Mom's Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers

Each year as the holiday season approaches I find myself thinking about my mother. Everyone who has lost a loved one understands the empty place at the holiday table, and the feelings that go along with that. I am sad that my mom was not here to meet The Chef, and be with Dad at our wedding a couple weeks ago. She would have adored The Chef and I'm sure they would have been great friends. I've talked about my mom's recipes with you guys before. Seems like the summer months really make me miss Mom and some of the things she would make for dinner. She always made a cucumber salad that was so simple and delicious, and a tomato salad with the exact same vinegar and oil dressing. She always made a giant pot of green beans, ham and potatoes, which was a huge family favorite. She made zucchini in the simplest way, sliced, sauteed with sliced onion and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. As a kid I thought I hated zucchini but as an adult I realized how wrong I was.

When my friend Lisa brought all the jalapenos to share to the office, she also brought a big bag of bell peppers. It just so happened to be one of those days that I really didn't know what I was going to make for dinner, nothing was inspiring me, and I knew I'd end up at the grocery store. As soon as I saw the bell peppers I knew I'd have to make stuffed peppers. I snagged three peppers to take home and knew I'd be making Mom's stuffed peppers.

These stuffed bell peppers were a staple of my family's when I was growing up. Dad always grew bell peppers in the garden and Mom always made this version. Unlike the stuffed peppers I see a lot of other people making, this one is not filled with a meatloaf-type mixture. The stuffing is more like beefy Spanish rice with diced tomatoes, herbs and spices, diced onion, garlic and extra bell pepper simmered with rice (Mom always used Minute Rice). She used Italian herbs to season the mixture and each pepper would be topped with a strip, i.e. half a slice, of American cheese before popping in the oven to heat through and brown the cheese. Like Mom, I also use Minute Rice for this recipe but I just say no to processed cheese and instead go with some shredded Colby Jack. I like the peppers to still have texture and bright green color. If you like a softer pepper, steam the unfilled peppers for a few minutes to soften before stuffing and baking.

Mom's Super Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 large green bell peppers

1/2 medium onion

5-6 cloves garlic

2 lb. lean hamburger

1 can Italian seasoned petite diced tomatoes in juice*

1 small can tomato paste

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

2 cups instant rice

2 cups water

olive oil

2 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese

You can use diced fresh tomatoes instead if you like- use about 2 cups diced tomatoes.

Cut 3 of the bell peppers in half lengthwise. Scoop out and discard seeds and membrane. Cut away the stem. Place in 9x13 baking dish and set aside. 

Clean and dice the remaining pepper, the onion and the garlic. Heat a large skillet over medium high eat and add a swirl of olive oil. Add the vegetables and saute for a few minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Crumble the ground beef into the skillet and cook, breaking the meat up, until the beef is cooked. Drain off any accumulated fat.

Add the undrained can of tomatoes, tomato sauce, rice and water to the skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often. Cover, remove from heat and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes. 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a small casserole dish and set aside.

Pile the filling into the peppers and replace in the baking sheet. Pile any remaining filling (there is usually a lot) into the small casserole dish. Cover peppers and extra filling with shredded cheese. Place in oven and bake 45 minutes until peppers are crisp-tender and the cheese is browned and melty.

Serve this favorite Iowa summer dinner with fresh Iowa corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and crusty bread.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Russian Roulette Jalapeno Poppers

It's finally October. The weather, while still pretty warm, is cooling off gradually, Halloween has taken over the stores, leaves are turning, pumpkins are everywhere. I love this time of year.  Scary movies are a big highlight of this time of year for a lot of people and sometimes that includes me. Right now I'm really into American Horror Story. This season's theme revolves around a bizarre cult and plays on the fear of clowns. The clowns are just incredibly creepy, and not very friendly. Lots of scary things going on in this season!! All the movie channels are featuring the usual suspects- Halloween with Michael Myers, that nasty Jason Vorhees who haunts Camp Crystal Lake in the Friday the 13th movies (funny, too, because we have a Friday the 13th this October!), zombies, vampires and probably a Frankenstein here and there if I look hard enough.

I've been invited to a Halloween party this year so........ I need a costume idea. It's so hard to decide what I'd like to be. I prefer to make my own costumes rather than buy store bought ones, they're always so cheaply made and most women's costumes are borderline hooker wear. Sexy witch. Sexy cat. Sexy bat. Sexy cop. Sexy vampire. Sexy doctor. Sexy nurse. You get the idea. I don't really wanna go that route, and who wants to stand around in high heels and fishnets all night anyway? Not this girl. So I have to dig deep into the imagination and find something fun and cute and fully clothed.

Once October rolls around in Iowa the pumpkin patches, corn mazes, apple orchards and fall festivals are in full swing. Families make the trek out in the country to find the perfect pumpkin for jack-o-lanterns, a nice bushel of Iowa apples, apple cider, Indian corn. It's also the end of gardening season, and end of the farmers market season. Another year has gone by and I did not make it to the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market but that's ok.

My friends continue to share their garden goodies with me, this time a big bag of jalapeno peppers. My love for peppers is well known and my friend Lisa brought a big bag to work for me. Half of them were Mammoth jalapeno peppers, great big peppers with the normal heat level and the rest were a cultivar known as Coolapenos, which look and taste exactly like their hot counterparts but have zero heat. They are just as mild as green bells but still have that distinctive jalapeno flavor. Just to make it fun, I piled them all together to make Russian Roulette poppers- you don't know if you're getting a hot one or a cool one. Fun, right? Another fun twist to the recipe, some of them are wrapped in bacon, and some are not, but they are just as delicious both ways. Seriously delicious.

Unlike the breaded and fried jalapeno poppers, these guys are filled with a mixture of cream cheese, Colby Jack, and just because I had some hanging out in the fridge, a scoop of goat cheese, caramelized minced onion and garlic, and mild pork sausage. The filling is wrapped with a strip of smoky bacon and baked until hot, bubbly and golden brown. These easy poppers are great to make ahead and store in the freezer. They are quick to heat from frozen and make great party snacks, football nibbles or a nibbles for a night of scary movies! They are also super easy to prepare and take to a Halloween party if you happen to go to one. What a great way to use up all those peppers at the end of garden season!

Super Easy Party Poppers

fresh jalapeno peppers*

1 pound cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese

1/2 medium onion, minced

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lb mild pork sausage

2 lb bacon

pepper

*This quantity of filling made quite a bunch of poppers. I had a couple pounds of jalapenos to use up. If you make the filling and have extra, freeze it for future batches of poppers.

Prepare the peppers by halving the jalapenos lengthwise. Remove seeds and membrane. Set peppers aside.

Crumble the pork sausage into a small skillet, break up into very small pieces and brown the sausage until cooked through. Drain well and cool. In same skillet heat a small amount, a teaspoon or so, of cooking oil and add the minced onion. Cook over medium heat until softened and just turning golden. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional two minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

In a medium bowl beat the cream cheese and Colby Jack cheese together. Stir in the cooked onion and garlic, and the sausage. Season with pepper.

Use a spoon or knife to stuff the filling into the halved jalapenos. Cut the bacon slices into halves or thirds, depending on the size of the peppers, and secure with toothpicks.

I left some without bacon and they are just as delicious

Place the peppers on parchment lined baking sheets and transfer to the freezer. Freeze until solid, the place peppers in zip top storage bags and freeze.

To serve, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place frozen poppers on baking sheet and place in oven. Bake 25-35 minutes until bacon is crispy and filling is bubbly and browned.

These are great to have on hand for all kinds of occasions. Many nights I get home from work and just don't have the energy to cook a whole meal, and if The Chef is at work, it's just me, a small pan of poppers go in the oven for a quick and easy dinner.

No Recipe Cooking- Not Quite 40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken

It's garlic season in the Midwest. Garlic scapes are making their appearance in farmers markets of gourmet food shops, and all my gardening friends are starting to harvest the garlic they planted last fall.While all the tulip lovers are planting flower bulbs, garlic lovers are planting bulbs of tasty garlic. You can buy specialty garlic bulbs from garden centers or seed catalogs, or you can buy heads of garlic from the grocery store, and plant those- same thing. Like flower bulbs, they require the cold temps of winter to complete their life cycle, and in the spring, as the ground thaws and the air warms, bright green spires of deliciousness being to poke out from the ground.

As your garlic grows you will notice the green shoots start to curl and take on a very unusual look- those are the scapes, and they are just as delicious as the bulbs. Much milder in flavor than the bulbs, scapes are favored by cooks of all levels- blended into a tasty pesto, they are a refreshing change from the licorice-like flavor of basil. Pickled scapes are absolutely wonderful on relish trays, crudite platters, charcuterie boards, anywhere you might use a pickle. If you let some of the scapes grow a bit you will end up with a small cluster of bulbs at the end of the scape- like teeny tiny garlic cloves. Hang on to those guys and plants the in the spring and they will produce a garlic that looks a lot like a scallion, but with flavor in the same garlic family. So delicious!

One of my very favorite, as well as a lot of other peoples' favorite, is that classic recipe for Forty Cloves of Garlic Chicken. You might have seen versions of this roast chicken that is literally roasted with at least forty cloves of garlic. It might seem like a lot, but that garlic mellows into something really beautiful. After you remove the bird from the pan, scoop out most of the cloves, leaving several in the pan to smash and stir into the pan juices. You will not regret it. This chicken itself has the garlicky flavor roasted into it and it's so amazing. You'll soon realize why the dish is so popular. That being said, something you don't have that much garlic on hand, but you do have a cut up chicken......and that's where this dish was born. It's not quite forty cloves of garlic, and not quite that popular recipe but it's pretty darn close and easy to put together and get on the table in no time.

So how do I make it? It's easy, and I rely on a couple products I can no longer live without, Sinful Food Signature Seasoning and Garlic Olive Oil. Here is what I do. Get a chicken- either a package of cut up whole chicken, or whatever pieces you like, legs, wings, thighs, or if you know how, get a whole chicken and break it down yourself. This is often the most economical way to buy chicken and if you break it down like I do, you cut the breast halves in half crosswise so you have four pieces of breast. Trust me on this, they cook quicker and more along the same time as the other chicken pieces and they don't dry out. You absolutely MUST get skin on, bone in chicken for this dish. Boneless skinless breasts just won't cut it. Grab a baking dish, something along the lines of a 9x13 pan or similar size, and spray well with cooking spray. 

Season the chicken pieces liberally with the Signature Seasoning and some fines herbes. Penzey's has a great fines herbes, it's one of my favorites. Arrange the pieces in the dish and tuck a handful of peeled garlic cloves in and around the chicken pieces, and drizzle with a couple tablespoons of the garlic olive oil. Pop in a 375 degree oven and roast for an hour and thirty minutes, until the chicken is golden brown, and the skin is super crispy and chicken is cooked.

Serve the chicken with a fresh salad or green vegetable and lots of crusty bread for sopping up those delicious juices. This dish is awesome even on weeknights and it's super easy because......there is no recipe to follow!

You can get your Sinful Food Signature Seasoning and Garlic Olive Oil by clicking HERE.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored post." As a Brand Ambassador, the company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift or something of value. Regardless,  I only recommend products or services I believe are of good quality and safe. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Kitchen Witchcraft- Making my own herb and spice blends

I love having a garden. I love plants of all kinds. Flowers, vegetables, and especially herbs. They are so useful- so much more than just cooking. Beautiful fragrances, healing powers, food for bees and butterflies, herbs are awesome additions to any garden. I have always been an herb gardener, and as much as I love having fresh herbs to cook with all summer long, living in Iowa mean I do have to be practical and dehydrate some for over the cold winter months. Since I had huge herb gardens, I had TUBS of dried herbs to use and share and experiment with.

So I want to talk about herb blends. Too many times we grab a container of an herb bland at the store because it's there, already made, already bottled for us. But is it better? I don't think so. Made in a huge factory with who knows what kind of quality control and mysterious "stuff" in there.......no thank you! As a cook, you know which flavors go well together, and it isn't hard to figure out what herbs are in a traditional blend like Fines Herbes, so why not make your own blends? If you are like me and grow your own herbs already, it's basically free!  Another plus- you control exactly what's in it, what isn't and make your own decisions regarding salt, organics, and so on. 

So what is an easy first herb seasoning mix to start with? I love Fines Herbes for so many things. It's a classic French seasoning, and as you know, I am so in love with French flavors- it's a natural place to start. Just five easy-to-grow herbs make up the classic blend and here they are:

1/4 cup parsley

1/4 cup chervil

2 tablespoons thyme leaves

1/4 cup chopped chives

2 tablespoons tarragon

Crumble all the dried herbs together in a bowl. Makes about 1 cup. 

Here at home I make all kinds of blends from meat rubs to my own all-purpose seasoning for veggies and herbs. It's awesome in egg dishes and in a pinch can pass for Italian seasoning.

1/4 cup dried oregano

1/4 cup dried thyme

1/4 cup dried basil

2 tablespoons dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried sage

Like before, crumble everything into a bowl, jar up and label. 

Spices are a little trickier- not all of them are something you can grow yourself, but many are. Peppers, dried and ground, make paprika and pepper seasonings of all kinds, from mild to roaring hot. Ginger, onion and garlic can also be dried and ground yourself.

Paprika is something I often make myself at home. I never get exactly the same flavor either, which makes it fun! I like to start with a base of red bell pepper or red gypsy pepper, which are mild with zero heat. From there things get really fun. Hatch, Guajillo and Pasilla chilies are great for making your own paprika. Hatch vary greatly in heat too so it's fun to test my finished product. Smoking the peppers beforehand gives you smoked paprika- oh so delicious. When I make my own paprika I don't have to worry about all the chemical anti-caking ingredients and preservatives, or color enhancers. Just peppers. 

Still buying packets of taco seasoning? You don't have to- here is a super quick and delicious taco seasoning you can make yourself, in big batches and store in a jar. Add to taste to meat or seafood for fantastic tacos without all the salt and fillers like cornstarch and flour-

1/4 cup dried minced onion

1/4 cup paprika- mild or hot

3 teaspoons ground cumin

3 teaspoons dried garlic

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper (adjust if you like it mild or hot)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

I dehydrate my own onions and garlic and grind them in a food processor to get garlic powder, and chop onions before drying for onion "flakes"- works great in this recipe. I make multiple batches of this mixture and store in a jar. To use it, I use 3-4 tablespoons and a splash of water when cooking taco meat. 

Italian Seasoning is a classic, and so super easy to mix up. It's pretty universal- parsley, basil, thyme, oregano and marjoram. I grow loads and loads of parsley and, with Mother Nature's cooperation, tons of basil so big batches are the norm around here. 

Chervil, thyme, dill and parsley make a great herb combo for fish and seafood. Thyme has a lemony aroma and bright flavor and we all know dill is made to go with fish! If you have chervil growing, add that as well. You won't be disappointed. This sprinkle is delicious with vegetables too, especially roasted spring asparagus and grilled summer squash. 

What's been missing up to this point? Rosemary. Known for it's piney scent and rich flavor rosemary mixes well with just about any herb but it can overwhelm and over power some of the milder herbs. Pork, lamb and beef take to rosemary beautifully, as does roast poultry. I use my mini food processor to pulverize and break up the dried rosemary- it is VERY difficult to crush with your fingers. Rosemary is one of the herbs in another classic French seasoning- Herbes de Provence. This blend uses a lot of thyme, which is a flavor I just love. I always grow lavender in my herb garden (flowers and leaves are edible) and that is also part of this mixture. You need-

1/4 cup dried thyme

2 tablespoons dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried savory

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

2 teaspoons dried lavender flowers

1 teaspoon fennel seed 

I make my own meat rub as well. I keep it in a big jar on the counter and use is all the time. It's easy to make, and different every time. I start with a cup or cup and a half of brown sugar and then.......bring on the herbs and spices. I literally stand in front of my spice bookcase (yes, I have a bookcase filled with jars of herbs, spices, dried peppers, tomatoes, onions, and so on) and whatever sounds good gets dumped in the bowl. Dried minced onion, garlic powder, some crumbled herbs, tomato powder*, paprika, until I like what I see and love what I taste.

*Tomato powder is made from the peels of tomatoes I have canned or sliced tomatoes- dehydrated and then ground in the food processor to a powder. It's a great substitute for tomato paste when you need just a smidge- mix enough powder and water to form a paste. It's a great way to add loads of flavor.

Of course, no story about seasoning would be complete without a great big jar of mulling spices. I like to make BIG batches and use it for spiced cider, mulled wine, and more gifts. Sometimes I just heat a little in a small saucepan with just water to perfume the whole house. This makes a big batch so make sure you have some big jars.

3 cups broken/crushed cinnamon sticks

3 cups dried chopped/broken orange peel

1 cup whole allspice

1 cup whole cloves

1/2 cup star anise, broken if you like

I save orange and citrus peel throughout the year and just add to my big jar of dried peel. Just make sure to get as much of the bitter white pith off before you dehydrate the peel. This blend uses a larger quantity of spices- you can get good deals in the bulk section of grocery or specialty store or online from spice shops such as Penzeys. 

Since I'm saving all this money growing my own herbs and making my own mixes, I don't want to spend a bunch on containers to store them in so I save jars. The Chef used to think I was a jar hoarder until he realized that even those teeny tiny anchovy jars make great jars for little gifts. I'm recycling, keeping plastic and glass out of the landfill and have lots of unique sizes and shapes to decorate for gifts and my spice bookcase looks interesting!

2015's Season of Super Hots

It's time for gardening again, finally! This summer we are again growing some super hots at The Little Lake House after taking a summer off and growing only the "milder" Serrano, Habanero and Jalapeno peppers. Instead of going with more ghost peppers, Cayennes or Aji Limons we are trying some new varieties instead.

Thanks to my good friend Paul Quick, from Quick's Hot Spice, which by the way is a website you really need to check out, we have several pretty exciting varieties to grow this year. Paul makes his own hot pepper seasoning blends and has some pretty big-name local customers! Anyway, over chatting about the upcoming garden season I mentioned that I had not started any hot pepper seeds in time, and would be stuck seeing what the local nurseries have in stock, and Paul offered some of his extra seedlings! Folks, I tell ya, it's all about who you know!

Pretty fantastic selection of pepper plants!

So what do we have growing this year? Hang on to your antacids folks. It's about to get warm in here.

First up, the Kraken Scorpion. The Kraken Scorpion comes from Fords Fiery Foods. This pepper is known as an F3 chocolate scorpion x bhut assam jolokia. The pods are LARGE and brown in color, often larger than a baseball or small bell pepper. I am super excited to grow this guy! Pictures I found online are gorgeous big shiny peppers, and from what I hear, ridiculous heat!

Hot banana peppers from a couple summers back

The Infinity Naga is next on the face-melting list. Of all the peppers in the world, this one surprises me the most, for the mere fact that it was created by a British chili breeder. My experience with British foods, in the years I lived there, was bland and unexciting so I was quite surprised to read that in Lincolnshire, Nick Woods created this pepper that held the Guinness World Record for the hottest pepper for a whole two weeks before being unseated by the Naga Viper. Topping out at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale, this little pepper is not playing around. Serious heat!

Our first successful ghost chili in the garden in 2013.

I have been planning on growing unusual tomatoes, like blue cherry tomatoes, brown tomatoes, so of course, I was thrilled to find Paul had included a chocolate brown pepper, the Black Congo. This Caribbean pepper is quite a striking beauty with it's dark and shiny skin and deep chocolate color. It's a Habanero, but is much hotter and larger than the common Hab we see in the stores. Apparently it's a favorite in fruit salsas but I think I'd prefer it in a savory dish.

Paul always adds a little sample of his spicy pepper seasoning
blends- you need to get on the website and get some!

Peppers not only taste delicious but many of them are quite decorative as well. In my hunt for odd colored veggies, purple peppers kept appearing in the garden catalogs, and also in my goody package from Paul! I can't wait to see the Morango. This Portugese pepper is probably one of the most exciting varieties I have ever grown. Little peppers grow in clusters like little bouquets of pepper happiness. They are purple too! This is going to be so much fun for me!

Food Culture

I was driving home by myself today after a job interview and decided to stop into Half Price Books real quick and see what they had on the shelves. They moved to a new bigger location a while back and I hadn't been there yet. Only one section was of interest to me today, and after making a couple selections and heading home, I found myself thinking about food culture, and how much my "hobbies" are influenced by it. I asked myself, what exactly IS "food culture" anyway? What does that mean?

So I broke out the laptop when I got home and did a little research. The first thing I found was a definition, from ExperimentalStation-  the cultivation, distribution, preparation, and appreciation of delicious and healthy food. Sounds pretty spot on. The Huffington Post  and numerous other websites have an entire sections on their websites devoted to food culture. I'm obviously onto something here. If I had to come up with a definition of food culture I think I would say that food culture is a combination of food-influenced experiences, from the basic vegetable garden to food-centered travel, education, and entertainment with people of similar interests. 

When talking about cultivation of food we can start right in the backyard of many Americans- in the backyard vegetable garden. Flower gardens are lovely but you cannot (generally speaking) eat them. As an Iowan I can tell you there is nothing better in the summer than a big fat juicy tomato, still warm from the sun and stifling humidity of the August garden, sliced and piled on a sandwich. There is nothing better, except maybe a big platter of steaming hot buttery Iowa sweet corn. I know I have many friends that share just this one commonality with me- we love to garden, and we grow our own food.

My garden, full of tomatoes, peppers, radishes, beans 

Another popular summer activity around here that definitely fits into the definition of food culture is the farmers market. I can't speak for every city, but Des Moines has one of the best farmers markets in the country. Every Saturday morning the entire Court Avenue District is transformed into a bustling outdoor market, with dozens and dozens of vendors- fresh produce, ethnic foods, handmade items, baked goods, garden plants, organic meats and eggs- everything you can think of. Food culture at it's finest and definitely fits into the distribution category of the definition. Besides the huge downtown market, many smaller markets pop up all over the city, the suburbs, and small towns across the state. You may choose not to have a garden, or may not be able to, but you still have access to some of the finest fresh produce in the world. For someone like me the farmers markets are a great source for vegetables and fruits that I don't want to mess with growing. I don't need a plantation sized garden AND I get to know some of the growers, meet friends, and before you know it, food culture is once again an influence on my life.

Culinary Fight Night, January 11, 2015

Preparation- in Iowa, be prepared to have your tastebuds rocked. Des Moines has evolved into quite an interesting place for exploring food culture. The city boasts some of the country's most progressive chefs and food professionals, and is home to some out of this world food-themed festivals and conventions. There was once a time when you had to book a hotel and flight to a much larger city to experience food and wine festivals and things of that nature, but not anymore. The state of Iowa has more than a hundred wineries, distilleries and breweries that produce some of the best products in the country. Des Moines is buzzing with them- a winery sits just south of downtown, which isalso home to several cool breweries. You can learn to make your own wine, brew your own beer, attend cooking classes of all kinds. Cooking competitions between professional chefs and home cooks are fun to attend. Des Moines and small towns alike offer some of the best restaurants around, all price ranges, all different kinds of cuisines, casual and kid friendly to starched tablecloth formal. You don't need to visit New York or Chicago for a James Beard nominated chef to prepare your meal- you can get that right here.

Appreciation.......oh I appreciate it alright. My own life is totally immersed in food culture. For me, reading a book means pulling a cookbook off the shelf and reading cover to cover. No sitcoms for me, rather I spend my television time watching cooking shows, documentaries about food, even movies that are centered around a common theme- food. With a chef in my life I am never without a wonderful meal or new way to prepare a dish. It's even grown within my family. One of my daughters gave up a successful corporate career to pursue a completely new career path- restaurant management. Just so happens she works with one of those James Beard Award nominees. She also shares her life with a chef- who has an impressive professional resume as well. For them, travel is to a food destination- weekend in New York City visiting Michelin Star restaurants for chefs' tastings, a quick trip to Austin to explore the food truck scene.

Being so immersed in food culture influences so many aspects of my life. My pop culture icons are completely different than, say, a hardcore sports fan's might be. I will stand in line for the chance to meet and get an autograph from a celebrity chef that I follow. It's actually kind of funny to think about it- how easily my interests morphed into this. I've always had an interest in cooking and certainly my childhood helped feed that interest- my dad was the 70s version of a foodie, always watching cooking shows on PBS, collecting cookbooks, and taking the family to all different kinds of restaurants at home in Minnesota, Iowa, on weekends in Chicago and even all over Europe. Not many elementary kids can say they ate steak tartare at a cafe in Stuttgart, or grilled trout caught minutes before (by my dad) and a catch-your-own place in Italy. It's safe to say, I grew up surrounded by food culture.

Home canning is a food culture all of its own.

It's not a bad thing, not at all. If anything it's a real gift. I feel like I can make informed choices about food, I know where my food comes from and I know how to prepare it so it retains as many nutrients as possible. I love trying new foods, learning new techniques and making new friends who share this passion. I can pickle my own vegetables and bake a dacqouise, bake a loaf of bread and fry chicken. I grow tomatoes in my yard and drive all the way to Kansas City to shop at Dean and Deluca for spices. Goofy? Sure, but why not have a little fun? Come to think of it....I feel like baking that dacquoise.......

Tomato, tomahhhto

It just wouldn't be an Iowa summer without the tomato. There is nothing better than crisply cooked bacon, crispy fresh lettuce and still warm from the garden sliced tomato on toasted bread. Beats ANY lobster or steak you could set in front of me, hands down. It can't just be any old tomato though. You have to grow these yourself, or get them from a friend. No grocery store tomato EVER tasted this good. What is it about a home grown tomato that makes it so special?

For one thing, you put in all the man-hours. Digging, planting, watering, supporting, pruning, watching for pests, more watering. Maybe you even started them from seed yourself- which makes them even more special. With thousands of varieties of tomatoes available, you can have any size, any color, any flavor, any acid level you could ever want. Tomatoes for fresh eating. Tomatoes for canning. Tomatoes for paste. Cherry tomatoes. Grape tomatoes. Yellow, orange, even purple tomatoes. Peach tomatoes that even have a little bit of fuzz on their skin. Heirloom or hybrid. Beefsteak or Early Girl. I can spend hours in a garden center browsing the tomatoes. I almost always pick up more than I have room for, which means more containers to be bought, more soil, more work, more tomatoes! You might have also spent years amending the soil and planting different things to get just the right, perfect, happy garden soil tomatoes thrive in. You spent hours weeding and inspecting your plants, always keeping an eye out for the dreaded tomato hornworm.

Cherry tomatoes **

Every winter I look forward to the inevitable arrival of the gardening catalogs. Ahhhh yes, like Christmas in February, these catalogs will be well worn by the time I'm done with them. Circles around all sorts of vegetables, but especially......tomatoes. The long, cold Iowa winter can be quite depressing, but seeing all the beautiful vegetables in the catalogs gives me hope for warmer times to come. As a home canner, I like to find higher acid tomatoes (for safety) and thicker meaty tomatoes like Romas and San Marzanos for paste and sauce. Salsa can be lots of fun when you use different colored tomatoes. Mr. Stripey is one of my very favorite heirloom tomatoes. So are yellow pear tomatoes- they are awesome for low and slow long roasting and covering with olive oil for future use (store in the freezer). 

Heirloom tomatoes **

Some people prefer hybrid tomatoes for their disease resistant qualities and high yields. Celebrity tomatoes are a variety I have grown myself and really liked. Good tomato for fresh eating and pretty good for salsa and canning chunks. I know I have tried many others but don't remember all the names. Sometimes I'll be browsing at a greenhouse or garden center and just grab a pack of plants that looks nice and healthy- they may or may not have a tag even! I just know whatever the variety, the warm Iowa summer will produce the best, juiciest and tastiest tomatoes no matter what kind they are.

The really fun thing about those hybrid tomatoes is the future of those seeds. Every year somehow I end up with some seeds left behind, whether it's the last yucky tomato left on the vine or one that dropped off the plant, those seeds end up on the ground, survive the Iowa winter and produce something that just makes me so happy every year- volunteers. I love finding them hidden among the weeds underneath my deck, growing in cracks on the sidewalk and between the gravel of the driveway. This year I found three volunteers in the middle of my front yard. They had sprouted up and grown like crazy and I happened to notice them on a stroll through the yard to check on beans and cucumbers. I immediately had to dig them up and transplant them!! Can't let them be mowed down by the mower! What makes these volunteers so much fun to me? I have no idea what I am going to end up with! They might be heirloom seeds and I'll have three more Mr. Stripeys or Romas to play with. If they were a hybrid I won't get the hybrid again- I'll end up with what I call "golf balls", or golf ball sized tomatoes. They are roughly double the size of a cherry tomato but not big enough to be a good slicer. They do, however, make excellent tomatoes for puree, for drying (cut in half and dehydrate for "sun dried tomatoes"), and for fresh eating in salads. Plus they're FREE !!!

Three tomato volunteers in the yard!

Since repotting in great big pots on my deck they have more than doubled in size in just a week! They are starting to blossom and it won't be long before baby tomatoes appear on these gifts from Mother Nature. I'll happily take them! I can't wait to see what kind of tomato I end up with!

**Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia