That iconic summer casserole, a bit lighter

Yellow summer squash are ubiquitous in summer gardens, and a little too prolific.  They are also bland--pleasant, but bland. So it's no wonder the Southerners came up with this cheesy, crunchy concoction for getting through the vegetable you wish you hadn't bothered to plant. It is delicious, but the original is awfully unhealthy, filled with sour cream and/or mayonnaise, a ton of cheese, and Ritz crackers for the top (and that's how you know it's Southern). I swapped out the white goo for yogurt, cut the amount of cheese, and switched to light panko bread crumbs. It's still not as good for you as a kale smoothie, but you'll live. 

Summer Squash Casserole

Serves 8-10 as a side

2 teaspoons olive oil
6 medium yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 serrano pepper, minced (optional)

1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar or other cheese of your choice
1/2 cup Greek-style, plain yogurt

2-3 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 ½ Panko bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, shredded cheese, scallions, and a pinch of salt.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the squash, onion, serrano, and thyme until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into the prepared casserole dish and stir in the cheese mixture.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.

Make this Cold Noodle Salad + Wraps to keep the kitchen cool!

Everyone is blogging about ways to eat without heating up the kitchen on these hot days, and I'm following the trend. If you use bean thread noodles (aka Mai fun, rice vermicelli, etc.), you don't even have to cook those.  This salad is satisfying and bright in flavor, and as a bonus, it also works really well as wrap filling for spring rolls or, my preference, collard green wraps. Bring it to a party, a picnic, or to work.  Or just sit around on the porch sweating and snacking on this while you drink beer and dribble everything down the front of your shirt.  That's how I'm doing it. 

Cold Noodle Salad + Wraps

Serves 4-6

Dressing

3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 - 3 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon maple syrup or brown sugar

Salad

4 ounces cooked bean thread noodles or angel hair pasta, drained

2 radishes, peeled and julienned

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned

1 large carrot, peeled and julienned

2 cups julienned purple cabbage

3 scallions, ends trimmed and cut into matchsticks

2 cups loosely packed baby spinch leaves (omit if making wraps)

1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, tough stems removed

2-3 tablespoons chopped peanuts (optional)

Combine all dressing ingredients, then add salad ingredients and stir thoroughly to coat.  If you prefer, you can use clean, trimmed collard green leaves as wraps; just fill 6-8 leaves (depending on size) with equal amounts of the salad.  To prepare leaves for use, cut off stem and use a small knife to trim the spine of the collard down the middle of the leaf. Cut it so that the spine is flat with the rest of the collard.

Aspiring plans for a trip to Maine

I was meant to be in Portland, Maine right now, but here I sit, sweating in my wooden chair from Ikea in northern Colorado, drinking a Coors Light. If any of you get the chance to try out this itinerary before I do, can you let us all know how it goes? (Thanks to NYTimes, Serious Eats, and Design*Sponge for all the suggestions).

Drink
Stop for a drink on the deck of Portland Lobster Co., where a local band might be playing blues or rock.  Liquid Riot Bottling Co. is a restaurant, bar, and also a distillery and brewing establishment, churning out an impressive list of libations, including beer, rum, whiskey, vodka and what its website touts as “Maine’s first Fernet.” Or try the kombucha, mead, and fruit beers at Urban Farm Fermentory.

Food
Eat an overflowing plate of fried clams on the skeevy patio of 3 Buoys Seafood Shanty & Grille. Have blueberry pie at Two Fat Cats Bakery. Belgian fries at Duckfat. Spudnuts at  the Holy Donut.  And for dinner,  Scales looks pricey, but the menu recently included a creamy, briny lobster bisque and pan-roasted halibut with hazelnuts and brown butter. Order the Parker House rolls if only for the raw cream butter served alongside. Dinner, about $80, with drinks.

The seating is communal and the dishes are funky at Honey Paw, an East-meets-New England menu including smoked lamb khao soi, with house-made noodles, fermented mustard greens, lime and Burmese coconut curry, and lobster won tons with confit mushrooms. Get small plates at Central Provisions, with dishes like rich caramelized sheep cheese embedded with Bosc pear slices.

Becky’s Diner has kitschy Formica tables beneath a press-tinned ceiling and fills you up on buttermilk pancakes, eggs done any way you want, and huge sides of home fries for cheap. Oh yeah, they have lobster rolls later in the day, too.
  

Travel
 Portland Observatory: Climb the 104 stairs of this former maritime signaling tower, which offers a 360-degree view. Captain Moody, who originally built this place, has a burial site among the tombs and tilting gravestones in nearby Eastern Cemetery, which is also supposed to be quite lovely.

Below a row of rambling, mostly turn-of-the-last-century houses, the Eastern Promenade is one of two parks that curve around either side of old Portland. Above the bayside trail, Fort Allen Park, with its gazebo and sloping lawn, offers a serene glimpse of the bay. Several blocks away is the wood-and-brick Abyssinian Meeting House, once a hub on Portland’s Underground Railroad and one of more than a dozen sites on the city’sFreedom Trail. Portland had a robust anti-slavery movement:who knew?

CatchCasco Bay Lines’ ferry to Peaks Island. Rent a bike at CycleMania in East Bayside and hit the trails. One choice for an hour-long ride is the Back Cove trail, which curves 3.6 miles around a circular cove.

 the Portland Museum of Art offers weekly tours of native son Winslow Homer's home and studio, as well as some 18,000 works by artists like N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, Alex Katz, Louise Nevelson, Monet, Matisse and Kandinsky, among others. Congress Street has lots of galleries, including She-Bear, with a strong focus on regional artists, and Space, a visual arts and performance arts venue. The Wadsworth-Longfellow House, dating from the late 18th century, is also nearby, and has a great garden for contemplating the meaning of life. Danforth Street, is home toVictoria Mansion, an Italianate mansion with a grand flying staircase and lavish interiors by Gustave Herter.

Craving junky take-out? Make these!

I am cheap, and I love cooking at home. Also, I live in a restaurant wasteland (though I do enjoy checking out amazing restaurants in other towns), so I often end up getting whiny about my inability to go out for [fill-in-the-blank], and then I just do it myself.  Sometimes my recipes turn out to be wonderfully healthy and basically function as a DIY fountain of youth (well, I mean, almost always), and sometimes they reveal my darker, artery-clogged, junk-food loving side.  I realized that I have enough of these recipes to categorize them, starting with rip-offs of Asian yummies:

Black Pepper Tofu
Chinese Noodles with Egg and Tomato
Hot and Sour Sickie Soup
Mapo Tofu
Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry
Szechuan Green Beans