Occasionally necessity really is the mother of invention. A couple of containers of late summer ratatouille still in the fridge wondering if I’d forgotten them. (I hadn’t. That stuff’s pure gold.) Raw shrimp on sale at the store that jumped into my cart. A lonely sauté pan on the stove. An empty tummy.
Continue reading
“Man (and woman) cannot live by bread alone,” was always the truth. Even the very best of bread, which is some of the most wondrous and healthy food in the world, must have its topping, its gilding, its raison d’être–its reason to exist. Bread bakers, feel free to chime in disagreeing here.
Add wine, of course. How about other necessities like song and laughter? That would mean a party and the most memorable parts of the current season (the touch of hot summer sun lingering on glistening skin, a crash of sudden wild storms cracking open in the distance, the heady sniff of freshly cut grass, hot orange day lilies along the path, sleazy dog-eared paperbacks sporting just such language) all call out for such a gathering to occur at night and out of doors.
I try to eat as many meatless meals as I can. It’s hard; I love meat. My husband Dave is perhaps even more of a carnivore, but snarfed this down as fast as he could the other night out on the deck. In Colorado, our al fresco dinners are numbered. Within a couple of weeks, lunches outdoors will work wonderfully, but dinners will simply be too cold. In the meantime, we’re loving every meal we can get at the patio table with something fun on Pandora going and the dogs running around enjoying the breeze.
Ah, summer. Here’s my favorite use for green peppers. Right after my mom’s stuffed green peppers, that is.
I loved the movie (Ratatouille).
Also “The Big Night”
And “Babette’s Feast”
Try them. Food movies. Ah.
I love the real deal better. If you become a devoted cook, your world will revolve around the seasons. Stews in winter. Apple pie in the fall. Berries in the spring. And…
High summer: Tons of vegetables at their peak.