Lately At the markets, there are so many varieties of tomatoes it’s mind blowing. They look amazing…so colorful, so sometimes I get them just for their looks. Yes I’m that futile…Looks are very important to me. I buy books sometimes without even reading the excerpt just because the cover is pretty. And wouldn’t be different at the FM, sometimes I just can’t resist some prettiness. And that’s exactly what happened with these sweet little peppers and the green tomatoes. They looked so cute and colorful, so for a minute I scratched my head in front of the stand, thinking what to do with them. And then I asked the lady who was selling them, what could I do with that, and she smiled and said… make marmalade. You see you have to talk to your farmer they are full of genius. So, if you ever flustered thinking, “what should I cook today”, I’m sure you’ll find some interesting idea at the FM.

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Sweet Pepper and Green Tomatoes Marmalade

• 2 pounds firm green tomatoes
• ½ pound sweet peppers
• 1 lemon
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ vanilla bean
• A pinch of salt
• *½ habanero chili (optional)

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds and core, chop into small dices. Zest the lemon and juice it, cut the sweet peppers in thin slices. In a large bowl combine tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, peppers, sugar, salt. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Put the mixture in a large nonreactive pot, cut vanilla beans in half and scrape the seeds into tomato mixture. Add the scraped bean as well. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer until marmalade has thickened.

* I added half Habanero chili in mine, coz I like it hot. It’s a great appetizer to spread on savory corn muffins or on a toast with some prosciutto. Enjoy.

Are you guys watching Antonio Bordain “No Reservation” New season? Every week he is showing something delicious, last night he was in Prague and it was pork paradise.  Loved the ‘Wenceslas Square’ Sausage Stands, and ‘Sapa’ Vietnamese Market, But what left me really craving was the stuffed Easter bun he had in that chef’s house at the end. I’m now looking all over the net for the recipe. If anybody has that recipe please let me know.

Meanwhile I’m experimenting with some new combinations for my focaccia toppings. I made this bacon and onion marmalade, its really yummy. I actually made a big pot of it so I can freeze it for later. You freeze the onions in ice cube trays, once they’re frozen solid, you pop them out of the tray and store them in a sealed Ziploc bags. The smaller portions make it easy to use, which is exactly what we need, plus the onions thaw more quickly in the pan.  Its awesome to have it ready to go, we can use it in: Baked potatoes, along with a dollop of sour cream, cooked pasta, along with some crumbled blue cheese, arugula or spinach, couscous, grilled cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes, omelets and frittatas, pan sauces for chicken cutlets or pork chops, pizza with grated mozzarella or crumbled goat cheese, quesadillas, risotto, savory tarts (using puff pastry as a crust) steaks, burgers, pork chops, and sausages. The possibilities are endless. So for this focaccia I used goat cheese plus the onions marmalade and parboiled potatoes (I have done pizza with raw potatoes sliced very thin with a mandolin, but I fond out that the potatoes can get a bit too crispy, so I decided to use cooked potato instead, they turned out creamier that way).

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Bacon And Onion Marmalade Focaccia

For the onion Marmalade

• 10 medium onions or less if they are big, sliced
• 5 bacon slices minced
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Peel and slice (thick slices) the onions (if you slice it too thin it will all disappear and become just a mush). In a big heavy pot, cook the minced bacon until crispy.  Add onions, minced garlic, and salt and black pepper to taste.

Cover and cook over low heat, stirring from time to time, about 30 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce. Cook over low heat, still covered, another 30 to 45 minutes, or until mixture have a consistency of marmalade.

For the focaccia dough click here

Top the dough with crumbled goat cheese, the onion marmalade, and the potatoes sliced thin.

Summer is over, actually according to all the stores here in New York even fall is over, they are having fall sales and the puffy coats are on… how did all that happened? Some stores already have Christmas tunes playing can you believe that? It’s a nonsense Halloween / Christmas decoration. But it somehow make sense to my life right now all the rush, I have been going all over the place lately, the airport people can probably call me by my name, it would be something like “ hi Anna nice to see you AGAIN.” This summer we went to check the West Cost and fell in love with it, San Francisco is such an amazing city we felt very tempted but Venice Beach made us decide to move. We loved everything about it. The weather, the people, the beach, it’s a really lovely place. Now we just came back from San Antonio, Texas we went there to visit my little sister in law, it’s her first time living by herself and Texas is a pit stop for her before she goes to India and Thailand, my mother and father in law are literally pulling their hair. So we went there to check things out. It’s a lovely place, and she is doing great. My favorite place there was the River Walk, restaurants on both sides of a beautiful river with delicious Texan steaks. You can see some pictures here.

But now back to work, we have to go back to LA and find an apartment, contact moving companies. It’s a bit overwhelming I have to say, I’m totally stress eating right now which is really not a good idea since I’m moving to a beach place, I should probably be eating lettuce and carrots. But yesterday I decided to try for the gazillion time to bake a tart. And miraculously it actually worked; do I hear a round of applause? No, it’s probably just me clapping, but yeah Baby! I am clapping, because all the flops and snafus I had so far we could probably cover the Great Wall with all my failed pastry dough, so now that it actually worked I’ll probably be clapping for a week. Calling all my friends and family even acquaintances, and the conversation will be something like that: “Hey, hello such and such I’m calling to let you know my pastry dough worked this time, yes, yes, thank you, thank you”. I know…. I’m going a bit Ape about my tart, but you have to understand  (remember I’m stress eating) probably all the carbs I’m ingesting is affecting my brain somehow. But anyway here is the mission-accomplished tart. Made by yours truly. Enjoy.

Zucchini Tart

For the Pie Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1-teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled diced
• 2large eggs yolk
• 2-3 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor, combine the flour, Parmesan Cheese, salt, butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle in the water and pulse until the mixture comes together. Turn out of the food processor, form into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the pastry to a thickness of 1/8-inch and place in a 9-inch tart shell with a removable bottom. Blind bake until lightly golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.

For the Zucchini:

Grate the zucchinis and lightly sauté it with salt, pepper, garlic, red chili flakes. Let it cool down.

For the Cheese filing:

• 11 ounces goat cheese
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2-cup ricotta cheese
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4-cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2-teaspoon salt.
• 1/2-teaspoon black pepper

Into a large mixing bowl place the goat cheese, butter, ricotta cheese, and beat ingredients with a mixer on high speed until smooth. Add the egg yolks one at a time, then the flour, salt, and pepper, mixing well to incorporate. Mix half of the zucchinis. Living the other half for topping. Pour the cheese and zucchini mixture into mixture into the prepared piecrust and bake until the top is golden and the filling is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow cooling for 30 minutes before serving.

Oooooh Internet, how sensitive you are…I had few days trying to fix what wasn’t mine to fix at the end. Something was wrong with my site and nobody could tell me what the issue was. Then I called and called, and all the time I got a different explanation. How frustratingly annoyed you get while listening to those recorded automatic messages telling you how important you are (very important, but still on hold). And each time you actually talk to somebody they are not as helpful as you wished, (Deep sigh).

Now I’m just waiting for my web hosting company to fix their mishap. Meanwhile I decided to make my life easier and prepare in advance some pesto sauce. I use pesto all the time, for pastas, salads, or sandwiches, and lately the basil just looks stunning in the Farmer’s Market. So what I do is prepare a delicious amount of pesto and have it ready to go, when I need. Some I keep in the fridge for salad dressing and sandwich and some I just put in Ziploc bags in the freezer and Voila! Perfect for these dinners or lunches where you have to whip up something quickly.

Pesto

• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup – 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Into the bowl of a food processor, add the garlic, basil leaves, pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Pulse until finely chopped. With the blender still running, slowly pour 1/2 cup of olive oil. Check for a thick, yet smooth consistency, adding more oil if necessary. Transfer to a bowl and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan.

I’m so into food that even when I’m surfing the net, I am looking for something related to food. Do I need a shrink? I don’t think so, there’s plenty of people like me… right? Well I was watching youtube and I came across this artichoke video. I always felt a bit scared to cook artichoke but this video made it look very easy and I love to roast things as you probably have noticed if you follow my blog. I think vegetables taste awesome when roasted it concentrates the flavors. I followed the instructions and the result was really yummy. The only change I made was in the end I used my dill vinaigrette.

Roasted Artichoke