Welcome, Summer!

It's only fitting that I write my first post of the "summer" on Memorial Day, the unofficial kickoff of the season.  It's a lovely 93 degrees F and humid outside... that part of summer I'm not so excited about, but I am excited about the food.  Summer food is the best.  Fresh delicious produce, simple salads, classic American cookout dishes (who doesn't love burgers/hotdogs fresh off the grill, potato salad, and a refreshing glass of iced tea ?).  It's even better when some -- or most, if you're lucky! -- of the ingredients come from your own garden.

A couple months ago I wrote about my burgeoning container garden.  Well, it was mostly an epic failure.  All that survived out of those many tomato seedlings is this one bad boy, who is still hanging on for dear life:

He's still growing little by little every day. I'll be quite impressed if he actually ends up producing any tomatoes!

In light of my tomato seedling failure, I gave up and purchased a cherry tomato seedling, which I'm excited about:

And as for basil...

The bunch you see to the left is all that's left of the basil I planted months ago.  The bigger plant on the right was a store purchase (there's another one too, not pictured).  All are growing like wildfire! :)

Sigh, cilantro.  This was grown from seeds, and was going pretty strong, but has started to wilt quite a bit the last couple days, despite plenty of sunlight, allowing the water to drain, and not over- or under-watering.  Cilantro seems to be a pretty fickle herb to grow.  Any pointers??

I purchased this lavender plant for the wonderful aroma and beautiful purple flowers that will bloom (and have already started to bud).

As for what's been cookin' lately...

In celebration of Memorial Day weekend, I felt compelled to make some sort of BBQ stable, so I went with this basic pasta salad recipe, with the omission of chickpeas and eggs, and the addition of fresh basil from my garden.

In the words of Paul, "Can you make this again??? I could eat this all week..."

And, nothing says summer like a simple caprese salad (again, basil from the garden).  I hope someday soon the tomatoes will be from my patio, as well. :)

Simple Memorial Day lunch.

What summer foods are you most excited about?

Cheers,
L

Mini Garden Update #2

I'm happy to report that I have actual basil (not a weed this time) and tomato seedlings growing! The tomatoes are going a little wild... I did not expect such a big turnout! ;)

Tomato seedlings gone crazy!

Baby basil plants. :)

Homegrown fruits, veggies, and herbs... here I come!

Are you starting a garden this year?

Cheers,
L

The Beginnings of My Summer Garden...

Not too much to blog about these days, but there is something I am quite excited about. This past weekend I started my summer garden.

On the left we have basil, and on the right we have tomatoes (they're in there, somewhere). The tomato planter is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. I'll keep the basil in its original planter, and when the tomato seedlings grow to about 5"-10", I'll transplant to a bigger container. For now, they'll rest in a warm spot here in the office where there is AMAZING sunlight in the morning and afternoon. They'll stay inside here until it gets warm out. This is my first time planting anything from seeds, so I really hope they grow successfully. Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I hope to be making plenty of pesto and caprese salad with the fruits of my labor. I hope to also plant thyme, rosemary, mint, sage, oregano, and of course cilantro...my all-time favorite herb. Hopefully some peppers, too. And flowers, of course, 'cause they're pretty. :)

One last thing I'd like to share... there are few things more delightful than treating yourself to a nice, quiet, solo sushi lunch.

Miso soup.

California roll (goin' back to the basics), tuna roll with cream cheese & avocado, tuna roll which was supposed to be yellowtail but oh well, and salmon roll. After I finished my rolls and tasting how fresh the salmon was, I ordered some salmon sashimi, but I devoured it before I could remember to take a picture. Whoops.

I love that no matter where you go for sushi, or how simple your order is, the chef always takes the time to place the food so artfully on the plate. It makes the experience of eating your favorite food so much more enjoyable. :)

Cheers,
L

Tomato Sauce from Scratch

I had the blessing of receiving a whole big batch of home-grown tomatoes from Paul's mom's garden.  They are unlike any tomato you can buy in the store; sweet, tender, juicy, yum.  Unfortunately, there were more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, so I decided to try a batch of tomato sauce (something his mom had also done while I was staying at their house this summer).  I pretty much winged it, eyeballed everything, and threw it in my (CUTE) mini slow cooker (I'm usually cooking for two -- it probably holds about 3 or 4 quarts). Here's my "recipe":

Homemade Tomato Sauce

• 4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• a few shakes of dehydrated minced onion
• generous helping of whatever herb you have on hand (all I had was dried parsley for now)
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove, peel, and chop to your heart's desire. Place tomatoes in slow cooker.
2. Add tomato paste, garlic, onion, herbs, salt, and pepper. Stir.
3. If, like me, you want a less chunky sauce, stick your immersion blender in there and puree.  I blended until there were just a few tomato chunks left.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Mine's still simmering, so I'll have to update this post and let you know how it turns out.  Seems pretty foolproof to me, though.  I plan on boiling some frozen (yeah, I know) gnocchi tonight or tomorrow and using the sauce for that.

Cheers,
L

UPDATE: Great success! The sauce was sweet but not too sweet, and had a nice kick from the garlic.  The only negative was that it came out a bit watery -- next time, strain the tomatoes after chopping & before adding to the pot.

 Gnocchi (from frozen) with Homemade Tomato Sauce, Freshly Grated Parmesan & Romano Cheese