Eggplant Caponata

It's so hard to come back from vacation. I hereby propose that we work for 4 weeks every year and vacation the rest of it! Wouldn't that be nice? I am excited for this summer though. The sun is finally shining, the grass is green and our garden is coming up. The last two years, our summers have been full of renovations and other projects but this year I am doing nothing! I'll do the garden and keep the yard nice but I have sworn off any major projects. I'm just going to enjoy the weekends and the trips we're planning over the next few months.

Seared Scallops with Tomato-Lemongrass Sauce

It's my last weekend at home without the family. The last two weeks have seemed like months! It will certainly be nice to have them home this week.

Had some more friends over this weekend and we had a fantastic dinner together. I started off the day by visiting the Mill City Farmers Market. It's a great little market along the river in Minneapolis. I'd heard a lot about it but hadn't ever visited before. Chef Shack also sets up there and I've been dying to get some of the great breakfast items they do there. After breakfast, I picked up some great produce including mushrooms, onions, rainbow chard, and even some fresh chevre. Produce from our garden included tomatoes, basil, chives, mint and cilantro. Picked up some scallops at Costco and we had our dinner menu.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

This is a slightly different take on the traditional Caprese Salad and came as a result of this months Daring Cooks challenge. The challenge this month was to create an edible container and something to go in it. I actually had a really hard time coming up with something, I just kept trying to think of something really "different". While this combination isn't entirely unique, it's spring time here and this is one of my favorite flavor combinations. Fresh Mozzarella paired with a thick juicy tomato and a basil leaf is so refreshing and a perfect entrance to the great food season to come.  The basil vinaigrette is a vibrant green that adds additional flavor and can be added to taste.