Before heading to see
Julia & Julia last night, Steve and Lara popped over for a quick nosh, since we'd been rightfully warned not to see the film on an empty stomach. I needed something quick and cool, so I decided to throw together an easy pasta salad. With a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, zucchini from the farmers market, and green peppercorns from the Thai grocery to add a little surprise flavor, all I had to do was boil the pasta to create a refreshing summer one-dish meal. I think it's actually perfect for a pot-luck or picnic, and without the chicken, it could be a wonderful side dish, too.
It's probably not something Julia would have made--it ended up being a sort of Thailand meets Italy concoction--but it at least got us through the movie without too many problems (though we did go to
Billy's Bakery afterward...what can you do?).
BTW: Julie & Julia is definitely worth a trip to the theater. Meryl Streep is, as usual, mind-blowing, and (to steal from Steve) all one needs to say about her onscreen partner is "Stanley fucking Tucci." Brilliant. Jane Lynch is hysterical as Julia's sister, and it's absolutely wonderful to watch everyone in the Julia Child portion have so much fun--it must have been a joy to go to work every day.
But the film is, unfortunately, lopsided. The dual-story aspect of
Julie & Julia is merely kind of OK, and it's obvious that much more care was taken with the writing and shooting of the Julia bits (in spite of too many shots exposing Meryl's lift shoes and an out-of-era bubble envelope that kind of blew the last scene for me). Why didn't they just make a Julia Child biopic? Doesn't a woman who changed America's culinary history deserve it? Regardless, Amy Adams as Julie Powell and Chris Messina as her husband do a great job, and at least the basic underpinnings of the importance of Julie Powell's story in 2002 are there.
So--in the end--the concept and execution of the movie has flaws, but it basically works well enough. If you love good food, a good laugh, and good acting, go see it.
Easy Pasta Salad Surprise• 1/2 to 3/4 pound dried fusilli pasta, cooked, drained, and cooled (use more or less pasta, depending on how far you'd like to stretch the dish)
• 1/2 rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1 medium-sized zucchini, julienned
• 2 tablespoons green peppercorns (either from a Thai or French grocery)
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the package's directions, then cool under a cold tap. Add to a large bowl, along with the other ingredients, and toss. Serve cold.
Haven't made it upstate to visit the garden in a few weeks, but I've been enjoying the sudden progress of the chili hot plants in my window. A recent flower boom has given way to a new batch of baby peppers, and there are more buds on the way. Meanwhile, I'll continue to play bumble bee with my little paintbrush and hope the hot August sun continues.
I visited the greenmarket on 57th and 9th at lunchtime, where I broke down and bought two tomatoes: an heirloom (pictured here) and another marked "field tomato." They both smelled good, so I went for it... When I arrived home, I tried to get back to work, but couldn't focus. I had to have one of the tomatoes. So I called "teatime," picked some basil (which--aaarrrggghhh--has bugs!), and cut into the heirloom tomato...
Regardless, I kept on with my early tea: I grilled a little toast and made a tomato salad with basil, the heirloom, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I poured some iced green tea and had a little snack.
Before heading to see Julia & Julia last night, Steve and Lara popped over for a quick nosh, since we'd been rightfully warned not to see the film on an empty stomach. I needed something quick and cool, so I decided to throw together an easy pasta salad. With a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, zucchini from the farmers market, and green peppercorns from the Thai grocery to add a little surprise flavor, all I had to do was boil the pasta to create a refreshing summer one-dish meal. I think it's actually perfect for a pot-luck or picnic, and without the chicken, it could be a wonderful side dish, too.
I've been resisting the urge to splurge on fresh figs this season, but alas yesterday...I could bear no more. The sight of some beautiful Calimyrnas at the local produce place inspired me to treat myself to one of my favorite summer dishes: grilled steak and figs. Dished up with some collard green salad and sautéed new potatoes, it's a wonderful, easy, and impressive treat.
Salt and pepper a nice piece of steak (last night's was hangar, which also makes fabulous leftovers for salads). Toss on a hot grill or grill pan, and cook to your preference. For the figs, wash and slice in half lengthwise, and baste with a little olive oil. Place flesh side down on the grill, cook for about a minute, then flip and roast until they're oozing their honey-like juices.
This weekend's garden check-in yielded mucho maxixe, collard greens for salads (yes, you can harvest collards all season long--thanks, Tony!), more nasturtiums and salad greens, and some more squash (the plants are still unhappy, so we'll see what happens). All of the hot pepper plants are doing well, though something seems to be munching the stems, especially the Brazilian variety (pictured left), so we're a bit concerned.
The chili hots continue to happily produce, so we're hoping these last few days of some encourages them to ripen before the deer (or two-legged thieves!) run off with them...
One of the two maxixe plants has taken over a large section of the garden. There were lots of new flowers on both plants (which the honeybees were absolutely loving), so we should have lots of new little alien pods appearing in the next few weeks.
Normally I wouldn't plug my birthday, but Nancy made me this absolutely beautiful buttermilk pound cake from the Times Magazine. Perfectly gorgeous...and delicious, too! (And extra special to boot, because it's usually way too hot to bake cakes in August!)
Throughout a fabulous birthday weekend in Beacon, Nancy and I continued to play and experiment with some of the hearty vegetable survivors from this monsoon season...I mean summer... Yesterday, I decided to crack into one of the cayenne peppers we'd harvested on Saturday, and I concocted a new pork marinade. We matched the grilled chops with a pattypan from our garden, spicy cole slaw, maxixe marinated in apple cider vinegar, and maxixe, zucchini, corn, & basil salad. The new lime leafy goodness was a hit, and we decided to make it the newest official member of our culinary rotation.
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