Suppers

A few days ago, on August 16th, I turned 20. I can't believe I'm not a teenager any more!

I was given a copy of a cookbook I've been wanting for a long time,
Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table (Suzanne Goin), as a birthday present. I recomend it highly! It's diveded into seasons, and there are about 8 menus (salad, first course, main, desert) for each season. Most of the first and main courses use meat, but lots of them could be made to be meatless fairly easily. But I'd have totally bought the book for the salad recipes alone-- they all sound so delicious, flavorful, and unusual. And the book has some of the best food photography I've seen anywhere.

Anyway, I ended up making a meal inspired by the book: arugula salad with summer fruit, cannelli bean puree with carmelizes peppers, onions, and charmoula, gnocchi with fresh corn, sage, and mushrooms (didn't get a picture of this), and a plum-nectarine galette for dessert. I'm visiting some relatives in California, so I had to adjust my cooking to their tastes, but it all turned out quite well. The salad was really, really good-- probably my favorite dish, and the only one I followed directly the book. Hmm.

I'll try to get the recipes up in the next few days...