Fresh Tomato Sauce

My friend Molly (not to be confused with my other friend Molly) is friends with a local farmer. She gets a veggie box every week, which allows farmers to sell their crop directly to a consumer. Molly gets a lot of tomatoes, but she won't eat them raw, and so those tomatoes get passed on to me. I love tomatoes, and the ones in the veggie box are particularly juicy and sweet. I felt I should give this wealth a proper treatment, one that Molly could appreciate. Tonight was my first time making a tomato sauce.

These are the tomatoes. I love the variety: every permutation of size and color is present.

We paired the tomatoes with crimini, shallots, a pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper, bay leaf, and wine. Everything simmered for about three hours, the latter part of which we put in Italian sausage and fresh basil.

The final result: penne with fresh tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. It was amazing. It took preparation and patience, but was not difficult. The pleasure of the fresh ingredients made the process fun. Even with an amateur effort, I felt a lot of pride in a dish that I would normally pour from a jar.

You can do a lot with low-hanging fruit if you try.

(Grilled)^2 Chicken Pizza

So I'm a little embarrassed that I haven't been here in a while. I often post things I'm eating or drinking to my Twitter, even when they deserve a few more words. Truly, thanks to my locale and some good friends, my diet is the best its ever been. Rather than an occasional treat, this blog should be a rolling amuse-bouche. But enough about my navel...

The propane grill has been an amazing success. I've done a few good steaks and tri-tips, and there may be nothing more delicious and fiercely economical than a good beercan chicken. Vegetables and especially fruits yield sweetness like never before. The journey of discovery to grill all the things has led me to last night's dinner: I grilled a pizza.

Pizza:

• Hand-pulled dough
• Barbeque sauce
• Beercan grilled chicken with mesquite-style rub
• Mozzarella
• Green onion
• Cilantro
• Local small-batch tomatoes

It's not as hard as it looks, and instructions are quickly available with a Google search. My dinner date helped me wrangle the dough onto the grill, which is a harrowing first-time experience. I'm actually rather pleased with the "rustic" aesthetic. Everything stuck to itself as one would want, and the grill marks are gorgeous. The crust came out crisp after about ten minutes on a medium heat, though I could have sliced the tomatoes thinner. I enjoyed this "garden" variety, but it would be easy to make the pizza more "meaty" by rolling the chicken in the sauce, and adding yellow onion, garlic, and bacon. Now that I know how it works, I will certainly do this again. A traditional Italian style with sausage would be lovely.

The beer is a brown ale from San Diego. I would send a runner to get more of it...

Where do I take a pizza-tossing workshop?

If It Bleeds, We Can Grill It

I've bought a grill. It's a Char-Broil Commercial series 2-burner propane-fired grill. I don't intend to get into the gas/charcoal debate here (they both have their merits.) But this is sincerely the most exciting thing to happen in my culinary life for some time.

Something Seedy/Mamma Chia soft drink

For some time, Mario and I have given quizzical looks to the Mamma Chia seed-infused beverage. This fruity drink is chock-full of tiny chia seeds, which firmly keep their place, even when you tilt the bottle. Observe:

Russian River Pub - First Bloody Mary

This weekend I did a little camping with a few friends, at Russian River just north of Santa Rosa. The site was one of those well-established spots where you have to pay registration, and there are defined camp areas, and hot showers, and an arcade; really more of a motel where you bring your own tent. Despite the attendant doing a courtesy patrol at 10 PM, it was a fine staging area for the river, and the human interaction around a wood fire is timeless.

This bread is bananas. *B-A-N-A-N-A-S*

I eat a lot of bananas. Normally I don't let them reach such a state. This can mean only one thing: banana bread.

Duvel Green Belgian Golden Ale

A few months ago my favorite grocery store shuttered, and since then I've felt like a refugee. My buddy Mario from Arms Armor and Awesome knows I care about the food I buy. He suggested the Whole Foods near his place, which is not uncommon in the Bay Area, but this one had a special treat: a tap room.

Rowan's Creek Bourbon

Tonight's after-dinner drink is Rowan's Creek bourbon by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. I'm having it neat, with a small bar of 72% cacao chocolate.

The aroma is very light and mellow, just a whisper in the glass. The flavor is smooth and sweet, with butter and cinnamon that just drawls. Delicious.

Into The Dragon's Den/Drake's Glen Chocolate

Tonight for dessert I'm digging into my Christmas presents.

Spicy Dark Bar by Drake's Glen Creations of Humboldt County, California. I have paired the bar with a shot of Bulleit Bourbon, neat.

Drake's Glen is an artisan chocolatier, distributing their numerous treats around Humboldt County and online. I was given three of their bars for Christmas, and being a lover of dark chocolate, I went straight for the richest bar.

If the gold foil wrapper is a symbol of riches, the drake is right to guard this hoard. Spicy Dark has 72% cocoa solids, and is seeded with tiny pieces of crystallized ginger. The chocolate is smooth and dry, right in my sweet spot of taste. I have a very modest relationship with ginger, but the ginger here gives just a hint of spice and citrus to keep you from succumbing completely to the darkness. I do recommend taking a chaser of your preference, to get the full impact of each bite.

I plan to give the two milk chocolate bars their due very soon. One has cranberries and almonds!