ECF - Garden Supper Edition!
Yes, I am aware that it is not Friday today according to the calendar. However, SIL2 is getting married on Saturday. Though neither of us has a role in the wedding we decided to make a long weekend of it so we will begin our weekend tomorrow morning. So, for me, today is Friday.
Last night I rooted around in the garden in hopes that we won’t have any produced spoiled before our return. I’ll make another pass tomorrow morning to be sure. The photo above shows what came from the garden last night, aside from about 4-5 cups of basil (of both varieties, but mostly the common sweet basil). Doesn’t it look great? We got heirloom tomatoes and were unsure of their final color. But after leaving one on the vine for a week to ten days at the same orange color we determined the monster variety are to be deep yellow to orange.
In order to use some of the harvest I had made some polenta up early in the day and wrapped it into logs using waxed paper. Then DH sliced and pan fried them and we topped them with a variety of things, including some of our tomatoes some of DH’s cheese and a few chopped herb sauces.
With just the two of us we have taken to making our herb sauces by hand chopping rather than using the food processor. It give the sauce that touch of rustic and just has a nice mouthfeel since it isn’t turned into a cohesive paste. I made pesto using mostly the traditional sweet basil, but I tossed in a bit of the spicier globe basil. I’ve also become enamored with the chimichurri sauce that was posted at Tea & Cookies not too long ago. Those who are unfamiliar with chimichurri, it is a blend of parsley and cilantro that has some cayenne, white vinegar or citrus juice and olive oil. While it is traditionally a sauce that is served with steak, it is like summer in a bowl on top of pasta. It also made a wonderful polenta topping and paired especially well with the avocado.
The pan fried polenta was a great late summer supper. It requires only a small amount of heat and you can top it with a large variety of things from the garden or a farmer’s market. I wasn’t sure if we’d feel satisfied with just the polenta for dinner, but it served us quite well.
