Fresh Dill and Parsley

Zucchini Crudo with Dill, Scallion, and Smoked Salmon

 

Sometimes I don't know how recipe ideas come to me. It starts with one ingredient and the rest  sort of naturally follow. On my way home one Saturday, I was wondering what to cook that night.  A recipe with zucchini and chick peas from the famous blog Chocolate & Zucchini came to mind and I liked the idea of zucchini but not the rest of it.  Zucchini goes well with scallion and dill and I figured smoked salmon would make a nice addition. 

Polenta with veal sauce

 

 

No matter how hard it struggles, the sun can't warm us up, leaving no doubt about fall's arrival.  It is lunchtime on a Friday  and I feel depleted, in desperate need for comfort. Luckily, I work close to Sportello , a chic Italian lunch counter style restaurant in the Fort Point area of Boston. From salad to desert, everything I've eaten there has been outstanding. One time I ate a chocolate tart like no other. Rich intense chocolate topped with a few grains of salt and drizzled with olive oil. It was mind blowing! However, my  reason for going there on this Friday is their polenta. It is the only dish I want.

Bean Dip

You've probably heard that butter makes everything taste better. Well, garlic is the other ingredient that makes everything taste better. Except possibly chocolate cake. No garlic in chocolate cake! That should be the first rule of baking.  However, I'm not writing about chocolate cake. It's not that I don't like cake. If anything, I like cake a bit too much.  Cake will be the focus of a future post, I promise. This post is about a bean dip that got lots of mmm...so yummy reviews from friends and family. Beans and garlic go well together. Bean loves garlic. Garlic loves bean.

Polenta - better know as mămăligă

It was my grandpa who made the polenta every day once he retired at the age of 80. He filled the pot with water, placed it on the stovetop, added the salt and turned the heat to high. He has no patience, my grandma used to say. Polenta was his favorite thing. I've watched my grandpa and others in my family make it time and time again so I never had to read a recipe, measure ingredients, ask how to do it or anything like that. I just do it.