apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

making several olive oil cakes. The first i made was delicious, though i was scared at the eggy stench that filled my house when i was baking the 1st one last week. Some lemon curd to go with it :)

I just got back from the Farmer's Market and I am currently making mushroom soup (from your recipe) for lunch. Dinner will be fish tacos with halibut from the FM on garlic butter tortillas from the FM with gorgeous tiny orange cherry tomatoes (guess where they're from) and greens from my own garden. I like to basically steam the halibut on the grill, I wrap it in foil with olive oil and garlic and herbs and it comes out SO flaky and moist.

This is for the in-laws on Sunday.

- Grilled corn on the cob with thyme butter
- mixed lettuce salad
- chilled zucchini purslane soup
- grilled steaks
- grilled peaches with citrus mint dressing
- homemade vanilla bean ice cream
- agua de jamacia iced tisane

YUM!

I made tortellini salad - an old family favorite - for 4th of July, and it was a huge hit. It consists of cheese tortellini, cubes of mozzarella, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil and balsamic...so delish, and really easy to make.

Check out the recipe and some pretty pictures here:
http://lauraxlei.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/tortellini-salad/

I made pizza fritta with buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil and prosciutto and peach caramel muffins.

on an impulse I bought three quart baskets of sour cherries. should I bake all day sunday, or should I pit and freeze for later in the season?

Had unagi-don for lunch today, then a nice long nap, and now I'm snacking on roasted potatoes and cheese dip for dinner. Tomorrow, maybe gnocchi, grape ice cream, pumpkin seed scones...maybe nothing.

I haven't done much actual hot meal prep but it's been wild in my kitchen the past week as my kids have been churning out various preserves for the county fair. So far they've made strawberry-rhubarb jam, apricot-orange jam, blueberry jelly, corncob jelly, hot pepper jelly, apple-lemon marmalade and nine pints of apple butter. There's been some successes (the apple butter is the best I've ever tasted) and failures (the hot pepper was the stiffest jam I've ever seen...I think the recipe listed double the amount of pectin needed) but we'll be well stocked for ourselves and for gifts for the next year.

What I really need to do today is an easy, healthy meal that doesn't make a mess!

....I just made a cheese souffle for myself for the very first time ever last night and it came out PERFECTLY.

I have to do a lot with eggs and vegetables, because I'm getting a little overrun by CSA bounty. So the souffle was designed to take care of a couple of those eggs, as was the salad that went with it. Tonight's going to take care of another egg -- I have a recipe for a parmaesan cheese pudding -- and I'm also going to make a couple of cold salads that I can dole out for work lunches. I also got some Kirby cucumbers this weekend in the CSA, and will make pickles, and I'm also probably going to turn the past-due peaches on the counter into jam.

looks like my comment did not get posted the first time.
The only thing I made this weekend other than eggs and potatoes was the Grilled Cheese sandwich with Black Ham and tomatoes: http://mangotomato.blogspot.com/2009/07/grilled-cheese-black-ham-tomato.html
YUM

Tonight I think I'll make grilled vegetable sandwiches with olive-mustard sauce, frozen fruit tart and watermelon punch. I wanted to make a jerk black bean burger, but I've misplaced my recipe and someone ate all my mushroom, onion & mozzarella burgers.

We grilled some burgers on Friday and had those with some homemade garlic fries. Last night was grilled steak and veggie fajitas and I baked some blueberry oatmeal scones yesterday for breakfast this morning. With an abundance of zucchini, I made some zucchini muffins this afternoon (of which my daughter already ate 2-success!) and tonight will be grilled chicken that is marinading in a lemon and rosemary marinade along with panzanella salad.

I made my first ever batch of ice cream!! We stumbled on to some jackfruit on Friday (we used to get it from our old CSA in Miami) and jumped into playing. I made a jackfruit pineapple ice cream lightly sweetened with a little agave nectar. I ran it through the ice cream maker this morning and it is great. I made it lightly salty to mimic a cross b/w a fruit and salt lassi. YUM!! Tonight I also made a batch of kombucha and ginger ale.

We had a cookout on Saturday--I had planned for 20 people, and of course some just didn't show up (rude), so we'll be eating leftovers for a while!
We had lemon-oregano marinated grilled chicken thighs, bratwursts and andouille sausages, grilled portobello mushrooms for vegetarians, a delicious potato salad with lemon, shallots, and chives (no mayo!), a green bean salad with pickled red onions and feta, and a huge orzo salad with tomatoes, zucchini, red peppers, and pesto. Dessert was two kinds of ice cream--raspberry and chocolate--both made with coconut milk instead of cream and eggs so that everyone could try some. Had no idea how easy coconut ice cream is to make!

we made pasta and pesto, both homemade, for the first time this weekend. they were both AMAZING and total do-overs!