Risotto-Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers with Quick Tomato Sauce

I don't like to eat left-overs for dinner. Heating up last night's meal for dinner is just too easy.  The caveat, of course, is if you can take last night's food and turn it into something new. I did just that with some leftover Risotto Milanese. I used it as a filler for some cubanelle peppers that came in from the CSA, baked them in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, and served them on a simple tomato sauce.

Corn Chowder

This year, the CSA decided to offer a supplemental "corn share." We didn't subscribe. Probably a good thing. The way things have been going, the corn probably failed too.

So a roadside stand in rural New Jersey provided the supplies for a quick corn chowder. Trader Joe's plain soy milk provides a perfect replacement for milk or cream, which I think takes a light summer dish and turns it into something heavy and thick. Topped with crostini, and a few jalapenos and the first tomatoes from our garden.

Berry Sheet Cake

I don't regularly read Martha Stewart Magazine. But I have to admit that we have a huge stack of them in the basement. It appears that K's mom got a subscription using her airline miles. The middle class can hardly afford to purchase airline flights anymore... but hey, we can use unused airline miles for periodicals! And one issue gave me this recipe for a nice cornmeal sheet cake... something I would otherwise never have made.

Red, white, and blue colors perfect for July 4... as, of course, the magazine pointed out.

Martha Stewart's Berry Sheet Cake

-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

-3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal

-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

-3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

-1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar

 -3 large eggs

 -1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 -3/4 cup buttermilk

-18 ounces mixed fresh berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries (cut in half if large), plus more for serving

-Whipped cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan and line with parchment, leaving overhang on long sides. Butter parchment. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of buttermilk and beating until just combined. Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle berries over top, then sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Remove cake with parchment and cut into pieces (3 or 4 on short side, then 4 or 6 on long side). Cake is best served the same day, with whipped cream and additional berries.