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With running my own business, getting ready for this baby, and life-in-general, we hadn’t made it over to check on our plot in the community garden in a few days.

And when we arrived - much to our surprise - we found we had two zucchini ready. Two HUGE zucchini ready. Um, over-ready, actually.

Since over-ready zucchini isn’t best suited for grilling or sautéing, we’re making Zucchini-Basil Soup for dinner tonight. How exciting to again be making meals with ingredients we’ve grown!

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As promised, here is the how-to for the perfect Caprese Salad.

Please don’t be deterred by the length of this recipe, it is truly easy to make.

Caprese Salad with Ovoline

A few things to keep in mind:

• Seasonality: Like most foods, this salad is only fantastic when the ingredients are at their best–in season and locally sourced.
• Quality: With a salad like this in which the flavors aren’t influenced by anything particularly strong, you need to use the best ingredients you can get.
• Simplicity: This isn’t a fancy salad, so don’t embellish–but I am not one to squelch creativity, so try it out if you feel you must.

Ingredients:

Tomato: We prefer heirlooms for their superior quality and interesting quirks, but just get good, ripe ones. We like those huge ones, and we also like the small Sun Gold or Cherry varieties.

Fresh Mozzarella: This is the cheese that comes in a milky liquid. Traditionally called Bufala (Buffalo) Mozzarella, most of what we can get in the USA is not that. True Bufala Mozzarella is made of buffalo milk. We generally get cow milk mozzarella in the states, so technically it should be called Fresh Mozzarella.

Get the size/shape that matches your tomatoes. The big egg-sized pieces, called Ovoline, go with the big tomatoes. To pair with the cherry tomatoes, try Perle, or Ciliegine, or Bocconcini.

Fresh Basil: That dried stuff will NOT suffice. If you can’t get fresh basil, don’t even bother making this salad. By the way, basil is one of the easiest herbs to grow in your backyard or windowsill garden.

Olive Oil: You will really taste the olive oil in this salad so use a quality one; our very favorite is from Napa Valley Olive Oil Manufacturing Company.

Balsamic vinegar: While I’ve learned that other caprese recipes don’t call for vinegar, we like the tang and look of it in our salad.

Salt & Pepper: Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper are mandatory.

Directions:

1. Remove any tomato stems. Wash and lightly pat dry the tomatoes. If you’re using the large tomatoes, use a tomato shark or a sharp knife to remove the top of the core. Cut into slices about 1/3 inch thick. If using the small tomatoes, leave whole.
2. Remove the cheese from the liquid and use a paper towel to lightly drain. Like the tomato, cut into slices about 1/3 inch thick. Leave the small mozzarella balls whole. The whole idea is to roughly match the size and shape of the tomato and the cheese.
3. Rinse and pat dry the basil. Stack the leaves on top of each other until you have a little pile. Roll the pile into a cylinder. Hold the cylinder closed while slicing cross-wise (aka chiffonade). Fluff the pile and volià–beautiful ribbons of basil.
4. Arrange the tomatoes on your serving platter. Use a dish that is flat, but with a lip so your dressing won’t spill out. We like to alternate different colored tomatoes.
5. At regular intervals, tuck the cheese slices in between the tomatoes.
6. Sprinkle your basil ribbons over the tomatoes and cheese.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Drizzle with olive oil.
9. Drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar.
10. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
11. If doing the small tomato/small mozzarella ball version (pictured below), just put all the ingredients in a bowl and toss gently.

Caprese Salad with Bocconcini

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You might know that we’ve been experimenting with margaritas.
Well, we’ve grown a little tired of them.

And as we have an abundance of mint in the garden, we’ve moved on to mojitos.
Plus, they’re about as perfect as a summertime cocktail can be.

(Did you know mint is very easy to grow? See hints below.)

Here’s how to make the best mojito, makes one cocktail:

Ingredients
1/2 oz simple syrup (see simple syrup directions below)
1 1/2 oz unflavored white rum
Juice of 1 lime
Soda water or 7Up*
A handful of fresh mint

Rinse the mint, and gently crush (saving one sprig for garnish)
Put the mint in a tall, clear, plain glass
Add the simple syrup, rum, and lime
Muddle
Fill glass with ice
Fill glass with soda water or 7Up
Garnish with the mint sprig

We recommend using a straw so you don’t get all that mint in your mouth.
Cheers!

Simple Syrup Directions:
Take equal parts sugar and water
Gently boil for 5 minutes
Let cool
Store in the fridge, up to 4 weeks

*Tom likes to use soda water. I prefer my cocktail a bit sweeter so I use diet 7Up.

Hints on Mint:

• Plant only in a container. If you plant it in your garden, it will take over the entire yard. And you will never be able to eradicate it.
• Try several different varieties. We like the standard spearmint & peppermint, but also pineapple mint and chocolate mint.
• The more you cut mint, the more it will grow. If the plant is getting leggy, trim it back. It will become more bushy (= produce more).
• If you’re not going to use the fresh mint you trimmed, you can freeze it. Just chop it, put a bit into each cube of an ice cube tray, cover with water and freeze. Once frozen, dislodge from the tray and store in a zippy in the freezer. The cubes are a great addition to your iced tea.

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Since the main ingredient of our signature cocktail is now out of season, Tom and I have moved on to experimenting with margaritas.

We’ve found three keys to margarita success:

1) Agave nectar (available locally at Sunshine)
2) Really good margarita mix
3) Serve them up (that is, shaken over ice, strained, and in a martini glass)

Here’s how to do it.

Ingredients
1 1/2 oz silver tequila
3/4 oz triple sec
1/4 oz agave nectar
Juice of one lime
3 oz Dr Swami & Bone Daddy’s Top Shelf Margarita Mix
Half of one lime, quartered
The other half of the lime, thinly sliced

Take one of the lime quarters and make a slit in the center of the juicy part. Put some margarita or kosher salt onto a plate. Grab your best martini glasses. Place the lime on the rim of the glass and coat the rim by circling the entire rim. Dip the limed rim into the salt.

Fill shaker half-way with ice. Add the tequila, triple sec, agave nectar, lime juice, and margarita mix to the shaker.

Be sure to use fresh lime. We found this nifty citrus juicer years ago at a restaurant supply store, but this one here also looks good.

Shake for about 15 seconds. Any longer is unnecessary and will only dilute your cocktail.
Pour the mixture into the glass and garnish with the sliced lime.

Serve with ceviche. We like to use halibut, but you can use almost any fish or shellfish.

Ceviche of Halibut Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients
1/2 lb super-fresh halibut fillet
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 Roma tomatoes
1/2 small red onion
1 green onion
4 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

Cut the fish into small dice.

Combine the lime juice, olive oil, jalapeño, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl and whisk to blend well. Add the fish and toss to coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to overnight. Stir occasionally.

As close as possible to the time you’re going to serve the ceviche, prepare the other vegetables. Peel and seed the tomatoes and cut into neat dice or julienne. Cut the red onion into very thin slices and separate the slices into rings. Cut the green onion, white and green parts, very thinly on the bias.

Fold the cilantro into the ceviche and mound it on a chilled platter or individual plates. Scatter the tomato, red onion, and green onion on top of the ceviche.

Serve with good tortilla chips (i.e. thin, crispy, and fresh).

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Though it is just now starting to get too hot in the Napa Valley for peas to grow, we harvested our first crop only yesterday.

Tom added them to his Wild Mushroom Pappardelle (recipe below).

Wild Mushroom Pappardelle with Garden Peas

Ingredients

Fresh pappardelle
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 medium shallot, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 cup peas
2 tablespoons butter
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Some fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cut mushrooms into 1″-2″ pieces.  We like Shiitake, Oyster and Chanterelles.

Start a large pot of salted water to boil. Heat a large sauté pan on medium.

Once sauté pan is warm, add olive oil and let it get hot.
Add shallot to pan and sauté for about 2 minutes–until you can smell the shallot.

Add the mushrooms to pan and stir gently.
Cook mushrooms for about 10 minutes stirring regularly–until they start to caramelize.

Add chicken stock, white wine, thyme, and peas.

Cook for about 10 more minutes.

While mushroom sauce is cooking, add pappardelle to the rapidly boiling water.

Boil the pasta for ONLY 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Add butter to mushroom sauce and stir gently until butter is melted.
Season with salt & pepper.
Add the pasta to the pan and gently fold it in to the sauce.

Serve sprinkled with the parsley and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy with a nice glass of Pinot Noir. We especially like those from Robert Sinskey Vineyards and Ken Brown.

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Thursday night was the second bocce game of the season.

Our good friends on the Tipsy Moonshiners and Joanie Loves Bocce shared a picnic table.

Our theme: Medieval Times
Their theme: Movies

Inspired by Lady and the Tramp, the dear Terilynn brought this clever adaptation of spaghetti & meatballs. Pre-twirled and on-a-fork! And perfect for the one-handed eating of bocce (as the other hand is busy with a glass of vino, or a bocce ball).

Samantha loved it and ate three of four forkfuls.

I see a lot of fun variations on this presentation; summer vegetable angel hair secured by a tomato, wild mushroom pappardelle secured by a portabello, seafood linguine secured by a prawn…

What possibilities can you come up with?

Pre-Twirled Spaghetti

One of the other winners of most-genius, the twist & recycle jello shot cups of the most masterful jello shot maker and Tipsy Moonshiner Katie H:

Jello Shots!

One-Handed Bocce

I feel so blessed to have spent a lovely Mother’s Day weekend with family. I was born on Mother’s Day, so this is always a most special holiday for us.

We went down to my parents’ home in the South Bay, and started with a mani-pedis–Samantha’s first:

The house was filled with flowers from the garden:

We documented the joys of three generations:

We made our favorite leg of lamb recipe:

We celebrated mothers, birthdays & anniversaries:

The littler ones waited most patiently for the present opening to end:

But the best part of all was having the time with my daughter:

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. We aren’t exactly religious, so we focus more on celebrating the start of springtime.

Unfortunately, the weather today is not very spring-like. Luckily, the rain held off just long enough that we could attend an Easter egg hunt at Thomas Keller’s restaurant Ad Hoc in Yountville (the world-famous The French Laundry is just down the street) this morning.

Now we are preparing to host a casual Easter dinner for a good friend and her daughter-one of Samantha’s friends from school.

We’ll be starting the evening with what has come to be our signature cocktail and Baked Chèvre with Pistachios & Orange Blossom Honey. Then, our dinner plans include my Mom’s recipe for Grilled Leg of Lamb (recipe below), Cous Cous with Garbanzo Beans, Dried Figs & Almonds (we subbed the figs for prunes) and Roasted Beet & Sugar Snap Pea Salad.

If you’re so inclined, you can check out the wines we’ll be enjoying in real-time over on Twitter.

Happy Easter!

Egg Coloring

Pride in the Results

Easter Basket!

Awaiting the Egg Hunt

Egg Hunt Napa Valley Style

Thomas Keller's Gardens at Ad Hoc

 

And They're Off!

Grilled Leg of Lamb

Marinade:
1 c dry red wine or sherry
3/4 c soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 c fresh mint, chopped
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp freshly-cracked black pepper

Combine the above ingredients and marinate lamb for 6 hours.
Grill on high for 45 minutes, turning occassionally.

I give credit to my dad for reintroducing me to the classic steakhouse salad: The Wedge Salad.

Growing up in Wisconsin, this salad was part of every Sizzler (considered fancy-schmancy at the time) dinner. Do you remember those salads too?

And I give credit to Tom for elevating that sad salad I remember, into a salad I now crave.

The key is, like with all food, the quality of the ingredients.

Get the freshest iceberg lettuce, the meatiest bacon (or pancetta) and the richest blue cheese dressing you can find (we love Sunshine Market’s housemade, or more widely available is Marie’s).

Simply cut the iceberg into wedges, fry the bacon, crumble and sprinkle upon–then spoon on the blue cheese dressing.

Sometimes we like to add sliced red onion. And sometimes even cucumber. Beyond that and you are getting into the new-fangled, rather than the classic, wedge salad.

This salad is best served with those other classics of the steakhouse: grilled ribeye, baked potato and maybe even creamed spinach.