A Double Rainbow

I can't remember the last time I saw a giant rainbow across the sky...  The droplets of rain and the sun present in the sky together in just the right way.  It happened the other night when my son and I had just finished dining at Chipoltle (our fav and only fast food), and I was disappointed to realize that I left the other half of my salad on the tray, which I intended to bring home for my husband on his late night and my son had tossed it in the trash with our other garbage as we were leaving... OOPs... sorry honey!  As we were slowly pulling out of the busy parking lot with the car windows down, a man called out to us to stop and look up in the sky... OMG! We pulled back into our spot and got out with many others staring up in the sky.

This is a photo of what we saw taken at dusk with my phone... the rainbow was so large I had to shoot it in three parts...

They need to be placed horizontally

The next day I found out that many people had seen it and my girlfriend had posted her photos on FB.

Just because I love to know, just know stuff about everything.  I looked up info about rainbows and even though you can't see it in these shots there was a very faint second rainbow above this one... so there were two rainbows the primary and secondary.  The secondary is fainter than the first and it's colors are reversed and more widely separated. "Light can be reflected more than once inside a raindrop.  Rays escaping after two reflections make a secondary bow", like in this shot from Atmospheric Optics website...

                                                    photo by www.atopics.co.uk

An Obsession

This is what I'm obsessed with... and what you don't see is what I'm really obsessed with...

Never refrigerate your tomatoes or avocados!

... for the last three days especially, for a late breakfast, lunch and dinner I've eaten local Beefsteak Tomatoes... the biggest, firmest, sweetest I could find at a local farm stand, White Post Farm.

The heirloom tomatoes here, or what's left of them I buy from TJs or Fairway... wish I had the time to travel into the city to the Union Square Greenmarket for the best.

photographed this morning in natural light

... for lunch I eat them on crostini (small toasted bread from Fairway) sliced with some kind of wonderful sheeps milk cheese... for dinner I serve them as a side, the Beefsteaks sliced thick with red onions, and sometimes (for the kids especially) with mozzerella, and fresh basil when I have it... dressed with good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar... "ingredients, ingredients, ingredients"!

Actually there's a great quote about ingredients I heard last night while watching a must-see episode of the Travel Channels show, Anthony Bourdains: No Reservations, "Next Up: Rome", ... you'll be thoroughly entertained and understand the "mindset of the Roman people"... simple life... fresh ingredients!

A tomato rule to follow... firm (even hard) for slicing... soft for cooking.

This issue of New York Magazines' article "The Great Tomato Hunt", rates the top 15 heirloom tomatoes and the farms they come from... 

These are the top 4 heirlooms 

Raw Corn Salad

As I mentioned last week, I had a 'Girls Night' cocktail party August 4th, inviting old and new friends (they mixed a little), and everyone had a really GREAT time.  Tomorrow I'll give you the whole menu, but one dish that was clearly a hit, was a version of a salad my sister recommended that my nephew made with raw corn... so delicious, fresh and crunchy!
This means the corn needs to be really fresh...  buy it that day and preferrably from a local farm stand, but the supermarket will do too.  This salad has three basic ingredients , raw corn, red onion, and avocado, but for this party I added chopped steamed shrimp to make it more of a main attraction at the cocktail party... and boy was it!  It's a great side dish without the shrimp to accompany any summer meal.
So here it is...  Fresh Corn and Avocado Salad... oh, one other thing... I had used all my limes for the Mojitos, so I used lemon juice, either works or both for that matter...

Spices for Grilling

As my mother used to say, "What's hard, is not the cooking for my family, but coming up with menu ideas every week", so if you also agree with my Mom, here's my tip for the day... check out a terrific blog called,  This Week For Dinner, yes what a great resource... Mom blogger, Jane Maynard gives you weekly meal plans, dinner ideas, and recipes.  You can follow her plan or just use it as inspiration, a way to open up to new ideas...  and she lives in the Bay Area, which for me, having lived in San Francisco for 11 years, I consider Foodie Heaven!

 Janes Homemade Berry Saucy Syrup

Yummy!

Another way to ratchet up your ideas for the weeks menu, now that we're into the grilling season, is to have an arsenal of grilling spices on hand... one way I found to do that is to make a trip to TJ Maxx, where they sell gourmet food items discounted... some of my favorites... gourmet cooking oils, spices, dips, and pasta.

A few weeks ago I purchased both Ginger Citrus Seasoning and this Jalapeno Pepper Flakes from "Victoria Gourmet"... I made hot wings, and a tomato and onion salad, served on a bed of Butter Lettuce with Blue Cheese dressing...

We (except for my husband, who I made wings with another rub) like it hot...

Marinate the wings in Sriracha sauce and the pepper flakes

Coat with a little canola or olive oil and grill

Dressing is olive oil and red wine vinegar

Lettuce in a bag?!... gotta cut some time from my busy day

P.S. By the time we ate it was 7:15pm and we were all so hungry (with 2 boys in puberty) that I forgot to photograph the finished product... and it looked so good layed out on the lettuce!

Oh, and I found a new Blue Cheese dressing made by Marie's, using yogurt, so it has less calories and tastes great too...

Pumas and Wolves!

Saw these Pumas on one of my favorite bloggers sites Oh Joy!, actually it was her husbands post for the guys (Oh-Bob)... bought them for my 14 year old son... now I want a pair for myself (they're unisex)...

They would make a great Mother's Day gift from the kids!

They're so cool... looking like a 2D drawing in 3D

They come in black and white too... Mid Manga, $60

The new back look!

So we went to Chipotle last night for Cinco de Mayo, and so did half the town, with people poised and ready to kill for a parking spot... get real Long Islanders... your life does not depend on ONE meal!!! 

There wasn't anything festive about last night, except for the the line of wolves with tongues waving... just another night of healthy fast food...

 

We ordered one burrito, one rice bowl, and one salad bowl

I go light on the toppings

Brought half home... that's salsa stain not grease

The carnitas (pork) salad bowl is my favorite!

Happy Seis de Mayo!

Picky Kid

My 12 year old son is very picky when it comes to salad, he'll only sometimes eat a Caesar salad, and the other 14 year old son loves salads as much as his parents... the only greens the 12 year old likes are string beans, broccoli, peas, cauliflower and zucchini... so I'm thankful for that I guess, since we eat a lot of veggies in our house.   Last night I grilled zucchini and yellow peppers...

 Coat in olive oil before grilling and sprinkle with kosher salt before serving

chicken and hamburgers with dry rubs...

I go to TJMaxx at the start of the grilling season and stock up on different dry rubs for chicken, fish and meats

 and I made this beautiful beet salad, which is so easy and incredibly delicious, great for company too...

Ingredients:
Vacuum packed cooked fresh beets from Trader Joe's
Ripe avocado
Herbed or plain goat cheese
Valencia or Cara Cara orange
Shallot finely chopped
olive oil
Champagne vinegar (I bought at TJMaxx)
Bibb lettuce to serve it on (optional)

Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil,  and a tablespoon of vinegar on the chopped beets and toss. 

Cut up everything separately and combine on individual plates to serve.  I didn't have any Bibb lettuce last night, but it looks pretty with all the ingredients served on a leaf.


My 14 year old ate his and his brothers' portion of the salad too.