I'm Eating Good

Me and the man have been cooking at home more and we have had some damn good meals in the past couple of months. A few weeks ago, we went to Pensacola and this great fish market called Joe Patti's. They had just about every kind of seafood you can imagine so we got some grouper and monkfish, which I love but rarely see anywhere. Ben seared our lovely monkfish, served with roasted squash and asparagus and topped with squash seeds he had seasoned and toasted.

I didn't really grow up eating pork chops, I like them, I just never really had them so I never really make them. Plus, we have been eating a ton of scallops and fish and shrimp so when Ben made these pork chops last week, it tasted like one of the best things I've eaten in a while. He made a balsamic reduction with sage to glaze them, then made a black-eyed pea salad with tasso and I made some roasted broccoli which I will tell you about in a minute. It was all so earthy and rich and warm but not heavy at all. Make it. Don't skimp on the sage.

So, about that broccoli. The Wednesday Chef is beginning to be my favorite blog, I just want to be her and vacation in Italy at my mother's house, who lives there naturally, and take whimsical, nostalgic photos. This recipe is actually Melissa Clark's recipe, whose life I also covet because her weekly Times article always has her throwing together random things in a simple and elegant way. I loved this recipe, Ben and I both enjoyed the crisp bits of broccoli and extra lemon squeezed over top. Now I just roast the broccoli all the time, whether or not there's shrimp to go with it. I served this with a beautiful tomato tart with Gorgonzola, basil, chives and tarragon. You don't need a recipe, although you could certainly Google it and find one. Just make your pie crust however you make it, layer the ripest tomatoes you can find over it, sprinkle cheese, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and herbs and bake it.

Speaking of tomatoes, I read this article in the New York Times and who can resist the end of summer ode to tomato? I can't and since we were driving past a stand that boasted "Tomatoes for Sale that Actually Taste Like Tomatoes," well, I bit. I even went out and bought Robiola, which has a similar texture as Brie but tastes a bit funkier and while I liked it, I did not like the $29.99/lb price tag nor how it made my refrigerator smell. Sub Brie, you'll be fine. I also wanted to bake to tomatoes some, the recipe doesn't say too but they were just so JUICY! I would say to DEFINITELY drain the tomatoes, cut side down. Also, I found the butter to be strange and extraneous so I'll skip that next time. So I out the tomatoes and the chicken on a platter with some toasted baguette rubbed with garlic and oh, how that juice crept into all the shaggy bits of the bread was just otherworldly. I mean it, but I discovered some of the magic disappears as leftovers. Some things improve the next day, this does not, so invite some people over and sop up every bit of juice with every crumb of bread.

One more thing. I bought peaches that taste like peaches from the Tomato guy and made Smitten Kitchen's Peach Shortbread and it is amazing but be forewarned you might eat three pieces in one sitting. My changes:

-I used whole wheat flour instead of white. No one noticed and thus, the shortbread was obviously transformed into healthy food, no matter all the butter I used.

-I used four peaches and not two. I'm sure there is something to be said for a light layer of peaches but I like to overdo things.

-I toasted about a 1/2 cup of almond and chopped them up to add to the topping. I think you should too.