Life of Wry

Okay, I’m going to lighten up a little for tonight’s blog.. because, lordy, my blogs of late have been dark… with good reason (!) … but how about a break?

I was looking through recent photos for a blog idea.  There was one from this morning’s breakfast, and a couple from last night’s dinner, and they seemed to go really well together, colorly speaking. So I found an easy blog topic, one that won’t depress me.

In chronological order, then, here’s a shot of last night’s dinner:

There is a lot more here than meets the eye. This is a Christopher Kimball recipe, so it’s all about flavor. In this case, one grates raw corn right off the cob, using the largest holes on a box grater, which yields a very messy milky mush of tiny corn bits. Then you take those denuded corn cobs and boil them in what eventually becomes your pasta water w/ a ton of kosher salt. The wet mushy corn gets sauteed with shallots and habanero chiles (we used serano) in butter, and, once the shallots have softened, you add some of that cob-infused water, which creates quite a thick, rich sauce. Then you add the fusilli, which you’ve boiled to the point of al dente in that cob water (cobs removed).. and finish off-heat by adding cut-in-half and salted cherry tomatoes (which Chris Kimball loves to use in so many dishes), chopped basil and yet more butter. It is so, so good. Can’t wait for the leftovers to see if it’s intensified even more.

The funnest thing about this dinner was actually cooking together with Jim. That is rare.. since he sort of likes his space alone when he’s cooking and seems not to like being bossed around by me when I’m taking the lead on a meal. But last night, since I didn’t even begin to think about dinner until 7:30–and because I’m the slowest cook on the planet, which meant we wouldn’t eat until 10:00–I asked if he’d help with the prep, which turned into helping with the cooking, as well, which, in my mind, was really, really fun. Still took two of us one solid hour, on a recipe that claimed total prep & cooking time was only 30 mins. But I quite enjoyed sharing the whole cooking event with someone else. (That’s a hint, Jim.)

Here’s the rest of our so-summer dinner (the peaches have been insane):

Staying with the yellow, red and green theme, here’s breakfast this Sunday morn:

After five straight months of rotating pancakes, waffles and french toast on Sundays (which, I’m not complaining).. Jim surprised me with a savory plate of eggs (with tomatoes, peppers and onions). Wow, was it good.

One of these days, when it’s safe to go to restaurants again, we’ll return to our habit of eating out about a million times a week, especially on Sunday mornings, but until then.. this will do.