carrot, cukes, and fennel amuse

there was one carrot - a small one - for 5 people. How would You have
served it? I used a little salt, a little white sugar, a drop of
honey, and some rice wine vinegar. Yummy! YS!

beauty is skin deep. Flavor is through and through.

from the YYS garden! Isn't it beautiful, this raiinbow carrot, with
its beet red exterior and gorgeous orange interior?

pickled baby beets and baby fennel amuse bouche!

first beets and fennel of the season! We've been eating the tops for a
while. Yum-o! Ernie and Evelyn kept wanting more. Sorry, kids. Only
enough for 3 smalls and 2 large! The pickling liquid was a little
rice vinegar, a little red wine vinegar, a splash of balsamic, salt,
pepper, and brown sugar.

yummy Fathers' Day Crepes Yummy! Schlurp!

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my garden greens, lightly dressed

they were topped with a piece of salmon in the same honey mustard
dressing accompanied by a piece of sauteed eggplant. I just love the
simplicity of this shot! YYS!

Grilled chix thighs on a bed of squash with quick pickles from fuzzy melon.

squash, cleaned, cubed, marinated in salt, honey, sriracha, olive oil,
pan roasted and caramelized, deglazed with orange juice, then pureed
with a little more sriracha - and fuzzy melon, quick pickled in cider
vinegar, salt, and dill. YYS!

And of course, Chicken thigh, grilled, on top of the squash. Num yum. Schlurp!

fish tacos, yys. So yummy!

Mahi marinated til serving, fresh salsa, and delish slaw. Yummy.
Yummy! Schlurp!

yummy fresh salsa

was.so.yummy. fresh chopped scallion, juice of 1 lime, superfine chop
clove garlic, fresh cilantro and parsely, splash of salt. YYS!

Fresh eggs. Nothing beats them!

Except, maybe, a whisk. ;) Aren't they GORGEOUS? Remember - with
eggs and scallops, the more colors the better. These eggs are
magical.

what was left!!

Here's some of the tags from the cheeses on Saturday. The Drunken
Goat was far and away the #1 by weight, volume, and vanishing acts. I
think people were surprised by its nuttiness, creamyness, dryness, and
deliciosity. Unikaase I love because it actually has texture - a
little crunch, together with salt and nuttiness. Cheddar is a
perennial favorite. The fig spread? To die for. I think Whole Foods
needs to send me a commission check. ;) Lots of new fans. And you
just can't go wrong with triple cream brie! Yummy Yummy Schlurp!

pain perdu

So, our friend Tim Hoffner makes the.best.bread.ever. Really. He
does. He made some (36 batards) for a little get together we had on
Saturday night. This was breakfast on Sunday morning. Pain Perdu --
another word for French Toast. Delicious. The crust, the crumb, all
played together so harmoniously. It was amazing. And yummy. Oh so
Yummy. Made you want to schlurp it all up!

dinner party

filet of beef sandwich with dressed arugula, rainbow carrot crudites,
ginormous strawberries, roasted shallots, creamy dreamy Mac n Cheesy
(with eggs, gruyere, butter, cream, it's amazing and the kiddos loved
it), roasted fennel, roasted celery, beets napoleon, roasted
mushrooms, mushroom juice, and red pepper cous cous ... I didn't shoot
the cheese. It was good! Drunken goat, unikaase reserve, big wheel
cheddar, triple cream brie ... om nom nom yummy yummy SCHLURP! And,
there was a crown and a dress. We also had our 3 year old's birthday
party last night -- 15 or so kids, a bunch of adults, Mme Queen Potty
Pants enjoyed her party immensely.

homemade pizza - is anything better?

two stones. Hot. Caramelized onions and peppers. Fresh basil. Lots
o' cheese. Delish San Marzano sauce. YummyomnomYummynomnomSCHLURP!

(I did find an escapee this week, under the oven, in the warming
drawer - this was an ooey gooey delicious pie!)

5 pictures for you

Hey kids, be ready! The Mayor of FlavorTown is coming for dinner
tonight! Pan roasted chix thighs with thyme, garlic, salt, pepper,
[remove from pan and put on sheet in oven], use rendered chix fat to
sautee baby bella mushrooms in pearl cous cous, steamed half brussels
sprouts, finished with crispy shallot and almond slices, pan sauce of
all the flavor in a chicken stock, lemon juice reduction. Yummy
yummy, I want more, we finished all the thighs and the kids wanted
more, SCHLURP!

Proud mama moment

for all the parents - grandparents - and friends with children people
who "like" this page. I wanted to share a story from a friend who
just dropped off my 5 yo. They were eating lunch, sandwiches together
with some crudites. My 5 year old son said to my friend, "what is the
white stuff" (on the plate)? It was Ranch Dip. What a proud Mom
moment. The second proud moment happened at the end of lunch, when my
son said, "can I have more veggies, please?" He.is.YYS (really- he
was the one who said it!)

He is sitting on the steps, waiting for his bus, eating broccoli and
carrots! :) Love that kid!

any given night - 4 dishes, yys!

Last night was funny. I was working some more of the tomato sauce (I
use it as a base - so I generally caramelize onions & garlic, then add
tomatoes that have been blanched and chopped (in a blender), then add
herbs and freeze - great for pasta or pizza or lasagne or whatever.)
And then there was the pan-roasted and finished in the oven chicken.
With salt, pepper, and thyme, out of this world falafel, and mac n
cheese. It was a "clean the fridge" kind of night at la casa Sanchez!

And of course, it was ... YYS!

just for you, MLK

The color of the tomatoes is brown. The flesh is still red, and they
are the juiciest and sweetest tomatoes I've EVER bought in January.
Timing is good, too, since the sauce I made and froze with a bushel of
plum tomatoes is long gone. Wait. Want to hear the best part? These 4
packs of delicious, not expected delicious little bites in January --
3 packs for a buck! Really? REALLY? Wow. I am so making red, err,
brown sauce tomorrow. Here, between a 1/2 and full bushel of
tomatoes, perfectly ripe and delish, for less than $20! That's a heck
of a lot of pasta and sauce for $20!

(I also scored 10 apples for $1.98 - I think the produce truck comes
in on Mondays, so they needed to make room for the pretty fruits - and
about 30 oranges for the same. It was crazy! About 2 pounds of fresh
ginger for .99)

pan roasted chicken, sauteed brussels sprouts with crispy shallot and almond, angry smashed potatoes

The pan reduction was yummy. I liked the brightness from the thyme
that almost had a citrus quality, both in the pan sauce and in the
sauce for the sprouts. I halved and steamed them first to lock in the
color. Smashed potatoes (Gene named them because the kids were pretty
punchy and tearing around underfoot and the word "I want ... Mommy ...
" was pretty much everywhere, I was just trying to get dinner on the
table!

I love shallots. And Thyme. And Chicken thighs. And, I'm Irish. Of
course I love potatoes. (these had some celery leaf and garlic cloves
cooked with them for some extra yummyyummyshlurpiness.)

Bacon bacon bacon! (fresh off the grill, set up as smoker!)

Here's what fresh, home-cured bacon looks like. These two started out
as pork bellies from the market. They were dry cured in the fridge for
about 10 days, then smoked today for about 4 hours. I can't wait to
taste some of this batch of bacon, bacon, BAAAACON!

What possessed us, you may ask, to start making our own bacon? Well,
partially curiosity. Partially our quest to use non-processed foods.
Partially, looking at sausages one day and realizing that all of them
contained MSG as an ingredient. Go. Look at your local market. I don't
care where you live, or what brands are there. Look at sausage and you
will find it.

We have fennel, we have garlic, sundried tomatoes, cheese, salt,
pepper -- all the stuff sausages are made with, so we thought, "why
not?" and you know what? It was a.maz.ing -- so we thougt - why not do
the same with bacon. And there you have it.

YY --no, really - S!

My husband is the best husband EVER! xox Thanks babe.