E.T. Phones Home For A Beach Potluck

Summer allows for lots of outside entertainment and a good part of the time it is free. In Long Beach we have Movies on the Beach, showing a free movie at a different part of the beach Monday through Thursday. It's a great way to get together and watch a cult classic like Pee Wee's Big Adventure with a bunch of people on a big screen. The last week of August they're playing Jaws all week, which is an appropriate way to end summer.

Last night we saw E.T which I probably have not seen in at least 15 years. It's such a great film to enjoy on a large screen and to be able to see it with a bunch of friends. All while enjoying a shared hodgepodge of food. In planning of what to bring I knew I wanted to make a dent in the cucumbers because I had so many, and use some of the  purple basil because it does not last long.

I found an caprese inspired salad that uses tomato, nectarine, and basil  but because it had to be something that traveled well I decided to just to throw everything together in a bowl. This could not be easier and the nectarines were so perfectly sweet that they complemented the tomatoes and basil.  The purple basil gave a dark contrast to the red, yellow, and white. This turned out really well and now I'm curious as to what other items I can add to a caprese salad.

I also made an elderflower cucumber drink that is really refreshing and not to sweet. I found elderflower syrup at Ikea yesterday, I had to return something, and thought it would be good mixed with the cucumber. Using 6 parts mineral water to one part syrup plus one cucumber.  I now might just start adding cucumbers to everything I drink. This is a great crisp drink that would cool any summer night especially in the company of friends and good movies.






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A Kale and Cilantro Birthday Party

I just celebrated my birthday, and had a little impromptu cocktail hour. What goes better with fancy drinks than some vegetable treats.

Bouquet of Cilantro

I've been getting large bunches of cilantro in the box for a while and usually make salsa. This time when I saw the cilantro, I had thoughts of turning it into some sort of a birthday cocktail. I found this cocktail that I used as inspiration. When I found the recipe I didn't realize that one drink requires one cup of cilantro, which consequently I ran out. Instead of tequila we used Bacardi Limon but mixed with simple syrup, lime, strawberries, and cilantro, while tasty, was really syrupy. We than opted for a champagne (sparkling wine) cocktail mixed with everything (except the rum) and it was delightful.

The muddled cilantro, strawberries, and lime.

The drink came out a pretty light pink color and the cilantro gave a nice surprise amongst the sweetness of strawberry and sugar. I would make this again during the summer and forgo the alcohol and use sparkling water or make a strawberry cilantro lemonade. That sounds delicious right now. I did realize that in this new year I will not become a mixologist, I am going to leave that to the pros, but it was fun to experiment.

I also made some kale chips, which I have made plenty of times before but somehow have never put them on the blog. They are easy to make, crunchy and delicious. All you do is take your destemmed kale and coat in a little bit of olive oil. Put on two baking sheets in a single layer at 250 degrees and let them crisp for about a half hour. One of the sheets got a little more brown then the other because we were sharing oven space. They are not as pretty as the others but they still taste just as good.

Kale chips in their crispy glory.

This is the latest box. It if full of lots of dark greens and purples. If you read this and live in Long Beach consider joining the CSA. There has been low turnout of late and it would be disappointing to have the Long Beach drop off stop. If interested please go to South Central Farms.

The box of pretty purples and green.

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A new box has arrived and while braising, sauteing, and blanching are all good ways of using the various types of greens, I've been thinking about them in smoothie form. Coming from a yoga class I felt inspired to experiment.

Bloomsdale Spinach

Using about 2-3 cups of loosely packed spinach
A cup of orange juice (from about 3 oranges)
A package of frozen mango puree, I bought at Trader Joe's, it has four individual packages of puree.
Half a banana, I don't like a lot of banana because I find it can overpower everything.
A little water, to cut the thickness.

It tuned out great. It was filling and refreshing. The mango, just tasted sweet but because it was frozen it made the drink cold and delicious. The spinach didn't really taste, I knew it was in there because it turned everything green, and there were little emerald specks of green. This is something I would make again and there are so many ways to modify it, that smoothies with greens could become a staple.

The spinach gave it a bright green color but that didn't translate into the photo.