Those Weekends in Summer

About this time each summer it dawns suddenly: There will soon be many lasts until next year: that last dinner on the porch, the last tomato from the backyard, the last evening spent sitting in the adirondack chair outside, the last glass of rosé, the last fresh corn on the cob, the last hot day, and so it goes. For now, though, we enjoy each moment.

And so we did, at Bellevue Downtown Park, a beautiful spot.

Then came Saturday morning, and the specialness of retrieving part of breakfast from the backyard. 

Chives and tomatoes from the backyard, eggs from my dad's coworker, mushrooms from the grocery store...




























Then it was back to the backyard and the Adirondack chair to enjoy the results: a poached egg over whole wheat toast with sauteed tomatoes and mushrooms and a sprinkle of chives and Parmesan.

If you look closely, you may notice someone else in the top left corner of the photo sniffing out my breakfast.

After the food was gone this someone discovered an alternate use for chair cushions. Now there's a way to bask in the sun!

Here's to summer while it lasts. Not too long from now we will be making the most of autumn with pumpkins and baking and fireplaces and hot tea.

Summer in a Glass

With all due respect to my favorite beverage (coffee for those of you who didn't already guess) nothing beats a tall cold glass of iced tea on a warm summer afternoon. Having invited a few friends and some family over to celebrate July 4th in our backyard, iced tea seemed like the perfect beverage to accompany barbecued chicken and steak alongside various salads.

The mess and labor of boiling water and steeping tea for a prescribed amount of time seemed like too  much work, though. With inspiration from one of the hot trends according to my Twitter feed and other sources (cold brew coffee), boxes of black and white tea in my pantry, and a recent visit to Chicago where we sipped on amazing Argo tea drinks, I decided to try cold-brewed iced tea. Not much information exists in the form of recipes, but An Edible Mosaic had some ideas that sounded fun.

The general rule seems to be two tea bags per quart of water. I made one gallon of two types of tea, eight tea bags in each. 

White Tea with Blueberries: Put eight tea bags in a large jug and pour in one gallon of water. Add one cup blueberries. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Since I made the tea directly in the large serving jug I planned to use (the kind with a spigot for dispensing) I did not bother straining the tea, and it looked pretty with the blueberries swimming at the bottom.

Black Tea with Rosemary and Lemon Peel: Put eight tea bags in a large jug and pour in one gallon of water. Add 2-4 sprigs of rosemary and the peel of 1-2 lemons (depending on how much flavor you want from the herbs and lemon). Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

When it came time to serve, I took the jugs straight from the refrigerator to the back porch and set out a bowl of sugar with iced tea spoons for stirring. Next time I will probably make some simple syrup since the sugar doesn't dissolve so well, of course, but most of my guests were happy to drink the unsweetened tea. The white tea was almost sweet already from the blueberries, though I think honey would be fabulous in it. An Edible Mosaic blog suggested maple syrup in the black tea. I'm also thinking some fresh ginger would be a wonderful complement to the white tea and blueberries.

Unfortunately you will have to create a mind picture as I neglected to photograph the beverages - halved blueberries swimming in a light ginger-hued jug of whitea tea alongside a dark amber-colored jug of black tea with sprigs of rosemary and bright yellow lemon peel.

Three cheers for summer and iced tea! Leave a comment if you try any other variations and come up with a new favorite.

Papardelle Bolognese

The first day of summer does not lend itself to a recipe for a heavy pasta and meat dish, you say. Here in the PNW, though, a June day can offer up a range of weather. Yesterday's version was 58 degrees and raining. It was my "Friday," and I drove home from work thinking about the papardelle from Trader Joe's languishing in my pantry. We would be unable to eat outside as we do nearly every evening in summer, so a cozy pasta meal at the dining table seemed like a great alternative. 

Papardelle bolognese is not your typical weeknight meal. The preparation takes approximately half an hour, followed by an hour and a half of simmering with amazing smells emanating from the kitchen. It is a meal more conducive to a quiet winter Saturday, but getting into my kitchen and cooking a good meal is a way to decompress from the work week.

The recipe is loosely taken from this one at Ladyberd's Kitchen and some variations from Epicurious based on the ingredients I already had in the house. Most recipes call for pancetta and some for bacon, and I had neither last night. A mix of ground meats tastes best, so last night's version here contained ground beef and crumbled Italian sausage. 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground beef

1 pound Italian sausage

2 whole tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup baby portabella mushrooms, sliced

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme (I used Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle)

3/4 cup red wine (try to find a good Italian one and use the same one you will drink with the meal)

1 cup milk

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste

Papardelle pasta, cooked according to package directions

Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. (My Le Creuset dutch oven worked wonderfully for this dish.) Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Mince the garlic into the pot during this time, and don't let the vegetables brown. 

Add the meat and increase to high heat. Cook until the meat is browned.

Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, milk, wine, tomato paste, and thyme or pasta sprinkle and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper.

Toward the end of cooking, boil water for the pasta and cook the pasta. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Buon appetito!

Suggested accompaniments: Green salad with roasted red peppers and balsamic vinaigrette

Wine pairing: 2009 Artezin Charbono, Napa Valley