Sushi anyone?

It's blistering hot... again. Right now our meals are all about keeping the stifling temps at bay and staying cool, and for me this means grilling, cold salads, and unabashedly taking a little help from the local grocery market. For this light and cool meal, I bought some freshly made sushi from a local market and added in my home-made summer rolls.

I bought tasty and super nutritious seaweed and sesame salad, along with some savory California rolls (slices of crab, avocado and cucumber surrounded by brown sushi rice and nori, topped with pickled ginger and wasabi paste). For the summer rolls I used juliened scallions, yellow and red peppers, pea pods, carrots, cucumbers, and quickly sautéed garlicky shrimp. Have your veggies all prepped then place in a soaked rice paper and wrap it up in a tight bundle. I served the summer rolls with a sweet chili dipping sauce from Trader Joes. Time to go run under the sprinkler—bye!

Gorgeous portrait—Samuel Beckett

Intense portrait, isn't it? The dark background, the face riddled with wrinkles and knowledge, the gazing blue eyes... The Irish-born playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) is best known for his Waiting for Godot. The play, first performed in Paris on Jan. 5, 1953, received critical acclaim, and launched Beckett's career. Beckett received the coveted Nobel Prize for literature in 1969 and one year later in 1970 his 16-volume Collected Works were published.

"Beckett's entire literary output, the narrative prose as well as the dramatic works, reduces basic existential problems to their most essential features. Thus his concerns are fundamental, but never simplistic--the evanescence of life; time and eternity; the individual's sense of loneliness and alienation as a result of the impossibility of establishing genuine communication and contact with others; the mystery of self." —From Grolier Incorporated.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Click on the gorgeous portraits label below for more gorgeousness!

Croque monsieur

Aaah, Bastille Day. What better excuse to indulge in yummy French delights?! Perhaps a chocolate croissant and ripe berries for le petit déjeuner? Or a devilishly decadent and cheesy croque monsieur for déjeuner? Oui—Now we're talking. And je voudrai a nice champagne with that too, s'il vous plaît. Smokey black forest ham and gruyere cheese melted between buttered and grilled bread, then slathered with a gooey béchamel sauce (with a hint of bay leaf, a whisper of nutmeg), sprinkled with more cheese (Ooh la la!) and melted under the broiler until it bubbles... Mmm... trés magnifique!

This sandwich starts as a grilled ham and cheese, then a cheesy béchamel sauce is melted on top. I add a thin smear of a good dijon mustard inside. The brightness of the mustard is a nice counterpoint to the fatty butter and cheese.

We enjoyed our Bastille day croque monsieur with a sweet

and tart grilled tomato, sprinkled with lemon thyme.

Add a fried egg on top to make a croque madame.
We enjoyed this croque madame last winter
with a frisee and green apple salad. 

Lillet + basil cocktail

Here is another in a series 

of our weekly Saturday Sippers! posts.

In honor of Bastille Day tomorrow, our Saturday Sipper today is a lovely French Lillet aperitif cocktail. This one is straight from a Martha Stewart recipe. It's light and citrusy with just a hint of basil and cinnamon. Use Hendricks gin, it works well with these flavors. Viva la France!

LILLET WITH BASIL AND CINNAMON

1 cup ice, plus more for serving

1/2 cup Lillet Blanc

2 ounces Hendrick's gin

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, plus sprigs for garnish

good splash of tonic water

cucumber spears and cinnamon sticks, for garnish

Makes 2 trés refreshing drinks.

Put ice, Lillet, gin, orange juice, and basil in a cocktail shaker; shake well. Fill a glass with ice; strain mixture into glass. Add tonic water. Garnish with cucumber spear, cinnamon stick, and basil sprigs.

Curried quinoa + mango salad

This salad combo is a new favorite of ours—curried quinoa with mango, spinach, slivered almonds and wasabi peas for an extra crunch and punch respectively. Here's how I made it—

Rinse 1 cup of quinoa in sieve under running water for a minute (to remove bitter outer chemicals) and cook in 2 cups of chicken broth for about 15 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile make the dressing, and have all your salad ingredients chopped and prepped. Combine the salad ingredients in a bowl, add curry dressing to taste, then fold in the almonds and cilantro when you're about to serve. The salad is great just like this but and on any extras that you like. I like this on a bed of baby spinach, and I love the added heat and crunch of the red chili peppers and wasabi peas. Drizzle a bit of the dressing on the top as well. If your keen for quinoa, you'll love this salad!

Curry dressing

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 tsp of freshly grated ginger
zest and juice of half a lemon

1 tsp honey (or mango chutney!)

5 tablespoons olive oil 

dash of salt and pepper

Salad ingredients

quinoa, cooked and cooled

2 large mangoes
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and diced
3 scallions, thinly sliced 

half cup cilantro leaves

1/3 cup slivered almonds, roasted

Extra fun

baby spinach leaves

wasabi peas

sliced red chili peppers

Amalie, by Thomas Reis

This beautiful portrait painting called Amalie is by contemporary artist Thomas Reis. I like it because it  has a classic old-world feel to it with the dark, muted colors, and the textures are lovely with Amalie's soft skin and the fluffy fur on the hat and coat. Besides, isn't it fun to think of winter hats and scarves on a hot summer day?

Shrimp on the barbie!

My oldest brother Ron is a great cook! He explores and is influenced by the restaurant scene in Boston and the Cayman Islands. At a family party a few weekends ago he made these delicious lemongrass grilled shrimp which were the perfect balance of sweet, spicy and zesty. Delicate shrimp can easily become overcooked and dry on a hot grill, but these were cooked to perfection—slightly charred yet moist and succulent. Along with the shrimp Ron made made a gorgeous, spicy mango, red pepper, cucumber and red onion salsa—those fruit salads are a perfect match with seafood. Below is his shrimp recipe.

Lemongrass shrimp

1 lb. cleaned and shelled shrimp

 2 garlic coves rough chopped

 2 tbsp finely minced lemongrass

 2 Thai chiles thinly sliced

 Thumb size piece of fresh ginger, grated

 1 tbsp of sliced shallot

 3 tbsp soy sauce

 3 tbsp Asian fish sauce

 1/4 cup brown sugar

 1/2 lime fresh squeezed 

 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

 1/2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

 Mix all ingredients. Marinade shrimp in 2/3 of the sauce for 20 minutes (no longer, or the lime will 'cook' the shrimp!) Put on skewers. Cook 2-3 minutes each side (depending on the size of the shrimp), and baste with the other 1/3 of the sauce while cooking. 

Click here to read more about fruit salsas.

Fabulous Fabergé

Ever wish you could fly to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia to see an ornate Fabergé egg? All you have to do is drive to Salem, Ma! Fabergé Revealed is an exhibit currently showing at the Peabody Essex Museum are more than 230 decorative pieces—brooches, frames, cigarette cases, parasol handles, carved stone animals and a few of those amazing eggs—are all luxuriating in air conditioned splendor at the museum, away from all this summer heat and humidity. Only 42 imperial eggs, expertly crafted by the House of Fabergé between 1855 and 1916, are known to exist in the world. The eggs are made of jewels and precious metals, and were created for Russian tsars to give as Easter gifts. I only get a Lindt chocolate bunny! The exhibit through September 29.

Zucchini + tzatziki!

There's three Zs in that header! Thinly sliced and grilled zucchini strips were playfully arranged lattice style, then dressed with a dollop of a minty yogurt sauce. I made a cross between an Greek tzatziki sauce and an Indian raita sauce, excluding the diced cucumbers,  so it was yogurt, mint, dill, garlic, lemon juice, dash of cayenne, smidge of honey, salt and pepper. Then I added some halved grape tomatoes, red peppercorns and olive oil. Meals should be fun, right?  

photos, Diane Carnevale

Ice, ice, baby

Pssst... let me let you in on a little secret. As the hot weather sets in this summer, (as if it hasn't already been here!), I avoid standing over a hot stove by storing already cooked and portioned out whole grains and beans in the freezer. That's them on the top row of my freezer door. On the bottom row in glass jars are about 15 kinds of nuts and seeds, always freezer fresh, but that's another story for another day. Back to the grains and beans... We try to include these nutrient dense foods in our diets, and dried beans take time to soak overnight and cook, so for me this is the perfect solution. Sure, in a pinch I'll grab a can of beans, but this is my preferred method, especially since I can find more unusual beans in the dried form—for example, Umbrian lentils, baby borlotti beans, black beluga lentils, French flagiolet beans, butterscotch beans, Japanese adzuki beans... Well, you get my point, right?  For the grains I just make extra when we cook it (on cooler days!) for meals and then freeze some of it. My ever revolving inventory could include barley, quinoa, farro, or brown basmati rice and some sort of those interesting beans or lentils. Then when I need some for a for a quick salad, side dish or soup I'll just remove it from the plastic bag, but it in a glass bowl and zap it in the microwave. So there you go...no hot stove needed on those scorching, humid, 95° days.

Click to learn more about beans and grains.

The Cordon Negroni

Here is another in a series 

of our weekly Saturday Sippers! posts.

For this week's Saturday Sipper we've taken the classic Italian Negroni cocktail and added in some Spanish Cordon Negro (sparkling wine) made by Freixenet. You know, it's the one in the black bottle. Dan very cleverly coined this drink combo the Cordon Negroni! You can find Cordon Negro in adorable little mini bottle 3-packs, which is molto perfecto to keep stocked in the bar at all times.

THE CORDON NEGRONI COCKTAIL

2 oz gin

½ oz Campari

2 oz sweet red vermouth
4 oz Cordon Negro cava

orange slice

Makes 2 molto bubbly drinks.

Combine all the boozes in an ice-filled metal mixing glass. Shake it (like a Polaroid picture!), then pour in glasses and add orange slice. Sip, and pretend you're with George Clooney, overlooking Lake Como.

Sea glass candy!

Treasure from the sea? Fooled you! This sea glass candy that I make is turning into an annual treat to bring to my family's Fourth of July party in Marblehead. The kids love it, and it's super easy to make, although a bit time consuming. And in this brutal July heat and humidity, standing over a pot of boiling sugar water is not my idea of summer fun (I actually made 3 double batches yesterday, which took ages!), but the playful results are really worth it. Click here to see the batch of candy that I made last July.

SEA GLASS CANDY

Before you begin make sure to have your cooking sheet pans all greased with corn oil or Pam spray, and your flavoring extract and food coloring all ready to add in. Making candy is a science, so it's best to use a candy thermometer to get your candy to the hard ball stage. During the cooking process, don't stir the pot at all, or else your candy will come out cloudy. The pot of sugar is super hot, so be careful! 

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup water

3/4 cup corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

food coloring

1 cup powdered sugar

Boil the sugar, corn syrup and water to 300-310 degrees, this takes 30-40 minutes, Add the peppermint extract (or whatever flavoring you want) and food coloring, let it cook for 20 seconds for the flavor and color to fully mix, then turn off the heat. Pour candy (again, it's hot so be careful!) into the cookie sheet.  After the candy hardens, around 30 minutes, crack the it with something hard like the end of a rolling pin or a wooden spoon. Then toss the gorgeous sweet shards with confectioners sugar to give it that dull sea glass look. Repeat the whole process to make other colors. Keep in a container with a lid to keep humidity out. 

Fireworks for the Fourth!

These 'fireworks' are allium blossoms in my garden
 that are going to seed.

Color Inspiration—poolside petals

Inspired by... flower and leaf petals suspended in a pool. Magical!


To see more colors, click on the "color inspiration" label below.

Cantaloupe + mango salad

I never know whether to call this a salad or a salsa, but I've been making this fruity cantaloupe, mango and pear combo for years and it's always a hit. To further confuse matters, the recipe from Food & Wine Magazine calls it a slaw! (click here for the full recipe) It's made with cantaloupe, mango, carrots, and pear (sometimes I add jicama instead of the pear). It takes hours to cut the fruit into perfect little matchsticks, so feel free to just cut them into cubes. The carrot however, should be grated into strips, and preferably with one of those nifty julienne peeler tools. The precut carrots sold in the market are too chunky, I think. The dressing has the most perfect taste balance of salty, sweet, sour, hot and umami, and goes perfectly with grilled seafood. 

Click here to read more about fruit salsas.

July!

Rock solid

This beautiful old stone bench sits proudly at the Wenham Tea House. 

The Thomas Chippendale

Here is another in a series 

of our weekly Saturday Sippers! posts.

For this week's Saturday Sipper we've just gotta tip our hat to a horse. Yup, a horse named Thomas Chippendale. In case you hadn't heard, at last week's Royal Ascot races in jolly old England, the aforementioned winning horse collapsed from a heart attack directly after crossing the finish line of one of the races on the final day. Read the story here—what a heartbreaker! We've concocted a drink that's a riff on the classic Pimms Cup drink—it's got the Pimm's of course, and the ginger ale and cucumber, but we added a shot of bourbon and a dash of liquid smoke because Thomas Chippendale obviously smoked on the track. In the spirit of Ascot, and in honor of dearly departed TC, it's imperative that you wear your fanciest hat whilst sipping this thirst quenching libation. And so, with a stiff, British upper lip, this one's for you TC.

THE THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

2 oz Pimm's No. 1

2 oz Maker's Mark bourbon
4 oz ginger ale
few dashes of liquid smoke

Garnish with cucumber slice

Makes 2 galloping drinks.



photos, Dan + Diane

Lilly Pulitzer lentil salad

Lilly would have loved a dish saturated in so many bright shades of pink so I thought I'd name it after her. To make this Moroccan spiced lentil salad cook your lentils, then add a sauce made from garlic cooked in olive oil, cumin, allspice, lemon juice, salt and pepper. (If you need a proper recipe here is a similar one) Toss in pickled onions and pickled purple cauliflower, (both of which turn pink when pickled—do you love?), chopped mint, parsley, and finally, cosmos blossoms. Think pink!  photo, Diane Carnevale

Oooohhhhhhmmm...

Flaming reddish pink azaleas flank the 

Buddha that sits in our Japanese maple grove. 

Ooooohhhhhhmmmm…

See our Buddha in the spring here, and in the fall here.

White bean + purple cauliflower salad

This is a fun twist on a Tuscan white bean salad. I tossed white cannellini beans with purple cauliflower florets (raw, so they keep their purple color), fried sage leaves, lemon olive oil, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and garnished with purple sage blossoms.  

Click to see my Tuscan white bean salad posted last year.

Color inspiration—starfish

Colorful starfish.


To see more colors, click on the "color inspiration" label below.

Farro, arugula and grilled tomato salad

This salad of farro with grilled tomatoes, arugula, and boconccini mozzarella balls is a good on a hot summer day. If you haven't tried farro yet, it's a delicious, nutty whole grain that's full of fiber and has a firm, chewy texture when cooked. It tastes great either warm or cold. I cook it the same way I cook brown rice—with a 2 to 1 ratio of liquid (I always use chicken broth) to grain. Other farro recipes you might like:

Farro and grilled summer squash salad

Farro mushroom and baby spinach

Farro, tomato, and baby spinach salad

photo, Diane Carnevale

Wild Strawberry super moon!

Did you see the Strawberry supermoon last night? We did! And as we danced barefoot in the grass in our illuminated back yard I thought to myself, this is a moment I'll remember forever. The full moon of June, technically full tonight, is called the Strawberry Moon. It was named so because this time of year (in North America) June is the peak harvesting season for strawberries. The Strawberry Moon of June is sometimes referred to by Europeans as the Rose Moon, while other cultures have named it the Hot Moon for the beginning of the summer heat. Whatever you call it, it was super beautiful.

The Nick and Nora martini

It's summer, and here is the first in my 
weekly Saturday Sippers! postings.

In our adventurous quest to procure the perfect summer cocktail recipe, we came across this delicious libation—the Nick and Nora martini. It's bright and sassy, just they way Nick and Nora from the Thin Man series were. The ingredients are unusual and perhaps even a little eccentric,  just like N & N, but combined together they make a damned refreshing summer drink! 

NICK & NORA COCKTAIL

3 oz Tanqueray gin

1 oz Lillet blanc

2 oz grapefruit juice
juice of half a lime

splash of cardamom-infused simple syrup

shake, strain, pour in a glass

garnish with a lime or a grapefruit slice

Makes 2 spunky drinks.