summer tomatoes

I guess it's the crazy windstorm we had last night, but I'm thinking about our summer bounty. We had so much basil. I made a bunch of pesto and froze it.

And here are some of our tomatoes. So many tomatoes. I made batch after batch of tomato sauce and froze it.

After the 3rd or 4th batch, I burnt out. But we still have a ton of tomoto sauce in the freezer. For soups, sauces, salsa... and little summer after winter's wind storms.

Here's what the tomatoes look like now. Still so much fruit on there, rotting away. We got a little crazy planting tomato plants. Next year, only 3 or 4 plants!

my first roast chicken

I made roast chicken about a month ago or so. Turns out that while herzog isn't into me eating meat, he loves chicken. I find this interesting because I never liked chicken much before I was pregnant.
Anyway, I decided it was time to figure out the secrets to good roast chicken. The answer, of course, was butter.
We had some rice with wild mushrooms and spinach with raisins and almonds alongside.

Eating in Hawaii

i was going to say that this was the first good food we had in Hawaii. but in fact, we stopped at the farmers market in Kona on our way to the hotel. there, we picked up mango, papaya, bananas and avocado-- all local. so in fact, the first good food we had was at breakfast with fruit and local granola.
but this was the first good food we had out somewhere, at cerviche dave's. and it was absolutely delicious.
dave makes 4 cerviches daily (or multiple times a day) with whatever the very freshest and best fish is that's caught that day. this day, it was marlin, delicious marlin. we went another day and it was ono which was good too but not as good.
dave recommends that your first time there, you get the variety plate with a taste of all the cerviches. one has thai flavors: coconut milk and lemongrass. another (we're going counter-clockwise around the plate) has shrimp and pecans (troy did not eat this one, wanting to live to see another day), the next: lilikoi (passionfruit) and macadamia nuts. the last one has mexican flavors: a bit of spice, black beans and corn. our favorite was the lilikoi, a flavor i've become completely addicted to and am going through withdrawal now being stateside.

after the variety plate, we had a tostada, topped with cerviche and avocado and it was eaten before i could get a picture of it.
dave gave us some of his choppino next which was good but not as good as the cerviche. the bread comes with it is made my his girlfriend and is super yummy.

just a regular everyday dinner

it's been so nice we've been grilling whenever possible. we tend to eat mexican food a lot. i'd made some rice and black beans and braised some chicken in tomatillo/olive salsa. we grilled some quesadillas with jack, black beans and chicken and made a salad with gorgeous spring radishes, carrots and avocado with a toasted cumin/lime vinaigrette. yummy everyday kind of meal.

spring lamb

we got some lamb chops from the rancher who shared the demo space at new seasons with troy recently. i wasn't sure that i liked (eating) lamb. we grilled 'em up and had some little dumplings from the russian market across the street and some sauteed spinach with currents, garlic and pine nuts. turns out i do like lamb, and the rancher told me he only kills the ugly lambs.

yet another delicious breakfast

troy made breakfast: little plantain patties, bacon, and farmer's market eggs. and hot sauce: one is from pickleopolis-- which everyone should have, the red hot sauce they make is super yummy too-- and eros pista, which is this amazing hungarian hot sauce we get from our hungarian relatives (yay for my brother who married a hungarian!).

craving mac & cheese

we were craving mac & cheese.
i remember in my early 20s when i lived briefly in linda & david's basement. david made the most amazing mac & cheese and i used to get up in the middle of the night and steal a forkfull. i'd see mackenzie there, sneaking big mouthfuls of chocolate from the chocolate block they kept above the fridge, for baking.
i still use a variation (as cooking varies as the years and whims go by) of david's recipe.

april fools day dinner at tom & dougs, no foolin'

we had another stunning dinner at tom & doug's. i can't think of anyone else who so fervently embraces the good life.
we started with chilled tomato soup with lime, cheddar cheese puffs and ice cold lime gimlets.


the handsome bearded man on the left is troy, about to enjoy i believe his third helping of that fantastic soup.

then into the dining room for dinner: shaved celery salad and pasta with roast chicken, pine nuts, currants, rosemary & parsley. utterly delicious; hauntingly good in fact. i think i'll be making that pasta real soon here.

we brought along an oregon rose, which was lovely alongside.

our gracious and generous hosts.

following dinner, we retired to the lounge for rose sparkley followed by tangerine ice cream floats, a sort of grown-up dreamsicle, which were always my summertime favorite.

at this point i was getting loopy and i believe some vodka went into mine. then there may have been another cocktail.
and things went from elegant to rollicking, which i believe is the point of the swanky lounge... and all the booze.

mlk jr day, christmas revisited

here's another out of order post. this is from martin luther king jr weekend, when all us portland family members met fyo for the first time. it was christmas, part 2.
we had roast beef with a red wine demi-glaze, roasted root vegetables, horseradish mashed potatoes, butter lettuce and radicchio salad with fennel, cara cara oranges and tarragon vinaigrette and jeffrey's famous herb rolls.

st patricks day

troy made breakfast sausage again. this batch was the best ever. it was equal parts ground chicken, turkey and pork with shredded apple, sage, oats and maple and i'm sure more, but i don't know what other than magic.
we also had soda bread and jam and dubliner cheese.
troy put a leprechaun on my coffee mug, reclining in a rather fetching pose.

then for dinner, we had to make corned beef with potatoes, parnips, carrots and cabbage. and serve it with horseradish sauce and cold dark beer. i mean, that's the point of st patricks day, right?

mmm, tortilla soup

i like soup. recently, i made tortilla soup with chicken, kidney beans, chard and pasilla peppers. yum!

on the way home

we'd had some outstanding fish in port townsend: mussels the first night, salmon bought directly from the fisherman on his boat. but we hadn't yet had fish & chips.
we stopped at sea j's for lunch on the way out of town. as you can likely tell from the mouthwatering photo, the clam chowder and fish (fresh cod) & chips were outstanding. even the coleslaw was pretty good.
there are six community tables at sea j's and when you walk in the door, you are basically walking right into someone's lunch. the waitresses all ignored us as we stood there wondering if we were just supposed to sit or what. finally a fellow having lunch with his young daughter took pity on us ignorant out-of-towners and waved us over to join his table. one bite of that fresh, tender, crispy fish and we knew it was well-worth the intial awkwardness.

eating in port townsend, with martha & david

so this timeline is getting all funky because i just remembered that i had some pictures from our eating in port townsend. on this night, it was snowing. troy and i spent a little time in the hot tub and then came in and had a incredible sparkling red wine (matha has some amazing wines) with fromage blanc from the mount townsend creamery, red pepper jelly and landjager.

then for dinner, we had braised chicken with a mustard sauce, mashed potatoes and chard with a fantastic oregon pinot noir.

we love eating and visiting with martha and david.

a good salad

well, i can't wait for spring. but in the meantime, we had a good salad recently. i love salad.
this one had butter lettuce, blood oranges, fennel, avocado and radicchio with a creamy tarragon vinaigrette.

craving bouillabaisse something fierce

i think it was when we started driving along the puget sound; the salty fresh smell of the ocean. i started craving bouillabaisse something fierce. we looked for it in port townsend, but troy can't eat shrimp (so sad!) and we couldn't be sure that we were getting shrimp-free fish soup.

we ate lots of seafood on that trip, but no bouillabaisse. when we got home, we knew we had to make some. we watched julia make it, and then headed out to get some fish.

we made the broth with last year's garden tomatoes that we'd slow roasted, fennel, leeks, saffron, orange, basil, garlic and olive oil. i think. we added a couple kinds of fish. one was a dover sole and i forget what the other was. and clams and mussels.

it was luminous.

march family dinner

we're starting a family dinner tradition; every month, the angeline, toth/nelson, and linden famlies trade off hosting family dinner. we hosted in march. i only got one picture of in the makings, and none of the finished meal and eating, but i did get one of tila wearing a saucepan lid as a hat. he's cooking, you see. he's making lemon.

for dinner, we had braised chicken and wild mushrooms with leeks from our garden, rice with saffron and lemon, and carrots and parnsips with rosemary and maple.

a good breakfast

it was a couple weeks ago now, but we finally opened our christmas present from the nelson/toth family: homemade avar. amazing! for breakfast, we had grapefruit--that mom brought us back from palm springs, fresh picked from trees there-- and from our port townsend trip, whole wheat sourdough (the real kind, made from starter) from the bakery there with fromage blanc from mount townsend creamery and that delicious avar.

valentine's dinner, with love.

we started off with my take on french 75's: 12 bridges gin & st. germain, topped with cava. our pretty salads are watercress and dill with beets (yes, the red beets are cut into heart shapes!) and horseradish cream.

next, we had seared tenderloin steaks with red wine demi-glace on a potato, celeriac and parsnip puree with green beans. alongside, we drank a 2005 coturri cabernet sauvignon that jenna and ben had bought from the winemaker in sonoma. the combination was extraordinary.

for dessert, we had chocolate fondue with strawberries and more chocolates and rose sparkling wine.

Valentine's menu, with Jenna and Ben

Here's what I'm thinking:

beets with watercress, dill and horseradish cream

french 75s

seared steaks with red wine demi-glace

parsnip, celeriac and potato puree

green beans with shallots

2005 coturri cab

chocolate fondue with strawberries

champagne

dinner at tom and doug's

we had dinner at tom and doug's house recently. we started in their gracious and stunning living room with martinis, some cheeses and nuts.
for dinner, we had doug's famous roast chicken and some utterly delicious sauteed root vegetables-- i have to remember to get that recipe from tom.

we brought a wine we'd been saving. i can't remember what it was. it was italian.

then we had some chocolate, nuts and dried fruit in their swanky basement pad, with i believe a tokay or maybe it was sherry.

dinner with tom and doug

we started with arancini made from a red wine risotto with truffles, troy's pickled green tomatoes, and a couple pates: duck liver and pheasant with persimmon. we drank st. germain martinis. i added sparkling water to mine.

then we had a butter lettuce salad with shaved fennel and cara cara oranges with an apricot tarragon vinaigrette.

by the time we got to the beef en daube with buttered fresh pasta, i'd lost the ability to focus my camera. maddie thinks the head of the table is hers. tom and doug brought a couple stunning wines: a brick house gamay noir and an ayers pinot noir which lead into dessert nicely.

but i regained my ability to focus on the dirty dishes. i got us steak knives that day at an estate sale right across the street. i scored.

for dessert we had a cheese plate with camembert, a smokey blue from rogue creamery, an aged fontina from willamette valley creamery and a buddah hand citrus marmalade troy made, with chocolate fleur de sel cookies.

making beef en daube

our present to ourselves for the holidays this year was a beautiful robin's egg blue enameled casserole. i was dying to try a braised beef dish. having been intrigued by beef en daube, with its orange peel and bitter chocolate additions, it seemed just the thing to inaugurate our present.

the flavor is built up by searing cubes of beef, then using the bacon fat created from a few strips of bacon to saute onions. after those just begin to caramelize, add a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste, flour and smashed garlic cloves and toast those up.

a big glug of cognac never hurt anything. that's followed by a couple cups of wine or so. add in the bacon and seasonings and let it simmer for a few hours. later i added sliced carrots and parsnips and mushrooms that i'd pan-seared.

breakfast the next morning

new years eve breakfast.

the eve of new years eve:

artichokes with lemony herb butter

martinis

butter lettuce with seared scallops, shaved fennel, cara oranges and tarragon apricot vinaigrette

fresh tagliatelle with shaved black & white truffles

champagne