Sunday, August 28, 2011

Monsoon Dinner

Last night, dining alone, I regaled myself with a surprising little salad - manageable chunks of a lare green tomato, two plump and succulent calimyrna figs, also chunked, a showering of the tiny leaves of piccolo mundo basil ,salt and pepper, some lovely meyer lemon olive oil and a bit of balsamic. Wow - gorgeous to look upon, refreshing and delicious, just the thing on a night of pounding rain and unrelenting wind.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

a late-summer dinner

Dinner for five last evening.We started with drinks on the deck and a lazy susan serving up a selection of cheeses and clusters of red grapes. After an hour of easy conversation we proceeded to the dining room, where, on antique green glass plates perched piedmontese peppers - red pepper halves stuffed with coarsely chopped tomatoes, fresh from the garden. I added minced anchovies, baby basil leaves, paper thin slices of garlic and a generous grind of black pepper. A drizzle of olive oil and into the oven for a half hour. I then added some roasted red onion slices, a few black olives and a bit of a basil and olive oil emulsion. Beautiful to behold, and delicious. This was followed by tuscan chicken, the butterflied birds having marinated overnight in a heady mix of lemon zest, rosemary.garlic and olive oil. My daughter the grillmeister did a perfect job, and I served the succulent chicken with a creamy corn pudding and fat asparagus spears topped with nothing by gray salt. Dessert was a white peach tart, the peaches glistening and slightly caramelized with their brushing of home-made peach preserves.