SUMMER TIME / RECIPE: SUNGOLD, CORN AND ROASTED ONION SALAD, July, 2016, Orient, NY

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All of a sudden it’s summer and things are growing! I’m not sure how
spring went by so fast… it seems like over night the farm went from
a brown/grey dirt patch to a lush bright green garden! It’s crazy how
many things and how much has grown just from Calvin and Peter working
the land – I must say I’m very impressed. Grass and weeds are
everywhere and we even have some food! Raspberries are popping up on
the bramble bushes – red, purple and yellow! Some veggies are ready to
pick – already made a salad from radishes, shallots and baby kale.
Meanwhile, the North Fork went from shuttered winter to open for
business summer. All the restaurants and attractions (aka the mini
golf place) are open and the summer crowds are coming out every
weekend. All the other farm stands are open for business and we
finally have a bounty of local produce – garlic scapes, kale, herbs
and hella zucchini. We’ve been making crazy fresh meals every night,
and on nights when we eat early enough ( we usually don’t eat till 10
pm) we even eat outside al fresco!

I have to say, I liked the North Fork in the winter but I love it in
the summer. It’s so nice to lounge by the pool or on the beach all day
and then just walk to the nearest farm stand to make dinner. It’ll be
even better in August when I can have Calvin pick our dinner from all
the veggies he grew himself!

Today I’m sharing a recipe I’ve already made several times this season
– sungold and corn salad. TBH almost none of the ingredients are
available locally (corn and tomatoes usually aren’t in season till the
end of the summer on Long Island) but its’ just so yummy and fresh I
can’t stop making it. It’s also a real crowd pleaser, super simple and
most importantly, can be made ahead of time! In the summer, I don’t
want to be in the kitchen for hours, I just want to have light and
simple meals that don’t require to much cooddeling. This is one of
those recipes.Though there are a few steps there are only a handful of
ingredients. This recipe is based off of one I read in Food52 a few
years back but I’ve tweaked considerably.

As per usual, recipe and farm photos below!

SUNGOLD, CORN AND ROASTED SUMMER SALAD ONION SALAD

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INGREDIENTS

3 ears of corn – sweet corn is preferable if you can find it
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 pint Sungold Tomatoes (those sweet little yellow guys), halved
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

PREP

1. Boil water and set oven to 375 degrees F

2. Chop onion and spread out on a cookie sheet – cover with olive oil,
salt and pepper and roast for about 30 minutes – until pieces are
cooked and slightly brown. Let onions cool so they can be handles and
then place in a large bowl.

3. Shuck corn, snap or cut cobs in half and boil for three minutes.
Let cool then carefully cut kernels off the cob and throw into the
same bowl as the onions.

4. Add halved sungold and thinly sliced scallion.

5. dress with 1 tbs of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Eat
right away while slightly warm, keep out and enjoy at room temperature
or refridgerate and eat later. It’s all good!

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TOO BUSY TO BLOG / RECIPE: THE BEST AVOCADO TOAST, May, 2016, Orient, NY

Life has been pretty hectic lately. We’re getting busier every week at the restaurant and I’ve been swamped with tasks large and small. In the past month I’ve had to let go of one waitress and hire a new one (which is much harder than it sounds), work double duty as waitress and manager to cover shifts and train the new waitress, print new menus and update our POS system. On the home front, we’ve started hosting friends at the farm, and I’m still traveling back and forth to the city every week, and it was Passover (or as Calvin calls it, Jewish Thanksgiving).

I’m finding it harder and harder to sneak some alone time to do the things I love most – embroidery, cooking and writing this blog. Last week, I sat down for an hour to write what I hoped would be and epic post about our recent trip to Uruguay, but got so distracted by the urge to start wandering that again I started planning another trip (Uruguay post will come soon, promise). So this week I decided to tackle a little less distracting and time consuming topic, something light and simple that doesn’t require any new recipe testing.

I’ve been trying to reboot my eating habits – something about the cold weather makes me crave carbs and sugar. Now it’s warming up and I’m 5 lbs over my happy weight, so it’s time to get serious about my diet. Even though I made a delicious chicken pot pie last weekend and have perfected my clafoutis recipe (it’s a sorta healthy, totally delicious Provencal dessert), on the regular it’s greens, whole grains and organic meat and poultry.

I wanted to share a recipe that’s filling, healthy, and super simple to make. Avocado toast! I know, all you have to do is spread avocado on toast and you have a pretty dope meal, but I like to think I make THE BEST avocado toast. (I’ve been making it pretty much every other day) Plus everyone from Smitten Kitchen (one of my favorite food bloggers) to Gwenyth Paltrow (one of my least favorite celeb bloggers) has shared their take on this classic meal slash snack. Smitten Kitchen’s recipe is great, the lassic toast – avo, salt and red pepper flakes, and Gwyneth’s is just plain old wacky – avocado and almond butter, no thank you. With my recipe, greens and homemade shallot dressing take the dish from ordinary to extraordinary, a giant step above your average toast. And it’s easy enough and tasty enough to make and eat every day.

Recipe and some new farm photos below.

AVOCADO TOAST WITH BABY GREENS AND A SHALLOT VINAIGRETTE

Makes enough for two pieces of avocado toast – can feed one or two people depending on how hungry you are! (But you’ll have enough shallot dressing for at least two more toasts!)

INGREDIENTS:

2 pieces of Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bread (you can use any bread but this is my favorite)
1/4 of a lemon
1 avocado
1 shallot
3 tbs olive oil
1 table spoon red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of oregano
freshly ground pepper
flaky sea salt
baby greens

PREP

1. Toast your bread to desired toastedness

2. Cut avocado in half, remove seed, scoop into a bowl. Squeeze lemon juice to prevent it from browning and mush together with a fork until smooth

2. On a cutting board, chop your shallot until roughly chopped, add salt, pepper and oregano and keep chopping until minced into a paste. Once it’s in a paste throw onto a jar and add olive oil and red wine vinegar and shake vigorously.

3. Spread avocado evenly on two pieces of toast. Take a handful of baby greens and sprinkle on top of avocado toast. With a spoon lightly dress your toasts – be sure to have a good amount of shallots all over! Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper and eat up!

FARM UPDATES / RECIPE: SLOW COOKER FRENCH ONION SOUP, April, 2016, Orient, NY

It’s been two months since Calvin moved to the farm and things are starting to come together! The boys –Calvin and his best friend Pete (who’s family farm Calvin is managing)– have been working double duty, setting up the farm during the day and renovating the house at night. The house, originally built some time in the 19th century, was moved a couple blocks from its original location and then renovated in the 1970s. The place is huge –you might’ve seen some pictures, three bedrooms, living room, dining room, den, sun room, green house AND pool! There are tons of windows, it’s incredibly bright and has amazing views of a (different) farm and the bay. But it is a little outdated – fake wood floors, wood paneling everywhere, dirty dirty stairs and sparkly peeling wallpaper in every other room. While cute and cozy the house wasn’t really our style and we – well, mostly entirely the boys – have been turning it into our little late 20s dream home!

The first space they tackled was the living room/dining room – the rooms where we spend most of our time. The first thing the boys did there was whitewashed the wood-paneled walls and floors – and it looks incredible. Getting the entire room painted took some time but once it was done the room was transformed into a bright, modern space. We then culled the furniture in the house and brought in a couple of our own pieces to make the space feel more like us. We kept the old cozy couches, church pews and a newly refurbished wooden dining table (thanks to Pete!) and added our Oriental and Mexican rugs and some plants (also thanks to Pete!). The house now has a shabby chic feel. It’s not done yet –there are still paintings and photographs and stuff to hang on the fresh white walls. We’ve reserved one corner for a gallery wall and another for the Monstera plant of my dreams. I’m only out there two-three days a week so I can’t pitch in as much as they’d/I’d like, but I do  have some little weekend projects for myself, including these honey comb shelves, painting the dirty stairs and making a cork board. It’s so much fun to witness the transformation in progress. I’m excited to participate more over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile on the farm, things are slowly but surely blooming. I have lent a hand out there, but only barely, maybe an hour a week, but hey, that’s more than anyone expected of me. I helped hoe, plant and water berry bushes, and put up tree guards. (Meanwhile, Calvin’s planted hundreds of bushes, chopped down trees and built a chicken coop. He wins at farming) This past weekend the peach and nectarine trees blossomed, an awesome sight. The boys planted their first few trays of seedlings and will be able to plant hella vegetables and herbs in a few weeks and then we can look forward to eating our own food! That’s really what I’m most excited about, all the vegetables I’m going to be able to cook, pickle and can.

This week I wanted to share with you my crazy easy recipe for slow cooker French onion soup. That’s right, the whole thing is made in a slow cooker and takes almost no effort to get restaurant quality soup –and I can say that because I own a restaurant. I like to start this recipe before I go to bed – let the onions caramelize overnight and then add the beef broth when I wake up in the morning. That way by the time I’m home from work (at least when I’m not working the dinner shift) all I have to do it ladle the finished soup into ovenproof bowls, top them with some toasted crusty bread and grated gruyere cheese, and pop them in the broiler. It’s a great recipe to make for a Friday night dinner party, or, on the weekends when we entertain friends all day and don’t want to worry about making dinner. This super simple recipe is sure to wow and please a crowd.

ALSO, don’t toss those leftovers; save them for a slow braise later on in the week.

SLOW COOKER FRENCH ONION SOUP

serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

6 spanish onions, sliced

1 32 oz package of Pacific Organic Beef Broth

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 loaf of crusty bread

1 tsp olive

8-10 oz of grated Gruyere Cheese

SLOW COOKER or CROCK POT

PREP

1. Set your slow cooker on low, throw in sliced onions and cover. Let sit 6-8 hours, until onions are caramelized.

2. Once onions are fully caramelized, stir  and make sure you get any stuck on bits from the bottom. Don’t worry if some a little more browned that others. Add beef broth and cover. Continue to cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3. Once cooked salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into over proof bowls or ramekins. Cut bread in hearty pieces that nicely fit into your bowl – then lightly toast in a heavy bottom pan with a teaspoon of olive oil. Top soup with bread and the cover with grated cheese.

4. Pop into the broiler at high for 5-7 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly and tinged brown.

Serve with salad and enjoy!