The Prius Diary

The NY Times today began running a new blog called Green, Inc. I'll be writing The Prius Diary, which talks about my switch from my Lexus to my Prius. Here is the first installment.

The Omnivore's Hundred -- Part One

The wonderful blog Bread and Zucchini has a delightful post on the list called the Omnivore's Hundred.

It is a game created by Andrew Wheeler of the British food blog Very Good Taste.

The premise is simple: list 100 things you would like to eat during your lifetime, or have enjoyed eating. You can use Andrew's list as a starting point, and mark off those you don't ever plan to eat. Then, post the list to your blog.

Or, simply make up your own list, which is what I'm going to do. I don't think I can sit down and type up 100 at a time, so I'll do it in groups of 10. Feel free to post suggestions for things I might try.

1) Heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese
2) Fresh raspberry tart from Eric Kayser in Paris
3) California roll with real crab
4) Fage plain yogurt with honey
5) Frites
6) Chocolate covered marshmallows from Chocolates by Mueller
7) Perfectly grilled salmon
8) Venison
9) Rose champagne
10) Bushmill's Black

Roasted tomato sauce

This has been an amazing year for tomatoes, and I've finally decided to go beyond insalata caprese to experiment. One of the members of Chowhound.com posted a technique for roasting tomatoes in order to freeze them: simply core the tomatoes, put them on a baking sheet, and bake for an hour at 250 degrees. After the tomatoes cool, pop them in freezer containers and freeze.

I tried that, and it worked fine, so I've moved on to the next step. I found a recipe in a gorgeous Aussie food magazine called Delicious for a tomato sauce made from roasted tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. I'm garlic-averse, because it doesn't sit that well with me. But I decided that any good tomato sauce needs a litle garlic, so I added one of the frozen cubes (equal to one clove) that you can buy at Trader's Joes. (P.S. it turned out to be too much: half a cube would have sufficed.)

Here's what I did: I cored six medium sized pink tomatoes, and stuffed the core with sprigs of basil and some dried spaghetti spices (oregano, rosemary) and a little sale. I roasted them at 250 degrees for an hour. After the tomatoes came out, I pulled off the skins (watch your fingers) and put them in a french oven. I added the garlic, and then processed with a hand mixer for about a minute. Then I cooked it for an hour on a low flame so that it reduced by about half.

It looks like it will be a great base for pasta with veggies, and I might even stir in some goat cheese and see what happens.

Morning Glories in September

Because I planned to move last spring, I didn't do the kind of planting that I did last year. My French hanging pots remained in the garage, as did the brushed aluminum planters purchased at Ikea in 2007. One day this summer, I looked at my empty trellis and thought, "it would have been nice to have had some morning glories." Almost as soon as the thought occurred, I noticed the tendril of a vine curling up from what I thought was an empty container. Within a few days, it had attached itself to the trellis. About three weeks later, the first morning glory blossom appeared.

Morning glories are just about the easiest thing to grow. They're a wonderful flower to get children interested in gardening: plant them in a Dixie cup with a little dirt, water, and voila! you have a plant. Train it up a popsicle stick, and transfer to the garden. The morning glory that appeared on my trellis must have self-seeded from last year, or else it was a plant that came back to life during the warmth of July.

Now, with just a week left in summer, I look out on my inside deck and see morning glories. The rainstorm this weekend gave them plenty of moisture, and if we stay above freezing a little while longer (never a certainty in Michigan) I should have flowers for a few more weeks.