BYO Dinner

Turns out, when New Yorkers move to a new apartment that does not have a grill like their old place, they will actually offer to come to your house and cook for you just for the chance to get near the old propane again.

I'm totally fine with this arrangement. We get stuck with the dishes, yes, but I get all afternoon to make a pretty new dessert that gets plenty of glory.


And I am also very intrigued by this idea of infusing whipped cream. Pretty simple really, just like making a syrup. In this case it was chopped-up basil. I wonder if you could do the same with mint, lavender.... citrus zest? Would the acid do something funky to the cream? Anyway, the basil gave a lovely, mild taste to the cream, and the fried basil leaves were a sophisticated and surprisingly tasty touch to a pretty rustic dessert.

The weird 50s-style photography is because of crappy overhead lighting, but part of me is kind of digging that look.

Scrabble Night

I had an evening at home with J for the first time all week, and what I really wanted was a straightforward, healthful meal that, despite the simplicity of the flavors and presentation, required a boatload of chopping.


I went for a variation on my favorite template, the barley salad, and a new favorite way to do fish, one of those so-simple-I-can't-believe-there's-an-actual-recipe recipes. The easy part is that the vegetable and the starch are streamlined into one side dish. The other part is the chopping of all the different veggies (I went with asparagus, mushrooms, chard, and caramelized onions), which might be frustrating on a night when I didn't have a couple hours to spare listening to the soothing tones of NPR with the back doors open, zenning out and chopping away.


I lost the Scrabble game by the way. I don't want to talk about it.