Restaurant Review: Evelyn's Nanaquaket Drive-In

 On this last day of summer I'm trying to hang onto the amazing summer I just had.  From the weather that made up for last year, to my amazing wedding and subsequent honeymoon, I'm just not ready to let go.  I can't think of something that exemplifies summer, and specifically this summer,  more than eating scrumptious whole belly fried clams along the water.  So I decided on this last day of summer I would celebrate the food of summer by sharing a review of one of my favorite meals of the season.

Growing up in New England I have a serious appreciation for seafood.  Super fresh and local seafood is so delicious and accessible that summer is filled with clam bakes, lobstah rolls and fried clams.  Since I moved from New England 5 years ago I've desperately missed this classic summer fare.  Getting married and spending 5 days in Newport, RI gave me the chance to gorge myself on all of it.  From a lobstah roll at the Barking Crab to our rehearsal dinner clambake at the Hyatt Regency I was on a roll.  I just need to fill my fried clam craving.  Lucky for me the week before we headed south for the wedding, the boy's favorite show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives aired an episode that featured a clam shack in Tiverton, RI a mere hop skip and a jump from Newport.  It was a no brainer, hitting up a one of Guy Fieri's faves is always on the boy's agenda and me getting my fried clam fill, everyone was happy.

Meatless Monday: Backyard Pesto with Homemade Fettucine

With summer truly ending I thought I should take advantage of the beautiful and numerous basil plants the boy planted for me this summer.  I also have a brand new and shiny KitchenAid Mixer with pasta attachment, that we got as a wedding gift, that I was dying to try out.  Pesto is one of my favorite sauces, since it's no-cook and packed with fresh flavor it makes for a tasty and simple dinner and ine that is perfect for Meatless Monday.

When I studied in Florence in college I learned how to make and serve basil pesto the way they make it in Genoa which includes cooking cubed potatoes and string beans with your pasta to be tossed with the pesto.  I'm calling this Backyard Pesto because the basil literally came from my backyard and the potatoes and beans came from my local farmer's market which living in the city is close enough to my backyard for things like beans and potatoes.  I'd love to grow my own beans and potatoes but we just don't have the space, someday my dream farmhouse will though.  Until then I'll happily make do with the fabulous locally grown produce we get at our farmers market.

Pomegranate Ancho Pulled Pork

 This is the best recipe I've come up with in awhile and it's all mine.  It came together with ingredients I had on hand either stuff I bought because I knew I'd use it or just general pantry items I've amassed, with the exception of the pomegranate molasses.  But the molasses are something I've been wanting to make and use and the boy loves pulled pork.  It's my favorite kind of meal, one that serves my purposes and his, as well as I meal where I don't have to spend an hour at the grocery store.

I added in the ancho chili because I like a little heat in my pulled pork, and happened to have picked up some chile's that I hadn't yet used.  The chile's where the real wild card here because I was completely guessing about how much to use to get that perfect balance of sweet, tart and heat and having never worked with them before this could go quite badly.  I went with it though, picked a number I thought would be tasty and prayed that we wouldn't be ordering in pizza.

Fennel, Cucumber and Green Bean Salad with Roasted Potatoes and Creamy Yogurt

One of my favorite wedding gifts came to us or me specifically from a friend of the boy's, who he works with alot, Ms. AB.  She was staying at the same hotel as my parents and I happened to run into her just before the rehearsal dinner in the hotel lobby.  It was then that she presented me with this beautiful cookbook:

It was even personally inscribed by Ms. Barbara Lynch herself.  Ms AB worked in Boston last spring and by some amazing twist of fate became friends with Chef Lynch.  Cue the green-eyed monster rearing it's ugly head.  She cooks my type of food, and though I've only been to The Butcher Shop getting to the other restaurants is high on my wish list for trips to Boston.  

Meatless Monday: Tomato Gazpacho with Manchengo Cheese

This past week has been so obnoxiously hot that cooking was just not an option.  I was reminded of the Melon Cucumber soup I made last summer and decided that a more classic take in the form of a Gazpacho would be perfect and super simple.  It also felt like the perfect end of summer soup, chock full of all of the fresh vegetables available right now.  And perfect for my second Meatless Monday recipe. 

Taking inspiration from the saltiness of the Serrano crisps in the melon soup, but wanting to keep it meatless, I decided to add curls of Manchego cheese.  The hard salty cheese seemed like the perfect foil to the spicy freshness of the soup.  The extra virgin olive oil added just the right bit of richness to complete the dish.

Peach and Brie Pie

As we enter into the last weekend of summer, I've been thinking about my favorite summer dessert, what it is and what I can make a great end of summer dessert.   Playing off of my peach obsession (which was on full display here) and my love of pie, a peach pie seemed the obvious answer.  I wanted to play with it though, add a savory twist to make it special.  I then remembered a post from Steph over at The Cupcake Project that I saw last summer with mini Peach and Brie Pies.  I always thought they sounded delicious and decided to make my own full-size version.

I've always loved the way cheese pairs with fruit and when building a cheese board I always include some of my own jams and/or sliced fruit.  It's that whole sweet and savory thing we all know I love.  I think the best pairing comes when you are able to taste both the fruit or jam and the cheese without one overpowering the other.  Some fruits are too sweet to be paired with a cheese as mild as brie.  My Peach Basil jam, for instance is a bit too sweet, my Golden Plum Riesling is perfect with a gooey delicious round of baked brie.  While I think jam is too sweet, I think the mild sweetness of a peach is potentially perfect with brie cheese, especially when it's warm and runny as it would presumably be in a pie.  My main concern was making sure the pie is just sweet enough to be a dessert pie, but not cloying. My goal was for that perfect blending of fruit and cheese in each bite.

Canning: Niagara Peaches in Cardamom Vanilla Bean Syrup

For as long as I can remember I've loved peaches and hated how unavailable they are for most of the year.  Growing up in the New England most of our peaches came from the south and when my father started working in South Carolina he'd ship cartons of South Carolina peaches home.  It was like Christmas for me when those cartons would show up on our doorstep.  Barely being able to wait to open the box and smell that sweet peach smell and dig right into a perfectly ripe piece of fruit.  There are few food memories I have that bring a smile to my face the way those cartons of peaches do. 

Cut to the summer of 2009, when I moved to Toronto where I learned about the fabulous little jewels that are grown just and hour and a half away, Niagara peaches.  Since I generally try to focus on ingredients that are grown or produced locally, I LOVE that you can get peaches that are grown less than 100 miles away.  I love supporting local farmers and providing jobs to people in Ontario and most importantly I love the way the peaches taste.  The sweet peachy-orange flesh that just melts in your mouth.  When they are perfectly ripe they have a beautiful ombre to their skin that goes from a pale peach all the way to a deep red.  The fuzz is soft and the fruit gives just the right amount to the touch.  I use them in my peach basil jam, in pies and I just eat them.

Niagara peaches are smaller than the ones I'm used to getting from the South, but they are oh so sweet.  Nothing makes me happier than going to the supermarket and seeing the 3 liter baskets of Niagara peaches.  They are good from the grocery store, but once you start seeing them there, you know you'll also find then at local farmer's markets too.  If I'm desperate I'll get them at the grocery store but my preferred place to buy is at my local Farmer's Market the Birchcliff Village Market.  A few Friday's ago I bought a couple 3 liter baskets at the market.  They were ripe and beautiful freestone peaches, the best kind for breaking down because the stone comes out so easily.  I would have happily worked away at them, eating them, putting them in smoothies, baking up a storm.  One of my favorite peach recipes is Smitten Kitchen's Peach Cupcakes.  But I stopped myself, knowing that peach season was drawing to a close, I wanted to find a way to preserve this lovely fruit that I love so much.