Yea!

A happy day!  My first tomatoes have been plucked!  Just thought I'd share my joy with you and hopefully my plants yield many more beautiful tomatoes for the next few months...

***UPDATE :  Delicious!  Juicy and so sweet : )

Mac 'n Cheese

You know that age-old, slightly morose question... What would your last meal be?  I've never had a problem answering that, no matter what new and amazing foods I eat and no matter where I may travel, I will always go back to this none-to-classy... Mac 'n Cheese, PLEASE!!!
The surprising element to this is that I NEVER make it for myself.  I'm perfectly happy with a few choice frozen "entrees".  (Amy's is good and Trader Joes' is AMAZING).  It's all too easy to pop in the oven and sit back wait for the oozing gooey cheesy one million calorie mess of deliciousness.  (Served with an enormous side of sauteed kale some how makes me feel healthy and almost guilt-free.)

HAPPY BDAY, NK!

In celebration of my husband's birthday, I made - per his request - angel food cake with chocolate frosting.  He told me his grandmother used to make it for him, Awwww!  Since I wasn't there to ever taste his nana's cake, I can pretty much say with certainty, her cake was better - it always is - however, this came out just fine.  (Maybe it's me, I'm not a lover of angel food cake to begin with, oh the things we do for love...) Anyway, the chocolate frosting is every bit as good as you'd expect with butter as the main ingredient, it's a stand-up frosting recipe to keep on file.

I usually only feature food on this site which reflects my personal eating and cooking style, that being, local, seasonal and organic.  The only way that this cake fits into that type of classification is that it is seasonal in so far as it is a birthday cake and we celebrated a birthday. (OK, the ingredients were all organic, too).  Other than that, this one is the anomaly for this blog and I am posting it with love and the fact that we all deserve a little b-day cake every now and then!

Zucchini Ricotta Galette

If you have never made a galette before, you need to listen up...  It is a simple, rustic and wonderful free-form pastry shell, ready to be filled with either sweet or savory ingredients, infiltrating your kitchen with that homey smell of baking pie crusts, mmm butter...  I made this often while I was in culinary school, and somehow, I lost touch with what is now, my new (old) love.  I was reminded of this old friend while checking out one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, and once I laid my eyes on Deb's zucchini galette, I was already grabbing my keys to head to the market.  Think of this as a rustic puff pastry/pie crust ready to be filled with fresh, seasonal ingredients.  (Oh, and cheese, lots of cheese!).

Since zucchini is well into their season, and usually in super-abundance, (and especially if you are growing your own and can't figure out a new way to use them), here you go...  Ricotta and Parmesan lay down the creamy, tangy, simply luxurious foundation.  Play around with your fillings, once you make your first galette, you will start to roll countless ideas around in your foodie imagination.  My advise, go forth with wild abandon!

Keep in mind, you are making a pastry dough, so all ingredients need to be cold, cold, cold and handled to a bare minimum for a flaky crust.