Gropius and I have been anticipating the ripening of our West Virginia "Hillbilly" heirloom tomatoes. We had two absolute monsters which finally were ripe yesterday, in addition to two slightly smaller ones. We couldn't resist putting the monsters on the scale to see just exactly how much they weighed: Yup, you read it right--2 lb, 12.3oz. How 'bout that? These tomatoes are in addition to the yellow pear, black cherry, black prince, and garden peach tomatoes I harvested yesterday, not to mention the tomatillos and the habaneros, anaheims, hungarian wax, and cayenne peppers. Oh, and three yellow squash. Tasty!
Gropius and I tried out a new restaurant last night before our childbirth class and it was delicious! I had heard about it on another blog and thought that it sounded promising. We are lucky in Sacramento to have several options for deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza, but we have had a harder time finding an upscale, Neapolitan-style pizza. I think we found it!
The interior was very minimalist ("Clean lines, Sweetie!") so you could focus on the food. I also loved the brown and earth tones of it all:
I had a sausage pizza that was very good, but I have to say that Gropius's potato pizza was delicious! We were so busy snarfing it down, that I didn't realize I had no pictures of our pizza until they were gone! We started off with some small appetizers of rosemary salted almonds and marinated olives and finished off with some mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate pudding.
Gropius wants to put in a wood-fired pizza oven in our backyard, but I'm worried we might end up like this:
We bought some flat iron steaks earlier in the week at WholePaycheck and were inspired to turn them into hamburgers when we bought La Boulange mini brioche buns yesterday afternoon. Ta-Chen had mentioned earlier this week that La Boulange, a San Francisco bakery, now had products available in Sacramento, so we decided to give them a try. YUM!
We ground up the flat iron steaks with some chuck, added basalmic vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and two piment d'espelette. Gropius roasted some poblano peppers we picked earlier this week from the garden which we marinated in some olive oil with rosemary, salt, and pepper. While the burgers were grilling, we also caramelized a red torpedo onion.
My burger(s) was elemental: toasted brioche bun, dijion mustard, hamburger, some grated cheddar, onions, and peppers. I ended up only eating one though for reasons explained previously.
Gropius's burgers (yes, he had TWO) had all the same stuff mine did with the addition of lettuce and a sliced Better Boy (our one non-heirloom tomato). He also had a Japanese cucumber salad (Ta-Chen, I will bring you a better cucumber this week--Gropius claims the previous one was inferior).
Then we ended dinner with bubbles and classic jazz.
We made the pizza sauce with some of our speckled Romas and then sprinkled the top with some of our Garden Peach tomatoes and basil. Other than starting our own dairy or growing our own wheat, this pizza was made entirely with the fruits of our labor!
Our good friend, Miriam, gave us her recipe for Provencal Tart that is absolutely delicious! With our tomatoes coming into season, we decided that the best showcase for them was making her tomato tart. It's always SO freakin' tasty and pretty easy, too. Here is an action shot of Gropius slicing the tart And here's a close-up of the deliciousness...Mmmmm.....
Gropius also had a cucumber salad with one of his Japanese cucumbers from the garden. I referred to it as "porn-size" but I think Ta-Chen summed it up best when I brought an extra one up to school for him. He noted that "there's nothing Japanese about it." Still the best line of the day!
We served the tomato tart with a chicken breast grilled with African spices and some fresh green beans and a nice Malbec.
This week, Gropius and I have been the beneficiaries of both our garden and our neighbor's.
Some of the many tomato plants we have growing in the backyard have started to ripen and we are enjoying the fruits (ha-ha) of the plants' labor(s). I'm most excited about trying these Speckled Roma tomatoes in a provencal tomato tart tonight for dinner...
And our next door neighbors have a 35-year-old apricot tree that has been producing beautiful, golden orbs of sweetness for the entire neighborhood for the past two weeks.
YUM!
And my pimente d'esplette is turning red, too. I can't wait to try those!
Gropius and I tried out a new place for lunch yesterday while we were out running errands. Boudin's SF, a bakery/chain from San Francisco, opened a branch in Sacramento last year (months ago actually), and we finally got around to giving it a try yesterday because we were in the area and I was feeling peckish. Gropius had their roast beef sandwich with chips while I had their 1/2 and 1/2 special: 1/2 a cheese pizza and soup. I have to say that I was quite pleased with the food and atmosphere--think more upscale Panera's. The outdoor seating was nice yesterday, too. I surprised Gropius with a quick snapshot:
Last night for dinner, we had Niman Ranch pork chops with an onion, pepper, bacon relish, fresh corn-on-the-cob, and green beans (including a few from our garden). Gropius had a couple of tomatoes from our backyard garden, too: And to make it up to him, here's a better picture of Gropius that wasn't taken by surprise:
