Gateau di patate

Yes, I am going all Italian on you as of now.  I rarely, if ever, order Italian food when eating out, but this recipe for mashed potato pie that Giada De Laurentiis' grandfather wrangled out of a restauranteur after 3 years, took my eye as she prepared it on Food Network  Saturday morning. It is prepared in a springform pan and comes out looking a bit like cheesecake and you slice it as such. I hope I run into this wonderful concoction in my long stay in Italy.  But I am going to try it at home first.  It had me at potato; I can eat a potato in any form at any time and am pleased to do it. My favorite was in England at Bermondsey standing outside a flea market in the cold ordering a jacket potato as big as my shoe with several odd toppings that Americans do not usually apply to a baked potato.  Have you had baked beans on a baked potato or coleslaw or cottage cheese?

Yesterday it was 90 degrees and we had the pleasure of Matt and Madeleine's company for the afternoon.  We all were in the pool for most of the afternoon.  Even the dogs liked being cooled off by Madeleine's small buckets of water.  She watered the plants and the dogs in turn. I finally got out and made BLTs and they left the table in a hurry.  Our tomatoes are coming on and somebody help me...Every summer it is the same.  There is an outside table right now laden with tomatoes and bounty from the container gardens.  I felt guilty so I made a great gazpacho that can be turned into tomato soup with a splash of cream. It can be eaten hot or cold but so far three people have eaten it hot.  I also made strawberry shortcake today with glorious red through and through strawberries.

If you can't find the recipe for gateau di patate on Food network tv, I will print it out for you on this blog.  But, it is easy to find and I bet she has the same show on  right now on Monday or Tuesday.  They usually repeat the weekend shows during the early part of the week.  The show honors her grandfather's 100th birthday. He was a person who was a very creative and busy man who also loved food and ways to cook it.

 Well, I have also been reading.  I found a new author who has lured me into reading three of her seven novels so far. Shalinir Boland is her name.  I've read The Best Friend, Marriage Betrayal, and Millionaire's Wife so far. So I go to the kitchen and make a dish and then read for about a half an hour and clean a drawer or cupboard then read another half an hour.  It's like a treat...a child at heart I am. The cooking keeps Andy busy unloading the dishwashers and carrying out the trash--then he reads or treats himself to a show on his lap top or picking tomatoes; a sight I was looking forward to but now it is out of hand and we are just beginning.  Okay, no one leaves Many Branches without a load of produce, especially tomatoes!  That's the rule.