Start with perfectly ripe avocados. I prepare each ingredient first and then combine everything all at the last minute before we dive in. Finely chop some sweet onion (like Vidalia or Oso). Finely chop some grape or cherry tomatoes. Finely chop a nice hot Serrano pepper or a firm jalapeno. Cut a lime in half. Cut the avocados in half lengthwise and remove the pit by "whacking" it with your sharp knife and then turning your knife. It will come out very easily. Mash the avocadoes in a bowl with either a fork or an old fashioned potato masher (assuming you don't have the traditional Mexican mortar and pestle get-up called a molcajete). Add the chopped onion, tomato and pepper. Add kosher salt to taste and a bit of freshly ground pepper. Add a swirl of olive oil (sssshhh.....it's a secret). Blend together with a fork until well combined. Taste for salt. Seriously, peeps, salt is the key. Good salt. Add more salt if needed and then a really generous squeeze of fresh lime.........It will wake up your gwok fo shizzle. Plus, did you know that limes have no seeds? Thus, no hassle with squeezing directly into your dishes. Who knew? One more tip. Lemon works well also! It's excellent. I swear! I love it both ways! OK. Grab your favorite chips and pig out. We actually eat guacamole for a late night dinner sometimes with (you know) a big fruity glass of Sangria. Oh Gee KT, What a surprise! Salute!
K. Here's more fresh for ya . . .
I don't really like humdrum. I do like froo froo though. We love tuna salad and who cares about mercury? Anyway, Foof up your tuna salad so that it looks happier and brighter, plus always try to add some green to your meal. In my mind, it helps cancel out all of the bad stuff. Psychological, you say? Hmmmmmm........ could be. OK. No time to cook? Throw together some tuna salad really quickly. Bumble Bee Albacore is my personal favorite for combining with mayonnaise (Hellmann's)..... A little sweet chopped onion and I'm happy. Pile a scoop of tuna salad on top of a mound of lacy and beautiful frisee', top with fresh carrot shreds (come on, it only takes a second) and sprinkle with paprika. Voila'. It's not humdrum anymore! Note: I'll talk more about tuna in a future post. If you're gonna have it "straight-up", you MUST try canned Italian tuna in olive oil for a moist and delicious treat. Look for Genova "tonno" in the can at most grocery stores or, for the ultimate treat, As do Mar tonno trancio intero.... the "primo tonno".
One more for your repertoire ~
If you have not already tried Burrata cheese, your time has come. Fresh, cream filled mozzarella. OMG. No kidding. I FINALLY found this cheese at Trader Joe's and I was, of course, thrilled! Bring back summer with an incredibly flavorful and fresh salad of Burrata, torn basil leaves, the best tomatoes you can find, kalamata olives, a sweet and dark balsamic vinaigrette and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Don't forget the fresh pane'. Buon Appetito!
Love to all & may your holiday season be brimming with everything that keeps passion in your daily life.
XOXO,
Katie
This pasta is so delicious, I think it almost made me cry. What the? Jamie Oliver's "Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce" rocked our world Sunday night. This dish is pasta divinity. Silky, tender ribbons of homemade pasta in a glistening sauce of cheese and cream (plus a couple of egg yolks) really epitomizes the idea of enjoying the fruits of your labor. OMG. Although I closely followed Jamie's methods, I did take the liberty of using broccoli rabe (rapini) instead of purple sprouting broccoli (since I don't have any of that on the "back 40"). I also used whipping cream in place of creme fraiche ( it's tough to find at the local stores and I didn't plan far enough in advance to make a homem
ade batch). I adapted the recipe and provided it below with my personal tweaks, although I stuck to his directions pretty closely ...
ground black pepper
Caramel is fun, but I really need more experimentation. The temperature thing is really important, I think. These apples have chewy and delicious caramel for those with healthy choppers and/or excellent quality dental work. I will try and try again until I get the caramel to be the absolute perfect consistency... not too soft and not too hard and chewy. I will nail it one of these days. E-mail me your favorite recipe if you know of a tried-and-true way of achieving caramel perfection, ok?
Love to all . . . from Katie's Passion Kitchen
Wow! I must have really benefited from that extra hour . . . I had major food ambition today. I started the day reading a few pages of Jamie Oliver's "Jamie At Home" cookbook which is a beautiful tribute to "garden to table" cooking. He is such an inspired and passionate cook with an incredible flair for bringing out the best of simple fare. Rustic, yet elegant, his cooking is really creative, healthful and delicious. http://www.jamieoliver.com/
Super Fresh Homemade Organic Ricotta
Plum tomatoes are drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt, fresh thyme leaves, and dried oregano... slow roasted in a 300F degree oven until intensely flavored and slightly chewy (about 2 to 2 1/2 hours). They're served here on a bed of arugula, topped with fresh, homemade ricotta cheese, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.
P.S. Click on any (or most) photos shown in each post for a gigantic close-up, then use the back button on your browser to get back to the page...XOXO, Katie
P.S. Tonight, I will post the recipe for the pasta with my comments and recommendations. Buon Appetito!
Soup. Chili. Gumbo. Winter squash. Roasted birds. Apples. Pears. Cranberries. Pumpkins. Comfort food, right? I gave in to fall Sunday night, acknowledging that summer had come to an end, the air was brisk, and I needed to change tracks with my cooking. It was hard to stop thinking of spring asparagus, garden tomatoes (thank God we have a few left), Italian green beans, fresh peppers, zucchini, July bi
ng cherries and summer barbecues. Now, we're moving into a whole new territory.
the French accent) . . . "Bonjour Madam, your bread has arrived." I was ecstatic! It did not disappoint. Five 4 1/2 pound loaves of dense, chewy french sourdough bread with the lovely signature "P" carved into the crust. I unwrapped 
one of the neatly twisted paper bags and inspected the first perfect loaf. Dark and heavy, Poilane's breads are made from
stone ground grey flour, spelt and French sea salt. The dough is naturally fermented and the loaves are baked in wood burning ovens. They ship bread all over the world! I swooned from the smell of fresh French bread in my little South Holland finance office. Life is good. I couldn't wait to celebrate.
WOW! Don't you LOVE summer? Gardens are exploding with an abundance of fresh vegetables. Farmers markets and grocery stores are brimming with zucchini, squash, corn, tomatoes, peppers, melons, peaches and nectarines. Abundanza! I want to make it all and I want to eat it all. Since my last post, I will tell you what I've been cooking (we actually enjoyed some meals without taking pictures!! ~ the nerve ~ LOL). In the last few weeks, I've been in tomato heaven, thanks to Joey's amazing harvest. Yellow tomatoes, golden tomatoes, plums, cherries, little "light bulbs", early girls, best boys, etc. I have some tomato plants also, but they can't compare to Joey's perfect, healthy, fat, shiny, unblemished, bright, colorful, succulent, organically grown tomatoes. What? Ya think I have adjectivitis? LOL. OK. Sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella on toasted ciabatta bread with butter, mayo, fresh basil and a little kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper. Those little "sammies" were a lunch special at the dealership last week. Fresh and simple. What else you ask? I made a really filling and delicious Chicken Parmesan, inspired by the article in this month's Bon Appetit' magazine about Mario Batali's kitchen staff dinners. I flattened some chicken breasts and gave them the flour~egg bath~panko treatment, fried them in olive oil and butter, layered them up with homemade marinara sauce, asiago, parmesan and fresh mozzarella and baked them in the oven. Excellent and definitely not for dieters. I also made two different kinds of onion soup. Onion Soup Gratinee' right from the pages of Jacques Pepin's "The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen" book. AMAZING recipe. Ea
sy and incredibly satisfying. Plus, a creamy and decadent onion soup, inspired by Emeril and his "7 Onion Soup" ~ I didn't use 7 different onions, but I did follow his methods by starting out with bacon (I know), caramelizing the onions, simmering in stock with fresh herbs, adding cream (I know) and blending with an immersion blender. The result was this creamy, intensely flavored soup, garnished with crumbled bacon (I know), finely shredded swiss, fresh snipped chives and cracked black pepper. OMG. It rocked. I also made some very tart lime bars. Oven roasted summer vegetables. Ground sirloin burgers with finely chopped portabella mushrooms and vidalia onions. Huges pans of "grill-fried" garden variety peppers. Pappardelle pasta with fresh summer vegetables. Lots of salads spiked with everything from Gorgonzola to pine nuts. And we're still savoring each and every tomato in every way possible. I even had a tomato sandwich before I went to bed last night! I plan to power-walk 10 miles this afternoon to compensate for all of this eating. Cream and bacon fat = better get your a _ _ in gear.
g flight in his friend, Pete's high wing Citabria sport plane, I was in Katie's Passion Kitchen, baking up a summery flashback nectarine pie. Hope he remembered to take the Bonine. No shi_, I started baking this pie in 1991. LOL. E-mail me if you'd like the recipe. (Click on my pic) and I'll send it to you. It's really really quick, easy and it SCREAMS summer! Can you hear it? Love and Summer Cheers to All! Katie 
ted in freshly squeezed lime juice (and the limes too!), fresh garlic, olive oil, s & p. The peppers were charred, steamed, peeled, and then marinated in olive oil, garlic, freshly picked herbs, kosher salt, red wine vinegar and freshly squeezed lime juice. The salad is one of my favorite (and maybe surprising to some) combination of flavors . . . chunks of ripe but firm avocado, small wedges of homegrown red and yellow tomatoes, fresh basil, thinly sliced vidalia onion, crumbly gorgonzola cheese, olive oil, freshly squeezed lime juice, kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper. I can eat endless quantities of that salad with an entire bag of har
d and crunchy salted tortilla chips. El Ranchero or the other ones in the brown paper bag. I also threw a bunch of lime slices in tonight's Sangria which featured both cherry and apricot liquers. Oh yeah, one more thing . . . I made a warm fruit compote with red and purple plums, lemon slices, red and green grapes and turbinado sugar. A tart and sweet treat on top of Ben & Jerry's dense and rich vanilla ice cream. OK... I'm actually getting sleepy now. By the way, I did get my miles in . . . Not 10 though....more like 5. 
