Fresh Tart

Here are the veggies and herbs (from my LaFinca veggie share) that I have to play with this weekend:

carrots
fennel
green beans
corn
kale
tomatoes
cucumber
zucchini
summer squash
onions
basil
dill

The carrots and fennel are terrific additions to a packet of Potatoes on the Grill. Summer squash would be nice too. In addition, I love steamed carrots with a little butter and lots of fresh dill and lemon.

The green beans, oh man, I'm so roasting half of them for Roasted Vegetable Panzanella, one of my very favorite meals. The other half I'll save for Spicy Braised Green Beans, which calls for tomato and onion as well. Fried Walleye with some Spicy Braised Green Beans? Ohhh, now that's a summer meal. What night can I pull that off? Might have to wait until Monday...

I didn't feel like boiling a big pot of water last night, just for John and me, so I sliced the kernels off of a couple of ears of corn and sauteed them quickly in a bit of browned butter (adds a lovely, nutty flavor). Salt and pepper, done. Easy and sooo yummy. I think I'll do the same for the kids tomorrow night.

The basil is going to become a small batch of pesto - I like to have a bit on hand for stirring into sauteed corn (stir in a diced tomato with the pesto, so pretty). Or for swirling into Instant Vegetable Soup (an assortment of vegetables grated together, brought to a quick simmer with water, and finished off with a sprinkle of cheese; delicious and very nutritious, and also a good way to use up veggie-share veggies!), which makes a perfect, quick lunch.

The cucumber already became Cucumber-Mint Raita, and I already ate it, ha. Ditto for the zucchini (see below for Zucchini-Tomato Gratin).

The kale, hmmm, there's not much of it so I'll probably just saute it with garlic, then steam it with a small amount of water until it's quite tender. With salt and pepper, and a drizzle of good balsamic, it's pretty hard to beat. Even if no one else in my family thinks so...

Yeah. It's shaping up to be a very colorful, healthy, moderate (no parties, no party food!) weekend. Yay, my butt lurves veggies!

Two down, one to go! Woo hooooo, we are party central again this weekend! Friday night we were invited to dinner by a family at Nathan's new school. So fun - cool people, lovely home, great kids, and delicious wine and food. Salmon, fresh herbs and vegetables, a drizzle of lemon juice and olive oil, all wrapped up in foil and passed over the grill. We opened up the individual packets to find perfectly moist and fragrant fish, with lovely juices that flowed handily over to the pile of rice waiting patiently on the other side of the plate. Yum. I baked and brought a Cherry Tart with Almond Crust, with fresh cherries as well as fresh peaches and blueberries. Good stuff.

Then yesterday, another pool-and-wine party with Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius (Rudy and Ana are in the Hamptons, poor souls, ha). Sooooo fun, a gorgeous, hot day, perfect for floating and sipping. And eating! Stu and Debbie brought two Turley wines, in honor of our Napa trip (and stay at Larry Turley's home), both delicious. In the pool we drank the white, a 2003 The White Coat, a rich blend, quite golden and delicious. With dinner we drank a 2004 Lodi Zinfandel, from the Dogtown Vineyard (not the one we overlooked), fantastic. Tasted just like Napa, sigh.

After a quick shower, it was time to get some food on! I started by grilling bread for a quick appetizer, served alongside hard salami, roasted peppers, and olive tapenade from the deli. For a first course I made a red cabbage salad - red cabbage sauteed until wilted and then tossed with crispy bacon and a warm shallot dressing and topped with a warm, breaded goat-cheese medallion. Crunchy, creamy, salty, gorgeous - all the good stuff (recipe in comments, below). And for dinner I grilled a couple racks of lamb chops, cut into two-chop pieces before smearing them with a mixture of minced garlic, mint, oregano, rosemary, and tarragon (the herbs on my deck) bound with a bit of olive oil. Alongside I grilled Potatoes on the Grill, or more accurately, La Finca Veggies and Potatoes on the Grill, because I threw in carrots, fennel, green pepper, and onion, all from my veggie share this week. For dessert I had baked a Lemon Picnic Cake (lemon cake soaked in lemon icing, yum; recipe in comments, below), withwhipped cream and raspberry sauce. Uff, we were stuffed as we chatted in the dark, watching the pool lights shimmer eerily off the trees, while Nathan took a pre-bedtime dip.

So! Now it's Sun-day, and time for a Baseball Moms and Players Swimming Party! Another hot sunny day, perfect for grillin' some 'dogs, eating lots of salty chips and appetizers, drinking ice cold beer, munching on cookies and bars, and chatting the afternoon/evening away while the boys raise hell in the pool. Yeah, baby!

Happy April! Ack, I know it's been terribly long since I've posted. Craziness, what can I say? I've not been much in town, in fact, Nathan and I just returned from a spring-break trip to Washington, DC, just the two of us. Such fun! We arrived Thursday, checked into our hotel, and immediately set out for the White House. After a bit of walking around, we made our way back to the hotel, changed for dinner, and walked over to Bistrot D'Oc for a lovely French dinner. Nathan's first taste of escargot was not a disaster - he didn't much appreciate the snail, but he seriously dug the herb-y, garlicky butter soaked up with lots of baguette slices. Yeah, baby!

We set out Friday morning for the memorial/west end of The Mall. After touring the Washington, World War II, Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam War memorials, we made our way to a quick and tasty turkey-sandwich lunch at The Corner Deli. As we continued on to the National Portrait Gallery, we spontaneously popped into Risorante Tosca to score a dinner res for later that night. And what a dinner, wow, Nathan had a veal and prosciutto-stuffed ravioli in sage butter, delicious. I had a whole broiled Dover sole, served alongside braised lentils and fennel. Nathan downed a serious tiramisu trifle for dessert, then we toddled off to our hotel for a good night's sleep.

On Saturday we veered toward the east end of The Mall, opening with a very crowded walk through the National Air and Space Museum. Afterward we met up with my aunt Mary and uncle Bruce, in DC visiting their son, my cousin Craig. Mary, Bruce, Craig, Nathan, and I lunched at Union Station before making our way back to our hotels via the Capitol and Supreme Court. We all met up again a couple of hours later, with my cousin Kelly, who also lives in DC, hoping to score dinner at Jaleo. Uh, no dice, a two-hour wait at best at 7 pm on a Saturday night. Darn! Really wanted to sample their famously fabulous tapas but it wasn't meant to be (Chef Jose Andres' book, Tapas A Taste of Spain in America, is one of my very favorites; in honor of the Jaleo meal I didn't have, I've posted a Chef Andres' recipe for Potatoes Rioja-Style with Chorizo in comments, below). Instead, we stumbled into a lucky table at Zola, where I dug into a lovely papardelle topped with perfectly crispy duck confit and wild cherries. Decadent, delicious.

And then Sunday, back home. Spring break over, right back in the action, whew, I've hardly caught my breath. Up next, dinner Monday night with Rudy Maxa & Ana Scofield and Stu & Debbie Williams at The Sample Room, which RAWKED! Stay tuned...

Wouldn't you know, a damn snowstorm did us in yet again?! Unbelievable. This time on the east coast, preventing my brother David and sister Etta from coming out from NYC for the weekend, as well as Bowen's sister Sara and her husband Romero coming from Vermont. Damn! Boo! Damn! Luckily Bowen's parents Hal and Suzanne were able to make it from Palm Beach or we would have had a a bust of a dinner party tonight. As it was, we lucked into very nice, with Bowen's parents, my dad and Susanna, Stace, Bowen, and Coop, and the Best Helper Evar, aka Nathan. I borrowed a page from my father-in-law John and made Veal Scallops a la Danoise (with cucumbers), a lovely dish, made lovelier by the fact that you can prepare it ahead a bit and finish it off right before dinner; Deluxe Do-Ahead Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, to which I added a generous amount of minced chives; and blanched asparagus with gremolata (minced lemon rind, parsely, shallots, and olive oil) to cut the richness of the veal and potatoes. A hearty-and-yet-almost-springy menu, it worked quite nicely, I think. Cheeses, cardamom bread from Turtle Bread, and sips of Sauterne and coffee for dessert. And now? Bedtime, fo sho!

It's all for you, Cooper Doo, One-Whole-Year Old! Tomorrow is his big party day...