Ham Sandwich Indicted!

The last two weeks of my Wayward Seed CSA have provided with probably about 5 pounds of cherries. And since a girl can only eat so many fresh cherries before things start getting out of control, it was time to put those cherries to other uses. Not pictured is the pie I made for a cookout on Saturday. What I am showing above are the brandied cherries I made for future cocktails (super delicious Manhattan, anyone?). Before I go any further, I just want to say that if you like cherries, invest a couple of buck in a cherry pitter. I got mine a number of years ago from Pampered Chef, and seriously, folks, it's absolutely worth the money. Not only is it more efficient than using a paperclip or chopstick, but you can also use if for pitting olives, if you're like me and put those full-of-salty-goodness-Kalamatas in everything you make. Below is the recipe I used for the brandied cherries, below that, a ridiculously sick (in a good way) chocolate cherry cookie recipe. Brandied Che...

A few days late (sorry, ComFest had me distracted all weekend), we finally have winners of the Jam Giveaway! Congrats to Nan, Cate, and Lisa, you are soon to be the proud owners of some delicious homemade jam! To those of you who didn't win this time around, no worries, I have a feeling there will be more contests in the future. Thanks for entering and thanks for following!!!

Who wants free, delicious, homemade jam? If you answered "me!!", now's your chance to score some sweet, fruity goodness while I get to clear out my shelves for this year's jam-making AND boost my blog readership/followers. I'm giving away three pints of jam--raspberry, apricot, and ginger-pear. To win, sign up to "Follow" me on my homepage. Yep, that's it. Click a button, and you'll be eligible to win. Next Friday (June 25th), I'll use the awesome random drawing generator at random.org to draw three lucky, lucky winners. (Don't worry, you're still eligible if you're one of those who are already following Yours Truly.) Good luck and thanks!!!!

Above is the broccoli I harvested this weekend from my lone plant, below is all that's left. It was turned into a broccoli salad, courtesy of Paula Deen, with a few tweaks. Broccoli Salad by Paula Deen 1 head broccoli, washed, stalk removed, florets cut into bite sized pieces 6 to 8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 1/2 cup chopped red onion (I used a couple green onions I had on hand) 1/2 cup raisins, optional (no raisins, but I did have some dried cherries, craisins are good, too) 8 ounces sharp Cheddar, cut into very small chunks (I shredded it, and used maybe 3-4 oz) 1 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons white vinegar (or, champagne vinegar, or white wine vinegar) 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes Salt and freshly ground black pepper Put chopped broccoli and cherry tomatoes in large bowl. In a small bowl, mix mayo, vinegar, and sugar. Taste to make sure the sweet/sour balance is to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the bacon, onions, dried fruit, and che...

Last week, I had the absolute privilege of cooking a surprise 5th Anniversary dinner for my friends Scott and Christina. Scott emailed me about a month ago with this idea, and I was happy to be of service. The challenge for this dinner was that it had to be gluten and dairy free...which, being a girl for whom butter and flour are their own food groups, gave me slight pause. However, after some research, and discussion with Scott, I realized wouldn't be that hard--tamari to replace soy sauce, potatoes instead of grains, and lots of veggies (which are quite abundant right now). Also, Scott said that Christina had eyeballed some bison tenderloin at the North Market , so the main was easily decided. Bison! How exciting--I'd never cooked bison before! Up first, the salad course: A sugar snap pea and english cucumber salad . It was dressed with a simple walnut and lemon juice dressing, the walnuts being crushed to a paste, and blended with the lemon juice, walnut oil, and fresh d...

Reading is probably the 3rd most popular activity at the Ham Sandwich household, just behind eating and drinking (or drinking and eating, depending how court went that day). For the last several years, this reading has been comprised of two major genres: 1) cooking magazines and 2) non-fiction books. The cooking mags are obviously self-explanatory-- cometimes there's nothing better than thumbing through the latest issue of Gastronomica*/Bon Appetit/Saveur/Cook's Illustrated/King Arthur Flour Catalogue (ok, that last one doesn't really count as "reading"), planning menus, fantasizing about my dream kitchen and its appliances, and of course, trying out new recipes. Doing this with a glass of wine in hand, on the porch, makes the whole experience even better. The second category, non-fiction books, stems from my nerdtastic fear of becoming "dumb." Seriously. After spending 10 years in a classroom getting new information poured daily into my head, I panicked...

Because I didn't make anything this Memorial Day weekend save for Black & Blue Mojitos (recipe below!) and a bowl of guacamole, I'm resorting to posting pictures of the back 40. So far, things are going swimmingly.... The cucumbers are taking off; there's probably a dozen blossoms already. Hopefully, I can train/tie them up the fence. There will be lots of pickle experiments this summer. The peas are doing ok--I've never dealt with peas, so I don't know if they look good, too thin, or are slow to fruit (or maybe, they're fine). All the March/April cooking magazines I get promote pea recipes, but those editors are crazy--here in central Ohio we most definitely do not have fresh peas in April... The radishes, however, are most definitely doing well. I pulled half of my little row of radishes last weekend, and will probably pull the rest this weekend. Broccoli. Again, I'm not really familiar with the growing of broccoli, but basically, you get a g...