Summer Weekend

We've entered the final third of summer this weekend. The cicadas are still going at it, and it's too muggy (that's hot and humid) to get the planned-on weeding done or even walk the dogs. To continue the celebration of flavors and skilled use of leftovers and whatever's-in-the-pantry, we enjoyed the following, before and after backgammon, darts, reading, movie-watching, shopping, and a birthday celebration:

Friday night: Grilled chicken thighs, marinated 48 hours in a brown mustard, thyme, garlic marinade with sour cream horseradish mashers and steamed, buttered carrots with Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownies for dessert.


Saturday breakfast: Red pepper, shallot, chive & cheddar frittata with potato latkes made from leftover sour cream horseradish mashers, focaccia toast drizzled with honey and butter, and pulpy orange juice.


Sunday breakfast: Open Face Bacon and Egg Sandwiches.
The recipe calls for arugula, which I neither had on hand or like, nor did I have a substitute, so I merely left it out and reduced the amount of shallot vinaigrette by just drizzling it on the tomatoes (which are orange persimmon tomatoes, just beneath the egg and just above the added slice of buffalo mozzarella.


Sunday dinner: Heirloom tomato & fresh mozzarella towers with shallot vinaigrette & slivered basil; focaccia and olive oil; orzo with tomato sauce made with butter & onion, manchego, cherries. Orvieto & Rosso di Montelpuciano.


Last winter, I snipped the last of the Purple Heart (Tradescantia pallida), a type of spiderwort often misidentified, as I had, as its cousin, Tradescantia zebrina or Wandering Jew, and put it in a vase. Do you know that the cutting stayed in that vase for several months, brightening up our winter days? I changed the water of course, but it stayed alive and even bloomed for the first few weeks. The little pink flowers would close up and open throughout the day. A nice vase companion (and garden bed neighbor) is asparagus fern. Like this, which I put together this morning: