The last month has been busy doing all sorts of stuff. O's family was in town from France and Australia!! His brother, sis-in-law and 2 year old nephew were here for 3 weeks. I know, cringe! 3 WEEKS!? It wasn't as bad as it sounds. They stayed with us for 1 week, went to South Dakota for 1 week and then back again. It was such a joy to have them here. They are the best in-laws a gal could ask for.
What have we been eating for the last month you ask; a lot of random stuff. I feel like we haven't been cooking but I know we have. We must have. Right? When his family was here we tried to come up with "American" food for them and not necessarily all fried foods which are good but, well, maybe not always the healthiest of choices. Of course the first night we grilled HUGE T-bone steaks. Soooo good. Another night we had beer can chicken which is probably one of my favorite summer meals. Then there were lots of sandwiches. It's hard to give someone from France a loaf of our bread but they didn't seem to mind. We took vacation the 3rd week his brother was here and went out to the lake to stay with my parents. It was great! I need to be on vacation all the time. My mom, the saint that she is, made a turkey on the grill, pulled pork, potato salad and of course, corn on the cob; everyone's favorite!
Since they left we have been trying to get back to "normal"--whatever that is. Lounging around I guess is what it is. Today we took our bikes (first time in a long time) down to the farmer's market. We bought some beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes, baby eggplant, a massive onion, some garlic, more tomatoes (for quasadillas), a huge basil plant and a dill plant. Speaking of dill--I need some. I want to make some pickles but no one seems to have enough dill for me! hhmmmppppfff.
With the cherry tomatoes we are going to make another one of my favorite summer-time meals. I have no name for it. It's just good.
- Take 1 pint cherry tomatoes and toss in some olive oil (you know me, not a lot of measuring), salt and pepper and a couple of sprigs of rosemary--pop in the oven for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Keep checking them--you don't want them to burn. O says you really need to check them (as he looks over my shoulder). When they start to burst and brown around the edge they are done.
- In the mean time brown 4-5 thinly sliced pieces of pancetta. If you don't have pancetta use bacon. When done cute or crush into pieces (depends on how crunchy you like it.) Set aside but reserve 1 T of fat.
- Saute 1/2 of one large white onion in bacon fat (maybe some olive oil too) for a few minutes. Then add about 20 green beans (cut into bite size pieces)--you could use asparagus too.
- When the beans are fork tender add the tomatoes and 1 clove chopped garlic and saute for just a couple minutes--make sure to toss everything together to coat. Season as needed
- add pancetta pieces and 1-2 T of fresh basil (chopped)
- Toss with pasta of choice and cover with ribbons of Parmesan. Presto--you're done!!
Bon Appetit
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