Hungry Teen Alert

This evening, as I was contemplating what to make for dinner, my son came through the door with one of his friends and both of them were hungry. Before the boys walked in I had thought I might make tuna salad sandwiches with sweet potato fries. However, this idea did not seem filling enough for the guys, so improvisation was in order. I turned to an old standby - hash or what we fondly call "s**t in a skillet."

This begins with whatever you have on hand. Tonight's mixture featured frozen shredded hash browns, ground meatless, chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion. Of course, this is the easiest of all meals since the idea is to toss everything in a skillet and let it cook until it is done - usually 10 to15 minutes. At the end, I stirred in some salsa and cheese to round out the flavors. Interestingly enough, the guys thought it looked pretty good, though this is not generally one of those dishes that has visual appeal. On the other hand, they enjoy war themed video games and zombie movies, so how much visual appeal do they really need? Jeff and I both enjoyed our bowls full as well, which just goes to show that the simplest of foods can be satisfying.

Not that we really needed a big dinner today, since we have done little physical activity. The current heat wave has relegated us to the house until the sun is out of the backyard when we can hit the pool for a cool down. After this evening's swim, we picked another big batch of tomatoes from the garden and the first of the figs practically fell off in our hands when we touched them. The birds have eaten some of them, but the tree is so loaded that I'm sure we'll get our share.

I recently found a couple of con"fig"urations using balsamic vinegar that I'd like to try. The first one involves sprinkling the cut figs with sugar and putting them under the broiler to caramelize before adding a smattering of vinegar. I'm pretty sure the cinnamon pear flavor we recently acquired would be deluxe in this situation. The recipe suggests eating the figs alone or serving them with a little blue cheese for contrast. Another recipe calls for cutting an X in the small end of the fig (about three quarters of the way down) and squeezing the fruit until it forms a blossom. These are then arranged on a platter to be sprinkled with sea salt and toasted hazelnuts before drizzling with the vinegar. I'm not sure which of these sounds better, but I'm pretty sure we'll be trying both of them soon.