Outdoor Flicks & Picnics!

As you may have seen on Facebook last night, we had a delicious summer picnic spread that we enjoyed while taking in an outdoor movie (if you didn't see it, you should "Like" our Facebook page!).  One of the things I love about summer in DC is that on any night of the week, you can see an outdoor movie.  Most neighborhoods are jumping on the wagon, and you're sure to find at least 1 movie each week that you want to see.  As foodies, we had to go above and beyond a bucket of fast food chicken or prepared food from the grocery store.  We prepared an awesome spread for movie without going overboard like this:

One of the things I'm not a huge fan of when it comes to summer in DC, is the sweltering, humid weather.  As soon as I step outside, I feel sweaty and gross, and the last thing I want to do is stand over a stove, or in front of a hot oven.  The perfect solution is a cold soup!  And since we picked up a ton of tomatoes in this week's share, gazpacho was the natural choice.

For a little guidance, we found this recipe.  As always, we put our own spin on it.  But to get you started, gather all your veggies, a good knife, a big bowl, and get to chopping!  Make sure you collect all the seeds and juices that may leach out from your veggies as you're cutting them.  That will help thin out your soup.  I left the skins on all of the veggies, except for the cucumber.  He was the only guy that got peeled.  Because we're both huge fans of garlic, we added about 5 cloves.  And since we had a jalapeno on hand, we chopped that up, as opposed to using hot sauce, as the recipe called for.


Once you're done chopping, you'll have this beautiful bowl of fresh summer veggies!  The recipe instructs you to just get your hands dirty, and squish all the veggies together, but I don't think that's an ideal method, considering the peppers and onion aren't as soft as the tomatoes.  Plus, we wanted more of a soup consistency, as opposed to a chunky salsa consistency.  So I pulled out the immersion blender and got to work.  It didn't take long to break down all the veggies either.

Here's where you really need to taste and add seasonings, as needed.  I started with salt, pepper, and juice of half the lemon.  I started out conservative on the lemon but ended up using the whole thing.  Give it another whirl with the blender, and taste again.  If it's not spicy enough, add another jalapeno, or a splash of hot sauce.  I also threw in the balsamic and red wine vinegars, olive oil, and a splash of worcestershire sauce to balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes.


To top it all off, we threw in a bunch of fresh cilantro and parsley.  Again, blend it all up and taste it to make sure the flavor is right where you want it.  Then just pop it in the fridge to chill until you're ready to eat.


No tomato soup would be complete without a grilled cheese sandwich to go with it.  But we couldn't just go with any ol' grilled cheese.  We had to step up our game for all of you! So we chose a nice baguette for our bread, some prosciutto, humboldt fog cheese, and some arugula.

As with any other sandwich, just start building.  I failed to put cheese on both sides of the bread initially, and they wouldn't stick together, so it's in your best interest to do this right off the bat.  The humboldt fog is a mold-ripened goat cheese, but it has a little less tang and a little more smokiness than a typical goat cheese.  It's somewhat soft and crumbly, but it was easy enough to spread on the bread, and melted into the meat and arugula.  With your sandwiches assembled, melt some butter in a pan, and get to toasting!

If you're packing these treats up for a picnic, let the sandwiches cool down a bit before wrapping them in foil, or putting them in a plastic container.  You don't want them to sweat and get all soggy.

All that was left was to pop some popcorn (truffle parmesan popcorn, that is!), throw a couple beers in the cooler, and a couple peaches for dessert!

That's a Dilly of a Pickle!

Hi diddily ho bloggerinos!    We're both huge fans of pickles, and since we got a few kirby cucumbers in our last share, it seemed like the perfect time to try to make them. We searched the interwebs for some recipes and settled on this one and this one, plus we added a few of our own spices.

Start by washing your cucumbers, and making sure they don't have any dirt on them. Since our jars are still full of kimchi and saurkraut and we don't have canning supplies, we just used a plastic container with a lid.  Any airtight container should work, as long as it's been sterilized.

For the pickling liquid, we mainly followed Alton Brown's suggestions...mixing up a brine, though we did add a splash of vinegar.  For spices, we roughly chopped up about 6 cloves of garlic, and added in red chili flake, mustard seeds, carraway seeds, black peppercorns and a whole bunch of dill.

Once your spices are in your container, stuff your cucumbers in there.  You want to make sure they are nice and snug in the container.  Then, pour in your brine so the cucumbers are completely submerged.  If the cucumbers are nice and snug, they're less likely to float to the top when you pour in your brine.  Then just place your lid on the container, and make sure you get as much air out of it as possible.

Now you'll have to be patient, and let your cucumbers pickle.  Store them in a cool dry place.  We just placed ours in one of the kitchen cabinets, away from the stove.  After about 3 days, you'll notice bubbles rising to the top of your container.  This is proof that fermentation has begun, and you're on your way to having pickles!  If you notice any scum forming in the top of your pickling liquid, wipe it off immediately.  We noticed some white film on one of our pickles, so we wiped it off with a paper towel that was soaked in a little vinegar.

Fermentation should be complete in about 6-7 days, once the bubbles stop rising and your pickles taste sour.  Then transfer them to the refrigerator, and start to enjoy them!  If any of the pickles get soft or start to smell funny, you should discard them.  Ours came out nice and garlicky, with a slight heat to them.  They're the perfect snack or or sandwich companion!

Flippin' Burgers

When I first really got into cooking, I was (and still am) a fan of Rachael Ray.  Her recipes were easy and used common, everyday ingredients, and she made cooking look fun and easy.  And it turns out Justin had a bit of a crush on her too (which I can kinda see, she rescues pitbulls, can cook, and has delightful catchphrases such as "yum-o").  Anyway...one of the few recipes of hers that I still make are her spanikopita burgers.  The spinach and onions keep the turkey juicy, and the feta gives the burger a nice saltiness.  To kick up the Greekyness, I like to top them with homemade tzatziki.

So here goes...

Start by chopping up some red onion and garlic and get that sauteing in a pan.  Once they become really fragrant, and the onions are translucent, set them aside to cool.

For the spinach component, I take the easy route and just use frozen chopped spinach.  Once its defrosted, you'll want to wring out all the water so your burgers don't become soggy.  Just like I did with the kohlrabi the other night, you'll want to put the spinach into a dish towel, and just wring it out.

You'll be surprised by how much water comes out of the spinach.  To quote Justin, "The spinach is peeing!"  Yes, we're like 5 year olds sometimes :)

Once you've gotten as much water out of the spinach as you can, toss it in the bowl with your ground turkey.  Then you add in some feta crumbles, and the spices.  This time we went with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, a little rosemary, and some dill.  Now its time to get down and dirty and mix everything together so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Then you're ready to make your patties and cook 'em up!

While the burgers were cooking, we made the tzatziki.  I like to grate the cucumber so its easier to get the water out of it, but Justin took the time to slice it really thin.  If you have a decent amount of time on your hands, you can sprinkle the cucumber with salt and let the water leach out of it.  But if you're making it while the burgers cook, you can squeeze out the cucumbers just like you did with the spinach.  Otherwise your tzatziki will be runny, and nobody likes runny tzatziki.

My mini food processor was the perfect size for the amount of yogurt we had left.  We just used non-fat plain yogurt on hand, but I prefer to make it with Greek yogurt.  It just adds an extra bit of tang, and its a little thicker than plain yogurt.  Regardless, either will work just fine.  So into your food processor, toss the yogurt, some garlic, the cucumber, fresh dill, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper.  Puree it all together until the garlic and cucumber are finely chopped.  And there you have it.  Piece of cake!

Sometimes when I make these burgers, I like to make a little salad to top the burgers.  This usually consists of sliced tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion, and some arugula, dressed lightly with olive oil and red wine vinegar.  The only thing I had on hand this time were the pepperoncini, so I just sliced up a few for a little added spice.

And because you have to have fries with your burgers (I'm pretty sure there's a rule written somewhere to that effect), we made some sweet potato fries as our side.  And we had plenty of extra tzatziki leftover for dipping!