Surprise!  Summer Fest is still on!  Response and participation have been so great during the last five weeks, we decided to extend Summer Fest through mid-September and then roll right into a Fall Fest.  We’ll even have a fun new Fall Fest pumpkin badge thanks to Matt of Matt Bites! Visit Margaret at A Way to Garden for all the new details and schedule.

This week we’re celebrating peppers, both sweet and spicy.  I decided to try my hand at pickling some hot peppers since I happened to have a basket of serrano chiles sitting on the counter (I picked them up for a dollar at the Farmer’s Market last Saturday).  I love pickled jalapenos, but I always end up using the store-bought kind.  I thought it would be nice to have some home-pickled peppers on hand for once!  And since I won’t go through them very fast on my own, one basket of peppers seemed like the perfect amount to pickle.

Since I’ve never pickled peppers before, I wanted to start with some sort of recipe.  I found a couple in books, and several online, but finally decided on Michael Symon’s recipe at Michael Ruhlman’s blog. It was simple and easy to adapt to my small amount of peppers.

First, I washed the peppers and poked each of them in a few places with a knife (the idea to pierce them with a knife came from David Lebovitz’s version).  Then I packed them into jars.  One basket of peppers (about half a pound) filled three half-pint jars.

Next I made the brine.  I used equal parts white vinegar and water, sugar, salt, garlic, coriander, cumin, and black peppercorns.  I had planned on using bay leaves, but at the last minute, I couldn’t find mine!  Oh well, I continued without.  I boiled the liquid then let it simmer for ten minutes.

While still hot, I poured the brine over the peppers, filling the jar completely with liquid.

Next I put the lids on the jars, let them cool, then placed them in the fridge.  They should be ready in about a week, but will continue to improve as they sit.  From what I hear, they will last a very long time in the fridge.

You’ll just have to wait to hear how they taste!  In the meantime, you should make some yourself.

More Recipes Featuring Peppers:

• Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
• Peach and Peppadew Salsa
• Feta-Stuffed Peppers from Seriously Good
• Sausage, Peppers, and Smoked Mozzarella Panini from Panini Happy
• Black Bean and Pepper Salad with Cilantro and Lime from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Roasted Green Peppers from Chocolate & Zucchini

Other Summer Fest Attendees Celebrating Peppers:

• Alison at Food2: Making Hot Pepper-Infused Tequila
• Michelle at Cooking Channel: A Peck of Perfect Pepper Recipes
• Kirsten at the FN Dish: Chiles Rellenos and More Stuffed Peppers
• Liz at Healthy Eats: 10 Ways To Eat Sweet Peppers
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: Oven-roasted peppers, and freezing how-to
• Caroline at The Wright Recipes: Homemade Harissa & Sweet and Spicy Peperonata
• The Gilded Fork: Dossier and recipes on peppers spicy and sweet
• Paige at The Sister Project: Grilled Tomatillo Salsa with Jalapenos
• Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Consuelo’s Hot Chile Sauce and Hatch Chiles
• Alana at Eating from the Ground Up: Homemade hot sauce, and why gloves are a good idea
• Cate at Sweetnicks: Summer Panzanella
• Food Network UK: It’s Chili Weather

How You Can Join in Summer/Fall Fest 2010

Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? You can contribute to our online recipe swap in various ways, big or small.

Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer/Fall Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. Yes, copy and paste them everywhere! That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2010 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Matt Bites), or the new pumpkin version he just did if it’s for September 22 onward.

Summer/Fall Fest 2010 Posting Schedule

7/28: Cukes and Zukes
8/4: Corn
8/11: Herbs, Greens, and Beans
8/18: Stone Fruit – I missed this one!
8/25: Tomatoes

9/1: Sweet and Spicy Peppers
9/8: Garlic
9/15: White (or colorful “white”…but not sweet) Potatoes
9/22: Spinach
9/29: Apples

10/6: Fall Salads
10/13: Pumpkin + Winter Squash
10/20: Pears
10/27: “Mad Stash” (as in what you’re shoving in freezer/jars/dehydrator, etc.)

11/3: Root veggies
11/10: Brassicas: incl. Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage or other
11/17: Sweet Potatoes
11/24: Bounty to Be Grateful For

I bought a delicious Crenshaw melon at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and after eating a few slices for breakfast yesterday morning, decided to turn the rest of it into melon balls.  I had no particular reason for wanting to do this, it just seemed like a fun thing to do.  And we all know that food tastes better when it’s cut into fun shapes, right?

As I was scooping out the flesh with the antique melon baller that has been in my family for as long as I can remember, I thought about the half-empty container of fresh mini mozzarella balls in the refrigerator.  I had never combined melon with mozzarella before, but the melon balls and mozzarella balls were the same size and shape and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like they were destined to end up in the same bowl.

So of course they did end up in the same bowl.

I made a quick dressing of lime juice, honey, and mint since I knew those ingredients would be nice with the melon.  I also added a bit of crushed red pepper because after living in Sicily for four years I now put crushed red pepper in just about everything.  And of course a tiny bit of salt always helps to perk things up a bit (try a sprinkle of salt on fresh cantaloupe – yum!).  The resulting salad was light, simple, and delicious!

Melon and Mozzarella Salad

2 cups of cold, bite-size melon balls or cubes (use your favorite type of melon)
1 cup of bite-size fresh mozzarella balls or cubes
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint leaves
small pinch of salt
small pinch of crushed red pepper

Put melon balls and mozzarella in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together honey, lime juice, mint, salt, and crushed red pepper.  Pour dressing over the melon and mozzarella then toss to combine.  Serve immediately.

Yield: four servings

Related Recipes:

• Blood Orange and Green Olive Salad
• Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Dill Salad
• Chilled Ginger Cantaloupe Soup
• Tangerine and Jicama Salad with Garlic and Cilantro

Around the Web:

• Cucumber Melon Salad from Not Eating Out in New York
• Melon, Chicken, and Avocado Salad from La Tartine Gourmande
• Melon Salad with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese from Closet Cooking
• Watermelon Salad with Feta or Cotija from Simply Recipes
• Cantaloupe Salad with Feta and Basil from Kitchen Parade

It’s Food Blog Friday and here I am writing about yet another lemon-infused recipe.  I can’t help it.  I love lemon.  I love this Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake.  And I love Baking Bites, today’s featured food blog.

Nicole Weston has been writing Baking Bites since 2004 – way before I knew anything about food or baking blogs.  She updates the blog almost daily with recipes, baking tips, product reviews, recommendations, and what she calls “bites from other blogs” – links to interesting recipes and ideas from other blogs.  I just ordered a new ice cream scoop based on Nicole’s recent review of her Zyliss scoop. I love learning about great products from other bloggers!

I’ve been reading Baking Bites since I first discovered food blogs and I’ve tried several recipes over the years.  They’ve all been great!  When I was craving lemon cake this week, I knew I could trust Nicole’s Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake even though I had never made it before.  I was right to trust the recipe.  This cake was perfect.

I had a couple pints of fresh raspberries from the Farmer’s Market that I wanted to pair with the cake – lemon and raspberry is such a great combination!  I used most of the berries to make a simple Raspberry Coulis and saved a few for garnish.  The cake and raspberry sauce were perfect together.

I really hope you head over to Baking Bites and give this simple and delicious lemon cake a try.  Make sure to look at Nicole’s other great recipes while you’re there!

Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake at Baking Bites
Follow Baking Bites on Twitter
Become a fan of Baking Bites on Facebook

Other Recipes to try from Baking Bites:

• Chai Snickerdoodles
• Strawberry Goat Cheese Scones
• Cinnamon Raisin Beer Bread
• Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls
• Buttermilk Pie Bars

Previous Food Blog Fridays:

• Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting from Simply Recipes
• Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread from 101 Cookbooks
• Fattoush from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak from Blue Kitchen
• Lemon Buttermilk Popsicles from Whipped
• Apricot Almond Tart from Tartelette
• Blueberry Orange Cornmeal Pancakes from Satisfied
• Luscious Lemon Bars from Alpineberry

The Summer Fest theme this week is tomatoes and I can’t think of a better thing to talk about than slow-roasted tomatoes.  I made these for the first time last September and they were absolutely amazing.  Although I made them a few more times throughout the year with grocery store cherry tomatoes, I’ve been waiting for some good summer tomatoes to roast.

Yesterday I roasted a tray of 20 gorgeous Roma tomatoes that I had picked up at the Saturday Farmer’s Market.  It took all day, but the end result was fantastic.  I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I ate about 15 of those tomatoes for dinner last night.  I just kept picking them off the tray as they were cooling.  My name is Nicole and I ate 15 Roma tomatoes in one night!  Now you know why you aren’t seeing photos of slow-roasted Roma tomatoes… I ate them before I could photograph them.

But I also roasted a pan of cherry tomatoes since I didn’t have enough Romas to fill two pans.  If you’re going to have the oven on all day anyway, you really should fill all the racks with tomatoes.  I managed to eat at least a handful of the cherry tomatoes, too.  I know what you’re thinking.  But you’ll understand once you make some yourself.  You should do that.

How to Make Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

And here are some more links to help you along your tomato-roasting journey.  These bloggers won’t steer you wrong.  You need to do this!

Instructions for Slow-Roasting Tomatoes:

• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes at Stephen Cooks
• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes at A Veggie Venture
• How to Make Slow-Roasted Tomatoes at Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes at Smitten Kitchen
• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes with Sea Salt and Ground Coriander at Orangette
• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes at Andrea’s Recipes

What to do with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes:

• Pasta Salad with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes, Grilled Zucchini, and Basil at Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Slow-Roasted Tomato Bruschetta at The Perfect Pantry
• Slow-Roasted Tomato Hummus at Andrea’s Recipes
• Slow-Roasted Tomato Sauce at The Kitchn
• Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup at A Veggie Venture

Other Summer Fest Attendees Celebrating Tomatoes:

• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: Heirloom Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust
• Alison at Food2: Heirloom tomatoes
• The FN Dish: Tyler’s Ultimate Tomato Salads
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: More than one way to ripen a tomato
• Gilded Fork: Celebrating summer lusciousness with a tomato dossier and recipes
• Diane and Todd at White on Rice Couple: Sun-dried tomatoes (actually made in the sun!)
• Paige at The Sister Project: 3 substantial, healthy, vegetarian tomatoey main dishes
• Liz at the Cooking Channel: Easy Tomato Tart
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Tomato Jam
• Alexis at Food Network UK: The seven deadly tomato sins
• Michelle at Healthy Eats: Top 10 Things to Do With Tomatoes
• Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Cherry Tomato & Maytag Blue Beignets
• Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: Roasted Green Salsa (green zebras and tomatillos), and how late August makes her hurt for New Mexico
• Tigress in a Pickle: Over 50 ways to preserve tomatoes in jars
• Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Chunky Garden Gazpacho with Flowered Corn Tortillas and Melissa Clark’s Tomato Tarte Tatin
• Judy of Over a Tuscan Stove: Tomatoes the Italian Way
• Cate at Sweetnicks: A Loaded Bowl (filled with brown rice, Jersey fresh tomatoes, buttery avocados and more deliciousness)

How You Can Join in Summer Fest 2010

Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting with our posts of Wednesday, July 28, for five Wednesdays, you can contribute in various ways, big or small.

Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. Yes, copy and paste them everywhere! That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2010 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites.com).

Summer Fest 2010 Posting Schedule

7/28: Cukes and Zukes
8/4: Corn
8/11: Herbs, Greens, and Beans
8/18: Stone Fruit – I missed this one!
8/25: Tomatoes

After being down with the flu all week, a trip to the Farmer’s Market this morning was just what I needed.  Back to the kitchen I go!

I’m thrilled to return to Food Blog Friday this week with these amazing Coconut Cupcakes from Simply Recipes. When I needed to make coconut cupcakes for a friend’s bridal shower, I knew exactly which recipe to use.  I’ve made these a few times before, and they’ve always turned out perfect – this time was no exception.

Simply Recipes was started by Elise Bauer in 2003 and for years it mainly featured family recipes that were cooked in her parent’s kitchen.  But you will now find contributions from a handful of other fantastic bloggers on the site as well – this coconut cupcake recipe comes from Garret McCord of Vanilla Garlic.

The cupcakes are moist, light, tender, and full of coconut flavor thanks to the combination of coconut milk and shredded coconut in the recipe.  They are by far the best coconut cupcakes I’ve ever tried.  The only change I made to the recipe was to use cake flour in place of all-purpose -  I used 2 1/2 cups of cake flour to replace the 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose.  I’ve made them with all-purpose flour before and they turned out great, but I do think the cake flour makes them slightly more tender.

I’ve used several of Elise’s recipes over the years and have come to rely on Simply Recipes like a trusted family cookbook.  The recipes are well-written, easy to follow, and printer-friendly.  But the best part is that the recipes really work.  A couple of my other favorites from the site are the Blueberry Muffins and Beef Stroganoff.

The next time you’re in need of a great cupcake, make sure you give these a try!

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting at Simply Recipes
Follow Simply Recipes on Twitter
Become a fan of Simply Recipes on Facebook

Previous Food Blog Fridays:

• Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread from 101 Cookbooks
• Fattoush from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak from Blue Kitchen
• Lemon Buttermilk Popsicles from Whipped
• Apricot Almond Tart from Tartelette
• Blueberry Orange Cornmeal Pancakes from Satisfied
• Luscious Lemon Bars from Alpineberry

It’s Summer Fest time and this week we’re celebrating herbs, greens, and beans.  My contribution to the party is a simple side dish of green beans dressed in a rich balsamic browned butter sauce.  It can be thrown together in minutes and has an extremely short ingredient list, but don’t let that fool you.  The flavor of these green beans will blow you away!

Green Beans with Balsamic Browned Butter

1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Cook green beans in a large pot of salted water just until crisp-tender; drain then arrange on a serving plate.  In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Cook until the butter solids have started to brown, about 2 – 3 minutes.  Remove pan from heat.  Add the tablespoon of balsamic vinegar – be careful, it will sputter.  Swirl pan or stir with a long-handled spoon until it stops bubbling.  Season with a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper then spoon butter mixture over the green beans.  Serves 4.

Other Recipes Featuring Herbs, Greens, and Beans:

• Maple-Rosemary Glazed Walnuts
• Herbed Cheese Biscuits
• Cilantro Caesar Salad with Carne Asada
• Cucumber Salad with Fresh Dill
• Tangerine and Jicama Salad with Garlic and Cilantro
• Whole Wheat Greek Orzo Salad
• Creamy Spinach Soup
• Edamame and Pea Soup with Herbed Lemon Cream
• Herbed Tuna Salad with Feta and Pine Nuts
• Green Beans with Bacon and Tart Cherry Balsamic Glaze

Other Summer Fest Attendees Celebrating Herbs, Greens, and Beans:

• Todd and Diane at White on Rice Couple use fresh mint to make Homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Margaret at A Way to Garden stores a year of herbs—and makes one-pot Farinata a polenta dish with greens
• Food Network UK is on the edge with herbs and greens
• Caroline at the Wright Recipes is cooking up Wax and Butter Bean Herbed Salad
• Jennifer and Mark at Gilded Fork have a virtual garden of recipes for basil, cilantro, fennel, lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, sage and tarragon.
• Cate at Sweetnicks shares Fresh Green Bean Salad with Herb Vinaigrette
• Alana at Eating From the Ground Up has Shirred Eggs with Fresh Herbs
• Healthy Eats share their Top Six Herbs
• Allison at Food2 shows how to use up leftover herbs with Use-it-up Pesto
• The Cooking Channel has The Best Bean Salads and a French take on beans, greens, and herbs
• The FN Dish has recipes for The “Other” Summer Greens
• Tigress in a Jam has a preserving–book giveaway, and ways to put up greens, beans, herbs
• Kelly at Just a Taste shares Fresh Herb Ricotta
• Caron at San Diego Foodstuff shares recipes for Kale and Feta Empanadas and Roasted Romano Beans
• Judy at Tuscan Diva shares her Tuscan Herb Blend
• Tara at Tea & Cookies shares her Clean Out the Fridge Frittata
• Shauna and Danny at Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef tell us What to do with Fava Beans
• Paige at The Sister Project says Aloha, Pesto

How You Can Join in Summer Fest 2010

Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting with our posts of Wednesday, July 28, for five Wednesdays, you can contribute in various ways, big or small.

Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. Yes, copy and paste them everywhere! That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2010 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites.com).

Summer Fest 2010 Posting Schedule

7/28: Cukes and Zukes
8/4: Corn
8/11: Herbs, Greens, and Beans
8/18: Stone Fruit
8/25: Tomatoes