Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinner. I grew up eating a big meal after church and then, well, not much else the rest of the day. Right after we got married I assumed that all people did this. Then one Sunday evening J asked what was for dinner. Dinner? I was dismayed. I don't even remember what I'd made, probably a big roast with all the fixings and a dessert, for lunch. And now he wanted dinner? Who eats dinner on Sunday?
Our Sunday tradition has since evolved. We usually eat a small lunch and a normal dinner. Just like any other regular, run of the mill day. (Or as J says, like any normal person!)

This week I got my way and we had a big Sunday dinner and almost no supper.

We had friends over, one of them is deploying soon so it was sort of a send off. I made Ina Garten's herb marinated pork tenderloins, squash fresh from our latest CSA share, jasmine rice, corn, and a fruit salad. We opened a bottle of wine and stuffed ourselves. Delish!

Dessert was simple, but it's one of my all time favorites: homemade rice crispy treats. The are so amazing they deserve a post all their own.

So six o'clock rolled around and J hadn't mentioned supper yet... We ended up slicing and toasting up a baguette and I whipped up a batch of homemade roasted tomato bruschetta and we called it good. It felt like a "real" Sunday at our house yesterday!

Here is my bruschetta recipe: it's so good I could live off of it for a very long time before I got tired of it. (Bonus, it's also easy!)

1 pint of grape tomatoes

good olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

garlic (whatever is on hand, I've used minced and other times I've used the powder)

onion (again, whatever you have be it minced or a dried form from the pantry)

fresh basil

good bread for toasting (baguette)

cheese, optional

Wash and dry the tomatoes. Place in an oven proof dish (I usually use a glass pie plate) and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, onion and garlic to taste. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes until skins begin to burst.

In the meantime prepare your bread. I usually cut a baguette in half lengthwise and then into large pieces. Brush with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic.

Remove tomatoes from oven.

Turn on broiler. Place bread under and watch closely! Just as it turns brown remove it. Now is the time to add cheese if you want it. I suggest some fresh mozzarella! Return to broiler for a few seconds to melt the cheese.

With a fork smash up your roasted tomatoes and stir in some chopped, fresh basil. Load up the bread and enjoy!

http://jascherff.blogspot.com/2010/04/dinner-time.html

CSA - Week 3

I am excited - we got beets! I love beets. I remember eating them while growing up and pretending I was bleeding to death on my dinner plate with the help of beet juice. But despite the cool special effects they provide, they are delish. Sweet and earthy; they are perfect roasted until tender and eaten straight up!

J on the other hand probably (probably? definitely) is not going to be as excited by this weeks surprise.

Also in the box were: lettuce
white radishes
kale
strawberries
green and yellow squash
and a whole bag of new potatoes!

I washed my half of the produce last night, spun my lettuce dry, and tacked up the new recipes to the fridge. (It was especially fulfilling stocking up the fridge with local, organic delights since I had just emptied, scrubbed and re-organized it).

I think I will try the recipe for a new potato and kale pancake. It's made in a cast iron skillet with Gruyere cheese. And I've still got onions and green garlic left from previous weeks.

Side note: I've been cutting up the squash and sauteing it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper in a small skillet. Wow is that good and easy. It's a great snack or side as is, and also a nice addition to salad and pasta. And I thought I didn't like squash.

Well, I'm done with my Kashi and steaming cup of lapsang suchong tea (a Saturday treat) and shortly off to the commissary armed with list and coupons. I completely overhauled the house (not just the fridge) in the last two days. My only other chore today is washing all the bed linen. Think I shall make a pan of homemade rice crispy treats as a welcome home treat for J who should be here in time for dinner! The best days are when he comes home (and we have clean sheets!)

Book Review: Darwin on Trial

I admit this one is no light pool side summer read. However it is fascinating. Johnson, the author, is not scientist but lawyer. He looks at the arguments behind Darwinism and examines their philosophical implications. But don't assume this book lacks science, on the contrary Johnson seeks out various well known scientists and entire scientific fields and scrutinizes them. While admitting up front that he is a Christian, I believe he does an excellent job in maintaining a neutral and balanced ground. His arguments are profound.

The data in this book comes from reputable, well cited and confirmed sources. Even neo-Darwinist fanatics seeking to attack Johnson and discredit him have had a difficult time. Johnson presents the facts as they truly are, not the "facts" that evolutionist would have us believe. Evolution (a broad and misleading term as you learn) far from being a "fact" is still just a theory, despite what main stream science wants the world to believe.

The main purpose of this book however is not to disprove evolution or to advocate for creation science; the main point is that we need to closely examine how "science" has gone about looking at, studying and "confirming" evolution.

I've got several other books along this vein in my summer reading quay thanks to the bible study we've been doing called the Truth Project. I highly recommend it!

Happy summer reading!

Scones and Jam

"Last summer, I gave up going abroad and took a staycation in Cornwall. Apart from one gorgeous, glinting day, it rained and blustered and blew, and I loved it. There I was, with a fire burning inside, the mackerel-coloured sea swirling outside, living off the fat, that's to say, the clotted cream of the land.

If you can't find clotted cream (sometimes called Devonshire cream) then feel free to lavishly spoon softly heavy whipped cream onto the scones instead. The buttermilk in these scones only gives them a slight tang, all the better to enjoy the jam and cream on top, but is also what yields such a melting, tender crumb.

These scones do look a bit like they are suffering from cellulite (though I dare say we all might, if we ate too many of them), but proper scones should not have the smooth-sided denseness of the store-bought variety. And they are so worth making. Until you have made a batch of scones you won't have any idea how easy they are to throw together. Frankly, it shouldn't take longer than 20 minutes to make and bake them, from start to finish.

Even though the process is hardly lengthy enough to warrant cooking them in advance, I like to make up quite a big batch - and this recipe will give you about 18 scones - and freeze some (they thaw incredibly quickly) to produce a near-instant cream tea at some future date." - Nigella Lawson, Recipes From the Heart of the Home *Recipe

I substituted 1 1/2 cups of white whole wheat flour instead of using all white AP flour. I didn't have Devonshire cream on hand, but I let a stick of real butter sit on the counter and get soft and opened a jar of homemade strawberry jam. The scones are not sweet, but they are the perfect vehicle for sweet toppings. The entire batch was gone in a day (I took them to bible study). Next time I think I'll freeze some. So very easy and delightful.

Book Review: Death on the Nile

So I tried reading our June book club selection and I just couldn't do it. Although I've never pursued what one would call "chick lit" I'd imagine this book falls into that category somewhere. No thanks. I really did try, gave it about 100 pages and then quit. There is just too much good stuff on my 'to read list' to waste time on books I don't enjoy.

So I jumped into another Agatha Christie novel. Awesome!! Since the premise is all about a big holiday in steamy Egypt it's a great summer read. It only took me a day or two to get through and was thoroughly addicting. It starts out with a love affair gone wrong (best friend steals the guy) and gets more involved to include the crashed 1930s stock market, a jewel thief and an infamous murder on the loose. I hope you'll pick this up!

Happy summer reading!

CSA #2

Our CSA

photo source

Forgive me, I have no picture this week. (The one above is an actual shot of the farm where our food is coming from though) But we did get box number two, this week without any problems finding it! Much of the produce was the same, obviously things don't change that much in one week on a farm. We got white onions instead of red, and the new item was bok choy. Never had it. The news letter came with a recipe for a stir fry involving peanuts... but since I was sick I haven't tried it out. I'm hoping if the green leafy in question is still perky enough I can try it over the weekend! Otherwise I will weed out the expired produce and start again with a fresh box Friday!

Happy Birthday!

June is a big month for birthdays in our family. J had his last week! Unfortunately he was sick :-( We stuck a candle in his chicken and macaroni casserole and called it good. Otherwise we didn't do much other than lay on the couch together.

 This is J's favorite cake which he always gets for his birthday! Luckily I made it a few days early so he could enjoy it.

 The birthday boy this year: sporting his shiny new Captain's rank!

This was the ninth birthday we've celebrated together and I feel so blessed. Not everyone gets the world's best husband. :-)

Also celebrating June birthdays last week were: his brother, my sister, our step-nephew and my step-brother! Happy birthday Everybody!!

Our long weekend

Friday J went golfing with some of the guys from work at the Chardonnay Golf Club just outside of Napa. Despite some rain and a difficult course he had fun. That boy would live on a golf course if he could figure out how to plug his xBox in the golf cart...

Photo Source

Since I already went into too much detail (warning, I'm sure I'll do it again this Friday) about the CSA, well, I will spare you yet another story about my Friday!

Saturday we watched several movies from the library:

J hadn't seen Toy Story yet and neither of us had seen Despicable Me. Both were very cute! The best part of movies at home is always J's homemade popcorn. We have an air popper and even special popcorn salt. Not sure what it is, but only J can make it. YUMMY.

Sunday we were early birds so that we could fit in church before heading over to Napa with friends. It was a perfect day despite the crowds that were out in force for Memorial Day weekend. We stopped at all our usual wineries (our friends had never been) but we did do something fun for lunch. We packed picnics in anticipation of the holiday weekend tourists and ate on the lawn at V. Sattui. It was perfect.

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After Napa J took me out for steaks at one of our favorite restaurants. After dinner out we headed to the movies: Kung Fu Panda 2! It was really good. Then after the movie we got ice cream. Talk about one big date day! It was great getting to spend all that time together.

Memorial Day itself was grey and cold. We did grill hamburgers and hot dogs, but we ate inside. I used a lot of greens, the radishes and squash from our CSA haul to make a yummy salad. Our same friends came over and we played cards. We also opened a bottle of champagne and cut J's favorite cake to celebrate his official Captain day (and his early birthday). 

All in all it was a great weekend. It's always a bit of a bummer not to be around lots of family even on small holidays, but I was glad to spend it with J and good friends!

Who gets sick in June?

Well apparently we do! I'm not sure what we had (J first, followed by me this past Monday) but it was ugly. Today I've finally added something other than couch - bathroom, bathroom - couch to my routine.

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Enough about random gastrointestinal ailments. Just wanted you to know why I randomly stopped posting the past week. (Oh yeah, there is one MAJOR house clean planned tomorrow and Friday! Goodbye germs...)

On to catching up on June thus far.

Last day of rain?

Monday June 6th may (or may not) be our last day of rain until winter. Lets start counting and see!