Lunch the other day had me eating one of my first picked Red Zebra tomatoes, some basil, and what I THOUGHT was fresh mozzarella (shaped like it, but hard and rubbery - oops, shopping in a rush), layered on a piece of toasted country bread, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Mmmm - even with the not-so-great mozz, it was still good!
The open face sandwich made a GREAT accompaniment to FarmGirl Susan's Simple Summer Harvest soup - WOWZA was this stuff GOOD! Look at that vibrant color! I only now wish I had made more than a half batch - I was concerned I wouldn't love it, and wanted to play it safe, plus I had to buy the red peppers. FarmGirl's not kidding - this was simple to make, and I can easily see having some fun and doctoring it up with different ingredients. Still loving the vibrant color!
After recently having some of Tastefully Simple's Bountiful Beer Bread (thanks to Randy's always super cool mom, Sally), I've been craving more. I also really want some of their Garlic Garlic (made an AMAZING dip!) and Bacon Bacon....might have to find someone to place an order with. Anyhow, since I don't actually have any of the mix, I tracked down a recipe online - and it turns out the first one I found was by (drum roll please!) - FARMGIRL SUSAN! (What're the odds?!!) Anyhow - I could decide which of our old beers leftover from party guests to try...so I went for a side by side taste comparison. The St Paulie Girl made pretty decent stuff (background), but the Beck's Dark Ale (foreground)? Bleh!! Now I did also add shredded cheddar and some very mustardy Red Dragon cheese to the dark ale batch, but I don't think that's what ruined it.
Anyhow, the dark ale batch got tossed, and I'll be snacking on the St Paulie Girl version. I do hope to find a way to make it as light and tastey as the Tastefully Simple version. Is it just seasoning? Baking it longer? Secret ingredients?
And one last picture before I'm off to bed (later than planned, as usual) - here's the first Black From Tula I sliced into. It was so big that it only took two slices for the entire BLT - and that was actually a little overkill. (But then again, so was four slices of bacon - wink wink nudge nudge!) Look at that color - beautifully dark. I never thought I'd come to prefer these dark muddy purpley tomatoes over picture perfect traditional red. Sure, they look like someone's cut into a human heart, but I think they're gorgeous, and the taste is outta this world! And if memory serves me right, the Black Krims (which I also grew last year, and haven't had any of yet this year) taste even better than this year's new version, the Black From Tula. Yum!
And since I can't resist including at least one cat picture....
"Where's our food!??!"
8 comments:
How old were the beers, you say they're leftovers from parties? Beer definitely has a shelf life and Beck's Dark isn't a very good beer to start with.
Looks like you've been very busy in the kitchen.
How old? Hm, VERY good question!! I honestly don't know - less than a year old probably? Like I said, it's the kind of stuff people bring to the party and leave behind. I usually use those leftover beers for marinades - works out great, especially since we don't drink a lot of beer... But this stuff? Bleh! Good to know it may've just been bad tasting and/or old beer.
Mario Batali hammers this point home over and over: Don't cook with any wine (or beer) you're not willing to drink.
Yeah yeah, but I don't drink much alcohol, but I love it in marinades and such...so that rule doesn't really apply to me.
I think you're missing the point, if it doesn't taste good enough to drink, it's going to make your food taste bad.
I agree with Steven - Conrad and I joke about relegating wine to cooking, but the truth is you're better off opening something you want to drink. As a bonus, if you don't use the full bottle, the same wine will pair with the dish well in all likelihood.
As for dark beer, I'm not an especial fan myself.
What, by the way, was the cheese f not mozzarella? Or was it simply not fresh mozzarella?
Oh I totally forgot to comment on that amazing tomato..it almost looks like meat. Was it super duper yummy?
Yeah, the mozzarella was more of a hard block variety - just shaped in a ball pretending to be of the "fresh" variety. Still - tasted good. Just made me think I was snacking on the unbaked shredded stuff before topping a pizza.
And yeah, the tomato was great - I'm finding all those dark ones are!
Tonite I halved/quartered black cherry tomatoes, green grape tomatoes, orange cherry tomatoes and "white" (light yellow) ones and added them to a couscous dish with pine nuts, basil, mint and grilled yellow and pattypan squashes (marinated in the same lemon/oregano/basil mix as the chicken was marinated in). Granted - that was all on my plate - Brett just ate the couscous without all the extra add-ins. He doesn't know what he's missing!
Tomorrow's lunch: Cubed leftover grilled chicken with leftover squash, freshly sliced cherry tomatoes and torn herbs - all mixed in with the leftover couscous, a little extra olive oil plus a splash of balsamic vineger. Mmmm good!
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