Zucchini Quinoa Cakes with Tzatziki Sauce

If I was being honest I would tell you that it’s been 1 year and 28 days since I last posted here.

Then I would confess how during that time I’ve made countless amazing meals and selfishly not shared them with you.

At some point I would admit that despite all the excuses floating around in my head, my absence boils down to pure laziness.

But we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to talk about what I’ve been doing for the last year, or how I let my own insecurities get in the way of a good thing, or how I am often my own worst enemy, or how I constantly compare myself to others and in my own mind always fall short. Let’s just not go there, okay?

Instead lets talk about these patties. Let’s talk about zucchini, chick peas, scallions and Tzatziki. Oh my god Tzatziki! Do you know about this tangy yogurt based sauce? I love this stuff so much that I want to slather it on everything. Seriously, what’s not to love about a creamy sauce filled with crunchy bits of cuke, tangy dill and a hint of garlic? In the traditional sense Tzatziki is a Greek sauce used on Gyros and falafels, but in my world it’s become my go to sauce for everything from chicken to lentils. It’s also super easy to make and tastes best the next day when all the flavors have melded into an explosion of tastiness.

My first time making homemade Tzatziki was as an accompaniment for some chicken gyros, and I instantly fell in love. After that I became obsessed and devised as many ways as possible to consume this awesome sauce. This week in my quest to use up last week’s farmers market purchases I decided to make some zucchini quinoa patties. Of course, my mind immediately thought of Tzatziki as a topping. These little cakes of deliciousness would be great tucked inside a pita pocket and drizzled with sauce, but due to a grocery store fail we were out of pitas, and instead ate them on a bed of lettuce. The verdict? Tzatziki + zucchini + quinoa = yum.

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Frozen Raspberry + Peach Pie

I don’t know about where you live, but around here it’s been seriously hot and humid. We’re talking frizzy hair, sweaty body, lethargic brain kind of hot. The kind of hot where you just wanna lay on the grass under a sprinkler all day, eat ice cream till your tongue freezes, or consume half a frozen fruit pie before you remember to take pictures of it. Yeah,that kind of hot.

Maybe the heat’s made me a little wacky, or maybe I was already a little wacky, but for some reason lately I’ve had the urge to bake a pie. A pie with fresh raspberries and juicy peaches.

Bake a pie in this heat? Probably not the best idea. But I still want pie!
It seemed I was destined to lead a pieless existence until the weather cooled off. But wait…I have the perfect solution. A pie baked on the grill! Recently I’ve been obsessed with the idea of baking some kind of dessert on my grill. I think it started when I got this cool griddle accessory for my grill. Other people may think pancakes, potatoes, or sausages when they see a griddle. Not me, I think pie. Not the fancy kind of pie with crimped edges and a pretty lattice crust, but the rustic kind where jagged edges of dough fold up over the fruit and the filling threatens to burst out the sides. I think the proper term is a Crostata. But since I’m not very proper I’ll just call it a rustic pie or tart. Here’s the thing though. It was too hot to even turn on the grill. The thought of standing over the hot grates and attending to my pie/tart was unbearable. So I abandoned that idea too.

Right about now you’re probably wondering why I’m even telling you about this pie on a grill idea since I didn’t actually make it. Umm…well, maybe cause I’m still thinking about it and ideas shared out in the world are much more likely to come to fruition then ones left rattling around in my head. The thing is that I still very much want to make a pie on the grill. But this heat has left me cranky, impatient, and craving something cold & refreshing. So for now a frozen no-bake fresh fruit pie will have to stand in as substitute. A pretty yummy substitute. And crazy easy to make…even on a hot, sweltering day.
You start with a graham cracker crust. Store bought or homemade, it doesn’t matter. I made my own by combining melted butter with graham crackers, brown sugar and bit of cinnamon. I then patted it into a pie plate and stuck it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. See, I told you- no bake!

Next comes the filling. Cool whip, vanilla yogurt and raspberry-peach puree. Simple, simple, simple.

More fresh fruit on top and then in the freezer it goes. Now comes the hard part- waiting for it to freeze. My advice? Have a popsicle while you’re waiting…or two, or three. Or better yet, sneak into your neighbors yard and jump in their pool. Splash around for a few hours and when you come back the pie will be ready. Tell them I said it was alright.

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Sugar Pea Pasta with White Wine Sauce

Remember me? I used to come here several times a week to share recipes and foods. Well…you might have noticed that I’ve been absent for awhile now. My last post was (gasp) over a month ago. I never intended to stay away so long, but now I’m back with an interesting story and a fabulous recipe. First the story. Do you remember way back in mid-April when I announced that my husband and I were planning on selling our house with the intention of living and traveling in our airstream for several years? We did it! That’s right- our house sold in the unbelievably short time of two weeks, the closing was six weeks later, and here we are today one and half weeks into our journey. So you can understand why I haven’t had much time for food blogging. In fact, the last two weeks before the closing I barely had time to cook anything beyond slapping together a random sandwich with whatever happened to be hanging out in the fridge. Things have changed though. Life has slowed to a pleasant pace and I’m more than ready to jump back into cooking. And thrilled that I once again have time to share my recipes with you. As with everything in life, my new living situation is not without challenges. The biggest one so far has been adjusting to my ultra mini traveling kitchen.Here is the kitchen in our aristream. As you can see it’s kind of, umm…small, tiny, microscopic. Surprisingly functional though. Everything has a place and I mean come on- two square feet of counter space is enough to cook anything right? Hmm…maybe not. I’m making it work though. I have a custom cutting board that fits nicely over one side of the sink and a fold up counter extension to the left of the stove where I usually assemble my ingredients before cooking. This is actually a great space because it’s right in front of the door which means enough light comes in to take an okay picture.

Tiny kitchen challenge aside, life in the airstream is wonderful! Travel, nature, adventure, new people, new foods, what could be better? My hope for this space is that it will turn into a sort of traveling cooking blog. A place where I can share my culinary adventures as I seek out local foods and turn them into meals. Sometimes I will share stories of the places we visit, such as wineries or farms, and sometimes I will just share the cooking part. I have a ton of exciting ideas, like a grilling series (dessert on the grill anyone?), a tiny kitchen cake baking challenge, an all local feast, and much,much more. I hope you will enjoy following along on my journey as much as I will enjoy sharing it with you. Oh! I almost forgot, if you want to see more pictures of our airstream or learn more about our traveling adventures hop on over to our travel blog at watsonswander.com.

Now on to the recipe. We spent all of last week in the Finger Lakes region of NY. If you don’t already know, this area is famous for it’s wines. There are wineries everywhere!  Most of them are conveniently located along the shores of the lakes with gorgeous views of vineyards that slope down to the water below. Kind of like this.

There are so many wineries that you could literally spend days trying to visit them all. We only went to one, but judging by the amount of buses and limos we saw in the parking lot plenty of people hire someone to drive them around for the day while they go from spot to spot tasting wines till they can no longer stand (just kidding- we only saw one group of girls who looked like they might fall over). We chose Three Brothers Wineries on the shores of Seneca Lake. In part because it was only a 15 minute drive from where we were staying, but also because at one location you can visit three different wineries and one brewery. After tasting wines at two of the wineries we wandered out into the vineyard for a close up look at the grapes. This time of year they are still small, hard and green. I bet it’s really cool to come here in the fall when the grapes are ripe.

I was very good and only purchased one bottle of wine. I also couldn’t resist buying some tasty local cheese and a bottle of grapeseed oil. The Finger Lakes wines tend to be on the sweeter side. I think this has something to do with the climate and what kind of grapes grow best here. Sweet wine is okay for sipping with dessert, but for the most part I prefer my wine less sweet and more dry. Which is why the bottle I brought home was the driest one we tasted.

I also chose this wine with the intention of using it for cooking. A few days before I visited a farm stand where I picked up some local sugar snap peas. Peas + wine + pasta = a simple, yummy meal.

Before leaving Vermont I was lucky enough to have been gifted a lovely traveling herb garden. Fresh herbs are such a luxury while traveling, and yes, that is a hot pepper you see in the back.

Armed with my NY wine, local sugar peas and fresh from the campsite Italian parsley, I set out to make a simple meal. Just look at the setting where I got to enjoy it!

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