txaggie

Friday - Dinner was at Firefly with friends Saturday - I made cjsadler a long overdue birthday dinner. The first course was caramelized apples and gruyere on wild rice-walnut-orange bread from the Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy. The main course was salmon with a shrimp ragout from the Kinkead's cookbook. A cheese plate was next. A couple of cheddars, gruyere, and a blue cheese. And dessert was blueberry white chocolate cheesecakes from from Alice Medrich's A Year in Chocolate. Sorry, bad picture - too bright. We shared a bottle of Cotes du Rhone. It went really well with the salmon. Sunday - Dinner with friends Apps were roasted peppers with leftover walnut-orange bread. I don't have pictures of the rest of the meal but we had gnocchi with tomato sauce, chicken milanese, and ricotta mousse with fresh berries and chocolate-orange-walnut biscotti for dessert.

If you ever venture out to farms in MD for pick your own fruits and veggies, I like Homestead Farms for strawberries, blackberries, tart cherries, currants, apples, and peaches and Butler's Orchard for blueberries, blackberries, apples, etc. Butler's doesn't have peaches. Larriland Farm also has peaches (and other fruits and veggies) but I've only been there for blueberries.

We picked blueberries at Butler's Orchard on Sunday afternoon and made blueberry buckle (Cook's Illustrated recipe) for breakfast on Monday. DELICIOUS!!!

cjsadler and I made a Father's Day dinner for his dad and family a few weeks ago. I should have posted these images then but I just uploaded the images from my camera this weekend. Our appetizer was homemade mozarella with a sundried tomato pesto. Asparagus and ricotta ravioli with a sweet pea coulis was the first course. The main course was veal scallopini with a lemon cream sauce and broccoli rabe. And finally -- dessert...carrot cake roulade with caramel and candied pecans. The recipe is from the Kinkead's cookbook. It took 4 attempts to get this cake right but it was worth it! After the first try, we realized the recipe was a bit off and called for way too much flour. cjsadler was in charge of the apps and the main course. I did the first course and dessert. Binni

The spaetzle was yummy the next day too. I ate the leftovers for lunch.

Thursday: Straits of Malaya in Dupont - beautiful night. We sat outside. Curry puffs to start. Dinner was curried chinese eggplant with chicken and another chicken dish that was finished with coconut milk. To drink - Tiger beers and Singapore Slings. Friday - 2 Amy's. While waiting for a friend, cjsadler and I shared cod fritters, deviled eggs, and olives. He had a Tupper's Hop Pocket and I had some white wine. It was fruity and refreshing but I can't recall the name. My friend finally arrived and the three of us shared the lamb meatball calzone, the porcini mushroom pizza, and the etna. We ordered a bottle of the Gragnano. Dessert was strawberries soaked in Gragnano with rhubarb ice cream, a plate of cookies, and the toffee chocolate ice cream (out of this world!). Saturday - an Indian dinner with friends: cjsadler and I made saag paneer, spicy chickpeas, shrimp in a coconut curry, rice, and naan. Dessert was chai pots de creme with cardamom sugar cookies. Sunday: Leftovers from Saturday while watching 'Napoleon Dynamite' and strawberries with cinnamon whipped cream for dessert.