A Perfectly Summery Sunday

FreshTartSteph — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:36:00 -0700

Gosh, what a lovely weekend, huh? I can't remember a summer with nicer weather than we've had this year - warm, dry, I'm really trying to savor every minute of it. Man, when it so chooses, Minnesota quite RAWKS. Nice.

I opened the rawkness with an uncharacteristic bit of baking, motivated by my lovely CSA blueberries. Blueberry muffins, in fact, basically crazy-good. Yeah, warm muffins, plenty of French Roast (decaf, I'm a wuss), nice start to the day.

Post-muffin(s), it was high time for a lovely, sweaty walk, today 'round Lake of the Isles, through Lowry Hill, along Mount Curve, and through Kenwood Park. Just...gorgeous. (Mos def topped my buggy, humid walk through the usually lovely Clifton French Regional Park on Wednesday, OMG, I was flat-out attacked by gnats and biting flies, OUCH!)

My stinky self stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home and ran into Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius - they were picking up dinner ingredients after paddle-boarding on Lake Calhoun. (Dinner at their house next weekend, by the way, with Rudy& Ana, yays!)

But just a family dinner here at the hacienda tonight, so I picked up a roasting chicken, loads of naan (flat bread, the kids go crazy for it), and baba ganoush (the Whole Foods brand is particularly tasty). I roasted the chicken on the grill with my faboo Weber roaster, grilled the naan (spritzed with a bit of olive oil spray and sprinkled with a pinch of Kosher salt), grilled CSA veggie sharezucchini (sliced thin, same treatment as the naan), and tossed together a quick salad of tomatoes (from my own pots! Finally!), cukes, onions, artichoke hearts, and roasted red pepper. In other words - a Mediterranean feast, more than I had even planned. I didn't quite know where to start when I faced my plate - so many favorites, so little time!

Heck, not even bat guano could distract me from digging in (we have a couple of bats who've taken up residence in our oft-closed shade umbrellas - seriously gross when you pop the umbrella and guano showers down on the table. Uh, yuck. But that's what shopvacs are for - that and disinfectant kitchen sprays, shiver).

Post-Whole Foods, pre-cooking dinner, I snuck in a little time at the pool with John and Nathan. Hot sun, cool water, a spooky book (Ghostwalk, by Rebecca Stott), all good. And what is it about a pre-dinner shower on a hot day? So decadent. Best if warm-not-hot, fragrant (Molton Brown Energising Seamoss, smells like the ocean), quick, no fuss. Followed by a sun dress, swipe of Chanel Glossimer, spritz of Annik Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien, ready to cook! Little al fresco dining, blogging, call it a day...

G'night!

Moderate it: I think olive oil spray is one of the greatest inventions ever. I used it to grease the muffin tins for this morning's blueberry muffins and to oil the naan, chicken, and sliced zucchini before salting and roasting them this evening. Low-calorie, tasty, effective - virtually indispensable.

FreshTartSteph — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:16:00 -0700

Hallelujah, dining al fresco has finally arrived! Everything tastes better outside, in the fresh air, don't you agree? It's all about hitting the Sensory Sweet Spot - a perfectly balanced stimulation of the five senses (my definition). A little wine and cheese in your kitchen? Nice. A little wine and cheese on your deck, alongside pots of beautiful, fragrant flowers, perhaps birdsong overhead, perhaps some favorite tunes, on a balmy summer's eve? Oh yeah, you want to die it's so perfect.

Simple foods taste best outdoors, otherwise that sensory balance is completely whacked. (Have you ever been full, sweaty, and sleepy at a picnic? We all have, and it sucks.) Grilled meat or fish, crisp salads, fresh fruit desserts - nothing too hot or heavy. The goal is not exactly cozy, but clean and light and of course, delicious.

That said, my family doesn't dig eating outdoors nearly as much as I do. The kids fret over every bug, John likes to eat as fast as possible and be done with it...but I don't care. I'm happy to sit there alone and savor the experience, it's rare (in Minnesota) and entirely lovely. Maybe tonight I can pull off grilling a piece of salmon and recreating the killer couscous with dill vinaigrette I enjoyed (twice) at the Post Ranch in Big Sur (yes, I'm still obsessing about it). If I achieve nailing it down, I'll post the recipe. Stay tuned...

Moderate it: look for whole-grain couscous; I've found it at Whole Foods.

fresh tart

A Perfectly Summery Sunday