In Texas… But Not That Kind of Ranch
Have you ever done this? It’s hot-hot-HOT here, and crêpes seem like the perfect light meal. (Or maybe I am lying to myself. Whatever.) I stayed up late on Friday night making enough crêpes to get through the weekend. We had crêpes for breakfast, crêpes for lunch, crêpes for dinner, and crêpes for dessert.
What am I saying? There are never enough crêpes to make it through the weekend. But we did get by.
There was a time when I thought panzanella a bit revolting. Stale bread, made soggy with oil and vinegar and tomatoes… yum? Last spring a friend from France was visiting and treated us to the 10-course vegetarian tasting menu at the (now defunct) Nana. At least three of the courses were life-changing, but this one was my absolute favorite. It was a deconstructed (I know, pretentious) panzanella with about a half dozen char-grilled bread cubes, lightly dressed, served with roasted tomatoes, pickled onions, and microgreens. (There’s a camera photo of it and a few of the other items on that menu here. Requiescat in pace, Nana!)
We planted this peach tree about four years ago, but this is the first year that the fruit’s been worth anything. I have to admit I’ve been an agri-poseur of the highest order when it came to this peach tree. Contrary to my normal habits, I did zero research on the tree variety; I picked up a cheap little sapling from Lowe’s. I’ve failed to study how to properly care for the tree, I’ve never fertilized it, nor have I ever taken any pest-prevention measures. This is so not me. Maybe this post will shame me into being a better orchard-keeper, but it seems unlikely.
So, this happened.
Thanks to my very dear friend Michael Tole, who also happens to be a serious Artist with a capital A, this is my new view upon waking and falling asleep. I love it. Love is not the word.
This beast is 5 feet by 4 feet of vertiginous, riotous wonder. I generally like my art kind of dark and miserable, and this is most certainly not.
My friend Stacey first introduced me to the Toas-Tite a few months ago, and the impulse to buy one of my own has been lingering in my brain ever since. This week, I succumbed.
The Toas-Tite is a little clam-shaped sandwich maker with a long handle. You put in a piece of buttered bread, add your filling, put a second piece of bread on top, and close them in the Toas-Tite iron. Peel off the excess bread, put it over the stove (or the campfire!), and minutes later you have a UFO-shaped sandwich that simply does not leak, just as they claim. Introduced in 1949, it’s a space-age gadget for space-age sandwiches.