Rock To Wind A String Around

Just before I left for Florida 4 weeks ago, I picked up Molly Wizenberg’s book, A Homemade Life on a whim while browsing at the library.  A faithful reader of Orangette for many moons now, I was thrilled to find the book waiting for me.  More Laurie Colwin than MK Fisher, this is food writing at its finest.  As an added bonus, I wanted to make every single recipe, RIGHT NOW, which does not happen when I read Laurie Colwin or Mk Fisher (ooh, who wants to eat a wolf?).  The best part of picking up  A Homemade Life in the middle of summer is that Molly feels the tomato love as much as I do.  I made her fabulous tomato sauce with onion and butter a few weeks ago:

2 cups whole, peeled, canned plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juices (about one 28-oz. can)
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt, to taste

Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter, and the onion halves in a medium saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, at a very slow but steady simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and salt as needed.

Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.

Yield: Enough sauce for about 1 pound of pasta, or 4 servings

I made this after a long day of garage cleansing at my parents’ house and knew it was the best sauce I’ve ever eaten. Using canned tomatoes, it can be made year-round,  but wait…

Just last week, I pounded the pavement of the farmer’s market, looking for tomatoes to make this fabulous dish:

Broiled tomatoes with coriander

Ripe tomatoes, preferably Roma
Olive oil
Sea salt
Ground coriander

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wash the tomatoes, cut off the stem end, and halve them lengthwise. Pour a bit of olive oil into a small bowl, dip a pastry brush into it, and brush the tomato halves lightly with oil. Place them, skin side down, on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle them with sea salt and ground coriander—about a pinch of each for every four to six tomato halves.

Bake the tomatoes until they shrink to about 1/3 of their original size but are still soft and juicy, 4 to 6 hours. [I usually let mine go for the maximum time.] Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature. Place them in an airtight container, and store them in the refrigerator.

A little over-zealous at the farmer’s market, I bought LOTS of tomatoes for broiling.  The three of us devoured them last  Sunday, and then I filled the fridge with the leftovers.  Tonight’s dinner, predictably, is Tomato sauce with onion and butter, made with Molly’s roasted tomatoes.  The only change to the sauce recipe is the addition of a 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar–it added an extra layer of depth to the buttery goodness.

We’re dining on the sauce over brown rice pasta, and you know, I added a salad of tomato and mango, just to be sure we won’t be lycopene deficient.  Enjoy!

Ignoring the actual day of the week, I thought I’d return to an old trick and begin posting recipes once more.  Summer recipes, are a particular favorite of mine–light crisp foods comprised of a short list of ingredients often make up our menu.

Last Friday, as I sat sipping lemonade under the shade of a magnolia tree vainly fought the heat and humidity while hosting my parents’ garage sale, I perused untold numbers of magazines while the crowds were thin. In one of them, I think it was Martha Stewart Living, I found the key to happiness.  It was a tomato and mango salad.  An odd pairing on paper, I knew exactly how it would taste, and I couldn’t wait to make it.  After dropping off yard sale remainders to the charities uptown, I made a quick stop at Publix (where shopping is a pleasure) and picked up the missing ingredients for the salad of joy.

Behold,

Summer Love

2 delightful summer tomatoes, suitable for slicing; don’t use roma tomatoes, something larger is called for.

basil

1 ripe mango

balsamic vinegar

dab of olive oil

Slice suitable tomatoes and place in large bowl.  Gingerly dribble balsamic vinegar over the slices ( I added a bit of olive oil to aid the dribbling process, a 3 parts vinegar, 1 part oil ratio, perhaps).

Place tomato slice on a pretty plate, in a pretty arrangement.

Dress with a chiffonade of basil

Peel and slice the mango (I match-sticked mine) and toss over the tomatoes.

Serve, unless you think this dish could be further improved with a whiff of lime squeezed across the top.

Try it soon.  You’ll thank you’re lucky stars, and Martha

Fishes: visited

Choo choo: seen

Roads: driven

hotels: slept in

Jane Austen: listened to

lights: on

house:  tidy

bags:  unpacked

laundry:  in process

girl:  tucked in

groceries:  purchased

Paige:  tired

Glad to be back (especially with mega unpacking man in tow)

It poured rain for the last 250 miles which only served to make Northanger Abbey that much more charming.

Pictures soon, but first, some sleep

We’ve made it safely to Tifton Ga, and are quite happy to be on our way home.

Today I crammed 3 lifetimes into a 16 hour day:  exercise/load the car/cook breakfast/drop off last charitable donation load/shower/pick up the Subaru (my amazing Uncle, ‘other Paul’ as Astrid Meklit calls him, hammered out 30 bumps and bruises on the Forester and then repainted it, charging us for supplies, but not for labor–the car looks new!)/drop off rental/conference call with ETSS/pack, pack, pack and finally, drive off to Georgia, land of the finest pecans around.  We ar e exhausted, but happy to have 3.5 of the 16 hours down.  Tomorrow, we’ll drive to Hotlanta to see the fish before collapsing in Chattanooga for the night.  Choo Choo sighting hoped for on Wednesday morning…

I haven’t mentioned the boy wonder, or his trip with Pops, mostly because precious little sailing has occurred over the last 7 weeks.  We are disappointed and a little frustrated–the only reason we agreed to such a long separation was because of the length of time the sail would take, and instead, they are land lubbers.  Next year’s trip will be a great deal shorter, I assure you.

After weeks of dithering over a trip to Europe, we scored extremely cheap tickets to Copenhagen for the first week of September.  The flight to and from NY is free,and we’ll use points to stay in Denmark, making this trip almost affordable.   I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!  We considered a week-long family vacation instead, but Elliott’s been on a  9 week vacay, AM doesn’t really care, and we’ll all be going to FL for Thanksgiving, so I only feel a little guilty about this trip.  My dear one’s 40th birthday will be celebrated in Europe, and my children will be cared for by loving grandparents for a week–it all looks good in print

Speaking of travel, in the past 12 months, we’ve taken: a 10 day trip to Oregon,  2 week-long trips to Chicago, a 2 week trip to Florida, 3 separate week long jaunts to DC, and we’re ending another 2.5 weeks in Florida.   We need to  stay home a little more.  I’ll jump right to it–just as soon as we take another trip to DC and the parental voyage to Copenhagen…

Hidely-ho, neglecterinos,

Sorry I’ve gone missing.  I’m still in Florida, and after an intensive 2 week cleansing ritual, have managed to empty my parents’ garage and my mother’s craft room.  Yard sale tomorrow and Saturday, everything else is donated to various charities on Monday.  I can’t wait to be done with it all–my poor daughter has  been neglected by me as much as you all have (although my dad has filled  the void quite nicely–she’s crazy about Pepop–maybe I should get him to blog for me too?)

Highlights from the last 2 weeks include:

lots of time with my brother, niece and nephew

lunch with my sweet friend from high school–we haven’t seen each other since graduation–it was great to catch up in person

an evening trip to the Gulf with Astrid Meklit and her daddy

a nice long weekend with Elliott (over the 4th).  He loved the first 2 days of garage cleaning–he hurled things into the dumpster with reckless abandon and then would climb up (it was a trunk bed dumpster) and smash things with a hammer, so we would have enough room to hold everything.  He was sorry to leave when Pops arrived–he had more smashing to do.

opening day Harry Potter viewing (and I really liked it)

More to come, but it’s time to plant yard sale signs–wish us luck.  We really need to move a lot of merchandise in the next 48 hours.

A laundry  list:

We made it to Florida on Friday.  Elliott came back to my parents’ house on Saturday and was very surprised (and happy) to see our car in the driveway.  We had plenty of cousin time, popsicles, birthday cake and fireworks on the 4th, and a day of rest yesterday before garage cleaning commenced this morning.

Elliott is still here–he won’t leave until tomorrow afternoon.  I didn’t want him to spend his Florida time stuck here during the garage cleaning, but he loved cleaning out the garage–he was in charge of hurling things into the dumpster, and he was needed to break things down into smaller components–he wielded a rubber mallet with glee.  I think he’s actually sorry to be leaving before the garage is finished.  We’ve scheduled 2 full weeks to clean both the garage and my mother’s craft room, and I think we’ll need every minute–both are full to the brim and not organized at all.

I’ll post pictures of our progress along the way, but for now, some sleep.  It’s been a long, hot day

I’m off like a prom dress in a few short hours.  My parents, Mr. & Mrs. Claus, summer (and winter, spring & fall) in Manateeland, so I’ll join them there.

an actual picture of my actual parents

My goal is to clear out enough of Santa’s workshop, the garage to allow for easy sleigh parking.  I have three weeks, a dumpster, and a can of  Raid.  Wish me luck.  I’m doing this to avoid another year on the BB&G list*.  I hope it works!

*bad boys & girls

Hey!  it’s my blog-o-versary.  Some of you have been around for the entire 2 years, others came fashionably late to the party–thanks to all of you.  I don’t know if it’s my witty use of oblique TMBG’s references,  the fabulous tales of moving madness, my obsession with cleanliness, or maybe even my love of Ethiopia that brought you here, but I’m glad you’ve stuck around for the last 274 posts.

I’d take more time to celebrate, but I’ve got packing to do.  Instead celebrate with my grandmom, who donned a party hat for Elliott’s birthday this occasion: