In all seriousness, we are so spoiled by so many tomatoes this year, that I need to get to work preserving some of them rather than eating them every night.
Maybe tomorrow. Tonight, I did a little experimenting in the kitchen and came up with this for dinner:
Roasted cherry tomato penne with white (bechamel) sauce. Pretty simple. We had half a box of penne left over from Monday (pasta twice in three days...) I love the sweetness the cherry tomatoes release from the roasting process.
Here's how it ended up unfolding: I took three handfuls of cherry tomatoes, a couple cloves of smashed garlic, and a red onion sliced. Place them on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil, s/p. Toss to evenly coat with oil. Roast at 450 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook penne until just slighly under al dente.
To make the bechamel sauce, melt 2 tbl. of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tbl. of flour. Stir for about 1 min. Whisk in 1 cup of milk. Continue whisking and cook until sauce thickens.
While penne and sauce cook and tomatoes cool, pour 1/2 c. italian bread or panko crumbs in a bowl. Add 2 tbl. olive oil, s/p and stir to combine. Set aside.
After draining pasta, add it to an oven safe dish and mix with tomato mixture. Shred a few leaves of fresh basil and stir to combine. Pour over sauce and mix evening. Evenly spread breadcrumbs on top of pasta. Bake for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and breadcrumbs are golden.
We eat a simple romaine salad with most dinners, especially during the summer, and it all went so nicely together.
In other news, I made Nate this hemp anklet with his initials:
One day, I'll make one for Andy and I, too. Need to can those tomatoes first, tho.
I love this time of year: summer is winding down, garden produce is bountiful, and every now and then, when a cooler day blows through, you can start to feel autumn; the real treat being autumn's arrival.
On our kitchen table, six sunflowers, which I picked from a field behind our house, are sitting in four white vases.
For supper tonight, we chowed on cherry and yellow pear tomatoes from our garden and a basil (also from our garden) pesto Nate and I made this morning. It was delicious!
Our patio sliding screen door had developed a few holes over the past year, and I'd been putting packing tape over them temporarily (it looked hideous.) This weekend, we channeled our inner weekend warriors and purchased fiberglass screen cloth, spline rolling tool and vinyl spline. Andy and I tag teamed it- he removed the door, I replaced the screen, he reinstalled the door. Having lots of fresh, late evening air drift through the open screen was really, really nice.
Making it a good week.
July and early August has been chock full of travel, so I am behind on these posts. The week between Oregon and Rehoboth, Andy arranged for us to go on a little impromptu nature hike.
This man knows that chivalry, as I would define it, would include nature, holding hands, perhaps a little food, and a little spontaneity. Sans food, we had a fun, relaxed time soaking in the softening sunlit rays of a summer beginning to wind down.
And a little produce from the buck family garden we harvested afterwards.
