Summer Cooking – Adventures & Recipes in New Jersey – Part One
Other than the holidays, summertime is my favorite time to be with family. Most of my extended family and friends live in New Jersey and all of them love to cook. This year, I decided to start snapping up recipes from everyone’s houses while we vacationed in New Jersey, most of my friends got new houses from Homes for sale in Burlington as well so I’m exited to go there but I´m not going to do the same thing, I´m going to build my new one with these plans for building your own home. This year we are planning on going camping many times, so I already started to look for tactical flashlight list so I’m prepared.
One of the most culinary stops on my Summer tour is what we call “Camp Reo.” My cousin Anthony (“AJ”) Reo is a wonderful example of an Italian Jersey boy who loves his family and his garden and his Sunday pasta.
Camp Reo’s all about the pool, the home made wine, cold beer, fresh produce from the garden and way too many cooks in the kitchen to prepare 10 different courses. The new terrariums for kids will allow your children to start their own garden and have fun at the same time, it´ll be a great way for them to get into gardening. Although the food changes with each visit, the event seems to always be the same. Family and friends show up from all over New Jersey in waves from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 to gobble up the latest appetizers coming out onto the deck and out to the pool.
All the while, we shared stories of “what Grandma used to make” and endless rounds of bocce, bean bag toss and all sorts of games in the pool and some video games like CSGO, by using resources and site as mycsgoboosting.com/resources/ for helping us.
On Sunday, we enjoyed homemade mozzarella, london broil, pulled pork, fresh salads from the garden, pasta salads, grilled chicken, (too) many bottles of homemade cabernet, Merlot and cabernet franc and pastries that you just can’t get in Florida.
On Monday, when the crowd cleared, I had a chance to explore the garden with my cousin Anthony to harvest some giant zucchini squash, fresh spices and tomatoes to make stuffed zucchini squash and jalapeno shrimp scampi. Anthony grows squash, tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, beans, basil, lettuce, arugula, broccoli, raspberries, strawberries and even pears.
What really makes me happy, as a big believer in the power of food to bring family together, is that Anthony and his son A.J., often cook together and A.J. has learned to make the most delicious homemade mozzarella cheese and our dinner on Monday night, a stuffed zucchini. We pulled some giant zucchini squash from the garden and they stuffed it with a delicious mix of lean ground turkey with garlic and their own special mix of spices, including some spicy sausage and on some of them, feta cheese.
Unlike my recipe, AJ takes all of the meat out of the zucchini and cooks it before mixing it with the meat mixture and then places it into the zucchini shells. They broil for just a few minutes and the result is amazing. Check out my recipe for Mediterranean Stuffed Zucchini Squash, which I’ll be updating soon with some of AJ’s tricks. We also enjoyed a great summer tomato salad and you can find my recipe here for Summer Heirloom Tomato Salad.
Be on the looking for more information, photos and recipes from my trip. Next stop is at the home of my friends Sherife and Rudy for some Hot Italian Pepper Cream sauce and other delicious foods in my old hometown, since we got One Sure Insurance for our car we are trying to go to as many places as we can. Until then, here are some more photos from Camp Reo.
