hot night-cool dinner

Sunday night I cooked for friends. With drinks we had kale chips, crisp chips of fresh kale, roasted in the oven after being sprinkled with olive oil, gray salt and pepper. They were addictive and disappeared in record time. We followed this with a room temp orzo salad - the pasta mixed with chopped spring onions, lots of bronze fennel, feta cheese and roasted shrimp, tossed with a lemony vinaigrette. With this, batons of grilled zucchini topped with basil pesto. Oh, I forgot- we began at table with a cold soup, puree of scallions,spring onions and leeks and potatoes, blended when cooled with Greek no-fat yogurt. Dessert was strawberry shortcake, the biscuits split and lightly buttered. All perfect for a summer night, and enlivened by lively conversation and a chilled Viognier.

April dinner with friends

Though spring has made only tentative appearances, hope springs eternal, so I set the table with yellow and leafy green linens, palest mint-colored candles and a fat bunch of daffodils and narcissi from the garden. There were five of us, the conversation was easy and provocative and the wine flowed. With drinks before dinner I served little tartines of soft goat cheese spread on sliced, thin ciabatta, topped with thin slices of strawberries which I then drizzled with balsamic syrup. A turn of the pepper grinder, a shard of basil leaf and voila. Pretty to look at and delicious. At the table, a salad of boston lettuce, belgian endive and baby artichoke slices with a meyer lemon vinaigrette. The main course was chicken roasted on a bed of sliced onion, new potatoes, garlic and carrots,and a cup of armagnac. After the vegetables were lightly softened in olive oil, I added the chicken and brandy - then the enameled steel casserole went into a 400 oven to roast until beautifully bronzed. The aroma when the lid was lifted - sublime. Dessert was a martini glass layered with sliced peaches which had marinated in fresh tarragon and gran marnier and whisked mascarpone lightened with whipped cream and just a bit of sugar. I topped each serving with crushed amaretti cookies and sliced roasted almonds. Good friends, good food - it doesn't get much better than this.

lunch with a friend

A good friend was coming to lunch and,for the first time in a long while the sun was shining, so I cut some daffodils, set the table with sunny yellow linens and made lunch. First, the simplest of soups, a mix of cubed fennel and zucchini, fennel seeds and chicken broth, quick to put together and delicious. I topped each serving with fennel fronds and next was a salad - crab louie. I lined a platter with baby romaine leaves, red and greed, then mounds of artichoke heart, grape tomatoes, poached asparagus, radishes and green beans. In the center, luscious lump crab with the sauce Louie on the side. With the salad, toasted wheat, raisin and walnut bread that I'd brushed with olive oil before grilling. A most satisfying lunch, not least for the conversation and laughs.

A Winter's Tale

Yesterday was cold and windy, so what better for lunch than a bowl of hot, nourishing soup. I had a rich, slightly lemony chicken stock on hand, so after heating it I added sliced scallions, tiny, mushroom-stuffed tortellini, shredded swiss chard and a few shredded carrots. Simple, heart-warming and much enjoyed.
Tonigh, good friends for dinner. We'll start out with wine and gruyere wafers, then, at table a salad of escarole and roasted walnuts. Our main course will be duck stuffed with a combination of sauteed apples, prunes and onion seasoned judiciously with sage and mixed with cubes of seven-grain bread. A squeeze of lemon and some heavy cream to complete it. With the duck I'll serve thin-sliced turnips cooked slowly in olive oil till they're caramelized, then strewn with a bit of parsley. For dessert, individual chocolate tarts topped with a dollop of whipped cream. A fruity red wine with the duck, some good conversation - a perfect Sunday evening.

New Beginnings

The new year is upon us, and it's time for some "lean cuisine". There was some serious overindulgence going on here, commencing with a Christmas dinner that began with a platter of assorted cheeses accompanied by a fig "salami" and pumpkin-spiced nuts. At table, the first course was a salad of mixed baby greens and fuyu persimmons, folowed by lobster and shrimp in madeira sauce. I served this over rice, accompanied by snow peas with water chestnuts. Dessert was a rich but refreshing frozen gran marnier torte in a chocolate crust, topped with glazed and spiced cranberries over which I shaved white chocolate. Gorgeous to look at and seductively delicious. The next night was laid back - we ate the seafood in its sauce over pasta, with a big green salad, crunchy with fennel.

And, there were the cookies - walnut dreams, the layered bars glazed with confectioners sugar; pecan balls, pumpkin cookies, mocha-walnut balls, almond biscotti - the list goes on.So, tomorrow brings simply prepared salmon, lots of fresh veggies and fruits and big salads. Happy New Year to all.

an october dinner

We were six for dinner last evening. The table was festive with flowers and candlelight, and the mood was convivial and sometimes hilarious. We started out with a black bean,walnut and basil pate on toasted slices of a slender ciabatta and a choice of red or white wine - or vodka. Then, at table, a salad of homegrown bibb lettucer,belgian endive, pear slices and goat cheese dressed with one of my favorite vinaigrettes, enriched with fig preserves. Our main course was roasted chicken thighs on a bed of slightly stale peasant bread slices painted with mustard and then drizzled generously with olive oil. Fresh lemon thyme from the garden, a couple of bay leaves and a head of garlic separated into cloves were strewn over the chicken. The scents wafting through the first floor were too wonderful. A pan of roasted cauliflower and broccoli and another of baby new potatoes baked with rosemary completed the main course. The appropriately autumnal dessert was a four-layer pumpkin cake with a cream cheese frosting embellished with a croquant of caramelized pecan,pumpkin seeds and candied ginger.Divine. We ate, we talked and laughed -great friend were the true icing on the cake.

An Indulgence of Apples

Fall sets my heart aflutter - a frisson of anticipation for the scents of the season, the brilliant foliage and, not least, the foods of autumn. No surprise then that I found the array of apples at the farmers market irresistibly seductive, arriving home with bags of Northern Spy, Macoun, Pink Lady, Pippin, Golden Delicious and more. The applesauce I produced was worth all the peeling. The pure flavor of the Macintosh fruit was perfection and the next morning I had a bowl of it topped with the sensational granola from Melissa Clark's new book. The unusual ingredient? Olive Oil - and salt. It's hard to pass the canister I keep on the island without reaching in for a handful.
Next, two apple pies utilizing a mixture of thefruitsand topped with a streusel. Then, for dinner with friends, a salad of belgian endive,raw kohlrabi,red pear and an apple, tossed with a lemony mustard vinaigrette. Yesterday I used all the Golden Delicious for two big coffee cakes, lightly spiced with cinnamon and with a pecan, cinnamon and brown sugar crumb mixture in the middle, between two layers of the dough - the cakes are gorgeous, reaching to the very top of the bundt pans.What do I have planned next? Chicken Normandy, browning the bird and baking it with sauteed onions and apples, adding at the end some creme fraiche and applejack. I love this served with egg noodles - autumnal comfort food.