you're radishing

I've never liked radishes. Both spicy and bland at the same time, I couldn't stand those weird, watery little guys. But I kept running across a radish, butter and salt combo that sounded intriguing if only because people kept saying how good it was. That seemed impossible to me, so when I found a bag of radishes for less than a buck at the store I thought that even if I hated them at least it was an experiment that would only cost me 99 cents.

So as I was making dinner one night I sliced up one of the radishes, spread a little butter on them and sprinkled them with a little French grey sea salt. And while my mind wasn't blown, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the salt, even more so than the butter, balanced out the spiciness of the radish. And after the butter sat out a little bit and became spreadable it might have even been a little better. I would say that when looking for a bit of a salty, crunchy snack salted radishes do the trick.

But now I had an entire bag of radishes, and while I liked the above well enough, I wasn't about to eat an entire bag of radishes that way. In search of something new, I found this recipe for Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter and Lemon, which looks delicious, but wasn't quite what I was looking for. I was hoping for more of a chip-like preparation. None of the recipes were quite what I was looking for, so I made up my own based on my vast experience of throwing vegetables in the oven and cooking them until they're GBD: golden, brown and delicious.

1 lb bag of radishes

salt

pepper

seasoning

olive oil

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with tin foil. Brush with olive oil to coat. Slice radishes as thinly as possible. Arrange on tin foil in one layer. Cover radishes with one layer of paper towel and blot to soak up some of the excess water on the radishes. Discard paper towel. Brush radishes with a light coating of oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper--we used crushed schezuan pepper (which adds a nice sweetness) and black lava salt. Cook for 10 minutes and flip each radish over (I did this by hand, easier than with a spatula). Cook for another 10 minutes. Remove any radishes that are light brown in color. Cook the rest for 5-10 minutes until all are a light, golden brown.

I assume these can be served cool, but we finished them before they got that far. 

*This is very tasty, but a bit of work. Start to finish it took about an hour, which is a lot for how few/small the chips are in the end. But it is a good way to go if you've got lots of radishes to consume. 

lemonized grilled veggies

One of my favorite things about summer is grilling. And nothing is as good on the grill as veggies (I mean, steak is obviously the best, but veggies are a very close second). This recipe flavors the vegetables up front while also creating a dressing to toss them in after they've been grilled.

3-4 rainbow peppers

1 zucchini

1 summer squash

1 onion

2 lemons

1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tbsp spice mixture

The original recipe I found for this used harissa as the spice mixture, but we didn't have any on hand so we used a signature blend of spices from a shop in St. Augustine, FL - anything flavorful will work.

Cut the vegetables into large chunks (so they don't fall through the grill grates). Cut 1 lemon in half lengthwise. Place everything in one large bowl. 

Whisk together juice of second lemon, olive oil and spice mixture to create a dressing. Pour over vegetables and mix to coat.

Grill veggies, including the cut lemon, over high heat until the zucchini and squash are soft and the skin of the peppers has blackened.

Return grilled veggies to bowl with leftover dressing, squeeze juice of grilled lemon over everything and mix to coat one more time. Serve. 

less than smooth smoothie

Smoothies are meant to be an easy thing to throw together, but I always find I never quite make them right. But I finally figured it out and wanted to capture it for all posterity.

All Fruit Smoothie

1 banana
1 peach
10-12 raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup half and half (or more depending on how thick you want it)
1 tbsp honey

Blend everything together. Drink!