So...whats for dinner?

Dinner tonight was seared tuna on the grill, a water spinach stir-fry, pork-leek dumplings, and jasmine rice. Hello? Where has water spinach been all of my life? This stuff is DELICIOUS! I will buy more at the Farmer's market week after week. I had no idea that there was such a wonderful and healthy vegetable out there waiting for me.

7 more tomatoes today, so i have begun roasting some. This year, I tried something new with the overripe tomatoes. I cut each in half on the equator, and then spooned out the insides, salted, and let sit over a colander. After several hours, I coaxed the last of the juice and seeds out of the shells and cut the remaining shells into slices. Roasted with olive oil and unpeeled garlic. at 450º for 45 minutes. I have tomato jam of sorts. Wow. This stuff is good! My plan is to save the tomatoes that are getting too ripe and treat them this way. Imagine in the middle of the winter pulling out these tomatoes to add to a braise or use as a pizza topping? The trick seems to to be using very ripe tomatoes and pulling the cores. I have saved the tomato juice and am thinking bloody Marys.

Brunch anyone?

*susan*

Susan:  I had to google Water Spinach.  Read some very interesting articles about the stuff.  Since it's grown as a mostly clandestine crop south of Houston, maybe I'll be able to find some.  One article said BokChy is the Toyota and WaterSpinach is the Mercedes.  I expect I'll love it since I love BokChoy, but have a hard time finding decent crispy product in my part of town.

Oh Susan wouldn't it be just like you to make an insanely delectable variation of roasted tomatoes! Yummmmm!!!

We almost froze our keesters (sp?) off here this AM. Where did the warm temps go!!?? Needed to be up early for the plumber to fix our "latrines". I tend to be a germ phobe, so having a plumber doing his work in both the bathrooms left me in a bit of an OCD state. After his work, he discovered that the toilets were still running and needed another part (Oy!). He said he'd come back later in the day.....meaning that I had to wait to sanitize "my" bathroom until the end of the day. Meanwhile it was NOT a beach day, so we just hung around the house and got some things done til after he finished later in the day. 

Took a long walk, then didn't feel like rustling up dinner so we ordered a veggie pizza (great minds and appetites, Carole)and some crabcakes (which were amazingly good for this little local pizza and fish shop), and I made a spinach salad. We also had red wine and enjoyed some candy tonight while watching House of Cards. We both feel like stuffed pigs, and will get back on the wagon tomorrow.....when I hope we will have a sunny, at least somewhat warm day.

Nance, have a fun excursion!

Bedo - DH and I have thought about a teardrop trailer which is the generic term for what a T@b Trailer is. We saw one a long time ago at RV dealer. Very tiny but I've not seen the little bit larger ones. Wish we could get a Casita. They make 13' ones. Also another brand is Scamp with 13' ones. Don't know what you'll be towing it with. DH says either Casita/Scamp could prob. be towed with midsize vehicle. I think they are super light.

Not much cooking around here. Did make the chicken/dumplings again. We were supposed to go to Mex. Food Sat. night but DH's tummy acting up so we stayed home. We made up for it yesterday and made fajitas and DH made stuffed jalapenos. I got one that was like a bell pepper and the 2nd lit up my innards. Tonight was finishing up all of those. Tomorrow is pizza night. I think Wed. is crockpot night, prob. chicken of some kind - DH has to work super late.

Nancy - I'll take any rain you want to send. Record rainfall at DFW yesterday. We got a smattering west of Ft. Worth. I actually watered the yard by hand this evening. And guess what, showers have popped up but looking like they're falling apart as they progress our way.

I had the best hot sweet pepper jam over cream cheese at a church party. I think I found the recipe, it was electric green colored. A Paula Deen recipe. Friend said she would share recipe; might have to ask again. She's a pretty good cook. Teaches home/family consumer classes - I think that's the name. What they call Home Ec now.

Yay, Minus, two more treatments. Partay time.

No question, New England is chilly this summer. I am sitting here at 8am with a sweater, shivering. I am starting to think my habenero plant experiment will be a failure. The bush is just starting to flower which I don't think will give it time to give me fruit. That is the life of a small time farmer I guess. But we have enough tomatoes to feed a small village!

Can't imagine getting into a Northern lake right now at all.

Lunch today at La Voile with all four of us. It is restaurant week so we can see how we like the food and the room without too great an expense. Would have preferred tasting the evening menu, but this is what we could manage with all of our conflicting schedules. Then the kids head off for a suit fitting for him. Did I mention the ever spiraling aspirations of the bride?

As to the water spinach, I don't like bok choy [it is a textural thing] very much and just loved the water spinach. I just love when I find new things that are both healthy and enjoyable.

*susan*

Susan, my garden is replete with peppers of all colors but I have one plant that hasn't borne one pepper all summer. It blooms and blooms but no peppers. What's up with that?

Eric and Nancy, you put me to shame in the cleanliness dept.  I'll have to do better. 

Forgot to google Bedo's tag trailer but if it's a teardrop camper, I've seen lots of those in rv parks.  They're really cute.  DH and I had a teardrop camper the first year we were married.  It was home-made and painted bright blue.  We bought it 2nd hand and it had fenders off an old-fashioned car.  There was a door on either side where you could climb in and lie down on the mattress.  No standing room.  There were a couple of cabinets inside for clothes.  The rear end was a kind of hatchback construction.  You lifted up the hatchback and propped it up.  There were places for the campstove and dishes etc.  It was strictly a fair weather camper.  When it rained, we had to go to a library.

Our tow vehicle was a bright red Triumph convertible.  Were we ever cute driving through New England towns!  We visited literary sites like Emily Dickinson's house and Walden Pond and the building where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked. 

Have not heard of water spinach before. 

Lunch today was a sliced tomato, two slices of bread and mayo.  I had two open-faced tomato sandwiches and they were SO good.  And satisfying.

We still have leftover potato leek soup for dinner.

I looked up a recipe for gazpacho that looks good.  It's Alton Brown's recipe.  I'll probably make it this afternoon with some modifications.  He calls for red bell pepper and I don't have that on hand.  I'll substitute banana pepper for jalapeno and omit red onion, which would ruin the taste for me.  The important ingredients are the good tomatoes and good cucumbers.  The rest are enhancers.

Nancy, hope you enjoy your excursion. 

Susan - I think it was on Accuweather I was reading about the NE heating up a bit. Maybe hope for your peppers yet.

Eric - I forgot to mention your DD's head collision. Hope she is recovered.

My twitter weather just lit up. I hope you and family are safe inside from that monsoon hitting Phoenix. Seeing a water rescue on Fox right now in New River.

Thanks Redheaded one. They definitely have their personalities

Minus, I am glad you are finishing up. Hang in there and if I get my Tag trailer I would love to come visit you if that's OK

Money is fluctuating as usual. Never know what to expect with interim work.

PS Thanks Carol for your advice, I really appreciate it

I've been making a salad with barley, corn tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, red onion white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and a bit of honey and green onions. It is very good but I am completely sick of it.

Got an email from a college today for a 10 month position with numerous "breaks" spring, winter, all holidays etc. they want my references after I went for an interview so it may be the perfect combination of time off and work and permanent until I quit/get laid of/retire. It is RI and our state motto is "You're Unemployed! "  We've been #1 or 2 in the country since this whole recession mess started. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The kale keeps coming and now it's time to pull the beets. I envy everyone's tomatoes, my garden is over run with squash. and zinnias at present.

I'm taking the Ice Bucket Challenge this weekend after my friend and I dump ice water over each other's heads to post to Facebook. I'm picking out a really big bucket for her. he he

I am glad that everyone seems to be enjoying their summers.  It seems to go by so quickly we'll miss the quahogs.

Bedo - that sounds like the perfect job for you -- fingers crossed for you!

Carole -- were you writing when you made those trips? Sounds perfectly romantic!

The clydesdales were absolutely wonderful -- the casino, not so much :-(      We got to see lots of colts as well as stallions, pregnant mares and the some "hitch" horses.  We also got to meet the clydesdale in the bud "puppy love" commercial.These big guys have quite a life here.  Not only do they have the cleanest horse barns and stalls that I've ever seen, each one equippped with several fans that automatically  come on when the temperature reaches a certain index, but each of the yards has it's own sand pile in the middle that the horses can roll in, which we got to witness. All of my pictures came out blurry unfortunately (except for the one where we're all drinking the free Budweiser, oddly enough.)  Very cool place. Btw, in case you were wondering -- no AI here, all the breeding is done au natural. 

Tonight is chicken enchiladas with the leftover roast chicken and an avocado salad.  Maybe some corn and peppers too.

Our lunch at La Voile happened to occur during Restaurant Week so it was quite the deal. The groom-to-be is "making weight" so he ordered a la carte to avoid all carbs. [He is getting grumpy as this hunger thing extends longer and longer.] We sat on the patio watching the very thin shoppers walk by on Newbury Street. The chairs were standard issue south of France bistro chairs. Starters around the table included a gazpacho, pork rillettes, and two quiche with salad. The gazpacho was deemed not up to mine, but the other two items were excellent. Been a long time since I have had a rillette, and this one was worth it. Main courses were skate Meuniere, chicken breast with sage butter, pollenata, mushrooms and jus, a chicken panini, and a frisee salad with a poached egg and dijon vinaigrette. I didn't taste the salad or the sandwich but the fish and chicken were excellent. For some reason, they brought an extra dessert so we were able to try the creme brulée, apple tart, cream puffs with chocolate sauce, and a berry tart. The thing they called apple tart,which was really an upside down apple cake was astonishing! So good. The creme brulée was good as was the berry tart. The cream puffs were just too sweet and there were too many of them.

We felt like we were in France.... it was wonderful! We booked the room, and have begun building the menu with the manager. Very pleased that Lacey reminded me of this restaurant. It will be the perfect venue for our post-wedding dinner.

*susan*

Wow, Susan, now I'm hungry to return to LaVoile! I'm glad it passed muster for the culinary expert I consider you to be. And even better that you got to do the "try out" during restaurant week! Such a deal! .  I think I had the apple tart when we were there....nice!  We are hosting our Parsien friend's daughter this Sunday for dinner, and she will be happy to hear your "review". She had selected that spot for her college graduation dinner, and it was lovely.

Today was another beautiful beach day, and more catching up with neighbors. I've taken to bringing peanuts with raisins and cranberries to the beach for my lunch.  Tonight we had leftover pizza and a baby greens salad with the one leftover Jersey tomato and feta. All's good!

We are FINALLY trying to find a cooking class in Lucca for our trip next month....and starting to think about this excursion more seriously, now that we have slowed ourselves down a bit.

Carole, our kayaking is the relaxed variety for sure....especially with my tricky shoulder. I doubt I could do anthing too rigorous...no rapids, thank you! I am pleased that all my ongoing work on strengthening my leg muscles to help my knees, has made it much easier to get in and out of the kayak without making a fool of myself in front of the beach sitters. It is so peaceful to be out on the quiet lake with the mountains all around, and few motor boats.

Carole, you definitely got some good use out of that potato leek soup! It must have been so good!

Yesterday was DH's birthday, and we are home (beginning to feel uncertain of where that is these days!;).  On the way back from the lake we stopped to get ourselves new cell phones, and are now strapped with all the tech changes one needs to do when you switch anything around!! DH curses but really, secretly enjoys the challenge. I just curse!! Fortunately he is around as my tech support.

So for birthday boy's celebration we went to Harvard Square for dinner and then to the nearby American Repertory Theatre to see Finding Neverland. It was an amazing production, and I'm not even crazy about those kinds of musicals. Diane Paulis is a creative genious! Apparently the show is heading straight to Broadway after the Cambridge run.

Our dinner was at Legal Seafood (mainly because we could easily get a reservation  there, and I could have a light dinner after my two lb. weight gain from our "lake meals"), and tho I always think it is overpriced, the fish is very fresh. DH had bluefish, which was great, and I had a combo plate of crabcakes (which they made without the old bay seasoning after hearing about my celery allergy), grilled shrimp and scallops, which was more healthy than tasty, I thought. We had a side of kale sauteed with honey and a cheese, the name of which I can't recall, but it was a delicious way to serve kale. I must look it up! We also had a side of a variety of tasty sauteed mushrooms. DH was more than mildly embarrassed when the entire staff provided him with a resounding HB song....along with his free dessert, a wonderful key lime tart. Yum! I had some nostalgic moments while observing so many whole families at the restaurant, who were obviously dropping their freshman off to college this week. Sigh.....

So....continuing with our oral binging, tonight is the Volante Farms "Dinner in the Field". I am noticing that the skies look very overcast, and the temps are down, so it may well be dinner in the greenhouse! At least I know the food will be good! Their chef is great.

Tomorrow evening we are having our Parisien friend's daughter here for dinner. I'm thinking a cheese and fruit, olives, and nuts plate well as melon and prosciutto for appetizers (we're American, not Parisien, thus the cheese for starter;). Then we will grill marinated chicken and veggies, have wild rice, and an arugula/baby spinach/watermelon/feta salad. Not sure about dessert.....

Then for Monday, DS2 asked to get together for dinner (he is always attentive to our birthdays and other occasions...such a good guy:) so we are going to a place here in town, called Petit Robert Bistro, which has decent food and is quiet enough for us to have a conversation, and catch up on any new details about his long distance relationship.  He just finished taking her up and down the East coast introducing her to relatives. It could be interesting!

I feel like I'm writing a food travelogue! Not complaining, but I really need to get my feet planted in one spot....that should happen after Italy.....and the one spot better be the gym!!

Talked to the Italy villa owner today, and he warned us of the unusually cool temps there....oy! Can't get away from it. I was hoping to pack lightly with just summery clothes....looks like that plan will change. He also advised us not to leave our luggage in our car if we  stop for lunch on our way from Rome to Tuscany. I actually knew that since DS2's friends had all of theirs stolen from their parked car a few years ago. Oh dear.....and I was just worried about us driving our stick shift car up all the winding hills to the villa. Fun!

Yikes, another too long free association post....apologies.....

Carol I am so jealous of your travels

Lacey I am jealous of you too!  What an adventure

And Nance, what do you have in your fish pond?  I would love to have one of those

Susan Does "anyone" have a recipe for pickled beets? I planted them because DD said she likes beets and today when I asked her how she liked them she said "pickled"  If anyone can help, would you please start at the beginning, ie after pulling them from the ground... because I know, or think that you should not peel them and should maybe cut off the greens. She will be back from dropping of fiancé at Yale tomorrow to stay over.  Also I really can't do the hot bath thing, so maybe a recipe for refrigerator pickled beets? I have plenty of mason jars.  Thank you!

Went to Farmer's Market today and took The Beast a 140 pound Great Pyrenees, I think that's how you spell it. I wish a had a dollar for everyone who took a picture or wanted a picture of them with him. Sat under a tree to listen to the music and soon had a crowd of 15 within 5 minutes. DB's owner is in MGH and landlord's are watching him, but had to do errands, so I babysat him. He doesn't like to be alone. Poor baby. Even if you are huge, you can be a baby Chihuahua at heart 

Oh, and thanks for your wishes, got the job at the university and now have guaranteed work only about 8 months total with summer off. Yippee!