This summer has been a bit of a whirlwind for me.  It feels like July and August flew by me with the wink of an eye.  In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been right here.  I didn’t go anywhere special this summer.  Only thing is, save for the occasional dinner at home with my fiance and his bandmate, I haven’t been cooking as much.  I started a day job in early July.  Transitioning from working evenings to days has been a challenge for me.  For one, I’m NOT a morning person. For two, though I love cooking and have claimed it to calm me, after working—-scratch that—-being awake for 12 hours straight on only an average of 6 hours of sleep per night, I have found myself too eager to forego the saucepan in favor of a dinner that has been prepared by another person: a chef, or sous-chef, or line cook, or whoever that person was that prepared my steak frites on Wednesday and branzino on Thursday!  Yes, my friends, I dined out a lot for the months of July and August.  While my tenure at the day job is still very uncertain, I am ready to reclaim my kitchen!  Alright. So.  Here, I have no major news. But I will leave you with a few photos of a few dishes I managed to put together on my days off…just for the heck of it. Hey, a post is a post is a post.  Right?

Thanks for reading.  Brooklyn, EAT your heart out!

The pick of the day - some time in early July.

Below you’ll find a picture of sliced summer squash and cherry tomatoes.  They are lightly salted and left out for about 30 minutes.  The salt draws moisture to the surface which is then patted dry.  (By the way, I obtained this recipe last summer when I was a stagiare at The Natural Gourmet Institute).  To continue, gather a variety of summer squashes, slice them up, saute until golden, then layer them in a baking pan followed by cherry tomatoes (beefsteak tomatoes preferred but I couldn’t find any at the farmer’s market this particular day), chopped basil, sliced garlic, grated parmesan cheese and a little sea salt and ground pepper.  Repeat the process…eventually ending with a top layer of parmesan cheese.  Cover and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes.

prepping a summer squash and tomato gratin

See the moisture?

Ready to go in the oven!

Now that I’m finished describing the summer squash and tomato gratin recipe, I’m ready to move on to something non-vegetarian.  For a quick fajita fix, saute small nuggets of chicken breast in extra virgin olive oil.  Sprinkle a little saffron powder and sea salt then add onions and peppers.  Heat tortilla on a dry skillet.  Place heated tortilla on plate and top off with chicken, peppers, and onions.  Add sour cream and hot sauce.

saffron chicken fajita

You’ll be amazed how quick you can make fajitas at home.  It’s so simple.  Even simpler is this quick quinoa with cilantro pesto dish, seen below.

quinoa with cilantro pesto

Quinoa is so easy to make!  Follow the instructions on the package and voila, you’re done.  What I like about quinoa is not only is it very healthy and a good source of protein, it’s also fun to be creative with.  You can mix this grain with just about anything!  One of my all time favorites is quinoa cooked in chicken stock and tossed together with wild mushrooms.  In the photo shown above, the quinoa is mixed with a cilantro pesto.  I obtained this recipe from Andrea Beaman.  Cilantro pesto: combine cilantro, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar and sea salt in a food processor and pulse until smooth and creamy.  Enjoy hot or cold.

Moving right along to my simple lunch today.  Spaghetti with fire hot Italian sausage and sauteed onions and red peppers.

Spaghetti with fire hot Italian sausage, onions and red peppers.

Cook Italian sausage separately.  Heat extra virgin olive oil in a skillet.  Saute garlic, onions and peppers, add a little sea salt. Cook spaghetti as you normally would.  Add drained al dente pasta to the sauteed garlic, onions and pepper…toss everything together.  Transfer to a plate and place cooked sausage on top.

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Brooklyn, EAT your heart out!

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