Roasted Red Pepper Crostini

Roasted red pepper crostini.


A nice evening, an appetizer and wine on the patio, ahhhhhhh. Can you feel the gentle breeze in that picture?


The red peppers can be done fresh or a day or two ahead if you are entertaining. In fact, I suggest making them a little ahead of time so that the flavors are fully incorporated. You could make them in the morning for an evening meal.

You will need:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 red bell peppers
4 anchovy fillets
1 clove garlic minced
salt and pepper
4 slices bread


You will need to determine how much you want to serve and them decide how many peppers you are cooking. For 4 crostini I cook 2 peppers, using 1/2 a pepper for each, and this would serve two. If you are serving four use 4 peppers making 8 crostini, again 2 pieces per person. Simply double the recipe.


Start with the red pepper topping. I prefer to grill the peppers until good and charred. I think the grill gives them more flavor. If you prefer you can put them on the grate of your gas stove and simply turn them until they are charred well. Allow them to sit for a few minutes to cool so you can handle them. Peel off as much of the skin as possible but don't get too picky about it. I don't mind it in the finished product. Then slice them and set aside. Heat a saute pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add the anchovy. Allow to cook slowly until the anchovy melts into the oil. Add the peppers and cook a couple minutes, then add the garlic and cook for one minute more. Turn off heat. Allow them to sit until ready to use. They should be a room temp to eat but if making ahead you can refrigerate and then bring them back to room temp for serving. I have made large batches of these for parties and for several servings over the course of a week and it works very well.

Now when it come to the bread I always use a good quality artisan bread. It makes a difference. I don't use white bread because I want it to have some nutritional value and because I like the mouth feel of a hearty bread. I buy multi grain. Slice the bread, baste it with olive oil, then toast it. You can do this in the oven or on the grill. Once off the heat immediately take a garlic clove and brush the bread which causes the garlic to kind of melt onto the bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with red pepper.

Now go out to your patio and sit down in the cool breeze and enjoy!

Lemoncello and Sorbet

Lemoncello. Ever had it?

It's that delicious Italian liquor from Southern Italy.

We keep it in the freezer because it is nice to sip however our favorite is a Lemoncello Martini. I have also used it in a cake recipe.







You can make lemoncello at home. It is simply lemon peel, vodka and sugar. That's it. Meyer lemons must be used so when they are in season I make a batch of lemoncello that lasts all year. I also make it for gifts. Fill a nice looking bottle and wrap some ribbon or raffia around the neck with a label and present it as a hostess gift. You can also put the lemoncello martini recipe of the label and the recipient is ready to go.

Having a bottle of lemoncello around the house over the last couple of years I decided I needed to find some new recipes. You know, don't want to get into a lemoncello rut or anything. I decided a sorbet might be nice. Escpecially for the summer months. It's light, refreshing, especially as a palate cleanser between courses for a dinner party. Of course I can just eat it for dessert alone with nothing else but I thought it might be somewhat impressive for guests.





To make lemoncello you need:

2 pounds lemons

35 ounces vodka

2 pounds sugar

35 ounces water







Peel all the skins off the lemons. Only the yellow part should be used.





I use Belvedere vodka for my lemoncello and so I saved an empty bottle to use exclusively for this purpose. Measure out 35 ounces of vodka and pour it into the bottle then stick the lemon peels into the bottle making sure they are submerged as well as possible. (I use a chop stick for this)Allow to sit in a cool place for 4 days. The vodka becomes infused with the lemon. After 4 days remove the lemon and strain the liquid to remove any bits.


Make a simple syrup by putting the water and sugar into a saucepan and heat over low heat until the sugar just dissolves. Allow to cool. Once cool put the alcohol and simple syrup back into the bottle and chill. You now have lemoncello.



I have experimented with the amount of sugar used. Some people think this is a little too sweet so you can use less sugar. Make the simple syrup and add only enough to your taste. I felt that by reducing the simple syrup it was not as good when used for martini's so I went back to the full amount.


If you want to make lemoncello sorbet you will need:

2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemoncello
1 cup fresh meyer lemon juice

In a saucepan heat the water, sugar, and lemoncello stirring until dissolved. Remove and allow to cool. Add lemon juice. Chill. Put mixture into an ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer directions. At this point you can hold it in the ice cream maker or put into a container and put in the freezer until ready to use.


Serving suggestions: garnish with mint leaves or lemon slice or fresh blackberries. Use a martini glass or some other pretty stemmed glass. It makes a pretty presentation.

CSA Food Basket - week two

Yikes more produce!

I picked up my CSA food basket yesterday and that means more good healthy food. I immediately set about cleaning the stuff and getting it put away. In the process I realized I still had a few things left from the last basket, and that was two weeks ago. Shame on me! We have eaten lots of vegies in the last two weeks so we don't feel like we are slackin' but seriously, using some of this stuff is like what the????

For instance I still had a bunch of celery and with yesterday's delivery I got another bunch. What does a person do with that much celery? I used one stalk in some tuna salad. Now what? I got on google for celery recipes and it was astonishing what came up. Tons of recipes and they all sounded disgusting, in addition to the fact that they used like one celery stalk. Hello. That is not much help. So here is what I am thinking. Cream of celery soup. That should use up a far amount don't you think?

Well yes and no. I made a puree of celery soup because I was trying not to use cream. The recipe used an entire bunch of celery, which was good, but the dish left something to be desired so we had one bowl and threw the rest of it out.

I made halibut wrapped in parchment and I added several stalks of celery to it thinking we would use up several stalks that way. Unfortunately the celery did not cook all the way through and it was a little too hard for me. I didn't want to cook it any longer because then the fish would have been overcooked. Other than the celery the dish was good.

These beautiful yellow starburst squash were put on the grill which is still our favorite way to cook vegetables during the summer. A little olive oil and salt and pepper. Simple.

Here is the list of what we received in the CSA food basket for week two: green beans, broccoli, lacto kale, 1 bunch basil, 1 bunch parsley, 6 heads lettuce, 1 bunch pink radishes, 4 cucumbers, 2 lemon cucumbers, 6 red bell peppers, 1 bunch celery, 6 potatoes, 1 onion, 1 grapefruit, 4 oranges, 4 plums, 2 nectarines, 1 melon and 14 small tomatoes. Quite a lot of stuff if you ask me.

I was surprised to get potatoes and so decided to make something special with them. After looking at lots of recipes I ended up making twice stuffed potatoes with bacon and cheese. So much for the healthy streak I was on. Guess I could have used that cream in the celery soup uh?

Now I hate to get on the cucumber issue again but, as I stated last week, my husband dislikes them and now I have four more I have to use. This is a major challenge. Maybe more of a challenge then I really want. If I am going to be rich in vegies couldn't it was least be something we like so we could just get sick of eating it? However, when you don't even like them it is hard to figure out how to use them. Oh well. Would my neighbors think it strange if I shared my cucumbers with them? I take them cookies and baked goods all the time, why not a nice cucumber salad?