Pictures of Sunshine

I decided to give myself the task of taking pictures of sunlight. It was a gorgeous spring day. 

Hostas are coming back.

Ace had an afternoon outdoors. He was a little scared, but seemed to enjoy it. He ate some grass and chased some bees.

Shellfish Lab!

Butter poached lobster with beet buerre blanc sauce.

Steamed mussels...

Fried calamari with sauce gribichi.

Clams Oreganata

Oysters with arugula and pine nuts.

Scallops and shrimp with a slaw of spinach and carrots and a mustard vinaigrette.

Spring has Sprung... That means yard work.

So first, I mowed all the grass. That's a lotta grass!

More grass...

And more.

I burned the pampas grass, but maybe might have melted the numbers on my street number sign. Oops.

My tree man's nose had fallen off at some point, so I replaced it. He looks particularly sassy today!

I picked all the dead stuff off my strawberries. They seem to be coming back to life!

Unfortunately, the thyme is not doing as well..

Rehung my little bird house. Room for rent!

I burned all the stuff in the fire pit, which to tell you the truth, included the Christmas tree. But now the fire pit is all cleaned out.

Sam took pictures of me and Mike

More Food...

Duxelles tarts. I just made regular old pie dough and rolled it out, then cut it with my round cutters to the size that would fit in my mini muffin tin. Then filled each one with duxelles (mushroom/shallots/garlic/butter) and shaved a little parmesano-reggiano on top and baked. DELICIOUS, if I do say so myself.

The is flounder, rolled up into a nice little package, and cooked with apples, hard apple cider, and mushrooms with a delicious light sauce. To the left is some tourned zucchini. 

This is flounder again, only this time in a luscious white wine sauce. Served with chateau potatoes and some asparagus.

Garde manger lab today was salad. This is a greek salad. The lavash (the twisty crackers) were  also lovingly hand made by ME. The greens are just romaine lettuce. On top are some cucumbers, tomatoes, marinated kalamata olives, red onions, feta cheese, and a lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Another salad from garde manger lab. This is a warm bacon and spinach salad. The dressing is warm and sweet, while the salad is fresh spinach, shaved mushrooms, some red onion oh-so-thinly-sliced and boiled egg. The croutons? Yes, I made those too, they feature garlic and butter.

This is a goat cheese salad. Breaded, fried goat cheese on a bed of mesclun greens, with acidulated pears, grilled figs, toasted almonds and a balsamic vinaigrette.

We seem to be back in the round fish lab... It's striped bass, steamed on scallions and topped with shaved ginger and garlic and some fresh scallions, then at the last minute, screaming hot peanut oil is poured over all. Behind is some quinoa and in front, haricot verts, of course.

Pistachio crusted salmon, with dal (lentils, potatoes, ginger, black mustard seed, cumin) and some wilted spinach. The sauce is a cilantro chutney which was, to tell the truth, rather ho-hum.

Grilled tuna with a black bean cake and some sweet-and-sour pearl onions. The red stuff is a roasted red pepper vinaigrette.

Listen, you would not BELIEVE the process called for to make a frankfurter. But, these were the best franks I've ever eaten. Took hours to make them....  It involves grinding beef and pork three times, each time smaller. Then mixing it with pork belly (also ground thrice). Then various seasonings and things are added and it's spun up in a food processor with ice, while constantly monitoring the temp. Then, it's stuffed into hog casings. Then poached. The finally it's done. And grilled. Mmmmm...

The franks on the grill.