I don't bake desserts very often; most nights we have fresh fruit as our after dinner treat. It's not that I don't want to make the sweets but if I bake them then we'll eat them and we really don't need the extra calories.  Last weekend was different, my parents visited so I got to cook dessert.  While I wanted to make a really sinful ultra-chocolaty dessert my mom wanted something fairly light and since we were going to be out most of the day something quick also seemed like a good idea.  Dorie Greenspan came to the rescue with her "Parisian Apple Tartlet" recipe in Baking: From my home to yours.  The recipe is essentially a piece of puff pastry dough with some chopped up apple topped with a bit of cut-up butter and brown sugar.  How easy can it get?  The result was amazing.  I made some with apple and some with pear.  Both were great.  I had planned on serving them with fresh whipped cream but they did not even need whipped cream - that's how good they were.  I bought two packages of the puff pastry and I can't wait until we have these again! So, thanks Mom for forcing me to make the fruit dessert since I've now found a really great, quick, easy and pretty dessert...

Taking a cue from a recent forum suggestion for both a quick meal and leftover use, I made some tasty shrimp Quesadillas for this month's Leftover Tuesdays Challenge.

For some reason, I had leftover shrimp in the freezer.  This is actually rather odd for me since I'm not a big seafood eater and I can't remember where they came from.  But they definitely needed to be used up.  I also found some frozen corn in the freezer.  I had one last red tomato (and many green ones yet) from the summer tomato plants, some tortillas, and even a jalapeño in the fridge.  Throw in a lemon, some grated cheese, season with some cilantro and the result is a really quick meal that used lots of leftovers! The dish is a leftover variation of Confetti Quesadillas from Cooking Light.  I really didn't measure any amounts but I know one of the main differences in the leftover variation of this dish was that I used cheddar cheese because that is what I had on hand - the original recipe calls for mozzarella.  In hindsight, mozzarella or even pepper jack cheese would have gone better but for leftovers the quesadillas were great even with the cheddar…

This year I grew Kabocha squash for the first time and last week I picked the first one.  I don't have a lot of Kabocha squash recipes, in fact I don't think I had ever cooked with one before, so I adapted my butternut squash and cremini mushroom risotto to use the roasted Kabocha squash.  I thought I picked a relatively small squash but since it didn't have many seeds it ended up yielding about 3 ½  cups of roasted squash.  The squash was really yummy and tasted great in the risotto but I was left with a cup or so of  roasted squash.   The next day I saw the post for Leftover Tuesdays #8 and at the same time the weather turned and it got chilly here.  A perfect storm for leftover kabocha squash soup.  

A cup of squash doesn't yield a lot of soup but it was a perfect amount for a quick and easy lunch - especially since the squash was already roasted.  I simply blended the squash, a cup of chicken broth, a half cup of milk (I used skim) and a bit of sage until smooth.  I heated the mixture on the stove until hot and WOW was that great soup.  I really don't think it took me much longer to make than fetching a can of soup but the flavor was amazing.  Initially, I had intended on having half the soup with a sandwich but if was so good that I ate it all and had some fruit for my lunchtime dessert…  

I have two more Kabocha in the garden.  The only trick will be to restrain from eating both now so that we can enjoy some wonderful Kabocha soup in the middle of the winter .

By the way - if you're wondering how I roasted the Kabocha, which has a very hard shell, I'll share a fun trick I learned from Chef Suzanne Tracht at Jar in Los Angeles.  Chef Suzanne roasts the squash whole after having pierced the shell with a couple of holes.  I used a knife steel but a sterilized screwdriver may be the ultimate tool for the piercing.  Once roasted the squash is super easy to cut and work with - a stark contrast to the very hard raw squash…

Every summer my weekends are packed with cooking in an attempt to keep up with the garden bounty.  While the specifics vary each year, depending on what I've grown and what has done well, the result is consistent - we primarily eat meals cooked with vegetables from the garden each July and August.  That's why when I saw the "Grow Your Own" blogger event over at Andreas Recipes I knew I'd be participating.

I grow at least two types of tomatoes each year - slicing and sauce.  The slicing tomatoes are wonderful just cut up and eaten raw or diced and tossed with pasta.  The sauce tomatoes taste good raw but they really shine when made into sauces.  Since I've already posted about my yearly batch of homemade ketchup I thought I'd post about one of my other summer garden cooking traditions - spaghetti and meatballs with homemade sauce.  This is one meal that Husband requests every year.  The sauce is a great use for the 5+ pounds of tomatoes I get each week and it uses some of my home grown basil, flat leaf parsley and garlic. 

About the only downside of making this sauce is the amount of time it takes.  Most of the time is spent prepping the tomatoes to remove the skin and seeds.  If you want a smooth rather than chunky sauce then you can really reduce the prep time by simply putting the tomatoes through a food mill after cooking them a bit.  But Husband and I like chunky sauce and for that the time is well spent.

My tomato sauce is based on this recipe from Cooking Light with some minor adaptations to use fresh tomatoes.  First, I blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for a couple of minutes to loosen the skin.  After removing the skin I cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds.  Next, I dice the tomatoes and let them sit in a colander for a couple of hours to drain out excess water (otherwise yo will have a rather thin watery sauce...).  And that's it the tomatoes are prepped.  Once this is done you can proceed with the sauce recipe as is - just cook until the tomatoes are done.  In fact, you can pretty much take any sauce recipe and replace fresh tomatoes with the above prep steps to make your own homegrown tomato sauce.  Just be sure to taste the sauce as you season to accommodate the much more flavorful homegrown tomatoes.

Once a year I also add meatballs to the sauce.  This year I tried a new recipe, also from Cooking Light, that initially cooks the meatballs in the oven.  This really reduces the complexity (and clean-up) and the meatballs tasted great.  I'll be using that recipe again next year.

While the tomato sauce cooked I made a batch of Parsley Pesto.  If you've never had Parsley Pesto you simply have to try it.  Imagine all of the greatness of basil pesto with the pizzazz of parsley! Yummmmmmmmmmmm! It made a great appetizer but I also use this for pizza to make quick summer meals.

And for those who are interested this year my summer garden includes several types of tomatoes (sauce tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes), two basil varieties (sweet and purple),  flat leaf parsley, green beans, cucumbers, and of course the squash (zucchini, patty pan, butternut and butter cup).  I also just planted some of the seeds for the fall/winter garden which will have Brussels sprouts, beets, Walla Walla onions, fava beans, snow peas, and garlic.