Well ... the next best thing! Poached Egg with Curly Endive Salad, courtesy of Alice Waters and the Art of Simple Food. The salad was delicious - simply delicious! I love this style of salad and always forget just how much until I have it. This recipe will or has become a staple in our house!
Dessert was the last of the Mascarpone Ice Cream with the last of the season Blue Organic Strawberries which I roasted and we will have for another couple months - slurpy yummy!
Plums, Pizza & Pinot Noir and some Lamb (yes, I know, more meat); but, we did cut down portions! We have been waiting to open up this bottle of Pinot Noir, that our friend I. and company (Dept. C) are making but we needed the right dish.
Recently, there was an article in the SF Chronicle on Pinot Noir and what to serve ... there it was Lamb, Plum & Smoked Mozzarella Pizza , so we whipped up a mini, tossed together a simple mixed green salad with radishes (just like grandma use to make) and popped up the Dept. C. Point Noir - the meal was great, the pizza was interesting (I will make again but add more spices to it) and the Pinot was smooth and definitely complimented everything in the pizza. As well, this was the last meal for our Eat Local Challenge - everything was local this time!!!
L. rode 100+ miles today & NEEDED a sausage or two (shouldn't that be my line (wink wink)) with his veggie dinner I had planned. Since we are on the tail end of our Eat Local Challenge, we did a quick run to pick up some wonderful Niman Ranch HOT Italian Sausage (once again, I am a sucker for the packaging). Earlier in the evening I had roasted some zucchini, dry-farmed tomatoes, shallots, garlic and fresh pimento (which was picked up at Farmers Market today). Tossed together some HOT pasta with some fresh and local Ricotta, I found, and spooned the roasted veggies over the top. Nice Italian comfort food.
I am a bit behind on posting.... was beat last night and swamped today! I am all caught up now & we are excited to have you back over to dine with us! As I mentioned previously we are trying to push away from the table - We don't believe in diets or cutting out the things we love so I am doing portion control and upping the old exercise program for us. As well we are trying to eat more veggies and less meat - we'll see how that goes - maybe once a week meat, chicks or fish?
WE are in love with these mini eggplants, so I scooped up a few more last week. They are almost too cute to cook but when you do cook them up, they taste great. Tonight I sautéed them with some yellow onion & red peppers I had on hand and then I simmered them in a nice bath of Malaysian Rendang Curry, which I found at Wholefoods. We wanted rice to eat with this dish but did not want ordinary boring rice, so I searched high & low. Thanks to Jaden, over at the Steamy Kitchen , I found this great recipe for Coconut Rice. Let me tell you a little secret - I can cook a 5 course meal but when it comes to rice, I suck! I usually use a rice cooker!! Since her recipe said I would not need one, I gave it a whirl. Guess what?! It was super easy and the rice was perfect! Back to our meal ... it was fantastic, the eggplants were all warm and spicy in the Rendang Curry sauce and the coconut in the rice complimented the curry very nicely! Great way to end a long week....
As well the eggplants, peppers and onions were local but everything else was only organic - we are trying!
until we will be doing some serious beach time in Costa Rica. Serious beach time means serious swimsuit time, which in turns means some serious pushing back from the kitchen table! L. will be heading down before me for a big bike race - coast to coast and then I will join him a week later for some much needed R & R. Now a girl and guy can not live on carrots alone, so we are cutting back to smaller portions and many more veggies! I loaded up the old veggie bin with some great local things and will we will be hitting the stove big time! You can expect some new easy veggie recipes to be seen in the next few weeks!
We got pretty excited about an Abalone mushroom we found, so we got it. Now, it pretty much smells, looks and even tastes like Abalone - weird! Sauteed it with some shallots, garlic, white wine, Meyer Lemon juice and made Risotto, served roasted asparagus on the side. I am a sucker for food packaged in interesting ways. I found, this Bubalus Bubalis Mozzarella and had to get it for two reasons: 1. I liked how it looked and 2. have heard how great it is! So, to finish off our meal, we had a mozzarella and tomato (these were from our garden - how much more local can you get) salad. Now, this Mozzarella, is outstanding - ultra creamy, smooth taste, mouth-watering goodness - would be fantastic on a grilled pizza as well!
L. is crying for home-cooked food and I am crying as I want to get my hands dirty in the kitchen again .... this has been a loonnnggg couple of weeks of entertaining. The last of our company left today. We had a great meal planned for tonight but are beat! All we are going to do is pour a couple big glasses of wine, turn on the new James Blunt (super moving), put our feet up & turn off this computer! Come back tomorrow night - we'd love to have you for dinner!
These were the cutest eggplants I have ever seen, I just had to buy them! I found them at the new Wholefoods Market near our neighborhood. Okay, so they are cute and you ask yourself, "but, were they good?" They were delicious!
We sauteed them with a little oil, chili peppers from our garden, lemon zest from our neighbors Meyer lemon tree, and basil from our garden. Served with brown rice - not local rice, don't think I can get local rice - but it was organic - all of it was!
We are back on the local train. While it was great having L.'s mother cook Portuguese food for us for a week we are both happy to be eating Local & Organic again! Made one of our favorite dishes today ... Grilled Veggie Lasagna sitting in a pool of Basil Oil, the recipe is one of Emeril's and it is - YUMMY!
L.'s mother started cooking up a storm for us early in the day & some of the good news most of it was local and /or organic, so we were able to keep up with the challenge. As her cooking always is, it was very delicious. L. was very happy (7 chicken legs later)to have a home cooked meal that reminded him of home - having his family next to him made he even more happy - this in turn made me happy. (we are all a bunch of happies now).
We started with a rice based soup which we added bits of chicken as well as a squeeze of lemon. Very light and refreshing. Reminded me of a dish my grandmother and great-grandmother made, but with rice and garlic - we usually got it when we were not feeling well. The main course was a baked chicken dish with potatoes (I love these guys) and chorizo - spiced with peppers, wine and tomato.
but not cooking yet. Cleaning like bangies instead. L's parents are coming to town tomorrow to visit for a week. L.'s mom is a GREAT cook and she is Portuguese, so there will be lots of great food in our house the next few days. And, it will or most of it will be local, too! Come dine again!
We did not cook at home as some good friends were in town tonight. We wanted to dine responsibly, locally and organic as much as possible, so we hit the Blue Plate. Which was perfect as we have been dying to check it out! You should too ~ The Blue Plate . We are hitting the road today, for the rest of the weekend, a little camping and r & r! Don't worry we will be dining locally as we are bringing our own stuff! Come dine with us soon!
