Every available space in the house is taken up with tomatoes which is a good thing.
For dinner I tried a new recipe - Torta di Zucchine. The crust did not cooperate but the combination of onions, zucchini, grated parmesan, and cinnamon was so tasty that this recipe is a keeper.
And a simple salad of green and ripe tomatoes was all that was needed to make this a perfect dinner.
People and puppies everywhere at the Farmers Market this morning but we certainly did not need to buy any tomatoes. The cellar smells good with all the ripening fruit. And the freezer is getting full of bags and bags of pomodoro.
Homemade pasta for dinner was a hit - Daughter #1 pronounced it, 'not too eggy' and proceeded to have a second helping.
It was a sweltering hot day yesterday with barely a breeze which is good when you are flying into this airport. We were all prepared to pick up Maura; her plane was due to land at 6:50 pm. At noon we get a call that she is coming in much earlier, at 2:10.
I leave work right away and we head across the bridge to Fulton Field. The plane is on time, we recognize our daughter after a year away, and her luggage is not lost. We are very happy!
Dinner plans have changed - Father of the traveler has baked batches of pyrahi for her first meal back home. Melted butter, lots of sour cream, and stories galore make for a wonderful homecoming evening.
Our neighbour had no idea that he had a visitor in his orchard yesterday morning helping himself to the juicy peaches, pears, and apples.
These are called Country Inn Pancakes and they are from the Chef at Home cookbook by Michael Smith. Very simple, very basic recipe but good tasting. Another one to add to my collection.
You walk in the door and the aroma of baking bread greets you - everything that happened for the past seven hours is erased from your memory bank as the aroma of warm, yeasty bread transports you to another time and place where this was a weekly occurence. Finally, I have tried the no-knead method.
I did the easy part yesterday, mixing the dough for 30 seconds. Mr Cowboy actually made the Stecca loaves today using olives and the cherry and pear tomatoes from the garden. There was barely anything left after dinner, a dinner of homemade sausages, cheese, and lots of Ruffino.
This was probably one of the best birthday presents I have ever been given but at the time I had just given birth to Daughter #1; all I was concerned with was breastfeeding the little one every two hours and getting a nap in between so I don't think that I showed my Mom how much I appreciated this gift and how grateful we were that she was there with us.
Daughter #1 will be flying home this weekend so what better way to celebrate her homecoming then to make fresh pasta for her first dinner back home after a year of being across the ocean.
Last Saturday I bought a case of peaches with every intention of making peach butter. The recipe for peach butter requires that you bake the cooked peaches for about an hour and a half. It was so hot that the thought of turning on the oven made no sense at all. So I found another recipe, very simple, for peach jam which I had every intention of making. But then I started a new quilt and I'm still working on my jacket plus I have a huge stack of books to read. Mr.Cowboy volunteered to make the jam and not only did he make a batch but then the very next day he made another batch, which means that we now have 18 jars of sunshine in the cellar to enjoy in the depths of winter.
