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Recipe: calabrese sandwich

Weekend comes. Weekend goes.

Even though we have plenty of snow in the backcountry, it’s really started greening up around here in the last week. I can’t tell if summer is our shortest season or if it only seems like it because that is the time when you want to do everything. Okay, that is the time *I* want to do everything as the sun tracks high overhead. Hard to believe that in three short months, the newly minted aspen leaves in our mountains will be turning gold. In the meantime, summer is on the menu.

In my last post, I wrote about these wonderful pink pickled red onions I had made and sort of fell in love with. Even if you aren’t an onion fan, I suggest giving these pickles a chance. Awesome sauce.

remember these?

Pickles go great in all manner of foods. My very favorite class of food has got to be the sandwich. I have a sandwich addiction. Pickles and sandwiches are like best friends. They so totally belong together. After making the pickled onions, I knew exactly which sandwich I wanted to make.

thinly sliced calabrese

ciabatta rolls, calabrese, mozzarella, tomatoes, pickled onions, pesto, mustard

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Recipe: pickled red onions

Just under two weeks until official summer. There is Summer the Season, and then there is Summer the Mindset. And even though it may not appear to look like summer around here, we are most definitely in the mindset.

supervising yard work in the evening

hiking snow

hiking wet rocks

hey what are you trying to get a picture of there?

It’s not the temperature so much as the light. So much wonderful light and for so long into the evening. I’ll gladly bike, hike, run, ski if it means I can be outside, feeling my heart beat, seeing the transition as the snowpack gives way to streams, mud, and flowers. I don’t mind stepping into the mud and walking through deep puddles. It means I’m alive.

forest canopy reflected in a muddy shallow pond

a moose spied us before we spied her

sunset: fire on ice

Admittedly, I am spending a lot of my spare time outside. It’s good for my head, good for my body. My oncologist agrees. It also means I’m spending considerably less time in the kitchen making things that require long stretches of attention or babysitting. Anything that is going to make me hot and swear a lot is on hold until autumn.

onions make me cry

I’ve tolerated onions all my life. I was never a picky eater. In fact, when my sister and I were growing up, she’d pick all of the Chinese mushrooms, green onions, and other ingredients she didn’t like and put them on my plate. I wasn’t in love with onions, but I’d eat them if they were there. In the past decade I’ve gone from tolerating onions to liking onions. I don’t really attribute that to my tastes so much as my exposure to amazing ways to enjoy onions – and much of that exposure in the years since I began food blogging and dining with my food savvy friends.

ginger slices, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaf, red pepper, cloves

slice the onions

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Recipe: caprese sticks

There is a slight dilemma when the weather fines up around here. On the one hand, I want to invite friends up to our place and feed them, because it’s absolutely glorious in the mountains come summertime. On the other hand, I don’t feel like digging into elaborate cooking projects because it’s hot and because I’d much rather spend my hours outside in that glorious mountain summer. A couple of weeks ago I had a small wine and cheese party and planned a few appetizers to go along with the wines and cheeses. As if someone somewhere had read my mind, I received Matt Armendariz’s new book On a Stick! in the post just days before the party.

oh the possibilities

Jeremy rarely if ever takes interest in the cookbooks I receive, but we both spent an hour flipping through Matt’s book together because it is so damn creative and beautiful and cute and fun – just like Matt. Sometimes when I get books for reviewing I feel as if it’s a chore to find a recipe that I really want to make. I’m not the type of person who likes to be told what to cook and when to cook/shoot/post it. Completely different feeling with Matt’s book – I couldn’t wait to make more than half of the 80+ savory and sweet recipes. They’re simple and clever and so appetizing.

these are the fanciest toothpicks i own

sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, pearl mozzarella

Slap these elegant babies together in mere minutes. Seriously. These are especially perfect in summer when you can get your hot little hands on some fresh cherry tomatoes and basil. I mean, if you can stab a tomato with a toothpick, you’ve got the skills necessary to produce this lovely appetizer.

pierce the tomato and basil

top it off with a mozzarella pearl

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