I still have some basil and a few green tomatoes in the garden, but a couple of weeks ago, we started our fall garden, including onions, a variety of lettuces and bok choy.

On Saturday, Dan came in from the garden and asked me what I had planned for dinner. I hadn’t really planned it out, but when he told me some of the bok choy we planted was ready to use, I decided to make fried rice with some leftover white rice I had in the freezer; I thought, this would be great with crispy baked chicken and a Chinese-inspired dipping sauce. We also have a few pimento peppers left, so I added those in, too. I looked at a few recipes and then got going. It turned out really well.

Fried Rice with Bok Choy

2 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
1 small red and 1 small green pimento or bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups leftover cooked white rice (leftover works better than fresh, because it’s more dry, so it browns better)
5 large leaves and stems of bok choy, leaves julienned and stems sliced crosswise

1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil

Heat oil in saute pan or hot wok over medium-high heat till it shimmers. Add onions, peppers and garlic and stir-fry 4-5 minutes or until softened. Sprinkle with oyster sauce and soy sauce and stir well. Add sliced bok choy stems and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add bok choy leaves and rice and stir-fry 3 minutes. Drizzle with sesame oil and serve. Makes 4 servings.

This is my entry in the food blogging event Grow Your Own, which celebrates growing or raising fresh ingredients. It was originated by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and is hosted this time by

My dad was here visiting for several days, and we had a great time He brought his yellow Lab, Nickie (not sure of the spelling), who, after a few days, made friends with our black Lab, Pippen. We took them to the beach one day, and they loved it. Here’s the dogs at the beach, and Dad with Nickie just before they took off to visit my uncle George.

Dogs frolicking in the surf

Dad and Nickie taking it easy

Some people have asked me about the heirloom tomatoes we grew (with plants started by my co-worker Dan) this year - what color are they on the inside? Pretty much the same as on the outside So here’s a photo of them, all sliced and ready to be made into salsa.

The red ones are Vintage Wine and the yellow ones are Kellogg’s Breakfast. Both are sweet and delicious

It’s been cool and rainy this week, with the Nor’easter we had, so I’ve been craving a nice braised dinner. I still have lots of tomatoes ripening in the garden, as well as pimento peppers, so chicken cacciatore came to mind. I searched around for recipes and finally found one that doesn’t include mushrooms, which are not a favorite of Dan’s or mine. And it’s by a real Italian - Giada de Laurentiis

It turned out very well, and I made enough to have leftovers at work the next day. It’s one of those things that improves with sitting in the fridge overnight.

Chicken Cacciatore

4 chicken thighs (I used 6 thighs and no breasts)
2 chicken breasts with skin and backbone, halved crosswise
2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 cup all purpose flour, for dredging
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red bell pepper, chopped (I used one small red and one small green bell pepper)
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (I used 3 cups diced fresh garden tomatoes)
3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons drained capers
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour to coat lightly.

In a large heavy saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and saute just until brown, about 5 minutes per side. If all the chicken does not fit in the pan, saute it in 2 batches. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside. Add the bell pepper, onion and garlic to the same pan and saute over medium heat until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, broth, capers and oregano. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Continue simmering over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes for the breast pieces, and 20 minutes for the thighs.

Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a platter. If necessary, boil the sauce until it thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Spoon off any excess fat from atop the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with the basil and serve.

With a side of spaghetti, a green salad and garlic bread, this was a delicious, warming dinner on a cool night.

The peppers, tomatoes, oregano, and basil in this dish came from my garden. This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a food blogging event celebrating the food we grow or raise ourselves, originated by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and hosted this time by Denise of Chez Us.

Wow, these heirloom tomatoes are producing even now, and the Anaheim chiles are going crazy. I stuffed some a few weeks ago, and found that you really do need to roast and peel these; the skin just doesn’t get soft with cooking, so it needs to go. So I spent an overcast, chilly Saturday roasting, peeling and freezing probably 5 pounds or so of Anaheims - wish I’d thought to weight them before I started, but oh well

I did find a few recipes the Anaheims will come in handy for this winter:

• Green Chile Sauce
• Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas
• Christmas Chilaquiles
• Posole

Anaheim peppers ready for roasting

After roasting under the broiler for 8-10 minutes

Most recipes I found call for 1/3 cup of roasted Anaheim peppers, so I froze them in snack-size bags, then put those inside freezer bags.

I just love ceviche. For years, I was afraid to try it - I was concerned about getting sick somehow from eating raw fish or shellfish, even though it’s “cooked” in acid (lemon and lime juice), which probably kills pretty much all the pathogens that might be on it.

Then a couple of years ago, my friend Barbara and I went to visit our friend Liz in Colorado. Of course, Mexican food is very popular there, and we ordered ceviche one night at dinner. It was great! Tangy, spicy, with the sweet shrimp and savory cilantro. I fell in love. There’s a Peruvian restaurant in Norfolk called Imperio Inca that has some delicious ceviche, as an appetizer and a couple of dinner platters. I tried making it myself once, but we weren’t crazy about how it turned out.

Then last month, Liz had a gallery opening at the d’Art Center and a party at her house afterward, where she served homemade ceviche, which was fabulous. Well, now I had to try it again. After looking through my cookbooks, I found a wonderful recipe for it in Cook’s Illustrated’s The Best International Recipe. So I made it again, and it was deee-lish! I bought a bag of lemons and limes so I can make it again!

Shrimp Ceviche

1 lb. large or extra-large shrimp, large sea scallops, fish fillets or a combination
1 tsp. grated zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup juice from 4 limes
1/2 cup juice from 4 lemons
1 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine (I used a red pimento pepper)
1 small jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded and minced
1 medium garlic clove, minced
Salt
1/4 cup olive oil
4 scallions, sliced thin
3 tbsp. cilantro, minced
1/2 tsp. sugar
Ground black pepper

If using shrimp, peel, devein and slice in half lengthwise (I also cut them into thirds). If using scallops, remove the side tendon and slice into 1/3-inch-thick rounds. If using fish, remove any bones and slice into 1-inch squares about 1/3 inch thick.

Stir the lime zest, lime and lemon juices, bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic and 1/2 tsp. salt together in a bowl. Gently stir in the seafood, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until seafood is firm, opaque and appears cooked, 45-60 minutes (mine took about 75 minutes - the shrimp should be pink). Stir about halfway through marinating.

Place the mixture in a fine-mesh strainer, leaving it a little wet, then return it to the bowl. Gently stir in oil, scallions, cilantro and sugar. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with tortilla chips.

This is another entry for Grow Your Own, the twice-monthly food blogging event started by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes about a year ago, and hosted this month by Noob Cook. GYO celebrates the food we grow ourselves. The red pimento and jalapeno peppers came from our garden. And check out the tomato jam, also from our garden!

Just had to share:

more animals

The heirloom and roma tomatoes we planted this year are going gangbusters now, so I’ve had to become creative about preserving them. A few weeks ago, Dan and I went to the Seawall Art Show in downtown Portsmouth. On our way home we stopped at Bowman’s Garden Center, looking for onion sets for the garden, and instead we found a variety of organic, homemade dips and spreads for sale, along with samples.

So we tried tomato jam for the first time, and it was surprisingly good. The flavor made me think of strawberry jam, although it doesn’t really taste like strawberries - just something about it was reminiscent of them. The label said it contained tomatoes, sugar, citric acid and salt. Too easy, I thought, I can make that. So we came home and I Googled around for a while, and, after reading several recipes, came up with the following one. I added a tsp. or so of vinegar at the end, because it tasted a bit too sweet to me.

I also found a great alternative to blanching tomatoes for peeling them - grating them with the big holes on a box grater! It was so easy, I could hardly believe it, and took only a few minutes to make tomato puree out of about 12 roma tomatoes. The seeds are still there, but that doesn’t bother me; according to Cook’s Illustrated, much of the tomato flavor is in the seeds and surrounding “jelly.”

Tomato Jam

1 1/2 pounds good ripe tomatoes (Roma are best), cut in half crosswise and grated
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 jalapeno pepper, finely minced (forgot about this till after I first posted - see below)
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate. This will keep at least a week. Makes about 2 cups.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, the twice-monthly blogging event created by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes, hosted this time by Noob Cook.

ETA: Today, I took some of the tomato jam with fresh-baked biscuits to work and a co-worker asked me if there was anything hot in it. I completely forgot until that moment that Dan had suggested I chop up a jalapeno pepper from the garden and add it in for some more flavor. It’s not enough to make you go Ow, but enough to make you say, Hm, what’s in there?

Labor Day this year was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm, and we just took it easy. We had played poker with Danny and Sally, Paul and Terry, and Steve and Katie on Sunday evening, which was a lot of fun, and then Monday we just … basked in the sun and pulled a few weeds from the veggie garden. Then I remembered to take the ribs out, put a rub on them, and stash them back in the fridge for a few hours.

Then we put them on the grill, and about an hour and a half later, this is what we found:

Mmm, mmm, good Some time back, I made a batch of Neelys’ Dry Rub (from Food Network’s “Down Home with the Neelys,” which I don’t actually watch, but I figure they know their BBQ) for some baby back ribs; I’m pretty sure I made a third of the recipe, since there’s only the two of us. We still had some in the cupboard, so at about noon, I put a nice, thick layer on the spare ribs and put them back in the fridge to get spicy. Then Dan started grilling around 5:30 and dinner was ready by shortly after 7. These were so good, we will have to do them again … and again … He says they were made with luuuuuv, which is why they were so delicious. I’ll take his word for it.

Grilled Spare Ribs
Neelys’ Dry Rub:
1 1/2 cups paprika
3/4 cup sugar
3 3/4 tablespoons onion powder

4 lbs. pork spare ribs
1/2 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce, plus more for serving (because I like a *lot* of sauce)

Put the rub ingredients in a container with a lid and shake to combine. Sprinkle a good coating on the ribs, put in a gallon-size plastic zip-top bag, and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Grill for about 90 minutes. Brush with sauce for the last 10-15 minutes of grilling. Serve with extra sauce, if you’re a sauce fiend like me

This is my contribution to the Thursday Night Smackdown, Grilling Edition, hosted by Michelle. And the round-up of all the recipes is here. Looks like I owe Michelle some ribs, since I apparently missed the entire point of Thursday Night Smackdown, which is to cook something from a COOKBOOK. Like I don’t have enough of those in the kitchen that I read like novels, but don’t cook from enough. I’ll do better, I promise

My turn! This has been all over the food blogosphere this week.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (unless it’s endangered)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (Vietnamese beef soup)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (Indian potato curry)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (a French cheese)
17. Black truffle (a variety of mushroom)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (South American milk-based sauce or candy)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (a warm anchovy and garlic dip)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - in San Francisco!
33. Salted lassi (a drink made by blending yogurt with water, salt, pepper, ice and spices until frothy)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar - I’ve had cognac and I’ve smoked a cigar, but not together
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects - not sure where you can buy these around here
43. Phaal (really hot Indian curry)
44. Goat’s milk - I guess the cheese doesn’t count
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (pickled Japanese ume fruit)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (Indian cheese)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini - I’m not a fan of bitter drinks
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine - (French fries topped with fresh cheese curds and gravy) Sounds great - I need to make this some time
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (a mineral)
64. Currywurst (curry-flavored sausage)
65. Durian (really stinky fruit)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (boiled spiced sheep offal)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (stuffed animal intestines)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini - I’ve had caviar and I’ve had blini, but not together
73. Louche absinthe (anise-flavored distilled beverage)
74. Gjetost, or brunost (Norwegian cheese made from cow’s and goat’s milk)
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu (Chinese distilled liquor)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Chinese smoked black tea)
80. Bellini (an Italian cocktail made with Prosecco and peach puree)
81. Tom yum - one of my faves
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (Japanese snack - biscuit stick coated with chocolate)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa - I made harissa once, but not with rose petals)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano - I’ll double-check the menu, but I’m pretty sure I had this at Tortilla West
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I have a score of 41. Geeze, I have a ways to go, although I haven’t counted the ones I won’t eat. Some cultural taboos are just too much to overcome.