Up To Speed

I'm not quite sure what tonight's meal was. You could look at it and decide that it is just my culinary ingenuity at work. You could also look at it and decide that it is just a collection of odds and ends from the fridge put onto a sheet pan and baked until golden brown. Well, almost golden brown. It was 95 degrees today so I just couldn't bare to leave the oven on any longer than absolutely necessary.



I lightly cooked some zucchini wedges in olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and sage, then laid them on a sheet pan. In the same pan (of course) I cooked some garlic, onion (from the farm), tomatoes (from the Greenmarket), anchovy, and some sage and thyme (from my mother's garden). I topped it with some bread crumbs, pine nuts, and mozzarella before finishing it in the oven.

"But how did we get to this point?" You ask. Well, let me catch you up on this weekend. I'll show you how we ended up at this point. It's kinda like the movie Momento except the ending is not going to make any more sense after you read the rest of this.

Though you may figure out when we purchased the pine nuts. (Spoiler alert!: it was on Saturday afternoon).







Saturday's main focus was in using up Friday's leftovers (which were plentiful). This meant putting together a lot of various different items utilizing beef sirloin, beets, and Humboldt Fog. Jen was clever enough to manufacture a tasty green olive tapenade that we also through into the mix.



On Saturday we unexpectedly purchased vast quantities of dried fruit and nuts which Jen used on Sunday to make this granola which I have dubbed Jen's Bangin' Granola. Because it is bangin', you see.



Tonight we had the pleasure of Paul and Caolan's company so we started off with some of Jen's green olive tapenade and baguette slices.



With the Greenmarket tomatoes and some Lioni mozzarella I put together a very simple caprese salad, the highlight of which was that awesome plate I got in France! Observe its magnificence! I could have used crunchy pink tomatoes and this still would have been a marvel to behold.



We had a lot of basil so I made some fussili with basil pesto as the main course. Not much to describe, just simple pesto: garlic, basil, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

We enjoyed the pesto with some Sauvignon Blanc from Paumanok Vineyard, a vineyard located on Long Island. If you are a frequent reader you know that I have a vast wine knowledge. You can tell this wine was excellent because I liked it despite the fact that it didn't have a humorous name or a flashy label.

Wow, that's good wine.



For dessert Jen once again made her Nana's "Napoleon" recipe. The best thing about this recipe is that the longer it stays in the fridge, the better it gets. The paradox being that we usually eat it rather quickly. Just once I want to make this and leave it in the fridge for like three months to see if the result would be so good that it elevated us to some new level of consciousness.

I suppose there may be a point of diminishing returns. We'll do some research on this at another time.