While I was waiting for that to process, I went to work making last night's dinner. I had both farmer's market and CSA tomatoes, and so we had a cold summer dinner of gazpacho and Italian Tomato Hoagies. So, so good. The tomatoes are at their best right now, and we're only just getting started.
So, I have to back up a day or two because we've been getting the most beautiful heads of romaine in our CSA shares. We love a good chicken Caesar salad, but I think we've had them no less than half a dozen times already this year. I was on the hunt for something different after picking up our last share. A couple of nights ago, we had this Green Goddess Chicken Salad.
It was a salad I'd made before. I'm not a fan of celery, and so I leave that out. Also, you might have a hard time finding piquillo peppers. For this go-round, I had a jar, but I've used regular roasted red peppers before, and they taste pretty much the same. So, I'm telling you about this because this recipe wanted me to use the top half of a loaf of ciabatta bread. This salad shines both because of the green goddess salad dressing and because the soft croutons from the ciabatta soak up the dressing so nicely. It's like salad cobbler...kind of.
Okay, so to get back to last night's dinner...quite by accident, I was able to use the bottom half of the loaf to make croutons for the gazpacho, and don't you know that made me feel so smug, using the whole thing like that. So here's a question: Does your grocery store carry the take and bake breads made by LaBrea Bakery? Man, their breads are so good. Often, they're sold out in our store, and so when I see the ones I like, and especially their telera rolls, I usually get a couple of packages and freeze them. Yeah, I do hoard food on occasion....preparing for the Trumpocalypse, don't you know. (I wish I thought that was funny.) So anyway...back to last night's dinner. (Tangential R Us.) Here's the recipe I use for the gazpacho. I copy-catted it after having a delicious version at a local restaurant. Chef John (whoever he is) had a great recipe, and I adapted it to our tastes. It used some of the cucumbers, basil, jalapeno, bell pepper, and onions from our latest CSA share. I always love it when I can knock off a bunch of CSA vegetables in one dish.
Also, the Italian Tomato Hoagies were a great accompaniment. I used those yummy LaBrea Bakery telera rolls for the sandwiches. The sandwiches also used another CSA tomato, basil, romaine lettuce and some fresh herbs from our culinary herb garden. The bread & butter pickles were some I picked up at the farmer's market a while back.
Also, I'm not a great fan of ricotta cheese. When I made this sandwich last year, I wrote myself a note to try a slice of provolone in place of the "ricotta whip," and we liked that a lot better. Anyway...it was a nice dinner outside until the yellow jackets chased us back into the house. Is it just me or are there lots more yellow jackets this year?
Okay, so I had the canning done and dinner made. By then it was 2:00 p.m. When I went downstairs, I found Miss Sadie recovering from her morning romp outside. With the Pets on Quilts show coming up, we've been working on our kitty pictures. This little lady has the whole flash-to-the-eyes thing figured out, and she absolutely refuses to look at the camera. If she deigns to look in my direction, she closes her eyes. We might have to take the whole photo shoot outside if we're to get any good eyes-open pictures.
So I gave up on that, and did something I knew I could do...putting the borders on the Wine Country quilt. It took me a couple of hours, but it's a finished flimsy now. Yahoo!
It finished up at 58 x 73 inches...a good size. If I have time to sew today, I'll piece together the back. I have some of the outer border fabric left, and there's also some of the green and red, and then I'll put the cork fabric to use as well. I'll just have to experiment and see how it all fits together. Also, I cut binding strips from the red to make sure I had enough. It'll probably be another year before this makes it under the needle for quilting, but it's good to have it this far.
On today's agenda...the big squash. There's nothing I enjoy more than having my boobs squashed pancake flat right in front of my eyes. I always avert my gaze. It gives me an unpretty preview of what gravity has in store for me. After that, I need some fresh ginger and a couple of lemons. For today's canning trick, I'm getting after those cherry tomatoes to make the Moroccan-Spiced Sweet and Hot Cherry Tomato Preserves. The title is enough to make you want some, isn't it?
Hopefully, there will be some time for sewing during the day, but there's a lot on the agenda between then and now.
Our weather has turned hot again after a brief respite last week. If you have hot weather where you are too, then stay cool. Fall is on the way.
5 comments:
Wine Country is looking great! Isn't it hard to set aside a finished flimsy you've been working on for so long? I can't wait to see the top sandwiched, adding the layer of batting, backing and pinning and it already takes on dimension that you don't see in the flimsy. Probably why I have thousands of quilters safety pins, cause there are hundreds already in sandwiched tops awaiting the grand (or not so) finish. My daughter gave us a new-to-us recipe for a tomato basil mozzarella salad we're really loving. Very simple, just uses fresh mozzarella, lots of basil and chopped garlic, cherry tomatoes-halved, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste. Marinate for an hour or so and have at it!
I refer to it as the "Mammo-cram"! :-)
Love the Wine Country quilt. Miss Sadie has the flash thing figured out, so to save her vision. Hot is word for the weather in Texas, no matter what you say fall never arrives here until October so we have another couple of months of this hot stuff. You would think since I have lived here all my life I would be used to it by now, haha, then I laughed and laughed ! The older I get the hotter summer seams to get around here. Anyway thank goodness for my A/C, I would be dead without it. Keep on sewing and canning, love that you share with us.
Well, I hope the squash went okay, despite the unpleasantness. Your post didn't drop into my feed this morning (hmm) but I found it anyway. You are really doing well on the canning front, and your quilting is holding up too! Love the wine quilt, and the backing idea will look great too. Funny that Sadie closes her eyes; it always amuses me how quickly they learn stuff like that!
Our office dog, Baby the wienie, came to me for back scratches 3 times in about 10 minutes this morning. So I got my phone out to take her picture & she went back into her office! Being a bit camera-shy like Sadie.
The Wine Country quilt looks great all together! Congrats!!
Looks like we MAY be under triple digits in the heat arena today. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Post a Comment