So I feel relieved, yet a little bad about my vent post. Relieved because, there, I have said it, it is off my chest. A little bad because it came off harsher than I intended. Oh well.
Let's see, so after a mediocre lunch at Olive Garden and dinner at friends house on Saturday night I got back into the groove and cooked both Sunday night and Monday night. Sunday Hans made filets, I made a bourbon gorgonzola cream sauce to go with (Iron Chef Sauce is back), then I made a salad with garden ingredients (except the lettuce, those fresh picked, never refrigerated tomatoes are heavenly) and also picked a spaghetti squash out of the garden and cooked that. Leif loved the spaghetti squash and the filet mignon (minus the bourbon gorgonzola sauce) , spoiled little turkey.
My garden seems to have also gotten it's groove going. It was sucking earlier in the year but we covered the crappy, (might as well be nonexistant) weed fabric with grass clippings and the weeds are dead and the garden is thriving. We will be doing this from day one next year. I pulled out of the garden 3 good sized zucchinis, 1 spaghetti squash, 6 tomatoes, 1 Anaheim pepper, and some fresh chives. I pulled off the trees 3 plums and 6 nectarines. The nectarines are going nuts. They are so delicious. I have never had a nectarine that is so ripe that not only is the interior red, but I have red juice dripping down my arm. Virtually indescribable.
Sunday I made nectarine scones that were fantastic. I still need to get to my zucchini bread. I love, love, love zucchini bread and will be making and freezing a ton. We also bought a nice food mill this weekend for doing our canning and freezing. Hans has high hopes of the 2005 inaugural batch of spaghetti sauce happening this weekend.
Monday night Hans was donating blood and so dinner was up to Leif and I. Fish is always a quick thaw and quick cook. So I panfried halibut and made a wasabi yogurt sauce and a Sambal vinaigrette then served it with angel hair pasta in a light cream sauce. Whipped together with a cranky toddler underfoot in 30 minutes. Yes, I think I have my cooking groove back.
Late summer with the wonderful harvests really kicks cooking into gear for me. Seeing the produce at the Farmer's Market and picking produce out of my own garden is so cool. It inspires me to cook wonderful things. This is a feeling that carries me through the late summer, into fall and winter.
Late summer, the abundance of fresh fruits and vegies is inspiring. Fall for pies, even though I suck at making them, and the start of comfort foods... roast chicken, mashed potatoes, chili (and football), cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Then towards the Christmas season with cookies and fun stuff like that and into full blown winter where hearty soups and crusty breads are the way to go. Once spring starts wandering around my gears shift to salads and fresh peas and asparagus, but those don't spark the cooking bug in me for some reason. Or maybe I am just tired by Easter where I usually finish off my cooking season with an Easter dinner and a retreat to easy to cook, lack luster dinner ideas until late summer again.
Speaking of holidays... the tentative plan is as such. We will be spending Thanksgiving at our house. I love taking the week off and preparing and cooking, and well, we think we make a mean Thanksgiving dinner. Interested in joining us? Let us know. Christmas we will be trekking to Alaska to see Hans' dad, sister and grandparents. Hans feels strongly about wanting to Leif to meet his grandparents soon and so that was what kicked us over that way. Someday... someday... we will have Christmas in our own house. But I suppose while we can still travel with Leif for free, we will do that. When the day comes (next year) that we will have to purchase a seat for Leif, we will be reassessing things and then maybe, I will get my Christmas in my home.
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