what katie ate

Grilled octopus is probably one my all time favorite dishes, but somehow I have never made it at home.  I did find this recipe on The Splendid Table the other day and can't wait to try it out.  

• 3 pounds cleaned octopus
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 thyme branches
• 20 peppercorns
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 head of garlic, cut in half through its equator
• 3 lemons
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Minced parsley for garnish

Instructions

1. Combine the octopus, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt, the garlic, and 1 of the lemons, cut in half, in a saucepan along with water to cover. Turn the heat to medium, cover, and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so that the liquid simmers slowly and cook until the octopus is tender, 30 to 90 minutes (check with the point of a sharp knife). Drain, discarding all the solids (except for the octopus). You can prepare this 24 hours in advance up to this point; cover and refrigerate the octopus.

2. Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill; the fire should be quite hot and the grill rack about 4 inches from the heat source. Cut the octopus into large serving pieces, brush it with half the olive oil, and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Grill it quickly, so that the outside browns before the inside dries out. Cut the remaining lemon into wedges.

3. Brush the octopus with the remaining olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges, hot or at room temperature, garnished with the parsley.

My friend Patrick Fraser shot this wonderful portrait of local floral designer Alice Goldsmith of Wild Vase. She makes some pretty lovely arrangements. Sorry if the blog has been a bit wedding-y lately.  It'll stop soon I promise.

1, 2, 3 

I have an ugly pergola (if you can even call it that) off the back of my house.  It's pretty much just a bunch of rotting wood held to the house by nails, yes NAILS, topped with corrugated plastic roofing.  It's super ghetto, all I can think about when I'm in the back yard is what I can replace it with.  After tons of research I think I've found the perfect solution in a simple modern wood structure that would work well with the Spanish style of the houses' exterior.  I'd also love to replace my single door with glass french doors, but it's just a rental...which doesn't really mean anything to me so I'll probably end up doing that some time down the road.

 saturday

New swimsuit love.