In Season Recipes

Thanks for the kind thoughts they are much appreciated. 

Apple, you are funny..."a cat in our house".  You'd be surprised to find our life about as exciting as watching grass grow.  I learned that saying when I rode Dressage years ago.....consistent training with a light hand in balance....that's our life.  

Carollynn79, did you find your berries?  Apple was onto berries too I think.  My eating habits were sporadic this week too.  Most of the time the food stayed in my stomach like a rock such as the lean ground meat and mushrooms....or the pork patty and baked potatoes.  I switched to salad and fruit and did much better.  However, I bought extra dark chocolate bars to eat with my strawberries that I take off the plants.  

Today a Sardinian friend came to the house with ricotta cheese made by his wife today along with the eggs laid by their hens.  They are the best people in more ways than one.  DH comes home tomorrow then returns in another month for more evaluation.....extensive and thorough.  It happens that my follow up appointment with my breast surgeon is tomorrow too at the same hospital.  Now ain't that romantic?!

So what to have for dinner tomorrow night?  We'll keep it simple.  Probably frittata with mushrooms and tomatoes followed with dessert of ricotta cheese with pears.  Or maybe I'll have a little of that tonight too.

"Never run faster than your guardian angel can fly"

Marilyn 

Retrievermom...lurk no more and welcome.  That's a mighty fine puppy in your picture.  My dogs are leftovers .... a litter found behind a supermarket or left to find their own way, near frozen, at the tender age of 6 weeks.  What a treat they both are.  I'd really enjoy to have obedience trained ... for the most part they are ... I'm just such a push over some times.  But about food....

Yes we enjoy eggplant often.  Grilled and drizzled with oil and garnished with parsley or baked with layers of fresh tomatoes and mozerella sprinkled with oregano.  The problem with eggplant is that it is not a good for the joints ... inflammatory I was told....as are potatoes.

Tonight I made stuffed zucchini flowers.  I couldn't find nutrition info on these...hummm?

I filled them with rice, mozerella and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.  I steamed some thin asparagus, sliced the tops and added the rest of the stalk in the food processor.  I added the blended paste of asparagus to the rice mixture for the flowers and baked them all for 20 min.  I served the topped asparagus on the side drizzled with EVO and lemon.

This is the only information I could find on nutrition of the zucchini flowers. "If the flower is not picked from the plant, the zucchini grows from the center of the flower if it is a female flower that has been pollinated. If it is a male flower, it provides pollen for the insects to fertilize the female flowers with. The flowers wither and die quickly, within a day."   Nothing on the actual nutrition.
 

The flavor was very mild but the nutrition was wonderful.

DH is coming along....welcome to the 70's.  We return to the hospital within a month (after labs are returned) for additional test of confirmation.  in our spare time, we play with the idea to move to another house.  Can you imagine!?  I asked him to wait until we are through with the hospital issues.  He liked cena tonight.

Carollyn79 ... so how do you cook the peas?  I like mine plain with some butter.  Or, with bacon slices (I know...fat).  Or in soup but it's too hot for soup.  Do you dry them for winter?

Best wishes to all as always,

Marilyn 

Retrievermom--now there's a vision! zuchini/pumpkin cross!  How did it taste?  What did it look like?  There seem so many variaties of squash...they need to start somewhere.

I'm having morning cappuccino and DH is having his tea.  So I sat to catch up on emails.  Now I'm hungry for apple rasberry jam!  Boy that sounds tasty.  We're having an unusually windy day.  I hope it doesn't disturb the cherry tree too much.

Last night we had a simple meal but one of our favorites....filetto (filet mignon) covered in a saute of mushrooms with carrot slivers, and parsley.  I felt feisty and wanted to experiment so I added some balsamico and cocao powder to the saute.  It was soooo good.  We had romaine tossed with cherry tomatoes, and fresh bread.  This we served with (Montefiasconi) Vincenzo's home made red.  It was red meat night.  

edited for dessert:  I forgot to say that we had banana slices with strawberries sprinkled lightly w/sugar and covered with squeezed fresh lemon juice.....oh, yes and dark chocolate (72%) small blocks on the side. 

Best wishes to all as always,

Marilyn 

 Hello All.  I've been busy again this week but with the dog this time.  Napo, our 2.5 yr. old was a handful when Stella came home from the vet after sterilization.  Napo wanted to help in the worst way...urging her to play, to eat.  I needed to keep them relatively separated until she got her strength back...within three or so days.  Then the problem was convincing her that it wasn't the best idea to run after Napo.  When Napo got too pushy, she showed her pearly whites and snapped at him.  I empathized.  

I had to laugh at myself when I fixed her dish.  I was thinking how funny it would be to tell you all about it.  So here it is.  The first two days she ate rice with eggs, shared a pear with me, and got absolutely insistent about sharing the hazelnuts.  She can't eat chocolate poor thing...so that's all for me.  Eventually, she was back to her own diet of dog food.  I've been drizzling olive oil on both their dishes in these days.

She removed her own bandage and was tending to the wound.  She asked us to 'PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE'  when we tried to help.  Her skin was sensitive to the tape.  She's a bit red from licking and the doc gave her antibiotic shots.  I remembered how uncomfortable a wound healing felt.  So I used what the docs told me to use for my incisions after they closed...sweet almond oil.  I added just a few drops of lavender.  I gave her an anti-inflammatory too.

So not much cooking going on here.  Giancarlo is the chef most of the time anyway.  Our summer lunch is moving in the direction of caprese or a host of variations on salad.  It's just too hot.  I made a pizza today but I really didn't want to turn on the oven.  

Friends are arriving on the 9th of July for the weekend and a BBQ.  I plan to make that wonderful water mellon salad from this thread. The menu isn't completely planned yet.

Carollynn79!  Can I come to your house for dinner?  I could taste your meals from here!  Mouth watering.  I have little green tomatoes on the vine and small peppers. The basil is doing well as are the herbs.  I'm trimming them to dry for winter as we go along.  Strawberries have stopped.  I don't know why.  The weather has been weird.  Some cold and windy days that confused our plants.  Hope that the Orange trees are OK.  The cherry tree is almost ready to pick.  

So just wanted you all to know that I was thinking of you.  Best wishes to all as always,

Marilyn

"Never run faster than your guardian angel can fly" 

Just a quick note....

My friends arrive soon so my radar is up for what to serve at the bbq.  We are looking for gluten free, carbs low and yummy.  I saw this in the NY Times and thought it was a great list of foods for the grill.  Maybe you all'd like to peruse the link?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/dining/30mini.html?hp

Healthy, tasty, easy ..... that's a combination that is hard to beat.  

I saved the clippings from the trees in the spring and that's what I'll use for the fire....rosemary, lemon, orange, laurel ... they are now bundled, dried and ready.  

M

First I drool over the broccoli (?) and fresh berries .... then the recipe for the rice dish -- I will definitely try this one.  

Our BBQ fizzled to only four of us.  It is so hot that people are staying put.  But it was breezy on our terrace and we had a four-hour lunch.  

It started with shrimp on the balcony.  I bought them the day before...steamed in old bay seasoning, shelled, devained and into the frig.  While we were eating our appetizers, I put the salmon on the grill in the foil.

I sliced the salmon down the middle and put parsley, lemon and white wine into the belly...wrapped it in foil and into the frig until grill time.

When we moved to the terrace, I checked on the salmon then put the sword fish on the grill. The sword fish I sprinkled with hot pepper and rosemary and into the frig earlier.

DH made a tossed salad to go with this.  We finished up with gelatto and our cherries on top.  

The best part of the meal was the conversations with good friends and lots of laughing.  We had a such a good time that they are coming back tonight.  We haven't seen each other since Christmas so there is much to catch up on.  We are also making plans to go to the sea together this week.  

I took pictures earlier so share with you.  I'll need to look again for the pics of the tomatoes...Carolynn79 inspired me.  The gardenia plant is already turning in the heat but I have a few pics of the new blooms.

Best wishes to all as always,

Marilyn

"Never run faster than your guardian angel can fly" 

 Aloe, gardenia, lemon tree.

Table awaits BBQ quests. 

Steam grill  ....

CactusFlowers ... blooms last only a few days.