First cook-out of the year...

29 May 2016: It was pretty darn hot yesterday, but otherwise a pretty good day for the first cook-out of the season. I had some friends over, cooked some hot dogs (Nathan's, of course) and we played some games. Excellent!

Beans and rice...

3 January 2014: Thankful for people who take the time post recipes online. There's a certain generosity involved in that, isn't there? I made a modified version of this one this evening and it was pretty yummy.

Spinach pesto...

I made a half-batch of this spinach pesto tonight (about all I could fit in my little food processor) and it was really yummy--fresh and with a pretty good kick. Tonight, I had it with some pasta. I'm thinking I'll use some of what's left for a pesto pizza. [I did leave the cheese out...don't judge.]

Homemade Tomato Sauce...

Since I am up to my elbows in tomatoes, I took a stab at making sauce from scratch. I used this recipe as a base. I made just a few modifications, but more or less stuck to it. At the end of the four hours of simmering, I thought it was still too watery, so I added more tomato paste and then pureed the whole batch in the blender. Overall, it was pretty good, but a bit bland. I'll have to think of how to spice it up a bit next time. More garlic, more pepper...

For tonight, I made some homemade meatballs, too. I have enough meatballs and sauce leftover for about three more meals. And I also froze two quart-sized bags of just the plain sauce. So all in all, a good first endeavor! Maybe I should try pizza sauce next...

Roasted Yellow Pear Tomatoes

Made these last night and they were pretty darn good--worth using the oven on a super-hot day. Surprisingly sweet and so very simple!