updates

It is August--the summer is slipping away!  At least, it feels that way, and I am committed to squeezing out the season from this month leading up to Labor Day.

I don't have a new recipe for you, but some updates.  You will have seen in a previous post that reader Olivia's mom has been making a gluten-free version of my summer puttanesca!  Now, reader JORJ writes in that she has made the summer puttanesca too.

Yum!  We had a discussion, and we both agree that while penne or cavatappi works for a regular puttanesca using canned tomatoes in sauce, that for the summer version, a smaller pasta is better.  Orecchiette or shell pastas, I think, would do better with the juices and chunks that result from using fresh tomatoes.

I have also been cooking up some quinoa recently.  After one semi-disastrous attempt to make quinoa by just boiling it, I made the radicchio and rutabaga quinoa from earlier in the year.  And the rinsing and then boiling and then steaming method worked so well!  The quinoa was beautiful and fluffy.

We have been eating our jars of peaches that we made a few weeks ago.  They are so delicious!  Especially the jars that have a slightly crushed pod of cardamom and a little bourbon.

Peaches and tomatoes and beans and corn!  This is the best month of the summer.  Enjoy!