Food from New Zealand

When I first sat down to write this post, I was at the end of one month in New Zealand, where I was teaching 35 undergrads about health, environment, and justice. Yep, you can do that in just one month. Needless to say, I hadn't been cooking, but I certainly had been eating. New Zealand is full of gluten-free deliciousness. (As evidenced by the picture above, which is a peaches and cream muffin procured at a regular cafe for a non-elevated price.)




I'm now in Guatemala for four weeks, learning Spanish. Yep, you can do that in just one month, too (haha). I only had one week to recover between trips and didn't cook anything special, so instead of recipes I can only offer New Zealand food in all of its glory.

Summer Solstice Pasta

It's peaches and tomatoes time again! Meaning my diet is about to telescope itself into one happy parade of peaches and tomatoes, eaten together whenever possible! Here's another way:

Boil up a large box of bowtie pasta, and toss with:

3 diced tomatoes
3 diced peaches
2 diced avocados
Corn from 4 cobs
juice of one lemon
cashews
lemon pepper

Serves... oh, a ton.

Suspiciously Healthy Stuffed Peppers

Filling:

Sautee in olive oil:
1 medium mild white onion, chopped
2 chopped garlic cloves
1 bunch curly green kale, torn
handful pine nuts
lemon juice

Add these to 2 cups cooked barley.

Layer into 2 red peppers (microwaved briefly to start taking the crunch out), alternating with grated cheese (a nutty white - I used parrano). Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Orange-Coconut-Garlic Guacamole

It's been raining cold rain for 3 days in Denver, so for a friend's b-day dinner tonight, I just wanted big pots simmering on the stove and warm, heat-your-bones flavors. So I made a pot of Katelyn's Red Hot Posole - see my comment on her recipe for some additional notes.

To make it a proper dinner-party meal, I also made some very tasty vegetarian refried beans (tomato paste will work in place of diced tomatoes and as always I recommended upping most of the spices in the linked recipe, but it was basically great), and a bright crunchy jicama salad. And for an appetizer, I tried something similar to Rick Bayless's tropical take on guacamole:

Mash 5 avos, and add:

1. 6 large garlic cloves, halved and broiled in the toaster till soft, then mashed into a paste
2. Insides & juice of 1 orange (cut out the fruit from inside each little section to avoid any membrane) + a squeeze of lime juice
3. Splash of lite coconut milk
4. handful of freezedried shallots (grilled onions would be better)
5. Salt to taste

....and now everything's shipshape and I can kick back with tea until people show up. That's a rare outcome when I try to cook a whole dang meal. ;)

Tomato & Artichoke Bruschetta

Sitting at my sunny table with 2 slices of lightly toasted sourdough, topped with:

Tiny baby farmer's market grape tomatos, halved
small cubes of drunken goat cheese
shredded artichokes from a jar
EVO, balsamic, salt, garlic paste.

Summer!!