 I vividly remember the ice cream man from my childhood. The bell would ring and the kids in the neighborhood poured out of their houses anticipating their cool treat.
When we moved to Saint Louis, the thrill was finding out about Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. Nothing compares to standing in line and looking forward to your concrete order being turned upside down to bring a new adventure to this simple treat. I still listen for the ice cream truck in our Carondelet neighborhood with the campy music and loud “hello” with fondness. It reminds me of the joy of having this wonderful dessert to cool off in the heat of the summertime.
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 Our bonus family loves to challenge us with recipe ideas. Over the holidays, our kids were raving about a spicy cauliflower appetizer they had at Bristol Seafood Grill. After a number of funny texts, we were even offered a potential recipe. We just got our seeds to plant our cauliflower in the Carondelet Garden for a Fall harvest, so we thought we better get serious about accepting this challenge. For the first round, we used half and half and panko to bread the cauliflower before baking in the oven. The sauce, which we doubled, consisted of wing sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and soy sauce. We heated up the sauce as the cauliflower did its first bake. After brushing on the sauce, we did a second bake. We are still tinkering with the recipe, but I am confident we are on track to make this Brassica shine. We plan to do several more experiments before serving this to our kids. They will be the ultimate judge on whether we met their challenge.
 I have never questioned my Big Guy’s love, but I know I test it in the summertime when the tomatoes come in at different times. I have learned to freeze my San Marzano tomatoes, but the beef tomatoes don’t tolerate it well. It is inevitable, I’ll wake up one day and decide today is the day to make the sauce. The work is not hard, but it takes time and having his help is priceless. We have a great system in place to deal with our small batches now that includes him peeling the tomatoes while I work on roasting the vegetables that we like in our sauce. We add another layer of fun by having a pot going to make vegetable stock with the peelings. I find it amazing this process was a once-a-year thing we did with our friends but having tomatoes in the backyard tends to bring us to the kitchen more than once a year. I hope you know sarcasm when you read it since I absolutely love every minute of it!
 Big Guy has pulled his onions and garlic from the garden to dry and store for the upcoming months. I was being patient for my tomatoes to ripen but The Summit, which stubborn St. Louis folks will continue to call Kirkwood Farmer’s Market, posted they had shipments of ripe tomatoes in stock. My patience evaporated and I had to grab city car for a quick trip to buy tomatoes and fresh bread. We look forward to making bruschetta each summer which has become our harbinger of summer. Except for my beautiful Illinois tomatoes and oil and balsamic vinegar, the rest of the bruschetta ingredients came from our garden. It was heaven and the flavors were powerful and fresh. I have never had garlic easily peel or have my onion taste so sweet or have my basil taste so wonderful. I confess we always think the first bruschetta mix of the summer is the best, but I am betting on my own tomatoes. I just hope Mr. Squirrel is not too greedy this year and leaves us an allotment to enjoy!
  I have fallen in love with roasted vegetables. It is easy, and the flavor profile can be changed and enhanced with infused oils, spices or even cheese.
I guess it will come as no surprise that I adore grilled vegetables as well. Big Guy enjoys getting out his grill and working on the perfect char on the vegetables. There is nothing more special than adding a roasted pepper to your recipes to kick up the flavor. In fact, Big Guy has been known to dig a path of snow in the wintertime to get to his grill. You would think he was throwing down a steak, but often it is to get that summertime flavor of the grilled vegetables. Just another reason to love my guy!  Big Guy got his wish! Our tomatoes started to come in along with our onions and garlic. Add in the basil and we were able to make a small batch of marinara solely from our garden. We were both hoping we could hold out a little longer on the tomatoes to make a big batch, but it will come soon. It was just fun to get into it again on a smaller scale. We decided to make a short rib ragu out of the sauce since we had the perfect amount to make this initial batch extra special. I roasted the onion and garlic, while the Big Guy pulled out the grill to tackle the tomatoes and short ribs. The sauce has taken on a smoky flavor from the tomatoes and short ribs. Life is good!     I have really come to appreciate Swanson’s beef and chicken broths to make my soups in the Fall. I know I should make the broths myself, but in this case, it is cheaper to buy the cans and concentrate on the flavors of the rest of my ingredients.
While I seldom think to buy vegetable stock, I started experimenting last year with my tomatoes from the garden. I realized I did not want to throw away, or compost, all the delicious vegetables I was putting into my marinara and salsa sauces without giving them one last chance to give something back. The fun part is you throw in everything from the stems to the roots. It was a great excuse to get rid of those vegetables in the refrigerator that were almost past their prime. As I tend to drain the juice from my tomatoes for my other recipes, I started with a decent liquid base. I let it cook until everything gets soft, drain out the big pieces, run the broth through a fine sieve, and enjoy a beautiful vegetable broth. It kicked up my vegetable soup last year, so I look forward to a repeat performance!  There is an adage that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. I enjoyed my chosen profession, but it was just a job to me.
It’s been one year since I started writing “Our Carondelet Kitchen” to provide an outlet for my thoughts about everyday life while highlighting stories and images from my kitchen, neighborhood, and greater St. Louis area. It also became a great collaboration with my Big Guy who provides all the graphic and social media support. We have lived other places but St. Louis and especially the Carondelet neighborhood is our home and has been for over 30 years. Thanks for joining a couple of “Super Cool Old People” and our Doodle Dog as we explore this great City of Saint Louis. We will continue to share our adventures, family recipes, favorite playlists, old stories, and new discoveries, all rooted in conversations from our southside bungalow. You are always welcome in “Our Carondelet Kitchen!”  Big Guy and I love Italian food. We talk constantly about making our own pasta, but why go to the effort when we have great selections at the grocery store made by local artisans.
As I am not being creative with my pasta, but I promise I will this Fall, I have been mixing up my sauces. You may recall we made marinara last year which is sadly dwindling down in supply. Come on tomatoes! As other vegetables are coming in, I opted to make my version of a pasta primavera, which I discovered is an American dish with a cream cheese sauce, using my marinara sauce as a base. I added tomatoes, onions, garlic, asparagus, sugar snap peas, carrots, and roasted red peppers but you could use any vegetable of your choice. In my case, a mix of vegetables in my crisper to avoid waste enhanced with fresh vegetables from the garden and market made up the rest of my ingredients. This is a quick and effortless way to make dinner and sneak in extra vegetables for good health!
I love a good steak with roasted vegetables. There is something so satisfying about this meal with the perfect glass of red wine.
I started preparing the meal by cutting up the vegetables from both our garden and the refrigerator crisper. Once I sliced everything up, I tossed the vegetables in salt, pepper, garlic salt and Tuscan herb oil thanks to my neighbor who shared her favorite bottles of oil with me. I placed it on a sheet pan and popped it into the oven at 375 degrees. Big Guy got to work on the filet mignon. He seared the steak first to get those nice grill marks then put it in the oven to finish off in reconstituted steak sauce from the freezer. We opened a bottle of Pinot Noir and waited in great anticipation for this meal. If I may be so bold, it was a meal to remember and rivaled my memory of a great steak dinner at our local restaurants. |
AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
October 2024
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