Bringing Home Baby tashtego

This June we welcomed tashtego into our hearts and into our yard.  This cause for celebration gave me the impetus to try and make a very large paella on the grill using charcoal (enough for 20). 

tashtego sailing in the back yard

 It was a bit dicey -- I forgot that you had to level the grill (I had it on cinder blocks so it was up higher), and oh, the coals burned so fast it almost stopped cooking in the middle (remedy: lift pan,  add more charcoal!).  A little burned on the bottom (again, remedy:  take off the grill before it burns), but great all the same.

Simmering paella

The almost finished paella

Bringing Home Tashtego and Finding a Rusty Rooster

In mid-May Irv and I went to Olympia Washington to bring home our new baby - a 19 foot wooden sailboat built by Grapeview Point Boatworks.  The weather in Olympia was (unusually) spectacular - sunny and 80+ degrees.    She is, by any stretch of the imagination - a beauty.

Tashtego in South Puget Sound Bay

During the course of one afternoon, I had a chance to walk around downtown Olympia, and lo! and behold! I found A Rusty Rooster......as you can see from the photos, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  A beautiful day, a great boat, and an antique store with vintage cookware piled high to the ceiling!

Timpano At Apple Blossom Time

Timpano Pan

Somehow the spring managed to completely evade me.  So much activity that today I am trying to catch up.  In April, my friend Gary joined us in a "Timpano Challenge".  My husband Irv had stumbled upon a cookbook at a Rummage sale that had the recipe for the Timpano in the movie Big Night - one of Gary's favorite movies.  Since I managed to both find what could be used as a Timpano pan in my attic (but I actually ended up buying a smaller one on Amazon) I thought why not - who best to try to make a Timpano but Gary.  So the challenge!

The outer pasta shell came out divine!  Gary truly is a master pasta maker.   Next came the assembly -- a combination of layers of meatballs, pasta, hard boiled eggs, salami, cheese, rigatoni and sauce.  Finally, the finished product!

Watch the video:  vimeo.com/40561326