Daria Can Cook – and so can you!

No, not Christmas time. Late summer/early autumn time! The weather is mellowing out, local farms and gardens are bursting with ripe produce, Boston is experiencing the few consistent days of sunshine it gets all year, and pumpkin overload is just around the corner. Superb!

I took advantage of this golden day by going for a nice, long, leisurely run and using the small amount of sunlight that comes in our ill-placed apartment windows to photograph the cherry tomatoes I snacked on:

The beautiful weather inspired us to defrost some CSA burgers and fire up the grill:

We had another salad with more lackluster dressing. Hint: when trying a recipe for the first time, don’t make a large quantity. You’ll never know if you’ll dislike it. I never make a big batch my first time testing a recipe – I have no idea what possessed me. The veg is still pretty though!

Also pretty? Free-range, hormone- and antibiotic-free local beef served with a fat, juicy, local tomato and raw onion on a grilled bun (Trent is APPALLED that I eat raw onion, but it tastes soooo good with beef!).

And last but not least, grilled sweet corn served with lime juice and cayenne pepper.

I would have taken a picture of the completed dish for you, but I was covered in lime juice and my lips were burning from my overzealous application of cayenne. Still, roasty corn with sour lime and spicy pepper = perfection.

And that was our all-American evening. What do you like to do on beautiful days? Are you an autumn person? Nothing thrills me like the first autumnal chill and the first golden leaf of fall, unless it’s the first pumpkin beer I spot on tap.

We did a little make-it-up-as-you-go-along cooking last night. We knew we wanted to use our Swiss chard, sweet corn, and pork cutlets, but our plans didn’t get much farther than that until it was time to cook.

I was in charge of the veggies. For some reason I’ve been thinking about spiced nuts (possibly because of Gliding Calm’s review of some Living Nutz products?), so I decided to use those as my inspiration. Here’s what I came up with:

Sweet and Spicy Swiss Chard with Walnuts and Cranberries

1) Sautee 1/4 cup walnuts in olive oil for 2-3 minutes (I set our gas burner to medium-high heat for this recipe)

2) Add a dash of cayenne pepper (to taste) and a handful of dried cranberries. Cook together for 1 minute

3) Add roughly chopped Swiss chard and cook until just wilted

And that’s it!

I loved this. The heat from the cayenne and the sweetness of the cranberries work perfectly together, and both the chard and the walnuts have a nice crunch.

Trent took charge of our pork cutlets, which he rubbed with olive oil and a few grinds of The Spice Hunter’s Fiery Chile Fusion Blend (Tellicherry black pepper, crushed red pepper, green chile, green bell pepper, chipotle chile) and grilled on our charcoal grill. They had a nice smoky, grilled flavor with just enough kick from the peppers.

We also boiled a few ears of our sweet corn, which was perfectly ripe, sweet, and buttery. Lovely! Here it is all together:

I love it when things come together on the first try.

.. a healthy way to start the weekend. Well, we at least managed to make both of those things healthier than usual.

Trent got home later than expected last night so the CSA burgers I’d defrosted stayed in the fridge. Too bad – it was sunny but not too hot, perfect for grilling! Let’s hope the weather holds today.

Instead I made a big ol’ salad with spinach, lettuce, peas, figs, hummus, and balsamic. Fab! For dessert I had one of Happy Herbivore’s vegan baked donuts. Delish!

When T finally made it home we decided it was time for a good old fashioned night in. We’ve had a bottle of champagne hanging around in our fridge since T’s birthday months ago, so we decided to use it up. We pureed some strawberries with one kumquat for tartness:

and topped it off with the finest of the finest (that would be Andre, because we’re classy).

We stirred it up a bit after this photo

We then watched more TV than is safe or healthy. Long enough that we both had some beers as well. And maybe some more of these guys:

but they're healthy, so it's ok

All in all, an excellent night in.