As many of you know my wife, Lorraine is a CPA and we have our own business which means during tax season even though we are together all day and into the evening together in the office we don't spend a lot of quality time with each other. So years ago during tax season we came up with Saturday Date Night where we would sit in front of the TV with a good movie and enjoy an easily prepared meal.
The idea of date night dinner was that it had to be simple, so I wasn't spending more time in the kitchen then necessary so the usual fare become creative salads; Asian with Mandarin orange toasted almonds rice wine Teriyaki vinaigrette, or Blue Cheese crumbles on spring mix with Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette or something with goat cheese because everything is better with goat cheese.
Now that Matthew is out of the house and we're alone, except for the dogs and cats we still enjoy our date nights and when it's not tax season I sometimes indulge myself and make something other than salad which brings me to this week. I went a little beyond my normal 15-20 minute date night prep limit and spent about an hour preparing and cooking three incredible items.
Whether you like tomatoes or tomato salad or not I promise you can not judge until you savor the sublime flavor of the never bright red usually hideously unattractive heirloom tomato!
Heirlooms are old school tomatoes, the ancestor, the mother of long shelf life bright red mild mannered hybred tomato. Heirlooms, when you can find them are usually organic and well worth the few extra cents they cost. Think of them as tomatoes on steroids. Big fleshy flavor packed fruits of the vine.
Eggplant Caponata is a rustic Italian\Spanish eggplant salad which can be purchased in a can in ethnic food aisle of most supermarkets and is relatively expensive in a cost per ounce basis.Caponata's main ingredients are; eggplant, onion, tomato and olives. This deep red almost brown salad is lumpy and viscous and like heirloom tomatoes and myself not particularly attractive to the eye but we more then make up for looks in taste.
Our date night meal was rounded out fresh focaccia. Focaccia is an Italian flat bread. As you'll see from many of the recipes I'll post here my food is decidedly ethnic, not just Italian, but Spanish, Mexican, French, German, Polish, African, Asian, Jewish... The more ethnic the better. Why? This will be answered in greater detail one day in a post of it's own, however for now the short answer is because American's eat junk and if you are looking for a healthy tasty meal, THINK ETHNIC!
Now for the recipes.
Basic Focaccia
Caponata
Heirloom Tomato Salad
Heirlooms are old school tomatoes, the ancestor, the mother of long shelf life bright red mild mannered hybred tomato. Heirlooms, when you can find them are usually organic and well worth the few extra cents they cost. Think of them as tomatoes on steroids. Big fleshy flavor packed fruits of the vine.
Eggplant Caponata is a rustic Italian\Spanish eggplant salad which can be purchased in a can in ethnic food aisle of most supermarkets and is relatively expensive in a cost per ounce basis.Caponata's main ingredients are; eggplant, onion, tomato and olives. This deep red almost brown salad is lumpy and viscous and like heirloom tomatoes and myself not particularly attractive to the eye but we more then make up for looks in taste.
Our date night meal was rounded out fresh focaccia. Focaccia is an Italian flat bread. As you'll see from many of the recipes I'll post here my food is decidedly ethnic, not just Italian, but Spanish, Mexican, French, German, Polish, African, Asian, Jewish... The more ethnic the better. Why? This will be answered in greater detail one day in a post of it's own, however for now the short answer is because American's eat junk and if you are looking for a healthy tasty meal, THINK ETHNIC!
Now for the recipes.
Basic Focaccia
Caponata
Heirloom Tomato Salad
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