Happy Friday folks!! Its days like the past few weeks that make me grateful to be living in beautiful California. We’ve had temps in the mild 60s, 70s, low 80s, crisp blue skies with puffs of white clouds, sunny, cool Pacific ocean breeze, COVID is under control, family is good, and my garden is happy. What more could a gal ask for? Speaking of gardens, today I’d love to share with you pics of my garden in bloom in June. Happy weekend everyone and Happy June!
This recipe is for all you Indian pickle lovers out there! An avocado toast with an Indian twist. What gives the toast that unique Indian flavor is the spread which is an Indian pickle. The Indian pickle makes the toast spicy and tangy and the rest is good old tried and true avocado toast. Delicious, wholesome, and filling, give this new variation on your go-to avocado toast a try!
I got a big batch of homegrown peaches from our friends and as fast as we were trying to eat them we still couldn’t finish them before they got too ripe. I had already made a yogurt parfait with fresh peaches. I also made a quick and easy poundcake and peaches with whipped cream. Finally after two weeks of peaches I decided to use up all of the remainder of the peaches to make a cobbler. An easy way to use all the peaches I had left in our fruit bowl.
This pasta recipe is my eldest daughter’s favorite that she makes almost every week. A simple pasta that tastes so good that whenever I ask her what she put in it, she laughs and says its just has leeks, tomatoes, garlic and pasta, all garnished with fresh basil. Really folks it doesn’t get easier than this. For a delicious pasta that can be whipped up in a few minutes give it a try!
I call this dish more veggie enchilada lasagna because the veggie to corn tortilla ration is very high. I call it a lasagna because rather than roll the corn tortilla with the veggie stuffing, I layered the tortillas like a lasagna. What this does is allow me to add way more veggies than will stuff inside a tortilla . And just like a lasagna, I layered enchilada sauce, then tortilla and veggies and did that again in layers until all the veggies were used up. The result is a phenomenally delicious dish which is juicy from the veggies, gooey from the cheese and packed with flavor.
It’s peach season already and we’ve gotten our first batch of homegrown fruits – its peaches! These golden yellow peaches are soft, sweet and sour all at the same time. This past Friday, after pizza and salad for our Friday night dinner, we had dessert of fresh peaches and poundcake for a laid back evening dessert.
With friends and family getting vaccinated folks are slowly starting to see each other in person and actually hanging out. I am seeing friends one or two at a time and with our spectacular weather we’re meeting outside in the garden. Being able to see friends without any restrictions has been liberating. Which leads me to this recipe. I had good friends Rose and Donna for brunch recently and what a relaxing and fun time we had! We had a light lunch of pasta salad with cashews and asparagus, a simple tossed green salad with dates and strawberries, eggs shakshuka Italian style and this delicious blackberry coconut pecan cobbler.
Shakshuka is a very popular Middle Eastern egg dish floating in a thick spicy tomato sauce. My eldest daughter is hooked on shakshuka and likes to make it often on the weekends. She’s made it so many times that she has started modifying the traditional Middle Eastern recipe for a change of taste scenery. In this new variation of shakshuka she made the egg dish Italian style with herbs such as oregano and basil in a marinara tomato sauce with a cheesy mozzarella Parmesan topping. Super delicious, filling and so decadent all at the same time. Serve it with crusty bread to soak up all the tomato sauce and this makes for a fabulous weekend brunch. Give it a try!
Here’s a beautiful salad to serve up this weekend made with springy greens, red strawberries, sweet dates and creamy blue cheese, all tossed with a lemon honey mustard vinaigrette. Folks, when I made this salad Hitesh and I finished all of it! Its really really good. Give it try!
