Souper Freak

What an AMAZING day in San Francisco! We’ve been suffering through a cold, foggy, dreary summer. The last couple of days we’ve finally seen sunshine and heat. The one downside is that the last thing I want to make is soup!

Tonight a bunch of friends got together at Tyler’s house for a picnic table dinner outside. My friend Brian made an incredible pork shoulder stew — he whipped up the recipe in his head, incorporating the flavors he was in the mood for: pork, carrots, onions, celery, green olives, olive brine and one tall can of Tecate! And he made a fabulous red rice to go along with it. Delicious! Here’s a picture of all that remained after we dug in:

I didn’t totally kick back while Brian worked on the stew. My colleague Bonnie has been bringing green tomatoes from her garden into the office. Tonight was the second time I attempted oven “friend” green tomatoes, made with Panko bread crumbs. Tonight I tried something new: instead of mixing Parmesan cheese into the bread crumb mix, I topped each tomato slice halfway through cooking with a little blue cheese. Even better! Take a look at these beautiful green tomatoes that I have left over. In fact, maybe I’ll attempt a green tomato soup next!