This was another good week, featuring walks on a country road and cooking as we like.  The walk is usually 1.0-1.5 miles down the road from our house and back up again.  We stop for a short rest by the pond at the bottom of the hill.  Here are two watercolor renditions and one “Stay Home” photo along the way.

Waterlogue 1.4.3 (120)
Preset Style = Vibrant
Lightness = Auto-Exposure
Size = Large
Border = No Border

Waterlogue 1.4.3 (120)
Preset Style = Vibrant
Lightness = Auto-Exposure
Size = Large
Border = No Border

Today, however, was mostly about playing in the kitchen.  It was an opportunity to put together more favorite things for lunch.

One dish was Braised Celery with Pancetta, Onions, and Tomatoes, per Marcella Hazan.  I actually made it last night, and then saved it for today.  Motivation for this dish was an overabundance of celery, including some mediocre packaged celery hearts I needed to get rid of.  Marcella’s recipe was the perfect solution, especially when I decided to add just one more item to the dish, for saltiness and color: a few Kalamata olives.:

The rest of the lunch was a simple pasta dish, also designed to use what we had available.  This was a whole wheat orzo dish with a sauce of chopped onion, garlic, a piece of anchovy, chopped zucchini, and one peeled and diced plum tomato.  A little diced Israeli sheep milk feta cheese and some dried Greek oregano completed the flavors.

My favorite Calabrian wine, Savuto by Odoardi, imported by Jan D’Amore, went very well.