Spaghetti with (fake) meatballs and pan roased broccoli

Despite years of being a vegetarian, I still crave meat sometimes. It's not the flavor so much as all of the nostalgia I have wrapped up in food. It's also my need for protein, so I appreciate tasty meat substitutes like Nate's Meatless Savory Mushroom Meatballs. They're great in a pinch and add a really nice flavor to spaghetti. It's very important, however, that you brown them first in a little olive oil. It will not only enhance their taste, but keep them from falling apart when you toss them with the pasta.

Roased radishes, red curry soup and watermelon

When I was in Atlanta, my friend Leah told me about how she tried roasted radishes and that they were fabulous. I was suspect, but threw them into the roasting pan. The radishes lose most of their color and, believe it or not, taste like slightly green cauliflower.

Jeremy made this marvelous Thai red curry soup with lots of vegetables and gluten. The coconut milk lends just enough richness. Hopefully he will post the recipe soon!

Tomato beet salad, sweet corn bisque, spicy corn cake

During my last ceramics class, I started signing my pots with drawings of rabbits. This one was on the bottom of a summer soup terrine--not sure why he looks so sad.

Jeremy has slowly been shifting to a pro-beet stance. He still prefers the younger roots because they are more tender and taste less dirt-like. Here we grilled them in butter, salt and pepper and tossed them in a salad.
Below is a sweet corn chowder with tofu. The corn cake was a disaster--gooey, soft and unpleasant. I'll spare you the recipe.
3 c whole milk
3 ears fresh corn, cut from the cobs, cobs broken in half and reserved
2 T butter
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 c water
2 sprigs thyme
2 springs rosemary (we used sage)
1 bay leaf
pepper
Bring milk and corncobs to a boil in a heavy pot. Remove from heat, cover and let steep while sauteeing vegetables. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium. Add onion and sprinkle with salt. Saute about 5 minutes, but don't let the onion brown. Add corn kernels, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until soft, about ten minutes. Add water, herbs and milk with corncobs. Bring to a boil. Partially cover and reduce to low, simmering 20 minutes. Remove corncobs, herb sprigs and bay leaf. Puree soup in batches in food processor or blender. Strain into a bowl (very important--it's quite stringy). Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can also garnish with creme fraiche, scallions or additional corn.

Heirloom tomato salad, cibatta and rombi with tomato eggplant sauce

My new favorite pasta is rombi--a rhombus shaped pasta that resembles baby lasagna noodles. It's great for thicker sauces and has a nice texture. Hooray, carbohydrates!

Mama Trish's produce, and Squeak's okra surprise

This year we grew eggplant for the first time. (See giant purple globe in the photo.)

They were tasty and not as seedy as other kinds. Definately something we will repeat next year.
One of Jeremy's mom's friends gave her some okra. We don't use it much, but have tried a few dishes this summer. (See other okra related posts.) Here is Squeak, checking it out.

Cheese tortellini with pitty pans, tomatoes and pesto and swiss chard

Four weeks ago at the farmer's market, I came upon an older guy with a tiny table of tiny vegetables. They were adorable, but I felt sort of bad for him, surrounded by bounty and only selling a few vegetables. I bought his tiny orange tomatoes and brought them home. Little did I know that we'd soon be eating the BEST DAMN TOMATOES EVER!!!!! Oh my god, they were so good--sweet like candy, firm and juicy with a deep, rich tomato taste. The next week we returned, and I gushed about his tomatoes. We bought two quarts, and he dashed us nearly a whole quart more. We ate so many tomatoes that week I had cancer sores. We went back the next week, but he had disappeared. How can I handle tomato harvest without anymore of his orange heavenly droplets? Jeremy searched online for possible tomato varieties--we think they're either sun gold hybrids or sunsugar FT hybrids. Guess what seeds are going on my Christmas list?
Here they play a supporting role with pitty pan squash, frolicking with pesto covered tortellini. This chard grew in Jeremy's mom's garden--we're nearing the end of our backyard splursh.

Pecan plum cake, with cardmon ice cream and ganache heart

This summer's farmer's market has been a feast of fruits. Sadly, that time is ending. One of the last decent fruits has been the plum. We made this dessert a long time ago, and hopefully Jeremy can find the recipe for both the cake and the ice cream. In the meantime, here's a very easy recipe for chocolate ganache (pictured below on the plate with the cake.)
1/2 c whole milk
2 T butter
1 package chocolate chips like Ghiardelli (the better the chocolate, the better the ganache)
Heat milk and butter in a double broiler over medium low until milk boils. Turn off heat and add chocolate chips. Let sit until chocolate is mostly melted. Stir until smooth.

Chocolate zucchini cake

I'm a big fan of combining vegetables and cake. Even if they're weird--if it tastes good, I like it. Jeremy thinks it's lame and arbitrary. But I encourage any extra vegetables in my diet. (Not like I don't enough right now...)
Months back I tried a recipe from my mom for saurkraut cake. Because I squeezed out all of the juice, the cabbage had the consistency of coconut.
This recipe is from Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. It's rich, dense and delicious, even though you can't really taste the zucchini.