textural contrast. Serve on cooked barley, another grain, or a piece of bread. 

Beignets

This was our first foray into fried food. I've always been scared of a pot of super hot oil, so we heated it up very slowly to avoid getting it too hot. Unfortunately our cowardice made the process take two hours. The next time we fried, we turned the heat on high and it went a lot faster. Luckily these were worth even the unnecessarily long wait! Crispy on the outside, soft but not doughy in the middle, these beignets covered in powdered sugar are the perfect fried dough. The recipe is from Leite's Culinaria, and I'll just direct you there since their instructions are perfect. 

TWD: Popovers

This was by far the easiest recipe yet for this group. Still they didn't turn out perfectly, at least on my first try.  I followed the directions exactly and didn't open the oven for 25 minutes. I was a little bit concerned about that because I don't have a window in my oven, but Marion seemed so adamant about it that I obliged. Unfortunately, my concerns became reality and I opened the door to some popovers that were toast even before the second stage of cooking.

The picture doesn't quite do them justice, because they were definitely darker in real life. At least the middles were still tasty! That's why you see a bunch of them broken open. Luckily they were super easy so I was able to bake off another batch in no time. This time I only baked them for 20 minutes for the first step at a slightly reduced oven temperature. Those are in the first picture, and as you can tell they turned out perfectly golden! I'll be keeping this recipe on hand for when I want a quick hot breakfast. They were especially delicious with Nutella, but then again what isn't?

You can find the recipe here or here and see what other people did here. 

Quinoa Patties and Tuscan Kale Salad

I've been posting a few of our regular favorites lately, and this is another one of those! Both of these are great to make ahead. In fact, I prefer the kale salad (recipe here) made the day before so it has time to marinate. Just don't add the breadcrumbs until you serve it or they will lose their crunch. If you don't have time for that, you can just rub the oil in an hour before dinner and then add the rest of the dressing right before. That will also serve to help soften up the kale. Also, I usually use Parmesan instead of Pecorino, just because that's what I have on hand.

The quinoa patties (recipe here) are the perfect healthy airplane snack. They are so versatile. I skip the sun dried tomatoes because I never have them on hand, but they've always turned out great for me. I've also skipped the kale when I don't have any and have played around with the seasonings. You can use the basic formula and add whatever flavors are your favorite. They're delicious warm, cold, or room temperature. 

Happy National Zucchini Day!

In honor of this national celebration of the giant green squash, I decided to share with you some ways we've been enjoying the bounty of our garden. Even if you don't have a garden, zucchini are really cheap this time of year, so I hope you can use one of the following recipes to take advantage of the savings!

The pasta pictured above is Farfalle with Zucchini and Gorgonzola from Serious Eats. We halved the cheese because we like a milder blue cheese flavor, but besides that we stuck to the recipe. This was Kyle's favorite way we've prepped zucchini so far (besides cake). 

Above is a Zucchini Potato Frittata from the kitchn. We omitted to bacon to make it slightly healthier, and it was still very good! We made it twice in two weeks, which for our ever-changing menu is a big deal. This and the next preparation have been my favorite so far. 

This is adapted from a grilled zucchini salad from the kitchn. We don't have a grill, so we used a different technique for the zucchini. We made it twice. Once, pairing the zucchini with uncooked cherry tomatoes as in the original recipe, and the second with cooked full size tomatoes. The amounts are very flexible, but here's a basic outline of the recipe:

Zucchini and Tomato Salad

2 medium zucchini

1 to 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or 3 to 4 regular tomatoes, diced

1 ounce Parmesan cheese, shredded or shaved

2 tablespoons basil, chopped or chiffonaded

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat up a cast iron pan. Cut the zucchini into quarters. Add olive oil to the cast iron pan and cook the zucchini on all sides until charred, about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove the zucchini and dice. If using good tomatoes, combine everything together and you're done. If you're tomatoes aren't amazing and they need a little help to be more flavorful, char them as well in the cast iron pan for a few minutes. Either way, this is a really easy summer side dish to throw together! Add some beans and grain and you've got a whole meal.

TWD: Berry Galette

This was kind of a last minute dessert for me, but it turned out good anyway. Luckily it was pretty easy. It might have been the berries I had, but it wasn't as sweet as I like. Next time I'd put more sugar in the filling. Overall, I'd say it was a success! Hopefully next time I'll be more on top of things though. You can find the recipe here or here and see what others have done at TWD.