dinner

I'm not going to lie.  By three o'clock this afternoon, I'd already decided that we were having leftovers for dinner.  I was tired, it was hot, and I just didn't feel like cooking anything.

But then, I came home and looked in the fridge.  With our CSA box showing up every week, it doesn't take much dinnertime slacking to leave us with a crowded refrigerator and more than a few pounds of vegetables to eat.  So I figured I'd throw something together after all.

My man and I have developed a fall-back dinner option that we've resorted to countless times over our years of cooking together.  It originated as a MSL recipe that called for green beans, potatoes, and basil pesto, but over the seasons, it's turned into this:

1. Roast some vegetables:  Maybe it's potatoes, but we've tried just about everything.  Carrots and beets are common.  We've also done turnips, rutabagas, fennel, broccoli, garlic, onions, shallots, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting right now.  Just chunk them up into something approximately bite-sized, throw the chunks on a baking sheet, toss them in olive oil, flavor with salt and pepper and any other spices that grab you, and roast them at 385 or 400 degrees.  (My man goes higher, but that's up to you...)

You'll probably want to open up the oven and scoot things around once or twice.  If you're me, the veggies are done when they're making lovely sizzling sounds and they cut easily with the tip of a spatula.  If you're my partner-in-crime, the veggies are done when they've turned into little fried cubes of crunchy goodness.  My way takes about thirty or forty minutes.

Tonight, it's carrots and beets, because that's what we have.

2. Steam something green:  I like green beans or peas for this, but you could use broccoli or chard or kale.  Again, bite-sized pieces are a good idea.  Steam things until they are just done, maybe even a little under.

It's snow peas for us today.

3. Make some pesto:  If it's basil season--like it is right now--you can make fresh pesto by throwing a clove or three of garlic, a few handfuls of basil leaves, and about half a cup of pine nuts in a food processor.  Puree until things look pretty mashed up, then, while the food processor is running, add about a quarter cup of olive oil and run the processor until your pesto looks like--um, pesto.  Add some salt and maybe pepper, too.

I got this basil at the farmers' market the other night.  I paid two dollars for a giant bouquet of it and it smells amazing.  When we're not lucky enough to have cornucopias full of fresh basil, we use pesto from the freezer.  My man makes a huge batch of it every summer and it almost always seems to last from one summer to the next.

You can make any kind of pesto you want.  Arugula is good for this.  You can use walnuts or pumpkin seeds instead of pricey pine nuts.

4. Make some pasta: Tonight, I'm combining the dregs of three different bags of pasta.  We'll see how that goes.  I like fusilli for this, but anything that holds a little sauce should work.

5. Toss everything together: It will be green and gooey and if you're using fresh pesto, it will smell freaking amazing.  I usually do this with the stove turned off, but sometimes, my man likes to warm things up a little bit.

This is the point where you add extra things.   Like cheese.  We usually grate some hard cheese on top.  We also add a can of chopped olives, because we add a can of olives to about 75% of the things we make.  Sometimes, we sprinkle some more pine nuts in, just for crunch.  And usually a little more salt and pepper is a good idea, too.

6. Serve it and eat: If you're lucky, you'll have leftovers for later in the week.  This reheats well.  If it's a little dry the second time around, drizzle a little olive oil on top.

This might not be a traditional recipe format, but I think it just might work.  If you decide to try making our pesto-veggie-pasta thing, let me know how it goes...

Have a great weekend, everyone.  I'll see you on Monday!

neighbors

Remember that block party I was cooking for last weekend?  It turned out to be an even bigger celebration that I was initially anticipating...

Along with the usual "kiddie parade," yummy potluck, and neighborhood chit-chat we've come to expect from this annual event, our dear neighbors had an extra surprise in store for us.

After most of us had finished eating, at some secret signal, there was an explosion of party poppers and my man and I were presented with a mini-wedding reception!  There was a cake, of course, complete with bride and groom toppers borrowed from the toy box of our 6 year-old next-door neighbor.  There were calls for a "wedding kiss," which we were more than happy to indulge.

And there was a fantastic wedding gift and a custom-drawn card, signed by all our neighbors.

It was amazing.  I cried.

The gift turned out to be something amazing, too.  Maybe one of the most exciting things we've received.

We would never buy anything this fancy for ourselves, but I'm pretty sure that we'll keep this baby forever.

The card was drawn by one of our neighbors, a talented cartoonist.

I love it almost as much as the gorgeous casserole.

Gifts aside, it was really the celebration that melted my heart last weekend.  We're so fortunate to live surrounded by people who genuinely care about their neighbors, who take the time to build connections and community.  We posted a big thank you note right on our front door, so that everyone passing by on a morning run or a dog-walking wander can see how grateful--and lucky--we are.

monsters

I harvested my garlic this afternoon.  You can't tell from the photos, maybe, but these garlic bulbs are ginormous.  They're practically the size of baseballs.

If you're a gardener, then you know that this is not necessarily a good thing.  It certainly wasn't intentional on my part.  Remember a few weeks ago, when I was delighting in how capable my garden was of looking after itself?  Well, that might be true, for the most part, but I probably should have kept slightly better tabs on the garlic.

It might be fine.  We'll have to wait and see.  Before we store the garlic for eating, I'll bundle the heads together with some twine and hang them somewhere with shade and decent ventilation--the back corner of our kitchen, probably.  Hopefully, this extra step will help the garlic avoid mold (ick!) and maybe make it last a bit longer in the storage bin.

Not that it will be lying around for long.  We are garlic people, my man and I.  It tends to wander into most of the dinners I cook--and sometimes breakfast, too...

I've mentioned that my partner-in-crime is not a soup-lover, but I'm hoping that when we're flush with garlic from our CSA along with this little batch from the community garden, I'll be able to trick him into trying a bowlful of this.   I'll have to let you know how that one goes...

party

After a long, crazy week, we have a long, crazy weekend coming up.  A little travel, lots of family and friends, and to top it all off, our annual block party.  There's a potluck, a kiddie "parade" up and down the street, and after dark, we sit in someone's driveway and watch a movie.  If it sounds like I'm excited, it's because I am.

I really want to bring a dessert to the potluck.  People will always eat a dessert.  If all goes well, I'll be baking a plum cake in our cast-iron skillet tomorrow morning.  I've got a recipe already, but I'm starting to lean towards something a little more like this.

I'm definitely in a party mood right now.  If you are, too, you might enjoy this.  Or that.  Or maybe this is more your speed.  In any case, I hope your weekend brings you whatever you're hoping for.  See you next week!

soup

We are having soup for dinner tonight.  This is kind of a big deal.  My man does not like soup.  It's not something I can begin to explain, and I certainly can't identify with it, but that's just how thing are.  Which is why I get excited when we stumble across a soup he actually enjoys.

The recipe is adapted from one our CSA farm sent along with a box of produce a few years ago.  I like that it isn't fussy.  You just chop everything up and throw it in a pot.  The ingredients are pretty straight-forward, too, unless you're someone who's still afraid of a pine nut.  Oh, and there's pesto--one of my favorite, non-fussy ways to really fancy up a meal.

I've never really posted a recipe before, so I hope you'll trust me and give this one a try.

Carrot-Fennel Soup with Dill Pesto

For the soup:

2 tablespoons butter

1 bunch thinly sliced carrots

2 bulbs of fennel with some of the green, ferny tops, chopped

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 1/4 teaspoons dill seed

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

For the pesto:

1 cup fresh dill, chopped

3 tablespoons pine nuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

heavy cream or creme fraiche

Melt the butter in a big soup pot over medium heat.  Add the carrots, dill, onion, and dill seed and saute for 10 minutes, or until things begin to soften a bit.  Add the stock, bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat and let things simmer for half an hour.  Transfer to a blender and puree in batches. Season with salt and pepper.

To make the pesto, either rinse out the blender or drag out a food processor and add the dill and pine nuts.  Blend until smooth and then, with the machine still running, add the olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

To serve it up, ladle the soup into bowls and plop some pesto into the center of each one.  Splash a little cream or creme fraiche in, as well, and use a spoon to swirl the pesto and cream into the soup.

And then you eat it all up.  Enjoy!

stretching

It seems that life has gotten a lot busier in the last week or so.  While I find my balance with a new job, wrapping up the old job, the peak of garden season, and oh, yes, that whole marriage thing, I hope you'll find it in your hearts to be patient with me.

For today, I'll just beg your forgiveness.  I have a desperate need, after an eleven hour work day, to just sit. In the meantime, I'd like to invite you to have a peek at this.  Or this.  Or this and that...

See you on Wednesday!

the proof, part 3

Here it is--Part Three.  Have I mentioned lately what a lovely photographer we had?  He travelled a long way to shoot our wedding, and we hope he doesn't regret it.  We certainly don't.  Andrew made us look like rockstars...

And that's the show, folks.  I don't have much to say about the photos, except that I love them all.  I'm glad we took the time for the "fancy" pictures.  It will be fun to share them with the grandkids...

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!