Guest Chef: Alan Smithee

I had some pretty good ideas for a salad tonight but when I opened the fridge I was staring directly into the eyes of a neglected package of tofu. The tofu looked so sad, so lonely, so at its expiration date that I was forced to incorporate it into tonight's dinner.



The greens from the farm turnips made a nice base for a little marinated tofu with some basil from the farm, local grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and kalamata olives. The salad would possibly have been better had I replaced the tofu with some sort of delicious Italian cheese but my desire to not waste $1.59 worth of tofu was too strong to worry about dinner being tasty.

Sometimes frugality trumps culinary excellence.



For dinner I had some fresh cut Severino Pasta that I combined with some day boat scallops from Bedford, New Jersey; chard, garlic scapes, and snap peas from the farm; and a splash of Castle Rock Sauvignon Blanc -- a wine I would highly recommend if you plan on using 50% of it for cooking.

For dessert -- aside from some more blueberries, strawberries, and yogurt -- we enjoyed the genius of Jonathan Frakes by watching The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice. While you'd expect that Mr. Frakes may have been better advised to lend the credit to his friend Alan Smithee, he opted to take full credit.

As for tonight's dinner, I may give credit to the famed director. Hey, give him a break! He only had about twenty minutes to make dinner!