Saturday, August 09, 2008

One Local Summer: Week 10

Wow, it's the beginning of August, and it's starting to feel like the summer's already over. Kids are heading back to school all across America, and even the weather is turning fallish. Not to mention the days getting shorter. But I've just started to harvest my tomatoes! Surely we have a few good weeks left to revel in the glorious food of summer.

Last year, we enjoyed tomatoes into October, so I remain hopeful.

This week's meal for One Local Summer features some of those glorious tomatoes, though I was so excited about my mozzarella that I let it hog the camera. This is a fabulous(ly easy) bruschetta, featuring multicolored heirloom tomatoes: German red strawberry (red), German striped (yellow with sunsplashed rays of red), ananas noire (green—donated by CSA member Carrie P.) and the non-heirloom sungold (orange, sweet, and tasty!).

Also in the bruschetta are purplette onions, basil, garlic and fresh raw mozzarella from our cow's milk, which was absolutely divine. I'll be making that much more often, I can tell you. We enjoyed this atop some bread baked local to my in-laws, who were kind enough to bring a giant bag down for my freezer last time they visited. Sometimes it's nice to be able to pull something out to reheat rather than baking from scratch.

To round out our meal (though I would've been happy with just the bruschetta and wine!) was a whole chicken, roasted with butter, rosemary, thyme and Russian banana fingerling potatoes, another heirloom veggie—all fresh from our farm. If you've never tried fingerling potatoes before, you're missing a real treat. They are creamy, buttery goodness: roasted in homemade butter and herbs, they approach Nirvana.


Don't forget to check out the giveaway and sign up for the drawing by August 15th if you'd like to participate.

5 comments:

Carolyn said...

Now I am hungry!!! Those sound Yummy!

Angie said...

Beautiful pictures, as usual. We are hoping we won't get an early freeze too - we have too many tomatoes to eat!

Christy said...

Did you make the mozarella with your cow milk? I've heard of a few people having trouble making it with raw milk Have you tried any other cheeses with the cow milk yet?

Chris said...

We're getting ready to harvest our Laratte fingerlings any time now. Can't wait!

Which mozzarella recipe did you use? I have two strikes so far on making it :( It just turns into stiff crumbles when I'm supposed to be stretching it (using the 30 minute recipe).

Danielle said...

Thanks Carolyn and Angie.

Christy, yes, I made it with our milk. I'd heard similar stories, so I was reluctant to try it—just because I love fresh mozzarella so. It came out delicious.

So far I've made ricotta (only so-so), chevre, queso blanco, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, and mozzarella.

Jenny, I used the Ricki Carrol recipe with the microwave. It worked pretty well, though it was a bit messy.

It didn't keep very well, though. We had it last night on sandwiches, and it was only so-so—the texture was compromised. I'm going to try using it in an omelet this morning to see if the leftovers will work well that way. If not, well, we'll just have to be sure there aren't any leftovers next time. ;)