verbicide | saturday loveliness

Today's been fairly close to perfect. There's some deduction for the psychotically hot weather, but outside of that --today's been a glorious day.

Jeff and I slept in late (well, for us--so around 9). Puttered around chatting and cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen yesterday. Then--off to the Farmer's Market! It was a little overwhelming there today. We haven't been able to go much this summer and it was packed--with good food and too many people. I'm happy for their success, but god that was a lot of people.

Jeff bought some beautiful sunflowers for the party and I got all the fixings for niçoise and goat cheese toasts. We left and hauled everything back to the truck. Though really, Jeff hauled and I whimpered behind him. We made a quick stop at Whole Foods for some really nice Ahi tuna and chicken and a few other things and came home.

I can't say enough how awesome Jeff was today (as always). He was my sous chef and it was like having another pair of arms that do everything you want --perfectly. We really cook well together.

We started with a cheese platter with Beecher's Flagship, a soft brie-like cheese I've forgotten the name of (Pont L'evesque? Or something?), and this truffle cheese that Jeff loves. We also had a simple tapenade and some roasted, salted Marcona almonds. (I've just discovered Marcona almonds and they are like crack--cost about as much, too.) We had two types of Beecher's crackers--original and the honey hazelnut.

For my version of the salade niçoise, we had:

- two types of lettuce (a variety of romaine and I forget what the other one was)
- blanched green beans
- jewel box tomatoes
- mixed new potatoes (red, white, purple)
- hard boiled eggs
- roasted red peppers
- thinly sliced red onions
- fresh mozzarella --the smaller-than-a-golf-ball size
- black French olives with herbes de Provence
- grilled chicken and grilled Ahi (on the side)
- herb-y vinagrette

I toasted some baguette slices and smeared some goat cheese (also bought from my favorite stand at the market).

I have to say, the table looked so beautiful. I wish we'd taken photos. (But I always feel a little sheepish about it.) Jeff's flowers were in the center and he'd assembled these three platters of the salads (I didn't have one extra-large one).

Behold, Jeff's plating finesse!: