Random Thoughts: What I cooked this weekend and what I'm drinking tonight

I poured at the Sherlock's wine tasting in Decatur yesterday. It was wines from Burgundy. I accidentally left my list there, so I can't blog on the wines, but they weren't that interesting.

Yes, this would definitely be a case of: too much going on, too little mental space for it. I have ten working days left in my current employment situation. Not that I'm counting down, of course. This weekend I sublimated the range of emotions I'm feeling about the transition into cooking. There's nothing like a little stress to bring out creativity in the kitchen.

Last night, I pan-sauteed the flounder we got in Destin (thank you, Sexton's!) and put it with a nice lemon caper sauce. We went to the Morningside Farmer's Market yesterday and got veggies to turn into side dishes with it: sweet turnips, summer spinach, and Japanese eggplant. I braised the turnips in some vegetable broth and butter, sauteed the spinach with garlic and olive oil, and grilled the eggplant. The only glitch in the meal is that the flounder was "cleaned," not filleted. So, last night, I got to fillet flounder and figured out it's time to get my knives sharpened again. One web site (yes, Hubby looked up the "right way" to do it) said that a sharp knife should cut through the fish like butter. I wasn't so lucky, although I did not hurt myself, which is better than I can say for the Pork Loin Incident of Autumn 2007 (I won't go into details, but let's just say it's a good thing that neither Hubby nor I faint at the sight of blood).

We had the 2004 J. Saunders Meursault (Burgundy), which is 100% Chardonnay, with it, and it paired really well with the sweet, flaky fish and sauce. It's fruity and buttery with a hint of honey, and not oaky, although it's wood-aged.

Tomatoes are in season, and yesterday, we came away with 5 pounds and then some for sauce from the Woodland Gardens booth at Morningside. The lady who rung us up asked what we planned to do with them. Tomato sauce, of course! We've been having fun with the tomato press we got 4 years ago when we got married and hadn't played with until this year. The 5 pounds of tomatoes gave us 7 cups of sauce, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it will be enough, with turkey breast meatballs or on its own, for the next few weeks, anyway. I also made a summer vegetable soup with onion, carrots, celery, okra, corn, zucchini, and tomatoes. That will go into lunches this week. Soup during the summer may sound odd, but I usually end up freezing at work because the air-conditioning controls are in the hands of some hot-blooded people.

What do you have with spaghetti and meatballs? A Cab, if you don't have anything Italian handy, and we didn't. We got into the 2005 Wall Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa), which Hubby had poured at a wine tasting a few weeks ago. Although it's not the most complex Cab, it's smooth and fruity with currant and black cherry and didn't overpower the sauce. In fact, it balanced out the acidity of the sauce quite nicely. That bottle didn't make it through the evening.