Tag: olive oil

Focaccia Croutons Are Tops

While I don’t enjoy TV cooking contests, I do love to set myself a challenge now and then. A favorite one is using up what is left on hand as we get ready to leave a rental house.

We had purchased a loaf of focaccia the day before and had what we needed to make a big salad, so the focaccia became croutons. I cut the bread into cubes and sautéed those in a bit of butter and olive oil. Before they left the skillet, I tossed them with salt, black pepper, aleppo pepper, and fine french herbs. This made some of the best croutons I’ve ever had.

This was Deep Dish Rosemany Focaccia from Iggy’s Bread of the World. Fortunately, it’s sold at Angell Foods in the East End of Provincetown as well as around the Greater Boston area. We’ve bought it at the Copley farmers’ market.

The salad the croutons topped was a vision in green with romaine lettuce, cucumber, and avacado. It made a great combination and cleaned out the vegetable bin.

What’s on your food lover’s shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs. and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

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Apples And Raisins Sourdough Focaccia With Rye

Simple September Eats: Panzanella Salad

Easy Focaccia Adds Panache to Simple Meals

How to Make Croutons

October 4, 2012
Focaccia Croutons Are Tops

While I don’t enjoy TV cooking contests, I do love to set myself a challenge now and then. A favorite one is using up what is left on hand as we get ready to leave a rental house.

We had purchased a loaf of focaccia the day before and had what we needed to make a big salad, so the focaccia became croutons. I cut the bread into cubes and sautéed those in a bit of butter and olive oil. Before they left the skillet, I tossed them with salt, black pepper, aleppo pepper, and fine french herbs. This made some of the best croutons I’ve ever had.

This was Deep Dish Rosemany Focaccia from Iggy’s Bread of the World. Fortunately, it’s sold at Angell Foods in the East End of Provincetown as well as around the Greater Boston area. We’ve bought it at the Copley farmers’ market.

The salad the croutons topped was a vision in green with romaine lettuce, cucumber, and avacado. It made a great combination and cleaned out the vegetable bin.

What’s on your food lover’s shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs. and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

When Autumn Comes…

Apples And Raisins Sourdough Focaccia With Rye

Simple September Eats: Panzanella Salad

Easy Focaccia Adds Panache to Simple Meals

How to Make Croutons

October 4, 2012
Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad

For years, when August brought me local tomatoes, I've chopped some of them with cucumber, scallions and herbs, dressed them with olive oil and vinegar, and enjoyed serving this fresh, healthy salad.

Recently I was talking to Fatima, a friend from Morocco, about the dish and she gave me her version. She uses lemon instead of vinegar. I'm a fan of lemon zest so I used both the lemon zest and juice and loved the result. In the photo (above) there is also some celery I found in the crisper and a sprinkle of my favorite Aleppo pepper over the salad.

It also has a mix of tomatoes. I cut up a big Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato and then added a few cherry tomatoes cut in quarters.

In the most basic version of this salad, you chop tomatoes, cucumbers, and scallions; season with salt, pepper, olive oil, and some kind of acid ingredient – vinegar, lemon, lime, etc. Then you can take it to what ever culture you choose.

Add some feta cheese, Kalamata olives, red onion, and green pepper with a sprinkle of oregano and you have a Greek version.

Dice tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and parsley and you have an I sraeli salad. Add garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime– and it's salsa.

You can switch up the seasoning and have a different salad each day of the week. And, this base also takes on additions like cheese, beans, and legumes to turn it into a meal. All those lovely juices that come from the mix are perfect for dipping grilled slices of bread or tossing with toasted croutons to make a version of Italian panzanella!

What's on your Back to School shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your back to school needs, and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

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Goat Cheese and Olives: Quick & Easy Appetizer

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Cooking Sweet Corn: Microwave, Grilling, and Elote!

Where is this Bridge? Play Attention to Detail.

August 20, 2012
Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad

For years, when August brought me local tomatoes, I've chopped some of them with cucumber, scallions and herbs, dressed them with olive oil and vinegar, and enjoyed serving this fresh, healthy salad.

Recently I was talking to Fatima, a friend from Morocco, about the dish and she gave me her version. She uses lemon instead of vinegar. I'm a fan of lemon zest so I used both the lemon zest and juice and loved the result. In the photo (above) there is also some celery I found in the crisper and a sprinkle of my favorite Aleppo pepper over the salad.

It also has a mix of tomatoes. I cut up a big Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato and then added a few cherry tomatoes cut in quarters.

In the most basic version of this salad, you chop tomatoes, cucumbers, and scallions; season with salt, pepper, olive oil, and some kind of acid ingredient – vinegar, lemon, lime, etc. Then you can take it to what ever culture you choose.

Add some feta cheese, Kalamata olives, red onion, and green pepper with a sprinkle of oregano and you have a Greek version.

Dice tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and parsley and you have an I sraeli salad. Add garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime– and it's salsa.

You can switch up the seasoning and have a different salad each day of the week. And, this base also takes on additions like cheese, beans, and legumes to turn it into a meal. All those lovely juices that come from the mix are perfect for dipping grilled slices of bread or tossing with toasted croutons to make a version of Italian panzanella!

What's on your Back to School shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your back to school needs, and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Fattoush

Goat Cheese and Olives: Quick & Easy Appetizer

Smooth Top Cooktop Tips

Cooking Sweet Corn: Microwave, Grilling, and Elote!

Where is this Bridge? Play Attention to Detail.

August 20, 2012
Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad

For years, when August brought me local tomatoes, I've chopped some of them with cucumber, scallions and herbs, dressed them with olive oil and vinegar, and enjoyed serving this fresh, healthy salad.

Recently I was talking to Fatima, a friend from Morocco, about the dish and she gave me her version. She uses lemon instead of vinegar. I'm a fan of lemon zest so I used both the lemon zest and juice and loved the result. In the photo (above) there is also some celery I found in the crisper and a sprinkle of my favorite Aleppo pepper over the salad.

It also has a mix of tomatoes. I cut up a big Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato and then added a few cherry tomatoes cut in quarters.

In the most basic version of this salad, you chop tomatoes, cucumbers, and scallions; season with salt, pepper, olive oil, and some kind of acid ingredient – vinegar, lemon, lime, etc. Then you can take it to what ever culture you choose.

Add some feta cheese, Kalamata olives, red onion, and green pepper with a sprinkle of oregano and you have a Greek version.

Dice tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and parsley and you have an I sraeli salad. Add garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime– and it's salsa.

You can switch up the seasoning and have a different salad each day of the week. And, this base also takes on additions like cheese, beans, and legumes to turn it into a meal. All those lovely juices that come from the mix are perfect for dipping grilled slices of bread or tossing with toasted croutons to make a version of Italian panzanella!

What's on your Back to School shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your back to school needs, and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Fattoush

Goat Cheese and Olives: Quick & Easy Appetizer

Smooth Top Cooktop Tips

Cooking Sweet Corn: Microwave, Grilling, and Elote!

Where is this Bridge? Play Attention to Detail.

August 20, 2012
Goat Cheese and Olives: Quick & Easy Appetizer
We always have a log of goat cheese and some olives in our refrigerator. With these two staples, we can make a meal or an appetizer. One of our favorite ways to serve this combo was inspired by a menu item we had at the Top of the Hub many years ago.

Making it could not be simpler!
- Cut the goat cheese into large pieces, rounds, halves, wedges, or whatever shape suits your fancy.
- Arrange in the center of a bowl
- Surround it with olives
- Drizzle with a good extra virgin olive oil
- Splash with a few drips of balsamic vinegar
- Sprinkle with dried or fresh herbs (Herbes de Provence were used in the photo above)
- Serve with crackers, French bread, or our favorite– Iggy's Francese grilled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic.
We sometimes add red pepper for color or use tapenade in place to the olives. But you can let your imagination run, on this one. What would you enjoy surrounding some fresh, creamy goat cheese?

Here are more of our recipes posts

Here are more of our cheese recommendations

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

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Parasols Are Poppin' up All Over…
August 6, 2012
Goat Cheese and Olives: Quick & Easy Appetizer
We always have a log of goat cheese and some olives in our refrigerator. With these two staples, we can make a meal or an appetizer. One of our favorite ways to serve this combo was inspired by a menu item we had at the Top of the Hub many years ago.

Making it could not be simpler!
- Cut the goat cheese into large pieces, rounds, halves, wedges, or whatever shape suits your fancy.
- Arrange in the center of a bowl
- Surround it with olives
- Drizzle with a good extra virgin olive oil
- Splash with a few drips of balsamic vinegar
- Sprinkle with dried or fresh herbs (Herbes de Provence were used in the photo above)
- Serve with crackers, French bread, or our favorite– Iggy's Francese grilled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic.
We sometimes add red pepper for color or use tapenade in place to the olives. But you can let your imagination run, on this one. What would you enjoy surrounding some fresh, creamy goat cheese?

Here are more of our recipes posts

Here are more of our cheese recommendations

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

Food Tips for Shakespeare on the Common

July 31 – Individual Goat Cheese Souffles – Recipe

Parasols Are Poppin' up All Over…
August 6, 2012
Poached Chicken is a Cook’s Treasure

Poached chicken is something you will often find in our refrigerator, especially when we're busy. It doesn't take long to poach a whole bird, chicken parts on the bone, or boneless chicken. You can poach it in water and aromatic vegetables. But for the bonus of a super rich chicken stock, start with a low-sodium chicken broth.

Here are a link for learning how to poach a chicken. I use the Chinese White Chicken method.

Perfect Steeped White Chicken

Once cooked, you can turn the chicken and broth into chicken soup. Here's how we deal with that option. Variations on a Soup theme

Of course, you or your household guests could turn sliced chicken into a wonderful array of chicken sandwiches. We recommend you grab a loaf of When Pigs Fly Bakery's "Savory Cranberry" bread, or as we call it, "Stuffing Bread." It tastes just like a favorite holiday bread stuffing and makes a great sandwich with some swiss cheese, chicken, and a dab of spicy cranberry chutney.

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Then, there are salads. We're not mayo fans, so we turn our poached chicken into a Curried Chicken Salad with an oil and vinegar dressing. But, traditional chicken salad may be exactly what your family will welcome.

And, from there, you can let your imagination fly. Stir fry some veggies and toss in the chicken to warm it. Heat up some pasta sauce and make a quick chicken sauce.

We even make poached chicken for our favorite pup when she's not feeling peckish and we need to tempt her with something special. She loves it.

A heavy pot like a Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron French Oven is perfect for poaching chicken.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2011 Penny Cherubino

December 20, 2011