The Bitten Word

Eat This Now! 6 Dishes to Make Before the End of Summer

Kids, we've got a little bit of bad news: Summer is nearly over.

But you've still got a little time! Meteorologically speaking, you've got 23 days. And even if you count Labor Day as the end of summer, you still have the better part of a week.

One good use of these waning days? Cook up a favorite summer dish!

We scrolled through our recipe index to round up 6 Summer Dishes that you should definitely make before fall. They're some of our all-time favorites!

 

Raw Corn and Zucchini Salad: This salad is simple, fresh and bursting with flavor. It's the taste of summer in a single bite!

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet and Spicy Fried Peach Pies: There's literally not a single word in the name of this dish that we don't love.

 

 

 

 

Pan-Roasted Corn and Okra: Just four ingredients: corn, okra, oil and salt. It doesn't get simpler, or tastier.

 

 

 

 

 

Best BBQ Chicken with Simple Barbecue Sauce: This is one of the most popular posts we've ever had on The Bitten Word, and for good reason. This dish is a knockout!

 

 

 

Basil-Blackberry Crumble: A crumble is just about the most perfect summer dessert you can find. We've made dozens of variations of this recipe over the past three years. Pick your favorite summer fruit, and get to crumblin'! 

 

 

 

Burgers with Blue Cheese Mayonnaise and Sherry Vidalia Onions: This is probably our favorite burger we've ever made. Sweet, smoky and tangy all in one bite!

 

 

 

 

As for us, we're heading to the beach for a loooong Labor Day week with a houseful of friends. We've got sunscreen, a stack of unread magazines and a bag full of books. We'll do some cooking, and we just may have a cocktail or two.

We'll see you in a week -- it's going to be a fantastic autumn! 

 

 

 

 

September's Best Magazine Features + Giveaway Winners!

 
Thanks to everyone who entered our latest giveaway!

We just love reading everyone's picks for their favorite covers. Though this is by no means a popularity contest, we were bowled over by how many of you picked the August Bon Appétit cover with that delicious-looking pie. It looks like the Martha Stewart Living cover with the tomatoes and pasta was a close second.  

We've just finished reading all of the September issues of the magazines we receive, and before we get to the contest winners, we wanted to highlight a few of this month's best features.  

First up, we really enjoyed the Bon Appétit restaurant issue, but we loved "Kitchen Confident," where chefs give tips for maximizing kitchen space, tools and ingredients in the home kitchen. There are at least a dozen tips we thought were phenomenal, and it has inspired us to make some changes in our kitchen. We highly recommend you check it out. 

Martha Stewart Living has a beautiful feature on making madeleines. Confession: we have a madeleine pan that we've never used, and it's high time we did! Art Director Dimity Jones has some photos from the madeleine shoot up on her website and they are absolutely stunning. 

By-the-pound salad bars aren't as big a feature of everyday life here in our nation's capital as they are in New York City, but still we loved Food Network's guide to shopping the salad bar. In it, they break down which items are typically bargains (like peas and blue cheese), break-evens (broccoli, grape tomatoes) or overpriced (hard boiled eggs, cucumbers). If you're a salad bar fanatic, check it out and see if you're overpaying. 

We've never made sushi at home but if you're interested, Food & Wine has an in-depth feature on mastering sushi, with recipes by Chef Masaharu Morimoto. It's a wonderful feature with beautiful photographs. If we ever decide to get rolling with some sushi, we'll be referring to this guide. 

Okay -- so who won the giveaway?

Gratinéed Tomatoes with Asiago and Fresh Herbs

Fine Cooking (July/August 2011)

Just over a week ago, we got canning fever.

Tomatoes had been on u-pick at our CSA for a few weeks, and we had debated going out to pick up some for canning and making sauce. But we kept talking ourselves out of it because we were either busy or heading out of town. We still have some tomatoes left over from last summer, and we told ourselves that those would be sufficient until next year. 

But the tomatoes kept appearing on the u-pick list, and we kept debating...

Finally, feeling that summer was slipping away and the tomatoes were starting to dwindle at the farm, we drove out there very, very early on a Friday morning to get ourselves a great big ol' mess'a maters.  

 

Win a Microplane in Our August/September Covers Gallery

Sound the alarm: Summer is disappearing! 

And we're not ready.

We've been munching sweet corn like it's going out of business (oh wait, it sort of is...), canning tomatoes and okra, and eating at least two peaches or nectarines each day. It has made for blissful August eating.

So we're going to spend the next few weeks gobbling up as much summer as we can. 

The change in seasons is starting to be evident on the covers of food magazines.

Below, you'll see 11 images from August and September covers. There's still some summeriness happening, but there's also pasta, pizza and pesto on roast chicken. 

Along with this gallery, we're offering a giveaway! And we've really excited about this one. We use a Microplane nearly every day in the kitchen, usually to grate cheese, zest a lemon, or (when we're feeling a bit lazy) mince some garlic. We love it. So when we got a press release from the Microplane company announcing new, bright colors, we immediately wanted to give some away to Bitten Word readers. 

Here's how to enter.

Pad Thai Challenge! Delivery vs. Homemade

Fine Cooking (June/July 2011)

We had so much fun with our General Tso's Challenge earlier this summer -- and got such great feedback from you guys -- that the moment we saw this Pad Thai in Fine Cooking, we knew we wanted to do another head-to-head bout.

How would our at-home Pad Thai compare with the delivery version?

We love Pad Thai. It's sort of like the spaghetti and meatballs of American Thai cuisine. It's predictable and filling, and it's pure comfort by the bowlful. And it's always familiar -- trust us, even if you've never had Pad Thai, you'll want to dive into the bowl after the first bite.

At the same time, it's never the most exciting thing on a Thai menu. Amid all those enticing, exotic dishes, it's always with a slight tinge of apologetic guilt whenever we announce to a server, "Oh, I'll just have the Pad Thai."  

We love trying all kinds of Thai dishes. But Pad Thai is just always so delicious, with its tasty combination of stir-fried noodles, eggs, peanuts, lime, fish sauce and peppers and spices.

So we called up a Thai place in our neighborhood -- one we've been to a thousand times -- and placed an order. At the same moment, we started cooking our own Pad Thai at home.

Who would win on speed?  Who would win on cost?  What about flavor?

Ladies and gentlemen: the Pad Thai Challenge!

Pesto di Noce (Walnut Pesto) with Flank Steak

Saveur (August 2011)

As people who have grown basil for the past five or so years, we are well accustomed to making pesto.

Ours has typically been the basil + Parmesan + pine nut + garlic + olive oil variety.

But honestly, we've found pine nuts a little unnerving since reading stories like this one. Plus, they're expensive. The combination of shadiness plus cost easily pushes them down our list of ingredients.

So we were eager to try this take on walnut pesto from Saveur.

Peppery Punch

Food Network Magazine (July/August 2011)

Last Monday, Drew and Ralph came over for dinner and we served this punch. More on that in a moment.

Since then, we've had a whirlwind week. Here are a few things that happened:

• Wednesday night, we boarded a plane to Portland, Maine, where we rendezvoused with Zach's family for a 70/30 trip (his stepfather was turning 70; his sister, 30).

• We spent one night in Portland, where we ate at Fore Street, which we think is just about the coziest, most romantic restaurant we've ever visited. It has an extensive, seasonal menu, a big, open kitchen and it's housed inside a really cool old building. We had some amazing mussels, an excellent steak and a to-die-for pork chop.

• Thursday, we headed to the seaside town of Camden for a few nights of what became a blur of lobster and naps.

• Clay read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which is excellent); Zach's been slugging through Cloud Atlas (which is fascinating).

• We met up with our friends Dan and Wendy for a sail on Penobscot Bay.

• Also with Dan and Wendy, we went to a field day out in the tiny village of Montville, where we witnessed a 90-plus-year-old woman compete in a cross-cut saw competition. It was one of the highlights of the trip. 

• Some of our party hiked Mount Battie in Camden, but the two of us couldn't be pulled away from the back deck of the house where we were staying.

• We had the chance to revisit one of our all-time favorite restaurants, Chase's Daily in Belfast, Maine. Nestled on the gallery-crammed streets of Belfast, it's a vegetarian restaurant that's only open for dinner on Friday nights. We ordered a bean salad (with amazing toasted almonds) and cacio e pepe to start. For entrees, we had a lasagna that included beets and a pizza topped with braised fennel and figs (delicious!). 

• We played some fierce games of Scrabble with Zach's mom B.

• Lots and lots of naps.

• And, as mentioned, there were many, many lobster rolls. We think our favorite of the weekend might be the one from J's Oyster in Portland. (If you go, get the Bloody Mary. It's one of the Top 3 we've ever had.) 

The one thing we didn't get around to was making this punch a second time. We had planned to, and we're sure Zach's family would have loved it. But we would have needed to go find elderflower liqueur, plus some champagne, and that, honestly, seemed like a bit of a chore on vacation. So we opted for simpler cocktails instead.

Still, this Peppery Punch is a fantastic summer drink to have up your sleeve.

Chopped Green Bean and Celery Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Everyday Food (July/August 2011)

This time of year can be heady business at the farmers market.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the piles of peaches, corn, tomatoes and melons that are spilling out of nearly every produce stand. We often emerge from the market dazed and confused, unsure of what all we just bought on our whirlwind spin through the stands.

But there's one vegetable -- from one particular stand -- that we almost never fail to buy: A paper bag full of Jade green beans from New Morning Farm. 

We just love 'em, and we can't pass up the gorgeous green mountain of them that's prominently displayed in front of the New Morning tent every Sunday at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market.

And the beans are so terrific to have on hand all summer long. They're delicious in a sauté with corn and onions, or heated in a skillet in a little bacon grease, or even just steamed on their own with no extra adornment whatsoever.

Here's a salad from the latest Everyday Food that gives us yet another way to enjoy fresh green beans.

Scallop Crudo

Bon Appétit (August 2011)

We've been lucky enough to have eaten at our fair share of fancy restaurants. And more than a few times, we have ordered some version of a scallop crudo. You see it there, lurking among the first courses on menus. And it pops up, occasionally, on cooking competition shows.  

It seems so upscale, so refined, so (dare we say it?) classy.  

So we wanted to make it ourselves, and Bon Appétit gave us the perfect excuse with this recipe from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger, current kings of the fancy restaurants in New York City. 

And there was one thing we were shocked to find about this recipe. 

Tomato Cobbler

Martha Stewart Living (July 2011)

Even in the height of summer, some dishes justify turning on the oven.

Although usually we're advocates for an oven-free July and August -- trying to instead do all our cooking on the grill or to eat things that require no cooking at all -- we were instantly drawn to this tomato cobbler from Martha Stewart Living. 

Pitched as a "new classic," along with some delectable-looking dishes like these Corn Ice Cream Shortcakes, the cobbler called out to us. 

One look at that savory, biscuit-y crust crowning farm-fresh cherry tomatoes? We couldn't fire up the oven fast enough!