Grilled Pork Chop with Grilled Tomato and Rice Salad

Another perfectly grilled meal!

Sausage, Spaghetti Squash and Tomatoes

This was based on the Jamie Oliver recipe that I love. I added the spaghetti squash because it was there and switched the cherry tomatoes for garden tomatoes because... well I have a few tomatoes sitting here. It was delicious. 45 minutes and dinner is done! One dish so clean up is fast. Giants vs Jets pre-season tonight... Go Saints!

Salad and Eggplant and Tempeh Pot Pie

A quick post tonight...
The salad was made using up the meat from last night. I made the blue cheese dressing from scratch, it is much better than bottled. The croutons were homemade. Once you make your own croutons you can never enjoy store bought again.

I also made Tempeh and Eggplant Pot Pie. I found the recipe using the gadget at the bottom of my blog that shows seasonal foods. I clicked on Eggplant and ended up with this recipe. Now my husband is not into tempeh. But he tried it and said it tasted good... This week tempeh next week tofu? By the way this tart was very good! I did use the pate brisse dough instead of the dough used in the recipe.

Canning Tomatoes with Dad

The 15th of August has always reminded me of stories from my parents about it being a day of rest after doing a lot of canning of tomatoes. Yes it is also the Feast of the Assumption but something about those tomatoes always stuck in my mind. I always imagined my grandmother and my Aunt Marie and my mom working over the hot stove canning bushels of tomatoes.

When my dad asked if I knew how to can tomatoes and I said no, he offered to show me. Wow! What an opportunity.

Wow it was a lot of work. First we wash out the jars. Next we blanched the tomatoes and peeled them. Then into the jars they go. Boil for 20 minutes and wrap the jars in newspaper until they cool. I had a basket of tomatoes that I got at Jake's Farm Stand in Madison. We ended up with 7 jars of tomatoes and 3 jars of tomato juice.... Bloody Mary anyone?
I just want to thank my dad for showing me how to can tomatoes. Will I do it again? Yes I will because it is something my mom did. And if it helps me achieve her level of sauce... that's what this is all about.







After all that we had a wonderful dinner. Steak and grilled zucchini and potatoes from a recipe I found on A New York Foodie. WoW!

Fresh Mozz, Garden Tomatoes, Basil and these peppers...

I did not want to make dinner tonight so I picked some tomatoes and basil and ran to the store for some fresh mozz. There was a man there getting peppers that were next to the mozz and he said, "Wow you should try these peppers with the Mozz!" So I did and "Wow" it was quite good. It added just a little kick to the Italian bread, tomato, Mozz and basil. A glass of wine and that's all I needed.
Tomorrow my dad is teaching me how to can tomatoes! The last thing he taught me was how to drive... It should be a fun day!

Archie says Happy Friday the 13th!

Andouille Sausage, Onion, Garden Tomatoes and Feta

So I walk in the door and Chris was at the stove. The house smelled wonderful and I did not have to cook! He used the Cajun Style Andouille Sausage I had picked up at Whole Foods. He sauteed onions, celery and tomatoes. Then he added the sausage and seasoned the pan with salt and pepper. He made some Penne pasta which he added to the saute pan. Talk about comfort food.

Broccoli Rabe with Penne

Tonight I made one of my favorite dishes. Broccoli Rabe with Penne. The Rabe was from the batch I got from my Dad a while back. He steamed and packaged it in Ziploc bags, just like my mom use to do. I pulled one bag out of the freezer and added some grilled chicken that I had leftover and some pine nuts. A bit of butter, olive oil, crushed red pepper and Parmesan cheese. I ate on the deck with a hummingbird flying around to the flowers. Very nice.

I apologized to my ingredients as I prepared dinner....

Good grief. When I was younger I worked in a couple of restaurants. I was, among other things, a line cook for awhile. I would go into the walk-in and take a live lobster and cut it open right down the center so it could be stuffed and baked. I had no problem doing this.

Well fast forward 20 years and today I apologized to the lobsters before I dropped them in a pot of boiling water. I felt bad.

Anyway on to dinner...

The World-Famous Maine Lobster Roll.

The Lobster Salad recipe came from the Food Network site.

Lobster Salad:
1/2 pound fully cooked lobster meat or 1 (2 1/2 pound) live lobster
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced
1/4 cup bottled mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon fresh tarragon
2 small scallions, thinly sliced
Kosher or sea salt Freshly ground pepper
2 to 3 New England-style hot dog buns
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Pickles and potato chips as accompaniment

Directions

Prepare the lobster salad. If using live lobsters, steam or boil them. Let cool at room temperature. Use a cleaver to crack and remove the meat from the claws, knuckles and tails. Remove the cartilage from the claws and the intestines from the tails of the cooked meat. Cut the meat into 1/2-inch dice. You may pick all the meat from the carcass and add it to the meat or freeze the carcass for soup or broth. Place the cucumber in a colander for at least 5 minutes to drain the excess liquid. Combine the lobster, cucumber mayonnaise, and tarragon. Add the scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat a large heavy skillet (12 to 14-inches) over medium-low heat (a black cast-iron pan is perfect). Lightly butter both sides of each bun. Place them in the pan and cook for about 2 minutes until golden brown. Turn the buns over and toast the other side. Or toast the buns under a broiler instead. When the buns are ready, stuff them with the chilled lobster salad. Place each roll on a small paper or china plate; garnish with pickles and potato chips. Serve at once.

We opted for the paper plates and store bought Potato Salad. Store bought! Well yes I was a little busy freezing tomatoes from my Dad's garden.

It was something I have never tried before so of course I googled it and ended up at PickYourOwn.org. It was pretty easy. I got a nice bag of tomatoes to freeze and 2 cups of tomato juice. I am thinking Bloody Marys...

Pleasant Cow Cheese and Pain de Campagne

I was able to get to the Madison Farmer's Market today. I picked up 2 of my favorite things. One being some Pleasant Sun Cheese from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm and some Pain de Campagne from Wave Hill Breads. A bottle of Fat Cat Pinot Noir and that was dinner!

Sliders and Zucchini Salad

Another night of just photos...

– Happy Birthday Archie! –