Skillet =

Insanely good.

maple braised oregon pork belly, fried egg, cornmeal waffle




roasted washington fingerling potato hash, caramelized onion, herbs, slab bacon, two fried eggs



Yes, that's 1 piece of bacon.

breakfast tacos, roasted chile braised pork, chili sauce, scrambled eggs, corn tortilla, cilantro crema

Hungarian Heart

tomatoes:



My sweet husband grew these because I'm his Hungarian Heart. Love that sweet man.

The Grand Experiment

Ever since Cafe Juanita last year, I have been jonesing for some Burnt Sugar Ice Cream. Last night I started The Grand Experiment, my quest to find the perfect BSIC recipe. My first attempt was divine. I used this recipe and the result was incredible. Although, because I haven't cooked much with sugar, I was afraid to let the sugar carmelize too far - for fear of burning it. The result was *almost* exactly like what we had a Cafe Juanita. Could it be that I stumbled upon perfection with my first attempt? Perhaps. But I will perservere and try several more before I call it quits.

Last night's batch, though, did advance the conversation a bit: salted or not? Salted Caramel is a classic combination and I actually love it quite a bit. Smooth sweet caramel with crunchy saltiness is a fabulous and unexpected combination. Another question then arises, just because my husband likes salt, black salt, like in the recipe or pink Australian finishing salt? I like the black, the mister says the pink - the black being a little too much. Hmmmm. Le Grande Experiment continues...

Not Salted?


Pink Salt?


or Black Salt?

Quail

Mike made us roasted quail stuffed with porcini mushroom risotto in a golden raisin port wine sauce last night.




SO YUM!

Photos from tonight's meal

Huge Tuscan beans




Huge Roman beans





Squash blossoms

The garden

Bizzarro

Some pics I took recently at one of our favorite joints.

Amaranth

greens are delicious. Amaranth is usually associated with it's seed, eaten as a grain and used as a alternative to wheat flour. Chris got a hankering to grow it and we've been enjoying it as a salad green, or purple, as the case may be.