grilled pineapple + prosciutto salsa

my refrigerator plays a lot of roles: experiment incubator, keeper of the butter shelf, cheese vault, condiment storage center, shielder of leftovers i just don't want to deal with right now, and over the summer, salad bar.

i am very into making big batches of cold prepared foods and keeping them in containers in the fridge for when eggboy runs in for a quick snack or during long days of cake testing when i've reached my cake quota and need a gosh darn plant in my belly at a moment's notice.

i like salad bars. a lot. they make eating vegetables easier and in my dream house there is a self-replenishing salad bar. (like smart house, with salad.)

my favorite cold foods these days--and we'll call them cold foods because salad bars aren't just about traditional salads, right?--are hummus (obviously), a cold curry cauliflower situation (recipe coming soon!), israeli salad (which by the way i am leaving for israel this weekend!!!!!), and this grilled pineapple salsa that's got prosciutto in it which is magic. 

magic because it isn't just for chips. it's for toast, and eating straight, and tossing with some greens to make an actual salad, and *wait for it* pizza..........

pizza gif pizza gif.

at the end of the week, if there's any of this pineapple salsa left, we throw it on a pizza for pizza friday because true story, this salsa happens to be all of our favorite pizza toppings in a bowl.

an all-purpose salsa, if you will.

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grilled pineapple + prosciutto salsa

makes about 5 cups

ingredients

1/2 pineapple, cut into wedges

2 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 purple onion, chopped

4 oz prosciutto, chopped

a good squeeze of lime

salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, to taste

clue

heat a grill or grill pan on medium high heat and grill the pineapple wedges on both sides until you get pretty brown marks. let them cool and then chop.

in a large bowl, toss together the pineapple, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, and prosciutto with a squeeze of lime and a few good pinches of salt, pepper, and paprika.

enjoy however you'd like!

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-yeh!

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this salsa is shown here on a great new thing: freschetta's new gluten free pizza! it's true, eggboy and i do a lot of jazzing up of frozen crusts or pizzas on friday pizza night because when you live on a farm where no restaurants will deliver, you do that after a long hard day! so we've had our fair share of gluten free crusts and can tell you that this freschetta one nails it. it's chewy and flavorful and truly one of our new favorite gluten free pizzas (you can #trustthecrust!). full disclosure, freschetta has sponsored this post, but (!!!) i'm so happy they did otherwise i don't know how i would have found out about this new gf pizza because i am a hermit and don't spend as much time perusing the new products at the grocery store like i used to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anywho, this pizza, which is certified gluten free, comes in cheese and pepperoni, in both single serving and large, and it's in stores now!

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oven-fried green tomatoes with garlic and onion yogurt sauce

our garden is vomiting tomatoes right now and as a result i am vomiting happiness and sorry that's gross i didn't mean to get on the subject of vomiting...

what i mean is, i've been having fresh tomatoes at just about every meal these days and it's glorious. tomatoes in my breakfast salad, tomatoes and basil on toast, tomatoes shoveled into my mouth on a homemade pita that i just can't eat without feeling really really bad for peeta mellark. 

i may be dressed like it's fall, because outside the mosquitos are monsters and the air conditioning inside is blasting hard, but i've been dining like a summer queen because our garden is nailing it this year, if i do say so myself. i guess it helps to be married to a farmer.

i am a winter girl but with tomatoes, i forget about that.

my love for fried green tomatoes began four years ago at the now-closed sel de mer, in williamsburg. i wrote kind of an awkward ode to their fried green tomatoes here. (tl/dr: it was like a green tomato donut and it was perfect in every way.) but because i am such a wimp when it comes to deep frying, today i am showing you an oven fried version-- you can eat about three times as many as the fried kind before you feel all barfy. and with the amount of tomatoes coming out of my garden, i need all the help i can get eating these guys. did i mention i'm having a tomato party tonight? i don't think my guests know it yet, i should probably go warn them...

ooh and there's a sauce! it's oniony and garlicky and kind of like a lighter fresher version of french onion dip. v easy to make and if you have some sumac lying around, i recommend adding a pinch, but it's not necessary.

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oven-fried green tomatoes with garlic and onion yogurt sauce

makes 4-6 servings

ingredients

4 large green tomatoes (or 6 smaller ones)

kosher salt and black pepper

3/4 c flour

1 1/2 c panko bread crumbs

1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

2 large eggs

1/4 c buttermilk

sauce:

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 purple onion, finely chopped

1/2 c plain greek yogurt

kosher salt and black pepper

clues

preheat the oven to 400f and place an oven-frying rack (or metal cooling rack) over a large baking sheet and set it aside.

cut the tomatoes into thick slices and season both sides with salt and pepper.

set up three bowls: one with the flour, one with the panko, paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper, and one with the eggs and buttermilk (beat them to combine). coat each tomato slice in flour, and then the egg mixture, and then the panko and then place on the oven-frying rack one inch apart. spray the tops with cooking spray and then bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. let cool slightly before serving.

to make the sauce, mix together the garlic, onion, and yogurt, and then season to taste with salt and pepper.

enjoy!

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-yeh!

thank you so much to edyn for sponsoring this post! these tomatoes and all of the other goodies from my garden were grown with the help of a handy new gadget called the edyn garden sensor, which is a device that sticks in your garden to relay tips and information about moisture, lighting, soil nutrition, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff to your phone. it also tells you when your plants are about to ripen! so you can know in advance when you need to start planning your own tomato party. it works in wifi, so if you're looking to check one of these puppies out, make sure your garden gets wifi or you can use a repeater. if you're a beginning gardener, a full on farmer who wants to geek out (hi, eggboy), or somewhere in between, check it out!

ciabatta panzanella kabobs with honey goat cheese dressing

do you know how many times i have almost dropped an entire plate of food on someone at a party because i was trying to balance it with a gin and soda while forking up a piece of spinach while explaining exactly how i ended up on a sugar beet farm? many. many. many. and in a past life this would not have been a big source of anxiety for me because when my parents met, my dad dropped an entire plate of food at my mom's feet. so it's genetic and all that, but as i won't shut up about, i am not in the market for meeting a boy right now. 

which is why i love food on sticks. (or maybe this is just my new inner minnesotan coming out.) imagine all the things you can do at a party when you only need one hand for stuffing your face: you can shake people's hands, you can drink more easily, you can pick your nose. 

so here is an idea for a summery party food on a stick that is more bathing suit friendly than a corn dog, more filling than a carrot stick, and quicker to the table than a shish kabob. it's a salad kabob and it's made with one of my favorite salads, the panzanella. 

feel free to change up the veggies, and take liberties with your bread if you'd like. (because i'm assuming you all have seen the game changer that is shelly's grilled pretzel panzanella? i know!)

happy partying!

ciabatta panzanella kabobs with honey goat cheese dressing

makes 8 kabobs

ingredients

olive oil

1  small (4 inch x 4 inch) loaf day old ciabatta, cut into 1-inch cubes

salt + pepper

3 oz prosciutto

1 c spinach 

1 cucumber, chopped 

1 c cherry tomatoes 

2 peppers, chopped

dressing:

4 oz président plain goat cheese, softened

3 tb olive oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tb honey

1 tb milk

salt + pepper

clues

heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and cook the ciabatta cubes until toasty, a few minutes on each side. season with salt and pepper.

assemble skewers with a few of each component and then set aside.

in a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. drizzle over the skewers or serve on the side for dipping.

-yeh!

lactalis compensated me to license the photos and content in this post and provided me with complimentary président cheese products. all opinions are my own.

if you'd like to enter to win $50 worth of your own président cheese, visit artofcheese.com, where you can download a coupon and enter the pinterest sweepstakes, plus find more recipes and product information.

TAMAGO

ok! you guys. i am cold when i go outside. you are cold when you go outside. australians are hot when they go outside. we are all experiencing a weather situation, so here are some things that aren't about the weather but are equally (more?!) exciting!

(say it, don't spray it, i want the news, not the weather. 10 points and infinite emoji to the first person who names that tune.)

-roomful of teeth nailed their grammy performance and won a grammy and then cyndi lauper called them teethful of awesome. omgomgomgomg. 

-yotam ottolenghi. can i be yotam when i grow up? maybe at least just for halloween? because jerusalem and plenty are the greatest things to happen to my spice drawer since salt. 

-chinese new year! i feel like such a turd face for not throwing a party this year. but you should, and here are two recipes to make: donny's chicken buns and my potstickers that were posted on betty crocker today (complete with eggboy's hands as props).

-we are on an adult volleyball team. it is the most amount of fun i've had in a gym since parachute day. my contribution to the team is a rad underhand serve and loud cheers. eggboy's is game face and more game face.

-my mini cakes did not convince tema to move to fargo. but we had such a fun time at her concert and afterwards, at mezzaluna, drinking too many cocktails and eating their amazing fabulous delicious tasty bruschetta. 

-our mrs. meyer's iowa pine hand soap has run out, which means it is officially the end of the holiday season, which means we need to take the christmas tree down already, which means mrs. meyer's basil hand soap has swooped in for the win. so much win.

ok i'm done with exciting things, i'm gonna go eat a cucumber. 

oh but first, a word about tamago: it is tied with a million other things as my favorite way to eat an egg. it is sweet and salty and comforting and you simply have not had it at its best until you've had it freshly made, warm out of the pan. speaking of the pan, there are people in this world that will tell you to get a fancy rectangular pan for it. i don't have one, i just use a regular circular pan, and then it equals more fun for me when i get to trim the edges and eat the scraps. yum.

you can cut it into slices and make sushi out of it, or you can eat it hot like an omelette, or you can keep it in the fridge for a quick little snackee.

tamago

makes two servings

ingredients

4 large eggs

1 tb each: sugar, soy sauce or tamari, mirin

flavorless oil, for the pan

clues

beat together the eggs, sugar, soy sauce, and mirin. 

heat a pan over medium low heat and coat the bottom of it with oil. pour in just enough of the egg mixture to coat the bottom of the pan. once most of it has firmed up, start at one end of the pan and use a spatula or two to help you carefully fold over 1-inch of the egg. fold that over again, and continue folding until you get to the other side of the pan. (the reason you don't want it to be fully firmed up on top is because the moisture will help keep the folds stuck together.)

with the roll at one end of the pan, brush the open part of the pan with a bit more oil, and then pour in more egg mixture to coat the pan. gently lift the egg roll so that the mixture can get underneath it. once this new mixture is mostly firm, fold over the egg roll and continue to fold it over this new layer until you get back over to the other side of the pan. 

repeat with any remaining egg.

enjoy immediately or wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for later!

-yeh!