Pie, Pizza, Pissaladiere and Quiche

Last weekend Jim baked another peach pie an I suggested that he top the peaches with raspberries before he closed the crust. Voila! Peach Melba pie.

I shouldda kept my mouth shut, but I had to brag on my husband's baking. I opened my mouth at an Executive Committee meeting at the library and generated jealousy and greed. Sooo...

Last night Jim baked another peach pie, and the peaches were the best and most flavorful EVER. And he gave it to me to take to work.OMG

Book

I got my copy of Mastering the Art on Tuesday from Amazon. Since I have 10 VERY ripe tomatoes on the dining room table, I see a tomato Quiche in my fututre - but it will probably be Friday before I have time to make it, even with pastry in the fridge already.

Ratatouille

I made the above-referenced per 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (library copy) and four store-bought tomatoes. It's good. I hope it will be even better today (Monday) when Alyson comes over for supper.

Leftover roast lamb warmed with gravy and the last of the buttery wax beans made a terriffic Sunday dinner. AND we were watching Mamma Mia.

The back stairs replacement is almost done - just needs painting-so I'm currently fantasizing about little planters on the rails. Life is good.

John Waters gave us another 10 tomatoes and I'm planning homemade pizza for Monday's supper.

Hunca-Munca visits

I was reaching up in the cabinet at work today for a tea bag and almost got a handful of well-developed, well-nourished Mus Mus Domesticus.

Lillian Snyder, who retired over a year ago, never cleaned out her cabinet shelf and Hunca-Munca was feasting on Lillian's bouillon cubes before polishing off my packets of cocoa powder for dessert.

House mice are big compared to the little snakebait lab mice, too.

Still more lessons learned

Last night I stopped at the H Mart (Korean supermarket) and bought a flounder I thought would fit my by fry pan, which means it was after 7 when I finally got home.

Tiny boiled potatoes and microwaved asparagus didn't take too much time while I floured the fish for my second try at Mueniere.

Final result: I had to cut off the head while I was frying the fish, as it wouldn't fit in the pan, the thin skin stuck to the pan and denuded the fish and the overcooked fillets mushed up when I tried to ever-so-delicately slide them off the bone. We each got a mouthful of fish (Alyson got two).

Because of the skin stuck to the pan, I wiped the pan with a paper towel before I made the sauce - and made far too much (1/2 stick of butter, juice of one lemon and couple of tablespoons for fresh chopped parsley - the flat kind with flavor) so now there is some in the fridge.

Now that I've 'deboned at the table' (actually stovetop) twice I think I'll do this with thawed flounder fillets in the fututre, and have a portion of fish big enough to eat.

On another note: I could just dig in and eat boiled potatoes and asparagus with butterslippery fingers until my little tummy threatens to pop. Yum.

For the second time in three days, Jim ran to the store and bought beer because Alyson wanted it. They had two apiece, I think. A ritual has evolved where Jim walks her home. I approve. The walk clears Jim's head a little bit.

I told Alyson she ought to bring the beer next week, since Jim no longer buys it for himself. She agreed.

Alyson made her own veggie burgers by half-following and half-ignoring a recipe which calls for a food processor (which she has not) and freezing (which she is disinclined to do). She approved and I wholeheartedly endorse.

Pizza

Cheese crust from the bread machine, pre-cooked onions, Kalamata olives and reconstituted dried mushrooms in olive oil with shrimp (large, sliced) goat manchego, parmigiana reggiano, herbs and fresh tomato chunks and roasted garlic - also good enough.

Thant's dinner, based on 'too late to go to the Co-op for other ingredients'. Jim can have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

With any luck, I'll remember to stop at the korean market (best place for a good selection of fish) and get a whole, cleaned sole tomorrow.

I really love green& blacks bittersweet chocolate with ginger. Who wouldn't?

Sunday August 16

Last night's Trout Meuniere was very well received. After church today I spent about $23 at the Farmer's Market.
Goat cheese, Eggplant, Zucchini, Wax beans, Onion, garlic, Kalamata Olive Bread and a Sage plant.
Then I used some of the neighbor's tomatoes I had peeled yesterday in spaghetti for lunch. It turned out that my packaged pesto was moldy so I used Olive Oil, Parmigiana, chopped garlic and snipped basil & pesto on the angel hair pasta before I added the squeezed-out tomatoes and the remainder of the green beans from last night. It was good.

Sometimes good is all you need.

Jim and I had tomato sandwiches for lunch today. Tomato sandwiches are not something I've eaten or served much before, but I am aquainted with them.

Jim and I were cleaning the backyard this morning, when the temps were already in the 80s. John Waters next door offered us the tomatoes from his garden, saying that he can't eat them due to some kind of stomach problem. I brought out a basket and he picked eight tomatoes, two of which were over a pound each.

I still have one heirloom tomato I bought at the Sunday market last week, so I need to find a good use for these ASAP. Thus, tomato sandwiches immediately - using up one. Eight to go.

I had a loaf of bread I had baked in the bread machine on Wednesday - my usual 1/3 WW, 2/3 white bread flour as a French bread, so it's light and crusty.

For Jim's I placed crisp bacon over the herb-sprinkled tomato slices, for me I put Roquefort cheese beneath them. They were fine. Just fine.

Now Jim is adding another shelf to the shed (he's vaccumed the dust out) and then we'll reload the shed.

So, it's my job to look up the recycling rules in Greenbelt and see how to dispose of the florescent lamps, automotive chemicals, fertilizer, etc that are NOT going back.

Tonight I am planning a real Sole Meuniere - just like in Julie/Julia. I've been seeing that Sole in my head ever since watching the movie.
Tonight!