nurture and nature

[verbicide]

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

Jeff was coming over for dinner tonight, so I torpedoed out of work early only to be thwarted by the Traffic Minions of Satan. I really wanted to make him a special dinner, because that poor bunny has been sick for awhile now. One cold then another while traveling. And he really doesn't get sick often. And he's been struggling with some other things and I wanted to do something extra nice for him, because he deserves some TLC.

I made:

Pea soup with mint topped with creme fraiche and chives
Ciabatta sandwiches with roasted bell peppers and goat cheese
Baby green salad with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, fresh mozzarella, and sunflower seeds tossed in a roasted red pepper vinaigrette
Yogurt gelato (in the freezer from earlier)



The soup and sandwich are Ina Garten recipes. I've never cooked with leeks before, so that was exciting. I liked the seasonality of peas and the use of mint was intriguing. I sliced the leeks into rough chunks and spent a good four water baths getting all the grit out. They're not kidding about how dirty they are. I also chopped up a yellow onion and got the butter melting in my Le Creuset. While the onions sweated, I got the red and yellow peppers on a baking sheet and into the oven. Jeff had arrived at this point and we chatted while I chopped salad things.

As the leeks and onions were ready, I added the veggie broth and turned up the heat. After it boiled, I added the peas for a few minutes and took it off the heat to add the mint and creme fraiche. I toasted the Ciabatta and threw the peppers into tupperware to steam the skins off. While I'd let the goat cheese come to room temperature, it spread a lot easier after letting it sit in hunks on the warm bread, which I'd also brushed with a garlicky balsamic vinaigrette. With the skins off, I marinated the peppers in the rest of the balsamic vinaigrette.

I was all over the place tonight! Things piled up and I ran out of counter space. I tried so hard to cautiously pour the soup into my blender (because I wanted a smoother texture than my immersion blender was producing) and WHOOPS--pea soup everywhere. I was a cursing lunatic briefly while Jeff, after calling out to make sure I hadn't burned myself, wisely stayed out of my way and let me just calm myself down. You'd think as a cook I'd be calm about spills, but I rather viciously hate splatter. And I'm usually good about keeping that stuff contained. But not tonight, apparently.

I could really never do this stuff professionally.

Somehow I managed to puree the rest of the soup without incident and dumped it back into the pot to keep it warm and to add the chopped chives. I finished assembling the sandwich, chopped it into manageable portions, and tossed the salad. The table was set nicely and we had our very bright green soup, colorful salad, and red, yellow, and green sandwich.

It was such a pretty meal--tres Provençal. So, that was exciting. It also makes me sad that I'll never be a very good food blogger, because I always forget to take pictures. The pictures from that other post? All taken by my cousin.

After dinner, we watched Battlestar where Jeff was INADEQUATELY SHRIEKY (considering how awesome the past two episodes have been, though I was shrieky enough for both of us) and we had dessert and split the remaining Polidori chocolate, using the gelato as a palate cleanser. Wrath was our favorite from the remaining glorious box. It was so perfectly spiced and rich and decadent. Just GLORIOUS.

So that was that! A lovely night with lovely Jeff.

Tomorrow is mine. All mine. My goal is to unpack (still, hello!) and do laundry. I have to tend to my garden. I need to make a grocery list and meal plan for next week because I'm tired of last minute bad decisions and a dearth of any real nutritional matter. I'm going to wander over to the Farmer's Market because there's a rumor of early season berries.

I also want to take a walk up to Diva Espresso to read more of Host, which I am so goddamn entranced with, I don't know what to do.

Comments

[margotheangel.livejournal.com]

I spill everything, so whenever I have to pour, I put the receiving thingy (in this case, the blender) into the sink. That way, when I inevitably spill all over the place, it goes (okay, mostly) into the sink, which is easier to clean.

Also, that meal sounds DELICIOUS.

[euphrasie.livejournal.com]

That meal sounds soooo good... especially the sandwiches. Yum! I love goat cheese.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I do, too. It's one of my favorite things!