Moving on

Hi friends! This is the last post for Adrienneats, but I'm excited to share the next chapter with you. Please follow me to my new space, Mince & Type, where I'll share my passion for food and design. There's also a recipe for white wine poached figs waiting on you! So get over there and learn more now...

The best chocolate chip cookies

Every night we've been curling up on the couch after dinner and tuning into the Olympics. I'm sure many of you are doing the same. I've really been into women's volleyball and gymnastics. I can't wait for track and field to start next.

And what goes perfect with the Olympics? The best chocolate chips cookies, of course. After much searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe online, I stumbled across three different posts about Kim Boyce's whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Luckily I had borrowed her cookbook, Good to the Grain, from a friend so I had the recipe in hand.

Her cookbook is organized by the types of whole grain flours she uses in her recipes. Amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kamut, multigrain, oat, quinoa, rye, spelt, and teff. All of the recipes sound amazing, like figgy buckwheat scones, quinoa and beet pancakes, olive oil cake, or apricot boysenberry tarts. It's a great cookbook to bake from and it will get you to buy whole grain flours you haven't used before.
Kim uses whole wheat flour, but I used spelt instead and they still turned out magical. The perfect salty and sweet combination, as my husband says. If you don't own a kitchen aid mixer, don't sweat. You can use a food processor to cream the butter and sugar.

Changes are coming to the blog and I'll be sharing that with you next week! Until then make these cookies, share with those you love, and enjoy the Olympics.

Romesco roasted potatoes

I'm a big condiment and sauce person. I love a good salsa, chutney, relish, pesto, and this tahini-yogurt yogurt dip. A good sauce adds so much flavor to a dish, and I make sure to savor every last drop.

When I first encountered romesco sauce I was blown away. Where has this bold, smokey goodness been all my life? Roasted bell peppers. Garlic. Hazelnuts. I wanted to (and have) eaten it on everything from omelets to potatoes to polenta cakes to sandwiches to spoonfuls by itself.
I was excited to see that this week's Food Matters Project was a recipe for romesco. Check out the original recipe by Mireya and see what creative ideas others made here.
I roasted off some red potatoes with a generous glug of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then I generously topped them with romesco before digging into a bowl myself. This is the perfect condiment for an omelet with a side of roasted potatoes and cold brew on a lazy weekend morning.

Romesco sauce
Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook
2 red bell peppers
1 medium tomato (or a handful of cherry tomatoes)
1/4 c hazelnuts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c parsley
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
1/4 tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper
2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive (or walnut) oil
parsley to garnish

Preheat your oven to 400. Cut the tomato into wedges (or halve the cherry tomatoes) and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper. Add tomatoes to a baking sheet along with the two bell peppers. Roast for about 30 minutes. The bell peppers should be browned and starting to blacken in spots. Remove from oven, put into a plastic freezer bag, and seal. Set aside and let cool. Remove tomatoes from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet.

Keep the oven on and toss the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until they start to release their sweet, nutty smell. Remove from the oven and put onto a kitchen towel. Gently cover with the other side of the towel and lightly rub the hazelnuts, so some of their skin will fall off. Set aside.

After the peppers have had time to cool, remove from the plastic bag and peel their skins off. Remove the stem and the seeds inside. Cut into strips.

Mix all the ingredients, except the oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Drizzle in the olive (or walnut) oil and taste for salt. Eat on everything.

Corn & heirloom tomato salad

I thought I'd share another tomato recipe today. I've used heirloom tomatoes but feel free to substitute cherry or sungold tomatoes instead.

This salad came together because of two leftover ears of corn. The night before I boiled them before rubbing with butter, sprinkling with smoked paprika and a squeeze of lime. I didn't think the corn could taste much better until I whipped up this salad the next day.

I cut the kernels from the cob, mixing them with heirloom tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, basil and a simple lemon vinaigrette. This salad is perfect eaten as is or added to your veggie tacos like salsa.

Corn & heirloom tomato salad
2 ears of corn (I used red corn)
2 medium heirloom tomatoes, diced
1 small cucumber, diced
half an avocado, diced
2 tbsp basil, chiffonaded
half of a lemon, juiced
1 lime wedge, juiced
1/4 tsp chili flakes
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted

Boil the 2 ears of corn in a pot of water until tender. Slice kernels off the cob into a large bowl (omit this step if you're corn is already cooked). Stir in the tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and basil.

Mix the lemon and lime juice into a smaller bowl. Add the chili flakes, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Stir well and drizzle over the corn and tomato salad.

Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and serve.

Thanks again for your participation in Tomato Tuesday. Hopefully you signed this petition and are spreading the word about buying slave-free tomatoes from the right sources (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, farmer's markets, CSAs). Happy Friday friends!

Tomato Tuesday

All year I wait year in anticipation of eating that first sun-ripened tomato of the summer. Cherry, sungold, romas, early girls, and a variety of heirloom varieties start to show up at the farmers markets in NC late June. A sun-ripened tomato in the heat of summer is far superior to the ones you find at the supermarket all year long. You can definitely tell a difference in taste and appearance. Tomatoes grown by local farms come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. The store-bought ones lack in flavor as well as vitamins and minerals. I don't purchase tomatoes in the winter unless they're heirloom or organic from Whole Foods or grown in hothouses by local farmers.

I love tomatoes and always have. Eating a tomato sandwich in the heat of the summer sun was one of my favorite sandwiches as a kid. I didn't think much about where that tomato came from, but I knew it was special, since we only ate tomato sandwiches in the summer. As an adult, I pay close attention to where our food comes from. That's why I joined a CSA and support my local farmers markets as much as possible.

Nicole at The Giving Table has encouraged food bloggers to raise awareness about the modern day slavery that takes place in U.S. tomato fields. That's right, people are treated inhumanely to bring you those tasteless tomatoes year around in the supermarket.

The Problem

Slavery is not just happening overseas. Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy once called Florida’s tomato fields “ground zero” for modern-day slavery in the United States. In the past 15 years, over 1,000 people have been freed from slavery in U.S. tomato fields.

The Solution

Recipe for Change–a campaign led by International Justice Mission in partnership with the Fair Food Standards Council and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers–is targeting three major supermarket chains this summer (Ahold, Publix and Kroger’s), and asking its CEOs to support the Fair Food Program. Corporations that join agree to pay a small price increase for fairly harvested tomatoes (1.5 cents more per pound), and promise to shift purchases to the Florida tomato growers who abide by these higher standards–and away from those who won’t.

Major fast food companies, like McDonalds and Subway, have already endorsed the Fair Food Program, but the largest U.S. supermarket chains have yet to support this collaborative effort to eradicate modern-day slavery.

Ways to take action
Supermarkets can help eliminate slavery and other serious abuses from the tomato supply chain when they join the Fair Food Program. But in order to change its policies, CEOs need pressure from consumers.

Please take 30 seconds, raise your voice, and sign your name to help ensure that supermarket tomatoes are slave-free! If you'd like to read more about this, follow Nicole here or pick up a copy of the book, Tomatoland.

Purchase slave-free tomatoes at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or by buying locally at your farmer's market.

Here's my favorite gazpacho recipe made with tomatoes from our CSA (which I picked myself). I've been making a batch of this almost weekly. I've also made variations by adding a stalk of celery and half a cup of shredded carrots. If you like your gazpacho thinner, add half a cup of tomato juice.

Gazpacho!
2 cups tomatoes, diced
3/4-1 c watermelon chunks
1 jalapeño, diced (optional)
half of a red onion, diced
1 small cucumber with skin, diced small
1 small bell paper, diced
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 sea salt
2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
jalapeño slices to garnish
cilantro to garnish

Put all the ingredients in a food processor, except the olive oil. Blend for 10-15 seconds for a chunkier soup, and longer for a thinner soup. Slowly drizzle in the oil from the top of the processor. Garnish with jalapeño slices and cilantro.

Raspberry malbec sorbet

Today's Food Matters Project recipe is a raspberry cabernet sorbet. This sorbet is done in minutes, and the blender does all the work. Recently I had a blackberry cabernet sorbet that I really liked, but honestly I wasn't that crazy about this recipe. I think next time I'll use blackberries and blueberries instead.

I had a bottle of malbec open, so I used that in place of the cabernet. See the original recipe here and what others made here.

Raspberry malbec sorbet
2 c frozen raspberries
1/2 c frozen blueberries
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/2 c organic plain yogurt
3 tbsp malbec (or cabernet)

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Enjoy immediately or freeze for later. I think this is best eaten immediately though.

Check back tomorrow as I'm part of Tomato Tuesday and will be sharing a recipe with slave-free tomatoes. Make sure to follow along here.