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I'm actually getting tired of relying on my cookbooks. When you're a food writer as a side gig, you do a lot of cooking and you (I) can tend to get into a rut of relying on just a few of your favorite cookbooks for all of your recipes.

So lately we've tried to come up with our own recipes at least once or twice a month. So far we've been pretty successful. In fact, I'd say that the majority of recipes you'll see here over the next couple of weeks will actually be our own creations.

Tomatoes have been ripe and ready at the farmers markets for the past few weeks. One of our favorite vendors sells tomatoes easily the size of a coffee mug. They're HUGE! The first picture is actually one of the smaller tomatoes I've seen there and it's almost the size of my hand!

After staring at them for a few weeks, we decided to try to stuff them. We've experimented with stuffed peppers a few times. The stuffed cherry bombs worked out great, but stuffing a pepper with much other than cheese (or maybe bacon) just doesn't do it for us. So we figured, why not tomatoes?

We set about looking for a few other ingredients.

First, we went to Skagit River Ranch and got some hot Italian sausage.

Next, we picked up some purple peppers.

After that, some garlic and onions.

Lastly, we went over to one of the Artisan cheese vendors, Estrella Creamery. We picked up some provolone style cheese from them and we were on our way.

Then there is some chopping, some cooking, some stuffing, and some eating.

But since you'll probably want a little more info than that, here's what you'll need.

Stuffed Tomatoes a la Eddy

• 4 large tomatoes
• 3-4 hot Italian sausage
• 1-2 purple peppers
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 1/4 pound Provolone cheese

1. Use your GarlicZoom to mince the garlic.
2. Dice the onions and peppers.
3. Take the sausage out of its casing.
4. Cook in a large skillet until it is no longer pink. If you're using pastured pork, or are lucky enough to have Skagit River Ranch sausage, don't drain the fat - that is if you can even find fat. Otherwise, you might want to drain a little bit off.
5. Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and cook for another few minutes.
6. Remove from heat and cool slightly in a bowl.
7. With a paring knife, cut the top off of each tomato and hollow out as much of the inside as you can. Be careful not to cut through the skin, particularly on the bottom.
8. Take 4 slices of the provolone and reserve them.
9. Cube the rest of the cheese and mix in with the sausage mixture.
10. Stuff the tomatoes.
11. Grill them in a grill pan (or bake) for approximately 10-15 minutes.
12. Place the slices of provolone on top of the tomatoes and grill until the cheese has melted.

This recipe was a big success. Unlike stuffed peppers, which don't impart a lot of flavor to their stuffing and are generally extremely dry, these tomatoes were moist and incredibly flavorful. I don't even like to eat tomatoes in their whole, non-sauced form, and I think I ate every bite of both the tomato and the stuffing. I'm not sure what else could have made this recipe better. Next time I might add some minced hot peppers as well as the bell peppers (or maybe even instead of).

One of our favorite vendors at the market is Sea Breeze Farms.  Patricia has talked about them before, but I haven't.

We've gotten a little bit of everything from them.  Some lamb, porchetta, milk and cream, ricotta, kielbasa, pepperoni, wine.... Haven't tried their beef yet.  Or their wool.  Yes, they sell wool.  Really damn soft wool.

Once upon a time, we got some chorizo.  We had just found a taco truck... well, ok.  I found a taco truck while Patricia was out of town and she's hated me ever since for having gone there once without her, even tho she's been there once without me since.  Not to mention her trip to Lunchbox Laboratory without me.  Annnnyways.

The week after those first, delicious, greasy, fantastic chorizo tacos, at the Farmer's Market, we happened to see chorizo at .. I'm sure you figured out where by now.

It was, like everything else from them, fantastic.

But then it never showed up again.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, we were picking up some pepperoni for pizza, and ask offhandedly 'Are y'all ever gonna make the chorizo again?'  I had had a hankering, so we had to find out.

"Huh.  Yeah, that chorizo was pretty good, wasn't it.  We should do that again."

The week after, not really surprisingly, there's chorizo on the chalkboard.  Hot damn.  Links or bulk?

Uhh.  Bulk.  How about a pound.  We can put some into the fritatatatatatas.  We can... well, we can figure out what else to make with the rest.

So, now we're staring at a little over half a pound of chorizo.  What do we do.

What. do. we. do.

Well, we cook it.  Thanks, wise ass.

We had some squash from our CSA basket still.  Patricia remembered an old recipe we made last winter.

Except, we have no tomatoes, and it's too late to head back out to get some.  Time for some creative work.

Ingredients

• Chorizo
• Patty Pan Squash
• Onion
• Garlic
• Pasta
• White Wine
• Olive Oil
• Butter

1. Chop the patty pan, discarding the stems.
2. Chop the garlic and onion, saute in olive oil over medium heat.
3. Before they caramelize, once the garlic smells toasty, add the chorizo.
4. Once the chorizo has browned, add the patty pan and cook covered for a good 35 minutes.
5. Start some pasta cooking.  I think a good linguine or angel hair would be best suited for this dish.
6. Once pasta has finished, strain pasta and dump back in the pan you cooked it in.
7. Dump the chorizo, onion, garlic and squash mix into the pasta.
8. Deglaze the pan with some butter and white wine.
9. Pour over pasta and mix it all up and serve.

Over all, this was good.  I wish I could say it was quick (it wasn't).  I wish I could say it was simple (it isn't.. I mean, who has bulk chorizo on hand).  I wish I could say it was awesome (it wasn't).

But, for a spur of the moment recipe, it wasn't bad.

I've said, I think, that I want to start making our own recipes more.  Branch out into actual recipe creation. 

And this is a good start.  Look for us to flex our creative muscles more in the future.  But don't worry, we'll still be sharing recipes we find on all the blogs we read too.

Have you ever had one of those meals where not only did everything taste good, but everything meshed perfectly together? Where the empty spot you never even knew was in you suddenly filled perfectly?

Well, I've just had one. (Three if you count the leftovers).

We got this recipe from Accidental Hedonist, another great local food blog. We adapted it slightly ourselves, but for the most part we used the recipe as is.

Ingredients

• 2-4 pound pork butt or shoulder roast
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar (or brown sugar substitute)
• 1 onion
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 2 cups green salsa
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• Corn tortillas
• Cabbage (optional)
• Avocado
• Cheddar or Cojita cheese

Directions

The night before you want to cook the pork, mix 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon regular paprika, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. These amounts are just guidelines, feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your tastes.

Rub the pork roast with the mixture and refrigerate overnight. 

Next, chop the onion. Put the meat in a large pot with the onion, 2 teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, the green salsa, chopped oregano and chicken stock. Boil the mixture on high and then reduce the heat to medium and cover.

Simmer until the pork is tender and registers at least 165 on a meat thermometer.

Remove the pork from the pan, turn the juices down to low, and preheat the oven to 400.

Using two forks, tear the pork into shreds. Spread the pork on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. You want some of the shredded pork to be crispy.

Turn the heat back up on the pot and boil the mixture in the pan for 8-10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat. Pull the pork out of the oven and add it back into the pot, mixing well. When we did this, it did not look like there was anywhere near enough sauce for all of that pork. Even after I mixed everything together, I was worried it was going to be dry. But never fear. This recipe did not disappoint.

To serve, heat up a corn tortilla and fill it with the pork mixture, add a little shredded cheese, some avocado, and some cabbage (we skipped the cabbage).

This was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Despite how dry the mixture looked, when I bit into the tortilla, it was tender, juicy, and rich.

This will soon become one of our staple recipes. I think it would work well in the crock pot as well. Just throw everything together in the morning (no pre-cooking required), simmer all day, and then shred and roast the pork when you get home at night. I can't wait to make this again.

Mmmmm. Burgers and pizza. Are there more perfect foods? Well, the answer to that usually depends on my mood, but tonight, there was nothing better than a burger that tasted like pizza.

We discovered this recipe on Get Your Grill On. If you like to grill, this is a fantastic blog.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 pound ground beef (preferably organic, grass fed beef)
• 1/4 cup pepperoni or salami (about 5 slices salami)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 2 slices of bread, or 2 small hamburger rolls
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 slices Provolone or other mild cheese

Directions

Despite all of those ingredients, this is a rather simple recipe. Thinly slice the onions (a mandolin works well here) and throw them in a pan with a glug or two of the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onions for a few minutes, covered, until they are softened. Remove the cover and cook for another few minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the onions are cooking, chop the salami or pepperoni. Mix the ground beef, chopped salami, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Form into burgers (ours were smaller, almost like sliders).

When the onions have cooked down and softened, add the tomato paste and saute until the paste gives off a sweet aroma. Add the wine and cook until the wine has nearly dissolved.

Meanwhile, heat up the grill and cook the burgers.

When the burgers are almost done, melt some butter and minced garlic in a pan. Brush the bread or rolls with the melted garlic butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Turn on the broiler and broil the cheese covered buns for just a minute or so. When the burgers are done, broil the bun, burger, and Provolone cheese all together just until the cheese melts.

Yum! This was fantastic. The burgers were spicy and rich, the onions were sweet, and the buns were toasted garlic goodness. Our only problem was that our burgers were a little too big to be sliders and a little too small to be a burger. Next time we'll alter the size a bit.

I love our crockpot. Or rather, I love the idea of our crockpot. I love the idea that I can throw food in, turn it on, go to work, and then come home to a delicious, hot meal. Unfortunately, slow cooker meals rarely work out this way.

For one thing, they almost always involve lots of slicing, pre-cooking, searing, browning, or boiling. For another, even when some of these things can be done ahead of time, there's usually one or two steps that would leave the meat half cooked which, as you can imagine, isn't very safe.

So I was thrilled when I found today's recipe. All of the prep work can be done the night before, and in less than 10 minutes. In the morning, all you need to do add stuff and turn on.

As an added benefit, this recipe is fantastic. It's rich and flavorful and is great with a low carb tortilla or over rice or emmer.

Ingredients

• 1-2 pounds of thinly sliced pork
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 onion
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

The night before, slice the peppers and onions and mince the garlic. Throw them in a tupperware and add the soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Refrigerate over night. (NOTE: This is optional. You can do all of this in the morning before you leave.)

When you're ready to cook, place the pork in the crock pot and add the tupperware full of stuff. Cook on low for anywhere from 4-10 hours. It'll be done after 4, but if you cook it for 8-10 hours, the pork practically falls apart and the bell peppers melt in your mouth.

About 10 minutes before serving, use two forks to shred the pork and add the peanut butter. Continue to cook for 10 minutes to thicken the mixture.

Serve over rice or in a tortilla.

So what do you do when you're 10 minutes away from leaving work and you have no idea what to make for dinner? You go to the web and do a quick search. Tonight I came up with a simple tasty recipe for any broiled white fish. Add a little rice or Emmer and you've got yourself a complete meal.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced, peeled fresh ginger
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 minced red bell pepper
• 1 bunch chopped green onions
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 pound white fish (cod, tilapia, sole)
• Rice or Emmer

Directions

First, the prep work. Mince the ginger, garlic, and red pepper. I did this by combining all of these ingredients in a food processor. Get the curry powder, red curry paste, and cumin ready and shake the coconut milk can.

Heat some oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced pepper, ginger, and garlic mixture. Stir for a good 5 minutes and then add the onions.

After another minute, add the curry powder, curry paste, and cumin. Stir for one minute and then add the soy sauce, brown sugar, and coconut milk.

Heat until simmering, but don't let it come to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.

Preheat the broiler. On a greased cookie sheet, lay the fish and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt.

Broil for 7 minutes or until the fish is flaky.

Serve over rice or emmer and top with sauce.

We really enjoyed this dish. The fish was tender and an excellent conveyance for the spicy, somewhat sweet sauce. Next time I might back off on the red curry paste just a bit as I think I'd like to savor the flavor a bit more.

Everyone gets into a rut sometimes. Whether it's a workout rut, a house rut, or a cooking rut, they exist and they can be pretty deep and hard to escape from. I can't say that our cooking was in a deep rut, but I have been wanting to branch out lately and try a few new things. To that end, one of my goals this year is to try more of my own recipes. I have a good sense of what types of flavors go together, so I should be able to create the occasional winner and the more than occasional second place meal.

One of my first experiments was with a food I know I can cook well: risotto.

There are very few secrets to a good risotto. You start with rice (or in our case, Emmer Farro) cook it long and slow by adding a small amount of heated broth at a time, and then finish it off with some cheese. There are lots of other things you can do to it, but those few steps are all that's basically required.

We knew we had some dried mushrooms at home, but we wanted some other flavor to add to the risotto. John suggested fig. I was skeptical. Figs? Really? With mushrooms? But the more I thought about it, the better it sounded.

So here is our recipe for Wild Mushroom and Fig Risotto.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Emmer farro or rice
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups mushroom broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 ounces dried mushrooms
• 1-2 cups dried figs
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

Heat 2 cups of water to just below boiling.

In a heat-proof bowl, pour the hot water over the dried mushrooms. Let sit for at least half an hour.

With a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms, but reserve the liquid. It should have a lovely brown color.

Roughly chop the soft mushrooms and set aside.

Chop the figs into quarters.

In a saucepan, add the 2 cups of mushroom broth and the mushroom water. Heat on low.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the Emmer or rice and stir to coat.

Add the heated broth, a half cup to a cup at a time to the Emmer. You should only add the next half cup of broth when the previous half cup has nearly cooked off.

When you are down to the last half cup of broth, add the chopped mushrooms and chopped figs. Once the broth has nearly cooked off, add the Parmesan cheese and serve.

Many months ago we told you about our new breakfast experiment: mini frittatas. Ever since then we have been constantly refining the recipe.  We've played around with a number of different variations and this is what we've come up with.

Ingredients

• 8 organic, free range eggs *
• a generous splash of fresh cream
• 2-3 tablespoons of pureed chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
• 5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 bell pepper, preferably purple, diced and cooked
• 4-5 ounces of low fat feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

*If you have been using the older recipe, you'll notice that I'm using full eggs now, rather than mostly egg whites. Well, there are two reasons for that. First, it was just a hassle to separate out the eggs. I did it because we both have cholesterol issues and I wanted to be as healthy as possible. However, then I found out something very interesting about our eggs. The eggs we buy have significantly less cholesterol than normal supermarket eggs. The chickens eat a varied diet and run around outside all day long. Skagit River Ranch had the eggs tested and the levels of Omega 3 fats in the eggs were high and the levels of Omega 6 fats (the bad ones) were very low. So I've given up separating the eggs and just started using the whole thing.

Directions

Chop the bacon and fry it until it is crispy.

Chop the bell pepper and fry it in the bacon fat. Yes, really.

Set both aside to cool.

(We tend to make the bacon and peppers around 3 and we don't make the frittatas until after dinner. We've found that having cold ingredients to start with actually does help the consistency of the frittatas.)

In a large mixing bowl (or a kitchenaid) beat the eggs into oblivion. The eggs should be foamy and bubbly before you add a splash or two of cream. Beat for another 2 minutes at least (longer is better).

Add in 2-3 tablespoons of pureed chipotle.

Add in a tablespoon of flour and a little bit of baking powder. This serves to make the frittatas just slightly dryer and fluffier. We got this little tip from a bed and breakfast we stayed at in Hawaii.

Add the bacon and the bell pepper and stir to combine.

Divide among 10 muffin cups and bake at 375 for 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and distribute the feta evenly over the 10 muffins.

Return to the oven and bake for another 25 minutes.

Cool and place in a ziplock bag with 2 paper towels. These will last in the refrigerator for a week if you replace the paper towels midweek.

I'm not a big breakfast person. I'd rather have coffee and a biscotti than a full, cooked to order breakfast. However, John likes pancakes. Since he's diabetic, he rarely gets them. A few weeks ago, I saw a recipe that looked like it would give him pancakes without a dramatic blood sugar rise and well... we were right. So here we present: Ricotta Pancakes.

Ingredients

• 1.75 cups of Organic Valley ricotta cheese
• 2 local and organic eggs
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup Splenda
• Zest of one orange (we used 2 satsumas)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup local and organic Emmer flour
• Organic Valley butter

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, but be careful not to overmix. A whisk works best for this.

Melt the butter on a griddle over medium to medium high heat. Add a generous teaspoon of pancake batter for each pancake. The batter will be thick, so smooth over the tops after dropping the batter onto the griddle.

Cook until golden brown (about 4 minutes per side).

We served these with a small amount of tayberry jam, but any syrup or jam would work.

They were smooth and almost creamy. I think they would be even better with Sea Breeze Farms ricotta cheese.

Many years ago (yes, many), my parents, uncle, cousin, her husband, and daughter drove up to my college town to celebrate my college graduation. We went to a local Italian restaurant for lunch. My cousin's daughter, who was all of 5 years old at the time, was a very picky eater. Her mother ordered plain pasta for her, but when the food came out, she turned her nose up at it. Why?

It wasn't white.

Fresh pasta, that hasn't been dried before cooking, isn't white. It's yellow.

Long story short, the restaurant found some dried pasta and brought it out for her.

But this is a cooking blog, not a family history blog, so I'll move on to the recipe. I've tried to make fresh pasta several times, usually with catastrophic results. This time, however, I was successful. Take a look at this.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups Emmer flour (local, organic, and low carb)
• 4 eggs (local and organic)

Directions

Add 3 cups of flour to a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and crack in the eggs.

Mix well. That's it. When you're done, you'll have a round ball of dough. If the dough still feels a little bit tacky or sticky, mix in a little more flour. Let the dough rest, covered, for at least 30 minutes.

Here's where you can get creative.

We've watched a number of episodes of Iron Chef (the original). Iron Chef Morimoto is amazingly fast at making earlobe pasta. I however, was not so successful. My earlobe pasta looked... odd. So I whipped out my Kitchenaid mixer and pasta attachment and started making elbow macaroni.

When I had enough, I threw it in a pot of boiling, salted water for 4 minutes and dinner was served.