There’s a really great restaurant under the Williamsburg Bridge in my little Brooklyn nabe called Diner. It’s in one of those weird, out of place, sorta hard to get to Brooklyny locations but it’s worth the search. The printed menu is simple and they always have a ton of incredible-sounding specials that the dirty-but-beautiful wait staff explain with great flourish while underscoring the specials by scribbling them down in pen on your paper tablecloth.  Dramatic. I’ve yet to be anything but thrilled with the specials, but perhaps that’s why they’re called “specials.”

Anyway, so I went there last week and ordered 3 brunch meals, though I was only dining with one other person. After assuring the waiter that I could handle that much food (I’m from the Midwest, thank you very much, and I haven’t eaten for 15 hours.) I was served a bowl of warm corn pudding with eggs on top. I couldn’t get over the sweet, creamy corn taste of the pudding and vowed to try it on my own. I think the key to this dish is fresh corn, so make it now before the last of summer’s corn runs out.

I noticed in this Wednesday’s Dining section of the Times a piece on soft boiled eggs for more than brunch. The nerve – eggs for dinner! So I suggest to any of you ovo-eating vegetarians out there to try this pudding topped with soft boiled eggs. I served mine with some bacon-style smoked tempeh strips, though some tofu strips would work well too. The roasted tomatoes added color and a nice acidic accompaniment to the sweet-n-creamy pudding. (I’ll be adding the recipe for the roasted tammys soon.  Update: the recipe for the Roasted tomatoes is here) And do not forgo the garlic toast. Make the toast any which way you like, but it’s imperative for dipping!

Serves: 4 (add a protein of your choice for a main dish)
Time: 45 minutes

Corn Pudding

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
8 ears of corn
1 ½ cups of half n half
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey
¾ tsp salt
2 tbsp flour, cornmeal, or masa harina

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Ali From The Valley is a fellow event planner at The Met and a near-daily inspiration for vanesscipes.  We work our cute little tails off planning parties but we always have time to get slightly off-topic to talk about what we’re making for dinner, what we ate last night, what might mix with what, how to make an existing recipe healthier, what IS Tom Cruise thinking, etc.

All the credit for this recipe goes to Ali, who has my thanks for providing it to me, free of any event planning duty.  I was a little put off by chopping chick peas (A little over the top dontcha think, Ali?) but the sisters passionately devoured their salad and, bits of chopped veggies falling ecstatically from their mouths, declared it’s fun-ness, fresh-aility, and filling-ocity.

By the way, the cat-grass looking stuff in the photo is actually chives from my fire escape garden.  I feel like the photo needed extra whimsy to capture the true feeling of this eclectic salad.

Serves: 4-5
Time: 1 sister = 40 minutes.  3 sisters = 20 minutes

Salad

½ a regular-sized head of romaine lettuce, shredded
1 cluster of scallions, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved or quartered
1 can drained garbanzo beans (yes, need to be chopped)
1 ½ cups of pitted cured olives chopped
1 large cucumber, diced
4 to 8 oz of reduced fat feta, crumbled
2 avocados, diced
¼ regular sized head of red cabbage

As I like to say: chop, chop, choparoo.  Chop everything and put into a large salad bowl.  Douse with the dressing.

Dressing

4 Tbl olive oil
4 Tbl balsamic vinegar
1 Tbl mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
pepper

Combine everything in a small tupperware and shake!

It’s tomato time. Yay for some, nay for others. I myself have always been a fan of this most scandalously colored of fruits, but I can understand when people don’t like tomatoes; I just figure they are extra-sensitive to poison. Poison? Tomatoes? Relax, gentle readers, it’s just the vine that’s poisonous.

I’m sure most of you smartypantses out there already know this but tomatoes are in the nightshade family, closely related not only to some of our other favorite foods like potatoes, eggplants, and peppers, but also things we’re less fond of finding in our mouths like deadly nightshade, jimson weed, and tobacco.

Anyway, done scaring you but I’ve got even more nerdy tomato-or-poison facts. Tomatoes originated somewhere in South America and were introduced to Europe in the 16th century. At first the plant was believed poisonous and grown for decorative purposes only, taking over a century for starving Europeans to catch on that tammy’s are better cultivated for their delicious and versatile fruits than for lookin’ pretty. It took skeptical Americans another 100 years to catch the trend and in fact, the progressive and continental Thomas Jefferson once ate a tomato in public just to prove that it was safe. People fainted. Swear.

Ok, end facts. I’ve been noticing a lot of yummy tomato recipes around the blogs lately, no doubt inspired by the current tomato bounty. The first one that caught my eye was from fellow Brooklynite Chris, who made big batch of tomato sauce. And then a fresh sauce idea from Mario Batali via the excellent Amateur Gourmet. And then a simple Baked Parmesan Tomatoes from Alanna at Veggie Venture. Yum! And, if you’re not done yet, check out this extensive list of tomato recipes collected by Sam Breach at Blogher. And heirloom tomato craziness as blogged by Slashfoods!

But Rae at Bunnyfoot really jumpstarted my tastebuds with this recipe for Pasta with Raw Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic. It happens to pretty much outline my very favorite way to use fresh tomatoes. I do just two things differently: I prefer a chunkier pasta and like to use small grape or cherry tomatoes. I feel that, on average, the little tomatoes are sweeter and tastier, and you also get to eat more of the tomato skins, which - from what I understand - have more of the antioxidants.

Serves: 4
Time: less than 30 minutes

Farmers Market Fresh Tomato Pasta

1 lb chunky pasta (I used mezzi rigatoni but any kind of pasta would work)
2 (or more!) pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
large bunch of shredded basil leaves
As much olive oil as you can bear
A few cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Couldn’t be easier: Cook your pasta and drain. While it’s still hot, add the rest of the ingredients. Top with some grated Parm if you’d like, but it isn’t necessary. The beauty of dish is in its simplicity.

To get you even more in the lusty red (and orange and yellow) tomato spirit, here are some snaps from my local Brooklyn Farmer’s Market in Williamsburg’s McCarren Park:

This weekend, I went back “home” to Chicagoland to chill out with my mom. Who, as a very notable side note, is an excellent cook.

In fact, Mom spearheaded two distinct phases in our family’s eating habits. (1) The “health food” stage. And (2), the “French food” stage. The health food stage featured 1980’s health classics like carob, wheat germ, and apple juice concentrate. Once a week we either had stir fry (every imaginable vegetable and legume in a tamari sauce) OR we had vegetable soup (every imaginable vegetable and legume in a tomato broth base.) Probably not the most inspired recipes (sorry mom) but she sure had us kids eating our veggies because we were big eaters and too competitive to starve. And then, sometime in my early grade school years, seemingly by a single chime of the dining room clock, the bulgur was whisked away and wine and butter glazed meats, potatoes and casseroles arrived from the kitchen, shimmering with globules of fat. We’re talking Coq au Vin, Chicken with Tarragon Cream Sauce, Filet Mignon with Sauce Béarnaise. Soufflés. Tarts. Oeufs. Pommes. And beurre, beurre, beurre.

To sum up my gustatory walk down memory lane, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m thankful for being able to experience the granolaest of granola, and the most gourmand of gourmet. Thanks Mom- you really spoiled my palate and I’m still trying to translate your French/Midwest deliciousness into healthy vegetarian recipes.

This weekend we made a backyard bbq recipe that I think is a notch or two above the veggie burger & veggie dog summer bbq choices. These skewers are interesting, easy, flexible, farmers-market friendly and tasty enough to serve to any non-vegetarians.

If you’re asking, “What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks IS halloumi?” let me answer: it’s cheese. It’s cheese that you can grill. Without melting. In fact, it gets some rather pleasant “charred” areas when barbequed. Delicious! If you want to know more, check out the halloumi wiki. Note: some brands of halloumi cheese are easier to grill than others that tend to melt a little more. If you’re new at cheese grilling, grill on a separate skewer or with fast-cooking vegetables like cherry tomatoes to test out before cooking with longer-cooking vegetables like peppers.

Serves: 5 to 6
Time: 10 – 20 minutes for each batch of skewers you can fit on the grill

Halloumi and Vegetable Skewers

20 or so ounces of halloumi cheese (can find in a well stocked supermarket or Mediterranean specialty store)
Please note the below vegetables can be substituted for others - as with all vanesscipes, this is merely a suggestion. Get whatever looks freshest and best.
2 red bell peppers
1 green pepper
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
2 red or sweet onions
cherry tomatoes or quartered large tomatoes
thin wooden skewers

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This week, a friend introduced me to the famous gourmet Middle Eastern and specialty food store Sahadis located in downtown Brooklyn.  Now my sisters and I are addicted to the hummus and it got me thinking - but not too hard because it’s 100 degrees in New York - about what sort of Middle Eastern inspired dish I could make without generating too much heat or effort. 

So here’s the result of my semi-effort.  A very cool, very flavorful, very worthwhile summer salad with lots of veggies and grape leaves from a jar.  Keep everything in the fridge (except the tomatoes - that’s bad!) before you start so it’s cold, and this is one of those salads that gets even better when it’s been chilling out in the fridge so the flavors mingle.  Make the rice ahead of time, store in the fridge, enlist your friends with good knife skillz to chop, and the salad’s ready to go in a jiffy. 

Like most of my recent summer posts, it’s perfect for a picnic or potluck.  Just try not to get addicted.

Serves: 4 generously
Time: 30 minutes plus rice cooking time and at least an hour for the rice to cool

Rice

1 cup wild rice or wild rice & brown rice mix

Cook the rice according to the package directions.  I cooked mine with 2 cups of water in a rice cooker.  Love the rice cooker - it always makes the rice come out perfect.  Keep the rice in the fridge until chilled. 

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