Yesterday I finished all 853 pages of Five Smooth Stones which took twenty moons to complete. It is the current read of the Reading Society and we look forward to discussing in September after our summer hiatus. We try to resemble Congress in our vacation schedule. I was surprised to pick up Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark soon after putting down the tome.
To celebrate any small victory, it is nice to plan a dinner party. I have not entertained in twenty moons either. So tonight was it. Here is the menu.
Wild Smoked Salmon
Mint, Feta, and Watermelon Salad (recipe on an earlier post)
Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
Peach Infused Water
My guests were kind and appreciative. We discussed everything: counseling, Sunday School rooms, kids, relationships, counseling, bosses, GPS, trapeze class, taxi drivers, counseling, bitterness, first grade, summer vacation, and counseling. It was well rounded. One of my happier moments of the day was finding a bottle of red wine vinegar in the cupboard which I started yesterday to worry over (thinking I had none). I was going to barter with my neighbors for 2 tablespoons of the stuff for a Zip-loc of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. I am not the type to not know my neighbors. I borrow too many eggs.
Showing posts with label watermelon salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label watermelon salad. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Friday, August 11, 2006
Two-Part Invention
Summer is not the time for heating an oven and stirring at the stove. Cold foods, quick preparation, seasonal bounty abound. So why am I eating pasta?
I spend a large part of the year in efficiency mode subsisting on eggs and broccoli (thanks, Cami), quesadillas (I’ll eat anything in a tortilla), seasonal salad. Both going to the market and cooking is one step too many. I can do one or the other. Something has seized me this summer. I believe it is the power of suggestion. I cannot turn around but I find a recipe that wills me to make a list and run to the store. Today I went expressly for a sweet onion (yes, one sweet onion) to make once more the mint, feta, and watermelon salad. While compiling the salad, I peeled, chopped, and cooked together summer fruits to send peach-raspberry-lavender jam home with my guests who agreed to consume the watermelon salad (it doesn’t keep). By my calculation, the jam will be sufficiently chilled to eat in half an hour. Maria donated her edible dried lavender.
One weekend in recent history found me cooking numerous onions for rigatoni with five lilies and ricotta salata. I searched three stores for ricotta salata that I finally spied at Whole Foods. The five lilies cooked down to a colorful mélange of roasted sweetness, wintry and warm.
The next weekend, bent on concocting pappardelle with zucchini blossom sauce, I bought zucchini squash blossoms (14 blossoms for $1 . . . was there something wrong with the scale?) at the DM Farmer’s Market. The pappardelle was no picnic either. I went the same three places for that, refusing to pay over $6 for 8 ounces of dried pasta. I broke down after futile attempts and called it a wash. On a tip-off, I found it at Trader Joe’s for under $2. Incredible, no?
This is what I’ve been eating this summer. How ‘bout you?
I spend a large part of the year in efficiency mode subsisting on eggs and broccoli (thanks, Cami), quesadillas (I’ll eat anything in a tortilla), seasonal salad. Both going to the market and cooking is one step too many. I can do one or the other. Something has seized me this summer. I believe it is the power of suggestion. I cannot turn around but I find a recipe that wills me to make a list and run to the store. Today I went expressly for a sweet onion (yes, one sweet onion) to make once more the mint, feta, and watermelon salad. While compiling the salad, I peeled, chopped, and cooked together summer fruits to send peach-raspberry-lavender jam home with my guests who agreed to consume the watermelon salad (it doesn’t keep). By my calculation, the jam will be sufficiently chilled to eat in half an hour. Maria donated her edible dried lavender.
One weekend in recent history found me cooking numerous onions for rigatoni with five lilies and ricotta salata. I searched three stores for ricotta salata that I finally spied at Whole Foods. The five lilies cooked down to a colorful mélange of roasted sweetness, wintry and warm.
The next weekend, bent on concocting pappardelle with zucchini blossom sauce, I bought zucchini squash blossoms (14 blossoms for $1 . . . was there something wrong with the scale?) at the DM Farmer’s Market. The pappardelle was no picnic either. I went the same three places for that, refusing to pay over $6 for 8 ounces of dried pasta. I broke down after futile attempts and called it a wash. On a tip-off, I found it at Trader Joe’s for under $2. Incredible, no?
This is what I’ve been eating this summer. How ‘bout you?
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