what we're eating

In the 10 years that we have been together, my wife and I have developed a lovely routine for celebrating Pride weekend.

We want to spend less and less time each year in the wild crowd so we have starting hosting a dinner party on Saturday night. We invited half a dozen friends over and they all brought friends so in the end we were about 30 people. Cristina made Pride Fried Chicken which was a hit! I make a borlotti bean and sugar snap pea salad with tomatoes, feta and mint, corn on the cob, roasted sweet potato fries and sliced up a watermelon. Plenty of beer and white wine flowed and fun was had by all.
By special request, I also made blue cheese dip with crudite. This stuff is amazing so I'm giving you the recipe. Originally it was a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but I have adapted it a bit to be slightly less fattening. I would not exactly call it low fat even with the change.

Blue Cheese Dip
3/4 c gorgonzola or other blue cheese
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c plain non-fat yogurt (you can use greek yogurt but you will need to add a tablespoon or so of milk to thin out the dressing so I suggest a European style)
1/2 t Worcestershire
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Blend it all in a food processor until smooth (or keep some lumps if you prefer).

All we had leftover from the party were some carrot and celery sticks and a few ears of corn. I cut off the kernels and am making stock for a nice summer corn chowder which we will eat tonight with grilled cheese sandwiches. Tomorrow we are having fajitas and that is as far as I have gotten with the meal plan for the week.

in action

press

Gotta say, love seeing my name in the newspaper.

what we're eating

It's an exciting week with lots of dining out so I only had to plan dinner for a few nights. The menu:
Sunday-fava beans with shallots and parmesan, cappellini with roasted garlic, lemon vinaigrette and mixed greens, steamed asparagus
Monday-hamburger or gardenburger with cheese and tomato garlic relish, salad
Tuesday-garbanzo patties with yogurt sauce served with pita, and tomato cucumber salad

 

Have you ever eaten fava beans? I had, but this was the first time I ever prepared them. Definitely a labor of love as they have to be peeled twice. First shell as you would peas. Throw into a pot of salted boiling water for about a minute. Pour into an ice bath and let them cool. I used a pairing knife to split open and then popped out the beans. 

Last night a sauteed some shallots and a few sliced of jalapeno, added a little lemon zest, grated parmesan, chopped tarragon and then tossed in the fava.

I have eaten them plain with pecorino slices and honestly I think that is just as good and so much simpler.

Both times we drank prosecco and you really should too.

As I mentioned, it's a big week with a birthday and a wedding so you might not hear from me. I'll be back with images next week.

scenes from the week

chutney

I made a batch of mango chutney on a whim a few nights ago. Even halving the recipe it still made quite a lot. Thankfully it keeps quite well in the fridge. Maybe I need to try my hand at samosas?

what i'm working on

I packed these up tonight.