August 25, 2020

Dear friends,

I thought I had seen it all when it came to corn. I have steamed, grilled, boiled, baked and microwaved it. I have turned it into ice cream, “milked” it for custard and transformed it into chowder and soufflé. But it turns out I had one more trick to learn: basting grilled corn with miso paste and butter. Yeow.

Miso — fermented soybean paste — is the ingredient I’m learning to reach for when a blah dish needs an extra, inconspicuous bit off oomph. It is more of a supporting player than the main flavor, adding an undefinable richness to a range dishes. Even corn, I learned.

The recipe that turned me on to this trick is from “The Gaijin Cookbook,” which also gave us that sublime mushroom chili recipe for Tofu Coney Island last winter. Author Ivan Orkin devised the corn recipe for a festival in New York City, where he and his wife are based. People went nuts, he said, for their grilled ears of corn basted with a mixture of miso, butter, garlic, sake, mirin and rice vinegar.

For his cookbook, Orkin turned the mixture into a pan sauce for corn sliced off the cob. I turned it back into a baste for corn I grilled over coals on my deck. But first, I had to keep Tony from spooning it right out of the pan. It’s that good.

GRILLED CORN WITH MISO BUTTER

4 ears fresh corn, husked
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. sake
2 tbsp. mirin
2 tbsp. white miso
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
Build a fairly hot charcoal fire or pre-heat a gas grill to medium-high.

Meanwhile, insert long wooden skewers into the fat end of the husked corn, if desired. Keep refrigerated until needed.

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, stirring, until softened but not brown. Deglaze with the sake and mirin (bearing in mind that the alcohol can catch fire if the pan is very hot). Add the miso, rice vinegar and butter and whisk to dissolve the miso. Set aside.

When the coals have ashed over and are glowing, place corn on the grid directly over the coals. Brush the corn with some of the miso butter, turning the ears with tongs. Grill, turning occasionally and brushing with miso butter, until the corn is tender-crisp and beginning to char. Transfer to a plate and brush with remaining miso butter. Serves 4 or, more likely, 2. Possibly one.

Adapted from “The Gaijin Cookbook” by Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying.

GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Rotisserie chicken, baked potato, corn on the cob; pesto, chicken, onion and tomato on whole-wheat toast; egg salad; spaghetti squash baked with ricotta and venison meat sauce; avocado toast with salsa and an egg over hard; edamame protein salad; grilled turkey Italian sausage sandwiches with grilled yellow squash and Tony’s home-grown watermelon.

What I ordered out:
Menchie’s sugar-free strawberry frozen yogurt; ricotta, caramelized onion, spinach and sausage pizza from Good Fellas in Sackets Harbor, N.Y.; half of a ham and cheese sub from Subway.

THE MAILBAG
From Connie, Fairlawn:
Your peaches and elderberry? Sounds great. However, in summer heat I have skipped oven and stove for a quick dessert.  Try slicing whole, ripe peaches and fold in low-fat vanilla yogurt, just enough to coat.  It tastes great to me and seems to keep well in a tight container.

Dear Connie:
Mmmm. My sister-in-law uses low-fat lemon yogurt, which is good, too. Another of my no-stove favorites is fruit spooned over low-fat ricotta cheese with a drizzle of honey.

From Ron C.:
FYI, GetGo in Wadsworth has $3.99 lobster roll salad which is not too bad. Lobster mixed with some pollock or other white fish. Doesn’t compare with the little grocery store near Bass Harbor campground in Maine, but again, not too bad.

Dear Ron:
I wasn’t able to get there before I left on vacation, but it’s on my dance card for my return. I’m sure it won’t rival chef Louis Prpich’s lobster roll at The Chowder House in Cuyahoga Falls, but I’m eager to give it a try.

From Chris F.:
I thought I would ask you to mention in your next newsletter about the dangers of eating elderberries fresh (not cooked). Elderberries contain cyanide and should not be eaten unless completely cooked. My sister and her partner recently ate some with their Sunday dinner and both became quite ill a short time after. I remember an uncle explaining to us kids to never eat the beautiful elderberries growing all around his property in rural Ohio. I’m guessing my sister wasn’t paying attention….

Dear Kris:
I seemed to recall something along those lines and researched the fruit before I picked it. Thank goodness, because you are so right. Baking the berries in the clafouti did the trick, because neither Tony nor I were ill after eating them.

From Christine O.:
You have elderberries! That’s so exciting. Since I moved to Charlotte, N.C., I see elderberry syrup all the time at the farmers’ markets around town. A quart of it sells for at least $20. They swear by it as the cure-all for whatever ails you. So, I had to figure out how to make it. Got a recipe online and ordered dried elderberries (from Ohio!) on Amazon. I have been taking a tablespoon of it every day for over a year. Does it work? I don’t know, but I haven’t been sick. I’ve attached the recipe for you.

ELDERBERRY SYRUP
In a pan combine 1/2 cup dried elderberries with 3 cups water.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, uncovered. Allow to cool slightly, then pour the berries and water into a blender. Blend. Strain, then add 1 cup of honey. Blend well, then store in a sealed glass jar in the refrigerator. Dosage: For adults, 1 tablespoon up to 3 times a day for 5 days. Consult your doctor with concerns, or if your symptoms worsen or persist.

Dear Christine:
Elderberry syrup, an old-time remedy, remains popular. I don’t know how effective it is, but it is an antioxidant. The Internet has recipes for syrup made with fresh berries, too.

August 19, 2020

Dear friends,
I get some of my best ideas from other cooks. This week’s Peach and Elderberry Clafouti sprang to life when I read a Facebook post from Kevin Scheuring, who wrote that his standard dessert this summer has been whatever-fruit-is-ripe clafouti.

At that moment my kitchen counter was heaped with peaches. Just that morning on a circuit of the property I saw the blue-black elderberry heads nodding on their stalks, so heavy they threatened to parachute into the blackberry bushes. I had never used the berries and regretted the waste. Thanks to Kevin, this year I would atone.

Clafouti is a French farmhouse dessert that is so easy to assemble you could make one every night with no sweat. When it is made correctly, the texture is a cross between a soufflé and a custard. The flavor can be whatever you want.

I have made more than one dry clafouti in my life, and this time I wanted to know what I was doing wrong. So of course I turned to Julia Child. Her recipe had me beating the eggs, milk and flour together as usual but then cooking a thin layer of the mixture in the baking pan over a gentle heat on top of the stove. The fruit was strewn across this layer, topped with the rest of the egg mixture and baked.

I don’t know if it was cooking the thin layer first or simply the proportions of the recipe, but the fruit didn’t sink and the clafouti came out puffy, tender and a bit custardy in the middle. In short, perfect.

Peaches and elderberries make a gorgeous clafouti, but feel free to substitute blackberries or raspberries if you lack a source for elderberries. I used a French gratin pan for baking the dessert, but a large, deep-dish pie pan — or any wide, shallow baking dish — would work.

For years I plunged peaches into boiling water, then ice water to loosen the skin before peeling with a paring knife. What bother! Now I just use a vegetable peeler, which works very well if it is sharp.

Whip up the clafouti and pop it in the oven before you sit down to your meal. It takes about an hour to bake and should be eaten hot from the oven. The framework of the recipe is from Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

By the way, Kevin can probably give you some cooking ideas, too, either at Coit Road Farmers’ Market in East Cleveland, which he manages (http://coitmarket.org/ ), or on the Facebook page he helms for Cleveland-area food people, All Things Food in Cleveland, Ohio. Look for the weekly cooking tutorials he hosts from the outdoor kitchen in his backyard. Kevin is one of a kind.

PEACH AND ELDERBERRY CLAFOUTI

1 1/2 cups peeled and sliced (1/4 to 1/2-inch thick) peaches
3/4 cup elderberries, rinsed and drained well
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup flour (scooped and leveled)
Powdered sugar
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Butter a fireproof shallow baking dish that will hold at least 1 1/2 quarts. A gratin pan or deep-dish pie pan will suffice.

Prepare fruit and set aside. In the container of a blender, place milk, one-third cup of the sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute. Pour 1/4 inch of the batter into the prepared baking dish. Set on a burner over moderate heat for a minute or two, until a film of batter has formed on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat.

Drain peaches if juices have collected and scatter the fruit over the batter in the pan. Scatter elderberries. Sprinkle with remaining one-third cup of sugar. Pour remaining batter over the fruit and smooth with the back of a spoon.

Bake on the middle oven rack at 350 degrees for about an hour The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged into its center comes out clean. Sift powdered sugar over the top just before bringing to the table. Eat warm. Serves 6 to 8.

GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
A pot roast, cream cheese and horseradish sandwich; salade Nicoise; peach and elderberry clafouti; edamame protein salad; avocado toast; sweet and sour cabbage and sausages; steamed (white!) corn on the cob; parboiled and frozen green beans; roasted green beans and garlic with olive oil and feta cheese; roasted bell peppers and zucchini; fresh boiled beats, chilled and drizzled with balsamic vinegar; Coney Island Tofu; wheat toast with pesto, tomato and prosciutto, with dead-ripe cantaloupe and a 7-minute hard-cooked egg on the side (great breakfast); grilled corn with miso butter, grilled turkey sausage and stir-fried green beans in a spicy sauce.

What I ate from restaurants, etc.:
Sugar-free strawberry frozen yogurt from Menchie’s; a lush lobster roll with potato chips from Chowder House in Cuyahoga Falls (outstanding!).

THE MAILBAG

From Joy:
I’m sending a recipe for George, the fellow who asked about a pasta recipe with zucchini and garlic he’d read from either your time at the Beacon or perhaps in one of your older posts.

I’m sure this is not the recipe you wrote about in the past but I thought this recipe for pasta with zucchini and lots of garlic, from one of the bloggers I follow, might suffice as it has the same ingredients George had mentioned. This recipe requires a spiralizer but I don’t see why hand or mandolin slicing in desired cuts wouldn’t do.

Garlic Butter Spaghetti with Zucchini Noodles

Dear Joy:
Thank you for the link. We need all the zucchini recipes we can get at this time of year. I did hear from a librarian at the Akron-Summit County Public Library who located in the library’s Special Collections a Second Helpings CD issued by the Beacon Journal. It was just one year’s worth of recipes but I think the photo of the table of contents had George’s zucchini pasta recipe under the French spelling, “courgette.” I can’t find my CD but if someone who has it would copy the recipe and send it to me, I’ll share it with everyone.

From Donna D.:
One of your readers talked about a delicious Shrimp, Corn and Green Bean Salad recipe. How can I find it as well as other recipes you have shared in the past?

Second request has to do with my husband’s obsession with New York Spaghetti House Brown Sauce recipe. I have roasted bones, etc. but can’t seem to duplicate seasonings. Please help! He’s 80 and we’re running out of time!!

Dear Donna:
I thought I had found and printed the recipe for the brown spaghetti sauce once in the Beacon Journal, but a search of the newspaper’s electronic archives turned up nothing. Does anyone have that recipe or a similar one to share?

My recent newsletter recipes are easy to access. Just click on the link to “Jane’s Blog” elsewhere on this page. When you reach my site, scroll to the bottom to find the search function.

August 12, 2020

Dear friends,

This is my favorite week of the year to cook. The tomatoes taste like big, sloppy pieces of candy and the corn is so sweet and fresh it doesn’t even require cooking. Local peaches are finally ripe so I bought a half-peck of Red Havens at Bauman’s Orchards in Rittman on Saturday, and they are waiting for me on the kitchen counter. I think I’ll make a peach and elderberry clafouti, finally using some of the elderberries that grow near my blackberry patch in the side yard.

Tonight (Monday when I’m writing this) I’ll make a salade Nicoise with those ripe tomatoes, our own green beans and a clutch of the baby Yukon Gold potatoes I grew in old 5-gallon soy sauce buckets out back.

Pandemic or no, life is good in Ohio in early August.

Last week was a pretty good week to cook, too. That’s when I invented my new favorite lunch, a protein salad I’ll be making the rest of the summer. I love it because it is crunchy and soft and herbal and so high in protein that it fills me up for the afternoon. That is a minor miracle because I’ve been limiting my calories to 1,200 a day since May, and I’m usually hungry before dinner time (I’ve lost 17 pounds).

The salad requires no cooking, just a bit of chopping and assembling. It is made with three protein-rich foods: Shelled edamame beans, feta cheese and canned tuna. The shelled beans are sold frozen in supermarkets. To save calories, I used low-fat feta and water-packed albacore tuna.

I added diced cucumber and sweet onion for crunch, cubed ripe tomato for a sweet, juicy note, and handfuls of snipped fresh herbs Mint, chives, basil, thyme and tarragon were what I grabbed, but you may use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand.

The salad is dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. A substantial 1 1/2-cup serving has just 184 calories.

EDAMAME PROTEIN SALAD

1 package (10 oz.) shelled frozen edamame
1 can (5 oz.) water-packed tuna (I used albacore)
1/2 cup crumbled low-fat feta cheese
1 1/2 cups peeled and diced (1/2-inch) cucumber
1 cup diced sweet onion such as Vidalia
1 cup diced ripe tomato
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Sea salt to taste
1/3 cup (more or less) finely snipped fresh herbs such as tarragon, basil, thyme, parsley, chives and mint

Empty bag of edamame into a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave on high power for 1 to 2 minutes, until thawed and tender. Place in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss well. Makes 6 1/2 cups, at 184 calories per 1 1/2-cup serving.

GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Pesto, cream cheese, hard-cooked egg and tomato on toast; edamame protein salad; roasted eggplant and garlic salad, corn on the cob, smoked baby back ribs with gochujang barbecue sauce; chunky peanut butter toast with thick slice of tomato and sea salt (wow!); roasted eggplant lasagne with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses; open-face broiled tomato sandwiches with cream cheese, anchovies and mozzarella; corn on the cob; peanut butter and tomato sandwich; slow-cooker pot roast, Indian-ish grated carrot salad, incredible muskmelon from Dunkler’s in Copley.

What I ate from restaurants, etc.:
Stuffed peppers from Sam’s Club; sugar-free strawberry frozen yogurt from Menchie’s; chicken burrito bowl from Casa del Rio Express in Fairlawn. What I really have been craving is a lobster roll from Chowder House in Cuyahoga Falls; this week I’m determined to brave the 5 p.m. traffic.

THE MAIL BAG
From George, Akron:
With zucchini now in abundance, it’s time for one of my favorite recipes—your pasta with zucchini, heavy on the garlic flavor as I remember. After a concerted search, I now turn to you to supply it again. Thanks!

Dear George:
It’s cute that you assume I am organized. I have a few of my favorite recipes in hanging folders and more are stuffed in a big bowl in the kitchen. But I no longer have access to the crack team of librarians at the Beacon Journal — all of whom have been downsized now, sad to say — and my own filing is nonexistent.

I don’t remember that recipe, so we must hope to heck someone else does. If it was in my newsletter since 2015, you can search my blog (follow the link on this page). If it appeared in the newspaper, you can access it online with your library card through the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s website, akronlibrary.org. Go to “Databases” and click on the newspaper’s name under “A” But if the recipe was in my internet newsletter, either Second Helpings or earlier editions of See Jane Cook, we must rely on the hive mind. Does anyone remember a zucchini pasta recipe?

From Anne Marie:
I read your newsletter and the discussions on braised dishes with green beans, stewed tomatoes, onions and garlic. While I have no doubt that similar dishes exists across many cultures, to me it sounds exactly like Loubie Bzeit (several spellings), a Lebanese dish. It’s so easy to make, healthy and one of my favorites, and is available at Aladdin’s. There are dozens of recipes on the web, but my favorite is this one that appeared in Food and Wine in 2007:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/braised-green-beans-tomatoes-and-garlic

Dear Anne Marie:
Thanks. I’m always interested in how recipes from other parts of the world end up here, filtered through our own lens.

From Donna G.:
We, too, have a bumper crop of eggplant. Easiest recipe ever — cut into 1/2-inch slices, salt and sweat. Brush with a little olive oil and put on a hot grill a few minutes on each side. Serve with roasted corn and grilled peaches. I love summer!

Dear Donna:
I do, too! I grill eggplant slices but brush them with sweet soy sauce mid-grill. Grilling does something wonderful to eggplant, right?

From Francie L.:
Just wanted to thank you for the fabulous Shrimp, Corn and Green Bean Salad recipe. My daughter and her husband had been visiting us from San Antonio, which started out as a two-week visit and extended to five weeks. It was lovely having them but my son-in-law is a vegetarian and I was running out of dinner ideas. Luckily I saw your recipe in the morning and was able to pick up green beans and corn at the Jackson Township Farmers Market. It was a huge hit and my daughter even asked for the recipe link.

They are safely back in San Antonio but I’m definitely keeping that recipe on rotation this summer.

Dear Francie:
You were so nice to let me know. I always am thrilled when someone likes a recipe.

August 5, 2020

Dear friends,
I picked seven long, slim eggplants last week and almost whooped with joy. For years my yield was paltry to nonexistent. Finally I grew a decent crop, with more babies in the wings.

I crave eggplant. I may be obsessed with it. It’s one of those foods I hated as a kid but now can’t get enough of. The difference is I don’t fry them in blotter-like slices until they ooze oil, as my mother did. And I favor thin Asian eggplants, which have tender, non-bitter skins.

By the way, my Japanese mother-in-law told me that long, skinny eggplants are NOT Japanese, as Americans often call them. The ones she bought in Hokkaido are stubby little globe-shaped miniatures that are usually pickled. She thought our big globe eggplants were hilarious because to her they seemed comically large.

During the heat wave last week I wanted an easy way to prepare my precious first crop. Frankly, I would have preferred to twitch my nose and just have them appear, cooked, on my plate. That wasn’t going to happen so came up a way to get the most flavor out of them with the least work.

I split the eggplants in half lengthwise, scored the flesh, and arranged them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Then I pulverized an unconscionable amount of garlic with lemon juice and olive oil, spooned that over the eggplants, and roasted them until the edges began to crisp and the centers were creamy-soft. If you like garlic, I bet you’ll love this.

Don’t try this with globe eggplants. Visit a farm market or Asian store for the long, slim eggplants. While you’re in the Asian store, buy a mortar and pestle unless you already own one. It’s the best way to make the garlic emulsion (although you could use a garlic press), and they are relatively inexpensive at Asian stores. Buy one that holds a couple of cups and has rough stone sides. The pretty, petite white mortar and pestle I bought long ago at a kitchenware shop isn’t good for anything but holding rubber bands.

This is sure to become one of my go-to summer eggplant recipes, along with my even simpler recipe of halved, grilled eggplants brushed with kekap manis (sweet soy sauce). How about you? I could use some more no-sweat Asian eggplant recipes if you have any. Temperatures are high and the garden keeps producing.

ROAST ASIAN EGGPLANTS WITH GARLIC AND LEMON

6 to 8 large cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 lbs. (about 7) long, thin Asian eggplants

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Or alternately, build a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill or set gas grill to medium-hot.

Peel garlic and run through a garlic press into a small bowl and add salt or, even better, pulverize with the salt with a mortar and pestle. Pound straight down like a jackhammer until the garlic is smooth and creamy. You need one tablespoon of garlic puree. If necessary, add more garlic. Pound in the oil a little at a time, then beat in the lemon juice with a fork.

Wash the eggplants. Trim and discard the stems. Cut in halves lengthwise and arrange cut-sides-up in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. With the tip of a sharp knife, make several slanted slashes in the white flesh of each eggplant, almost but not quite through to the skin.

With a teaspoon, spoon the garlic mixture over the eggplants, smoothing with the back of the spoon. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the skin at the edges just begin to crisp and the interior is soft and creamy. Alternately, grill with the lid closed and vents wide open until soft and creamy. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

TIDBIT
Just a reminder to use tested recipes, not your grandmother’s recipes, for canning and pickling. Your grandmother didn’t know much about food safety compared to today’s experts, and even if no one in your family died from eating her canned goods, it may just mean no pathogens were floating around her kitchen that day. Do you want to take that chance?

One of the best free sources of information on safely preserving food is the University of Georgia’s National Center for Home Food Preservation at nchfp.uga.edu. Along with a wealth of information about pickling, drying, curing and canning times, temperatures and techniques, the site has a slew of recipes for everything from watermelon rind pickles to dry-cured ham.

GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Pan-grilled gochujang barbecue chicken breast sandwich, steamed asparagus; pan-grilled hamburger patty, green beans in spicy sauce, roast beet salad with feta and balsamic vinegar; pan-grilled chicken breast sandwich with fresh dill and Kewpie mayonnaise, micro-steamed corn; spicy cucumbers with lemon-herb yogurt, grilled strip steaks, steamed corn and baked potatoes; pesto, tomato and scrambled egg on toast; tofu-green bean breakfast scramble; BLTs on toast, steamed corn; egg, bacon, tomato and pesto on toast; roasted eggplants with garlic-lemon sauce, steamed corn; ginger-tofu stir fry with green beans and bell pepper. Note for those who asked: I found silken tofu at Giant Eagle.

What I ate from restaurants, etc.:
Meat loaf and mashed potatoes from Sam’s Club; chicken Valdostano (with mushrooms, prosciutto and fontina cheese in wine sauce), baked ziti with meat sauce and salad with toasted almonds, feta and pears from Vaccaro’s Trattoria in Bath (outstanding, and just $40 for all that for four people).

THE MAILBAG
From Michele M.:
I do love green beans. I put them in Italian potato salad, Greek potato salad, Niçoise salad, with ham and potatoes ( yum! ), and my very favorite pasta dish of green beans, potatoes, and pasta with pesto. I believe it is a Ligurian dish (pesto!). I have been making it for many years, and make and freeze pesto for it. It is truly a taste of summer. I like to over cook the potatoes a little, so they make a bit of a sauce with the pesto and some pasta water. I don’t generally like fresh cracked black pepper, but for some reason a little bit is just right on this. Then I top it with halved cherry tomatoes for some acidity.

Perhaps these ideas will help with your huge bean harvest. I am so jealous.

Dear Michele:
I made that classic Italian recipe once at my friend Lin’s house. I think I have enough beans left for a batch. Thanks for the reminder.

From William B.:
Well, green beans with tomatoes was a hot item a few years ago, but it’s always good. Sauté about a cup of diced onions, 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves (more if you like), about 1/2 bunch of chopped fresh parsley and 3 or 4 large super-ripe tomatoes chopped in about 1/3 cup olive oil until it is all wilted/juicy. Dump in maybe 3 to 5 pounds of snapped washed fresh green beans, add maybe a cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the beans are meltingly tender. Season with salt and pepper. Always good: hot, warm, room temp or cold.

When I was a kid my mom made this with a half bushel of beans. That way there was enough for a family of seven and maybe some leftovers. We usually had to punch those beans and then snap them before lunch so they’d be ready for dinner.

Dear William:
I must have missed that recipe when it was passed around. It sounds like an American country version of that French country dish, ratatouille, which is basically stewed vegetables with lots of garlic. Thanks.

From Dorothy B.:
Just an aside to your remark about green beans for the dogs:
I had a friend who every night when she came home from work opened a can of beans while the dog danced round waiting
anxiously. It was a ritual. He got a full can of cut green beans every single night and absolutely devoured them.

Dear Dorothy:
That put a smile on my face.

From Theresa K.:
One of my favorite summer dishes with corn is to take 3 or 4 bi-color ears off the cob and put in a large skillet with butter, salt and pepper, a splash of half and half, and half of a diced Vidalia onion. Bring to a simmer and add 1 cup of cherry tomatoes cut in halves and a handful of sliced okra. Simmer about 10 minutes and serve. You could probably sub green beans for the okra!

Really tasty and pretty, too!

Dear Theresa:
Thanks for the idea. I make a “succotash” that is similar, but with green beans instead of limas and I skip the tomatoes you use. A little bit of cream adds a world of richness, doesn’t it?

From Chris:
Share those bumper crops with family, friends, food pantries and neighbors! Many people are unable to grow their own and will love you for your generosity.

Dear Chris:
Thank you for the reminder. All of us should be sharing our garden surplus with the needy during this pandemic when so many people — especially children — are going hungry.