So, I came home from work on Monday and started cooking to use up stuff from my CSA box and Farmers’ Market.
On Sunday, Mark and I went to his work’s (WiLS) 40th anniversary picnic. We took corn on the cob, grilled, with cilantro lime butter for smearing, and the nun’s cookies – a kind of oatmeal cookie with coconut. The corn actually worked really well – we got 2 dozen good fresh ears of corn at the market on Saturday from our favorite corn guy, Luck’s Produce, from Randolph WI. The next morning, I peeled the outer husks, and took off the silks, and then left it in the sink strategically covered with cookie sheets to protect it from cats, and went off to the Northside Ride the Drive. Mark ran the water in, and made the fire at 3:30, and then we grilled the corn, 6 at a time, and put them in a Styrofoam box I got by ordering some fancy cheeses online, lined with foil. I baked the cookies and made the butter, and I even had time to shower before we went to the picnic –
On Monday morning, I put some black beans in a pot to soak, and got out a couple of containers of veggie broth to thaw. There were 9 or 10 ears of corn left, and I’d cut the kernels off the cobs. First thing Monday night, I made corn salsa, with onions and jalapeños and red peppers and cilantro. Fortified by snacking on the salsa and some chips, I skinned all the tomatoes I had accumulated and put them in to slow roast with garlic and basil and a little olive oil. I’m planning to make the tomatoes into a pasta with the bunch of basil that I trying to keep green till we can eat it – I’ve been spritzing it with water every day, and it’s blooming. Then I measured out enough of the veggie broth to make enchilada sauce, and used the rest to cook the black beans in. While the beans were cooking, I ate the last of the eggplant caponata pasta that I made Lollapalooza weekend. Caponata – eggplant with olives, celery, onions, garlic, tomatoes, capers and a little vinegar and sugar over RP’s rigatoni, with a little heavy cream mixed with corn starch for thickening and mozzarella cheese on top. Yum, but not to anyone else in the house except me.
By the time I was finished eating the pasta, the beans were cooked so I sauteed a half a chopped onion, and more diced up red pepper in a little oil, and added chopped cilantro, and cumin, and the beans, and used that for enchilada filling.
I ate enchiladas for dinner tonight, with corn salsa and sour cream and chips. And then I finally made my birthday pie – peaches & plums in a free form tart – I think I put a little too much flour in the filling, but I think it’ll be good anyways. I’m going to wait and take the pictures in the morning, so at least it’ll look good in the better light.
‘Cept there was no better light, shucks, it’s kind of a cloudy day for Julia’s 100th, and my 4th day of being 57. But I took the galette to a Julia’s 100th Birthday Brunch that a friend was hosting – she was a historical researcher at Pleasant Company, so the party was full of graphic designers and artists and creative people – very fun. It was devoured in short order, and pronounced “brilliant” by the former art director, who is British. I made pasta with the roasted tomatoes that evening, after spending about 90 minutes tabling at the co-op, “Vote for Me“. I was supposed to stay for 2 hours, but it started looking like rain, and I wasn’t talking to much of anyone, so I decided to head home. And it did rain on me on the ride back to the west side, but very lightly, it felt like sparkles on my arms, and there was a rainbow, too – so I guess my timing was pretty good afterall.
