Yankee-Belle Cafe

I recently saw a group of 8th graders doing an amazing performance of Macbeth. I'd forgotten that the line "Something wicked this way comes," derives from the Scottish play.

Anyway, it popped into my mind as I was writing this blog and switching yummy for wicked certainly fits.

Warning - there is nothing healthy about this post, despite me being known as the healthy writer. Sometimes you just need comfort food.

Are any of you fans of the Stouffer's pizzas?

I used to love the 5 cheese white pizza. I haven't had it in a while, and I wasn't consciously trying to imitate it, but my daughter and I both agreed the result of my experiment tasted remarkably similar (in all the good ways).

The background: it was late, I was hungry. I needed something fast and filling.

I had a loaf of Italian bread. I had cheese.
I opened the cabinet and grabbed my freeze-dried garlic and set it to soften in some olive oil. I spread that mix on the halved loaf of sesame bread.

I sprinkled some cheese over that, mixed in some oregano, basil, and more garlic, then covered with more cheese and baked.

Oh, did it ever smell delicious!

It tasted even better!!!


I did remember to take photos!

It's hot!

Really hot.

Since I had a meat thermometer out the other day, I decided to check the temp in my kitchen - 95degrees

Which is just my wimpy way of explaining why there's really not much cooking going on at the moment. The heat wave and the fact that I was at a writing workshop for teachers for the past two days.

But we still have to eat.

Honestly, I'd probably rather eat a bowl of cereal -

This one was on sale for $2.99 last week. It's already one of my favorites, but load it with a pile of fresh blueberries??? Oh yum!


It's really kind of scary how many blueberries I have eaten in the past few weeks!


But man (or woman) cannot survive on cereal alone, no matter how tasty.

So I've done a few quick meals this week that gave me nutrition and taste without a lot of oven time.

The first is similar to one I've done before. I had the most amazing plum tomatoes from the farmer's market plus my basil, so what better to do than fresh pizza.

All I did for this was hollow out a loaf of Italian bread - you don't have to but I like the crust better than the doughy part.




I sprinkled shredded cheese and garlic powder on the bread, then added some oregano and fresh basil leave. I topped it with those luscious tomatoes.

The concoction went into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. DIVINE.

Oh my goodness!  I could eat this stuff all day!

In fact, I made it again tonight on mini pitas instead. I left the tomatoes off one.

Fenny's hoping I'll drop a shrimp.

But last night we were in the midst of crazy storms so I was late cooking. I sure didn't feel like cooking when I had to close the kitchen windows on top of the 95 degree h


Saved by the leftovers.

I made fried haddock for my husband a week ago. Brilliant me thought I would forego my usual egg batter and try the milk soak that Ruthy described for fried onions.

Nope. Didn't work. Made a mess.

I had more of the haddock so I fried that up normally for him and saved the rest in the freezer.

So one night when I had no culinary inspiration whatsoever, I  remembered that haddock. I took it out, added some pre-cooked shrimp from COSTCO, covered with a breadcrumb topping, some lemon and butter, and stuck under the broiler for a few minutes. Soooo very good.







If it wasn't summer, I probably would have paired it with rice or noodles, but this was perfectly light just as was.



Nice things about summer -

When I'm in Maine, I love summer sunrises. But this year, stuck in the city, I'm really appeciating all the vivid summer sunsets. The camera really doesn't do the brilliant sky justice.

This doesn't even begin to capture the colors, but I took it through my window so not too bad,

Sunrise in Maine.

Here's what you'll need:

• A baguette or loaf of crusty french bread, sliced
• 2 large cloves of garlic, cracked away from the skin
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 small tomatoes, halved and seeded
• 20 fresh basil leaves
• coarse salt
• ground pepper

I don't have a lot of pictures, because I was so eager to get this made I kept forgetting to take the pix.

Chop seeded tomatoes and place in a small bowl. Pile your basil leaves about ten at a time, roll into a log and thinly slice. Add to tomatoes. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. A pinch of each will generally do.

Set aside.
Preheat broiler to high. You can also grill the bread, if you prefer. Place bread slices on a broiler pan. Toast bread on each side under hot broiler. Be sure you keep an eye on it. It can go from nothing to black in no time if you get distracted.

Remove from oven and drizzle with olive oil. I used my Mr. Misto and misted mine so the coating would be lighter. Then rub toasts with cracked garlic. I didn't think this would do much, but it really added a nice kick of flavor.

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (love these things)
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper

Last week something (I don't even remember what) went wrong and I was suddenly stuck for a quick meal using whatever I had on hand.

Uh oh.

Then I had an idea!!!!!

I remembered how we were all wowed by Mary Connealy's quick lasagna using cottage cheese. Hmmm. I had some of that. Maybe I could improvise!











This was perfect because A) it was hot and B) I didn't really feel like cooking and this was quick and tasty.

All I had to do was cook the spaghetti, then briefly stir-fry the tomatoes, garlic and basil.
I drained the spaghetti, tossed it into the wok with the tomato basil mix, stirred in the cottage cheese to warm, and serve.


I also happened to have a fabulous multi-grain baguette to go with it. I could have added a salad, but I didn't. ;)


There you have it - carbs, veggies, and protein in about ten minutes.



So what are your go-to meals in a hurry?  Isn't it nice to have Yankee Belle friends like Mary Connealy to fall back on in an emergency?

 Ingredients.
Yup, this is almost all we're going to use. Edna made unhappy noises, not completely sold on the idea of dinner made from four items out of the fridge and not even warmed up!

 OK, red cherry tomatoes and yellow mini tomatoes. I won't tell you how much these cost, but a little bit of me rebelled at the price because in the summer, we have so many that we feed them to the chickens. Mountains of them. And now I just bought a tiny plastic container for as much as a mocha grande. Horrors.
 I couldn't help eating a bunch, but I could almost hear the sound of quarters sliding into a vending machine slot with every bite. Ka-CHING. Ka-CHING. It was worth it.
 Good salami. (I'm not talking to the salami, that's a description. But I might have whispered a few sweet nothings to it.)
 Fresh mozzarella. Not the low-moisture kind you shred for lasagna. There's a woman in town that makes fresh mozzarella. I keep saying I'm going to learn, since she says it's so easy, but so far... I just eat it.
 Fresh basil. Just smelling it made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. This is aromatherapy for foodies.
 Olive oil.

 Small person roughly chopping basil leaves. Mmmmm, my toddler smells delicious.

                                          
Add a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Mix and set aside.

 Take a toothpick, assemble tomatoes, a roll of salami, and small piece of fresh mozzarella. Repeat until you have the desired amount. This made an awful lot, but the good part is that you can adjust the amount to how many people you have.

 Now, sprinkle on the fresh basil/olive oil and enjoy!
I wish this came with a scratch and sniff button. It was heavenly!

 Until next time, my friends! (I have a crazy, incredible cheesecake recipe to share so diet now so you can enjoy it!)

Mindy here, and my basil plant has been growing like crazy. So I asked myself, "What are you going to do with all that basil?" I mean, I can't eat bruschetta every day.

Or can I?

Hmm....

No, I can't. Too much bread.

So I'm at the grocery the other day, reaching for a jar of pesto when it hit me. I could make my own pesto.

I came home and harvested a good bunch of the leaves. I needed two "packed" cups. I soaked them in water for a few minutes to kill anything that might have decided to take up residence on the plant. Flash flood. They never knew what hit them.

Then I strained and rinsed a couple more times before throwing them into my salad spinner to eek out all the water. This worked wonderfully, I might add.

Now for the rest of the ingredients.

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (love these things)
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper