too-may-toe toh-mah-toh

i'm not sure why, but courgette just sounds way sexier than zucchini . . . either way i picked up a handful of little green squash with the intention of actually doing more than fancy sandwiches for dinner this week.

don't get me wrong, the fancy sandwiches were delish! owen has become his own sandwich master which means rather than suspiciously look at what's on his plate he relishes over his avocado-turkey-creamcheese-blackberryjelly creation and says: "mom, do you know why this sandwich is sooooo good? because I made it!" meanwhile my favorite this week has to be the toasted flax seed cibatta (leftover in the freezer from lasagna dinner last week) with some goat's milk creamy cheese (discovered this at ivonne's and it's on my permanent tjoe's list: it's AmAzing and lighter that chevre and tangier and tastier than spreadable cream cheese), sliced heirloom tomato and fresh thyme (my basil was looking pathetic and the thyme was a great compliment to the cheese) with a little flake sea salt (god bless michael for packing this in his suitcase from sweden!). the great thing about sammies all week is that not only do we get creative with fresh ingredients but it's teaching me how to live with a sparser (is that a word??) refrigerator.

but the courgettes-- en route back to cali i picked up a bbc cooking magazine olive which was not only loaded with fresh and inspired seasonal recipes for those british green squash but had some cheeky foodie articles as well (like a "you think your xyz is better than gordon ramsay's" featuring a lasagna-off and a debate over picnics). i tabbed some potentially tasty finds including this cous cous (hopefully i'll be comparing results with a fellow foodie this week!) and this pita pizza. owen is a big fan of cous cous and i thought we could make our own individual crispy pizzas. there is also a go-to jar of pesto in the fridge so i can re-create the inspired wednesday pizzas we had with bw&s with some sauteed squash, feta and kalamata olives. finally, i hope to continue to ravenously devour as many august tomatoes as i possibly can before the hothouse mealy shouldn't-be-allowed-to-call-them-tomatoes fruits appear in the fall--but by then there's squash. . .

tonight, though, i confess to picking up polish dogs at costco. sometimes you just gotta give in. . .