Friday Food Files | sfgirlbybay

friday food files with molly watson: Labor Day Burgers.

Labor Day. So bittersweet. The weather tends to be glorious. For those of us in San Francisco, Labor Day marks the beginning rather than the end of our summer weather, which takes place during September and early October. Yet it marks the traditional end of summer – no matter what the thermometer says – and back to school – no matter that my son’s school has been in session for three weeks already. Still, a certain melancholy tends to hang in the air, which blows a bit more crisply, over this long weekend.

We will rally, though. We stay in town, which is always wonderfully empty and easy-going. I plan to grill some burgers as a light ode to sweet summertime. These green chile cheeseburgers are my favorite burgers ever, by far. If you’re looking for something less beefy, try these juicy and delicious turkey gorgonzola burgers. No matter what burger I toss on a fire I follow these tips for perfect burgers.

Enjoy your weekend, melancholy and all!

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Each week, the Friday Food Files are deliciously brought to you by Molly Watson. For more on Molly and her delicious recipes, you can visit her in one of many wonderful places:
Writer: mollywatsonwrites
Blogger: the dinner files
Recipe Wizard: localfoods.about.com
Radio Girl: eat that radio
tweeter: twitter.com/mollywatson
teacher: mediabistro.com/courses/cache/instr404.as

[ Photos courtesy of Molly Watson. ]

By victoria | Posted in guest blogs, you gotta eat | Tagged "molly watson", bbq, burgers, gourmet, hamburgers, recipe | Comments (4)

friday food files with molly watson: Summer Lake Fish.

For most people, summer eating is defined by sweet corn and tomatoes, peaches and melons, hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream and ice pops.

For me, though, nothing, absolutely nothing, says “it’s summer” quite like pan-fried lake fish. I get it a few times a year while I’m in Minnesota visiting my family (walleye!), but lake fish isn’t so easy to come by in San Francisco. What is easy to find are sanddabs – flat, small, ocean fish with flesh that takes remarkably like the fresh, light, flaky white fish pulled from Minnesotan lakes that I grew up eating.

Whatever delicate white-fleshed fish you have on hand, my favorite way to prepare it is to pan-fry it, but you can always dot it with a bit of butter and broil it, too.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I’ll be reading at the Eat Real Lit Fest. Saturday, between 4 and 5, off Jack London Square in Oakland. Come by and say hi – it’s always nice to meet a friendly face!

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Each week, the Friday Food Files are deliciously brought to you by Molly Watson. For more on Molly and her delicious recipes, you can visit her in one of many wonderful places:
Writer: mollywatsonwrites
Blogger: the dinner files
Recipe Wizard: localfoods.about.com
Radio Girl: eat that radio
tweeter: twitter.com/mollywatson
teacher: mediabistro.com/courses/cache/instr404.as

[ Photos courtesy of Molly Watson. ]

By victoria | Posted in guest blogs, you gotta eat | Tagged "molly watson", "Summer Lake Fish", "summer meals", pan-fry, recipe, sandabs | Comments (3)

friday food files with molly watson: Grilled Halloumi.

Yes, Virginia, there is cheese you can grill.

Of course, it burns a bit easily and will stick like the dickens to the grill if you don’t 1) work on a clean, well oiled grill and 2) oil the cheese itself, but you can grill it! It’s Greek and called Halloumi and I’ve been seeing it all over the place – regular supermarkets and all that.

I had the chance to really get into it with Halloumi this summer when my mom mistook my request for three packages as one for three pounds. I discovered it’s best to grill it in larger pieces you can move and turn with tongs instead of cutting it up and threading it onto skewers (a process that tends to split the bite-size chunk you’re trying to skewer in half). Use a clean grill, brush the cheese with plenty of olive oil, and grill it over a medium fire, if you can.

With grilled vegetables and a side of simple couscous or some orzo tossed with olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice, or even this lemon orzo pasta salad you have a lovely, summery, easy, breezy dinner. A sauce of some sort is nice, too. Bottled hot sauce works, as does a simple lemon vinaigrette, yogurt mint dressing, or pesto, but my favorite is an Indian-style mint chutney.

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Each week, the Friday Food Files are deliciously brought to you by Molly Watson. For more on Molly and her delicious recipes, you can visit her in one of many wonderful places:
Writer: mollywatsonwrites
Blogger: the dinner files
Recipe Wizard: localfoods.about.com
Radio Girl: eat that radio
tweeter: twitter.com/mollywatson
teacher: mediabistro.com/courses/cache/instr404.as

[ Photos courtesy of Molly Watson. ]

By victoria | Posted in guest blogs, you gotta eat | Tagged "Grilled Halloumi", "molly watson", cheese, grilling, recipe, vegetables | Comments (5)

friday food files with molly watson: grilled fruit.

I am not a big fruit-with-meat kind of gal. Even the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving tends to leave me a bit cold. I get the appeal of fruit with pork or game or duck, but it’s never been my favorite thing. Last week I grilled some plums and served them alongside a pork loin. A few days later it was pears because once I get a good idea I tend to run with it just a bit.

Yowza.

Grilled fruit gets a little smoky edge that keeps it from being too sweet and makes it perfect as a super seasonal, beyond easy side dish. Or, you can always plop a scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt on it and call it dessert.

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Each week, the Friday Food Files are deliciously brought to you by Molly Watson. For more on Molly and her delicious recipes, you can visit her in one of many wonderful places:
Writer: mollywatsonwrites
Blogger: the dinner files
Recipe Wizard: localfoods.about.com
Radio Girl: eat that radio
tweeter: twitter.com/mollywatson
teacher: mediabistro.com/courses/cache/instr404.as

[ Photos courtesy of Molly Watson. ]

By victoria | Posted in guest blogs, you gotta eat | Comments (7)

friday food files with molly watson: blueberry ice cream.

The best thing about blueberry ice cream is that is it actually blue. Not purple, not gray, but a lovely mid-hued blue.

The other best thing about this blueberry ice cream is how insanely easy it is to make. If you have an ice cream maker it’s literally a dump-and-freeze operation, but even if you don’t own a cupboard-space-eating contraption, it’s just a question of a few whisks of the mixture every 30 minutes or so as it freezes to end up with honest-to-goodness homemade ice cream (see how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker for specifics).

Unlike plenty of fruit ice creams it’s not just fruit and sugar and cream – those ice creams always lack the umph and rich mouth-feel (as we say in the food world) of ice cream made with eggs (which need to be cooked into a custard before being frozen into ice cream… which, if I’m honest, is a slight hassle). I have solved that problem (and am by no means the first to do so) by using sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar to sweeten the pot. Rich taste and texture, no cooking. Go ahead, give it a try – and stir in whatever fruit or chocolate chips or sweet treat that catches your fancy.