OMG a Recipe: Ho-Ho-Holiday Home Stretch

Can you believe we're almost through the holidays? Through the YEAR, even? Thanksgiving flashed by before our eyes. Christmas -- here and gone in a flash. And New Years Eve...?! Sure, you can go out, but many gatherings are with family and friends, so you're expected to bring something else a little more festive than a sixer of High Life and a bag of chips. Wasabi to the rescue, with an easy make-ahead dessert and Avengers-Assemble! appetizers.

Be fancy, schmancy and effortless with pancetta-wrapped persimmons - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: Ho-Ho-Holiday Gift Emergency? Don't Panic, Have a Cheese Cracker

I'm interrupting my Germany/France posts for a couple of weeks because I realized, holy crap, it's the holidays! And I'm sure you've been like me, doing all the frenzied last-minute buying, baking, wrapping of gifts. Or maybe not. Maybe you, too, are only now realizing, Holy Crap It's the Holidays, and that you do not want to commit the same gift sin as last year's Chia Pet/Pajama Jean debacle that everyone has vowed silence over, never to be spoken of again. Ever. So, why not give a gift that's not only tasty, easy on one's schedule, but you can say it was homemade? Because no one's going to believe you knitted those Pajama Jeans, you big ol' liar.

Bust out the baker's twine, it's the holiday season, bitches - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: My Universe is Ruled By Dogs

It's no secret that we have an overly-documented dog named Indy. And really, why shouldn't she be photographed a million times and clutter the Instagram-iverse? Dogs in general are my kryptonite. I get all weak-in-the-knees when I see their fuzzy faces and much like the annoying people who like to pinch everyone's babies (weirdos -- stop touching strangers' babies!), I'm one of those freaks who always ask to pet someone's dog. So far I've neither been gored by a face-chomp or an overly protective dog owner, so I've got that going for me. Which in a roundabout way leads me to today's post, about Italian-inspired cuisine, a couple of cute animated pups and what surprisingly came out of that whole thought process.

Herbed goat cheese-stuffed chicken inspired by Disney...Sort of - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I blame you, Walt Disney, in whatever cryogenic chamber you may be dwelling. I had caught a bit of that marvelous classic, Lady and the Tramp, a stunningly beautiful 1955 animated movie about Boy Dog meets Girl Dog and the undercurrents of class rivalry in canine form. I never realized how clever they were with the dogs-observing-humans-perspective until you realize the well-kept spaniel Lady, refers to her owners as Jim Dear and Darling. Terms of endearment between a husband and wife, but a dog doesn't know anything different, so of course that just seems like their proper names. We're no different at our house -- we've created our false nuclear family around Indy, so she knows me as Mamma and Brock as Daddy. We're not sick people, I swear.

Of course the most memorable scene of Lady and the Tramp is when there's a doggie date night and they go to an Italian restaurant populated by borderline offensive Italian stereotypes who serve up a heaping pile of spaghetti and meatballs. Nevermind that dogs can't actually slurp pasta or that a restaurant owner would set up an alleyway dining experience, complete with musical serenade for a couple of mangy-looking dogs -- we love the little nose-nudge of sharing a meatball and the inevitable pasta-kiss. Again, dogs don't really kiss, but whatever, this is the stuff that Disney dreams are made of, and when I saw that, all I could think of was: I want spaghetti and meatballs.

Animated inspiration and pasta swapouts - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Like most meal inspirations, they end up going in all kinds of crazy directions, because clearly what was made was not spaghetti and meatballs. I think my main craving was a fresh tomato sauce because we still had some leaves of basil that weren't chewed up by slugs. I had some skinless chicken breasts in the fridge that needed to be used, so meatballs became less of an option. I still had a dinner at Adam's Northwest Bistro lingering in my head -- one of my favorite things they do is a stuffed pork chop, which is the size of Florida, and will pretty much have you in a complete food coma for the rest of the night. Which means it's fantastic. A little hard to imagine something so rich and hearty during warm weather, but I love stuffed meats and wanted to make a more warm-weather friendly version. Not the same animal, nor the same ingredients, but inspiration is inspiration -- so far we have Lady and the Tramp and a restaurant in Monroe.

Mixing softened goat cheese with fresh chopped herbs made for a nicely gooey stuffing for the chicken. This is a great way to mix random herbs together if your garden is like mine, and just a mish-mash of things growing. I had these beautiful dark, blood-red heritage-descendant apples from the farmers market that I initially thought about using for stuffing the chicken breasts, but they were so delicious on their own, sometimes ingredients just never last long enough to get into a prepared meal. Goat cheese and herbs became the de facto filling, but that's not such a bad thing.

Dramatic fruit, a sumptuous feast and a longing-eyed beast - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Cutting little side pockets into the chicken and stuffing chilled clumps of the herbed goat cheese inside before using toothpicks to secure the seam, I let the chicken breasts quickly sear in an oiled pan for a few minutes, just to get a little color before pulling them out and setting them aside. The goat cheese will start to get melty and I didn't want it melting all over the pan's surface and burning. I moved on to an herbed tomato sauce that the stuffed chicken breasts would finish cooking in. I used canned tomatoes, but fresh herbs. I just wanted a quick sauce and tomatoes in a can work in a pinch. A little garlic, some salt and pepper, red pepper flakes for heat and a finishing sprinkle of fresh basil was all the sauce needed. Taste as you go, no measuring, just UnRecipe-ing the afternoon away. I turned the heat down before adding the chicken breasts back in and let it all simmer on low for a few minutes until the chicken was cooked through. The gentle liquid heat ensures the chicken doesn't get rubbery and some of the goat cheese oozes out and makes the sauce creamy, which only adds to the flavor. All in all, a fairly easy one-skillet meal with a lot of basic ingredients you have sitting around your fridge, pantry or backyard garden.

Roasted asparagus instead of pasta. Not the same as romantic noodles, but again, the weather was warm and pasta and breads make me bloat in the heat like a dead cow in a field. Besides, vegetables are good for you, eat up. Asparagus always makes for an easy vegetable side dish and they make a visually interesting surface for the food to sit on, so it's win-win for food bloggery.

As I sat down to eat this meal that came from a bizarre, convoluted string of inspiration, intention and already-eaten ingredients, I thought: while my personal universe may be ruled by dogs, my kitchen universe is thankfully run by chaos and confusion. And yes, sometimes those universes meet when Indy gets a little nibble from the plate because she's just so damn adorable.

UnRecipe: Just Beet It... Just Beet it...

No, I'm not wearing a sparkly glove on one hand and Moonwalking my way through the kitchen. But man, I sure wish I was! Sham-ON! Apropos of nothing beyond the fact that we wound up with some late-season beets, it's yet ANOTHER beet post. I keep hoping there's some subliminal message that will get through to Mr. Wasabi's brain that beets are not, in fact, gross. All we are saaaaaying... is give beets a chaaaaaance!

Beety, not meaty - a tart for your vegetarian friends! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

'Twas the season of beets in this year of our lord two-thousand-and-eleventy. Or more to the point, the season where I wasn't foisting beets onto workmates because I didn't know what to do with them. Seriously, I'd get a bag full of  beets in our CSA deliveries, I'd stare at them blankly for a while and then hit the "bring it to work" button where I'd usually give them to my friend, Ms. Radish and Rose. She was one of the big proponents of beets, and I trust her taste, so I decided to be more persistent with the preparation of the rooty little buggers. Lo and behold, I honed in on a way to prepare them at home that wasn't too fussy, highlighted the sweetness of beets, and made it something I could enjoy eating and not feel like it was a chore to eat my veggies. As seen in previous beet-themed posts, this of course meant calling in the Puff Pastry and Goat Cheese Brigade, totally removing any and all health benefits that beets can provide, but what can I say? The crisp buttery flakiness of pastry with creamy cheese and sweet roasted beets is quite literally, unbeetable. Har har. I know, punch me now, I deserve it.

Hot Pockets, brought back from the Dark Side - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I blame television and mass media for this one. The annoying "Hot Pockets" jingle was stuck in my head one day (just you wait,  it'll get stuck in yours, too) and it ultimately led me towards craving the little crispy devils, but I stopped short of going to the grocery store and buying some over-processed ghost from my college years. Total disclosure, I lived off those things when I was in school, the magical pastry-burrito that you could throw into the microwave, frozen as a Cro-Magnon in the tundra, but somehow the weird coated paper sleeve would both heat and crisp the Pocket to desired Hotness. Move over Dumbledore, this here's real magic. And if you were really lucky, the first bite wouldn't napalm the skin off the insides of your mouth from all the molten cheese inside. Doesn't quite sell the magic of Hot Pockets, but you ask most anyone and those who went to college and had to fend for themselves during some lean times, they'll admit they went through a phase where they ate these bewitching microwavable hand pies morning, noon and night.

Much like people, I don't think foods are born evil. The idea of a little hand-sized pie is not a bad one. It's when it gets seized by the Big Business of Food, mass-produced and frozen for instant gratification that the concept goes to the Dark Side and takes over most of the known universe. I saw there was still good left in Darth Hot Pocket, and restored it to its earlier self, as Anakin Hand Pie, with some roasted beets and goat cheese sandwiched between a layer of puff pastry. I did have to use Darth Puff Pastry, going with frozen store-bought because I don't make my own, so maybe there was still a little bit of the Evil Empire in this. But we'll just call it "flavor," shall we?

Putting together the deliciousness of beet tarts and hand pies - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Of course, any time you make a little stuffed food item, be it hand pie or won ton, you always wind up with extra filling. I anticipated I'd have more beets and cheese than pastry, so I saved a couple of small sheets of dough, lined some mini tins and piled in the rest of the filling to make tarts. While the little faux Hot Pockets were crispy and light snacks, the beet tarts were a full meal, going well with a salad for dinner that night. It was most definitely one of those weeks where I was serving my cravings first and Mr. Wasabi was eating leftovers from another beet-less meal, but he at least eyeballed the tarts with hungry curiosity before slinking away and realizing it was a rainbow of roasted beets. Maybe one of these days, I can finally bring Brock over to the Beet Side.

And now, for something completely different - radish and risotto! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

And on a semi-related but out-of-the-blue note -- along with beets in our CSA box, we did find ourselves with quite a few radishes. It's sort of related, as it's a rooty-tooty vegetable and, like the beets, I was looking for a way to use them up. If I wasn't already worn out on salads, I'd have been thankful, but I wanted a way to use the radishes in a dish that was more exciting and quite frankly, hot. To go with the beet tarts, I found this recipe  for Romano Risotto with Radishes on Epicurious. Radish and risotto? Weird, right? But oddly, the buttery richness of risotto kind of mimics that richness of buttered bread when you have one of those radish tea sandwiches. You don't really cook the radishes into the risotto, it's more like you lightly pickle them and use it as a garnish. But it works well and the pickled radishes become a lovely pink color. It ends up being a nice, if not starchy/carby vegetarian meal, if you're looking for an interesting thing to make for Meatless Monday.

UnRecipe: Yes, Virginia, There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing

You know you have these mental pictures rolling around in the ol' noggin, culinary creations that combine ingredients and flavors that in theory should work really well? Let's just say those good intentions often lead towards the Dark Side of indulgent culinary desires.

My stomach said yes, but my diastolic BP said hell no - Photo by Wasabi Prime

It was a simple enough notion: let's make a savory cheesecake. Cheese is one of those super-flexible ingredients that can transition from sweet to savory relatively easily, you just have to know which types of cheese works best and ideally, which cheese can play both sides. Cream cheese is most certainly one of them. You use it in the dessert variety of cheesecake, but the flavor is neutral enough to be used in savory applications. By taking a standard cheesecake recipe, omitting the sugar and adding some extra "oomph" of flavor with herbs and crispy pancetta, this notion of a savory cheesecake doesn't sound so bad... right?

To be clear, there wasn't anything wrong with the final product. My main concern was whether or not the cheesecake would set up properly -- technically it's more like a custard, not a cake, given its eggy-creamy batter which doesn't have much flour in it. The final baked good set up just fine. I made a savory crust, using some coarse breadcrumbs, a mix of panko, rye and regular toasted white bread. The crumbles were tossed with melted butter and pressed into a springform pan and baked for a few minutes to set up. The batter was a variation on a basic cheesecake recipe, sans sugar of course, using a mix of cream cheese and softened goat cheese. I mixed in a handful of chopped fresh herbs, mostly parsley, basil and some thyme from the garden. The last item I mixed in was a crumbling of pan-crisped pancetta for a meaty bite. The batter was poured over the crust in the springform pan and placed into the oven set to a low heat. I could have done the water bath, but it was fine, as the crust didn't crack during the bake time. All good in the 'hood so far, right...?

My biggest conundrum was how to serve. I love the ooey-gooey flavor of warm, melty cheese, but the problem with serving a slice of the cheesecake too soon is the fact that the center hasn't set yet, so the slice starts to resemble Jabba the Hut. Waiting for it to cool and set up for perfect slicing means you have chilled cheese -- not a terrible thing, but I wanted warm melty cheese goodness. I Benjamin Button-ed this thing and had it meet in the middle. I let the cake cool in the fridge, but then made a spicy tomato and kalamata olive relish, served hot, poured over the slice. The first bite was like a million flavor explosions went off in my brain. Incredibly rich, velvety-creamy cheesecake, super-savory hits of pancetta, kalamata olives, and the crisp crunch of the crust. It was like staring into the sun. You went blind from the sensory overload. And that's when it kind of hit me -- holy crap, I have the rest of this slice to eat and a whole rest of a cheesecake to finish. Of course, I wouldn't finish it in a single sitting, but knowing that much richness was in my immediate future, it's no wonder my vitals are off the charts. When I die, I won't be buried, I'll be a new fuel source for future generations.

Weapons of mass destruction - Photos by Wasabi Prime

So, what was the end lesson in this UnRecipe? It wasn't a failure, just a misadventure in too much of your favorite stuff is way too much of a good thing, especially if you love fatty cured meats and gooey cheese. I think I would make this again, but in small, bite-sized tart sizes. They would allow for fresh-from-the-oven eating, since as a bite-sized mini tart, you don't have to worry about slice integrity. And I could top with a little shard of pancetta, which would look prettier than the little bits that just got mixed and essentially lost into the batter. So, I consider this a dish something that's still a work in progress -- stay tuned, I'm sure it'll get revisited soon enough!

OMG a Recipe: No Carb Left Behind

I can blame the Eat, Pray, Love hype or just admit that I love a good pizza now and then -- either way, I decided to have a whirlwind romance of my own with homemade pizza. I played around with flavors and came up with a surprisingly delicious combination that resulted in a Proscuitto, Goat Cheese and Wild Huckleberry Jam Pizza.

Affair-worthy pizza - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I've used this flatbread recipe several times before -- it's thanks to the good folks at Epicurious who published Ben Ford's recipe. It's simple and it works with home ovens, which I know can be a sticking point for getting crusts baked just-right. I tend to make a batch of the flatbreads first, baking them till lightly brown and then keeping them in an airtight container before adding toppings and then using the broiler to both roast the fresh ingredients and give the crust a nice char.

Inspired by meticulous berry-picking - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The inspirational ingredient was the jam made from the tart wild huckleberries that grow in our backyard. They're tiny little things that take several pickings to get a jar's worth of jam, but it's got a nice bite that makes me think of cranberry sauce, which would be a fine substitute if you don't have wild huckleberries handy -- I can't imagine everyone does. I didn't add much sugar, just to keep its use open for savory dishes. I thought the rich, salty flavor of prosciutto and a creamy goat cheese would round out and balance the flavor profile. The jam served as the base, then a few soft pinches of the goat cheese, and then a layering of the prosciutto. A few hefty sprinkles of black pepper gave it some bite, and under the broiler it went. The thin slices of fatty meat crisp up, the cheese gets soft and melty, and the edges of the bread develop a darker char. The resulting dish is both savory and lightly sweet, as you can't hide the fact that it's a fruit based sauce, but it lends itself as a nice balance to the heavier flavor of the pork.

Wasabi's Pizzeria - Photos by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek/UnRecipe: Remember to Eat Your Greens (with lots of cheese)

It's no secret that we have a love of board games, and we regularly gather at a friend's house every month for game-playing, beer-drinking, and trash-talking. You know, wholesome family fun with alcohol and profanity. It tends to be a pot luck affair, so at the last meetup, our contribution to the meal was a side dish that was somewhere between a casserole and creamed spinach. Either way, it was a tasty offering that made it easy to eat one's greens the Wasabi Way... basically with cheese and cream.

A hearty plate of comfort food and trash-talkin' for Game Night - Photo by Wasabi Prime

All vegetable side dishes start out with the best of intentions, as in, they start out with vegetables. This one was a mix of freezer and fresh goods -- frozen chopped spinach and fresh zucchini and leeks. I know it's good to start out with the freshest ingredients available, but I've learned my lesson with spinach enough times to know that cooking down fresh spinach is like watching a magic act. Not that I'm expecting Criss Angel to show up in some ruffled RenFair number and leather pants, but even the largest bag of fresh spinach from Costco is going to magically disappear into maybe four servings once it's cooked down in a pan. It's kind of disappointing since those two pound bags are impressive and one would hope it would last beyond a couple of meals. I stock up on boxes of frozen spinach when it's on supersale and just keep them in the freezer; a few days to thaw in the fridge or a few minutes on defrost in the microwave, and it's fine in a pinch, no disappointment required.

I made up for my frozen trespasses with a thinly-sliced leek and a zucchini shredded on a box grater, and then drained of excess water. Sauteeing these greens together in a pan with salt and pepper, they gave up any remaining liquids before a cup and a half of cream was added to completely reverse any healthy intentions. Oh, and some chunks of goat cheese were thrown in for good measure, to make sure and destroy all hopes of nutritional life, while adding a creamy emulsifying effect.

Well, it started out healthy, before all the cheese, cream and breadcrumbs showed up - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I had some toasted rye breadcrumbs, which crusted the top of the creamy vegetable casserole with an earthy look, as it baked off in the oven. I don't mean to say it made it rustic -- it really did look like a field of dirt in miniature. Our friends commented that they could have put little model train people and trees, creating a little edible landscape. But since it was dinnertime, and they made a truly heavenly ham as the dinner's centerpiece, we skipped playing with our food and chose the novel path of eating it with much om-nom-nomitude.

Zoe and Milo contemplate a world of ham - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Rounds of our favorite, Dominion, were played, doggies Zoe and Milo licked their chops to plead their case of I Can Haz? and everyone ate and drank well that night. Much gratitude and thanks to the Clan McDaniels household for being such generous hosts these last few months, as well as organizing these regular board game nights. Looking forward to our next bout of feudal empires won and lost!

UnRecipe: These Tarts are Plum-Tasty, Y'all

Howdy, pard'ners. It's another rootin' tootin' post about delicious grub. This here post is about how plum-tasty Italian plums are when baked in a tart. GAH. I can't write like that beyond two sentences, so that's all I'll make anyone endure in a faux stereotypical cowboy voice. But Italian plums, the smaller, egg-shaped cousins of the more typical round plums one sees in the produce aisles, are a nice seasonal ingredient to take advantage of in the waning months of our fading summer light. I used the wisdom of the Foodie Wizardress of OZ, Donna Hay, to inspire this post about Roasted Plums in a Goat Cheese Tart.

You saucy little tart, you! - Photo by Wasbi Prime

Ms. Hay's recipe featured figs -- something I wholly agree with, but I wanted to take advantage of my new personal produce dealer and fellow blogger, Ms. Picket Fence, who has been so kind to the Wasabi household by sharing fruits of her garden bounty. Sounds naughty, but it's really quite nice of her and Mr. Picket Fence to have given us such delicious treats, some of which that have already been featured in previous posts. This delivery of goodies included a bowlful of Italian plums, freshly picked from their backyard tree. They were a glorious deep reddish purple, almost black, with the dusty pale finish plums get when they ripen. Slicing each one open to reveal a luscious canary-yellow interior, the pits easily popped out (to my relief, as there were quite a few to split!), and the halves were placed on a baking sheet to roast on a high heat until softened. I roasted the figs ahead of time because I knew they would give off a bit of liquid and I didn't want them waterlogging the tart as it baked. It's an extra step, I know, but it's worth it, and it really concentrates the flavor down to a delicious, caramelized intensity.

Fresh Italiano Picket Fence plums and just-baked tart, prior to its om-nommy demise. - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Cheater Confessional: I was keen to have my way with this tart, so I took a shortcut and bought premade pie dough crust. The Horror. I know, I know -- making your own pâte brisée, including leaf lard in the dough, would be the way to go to make the ultimate savory tart. And when I'm not doing this after work during the middle of a busy week, I will at some point attempt a proper lardy-good pie dough crust, as it really is something I've always wanted to try. But during the weekday shuffle, I chose one shortcut to trade out for roasted plum goodness.

Food blogging Hail Marys aside, I took the quickie pie dough and divided the two rounds across the mini tart pans I have. I don't know why I have these bitty tins and not one giant one. I've admitted in old posts that I have a bizarre love for miniature and individual-sized portions. They also cook up faster, which is a bonus. I did a blind bake, docking the bottoms with a fork and letting it partially bake in the the oven while I mixed the custard filling. The recipe doesn't call for this, but I just like doing it because I find it creates a nice moisture barrier and keeps the crust bottom crispy.

I found the inspiration recipe for Donna Hay's fig tart on her website, which I copied below, but you should see her photo, as it's quite lovely and way prettier than mine. Swapping the figs for roasted plums, and using a sprinkle of lemon thyme instead of chives for herbs were the "Un" of this UnRecipe post, otherwise it's almost a real recipe follow. And oh snap, she uses store-bought pie crust too, but it just sounds better when she calls it shortcrust pastry. A good deal nicer-sounding than Krogers Pie Dough, that's for sure.

Once the crusts were partly baked and slightly cooled, I spread the goat cheese in each one and divided the custard between the little regiment of tart tins. The little flattened, roasted plums were arranged on the top, and back into the oven they went. I think this recipe is flexible enough to where you could really add almost anything to it. The plums were nice, as their sweet/sour flavor went well with the creamy goat cheese. I think any roasted stone fruit would go nicely, since they share a similar flavor profile. I think if I did this again with plums, I'll use rosemary or even lavender. The lemon thyme is subtle and was almost lost in the heavier flavors, and strong herbs like rosemary would I think hold up well against the other ingredients. That thought will have to be held for another season, as -- much like the plums -- these summer days are at an end and a new season is about to begin! Happy Fall, y'all!

Fig and Goat's Cheese Tart - Donna Hay Magazine
2 sheets store-bought shortcrust pastry
125g goat's curd* or soft goat's cheese
4 black figs, halved
3 eggs
¾ cup (180ml) single (pouring) cream
1 tablespoon chopped chives
½ cup (20g) finely grated parmesan
sea salt and cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares. Line 8 x lightly greased 8cm-round, fluted tart tins with pastry. Trim excess pastry and lightly prick bases with a fork. Divide the goat’s curd and fig halves between the cases. Place eggs, cream, chives, parmesan, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Pour into cases and bake for 25 minutes or until puffed and set. Cool to room temprature and serve. Makes 8. * Goat’s curd is fresh goat’s cheese available from delicatessens.

* Post Script - Delicious thanks to Tastespotting for posting the photo of the Italian plums! Thanks also to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting pics of the plums and the tart!

UnRecipe: I Hope Hell Has a Salad Bar

The house is almost ninety degrees and it's 10pm at night. Earlier in the afternoon, I looked outside and the tall evergreens looked like they were wilting from the oppressive heat. It's official: the Pacific Northwest is in Hell. I'm not entirely sure what mortal sin the Puget Sound Area committed, but it must have been pretty serious to cast us into the flaming pit of Hades without easy access to air conditioning. All that being said, a girl still needs to eat, so I had another dinner, sans heating element.

It's gettin' hot in herrre... so have a salad - Photo by Wasabi Prime

By the Power of DJ Spinderella, I remixed the Gettin' Figgy With It meal ingredients and made a couple of salads. One featured a roma tomato sliced thinly, sprinkled with goat cheese crumbles, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and some slices of proscuitto on the side. Not quite a caprese salad, but a similar idea. I had already shorn our basil plants down, and figured they needed some time to recover their foliage for another meal.

The other salad was a rerun of what we did on the weekend -- heirloom cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, snowpeas, and feta instead of goat cheese. It was nice to take a moment and enjoy the two cool, fresh salads, and dream of better days ahead. Hello, Autumn? Are you coming anytime soon...?

The salad days of summer - Photos by Wasabi Prime

* Post Script - Thanks to Food Photo Blog for posting the almost-caprese salad photo on their site! Grazie!

* Post-Post Script - Thanks to Foodie View for posting pics of the heirloom to-mah-toes and the split snowpea pic!

UnRecipe: Gettin' Figgy With It

The summer heat caused a serious case of Couch Potato-itis in the Wasabi household this weekend. I tend to develop a mild addiction to the Turner Classic Movie channel in the summers, and recently recorded King Solomon's Mines (1950) starring Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger on our DVR. It's a gorgeous Technicolor-riffic movie and both the leading actors are rather gorgeous themselves. I think given the hot weather, I wanted to see people suffering in the heat along with me, and searching for the fabled diamond mines in the deepest, darkest heart of Africa seemed a lot worse than languishing on the sofa.

O bring us a figgy dinner... and bring it RIGHT NOW - photo by Wasabi Prime

Given that state of inactivity, there was no way in hell I was going to turn on the stove or even BBQ. Thankfully, a bounty of summer goodies were at the ready, from both the store and our garden, so an uncooked summer dinner was on the menu for the warm evening.

Embrace of proscuitto and cheese? Yes, please - photo by Wasabi Prime

The star of this meal was undoubtedly a pile of fresh figs from Whole Foods, courtesy of Michelle, a fellow foodie-in-arms. I do love figs. They have a light, nuanced flavor that plays nice with both sweet and savory pairings, and the texture of soft and crunchy is just fun. Along with the figgy bunch, we had multicolored heirloom grape tomatoes, goat cheese crumbles, Sopressata salami, and proscuitto, procured from Trader Joe's. Our garden was able to provide more fresh snowpeas, basil, and romaine lettuce. A slice here, a chop there, and a caprese-inspired salad with the tomatoes, cheese, and basil was paired with goat cheese-stuffed figs, wrapped in proscuitto, and finished off with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Chunks of the Sopressata were nestled alongside some garlic-stuffed olives for snacking. I like my bubbly, so I always keep a bottle of the very affordable Domaine Ste Michelle Blanc de Blanc in the fridge. It helped cool our jets while we sat in the backyard with our faithful dog, Indy. She sure looked cute, but not cute enough for proscuitto-wrapped figs stuffed with goat cheese. Sorry, pup.

A dinner of fig-gasmic proportions - photos by Wasabi Prime

To further add to the evening's atmosphere, Brock had music from Hey Marseilles playing. They're a local group with a delightful Parisian sound that is reminiscent of the movie Amelie. They were playing at the Capitol Hill Block Party this weekend, but our summer laziness prevented us from attending. If anyone went and heard them perform, drop the WP a line!

* Post Script - Thanks to Food Photo Blog for posting my pic of heirloom grape tomatoes that almost made it into this post, as well as the pic of the wrapped figs. Cheers FPB!