CantaloupeAlone

Thanks to Ava for shooting this picture while I busied myself with a spatula and tongs I have a theory about hamburger and hot dog buns. The lamer the filling, the thicker and emptier the bun to fill up your stomach and distract from a less then excellent sandwich. Flat, thin, fresh hot can not be substitute, and was the absolute center piece of a BBQ I threw on vacation. Flat bread can be prepared 1 hours to over night in advance, but cooked in a flash on the grill. Wrap it around burgers, grilled veggies, tofu, hot dogs, or served in wedges with dip. I melted cheese on mine and served it as side with some olive tapenade . Also great for brunch. Truly memorable for not a lot of effort. Grilled Flat Bread 1 cup flour (bread flour would be good) 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 pinch of sugar 2 tsp tahini (optional) 1 tblsp olive oil cold water Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar in a bowl. Mix olive oil and tahini and drizzle over dry ingredients. Mix in cold water until the dou...

Lobster tail candy from Polish Deli I like to poke through Polish groceries and meat stores. I've discovered many meat treats in the past in my local one on Church Ave in Brooklyn. Candy and sweets are secondary. Who knows what flavors lie below the colored cellophane . I write it off as the usual fruity/caramel/minty variety in foreign packaging. Lobster candy were clawing to go home with me. The package read "Lobster Tails, Cripsy Crunchy Candy, Raczek ." I was hoping for something like the ocean in candy form, even if that would be pukescent . What I found was rum flavored candy that tasted remarkably like a sweeter egg nog , very near bubble gum flavor with a peanut finish. The texture is crispy on the outside and butterfingery on the inside. Its good, and its the closest thing I'm getting to lobster this summer! Good job Poland creating a Christmas flavored seafood themed candy. I will seek your lobster candy from now on along side your cold cuts.

Chicken cooked on a fire hazard flaming grill, see #1 I haven't put much into Cantaloupe Alone. I have been "busy" sunning my self while dreaming up delightful things to grill up on my vacation on Fire Island. I grilled everyday. Sometimes 2-3 times a day. The propane was burning as early as 11 am, which is early for a no alarm clock vacation sleep schedule. Some lessons I learned taming the flames and searing meats for 7 days straight: 1) Clean the grill and have an extingusher /bucket of water Night one of the vacation (incidentally my birthday) my lovely, thoughtful friends went to work grilling up a spread. Pillars of smoke and flames were spewing 8 feet up after moments from our rental house's ill-attended dirty disgusting oil trap. The fire extinguisher? Empty. We hosed it down, with dumb luck. Water on an oil fire is not safe. The effect of a bath in pitch black oil fire smoke on the chicken thighs was brilliant. Tender and delicious super bbq in a dangerous in...

I'm off to cook and grill by the sea. Goodbye for a few weeks until I'm back with some island food stories and a maybe a tan.

Week 6 was had a little less to offer than week 5, but plenty of basil and heirloom tomatoes. Today was almost double what we've been getting and oh buddy did we ever get some tomatoes! Carrots have made a very early appearance in the season. I welcome them to my kitchen where they will last approximately 15 minutes before I eat them up. Please note my foolishness in biking to the CSA site to get my share. We have been getting 8-12 pounds of food recently. This week with 2 melons, chicken, and eggs the share was totaled about 30 plus pounds, which I strapped to my back in my daypack . It hurt every part of me to bike the mile home. Even now my spine is sending my brain distress signals. I'm lucky I didn't wobble over starting and stopping at lights. Am I a wuss or what? I think I'll eat watermelon and carrots for dinner. Here is the big list of what we received in the week 7 share: 1 sugar baby watermelon 1 cantaloupe 2 zucchini 1 eggplant 8 tomatoes (See that cherry t...