Summer Tart & BBQ

I'm delighted to say I cooked tonight! Yay, finally. It's been so long.

The theme for tonight's dinner was simplicity, but it goes without saying that deliciousness is also a requirement. I decided put my own spin on a couple of Epicurious recipes, which sounded nice: Grilled Vegetables with Mixed Greens and Blue Cheese Dressing and Savory Summer Tarts.


I decided that I needed the veggies to be even simpler. I cut out the blue cheese dressing all together, and seasoned simply with salt and olive oil. I used:

• Carrots
• Fennel
• Bok choy
• Beets
• Zucchini
• Asparagus

For the tarts, I kept things simple again. I used my tried-and-true vodka crust recipe from Cook's Illustrated. Essentially, you substitute half the water for vodka and add a bit more liquid that you would ordinarily. The vodka lets the dough get wetter without the risking toughness. It's really quite genius. The result is flaky, light, and delicious.

Instead of filling the tarts with several options, I kept to something basic: grape tomatoes, basil from my herb garden, and goat's cheese. The results was delicious.



And we washed the whole meal down with a lovely New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which I would definitely buy again. It was about $25, and its veggie, grassy notes were the perfect complement to our herbivore's feast.

I hope you try this combo for yourselves sometime. Yum.

The World's Best Sandwich

We took a bit of a blogging hiatus this summer, but rest assured we ate MANY amazing meals.

It's time to get back in gear, though, and so I thought I'd ease myself in with a quick and easy post about my all-time favourite sandwich. I think the first time I had this sandwich, I was in an Ottawa restaurant. That was ages ago, though, and the version I make today probably doesn't resemble the original at all. But that doesn't matter to me because I think my version is perfect!

Roasting zucchini and eggplant
I slice the eggplant and zucchini thinly and sprinkle some salt over it. I let it sweat for a bit, and then dab off the moisture. Then I brush on a garlic and olive mixture and bake it in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Sundried tomato pesto
This part is usually different every time I make it, but tonight I had sundried tomatoes marinated in oil, walnuts, fresh thyme, and Parmesan on hand. They all went into the Cuisinart, and I mixed them into a paste.

The rest
Of course, it's important to choose a really delicious bread. Tonight's sandwich was made from a lovely pumpkin seed loaf. For greens, I used arugula: delish, peppery, herby. I toasted the bread, layered the fixings on, including asiago cheese. I always use asiago in the World's Best Sandwich. I think it's important.

Enjoy!