With the first days of August already behind us, we find ourselves wondering where the summer is ducking off to. This time of year is usually plentiful with ripeness, vibrance, and strength. The hot sun imparts a hard, masculine energy to these days -- that is, if we aren't experiencing a monsoon, as happens so frequently now. With heat and bright sun, we turn to lighter fare still. Less oil, less heat. Simple blanching replaces sautéeing and stewing, and we treat the season's first tender green beans with the lightest touch when it comes to cooking. This week we serve them with the cool, refreshing flavor of tarragon, and the bright, playful jewels of oven-roasted cherry tomatoes.
Here's another thought, for what it's worth, on the balance and harmony in the turn of the seasons. High summer is, for farmers and market folk like ourselves, a time when we are busy and tired, and we often neglect the relationships that keep us in community together in favor of other pursuits (like sleep, right?). But some time between mid-July and early August, hundreds of thousands of bulbs of garlic across the region simultaneously reach maturity and must be pulled. Suddenly every farmer and grower is in communication -- How is the yield? Have you pulled yours yet? Was there any rot of this or that variety? Do you know this neat trick to determine if they're ready? -- and for a moment, this work that often divides us instead brings us all together with the common interest of getting our garlic in, dry, and preserved for the season. Garlic itself reflects this binding property: each clove, individually wrapped, sits alongside other individual cloves, wrapped together by a papery tissue that unites them all, attached to the same root base.
The harvest, at my little plot at least, was excellent.
Thanks as always for allowing us to nourish you!
Rice and Beanly Yours,
The Macro Mamas
|| Menu for Saturday, August 5, 2017 ||
Brown Rice with Sweet Corn & Shiitake
Pinto Beans with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette
Grilled Vegetable Medley
Blanched Green Beans with Tarragon & Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Pan-Fried Cauliflower with Lime
Jicama, Kohlrabi, & Cabbage Salad with Ume & Dill
Field Greens with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing
|| Desserts ||
Blueberry-Vanilla Cake with Coconut Lime Icing
Lemon Meringue Pie!
Pistachio-Semolina Tart with Rosewater Cream
Raw Walnut Tartlets with Cashew Ricotta and Fresh Nectarines (GF)
Summer Fruit Crisp (GF)
Heavenly Tapioca (GF)
Cherry-Berry Coconut Parfaits (GF)
Walnut Date Bars (GF)
Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes (GF)
Almond Drops (GF)
Maple Peanut Butter Cookies (GF)
Black Sesame Tahini Cookies
Chocolate Snickerdoodles