TGIFriday: Things to cook in August

It's August you guys! Can you believe that?!

I was trolling BuzzFeed this week and came across a glorious post on 31 things to cook in August, based on the yummy things that are in season as fall approaches.

I pinned the heck outta those recipes, here are some of my favorites to try soon!

blueberry hand pies, white peach gin fizz, grilled shrimp with cilantro, lime and peanuts,

creme fraiche galette with heirloom tomatoes, Mediterranean lamb burger]

Which ones catch your eye? Take advantage of the weekend and try them out for yourself

Happy eating!
   

    

Kale pesto pasta. Heavy cream optional (but not really).

A short while back, I shared a recipe for salmon and kale quinoa and we learned all about those three fantastic superfoods with some fun videos!

But I found myself with half a bag of kale left, that needed tending to before it wilted/rotted in my fridge. I can't believe how fast it goes bad once you open that bag. So, I'm here to share with you a super recipe for using up all that leftover kale!

I took a recipe I found here and I've tweaked it (aka added heavy cream) into the deliciousness I share with you today.

Okay, that's actually a pretty glorified way of putting it. What really happened was that I made the pesto, but didn't make enough pasta, so it was a thick pesto mess. A couple days later I made more pasta to thin out the pesto, and went crazy and added a cup-ish of heavy cream. Then I felt guilty, so I diced up a tomato and threw that in there too. Never apologize for anything that happens in the kitchen, Eaters.

[pre-heavy cream and tomato additions. bad pesto-to-pasta ratio.]

Pasta with kale pesto cream sauce. and tomatoes.

2 lbs of pasta (yes, I realize that's a lot. I was going off of my leftover kale situation! i used whole wheat spirals.)
1/2 lb of kale, chopped and destemmed and all that jazz
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup deshelled pistachios
juice from 1 lemon
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
pinch of red pepper flakes for a little heat
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
1 cup(ish) heavy cream
1 tomato, diced

Salt a pot of water and bring to boil. Add kale and blanch for 2-4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to scoop it out and onto some paper towels. Let em cool a sec then use more paper towels to pat/squeeze dry. 

Toast the pistachios in a small saucepan/skillet situation over medium-low for a couple minutes, stirring to toast evenly.

Cook your pasta somewhere around here-ish.

Grab your food processor, and add the garlic and toasted pistachios. Pulse until coarse. Add the kale and lemon juice and pulse until mixture is nearly smooth (but still has that pesto-y bits to it). Scrape the sides and add the parmesan, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Pulse again, and while the processor is running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.

At this point, you can put it in a tupperware with a little olive oil to save, or spoon it over your pasta and give it a good stir.

To make it a pesto cream sauce, heat 1 cup or so (depending on how liquid-y you want it) of heavy cream in a small sauce pan over medium. Bring almost to a boil, then pour over your pasta along with the pesto. Chop up a tomato and toss that in there too.

Happy eating!

   

How to dice a tomato (without the watery seedy stuff)

Some of you may already know how to do this, but it changed my life (and my pico de gallo) back in college, so I thought I'd share it with you all just in case.

When I first learned this trick, I was participating in a chili cook-off with my friend Emily, and we wanted to add diced tomatoes to our chili--but we didn't know how to leave all out the watery seedy stuff*. So we did what all people do when they don't know how to do something: we searched for it on youtube. It was a while ago, but I'm pretty sure this is the original video.

*definitely the scientific term

Feel free to watch that, but here are some step-by-step photos to walk you through it.

 

Supplies: you'll need a tomato and a knife. and a cutting board. your counter tops will thank you.

 

Step one: use the point of the knife to wedge out the stem of the tomato.

 

Step two: cut around the inner "seed ball" of the tomato by cutting a C shape from the top of the de-stemmed tomato to the bottom. Do that a few times all the way around the tomato. If you're me, you'll do a hack-job of it and still have some watery seedy stuff, so just use your thumb to scoop it out.

 

 Step three: throw away the "seed ball" and stem and chop up the remaining parts. Voila, you have beautiful, watery-seedy-stuff-free diced tomatoes.

Happy chopping!