Pink Lemonade + Literature

I love the new novel The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek. In one particular day-after-a-party scene, a girl named Pecksland makes a great lunch out of all the leftover food. She also puts together pink lemonade (you can find another method here) with ginger, mint, and cucumber. I haven't stopped thinking about this lemonade because whenever I read a book or watch a movie and a character is cooking, I immediately want to make the exact same thing.

And I really get into stories with recipes like this one and this one. Oh, and this is amazing, too. Also this. I could read only this type of book and be perfectly content.

All-Tomato Dinner Photos and Recipe

If you have photos from the dinner you'd like to share, please send them to me, and I will post them.

Also, you can take a look at our latest Memphis Flyer article, one about how to use up a big ol' watermelon, HERE and find our watermelon and tomato gazpacho recipe HERE. (The gazpacho is pictured at the top left side of the collage.)

All-Tomato Dinner Menu + Wine Pairings

I just want to thank each and every one of you who came out to the All-Tomato Dinner at The Trolley Stop on Sunday. I truly believe that it was a success. I just don't think it could have been any better. The atmosphere was light and fun, the food was wonderful, and the wine was perfect. All of this makes me think I may want to do something like this again sometime.

Also a big thanks to Jill and Keith for hosting the party and proving the produce, Jeremy and Joel for helping out in the kitchen and in the front of the house, Michael for choosing and pouring some delicious wine, Bryan and John for providing the soundtrack, and my wife for making a wonderful dessert and also for putting up with me.

Smoked Tomato 'BLT'

Be forewarned: this is quite a strong sandwich. It almost made us cry! Well, okay, at least one of us teared up at the table; you can go ahead and guess who it was.

BLTs are great and all, but there's that pesky bacon issue to deal with. Something big and savory needs to take its place, and here, there were 3 such ingredients vying for dominance: The sweet, salty crunch of Van Cheeseman's pickled onions, the peppery bite of arugula, the rich slices of Maytag blue cheese, and the sweet smokiness put forth by the tomatoes. It's almost too much to bear in the best way you can imagine, so you may want to take the dare and see if you can handle it.

Smoked Tomatoes

I made a big batch of about 15 slices of these little beauties. I had them on sandwiches, in scrambled eggs, and on their own. Think of them as bacon-flavored tomatoes, or as I like to call them...'bacon-matoes.'

Slice summer tomatoes into pieces that are about 1/4-of-an-inch thick. Season each slice with salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of brown sugar. Using my grill top method, smoke tomatoes for about 3-4 minutes over a mixture of hickory and applewood chips. Now lay tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet and stick them in a 250 degree oven for about an hour or an hour and a half. (You want most of the liquid to evaporate and the top of the tomato to appear dry.) Allow tomato slices to cool completely before handling them or they will fall apart. Store in an airtight container for up to 10 days. The combination of smoke, pepper, and brown sugar makes these tomatoes irresistible.

Drop Biscuits

This 1968 cookbook is one of our favorites. I grew up using it and finally returned the borrowed-for-five-years family copy once I scored a brand new one at a recent estate sale. Everything in this cookbook just works out.

So, on to these great drop biscuits, adapted from it. There is no need to roll these cathead-style biscuits out and cut them. In fact, being that meticulous ruins them! Just use an ice cream scoop with a heap of loosely packed dough and let them look messy; they taste better that way.

Drop Biscuits

2 cups AP flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Spectrum is good)

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Measure flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Cut in the shortening with your hands until it's down to pea-size pieces. Make a well in the middle of the mix and add all the milk. (The secret is not to mix much at all -- use a rubber spatula to mix it very gently, almost as though you're just folding everything together.) Use that ice cream scoop to drop generous portions of biscuit dough into a Silpat-lined baking sheet; it should end up being 8 biscuits. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Italian-Style Stuffed Summer Tomato

This main course recipe is one that is simple to make but looks elegant on the plate. It's good for dinner, but would also make a great brunch dish if it were served with some rosemary potatoes. I simply hollowed out one tomato per person by cutting the top off like you would a pumpkin and scooping the center out using a spoon. I lightly filled each tomato with a mixture of breadcrumbs, aged cheese, herbs, and eggs. The filling I used is very much akin to Lidia's Meatless Pecorino Meatballs. Set the tomatoes in a baking dish that just fits the number of tomatoes you are cooking so they don't roll around in the oven as they cook. Top each one with a spoonful of tomato sauce, drizzle them with olive oil, and put them into a 350 degree oven for about an hour. Top with a little more cheese and serve over wilted spinach with garlic and pine nuts.

An Overnight-Soak Breakfast

I've been meaning to use this method to make iced coffee this summer. Before you go to sleep, put 3/4 cup coarsely ground coffee in the French press, fill it with cold water, and let it sit overnight. In the morning, you just press it as usual, pour it over ice, mix in a little milk, and shake. This tastes much better than hot coffee over ice, which tends to be pretty bitter.

We also did something similar with oatmeal. Put 1/2 cup quick oats and 1/2 cup steel-cut Irish oats in a container with 2 cups of cold water to soak overnight. All you need to do in the a.m. is heat it up and top it with brown sugar, dried berries, maple syrup, pecans, butter, and salt. With a little planning, you can have a Saturday breakfast any day of the week.

All-Tomato Dinner Tickets On Sale this Saturday!

Go see Keith at the Whitton Farms booth at the Downtown Farmers Market this Saturday to purchase your tickets for my upcoming all-tomato, all-vegetarian, five-course dinner at The Trolley Stop, located at 704 Madison. This will happen next weekend on Sunday night, July 25th.

There are a limited number of tickets, which will be first come, first served. I can't wait to present my take on summer tomatoes at this event!

Calimyrna and Black Mission Fig Biscotti

Dried figs: I'm obsessed. The greenish kind on one of our fig trees are turning yellow and fat, but they are few and far between at this point. Dried figs, at least, are always plentiful.

Recently, I was trying to think of a dessert to go with grilled pizza on the 4th, something a little Italian but not made with any heavy cream, which seems too cloying in the heat. I made half of these cookie-like, and the other half hard like traditional twice-baked biscottti for later with espresso.

Calimyrna and Black Mission Fig Biscotti

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup dried black mission figs

1/2 cup dried golden calimyrna figs

2 duck eggs

1/3 cup cane sugar

1/3 cup dark brown muscovado sugar

1 tsp. vanilla paste

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Next, finely chop the almonds and roughly chop the figs. Set both aside. Whisk the eggs and sugars together for 3-5 minutes until creamy. Add vanilla.

In a different bowl, whisk the dry ingredients: baking powder, salt, and AP and whole wheat flours. Combine wet and dry ingredients so that they come together, but don't over-mix. Add in the almonds and figs. (Mixture will be very dry; you can add a tablespoon of water if needed.)

Place dough on a floured surface, and with flour-dusted hands, shape it into a loaf about five inches wide and one inch tall. Bake for 15 minutes. Let it cool a bit and then use a knife coated in flour to cut the biscotti into slices about an inch wide. Place pieces back onto the cookie sheet. Cook for another 15 minutes until golden brown for a harder biscotti. When they cool, sprinkle them with powdered sugar on one side.

Dragon Bowl

A dragon bowl (named for a dish we had at the High Noon Café in Jackson, MS) is basically beans, rice, greens, veggies, and a protein topped with spicy peanut sauce. This is the kind of dish you never make the same way twice because it's best to use what is fresh, in-season, or really, whatever you have in the fridge. The one constant is the peanut sauce, which is equal parts crunchy peanut butter, sriracha, rice vinegar, mirin, and soy sauce.

It's vegan, it's inexpensive, and it's pretty delicious. Back in the day, we would almost always fix this (or spaghetti!) when we had people over to the apartment for dinner; it was easy to feed six famished people for less than 20 bucks.

(Check out Tuffy's walk-on cameo about half way through the video. He makes his way into the frame and strikes a pose.)

Raised Bed Caponata

All of this came from the 4'x8' raised bed we built earlier this spring. The promise of really good tomatoes finally trumped front-yard aesthetics and concern about what the neighbors would think. (Backyard partial shade just wasn't going to cut it.) Now many of the neighbors actually want to pick everything for themselves, they tell us. They really seem not to be joking about this.

The idea of making caponata with all of this bounty clicked this week. It's quick: dice any combination of Japanese eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, olives, mushrooms, and garlic. Chop some parsley, too. Add your sea salt, cracked pepper, crushed red pepper, and a good pour of olive oil. Toss it all together and bake the mixture in a rimmed pan for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. The meaty flavor and toothsome texture are a welcome addition to any Mediterranean-inspired meal. Caponata is good on French bread, with pasta, or on purple hull pea fritters.

All-Tomato Dinner at The Trolley Stop

That is right! On Sunday, July 25th, I will be the guest chef at The Trolley Stop Market on Madison Ave. in Memphis, TN. What do I have in store for you? Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes. I have put together a five-course, vegetarian menu that highlights my favorite summer fruit. Each course will feature a different variety of tomato prepared in a unique way. For example, the third course (pictured here) will be coriander-spiced fried green tomatoes with a cucumber and mint raita. We even have a delicious, sweet tomato dessert in mind.

As if that were not enough, my good friend and sommelier, Michael Hughes, will be pairing each course with a different wine. He has such a surprising take on wine paring that I can't wait to see what he comes up with for this dinner. It is sure to be smashing.

The cost will be between $50-$60 per person. We will seat 25 people, and I will give you the word on tickets as soon as Jill and I get all of the details hammered out. I'm so excited about this event.

Watermelon + Lime Agua Fresca

Coming up with ways to use this 35-pound watermelon from the fruit truck at the Collierville Town Square has been mighty entertaining the past few days. We're working on watermelon salad, pickled rind, popsicles, and the easiest of all, some agua fresca: scoop out some watermelon flesh, put it in the food processor, strain it to catch pulp and seeds, and garnish with lime and mint. Happy 4th of July!

His-and-Hers Mangoes

I've tried to use greenish-red mangoes, but I've given up on them. Their peak of ripeness is hard to pinpoint, and I end up being disappointed by the taste. So, on to the big flat of champagne mangoes we snagged for $9.99 on Monday! We did a his-and-hers combo using them with ginger for a cold Thai cabbage salad...

...and this spicy pie:

Mango + Ricotta Gingersnap Pie

Gingersnap Crust:

1 small box thin gingersnaps (Lars Own in the blue box at Fresh Market are really good)

4 tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 cup cane sugar

pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a pie pan and set it aside. Put the gingersnaps in the food processor and pulse; you want crumbs, but not a fine dust. Mix this in a bowl with the melted butter, sugar, and salt. Press it firmly into the bottom and sides of the pie pan for about a 1/4-inch crust. Bake it for 8-10 minutes until crisp, and then be sure to let it cool.

Lemon Ricotta Filling:

1 15-oz. container of part-skim ricotta cheese

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp. brown muscovado sugar

juice and zest from one lemon

pinch of sea salt

Combine all ingredients by beating well with a whisk. Pour into the cooled pie crust.

Mango-Ginger Topping:

6 champagne mangoes

1 tbsp. honey

one large piece of crystallized ginger

Dice the inside of the mango and scoop out the fruit (see video above!) and spread it over the ricotta base. Drizzle this with honey and grate the ginger over the top.

*Refrigerate the finished pie for 1-2 hours before serving so it can set.

Pickled Green Tomatoes

We finally staked the raised bed tomato plants today and had a few tiny green tomatoes fall off the vine of the prolific Sweet 100 and Jet Star vines. No problem; we pickled them just like this but minus the dill. After they sit in the fridge -- at least overnight but can keep up to two weeks -- we'll use them in a sandwich or a burger or as a nice addition to a cheese plate.

How I Cut a Mango

(We bought a flat of champagne mangoes this week, so we've had a little time to practice.)

Oven-Roasted Peaches and 'Cream'

Most of the desserts you see on here are my better half's creation. Tonight, though, I got inspired by some perfect little Jones Orchard peaches that she had washed and set out on the counter. This summer dessert is the right combination of tart and sweet; it's also relatively uncomplicated to put together.

Oven-Roasted Peaches and 'Cream'

12 small peaches

5 tbsp. honey

2 tbsp. butter

1/4 cup white wine

one 6-oz. container of non-fat Greek yogurt

1/4 cup almonds

sprinkle of Peace Bee Farm bee pollen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Halve 12 peaches and take out the pits. Lay them cut-side-up in a baking dish. Drizzle with honey and put a small pat of butter inside each half. Put this in the oven for about 30 minutes; you want to see the sugars to caramelize. Deglaze the baking dish with a sweet-ish white wine such as riesling. Mix one small container of Greek yogurt with 3 tbsp. of honey. Roughly chop a handful of almonds. Spoon 5-6 warm peach halves into a bowl and add some syrup from the pan. Top with yogurt, almonds, and a sprinkle of bee pollen for a little flair.

Goat Cheese Dumplings w/ Olives & Capers over Purslane topped with Balsamic & Fig Caramelized Onions

A dish inspired by Michael and created to go with Coeur Esterelle, Cotes de Provence for the so-much-fun online rosé tasting on Whining and Dining this Thursday night!

Blueberry-Cornmeal Muffins + Problem-Solving

I've found that it is so difficult to make good blueberry muffins -- ones that you actually want to eat -- at home. They fall apart right out of the muffin tin or get soggy. Once, my blueberry muffins even came out green, which may have been due to the blueberries' chemical reaction with baking soda. Nevertheless, I have had annoying experiences all around with this type of muffin, and it's a shame because the professionally baked ones aren't that appealing either: a bright white crumb in a muffin just lets me know that it's probably a really unhealthy, not-so-nutritious thing to eat for breakfast. So the cornmeal in these muffins acts as a binder.

Here are my hard-fought tips for muffins in general:

1. Use a bendable silicone muffin pan brushed with canola oil; set it on a baking sheet for sturdiness.

2. Use frozen fruit because it stays together better when you bake it. You may want to use less of it than any recipe calls for because if there's too much fruit, the batter has less to grab on to and won't come together.

3. Let the muffins cool before you pop them out, and you will have much better luck when it comes to keeping them pretty and in one piece.

4. A dry topping needs a thin slice of soy margarine on top before baking; this keeps the dry ingredients more in place.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

(adapted from a recipe in the wonderful blueberry article in Whole Living this month)

3/4 cup wheat flour

3/4 cup AP flour

1/2 cup Delta Grind cornmeal

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup cane sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup milk

1 egg and 1 duck egg, beaten

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Topping, 3 spoonfuls each:

brown muscovado sugar

cornmeal

rolled oats

+ 2 tbsp. soy margarine

Preheat oven to 375. Mix all dry ingredients. Add in oil, milk, and eggs. Fold in blueberries. Next, brush a silicone muffin pan with canola oil and fill cups with batter almost to the top. Mix the three dry ingredients for the topping and sprinkle it all on top of the muffins. Add a sliver of soy margarine on top of each. Bake for 30 minutes. Remember, let these cool before you pop them out and eat them!

Baked Samosas

We love Indian food, especially anything served at Mayuri here in Memphis. Their samosas are one of the best appetizers around, and it's really not too difficult to try your hand at making some in your own kitchen. I looked up the traditional way to fold them, but then I decided to do something a little different. My (baked, not fried) version uses traditional filling, a thicker pie crust, and what I call a 'dumpling fold.'

Baked Samosas

3 new potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed

2 tbsp. ghee (can sub. in olive oil or butter if needed)

2 tbsp. hot curry powder

one jalapeno, finely diced

one onion, finely diced

one carrot, finely diced

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp. vinegar

3/4 cup English peas (frozen is fine)

sea salt and crushed pepper

Filling:

Peel and boil potatoes until they're soft. Set aside. Melt ghee in a large, heavy pot and add 2 tbsp. curry and the jalapeno. Cook for 3-4 minutes in order to toast the spices then add onion. Add carrot. Cook it for 3-4 minutes or until carrots are tender. Add potatoes, water, and vinegar. Stir to incorporate ingredients. Add peas. (At this point, the mixture should be thick and able to stand on its own without being soupy.) Add salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Now preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll your crust out thin. Using a pint glass, stamp out a circle. Mound about 2 tbsp. of filling into the center. Now make a 3-sided pyramid from the circle by folding two sides of the circle together and then bring the bottom side up to join it. Pinch dough together along the seams. Repeat until you run out of dough or filling, whichever happens first! Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. If you want them to be darker in color, brush the samosas with an egg wash (just a well-beaten egg + silicone brush) after 10 minutes of baking.

*To go with these, you also can make a quick raita with grated cucumber and Greek yogurt plus a squeeze of lime. A mango-ginger chutney works well, too; combine a diced mango, microplaned ginger, salt, and lemon juice.

Our Visit to Cucina Bread

After routinely picking up ciabatta and baguettes (the two best-sellers, we learned) from Sherri McKelvie's Cucina Bread at the Memphis Farmers Market, we decided to ask her if we could hang out with her for a little while when she's baking and see how it all happens.

Her bread-baking is compacted into an intense 12-hour schedule each Friday starting around 4:30 or 5 a.m. Last week, we strolled into a yeasty, flour-suspended-in-midair whirlwind of activity around 11. Sherri makes 300 loaves, a combination of the following kinds in addition to our original favorites: rosemary, semolina, focaccia, honey whole wheat, jalapeno cheddar, cranberry walnut, and kalamata olive.

She pointed out a baby loaf of kalamata that she had set aside for us. Later, it made it to about Southern and Highland as we ripped off pieces and devoured it together. It was one of those serendipitous taste memories that can't be topped, just salty and savory with pockets of warm air throughout and a nice chewiness. Somehow the heat settled down the strong kalamata taste and made it into an accent, not something overwhelming as that kind of olive can be.

The process of baking bread calls for a little bit of talking in-between forming and baking the loaves. I wondered when Sherri started baking since she made it look so organized and had expert moves and advice. Twenty years ago, she was snowed in while house-sitting in Ashland, Oregon, and she decided to making some bread in order to pass the time.

Soon, we were wishing that we knew some secrets to making bread, and she divulged a few:

1. Get the dough a little wet while also adding a little flour.

2. Roll it around gently into a ball but mostly shape it by moving it side-to-side with the palms of your hands until it's smooth.

3. Get ready to live life in 10-minute increments because that's how long everything takes.

4. Read the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's "all you need to be an artisan bread baker," she says.

5. Put some water in your oven (we put it in a shallow bowl) to assist in the baking.

6. Practice!

It was great on Saturday to see the fruits of her labor, and we branched out and bought a loaf of cranberry walnut bread because the dough looked so amazing the afternoon before and we had heard it was a great flavor. It's been our breakfast toast all week.

*Sherri's bread sells out quickly, so be sure to stop by early and see her on Saturday to try some of the great stuff she's baking!

Summer Herb Lasagna

I am constantly on the lookout for new herbs to grow in our new 8' x 4' raised bed garden and in the front yard flowerbed. At last count, we have thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, lavender, rosemary, stevia, lemon verbena, bee balm, mint, green, purple, and thai basil, sage, and parsley. Please tell me if you're currently growing something else that I shouldn't live without! (I think I must add French tarragon and lemon balm to the wish list now...)

We try to use as many of these herbs as we can since they're flourishing now and also seem to grow bigger the more we pick them. So here's a shockingly bright green summer mixed-herb lasagna, much lighter than the meaty versions that are omnipresent in cold months.

Summer Herb Lasagna

olive oil

tomato + vegetables sauce

no-boil lasagna noodles (for ease; the ones you boil may be slightly better if you have the time)

one container of ricotta cheese

generous handfuls of a mix of your favorite green herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, sage)

one egg

sea salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups of mozzarella, grated

1/2 cup of parmesan, grated

Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the inside of a baking pan with olive oil and spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of it. Line up 3 or so sheets of noodles and press them lightly into the sauce. Set aside.

For the ricotta and herb layer, put a container of ricotta into the food processor along with a cup of your fresh herb blend. Add one egg and a splash of olive oil plus salt and pepper to taste. Pulse it until it is smooth and a striking green color. Spread 1/3 of this into the pan over the noodles. Add a layer of noodles, then tomato sauce and sprinkle in some of the mozzarella and parmesan and the Italian seasoning. Keep alternating until the last top layer: noodles, then tomato sauce to cover, and a copious amount of the two cheeses on top. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until top is nice and burnished. Let it sit for 5 minutes before you cut into it.

*Tips: This is fine to freeze and have on hand for later. Also, Lindsey added zucchini from her garden as another layer; she used a mandoline to cut it into thin strips.

Lavender + Peach + Honey Ice Cream

Yeah, this first Memphis heat wave's getting just a little bit intense now, isn't it? It looks like the 3-burning-hot-suns-in-a-row graphic on the National Weather Service site promise plenty more of it as we get into next week. It's obviously time to break out your ice cream maker and get to work!

We just bought Jones Orchard peaches in anticipation of one of the first big signs of summer: peach ice cream. This one is a smooth, blended version with a pretty scent from the lavender simple syrup.

(You should know that there was some major hand-wringing this week over getting this recipe right. One nameless person forgot to put the paddle in the freezer bowl of the ice cream machine and also didn't add enough fat to the mix. So we thawed out the first attempt and added some cream. Then we thought it tasted too plain, and we added the lavender syrup and the whipped honey. Salt was the last addition, but then we threw in a little more lemon juice. We put it in the machine again, and nervously sampled it after the hard freeze: finally, success!)

Lavender + Peach + Honey Ice Cream

5 sprigs fresh lavender (stems must be removed)

1/2 cup cane sugar

1/2 cup water

8 peaches, peeled and smashed

3 cups milk

1 container Greek yogurt

1 small container of heavy cream

3/4 cup cane sugar

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla paste

2 tbsp. whipped honey

juice from one lemon

2 tsp. salt

Combine lavender leaves, sugar, and water in a saucepan on medium-high heat. Stir it and allow it to thicken, which will take about 15 minutes. Put heat on low and simmer. Once you can coat a silicone spatula with the syrup and it's about half of what it was to begin with, it's done. Set it aside to cool; be sure to strain out all of the spent lavender leaves.

Whisk the rest of the ingredients together and also add in the cooled lavender syrup. Put it all in a blender and blend until smooth because no one really likes big chunks of dense frozen fruit in their ice cream. Pour the mixture in your ice cream maker and let it do its job. Crucial yet annoying last step: transfer the ice cream to a container so that it can harden off in the freezer for a few hours. Because of this, it is a good thing to make ahead of time because the more time it has to set, the better.

Purslane Pesto

I love jumping in and trying something new and then doing my research in the resulting fit of excitement. It all started when Van Cheeseman set aside some purslane for us last week. Purslane's thick leaves taste pleasantly grassy and lightly bitter; it looks a lot like a succulent houseplant but generally is classified as a weed. We thought it would be perfect in a pesto with walnuts.

When I looked up the details on purslane, it got even more interesting. With plenty of omega-3s and beta carotene plus vitamin C in its stems, this may just be the perfect green.

Purslane Pesto

one bunch of purslane, stems removed

2/3 cup walnuts

1/4 cup olive oil

juice from half a lemon

2 tsp. honey

sea salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in a mini-prep food processor and pulse until you can't see any whole leaves. Use it on toasted bread, pizza, or with pasta.

Sweet Potato Pancakes + Peaches and Pecans

Anytime someone raves about something great they've eaten or are about to eat these days, I think, Now I've got to make that. At the downtown farmers market on Saturday morning, a coworker of mine was so excited about going to the Arcade in order to have their sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. She raved about them, and I just had to have some, too...some from my kitchen.

The bushel of sweet potatoes we bought from the Bennett-Burks Farm guys in November is dwindling, but I swear, they got sweeter the longer we stored them. I boiled four small ones and adapted this recipe from this really easy one. (I didn't know that sweet potato pancakes were considered a Southern thing, but then again, I also learned this week that the tea cakes we always ate when I was growing up are a Southern phenomenon, too.) These pancakes even won over TCV himself; finally, I hit on a healthy-ish pancake recipe that works for all. There was a silkiness to them that was way different from the usual buttermilks or buckwheats.

The first Jones Orchard peaches are out now, and wow, they're small in size at this point, but they're so full of flavor. We just macerated them with some cane sugar and lemon for a bit and then dry toasted the pecans in a skillet.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

4 small sweet potatoes (or 3 regular)

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup vegan margarine, softened

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3 tbsp. cane sugar

3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

a couple shakes of nutmeg

(+ peaches, pecans, and maple syrup)

Boil the sweet potatoes on medium-high for about 20 minutes; carefully test them with a fork because when they're soft, they're ready. Pour them into a colander and run cold water over them. Once they've cooled, cut off the skins in strips and mash them like crazy in a bowl. Add the eggs, milk, and margarine to them, and set this aside.

Now whisk all the dry ingredients together and add to the sweet potato mixture. You may need to add a bit more milk to the batter if it seems too thick. Pour the batter onto a buttered medium-hot pan, flip, and you're set.

*Be forewarned: the way these taste is like nothing else I've ever tasted, and I mean this in the best possible way.

Smoked Mushroom BBQ

I decided that there was no one method of preparing vegetables that could capture the complexity that is the draw of conventional BBQ. So I decided that I would try merging flavors from three different cooking methods in order to create a proper vegetarian BBQ experience. I used fried seitan, grilled portobellos, and smoked button mushroom in concert with a smoky and spicy homemade BBQ sauce. It was fantastic.

You will need:

5 8-oz. packages of white button mushrooms

3 packages of seitan

3 large portobello mushroom caps

dry rub

lots of BBQ sauce

olive oil

Smoke the button mushrooms using THIS method I developed for smoking garlic. Next, stick them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes until cooked through. Shake dry rub onto the portobello mushrooms, drizzle them with olive oil, and grill until thoroughly marked. Lastly, fry seitan that has been well seasoned with the dry rub in a few tablespoons of olive oil until crispy. Lay all three components out on your chopping block and give everything a rough chop. Make sure everything gets broken down into bite-sized pieces. Transfer to a large baking dish. Mix in about a cup of BBQ sauce and keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

I served mine with a fennel slaw that was simply a sliced fennel bulb, sliced head of cabbage, and two grated carrots mixed with about a 1/2 cup of soy mayo, 2 tablespoons of mustard, and a splash of mirin. Pile the mushroom mixture onto a bun, add extra sauce, a heap of slaw and enjoy. The smokiness of the buttons and the texture of the seitan make for one fine Memorial Day BBQ sandwich.

A Triathlon of Sandwiches, including Vegetarian Olive Bar Muffaleta

Well, doesn't everyone stay up late to make 3 kinds of sandwiches to share with supporters after a triathlon? Yeah, I know, maybe this idea was funny just to me.

The night before the Memphis in May event -- not a short sprint or relay event, dear readers, but the real deal, full-length thing -- I was supposed to be resting. With a bouquet of backyard hydrangeas in hand and alternate plans not revolving around going to sleep at eight on a Saturday night in mind, my wife departed after giving me strict instructions to go directly to bed. She also remarked that I would probably find something to do in the kitchen up until the very last minute. She was right.

I thought toting three kinds of sandwiches for an after-tri picnic was in order: a muffaleta with oven-dried tomatoes, provolone, and olive dressing; a tofu bahn-mi with shiso; and a Korean barbecue with kimchi. The first one and the last one were both hits; for some reason, getting people to try bahn mi is a challenge, but that one at least is always a hit with me.

Olive Bar Vegetarian Muffaleta

Take a medium-sized container from the olive bar at the store and fill it 3/4 full of a mix of your favorite olives. Get it home and add all the olives plus one chopped carrot, two chopped celery stalks, and one clove of garlic to a food processor. Pulse until well-chopped. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and then return the mix to the olive bar container. Add 4 tbsp. of olive oil and return it to the fridge for an hour so that the flavors meld.

Slice tomatoes to 1/8 of an inch and put slices into a 300 degree oven for 2 hours or until they start to look dry. Remove and allow to cool completely -- if you don't, they'll fall apart!

It's time to assemble your muffaleta. Grab a nice focaccia, split it, and place a cup of shredded provolone on one side of bread. Melt this under the broiler until it's bubbly. Next, layer the tomatoes and the olive dressing on the bread.

The sweet oven-dried tomatoes act as a foil for the bitterness and saltiness of the olives. Sitting under a tree in Millington in 90-degree heat last Sunday, my friends and family thought the sandwiches made cheering me on a palatable reward. I loved the fact that even though I told them to arrive around eleven o'clock in order to have plenty of time to see me at the finish line, I surprised them and myself by already being done when they got there. I'd clocked my new record time, 3:08, an improvement over 3.30 from last May.

Vegan Caprese Salad

It's no secret that I'm borderline obsessed with tomatoes. This is just another way I've figured out to get more delicious tomatoes into my already lycopene-packed diet. This recipe makes a great lunch -- especially if it is served with a slice of crusty bread to sop up all the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

This vegan version is just like the traditional caprese salad, except I have subbed sliced, firm tofu in for the buffalo mozzarella. Firm tofu and buffalo mozzarella have a similar light-tasting, milky quality. For this reason, the tofu works really well in this dish.

Vegan Caprese Salad (serves 2)

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu (I like Westsoy)

2 large tomatoes

handful of fresh basil

olive oil

aged balsamic vinegar

sea salt

black pepper

Slice tofu and tomatoes and stack them alternately on two separate plates. Place a few basil leaves in between the stacks. Drizzle with a good-quality olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Finish with sea salt, black pepper, and a ribbons of the remaining basil.

Cashew Noodle Salad

If you are what you eat, then I'm likely about 12% cashew noodle salad. I've been eating it for lunch at least once a week since I was a kid. The version I love so much is an old Squash Blossom (Memphis's good old locally-owned health food store) recipe that has survived the corporate takeovers and is still served at Whole Foods today. Legend has it that it was taken off the menu once, and customers protested so much that it was returned to the deli case where it belongs.

This is my version of it, which is a bit spicier than the original. I also dressed it up for dinner with a few simple tofu and mushroom skewers.

Cashew noodle salad:

1 cup cashews

1/4 cup Braggs

2 tbsp Sambal

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup mirin

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 clove garlic

6 green onions (chopped)

1 pound dry spaghetti or soba (cooked, rinsed, cooled)

Place the first seven ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Toss the cashew dressing and green onions with the cooked and cooled noodles. Garnish each serving with some whole cashews, cilantro, and more fresh green onion. This recipe makes a ton, but it keeps for a week or so in an airtight container. It tastes even better the second day. But I must warn you...this stuff is addictive. I may not even allow myself to make it anymore because I ate it all in an embarrassingly short amount of time. Seriously: watch out.

The First Summer Tomato

My buddy Van Cheeseman of Flora Farms gave me the first ripe tomato out of his high tunnel. I hung on to that special treat for a few days all the while trying to decide what to do with it. All of a sudden, it dawned on me: go on and eat it! Slice that sucker up and top it with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper. Well, that is just what I did today. It had all the punch and acidity that you would expect from a ripe summer tomato. Delicious.

I'm looking forward to taking home boxes full of Arkansas Traveler, Cherokee Purple, Jet Star, Green Zebra, and Super Nova tomatoes. We're also growing a few different varieties at home in our raised bed. So what is your favorite tomato variety?