The Bitten Word

Garden Update: Tomatoes and Basil Galore

An Update on Our Backyard Garden

We came in from the garden this morning with a handful of tomatoes. That, friends, is something to celebrate. 

You see, the cycle of boom and bust continues in our garden. In the month since our last update, we've had substantial growth and a few losses, too. 

Let's start with the positive. 

The good news is that we have tomato and basil plants galore. The basil is especially doing well -- the plants are huge and no matter how much we pick, there always seems to be more. We have Thai, Genovese, Fine Herb and Purple varieties, and they're all doing well. So now our challenge is to use it. We've been tossing it into all sorts of dishes, making vinaigrettes and pestos (or at least pesto-like sauces).  Before long, we'll likely harvest a bunch and freeze it for use this winter. 

Purple(ish) basil

Food Mags on the iPad: First Impressions (Part 2)

As you read a food magazine these days, it's hard to miss the fact that the print editors are prominently featuring the digital extensions of the magazines. You can barely turn a page without running into an ad for apps for the iPhone and iPad.

In our Part 1 post on this topic, we looked at what Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, and Cooking Light are offering on the iPad. Here's a glance at where other food mags stand, and what we think about the full crop of applications. 

Grilled Turnips with Garlic

Food & Wine (July 2011)

As you no doubt know by now, we'll happily grill anything that shows up in our kitchen. Tofu? Sure. Salad? Sandwiches? Absolutely.

So to be honest, when we saw these Grilled Turnips with Garlic, our reaction wasn't as much wide-eyed excitement as it was a simple shrug and an, "Eh, why not?"

Turns out, we shouldn't have been so lackadaisical. These grilled turnips are dynamite!

Food Mags on the iPad: First Impressions (Part 1)

Ever since the iPad came out and food magazines began promoting their iPad editions, we've been intrigued. 

As people who love printed magazines and look forward to getting them in the mailbox each month, how would we feel about the interactive food magazine experience?  Would we want to ditch our paper for pixels? Swap our Post-Its for screenshots?

Well, we recently joined the legions of iPad owners, and we've had a chance to download a few magazines and play around with them. For those of you who haven't yet experienced this (or who perhaps have iPads but were debating whether or not to buy magazines) perhaps our experience will help you make up your mind.  

Let's start with our favorite iPad experience so far -- Martha Stewart Living. 

Here are a few of our favorite things about the issue after downloading and playing with the July issue of Living. 

First, the cover is, well, alive. 

Here's a great video that shows you exactly what the animated iPad cover looks like, as the cookies start to pop and appear like fireworks in the sky. It's a nice way to kick off the experience. There are two other big animations like this within the magazine, to open other sections, and many smaller animated features, like a moving headline.

Other parts of the iPad edition bring Martha herself into the experience. For example, whereas the "Martha Moment" page in the magazine shows a photo and a caption from Martha, the digital version actually includes Marta reading the words herself.

Skillet Eggs With Squash

 Food Network Magazine (July/August 2011)

We went to Cape Cod this weekend. Friends presented the opportunity for a free house in Provincetown for several days, and we jumped at the chance to go. And it was lovely! We read, we napped, we read some more. We took walks to the beach and made dinner at the house most nights.

Before we left for the trip, we diligently cleaned out our fridge, working through all the produce that we had on hand. And that, friends, is a challenge these days, because our CSA share is getting hefty each week.

One of the main culprits? Zucchini. We have it in spades right now. A few weeks ago, our weekly share had 12 (twelve!) pounds of zucchini. This week, we got another four pounds.

So needless to say, when it's summer, we're on the lookout for new zucchini ideas. 

And one of those ideas -- Skillet Eggs with Squash -- is already a new favorite. 

Poached Nectarines

Everyday Food (July 2011)

The simplicity and deliciousness of summer produce can be really stunning. 

After dinner over the past few weeks, when we've wanted something sweet, we've mostly just been reaching for some raw fruit, like cherries or peaches. (Okay, we've also been reaching for a lot of chocolate, but usually we start with fruit.)

But when we had guests over for dinner one night last week, we decided to forgo the chocolate and serve something that showcases seasonal fruit with a touch of specialness.

And since we're not Alice Waters, we couldn't exactly serve a perfectly ripe peach on a platter and call it dessert.

So instead we opted for these Poached Nectarines from Everyday Food.

Summer Reading: Books We've Been Enjoying

For several months now, we've been eager to share impressions of books we've enjoyed of late, but we keep getting distracted by other topics. As more time has passed, the list has kept growing. So here with are with a near-epic round-up of recent and notable books that we recommend checking out.  

Let's get right into it, starting with cookbooks.

Southward!

Our favorite cookbook that we've encountered so far this year is A Southerly Course: Recipes & Stories From Close to Home by Martha Hall Foose. Foose is referenced a lot right now in various publications because she happens to also be the food stylist for the film adaptation of The Help, which hits theaters next month. (If you haven't read that book, get on it! We loved it.) 

Perhaps it's because we're both Southern, but Foose's cookbook just grabbed us in a way that others haven't recently.

We were absolutely enamored with tales of Pickled Crawfish Tails, Dandelion Cracklings, and Ricotta Dumplings with a Blackberry Compote. Yuuuuuuum.

But maybe we also enjoyed the book so much because it's just the kind of book we would like to write someday: straightforward recipes and stories that put an interesting spin on ingredients.

It's an achingly fantastic cookbook, and such a great read that even if you curl up with it on the couch -- with no intention of entering the kitchen -- you'll still love it.

 

Cooking Through the Seasons

We're similarly smitten with North Carolina Chef Andrea Reusing's Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes.

As the subtitle suggests, the book is divided into seasons, which we really enjoyed.  Here are our favorite recipes from each: Spring -- Fresh Peas with Lettuce and Green Garlic; Summer -- Chilled Berry Pudding with Cream; Fall -- Macaroni with Beans, Roasted Pumpkin, and Ham Hocks; Winter -- Kale Paninis.

If you run across it, take a few minutes to flip through it. We think you'll want to take a copy home. 

 

 

Kohlrabi, Fennel and Blueberry Salad

Food & Wine (July 2011)

There's only one reason we made this salad. 

No, it's not because it looks like a salad that traveled back in time from the future. 

And no, it's not because it's just about the most unusual-sounding dish we've seen in any magazine this year.

The truth is, we made it because we had kohlrabi in our fridge. Each year, our CSA gives us a bit of kohlrabi and every year we make slaw. And you know what?  Slaw is good, but it can get a bit boring if you're not making barbecue or going on a picnic. 

So we jumped at the chance to use our kohlrabi in a non-slaw dish. And this salad was so different that we had to try it.

Subscription Winners + July's Best Magazine Features

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've been obsessing about peaches, tomatoes and popsicles ever since we launched Friday's gallery of July magazine covers. But we promise we won't make a Peach-Tomato Pop. (Or, wait, should we?)

Judging by the great comments you left on the covers gallery, many of you also seem to have peaches, tomatoes and popsicles on your mind.

As promised, we chose five of the comments at random, and the commentors win a one-year subscription to Everyday Food, plus a copy of the magazine's special full-size issue for summer. 

So who won?  The five randomly selected comments are:

Grace:

"I'm excited to try making Bittman's chicken under a brick recipe sometime this summer!"

Erin:

"Lots and lots of roasted corn...and maybe throw some salmon on the BBQ with it."

Mimi:

"The Everyday Food cover looks so refreshing and summery."

Diliana:

"OMG - this tomato tart on The Food Network Magazine cover looks amazing! I just love savory, it always trumps sweet for me."

Christina:

"I love the Martha Stewart Living! So simple, just the cookies, but I just love how they decorated them!"

Congrats! While we're talking about July magazines, we'll share our favorite features from this month. 

Win a Subscription to Everyday Food in Our Latest Covers Gallery

We're usually pretty enthusiastic about getting into the kitchen no matter the time of year, but we're especially excited about cooking right now. 

Why? Well, a few reasons. 

Sweet corn is starting to show up at the farmers market. We could eat it at every meal. For serious.

The tomatoes in our garden actually have a little color, and we expect to be enjoying them soon. While we're waiting, we picked up a tomato at the market this past weekend and made bacon, tomato and arugula sandwiches. They were about as simple as you can get, and they were spectacular.

And we just got a new piece of equipment that we're really excited about: a pressure cooker! We'll be sharing more about that soon as we experiment more with it.  

So summer has us excited -- and that magical summerness is evident on the covers of the July food magazines. There are juicy tomatoes and steaks hot off the grill, festive dishes and famous chefs. They make us even more excited about the month ahead. 

And one more reason to celebrate? We're doing a giveaway!

The folks at Martha Stewart are offering an awesome giveaway to our readers this month. 

Five randomly selected readers will win a one-year subscription to Everyday Food, plus a copy of the magazine's special full-size summer issue (pictured above). 

So how do you enter?