Blue Hill Café

We had lunch at Blue Hill Café near Tarrytown this past weekend for Dad's 65th birthday. We shared savory open-faced sandwiches, barley salad with roasted eggplant and corn, grilled chicken legs, freshly baked cookies and vanilla bean panna cotta topped with gooseberries. Only thing we didn't have was a birthday candle!

Saucy Chick

I'm not sure where Bonne-Maman first came across this BBQ sauce recipe (possibly from a magazine clipping) but she's been making it for so long that it has become a family staple. The smell of this tangy sauce conjures memories of the backyard barbeques we used to have at her house in North Brunswick.

Makes 1 cup (Serves 2)

1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
1 large onion (sliced in half, then in thin half-rings)
1/4 cup salted butter
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Place the vinegar, water, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice, onion and butter in a small saucepan. Stir together and simmer uncovered on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Bring back to a simmer and serve over grilled chicken. If you find the sauce to be too thick or too tangy, add a little more water to loosen it up and mellow the flavor.

Cucumber Cool Down

Last week's heat spell took a toll on our once-thriving cucumber vine (not to mention our ability to function). It no longer looks as lush, but it's still producing cucumbers so I can't give up on it completely. To cool us down a bit I harvested a few cucumbers and made refreshing 'kachumber' coolers:

4 Cucumbers, Peeled and Seeded
Juice from 1 Lime
1/2 cup Simple Syrup
6 ounces Gin
1/2 cup Club Soda
Fresh Mint

Liquify the peeled and seeded cucumbers in a food processor. Press pulp through a fine mesh strainer to capture the cucumber juice. Discard solids. You should have about 1/2 cup of cucumber juice. Add an equal amount of simple syrup. (To make the simple syrup, bring equal amounts of water and sugar to a boil. Turn burner off and let liquid cool.)

Add the juice of one lime to the cucumber and sugar water, about 2 Tablespoons. Fill a large tumbler with ice and add one and a half ounces of gin, two ounces of the cucumber/lime/sugar water. Top off with club soda and garnish with a cucumber wedge and muddled mint. Ahhh... so refreshing! The remaining cucumber mixture can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. Just give it a shake before using as the fine pulp settles to the bottom.

da Conch Shack

In Turks & Caicos we had our first experience eating conch at the popular da Conch Shack. Feeling fearless we dove right in and ordered it two ways-- Conch fritters and Conch in a creole sauce. The fish itself is rather chewy and tasteless, but absorbs all the flavors of its surrounding ingredients. We found it also pairs perfectly with another island favorite-- rum punch.

Patio Pickles

I chose to grow kirby cucumbers this year for one specific reason: Pickles! I love pickles and anything soaked in vinegar. Our four plants have already produced about a dozen cucumbers. The best thing about watching them grow is that they already look like pickles while still on the vine.

I made three different pickle recipes, each very different from the other: Quick pickles, Refrigerator Pickles and Half-Sours.

I'm most proud of the half sours because they taste like "real" deli pickles and involved a 2-day fermentation method, which sounds way more complicated than it is.

Boston Market

We snagged a few carrots (and photos) at the Harvard Square farmer's market while we were in Boston last Sunday.

Peet & Greet

My friend Josephine first introduced Peet's Coffee to me when we were living together back in 2004. It's flavor is rich and bold, yet very smooth. Since then, Ronak and I have adopted it as our own favorite bean and brew it at home.

Unfortunately Peet's is a west coast chain with only one location on the east coast: Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lucky for us we were able to go twice during our trip to Boston last weekend and gladly paid $4.00 for an iced latte. So good!