Tomato Basil Butter: Summer Taste Year Round

This is the third summer I have grown tomato plants in front of my house. It began by accident one year when my husband and I pulled up the Yew bushes the house came with. We were planting perennial flowers from a friends garden when our neighbor said the space really needed tomatoes, and it just so happens he had 4 starts that he did not know what to do with. Well the tomato plants were so productive in the front of my house that I quickly decided to do it every year. Last year we were able to eat tomatoes year round from those plants. This year my plants are bigger then ever, more like trees then bushes. They are impressive enough that people have stopped their cars to ask me for advice on growing tomatoes. The only thing I can tell them is compost, Gardener's Supply Tomato Fertilizer, and Southern exposure.

I have been fearful of late tomato blight all summer but still optimistic, until this weekend. On Sunday another neighbor warned me that his tomatoes had late tomato blight. The very next day I went to pick tomatoes and found signs of blight. So I had to decide, what is the most important item to make with my tomatoes for the winter. What would leave the largest culinary hole if it was missing?

While I can crushed tomatoes and tomatoes in their own juice for year round consumption, that is less about the flavor impact of using home grown tomatoes and more about using local food as much as I can. However every year I make at least a quadruple batch of Tomato Basil Butter using a recipe by Ruthanna at Garden Web's cooking forum and recipe exchange. Tomato basil butter is a year round staple in my kitchen that can produce gourmet meals easily and quickly. Most often I use this butter when preparing fish. I have however been known to put some on top of rice or vegetables. I am sure that you could prepare tofu or chicken in a similar way to the fish and have wonderful results.

The balance of flavors in this butter is wonderful, the lemon provides a high flavor note while there is the familiar sweetness of the tomatoes, the bite of the garlic and the earthy sweet flavor of the fresh basil. Of course the butter does not hurt either...

Ruthanna's Tomato Basil Butter

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes (about 1 lb. if you must you can substitute canned tomatoes but do not use supermarket fresh tomatoes. Vine ripened summer tomatoes are really the best choice)

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

2 tsp grated lemon zest (I always take the lemon after, squeeze it into a small plastic container and freeze it for the next time I have a recipe that calls for the juice of 1 lemon without the zest)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup minced fresh basil

Heat the oil in a small skillet (when making a double batch I use my large non stick saute pan). Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook over medium to high heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes form a puree that will mound, about 10 minutes. Let cool before putting the softened butter in a bowl and then adding the tomato puree and all the remaining ingredients. Place the butter on to a sheet of wax paper or parchment and roll into a log. Wrap the log in aluminum foil and refrigerate or freeze (personally I always freeze it, I have been able to store it in the freezer for 1 year or even longer).

Fish with Tomato Basil Butter

4 fish fillets, or 1 for each person (works with salmon, flounder, tilapia, bluefish...)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the measurement here is a guesstimate, I add enough to coat the bottom of the pan)

1 cup white wine (use a wine you enjoying drinking with fish, or if you don't drink use stock or water)

1 1/4 inch thick slice tomato basil butter per fish fillet

Season the fish with kosher salt and black pepper on both sides. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick saute pan. Brown the fish on both sides over high heat, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Add the wine and bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Place a piece of tomato basil butter on each fillet and cook the fish for 4 to 5 minutes per side until it flakes easily when you press it with a finger or fork. Serve at once. (alternatively you can put the butter on the fish after turning it.)

Blueberry Raspberry Kirsch Pound Cake

What a week, a broken fridge, an ancient car in need of repairs to pass inspection, fraudulent charges on our credit card and at the end a wonderful new cake. Maybe the week wasn't so bad after all. Well, you can be the judge.

At this point I could relate details of my week, the path I had to clear through my house for the fridge to be delivered. The four and a half hours I spent waiting for the fridge to be delivered willing the path to stay clear rather then returning to its natural state of clutter. I could also rant about the fraudulent charges, from my husband's card to an online dating service, in New Zealand. Aside from being puzzled at using a stolen card number for such a traceable thing there was the response when I called Yahoo Personals, the umbrella company for the New Zealand dating service, who wanted to know my yahoo ID number, the name of my favorite uncle, where I spent my summers as a child, address, alternate e-mail address.... Hello! The charges are fraudulent, therefore I don't have an account with you nor do I know any of the security info for this account.

But this cake is much more interesting then all of that. I have been dreaming of making this cake since I first read the recipe in April. It is from Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table, that I received for my birthday. Once I read the recipe all I had to do was wait until blueberries and raspberries were both in season. I had a hard time finding the kirsch called for in the recipe, but based on David Lebovitz's recent blog post on it I realized it was not an ingredient I should leave out. It really is integral to the cakes depth of flavor, what makes it more then just a pound cake.

As I have previously mentioned I sometimes make cakes to bring in to work and from the start I planned to make this cake for work, when both berries were in season. A normal person would have bought the fruit from the store and baked the cake during the day. However I have been told that normal is not the first word that pops into peoples heads when asked to describe me. So my boys and I went berry picking with friends and I baked this cake when they went to bed.

We delivered the cake to work, took a slice each, accepted compliments on the cake and then left. The one slice I had was not enough and that afternoon I baked the cake again for us. Molly states on her blog that this cake freezes well, so I made it in two loaf pans. We ate one, faster then I would like, and the second one I froze for the winter.

The version for work I made with all purpose flour, the one for us I used half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour. (my favorite whole wheat pastry flour is sold out until the farmer harvests more in October, the downside to buying local). With all that whole wheat goodness, the berries and the eggs we decided this makes a fine breakfast.

I mixed mine up in the stand mixer instead of the food processor that Molly uses. I have a food processor but it has a crack in the bowl, it still works fine for pesto and grating cheese, batters are out though. Other then that and the use of half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour for the cake flour, my only change was in technique. I add the baking powder and salt before adding the flour. I almost always mix cakes and muffins this way, you can make sure any dry ingredients other then flour are well incorporated without worrying about over mixing the flour and forming gluten. This means for other recipes I just ignore the step that calls for combining the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding. I add everything but the flour, mix well and then add the flour.

Pound Cake with Blueberries Raspberries and Kirsch

adapted from Orangette

5 large eggs at room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to warm up)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2 Tbsp kirsch

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter at room warm room temperature, plus more for the pan

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp all purpose flour (for mixing with the berries)

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

Generously butter a 9 cup Bundt pan or two 4.5 cup/1.5 Qt loaf pans and then dust it with all purpose flour, shaking out the extra.

Beat the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat beater attachment until thick and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the kirsch and the butter in 1 Tbsp sized pieces and beat until it is thick and fluffy. This should take a couple minutes, stop once to scrape down the sides. Add the baking powder and salt and mix to combine well. Add both flours and turn the machine on and off on low in short pulses until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Toss the raspberries and blueberries in a large bowl with 2 Tbsp all purpose flour before using a spatula to fold them into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top. Place in the center of a cold oven and turn the oven temperature to 300°. Bake until a knife or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. For both pans for me this took 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool in the pan or pans for 5 minutes before inverting on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

If you wish to freeze the cake wait until it is cooled completely and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then place the wrapped cake in a freezer bag.

Pancakes

Pancakes are a standard breakfast around here. At this point I have changed the original recipe so much that the one we use is completely my own. We make them enough that both Lewis and I have the recipe memorized. This means it is much faster to prepare a batch as there is no referring back to a recipe to slow you down. Because of this these even get served on crazy school mornings. It also means I can tell you what happens when almost all of the ingredients get left out, cooking before having coffee is always a dangerous activity if you were hoping for consistency.

My boys love this recipe and at this same time they often take them for granted. If they appear too frequently they have been known to whine and ask why we can't have popovers, crepes or something else equally time consuming. I wonder if the two of them will ever realize just how spoiled they are at the table?

On the way back from vacation in Cape Cod we stayed with my brother and his family. Before going away I made up a triple batch of the dry ingredients for pancakes so we could make breakfast for both families. My brothers says his two daughters are both horribly picky eaters, vegetarians who pick the tofu out of things and discard it. When we made these pancakes for breakfast my brother had to insist that his oldest daughter, Vina, try one. She grudgingly took one bite and then happily devoured three pancakes.

While she was eating them Vina declared our pancakes "better then daddies", daddies pancakes had already been declared "better then mommies". About a minute later she asked if she had hurt daddies feelings. The answer was no, he was just ecstatic to have something she wanted to eat. When everyone was done with breakfast he quickly followed our instructions for freezing the pancakes to have another day. I don't think I have ever seen him listen to something I have to say quite so closely.

We had a lot of fun at my brothers house, even with my nieces telling Sebastian and Julian that they don't like playing with boys. Most of Julian's best friends are girls and Sebastian has several girls he play with as well, they were both mystified. There was also a small problem with our food joking clashing with the girls fear of meat. Years ago we went through the drive through at the bank and my children were both given teal blue lollipops. Both boys asked what flavor they were. Honestly what food in nature is teal blue? So I told them they were liver flavor. Ever since then teal blue lollipops are liver flavor, sometimes my boys even request liver flavor now. Well at one point all four cousins were sitting around the table and Sebastian told them the lollipops we had for the car ride were liver flavored. As an exacting vegetarian Vina freaked and ran from the table. We convinced her it was not liver, and order was restored. Its a good thing we did not try to serve liver flavored pancakes.

When making pancakes for my family it takes one and a half of the original recipe to satisfy everyones hunger. For 1 and a half times the original recipe we add another whole egg rather then try to divide an egg. I feel the recipe is better with the slightly higher amount of egg that this results in. I have listed the recipe 2 ways below, the original quantities and one and a half times the recipe, this way if you want a larger batch you won't need to do math before having coffee.

Pancake Ingredients (original batch size)

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

1 large egg

2 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Pancake Ingredients (one and a half batches: enough to satisfy all 4 people in my family)

3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

3 Tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/8 tsp baking soda (I often just use 1/2 tsp baking soda here)

1 1/2 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Sift the dry ingredients together. Measure the milk and add the egg/eggs to the milk and whisk to combine and beat the egg/eggs (I use a large glass measuring cup and then whisk the 2 together by spinning the whisk between my hands. Both my boys can imitate this move perfectly with their toy whisk). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, a few lumps are fine, overmixing is not. Add the butter while still mixing in the wet ingredients.

Use a small ladle or measuring cup to pour pancake batter onto a preheated hot griddle that has a light film of butter on it (I set my electric griddle to 350°). If adding fruit evenly press it in to the batter on the griddle, if using frozen blueberries you do no need to defrost them first. Flip the pancakes when they appear to be dry around the edges and holes appear across the surface of the pancakes. If you are unsure if they are done lift a corner of a pancake with your spatula to check the color. Cook the second side until light brown and either keep warm in a 200° oven or serve immediately with butter and real maple syrup. Sometimes I serve them with a fruit sauce like apple or plum.

Eating Your Own Young

Four years ago when driving home from vacation on Cape Cod Lewis looked at me and said, "Do you know when animals eat their own young? It's in the car coming back from vacation. At the time he said that Sebastian was 3 and Julian was 5 months. Julian had been sleeping when Sebastian started screaming to wake him up, then they were both screaming. Then out of sheer boredom, and everything that goes along with being 3, Sebastian stuck a piece of Smart Food, the cheesy popcorn, up his nose. We were on a section of the thruway without any shoulder so we had to fly off at the next exit and pull into someone's driveway to extract the popcorn. A week later Sebastian was sitting at the table happily eating Smart Food, while being watched like a hawk, when he asked, "Do you know where you shouldn't put Smart Food?" When I asked him where he earnestly replied, "Up your nose."

Well four years later what we learned on that trip still holds true, you shouldn't put Smart Food up your nose and when we drive home from vacation we understand why animals eat their own young. It was 7:00 p.m. and the boys were in the back seat throwing things at each other and yelling. We were all hungry but there was no way I was going to take my over tired boys who had been hog tied in to their car seats for 3 hours in to a restaurant. Happily at that time we got off the Thruway to get gas in Randolph Vermont and we discovered a wonderful barbecue cart next to the Mobil station.

When we began looking at the menu we were all grumpy. I snapped at the boys as they were their usual picky selves deciding on something they would eat from the menu. The proprietress was really helpful, answering all my questions as I tried to find food that would work. She even let us sample the pulled pork, ostensibly so we would know if the rub on the pork, and by extension the chicken, would be to their liking. Julian refused to taste it, but Sebastian tried it and immediately declared he wanted the pulled pork not the chicken. We were further accommodated in making up a meal combination to suit Sebastian's tastes as he does not like meat sandwiches. Actually, to be honest, when it comes to sandwiches he only likes cream cheese sandwiches, cheeseburgers or grilled cheese. Sebastian ordered a plate of pulled pork with french fries, Julian had a hot dog and Lewis and I split a combination plate so we could try the ribs, chicken, french fries and the pulled pork I already knew I loved.

My favorite from the sampler was the pulled pork, tender, moist and flavorful. I don't know what is in the spice rub that they use but it was not spicy at all without skimping on flavor. I enjoyed the chicken and ribs too, but as I am not a big barbecue sauce person the spice rubbed pork was more to my liking. The french fries were also really good, made with the skins on and I assume by the large bags of potatoes in their trailer, actually made on site from real potatoes.

The menu also listed pulled pork, steak bomb, mixed veggie and supreme cheese quesadillas so vegetarians can find something. The menu states they are all celiac and nut friendly. The shocking thing about this little roadside food stop was the number of cars we saw pulling in to the McDonald's next door.

I would love to be able to report that after that yummy meal we were able to all climb cheerfully back in to the car and finished our journey in perfect harmony. However if I wrote that it would be a lie. Instead we climbed in the car less grumpily then we had gotten out and finished our journey without anyone killing anyone else and the buzz from a great vacation not completely killed. I feel that is a large enough victory given the conditions.

Vermont BBQ

Route 66 Between the Mobil station and the McDonald's at the Randolph exit from Interstate 89 (after Labor Day), Randolph, VT
802-728-9013
Pauline Poulin and David Langhans
vtbbq@yahoo.com

Last night was the Vermont BBQ's last night next to the Mobil station until September. Until then they can be found at some of the Vermont fairs including Tunbridge and Barton.

View Larger Map

Summer Garden Salad

Sometimes all you need is a light touch to bring out the flavor in your food. A light touch and really great quality ingredients. Yesterday the boys and I stopped briefly at our community garden plot to pick produce for dinner. Their excitement and pride was adorable as they examined all our plants and happily helped harvest onions (although ours are a bit more like overgrown scallions right now), eggplant, nasturtium leaves and tomatoes. They also took the opportunity to pet our corn plants. I must admit as a native New Yorker I am as giddy as they are about growing my own food. I mean really, I grew food!

My plans for dinner were simple, good bread, several cheeses, prosciutto and a simple salad using my garden produce and avocado. I sliced the eggplant lengthwise and coated the pieces and the baby onions with olive oil and grilled them all over low heat. After the vegetables were done grilling I sliced the eggplant into bite sized pieces and chopped up all of the onion that was good (the stalks of the onion gets very charred on the grill). Then I tossed the grilled eggplant with 2 sliced avocados, the chopped tomatoes and the leaves from our nasturtium plant with a splash of high quality balsamic vinegar, the stuff that has been aged for a long time (mine has aged for 21 years) and extra virgin olive oil, then kosher salt and of course freshly ground black pepper.

Our neighbor came over for dinner and watched my strange ritual of photographing my food and I explained about the blog. I explained that I take the photos before I am sure the dish is worth photographing and sharing here. As he took seconds of salad Paul commented, "Definitely worth photographing."

I am glad the salad was enjoyed so much as this may be the end of my garden's tomatoes. Late blight has hit here in the Northeast and the tomato plants in my garden plot are dying. So far the plants in the front of my house look fine, but I am not holding my breath. I go away on vacation for a week soon and I fully expect to come back to dead plants. Apparently the disease developed on the plants grown for the big box stores. Yet another lesson that food, even plants starts, are not supposed to be grown in huge monocultures. The presence of late blight so early coupled with our wet summer has meant the disease is practically unavoidable. The end result is that this year I may need to buy canned tomatoes. I only hope this will make people appreciate small farmers, and the work they do, even more.

The eggplants were still babies when I picked them but I think I was inspired by Foodie Fights Battle #8: Eggplant and White Wine. I won the Foodie Fights Battle #7: Pineaple and Basil so I was a judge for Battle 8. After reading and obsessing over 6 blog posts about eggplant I couldn't stop thinking about eating mine. Now I am glad I did because the results were delicious.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Peanut Butter Frosting

This month I signed up for Taste and Create and my partner is Stef at the Cupcake Project. Taste and Create pairs up food bloggers to select a recipe from their partners blog, make the recipe and then blog about it. I am one of those people who doesn't like frosting so I don't usually make cupcakes. Stef does have recipes for other things on her site, often from her Taste and Create partners, however that seemed like cheating to me. I was paired with a cupcake blog and made naan, then I went to a seafood restaurant where I ordered a steak.

Luckily Stef mostly uses frosting that is whipped cream, cream cheese or marscapone based. I decided to treat her blog like a palate of cupcake and frosting recipes. I decided to make her gingerbread cupcake with her ginger lemon frosting. I would have gone ahead with that plan if Lewis hadn't innocently asked me to try to recreate a cupcake he had tasted. It was a spice cupcake with chocolate ganache and peanut butter frosting. I decided to do make the gingerbread cupcakes with the chocolate and peanut butter toppings. Lewis seldom makes special requests in the kitchen so I would even overlook the fact he did not bring me a bite of that cupcake.

This recipe was fraught with peril for me. The first time I made it I could not get the cupcakes out of the pan in one piece. Not exactly appropriate for photographing. So I started over again, this time using cupcake liners in the pan. The cupcakes came out perfectly while my boys got up to no good.

While the first batch was baking I walked through the playroom and saw Julian using his screwdriver (yes, my 4 year old has his own screwdriver) to take the window out of his toy stove. Julian is always trying to take apart or build something. He has a whole collection of wires that used to connect computers and he has them strung up all over. So I did not really pay attention.

So while I was mixing the second batch Sebastian came in to the kitchen with Julian's screwdriver in his hand and asked me which direction to turn a screwdriver to screw something in. I was baking and distracted, and I thought they were just putting the window back. Imagine my surprise when later they showed me the "spy window" they had attached to the bottom of their bunk beds and the "rubber band shooter" on the top. The rubber band shooter was the door closer for the toy stove, and for both items they attached them to the bed by making new holes, sigh.

All the elements of these cupcakes were great. Next time I have a craving for a peanut butter dessert I may just make a batch of this frosting and eat it with a spoon. Not bad for someone who hates frosting. The gingerbread cupcakes are wonderful on their own as well, before I made the frosting we were eating them like muffins. Chocolate ganache shouldn't require me to tell you how wonderful it is, I mean it's chocolate and heavy cream. The combination of the 3 elements was also wonderful. Silky richness from the chocolate, salty and sweet peanut butter frosting and the spicy flavor from the cupcake. All of us really loved the combination, as did everyone I gave one to. Each bite is different, with the flavors first being layered and then combining.

I made some full sized and some mini cupcakes. The mini's are my favorite, I just really enjoyed the more personal size, the ability to eat it all in 1 or 2 bites. Plus I feel the size of the cupcakes worked better at not overpowering the other layers. Many of my tasters seemed to prefer the larger size, but I think they were just worried I would say they could not have more then one.

Before we get to the recipe I want to talk a moment about ingredients. I made these with quail eggs, and no I absolutely do not expect you will. Furthermore I do not think it will have a negative effect on the flavor. I used quail eggs because I was given some by a neighbor. But aren't they cute?

Gingerbread Cupcakes

5 Tbsp unsalted butter softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

4 quail eggs (or 1 large chicken egg)

4 quail yolks (or 1 large chicken egg yolk)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (the recipe calls for dutch process cocoa powder but I just used a good quality regular one)

1 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup hot milk

1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour (trust me, with all the other flavors you won't notice the whole wheat, or you could use white flour)

Preheat the oven to 350° and place cupcake liners in a 12 cup muffin tin. (Stef says you can just butter the tin, I tried that the first time and none of them came out of the pan neatly, I suggest just using liners).

Cream the butter and white sugar, add molasses, egg and egg yolk and beat in. Add cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt and mix until fully incorporated. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk. Add the flour to the batter and stir until just combined. Stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling the liners about halfway (the first batch I overfilled and they did not dome up but rather spread out to form a solid top).

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes until the center of the cupcakes is slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

When cool spread an even layer of the chocolate ganache on the top of each cupcake and allow to set. After the ganache has set pipe on some peanut butter frosting.

Chocolate Ganache

3 oz's bittersweet chocolate broken up

1 Tbsp white sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over low heat while stirring until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Peanut Butter Frosting

adapted from Ina Garten's recipe

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter, before proceeding with the recipe I put the peanut butter in a quart jar and stirred it really well so the oil was not separated)

2 1/2 tsp unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 - 1/4 tsp Kosher salt (I like the frosting on the salty side but some of my tasters wanted it less salty. Start with 1/8 of a tsp and taste before deciding)

3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream

Place the sugar, peanut butter, butte, vanilla extract and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, scraping down as needed. If you have one of these beater blades you won't need to scrape the bowl. Add the heavy cream and beat on high until light and smooth.

Pineapple Watermelon Avocado and Feta Salad with Basil

I spent a lot of time since I discovered the featured ingredients in this weeks battle pondering the flavor options. I decided not to do any of the standard dishes with basil and pineapple, so no pizza, fried rice, South East Asian or salsa. I briefly flirted with the idea of a basil ice cream with pineapple chunks mixed in. My boys originally loved the ice cream idea until they really heard that I said basil ice cream. Then they encouraged me to go with another idea. Even though both boys will happily eat basil right off the plant.

When my mother was still alive she used to make an excellent flank steak marinated with soy sauce, sherry and dried herbs. I have no clue what cook book that recipe was from nor do I know what the ratios are that she used. However I have been making my own variations for over 20 years now. Mine is an ever changing recipe which can change based on my current mood and what goodies I find in the fridge (there was a memorable version where I included jam that was taking up room in my fridge). When I make it I often include orange juice as one of the ingredients.

So for the first dish in battle pineapple basil I decided to make a marinated flank steak with fresh pineapple juice and basil. The only trick would be actually paying attention to and recording the ingredients and their quantities.

As an accompaniment to the steak I thought about making a green papaya salad with pineapple. However that was clearly a South East Asian inspired recipe and perhaps it is not in good form to use a blog post from a judge as a spring board. However I still liked the idea of a salad that nudges the pineapple into the savory side. So I decided on a grilled pineapple salad with feta and basil. My inspiration for this salad came from a watermelon feta salad recipe from last summers Edible Boston. I have never made it but it has been on my to try list for a while and I have really enjoyed the other recipes I have tried by its creator.

I decided to grill the pineapple to sweeten it and mellow the acidity. The original salad called for mint so I decided I would include mint with the basil in my pineapple version. When I was still talking out my ideas with another foodie friend she said I should use purple basil in the salad for looks and then let me raid her garden for the basil.

So how did the pineapple and basil dishes turn out? The flank steak was excellent, as it always is through all the permutations I have made over the years. The interesting thing was the marinade did not taste right until I added the basil. Usually I don't use either pineapple or basil in this dish but the pineapple really needed the basil to balance its acidity and sharp flavor. However I don't think the steak was any better then the other versions. Just another example of delicious flank steak.

The pineapple salad I ended up with however was just what I wanted. Although there was a small problem where I grilled the pineapple, dressed the salad and discovered that the grilled pineapple did not have the clean flavor that I wanted. To be honest I hated the taste. Happily I had not added/wasted the feta cheese yet. So at 5:30 p.m. I ran out to the store to get another pineapple, a watermelon and avocado. My neighbors who were coming over for dinner at 6 were only slightly confused to see me running off.

The end result was worth the second trip to the store and the running around crazily to get dinner on the table. The watermelon, feta and avocado all melt in your mouth but they still have different textures and ways of melting. The pineapple, the star ingredient, retains its bite and gives you something to chew and the basil really brought all the flavors together. In the final salad I did not use the mint as its inclusion also seemed off in the grilled version. The flavor was really clean and light, partially because I realized when making the grilled version that I did not want any olive oil in the dressing, only lime juice. Everyone who tried the salad loved it. For the record nobody under the age of 8 had any. But our neighbor Ada, who is 8 loved it. My children and her brother refused to even try it, that's okay, Ada ate their share.

The salad and the steak worked really wonderfully together. A nice combination of textures and flavors. I also made a potato salad that I was tempted to add basil and pineapple to. I decided that would have been overkill. My neighbors also brought over kid friendly potatoes with butter and parsley and zucchini and squash sauteed with onions. Thomas is founder and co-owner of Arethusa collective farm in the Intervale, so I consider myself lucky that they brought over a modest bowl full of zucchini instead of filling my car with 500 pounds of it. Maybe it is still early in the season for that, I must remember to keep my car locked though.

Pineapple Watermelon Avocado and Feta Salad with Basil

2 cups fresh pineapple chopped into bite sized pieces, about 1/2 to 3/4 inches

2 cups watermelon chopped into cubes about the same size as the pineapple

1 ripe Haas avocado pitted, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

1 scallion chopped (assuming the scallion is fresh use all of it, pale and dark green)

1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or more to taste (use purple basil if you can get it)

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup feta crumbled

Combine all the ingredients except the feta in a serving bowl. Crumble the feta on top and serve. This salad should be served right away.

Pineapple Basil Marinated Flank Steak

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple juice (although I am sure it would be good with frozen, but this was a competition)

1/2 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup dry sherry

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 Tbsp crushed garlic

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

1/4 tsp tabasco (optional, or use more if their will be no kids dining with you)

1 tsp deli mustard (dijon would also be good)

1 Tbsp packed basil

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

1 flank steak

Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until the basil is chopped fine. You can also use a mini food processor and the basil, oil and some of the other liquids if like me you hate cleaning your blender. Place the steak and enough marinade to cover in a non reactive dish and marinate for 2 hours. Do not marinate for too long as the pineapple juice will start to break down the meat. Preheat your grill until hot, place the meat on the grill and turn it to medium high. Grill on the first side for 3 to 5 minutes, turn over and grill until the internal temperature is 120 ° to 135 °, about 3 to 5 minutes longer. Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing thinly on the bias.

Extra marinade can be used to marinate chicken, pork or more steak. It can also be frozen for later use. Now if you will excuse me I am off to read Twilight. I borrowed it last week but I decided that a book that all my friends could not put down would have to wait until after Foodie Fights.