The big story around here this week is that I went camping, overnight, with Henry and George and lived to tell the tale. I’d had the urge to go camping for months- neither kid had ever been and I was aching to be off grid under a sky full of stars. When we got out there the boys sat on a picnic table and ate Doritos while I very slowly put up the tent. The first step was hammering in the pins to hold the tent down and I realized I had forgotten a hammer, and couldn’t jam them into the packed earth with just my hands. I figured I’d skip that step, maybe it wasn’t even necessary, but then when all the other steps were finally done the tent was undeniably wonky. That’s when I remembered that rocks exist and could be used like a hammer. I am a god among men. Once the tent was up we hiked to the top of Enchanted Rock, which is only 0.6 miles but steep at times. Henry thrilled in climbing over the boulders that dotted the trail and running far ahead of me. George managed all but the steepest parts of the climb and seemed to really enjoy himself too. We sat at the top and watched a little bird run around a puddle on its long stick legs and saw the sun get low in the sky. On the way down we passed some grandparent-types who fawned over Henry for being a good hiker and clucked their tongues at me for going camping without my husband. We saw an almost-full moon behind purple and pink clouds and the alignment of Venus and Jupiter. It was perfect.  Here’s what we ate this week.

Sungold and Purple Basil Bruschetta, Sauteed Zucchini with Mint and Basil, Crispy Smashed Red Potatoes, Potstickers. The blue ribbon in this dinner goes to the crispy red potatoes. You boil them whole until they’re just tender, then gently smash them with something big and flat and then pan fry them in hot oil until they’re deeply brown and crispy. Before this recipe I had no love in my heart for red potatoes, thinking yukon golds surpassed them in every way, but now I can’t get enough. These guys are outrageously crunchy on the outside and so soft on the inside, almost like mashed potatoes. If you’ve got some leftover, reheat them in a pan with some breakfast sausage and fold the lot into a flour tortilla with some cheese and salsa for a glorious breakfast taco.

Chicken Tinga Tacos. This is my friend Nancy’s recipe and it rocks. The chicken is so tender. The sauce is complex and flavorful even after omitting all the spicy chiles so the kids could eat it too.  And all you have to do is throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and be on your way.

Chicken Tinga Quesadillas a la Taco Bell. Andy dinner comin’ atcha. When we stopped off at Buc-ee’s last week we had debated stopping at Taco Bell instead, which was a hot spot for me and Andy back in the day, but which I haven’t eaten at in several years. Andy’s standard order there is the chicken quesadilla, which he lovingly describes as greasy, creamy, and cheesy.  Not stopping there left a plastic sleeve-wrapped quesadilla-sized hole in his heart. The leftover shredded chicken tinga, monterrey jack cheese, and a spicy cream sauce (sour cream mixed with Yellowbird hot sauce) in a griddled tortilla was no Taco Bell, but was close enough to scratch Andy where he itched. My words, not his. I’m sure he’d think those words are gross.

Pad See Ew and Tom Kha. More of that tom kha I’m obsessed with- it takes 8 minutes to make, you guys.  I made a mockery of the noodle recipe, which calls for both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce (who needs that, I thought? Light + dark equals the bottle of regular ole tamari that’s already in my fridge). Chinese broccoli? Nope. Chicken/pork/beef/tofu? Nope. Turns out you can’t make all these substitutions without the end result tasting like a watered down version of the real thing. Recipe following 101, y’all.  I’m one of those millions of internet assholes who substitutes the  life out of a recipe and then isn’t satisfied with the results. Imma try again when I can get my hands on eight types of soy sauce.

Baba Ganoush, Tomato, Cucumber, and Feta Salad, Pita Chips. I cut Phoenicia pita bread into wedges, peel the two layers apart, and toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and crisp them on a cookie sheet in a 375 degree oven for about 8 minutes. We dipped the chips into baba ganoush, a weirdo mushy eggplant dip that I like very much. Apparently there’s some debate about whether or not to include tahini, but it’s an obvious yes to me. I like it to taste like a sort of eggplant hummus, with tahini, lemon, and olive oil. The salad is just the diced veg with parsley and mint, lemon juice, olive oil, crumbled feta and salt and pepper.  I don’t have anything interesting to say about it, but it is tangentially related to the terrifying mutant cucumber we grew in the garden (instagram pic of monster cucumber). Overlooked for weeks, when we finally uncovered the beast Henry ran screaming from it. We weren’t brave enough to cut into it- I threw it in the compost. Do people eat these things?

Peach, Strawberry, and Blueberry Pies. For the fourth of July, we spent nearly 4 hours in a swimming pool and then ate bacon cheddar burgers on glazed donut “buns” like the American heros we are. It was spectacular. These pies were a hit- they were basically this pie, with substitutions for the fruit.

Next week we’re heading to Vancouver, BC for our annual National Puzzlers’ League convention, which is always one of my favorite weekends of the year.  We’ll be there for a week. When I come back I’ll share a belated post about the stuff we ate while we were there.  I’m crazy excited. A talented food52er, Cooking in Victoria, shared tons of brilliant ideas with me. It’s berry season and I’m hoping to sample berries I’ve never had before: tay berries and marion berries. There’s a fabulous market and food hall with tons of artisan vendors- Terra Breads where I’ve gotta try the fig and anise bread, chocolates, cheeses. And above all fabulous Chinese and Japanese food. We’re going to hit up this amazing night market– check out the picture on the home page! I’m all a twitter at the thought of all the wacky Asian snacks we get to eat. Until next week!

I wasn’t planning on buying more bulk tomatoes at the farmers’ market this week, but then Kubena Farms had 15 lbs for $20, which was half of what I’d spent on my first round and too good a deal to pass up. These were so good, and had so few seeds that I got 11 pints of canned crushed tomatoes out of them. I’ve fallen further down the canning rabbit hole and when it came time to plan yesterday’s shopping list, I found myself listing canning projects instead of menu plans. I don’t know what exactly I love about it. I think it might be the Little House on the Prairie-style romanticism with stocking your own larder. From Little House in the Big Woods:

“Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets and turnips and cabbages were gathered and stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had come.
Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, and then were hung in the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellow and green heaps in the attic’s corners.
The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves.”

Yes, that. I want all of that. Here’s what we ate this week.

Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Caprese Salad, Crispy Potato Skins. I thought eating all these things together was weird. Caprese salad doesn’t go with mashed potatoes. I don’t know why I do these things. I saved the peels from the potatoes and tossed them with oil and salt and pepper and roasted them with the chicken for a crispy little snack that would have been delicious had I not burned them 😐 I also under cooked the mashed potatoes and they were lumpy and I didn’t add enough butter and this dinner just blew, honestly. So, yeah. Food bloggin’, y’all!

Crispy Thai Pork with Cucumber Salad. I learned about this recipe from Last Night’s Dinner, who has sung it’s praises all over social media. She’s right on all accounts. It’s easy as can be and outrageously good. I was so hungry when I was cooking it that I went a little weak in the knees at the smell of the ground pork sizzling in a hot pan with tons of garlic. If Emeril Live was still a thing that anyone thought about I would quote his “pork fat rules” catchphrase. But it’s not, so forget I said anything about that.

Sweet Corn Lasagna with Mascarpone and Basil. This picture ended up with one of those soap-opera blurry filters somehow. Probably some kid was sucking on the camera end of my phone again and I didn’t notice in time to clean it. But it’s appropriate for this recipe because it’s a Giada De Laurentiis one, and she’s got a sort of hazy soap opera vibe too. I find her objectionable. I can’t put my finger on why. Because she seems really fake and happy? Fake-ly happy? Too bougie? That’s probably a big part of it. Eat the rich and all that. Anyway, I don’t like her, but back when I had cable I loved her show. The food was pretty and the sound editor was really great. I loved hearing her crack open a head of garlic. This lasagna is really delicious and easy. You blend up corn with cream and mascarpone and basil, and layer this sauce with lasagna noodles and still more cheese. We ate it with a green salad with a lemony vinaigrette and the tart dressing was great with the sweet pasta.

Chicken Fajita-Esque Tacos, Beans. Central Market always runs out of regular ole flour tortillas by late Sunday evening, and you’re left with a choice of all the reject kinds- spelt and multi-grain and other things too horrible to contemplate. I chose these southwestern ones as the least objectionable option, but they were actually pretty great for these fajita-like tacos. I shredded leftover chicken and tossed it into a pan with sliced green bell pepper and onions that I had softened and crisped in a little oil.  With the chicken I added a splash of stock, a little cumin and coriander and chile powder and just heated it though. We ate them with pepper jack and guacamole and sliced jalapenos.

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers. Henry and I made a summer wishlist of all the stuff we hope to do in the next few months. Henry wants to see fireworks and go to a baseball game and go bowling. I want to go camping at Enchanted Rock so we can see the Milky Way and eat s’mores. I asked Andy what he loves about summer and he said eating hot dogs off the grill. He’s so easy. We ate these with my first (successful) batch of fermented dill pickles. I had tried before with a small batch of cucumbers from the garden, and the recipe said that they’d be ready in 3-4 weeks. I let ’em go two before tasting them and they were overdone and too salty. A friend had a huge pile of cucumbers from her garden so she gave them to me and I tried again. This time I tasted the pickles much earlier, and found that they were completely perfect after just about a week of fermenting- they taste like regular pickles except there is a little tiny bit of something effervescent about them, which is such a fun quality for food to have. We also topped our hot dogs with a homemade dill pickle relish from Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s book (so easy!) and everyone loved it. George called it candy and ate spoonful after spoonful of the stuff off his half-hot dog and left the dog and bun untouched.

Strawberry Buttermilk Celebration Cake. What an amazing week. We spent Friday celebrating marriage equality with rainbows and basking in facebook’s warm glow. Cake seemed the thing to do, and rainbow cake at that, but I didn’t know how we’d come up with all the colors we’d need to decorate. Opening the pantry solved that. We had checked out a book from the library that mentioned a girl finding a prize in her box of cereal. Henry had to know what that was about (we stick to the more hippie cereals that never have prizes inside), and once he was filled in, I said he could pick out a box of cereal with a prize inside the next time we went shopping. He picked froot loops because they came with an Avenger’s flyer. Anyway, they were just perfect for our purposes. (PSA that you shouldn’t put froot loops on top of your cake, though. They get bizarrely soft and chewy). So much love to every one of you!

I’m a little late this week. We drove down to San Antonio to celebrate Father’s Day with Andy’s family, the kids napped on the way home, we were up till midnight, and I didn’t have time to write.

My nostalgia kicks in every time we’re in the car for over an hour and I needs must stop somewhere for an unhealthy snack.  At a regular gas station my snack of choice is mini chocolate donuts. But we didn’t stop at a regular gas station, we stopped at the Wal-Mart of gas stations: Buc-ee’s. The walls are lined with floor to ceiling gummy candies. They have 30 kinds of fudge. There’s a whole counter that only sells jerky. For myself, high on this road-trip unhealthy snack kick, I picked out a monstrous chopped beef sandwich with pickles and onion and a sack of beaver nuggets (a horse’s feed bag sized sack of crunchy sweet things made from corn syrup, margarine, and puffed air). I’m not proud to admit these things, but I have an obligation to fill you in on my various and sundry food choices, dear reader, so I’m gonna. Suffice it to say neither were good, and I felt horrible all night, and I’m never buying a barbecue sandwich or beaver nuggets from a gas station again. Now that I’ve sufficiently whetted your appetite, here’s what we ate this week.

Mushroom and Pepper Jack Omelet, Roasted Potatoes, Green Salad. Please don’t judge my hideous omelet too harshly- it was the first one I’ve ever made! I hated eggs as a kid. I hated all non-noodle foods, really. I didn’t really start cooking and eating eggs until after college, but for some reason omelets still sounded gross to me. I have no reason why- it’s just a simpleminded prejudice. Anyway, I had leftover crispy mushrooms and pepper jack, and an omelet just seemed like the thing to do. I don’t own a nonstick pan, so imma go ahead and blame my cast iron pan on the ugly state of the final product, but it tasted damn good. The little greens were leftover from last week’s Boggy Creek Farm visit and are perfect with a squeeze of lemon and drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.

20 lbs of Tomatoes for Canned Crushed Tomatoes. I canned these! And none of them siphoned (where the tomato juices leak out of the cans during or after processing), which used to happen to me every time.  I followed the recipe in Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry cookbook, which I have fallen for hard. I canned another 15 lbs of tomatoes this weekend, candied jalapenos, and dill pickle relish. In the next few weeks I want to make her habanero pepper jam, pickled okra (you can stuff it with pimiento cheese! hearts hearts hearts), pickled jalapenos, and peach jam. That book is inspirational, and the recipes are flawless, and the photography is by the Canal House ladies, and you should buy it if you even have a passing interest in canning- it will change your life.

Tomato Water. When you’re canning the tomatoes, you scoop out the seeds and seedy juice stuff. Mrs. Wheelbarrow implores you not to waste it. Instead strain the stuff into a bowl so you capture the tomato water and then use it in a number of different ways- in place of stock in a summery soup, in bread baking, when cooking rice, or as part of a cocktail. I drank mine with a splash of pickle juice and jalapeno slices. Henry liked his sweetened with sugar and with a blueberry garnish. Andy thought the idea of drinking tomato water was horrifying, and sort of thought so after cautiously sipping mine too. I liked it!

Tomato and Corn Pie. This is the best tomato pie I’ve ever had. I make it every year in tomato season. The crust is biscuit dough that you roll out thinly. You fill it with layers of heirloom tomato slices, fresh corn, cheddar cheese, basil and chives. You pour a lemony mayo sauce on top, which might sound weird but is completely amazing, and you top it with another circle of biscuit dough brushed with melted butter. Can you tell that it tastes absolutely incredible? The crust, like biscuits, is great the day of and not as good the next day.

BLTs with Herb Salad and Avocado, Mango Salsa. Another BLT. This one was fancied up with avocado, and with an herb salad (parsley and basil leaves tossed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper) instead of lettuce, because I didn’t have any. It was a nice twist on the classic. The mango salsa is chopped tomatoes and mangoes tossed with minced onion, jalapenos, lime juice, and salt. S’good too!

Burnt Cherry/Blackberry/Blueberry Crisp. I made three crisps last week 😐 And I only photographed the one I burned! This one was made with fruits that were too tart/too old and needed to be used up. I tossed them with a little sugar and followed the ratio for crispy stuff up on top outlined here, which was perfect.  I made another crisp for a potluck with strawberries, mangoes, and lemon zest and juice, and another for Father’s Day with peaches and cinnamon. They were all delicious. No one doesn’t like a fruit crisp and it’s way way faster than pie.

Red Beans and Rice. No amount of VSCO-camming can make this red beans and rice look attractive, but it tasted great. It’s probably 75% barbecue, with the odd red bean sprinkled here and there. We have probably another 2 or 3 dinners worth of this stuff in the freezer, but it’s so damn good I’m happy for the glut of the stuff.

Leftover Crudite Vegetable Pot Pie. I had a gallon ziploc bag full of leftover aging crudite from my sister’s massive crudite platter last week. Most folks would probably spend the week munching on the stuff, but you already know from my charming story at the top that I’m not a healthy snacker. So the bag of vegetables (cremini mushrooms, radishes, carrots, celery, broccoli, and green beans) just sat there. When in doubt, I wrap things in pastry. So I made a double batch of pie dough (used the fraissage technique from last week because it makes a big flaky difference in my pie crusts), and made an approximation of this delicious vegan stock from some of the vegetables (the fennel seed in the stock is delightful, the cremini mushrooms gave it a distinctly meaty edge). I sauteed leftover red onion, the carrots, and the celery till tender. Then I added the rest of the vegetables and kept cooking until they lost their raw edge. I took them out of the pan, melted 1/4 cup of butter and sprinkled over 2 tablespoons of flour and cooked until it was light brown. I slowly whisked in about 2 cups of the vegan stock and cooked it till it was thickened. I added salt and pepper and the cooked vegetables, and then poured that filling into the crust. It was so good! It really surprised me. Cooked radishes take on the texture of potatoes and taste almost as mild. All the vegetables were delicious and well-seasoned in the thickened stock gravy. And the crust was really lovely with it. I wanted to write down what I did so I can make it again.

Pepperoni Pizza. I blogged about this recipe already, way back in my very second blog post on this site. This week we ate it in front of the TV while watching Despicable Me, which we hadn’t seen and is so fun. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to go see Inside Out (the Alamo Drafthouse has a baby day where you can bring your loud obnoxious children under 6 (for free!!!) and see a movie). I’m so excited! Henry is too. He’s going to order a milkshake, gummies, and popcorn. Like mother, like son.  See you next week!