Sunday



Early Girls

 It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Indianapolis, and I’m enjoying a cup of coffee and a waffle with melted butter and powdered sugar – my favorite way of eating waffles!  The temperature is in the 70’s, there’s a breeze and it’s relatively dry and sunny.  I’d love to be outdoors, but today is my last day before starting my new job and there’s still so much to do after our trip.  I’m making a concerted effort to get more organized so that I’ll have more time to do the things that give meaning and joy to my life.  Writing this blog has become really important to me, and I love putting words and pictures together. 

Last night was my turn to cook, and of course I had to go to the grocery store.  Derek had thrown out or packed pretty much everything perishable before we left, so our refrigerator was close to empty.  That always makes me a little uncomfortable!  I had planned on making Shrimp Scampi and actually had all the ingredients except for lemons.  I can’t live without lemons, and I use lemon zest! in my scampi recipe.  Derek and I were watching Lidia Bastianich’s cooking show yesterday (she’s my new favorite now that we decided to give up cable) and that made me think of artichokes.  Our neighborhood Kroger always has the most beautiful giant artichokes with tightly closed leaves and I was thinking I’d add some slivers of artichoke bottom to the scampi for a new twist.  As it happened, they were on sale for $1.29 each.  I haven’t seen them that inexpensive for years.  I bought two, along with some beautiful big raspberries, cherries and black grapes, some Romaine and an avocado.  It’s so nice to go to the grocery store and not have to buy tomatoes; they’re never as good as ours, and they’re outrageously expensive.  We have a nice patch of arugula to make my favorite side salad: Arugula with tomatoes, slivers of red onion, toasted pine nuts, shavings of good Parmigiano Reggiano and a lemon and olive oil dressing.  This time I used the Brandywines, but we also have Black Crimsons, Jet Stars, Sonics, Early Girls and Juliets (a cross between grape and roma tomatoes that are simply fabulous).

I wanted to get what I would need to make dinner on Tuesday, so I checked the meat department for what was on sale.  I found some beautiful chuck-eye steaks, which are inexpensive but close in flavor to rib eyes, my favorite cut of steak.  I bought a package of four, which will be two meals for us.  I picked up a loaf of whole grain rustic “artisanal” bread and a few other odds and ends, including bacon and a loaf of Roman Meal for today’s lunch: BLTs!  We have the most gorgeous tomatoes I’ve ever seen, so I can’t wait to eat a BLT with thick slices of juicy red tomatoes on fresh Roman Meal!  Derek decided he’d rather have steak than shrimp, so I made grill-roasted potatoes (see recipe below), and prepped the steaks with olive oil, salt and pepper and fragrant fennel seeds.  I learned that little trick from Derek and it really adds a wonderful flavor to steak.  I cut the bread into one-inch slices, brushed them on both sides with olive oil and grilled them until they were brown and toasty with nice grill marks.  Then I rubbed them all over with a piece of raw garlic and a chunk of juicy tomato to give them a little moisture, color and flavor.  For dessert we had lemon sorbet with fresh raspberries and one of the perfect peaches that Leigh gave us.  Kroger has their own brand of sorbet called Private Reserve, which is every bit as good as Häagen Dazs for less than half the price.  I didn’t have any rum, but normally I would rinse the raspberries and peaches, cut the peaches into bite-sized pieces and macerate them in a little rum for an hour or so before topping the sorbet with them.  It makes a wonderfully refreshing summer dessert with very little work!

Cherries

I guess I’ll be making Shrimp Scampi on Tuesday.


Recipe for grill-roasted potatoes for two:
2 or 3 small Idaho potatoes (you can use any variety, but I like the fluffiness of baking potatoes)
1 T olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh chopped herbs for garnish (optional)

Rosemary

Rinse the potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork.  Microwave them whole for 2 -3 minutes, depending on their size and the power of your microwave.  They should be just fork tender.  Cut them in half length-wise and then cut them in half length-wise again, until you have crescent-shaped potato wedges about one inch thick in the middle.  Let them cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes.  Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Place on a medium hot fire until they are nicely browned with grill marks on one side.  Turn them over until they're browned on the other side.  If you're not serving them immediately, put them on a baking sheet on the cool side of the grill while you cook your steak.  At this point, you can add herbs if you like: some fresh parsley, or some rosemary and garlic.   After microwaving them, you can also cook them in the oven at 375 on a baking sheet if you don't want to grill them.  This is an easy and relatively healthy way to prepare potatoes that are brown and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.