Peaches and Mozzarella Salad

This is a brilliant little meal if you want something sweet, light and refreshing in the evening. Just slice a few peaches, tear some lettuce leaves and a large ball of (fresh, buffalo) mozarella or a pot of bocconcini, and top wih a dressing of half lemon juice, half olive oil. Tonight I popped by the bakery to get some nice bread to go with, but found it wasn't all that fresh. So we toasted big hunks of it it in the oven for a few minutes, then buttered generously with olive oil spread. Totally tasty.

Garlic Toast, and Peaches and Mozzarella Salad

Last night we went out to a concert in London: Jonathan Coulton, supported by Paul and Storm, at Union Chapel. Everything in that sentence was awesome; great gig with an audience I could only describe as exactly my demographic. Having previously only heard Code Monkey and Still Alive, and not yet having finished Portal 2, I felt a little like an imposter fan, surrounded as I was by people wearing shirts from their previous tour in 2008 and a fair amount from Penny Arcade merch. But the acoustics were pretty good, so I could hear all the words, and it was a pleasure following the wordplay and discovering the artists live. I only regretted I hadn't brought my camera, as it was an early gig at a time of year when light streams through the windows well into the evening. It looked rather like this.

Anyway, we needed to prepare something quick before heading out, so I made my scallops with chorizo. I served it with a little bread brushed with garlic oil: soak a couple of crushed cloves of garlic in olive oil for 10 minutes, toast the bread lightly in a toaster, then brush with the oil, discarding the cloves, and grill for 2-3 minutes until golden. I also sauteed some leeks; splashed with balsamic vinegar they made a side somewhere between a hot vegetable and a salad. Sumptuous and fast!

The evening before, we were relaxing from a long week, and we also had very little food left in the fridge. I'd rescued a couple of peaches from the fruit bowl just before they started to mould, and kept them in the fridge. Torn up with a ball of mozzarella and a few leaves of lettuce, and dressed gently with a light vinaigrette, it made a delicious starter before a simple baked potato topped with that eternal fallback, tuna, sweetcorn and mayonnaise. I saved some grated paški sir for topping the hollowed-out salty potato shells, grated cheese being my favourite topping for finishing a baked potato.