D and I have been so busy wrapping things around here up, building a cold frame in the garden, and prepping for a friend’s wedding this weekend on top of Thanksgiving, I almost forgot to post this last wrap up!

These last few pictures in my Post-Summer Wrap Up all have vibrant shades of pink and purple in common. They are also all delicious appetizers, perfect for an upcoming holiday bash.

This first dish is my favorite– the colors totally stunning, and the taste… Well, it had a cured pork product, it was delicious. At a recent dinner party, this dish was the highlight of the night. It was really so simple to make, it should be the highlight at every dinner party. Beyond the color, the flavors still linger in my memory.

While D and I did grow melon (cantaloupe and watermelon) in our garden, this melon is not one of ours. (For the most part, ours were eaten before we could document their beauty.) This melon came to us via our CSA. It is a Sunjewel Melon, similar in flavor to honeydew, though not as intensely sweet. I am usually not a fan of honeydews, though if wrapped in pork, I make an exception. Sprinkled on top are purple basil flowers and tomato flakes*.

*Tomato flakes- After canning 50 lbs of tomatoes I had a huge pile of tomato skins. I didn’t want to compost them all– too overwhelming for my worms (and perhaps too acidic), and I couldn’t bare throwing them all away. What to do? I dehydrated a few cookie sheets worth of skins in the oven at 200F for about 2 hours and blitzed them into flakes. Now what? I sprinkle them for color on dishes like the above, I have mixed them with salt to make tomato-salt, and use them to add a slight tomato seasoning to dishes.

Sunjewel Melon (Honeydew) & Prosciutto
Serving Size= 4-5 (appetizer). Prep time= 8 minutes. Cook time= 0.
1 Sunjewel, or honeydew-like, melon- cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 pound prosciutto
2 tablespoons olive oil
basil flowers (for garnish) optional, or 2 teaspoons chopped basil
1 teaspoon tomato flakes (for garnish) optional or 1 teaspoon hot chili flakes

Slice thick prosciutto pieces in half lengthwise. Wrap a piece of prosciutto around each piece of melon and secure with a toothpick. Arrange on platter, drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle with basil flowers, tomato flakes, and/ or hot chili flakes.

I suppose these first two pictures both make lovely appetizers. This second one really needs a smell-o-vision computer screen. It’s a simple Camembert cheese covered in white truffle honey. Regular honey will do the trick, but if you can get your hands on truffle honey, it is well worth the hefty price.

This would make a lovely addition to a cheese plate, is so simple, yet is almost too decadent. I believe the picture explains the prep. If not: drizzle truffle honey over a nice piece of soft cheese, sprinkle with berries and serve. Can also serve with dried fruit and nuts on the side.

I believe it is safe to lay claim that this summer was the season of eggplants. I was a bit worried planting our eggplants when a fellow gardener told me she’d been gardening in the City for 15 years and was never successful with eggplants. Well behold! Not only did our garden produce an unbelievable bounty of eggplants (one day’s harvest from 4 plants is pictured above), our CSA managed to sneak eggplants into nearly every CSA box.

No complaints. D and I both love eggplant and made baba ganoush and similar dishes every chance we got. Luckily, we froze some baba and have it stored for a cold eggplant-less day this winter.

For a cozy twist on baba, traditionally served cold or at room temp, serve the side warm on bread or pita with a drizzle of  pomegranate molasses over top and/ or a sprinkle of ground lamb seasoned with allspice.

We’re at the peak of fall here in New York City and it hardly seems to be showing. While the trees are brilliant golds, mums are popping open, and bulbs are heading into the ground, the sun is blasting down and the days are mild in the upper 50’s and 60’s. I thought I lived on the east coast, not west.

I await a steady stream of cool, crisp fall days– Fall is my favorite season and there is nothing like cuddling up to a bowl of hot soup on a cold night, or a nice hot toddy. And as we sit practically beach side in the City, northern New York and the surrounds have already seen snow. These truly cold temps around the City bring fall produce into farmer markets and my CSA drops, even if it’s the last thing on our mind.
So now I have a pileup of butternut and acorn squashes awaiting temperatures to dip low enough to justify turning the oven on for extended lengths. And as I thought about those squash the other day, I thought about potatoes and home fries and hash, and how sweetly seductive a butternut hash might be with a morning egg.

Peeled, seeded and chopped into 1/2-inch cubes, squash will cook up in less time than the same sized potatoes on the stove top. Left alone, those sauteed squash can top salads, get mashed for sides, or, turned into cookies or pies– Or, as above, mixed into a sweet and savory hash to accompany an egg.

Squash Hash
Serving size= 4 persons. Prep time= 15 minutes. Cook time= 15 minutes
1 butternut squash (acorn, sunshine, delicata, or other winter squash will work), Peeled, halved, seeds removed, slice into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup crimini mushrooms, quartered
2 red peppers, sliced into long 1/2-inch strips
2 tablespoons fresh chives (or 1 scallion), minced
salt/ pepper to taste
2 tablespoons lard, olive oil or butter to cook

Method: Heat preferred fat in skillet over medium-high heat. Add squash and mushrooms, toss to coat in fat, then let cook for 5 minutes to brown. Add red peppers and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until squash is soft and mushrooms are browned. Remove from heat, add pepper to taste and chives. Toss to coat and serve.

Growing up in the midwest, I hated potato salad. It’s true. The staple side dish gracing every BBQ was the bane of my outdoor dining existence. It occurred at some point in when I hatched a distaste for mayonnaise.

I believe this decision formulated shortly after I made myself a tuna fish sandwich: In attempts to get the fishy tuna flavor out of my sandwich, I mixed in close to 2 cups of mayonnaise (into a single-serving can of tuna). It didn’t help, and I ended up discarding the sandwich, two bites of which gave me a horrible stomach ache. (Who would have thought with all that mayonnaise?)

Next, mayonnaise-heavy potato salad popped into my vision at every deli counter. There is something about prepared deli counter salads that has always told me to stay away. Is it the resemblance to the lunch line at school? Or perhaps the display that gives everything a brownish-blue hue and make nothing appear to be refrigerated?

Let us pinpoint these moments as the beginning of my mayonnaise banishment.

Obviously, this dislike of mayonnaise, living in the midwest, brings me to my hatred of potato salad. Because we all know midwest potato salad and mayonnaise go hand-in-hand.

It was not until college that I tried potato salad again. My good friend A made me her family’s Lebanese Potato Salad, which she described as simply adding the Lebanese basic seasonings: garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper. Light, simple and totally delicious, it awakened me to a whole new world of looking at potatoes: Did you know potatoes don’t need to be mashed with butter or fried and dipped in ketchup to taste good?

My preferred method of cooking potatoes now is making a potato salad using the Lebanese trio (trio because in my book, an herb, salt and pepper are given). Sometimes I spice it up with some hot chili flakes, sometimes I add other vegetables to bulk it up, as in this case. You cannot go wrong when you work with these basic, yet deliciously pure ingredients.

Please note: I have recently found new appreciation for mayonnaise. While I still do not use it in a tuna sandwich, I can understand its place in a vinegar-based coleslaw (just a little fat, not saturated in mayonnaise). I also admit that I recently made my own mayonnaise and highly suggest a homemade version over anything store bought. (Further, I prefer homemade because I know I will actually finish it– the smallest bottle of store bought mayonnaise has gone bad in my refrigerator. With a shelf life over one year, you do not want to know what rancid mayonnaise smells like.)

Potato Salad with Corn and Green Beans
Serving size= 6-8. Cook time=  15 minutes. Prep time=  10 minutes.
1 pound potatoes, halved or quartered depending on size (I prefer the texture of new potatoes in potato salad because they hold shape and texture)
1 cup corn, sliced from cob  fresh (or canned)
1 cup green beans, cleaned and halved
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
salt/ pepper to taste

Boil potatoes in salted water for 10-15 minutes, until soft when pricked with a fork. While potatoes are cooking, place fresh corn, green beans, olive oil and garlic in the serving bowl. When potatoes finish cooking, drain, but do not rinse with water. Place hot potatoes in the serving bowl and toss. The residual heat will steam the corn and beans, leaving the beans snappy (if you prefer beans more done you can steam them for 30 seconds before you add them to the hot potatoes). Finish by tossing with the parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm, at room temp, or cold.