"Diane, I hold in my hand a small box of chocolate bunnies."

Happy (slightly belated) 20th Anniversary "Twin Peaks"!!

Watched the pilot yesterday in celebration, and it's just as emotional, melodramatic, creepy, quirky, and funny as the first time out.

Here's to you guys: My favorite director, Special Agent Dale Cooper, Lucy and Andy, Killer Bob, doughnuts, cherry pie, and a damn fine cup of coffee (and hot)!

Thanks for changing my life. :-)

You say tomato, I say tomato.

Matt found this monsterous specimen at a farmer's market recently. Needless to say, it begged to be made into a caprese salad. Instead, I made it into a sauce for pasta.

What can I say - I have no fresh basil on hand. Sorry.

Making a fresh tomato sauce is super easy, anyway. All you have to do is slice it into bite-sized pieces, throw it into a pan containing well-heated olive oil and chopped garlic, season to taste, and mash the hell out of it.

In this case, I seasoned with salt and pepper, dried basil (I know, I know), and a splash of vodka. Alcohol-soluable flavors, you know.

Of course, save the last bit of salt for the end, and rehydrate wih stock if necessary....

Add freshly-cooked pasta with a bit of its water and a little bit of grated cheese, and you end up with this:


Not too shabby.

To Pickle a Carrot.

Some people [see photo at right] would have the world think that I called in sick to work yesterday because I was out of pickles. This is not true. I called in sleepy to work because I was sleepy. I didn't remedy the pickle situation until after I woke up.

To pickle a carrot, you first need carrots. Peel them and cut them up into sticks, about 3 inches long by 1/3 inch thick. In addition to having a quick blanching time and being a good size for a pickled snack, they also make excellent practice Wolverine claws.

Blanch these carrot sticks in boiling, salted water for pretty much exactly one minute, then immediately drain and rinse very thoroughly with cold water (or put them in an ice bath) to stop the cooking.

Then you make the brine. (This is the most important part, obviously, because otherwise you'd just have blanched carrots.) You start by combining 1 and 1/4 cups of water with 1 cup of cider vinegar, which according to my measuring cup is equal to the volume of 1,000 kernels of sweet corn.

To that, you add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of dill seed, and two lightly crushed cloves of garlic. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes.

When that's done, pour the brine over the carrot sticks (which should now be in a heat-proof container, by the way), and let them cool completely on the counter before fridging them in an air-tight container for at least 24 hours before enjoying.

Or, in my case, enjoy them straight out of the warm brine twenty minutes later.

Thanks for the tried and true recipe Gourmet Magazine!
I am happy. :-)

"Don't make pickles at midnight; it's creepy."

My pickle juice is sad. :-(

Where are my carrot sticks? Where have they gone?? Why aren't I full of yummy goodness?

And yet my cruel, vinegar-hating husband refuses to let me make more pickles with the carrots I just discovered in the refrigerator.

You know, we have five kinds of vinegar in the pantry; I'm not sure how heating it up and filling the house with fumes at ten-thirty at night is any different. Suck it up and suffer for the greater good.

Ooh! That brine has garlic cloves in it!

brb.

[edit: It turns out that barely-cooked garlic that has been used to flavor a pickling brine kinda sucks. Try at home if you want, but I would say don't bother. And now I'm gonna get off this machine before the next round of thunderstorms moves in for the kill.]

absent.

Right off, you'll probably notice that this entry has no pictures.
That's because I have nothing to show you.

Yesterday, after hemming and hawing about it for most of the evening, I decided to make some pickled onions. I went into the pantry to retrieve the sack of red pearl onions (which make perfect purple pickles) that I'd purchased specifically for that purpose.

And I found -

Nothing!

No onions!

Even though I distinctly remember getting them, even though I can't remember at what store!

Did I dream that?
Did I put them back after I'd already put them in my cart?
Why would I do that?
Am I losing my mind??

End Result: NO ONIONS!!

NO ONIONS = NO PICKLES!!!

How could this happen? This is a travesty!! And now I've finished my pickled carrots and have nothing to take their place!! What am I supposed to eat for my afternoon snack?? I can't just sit around eating cheese by itself!!!!

Actually, come to think of it, I guess I could...

Unseasonably Warm.

PICNIC!!!!!!!!

Friday the high temp reached the low 80's.
We had an impromptu picnic in our backyard at 8:00 pm.

In addition to the asian pear, gouda cheese, summer sausage, crusty country bread, and chianti featured above, we also had Ritz crackers, monster blackberries, some baked ricotta, and a whole stick of butter:

^ See?

It was a blast. We had candles to keep the mosquitoes away, and we managed to overlook the slowly thickening air until it was dark and there was dew on everything. Can't wait to do it again!!

I baked you a cake:

You're welcome!