Springtime, Visits, Teeth and Pressies

These are the things I've been up to in the last month that have kept me away from the computer and, to a large extent, the stove. Here's the photo montage...

 

Miss Bray came to town, and we took advantage of the verdant bounty at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market--asparagus, peas, favas, potes, spring onions, watercress... all whipped into a rabbit stew dazzled up with a handful of fresh tarragon!

For dessert, we broke out Miss Kiwi's quadruplet baby ramekins for cherry clafoutis. Non-pitted cherries are definitely superior, flavor-wise and effort-wise, to pitted. I wish I could say that these stayed as airy and fluffy even after being out of the oven for 20 minutes, but... well... they were prettiest as pictured. 

Then I got my wisdom teeth out. All four at once. Go for the kill, right? One of my first meals "back" (pseudo-back) was homemade corn chowder with the first Cali corn of the season--how they can have fresh corn in late May is beyond me, but there it is. I had also been practically protein-free for a week and a half, so I loaded this up with bacon. All pureed, this was delectable and made my mouth feel better.

As a present to myself for getting through the tooth extraction, I took myself on a shopping spree to Sur La Table with the $500 gift card I won for my Pesto Pasta recipe on Saveur.com. I made out. Here's all the luxe loot I came home with. Favorites include the set of Schott crystal glassware, the small scanpan that makes the best fritatta ever, and the set of Sur La Table saucepans.

Actually, the Real Best BLT

Attention, Miss Bray: You may claim the best peaches, ok? But the best BLT? False.

That would actually be mine--complete with a sexy slab of Meat Hook bacon, thickly sliced red and yellow heirloom tomatoes, local arugula and a perfectly crunchy/chewy baguette, all graced with coarsely cracked black pepper and a drizzle of greenish olive oil. The only thing missing was the homemade oregano mayonnaise that I have heard about and dreamed about but am still too lazy to actually make. For now, this still wins. Pair it with a homemade IPA, and EAT IT.

Carbonara Gorge

Damn hot out, and I'm a little out of sorts, and all I can think about is gorging myself on bacon, butter and pasta. Something seems wrong with that picture, but it's true. I raided my leftovers tonight and dazzled old fusilli and peas (from the parsley pesto disaster) with bacon out of the freezer, scallions leftover from my wok-capades, and an egg. Then, to provide some sort of refreshment, I downed a tall, cool glass of our homemade Dook's Brew IPA.

Pizza, Beer, Friday Night Date Night

Indeed, what more could you ask for on a Friday night? The evening was utterly lovely, we had the roof open and cocktails on hand, and a freshly made batch of beer was conditioning in the closet.

Ahh, rats. So that means we didn't get to drink the homebrew. But we will in two weeks! Meanwhile, "Dook's Brew" conditions away, and our home is filled with sanitized and drying equipment as we gear up for the second brewing...

We made two pizzas for the evening: the first was an artichoke, ramp and ricotta pie, which wasn't actually all that satisfying, and the second was a date, bacon and blue cheese pie, which had all the properly balancing sweet/salty/savory notes until I got carried away and put ramp bulbs all over it...
which somehow turned the thing into a strangely Dorito-flavored concoction with bits of dates.

It was okay, but this is not something that I'd fully recommend anyone tries to duplicate, unless a sweet, Dorito-y pie actually sounds good to you. Hmm.