Cooking Fresh from the Garden

Summer in the garden is a wonderful time. Pretty soon most backyard vegetable gardens will be overflowing with delicious tomatoes, herbs and zucchini. This Tomato, Zucchini and Goat Cheese Tart is the perfect way to enjoy the bounty of fresh vegetables! Enjoy this light tart as an appetizer or light lunch with a mixed greens salad.


Tomato-Zucchini Tart with Goat Cheese
Serves 6-8
Adapted from Eat Well

Cornmeal Dough
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg

In a food processor or large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal and salt. Add the butter and pulse or rub in with your fingers or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg and 1/4 cup (or more) cold water and pulse or stir until the dough begins to come together. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in in plastic, chill for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Tomato, Zucchini & Goat Cheese Filling
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lb. zucchini, sliced into thin rounds
salt and pepper
5 oz. crumbled goat cheese
3/4 lb. tomatoes, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme sprigs, coarsely torn

Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add zucchini and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cook, stirring frequently, until zucchini is softened but not browned. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate and allow to drain.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll dough out into 12" circle about 1/4" thick. Fit into 9" tart pan with removable sides. Fold edges of dough over and press into sides of pan, forming a double thickness around pan rim.

Arrange half of the goat cheese over the bottom of crust. Arrange tomatoes and zucchini in overlapping rows/circles on top of goat cheese. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and olive oil. Top with remaining goat cheese and thyme.

Bake until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, 35-40 minutes. Remove pan rim and cool for 10 minutes. Cut into slices and serve warm or room temperature.

This would also look beautiful with yellow squash and different colors of heirloom tomatoes! You can also vary the herbs you use or drizzle with a little basil-lemon-tomato oil instead of regular olive oil. Eggplant would be a great addition as well. The are so many variations and I'm sure they would all be great!

Thoughts on Estate Sales and Some Great Finds

Estate Sales are interesting to me. Most often they take place after someone has died and the family is trying to get rid of everything to either pay bills or get the house ready to sell/rent. You get a glimpse of the persons life by looking at all their possesions. You wonder what kind of life they led. So many thoughts go through your mind. How did they die? How would they feel about so many people going through their things? Did they entertain a lot? Where they the type to stay home more than go out? Did they have family surrounding them or where they alone?

It feels a bit strange walking through a stranger's house, looking through their closets, wandering into their bedrooms, thinking to yourself "how can they have so much junk?", wondering if you will have this many things when you leave this world and hoping to find some great treasures at a wonderful price.

The first sale I went to was the home of a retired Math teacher. She had tons and tons of math textbooks, cookbooks, and random books. You could tell she enjoyed reading. She also had quite a lot of Victorian-style jewlrey, purses, glassware and furniture. She lived alone at the time of her death but she still had men's shoes in her closet--I'm assuming from her husband who probably passed away before her and she just couldn't bring herself to get rid of them. This is where I picked up my French cookbooks.

The second estate sale I went to was very popular. I was there about 10 minutes early and there was a line of people about 30 deep and some of them had been there for 3 hours already! The ad in the PennySaver said they had 1960's Danish furniture so I guess that was a hot ticket. When they started letting people in it was only 10 at a time and it was taking too long so I left and thought if there was something meant for me it will be there when I come back.

I stopped back a few hours lager, no line, no crowd. I got a feeling that these people really liked to entertain. The kitchen was full of bar ware. Wine glasses, port glasses, brandy glasses...And they had numerous dinnerware sets. Lots of tea cups and saucers. I found this adorable tea set waiting for me and for a great price! I couldn't resist and I realized as I was leaving that I picked up yet another vintage kitchen item in green...oh well just add it to my collection.

I got the set for $10 and it includes a tea/coffee pot, sugar bowl, creamer, 5 mugs, 2 pepper shakers, the top of a butter dish. And the orange napkin in the picture above and green/blue napkin below were $.50 each so that was a great deal too!


The last estate sale I found was the home of a man and wife who both enjoyed working with their hands. He could be found tinkering around with electronics and she would embroider or knit. While wandering through the rooms in another house I spotted this hanging lamp and was immediately drawn to it. I love the pattern and style and for only $5 how could I resist?
It needs to be refinished, maybe re-wired but it has great potential and I can't wait to see how it will look after! I have lots of color ideas but may have to wait to see where it will go before I decide what color it will be.



And then the China. They had an entire set of beautiful Noritake China but it was way out of my price range so I picked up a few bowls and serving platters for $25 instead. Great condition, no chips or damage anywhere!


All-in-all it was a pretty good day! Now I need to find room for these new treasures and maybe get rid of some of my own old things that I don't use!

French Classics

I found a few treasures at an estate sale this morning. Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Larousse Gastronomique.

Each book was $1, in great good condition and definitely in my budget!

Both classics have been reprinted, revised and updated multiple times over the years so I know that there may be newer items in the more recent versions but I feel that these books should be as close to the original as possible. I enjoy old books where the original owner/cook writes notes in the margins and have old recipes torn from magazines hidden in the pages!

The copy I purchased of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck was the 13th printing in 1966. This cookbook is what inspired Julie Powell to cook all 524 recipes in 365 days. She wrote about it on her blog, wrote a book, and now a movie based on the book will be in theatres August 7th! It will be fun to make some authentic French recipes from the legendary Julia Child!


Larousse Gastronomique is the encyclopedia of food, wine and cookery with 8,500 recipes 1,000 illustrations and 1,100 pages. Originally in French and published in 1938, my copy is the first American edition and was published in 1961. It's an A-Z encyclopedia of food terms, recipes, herbs, history and so much more! Just glancing through I found quite a few terms/herbs/recipes I have never come across. For example: Vierge--Butter mixed with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, all beaten well in a bowl until it becomes frothy. This whipped butter is served with asparagus and other boiled vegetables.

I'm excited to read through and learn more about French cooking, language and traditions!

Cocoa Bean-Pecan Cookies

I'm getting together with some friends a bit later and needed to make something chocolate-y so I decided to try a new cookie. Made with chocolate, pecan and cocoa beans then dipped in chocolate, these cookies are light and have the perfect subtle flavors of chocolate, toffee, coffee and vanilla. Not too sweet but just the right balance.

Cocoa beans, also known as cacao nibs, are the roasted, shelled cacao beans broken down into bite-sized pieces. They are the raw material from which all chocolate is made. They have a nutty, coffee-like flavor and are very crunchy.


Cocoa Bean-Pecan Cookies
Adapted from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich
Makes about 48 2" Cookies

1/4 cup pecan halves
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa nibs/beans
1/4 cup finely chopped dark chocolate
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk or dark chocolate, chopped and melted

Preheat oven to 325. Spread pecans on cookie sheet. Toast in oven for 7-8 minutes until fragrant and lightly colored. Let cool, then finely chop in food processor.

Combine the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla in medium bowl and beat until smooth and creamy but not fluffy. Stir in the pecans, cocoa nibs and chopped chocolate. Add the flour all at once and beat on low speed just until the flour is fully incorporated.

Divide dough in half and form into two flat circles. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. (The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.)

Preheat oven to 350. Remove one circle from refrigerator and let sit until soft enough to roll but still firm. Roll the dough out between two pieces of wax paper to 1/4" thickness. Using 2" cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Re roll dough and cut out more cookies.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown at the edges. Let cool completely on wire rack.

Dip half the cookie into the melted chocolate. Place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper to harden.

For best flavor and texture, store cookies in an airtight container for at least 24 hours before serving.