Skinning the Wily Tomato

That title sounds kind of dirty for some reason. Hi. It's Monday. I managed to have one of those glorious weekends where I had very little planned. After a hectic work week, I didn't physically leave my own property all day Saturday. Though I did venture outside briefly to cut some basil and marvel at the ridiculous humidity. I managed to remain in pajamas until late Sunday afternoon and I actually returned to work this morning, well-rested and anxious to tackle the pile of projects menacingly teetering in piles all over my desk.

So what exactly did I do this weekend, other than watching my own mini Parks and Rec marathon on Netflix Instant Watch or alternately cleaning house, catching up on some Instapaper articles that I'd saved and reading a grime little Danish crime novel? And where exactly was Joe during all of this inactivity? He was editing photos or taking photos. With two different photo shoots on Saturday and Sunday and numerous editing jobs, he had a slightly different weekend than I did. But what did we both have in common? We cooked and entertained and ate tasty stuff.

We had some friends over for an impromptu dinner on Saturday night so we pulled together some summer basics. Tomatoes from some local farmer's vines, I'm going to assume his name was Fred, basil from our deck planters, goat cheese, French bread and other yummy ingredients. I tried out a new bruschetta recipe that involved actual cooking. For the first time I did some parboiling. Dropped some big juicy tomatoes into boiling water, let them bob around for a couple of minutes while resisting the urge to bob for tomatoes and burn my own face off and then I got to tear the skin off those helpless innocent tomatoes. It was vicious good fun. The skin just slid right off. Ah, the magic of boiling water. And the bruschetta was restaurant quality. Spooned on top of sliced crusty French bread with a slight schmear of goat cheese, it was a perfect summer appetizer. Followed by a big green salad, thin crust pizza with fresh mozzarella and more basil, and a medley of fancy fruity beverages and candies courtesy of our lovely friends and Trader Joe's. They even brought a bottle of my very favorite soda, the bubbly citrus Orangina.

Sometimes there is nothing better than a relaxed barefoot evening with friends, sitting around and catching up with a little Vampire Weekend playing in the background. A close second would be an hour and half long nap on a hot Sunday afternoon. Close second.