Another Summer Night in Mendocino

The view out to the ocean is full of golden light this evening. Dinner was memorable for the golden squash. I can still taste them and they do indeed have a golden taste. The preparation was not intricate,as usual. The Patty Pan squash were incredibly fresh and were sliced in half, coated with copious amounts of extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with organic curry blend and sea salt and roasted for about 15 minutes. I almost seared my mouth taking a bite before they were cooled sufficiently. The aroma was too enticing to wait for long. The flesh was sweet and the the light dusting of curry provided the perfect foil for the sweetness. My brother Mike introduced me to the squash and curry thing in one of our most memorable meals. We stuffed and grilled tri-tip roasts and when he decided to grill the zucchini, as well, he tossed the halves in olive oil and curry. Oh my, a 20 year tradition was born that evening, of curried squashes and stuffed tri-tips. He used a sharp knife to make a slit in through the middle of the meat and stuffed in Jarlsberg cheese and Shitake mushrooms that had been lightly sauteed with garlic. Mike is the man for grilling and I am the "grilling girl". I pulled the second raised bed of garlic tonight and it had the biggest heads I have ever grown. Gigantic! So, even though the damn gophers ransacked my first bed, I still have a respectable crop. And big. Tomorrow, i will roast some garlic and use it in a Caesar salad. Maybe I will make it a composed Caesar with the garlic spread on the croutons of sliced Cafe Beaujolais baguette. I left the garlic outside on the deck next to my little sage seedlings. Tomorrow the sage and parsley go in the ground (no, not in the gopher-vulnerable bed). I think I will leave the chives in the big flowerpot for now as they will be pretty and also convenient to the kitchen. visions of food cooked with fresh sage and parsley are dancing in my head. Roast chicken or maybe a great bowl of Tabouli, with that fresh garlic and parsley and some farmer's market tomatoes. Boy, summer really gets my food hormones raging.