use real butter

Ah, we finally got around to inviting Tom and Kellie over for dinner this coming week. Even though they live next door, we rarely bump into one another because 1) we all work real jobs 2) they go fishing in their spare time while we go hiking and 3) when they’re indoors they are recording music while we’re inside dorking out on computers.

So Tom will eat anything, and Kellie is flexitarian (eats fish and chicken). I’m brainstorming menu ideas…

appetizer: grilled coconut lime shrimp
main: grilled wild salmon with fresh dill and lemon
side: deadly mashers
side: edamame
side: wild greens salad with carrot-ginger dressing
dessert: chocolate-espresso crème brûlée

I made lasagne today with some of that awesome organic beef from Paidom Ranch. I like my lasagne loaded with vegetables too - so I mixed spinach with the ricotta, and added onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes to the beef and sauce, then layered sliced zucchini and mushrooms in between.

crunchy baked top

loaded lasagne

I made the crawfish fettucine tonight. Actually, I made a half recipe because the normal recipe serves 15. But I didn’t halve the pasta. It still came out rich enough to make me dizzy.

good quality crawdad meat

This was the first time I had ever handled Velveeta. It’s sticky and has a weird putty-like consistency. The list of ingredients on the box is scary. Tasting it in the dish, I think it’s been incorporated into many a casserole at one too many pot lucks… But if you ignore the knowledge of Velveeta in the recipe, it’s wonderful.

velveeta in the mix

not only velveeta, but a stick of butter, and half and half

The crawdad meat was pretty fresh, which got us thinking of Emily again. Many years ago we were driving from Ithaca to Virginia to visit my folks. On the way, we dropped by Emily’s parents’ house in DC (Northern VA). It was the house Emily lived in during her high school years and where we sat on the roof and had geeky-teenager discussions about life while watching her dad (top meteorologist for the US Navy) fiddle with his weather equipment outside. It was during that sophomore year that Emily became one of my best friends. So our visit was about a decade later and Em’s parents gave the approval upon meeting Jeremy, who had recently become my husband. Her mom served us some crawfish appetizers - wrapped in phyllo dough. To die for. That is the next recipe to request. Em’s dad is a master of conversation and social grace, weaving a discussion incorporating satellite imagery (my research), observatories (Jeremy’s research), his involvement with both and wanting to know more about what we were doing. I love her parents, much in the way she loves my parents - happy to be so adored and yet grateful that they aren’t ours.

Spring is in the air. I spring cleaned my office today and ordered some furniture. I need to clean my house next. Productivity is on the rise.

Our dinner at Nicole’s place was awesome tonight. She and Andrew made homemade butternut squash ravioli in a butter sauce. We all got to help in making the ravioli, but Andrew is quite skilled with making the pasta:

rolling it out

We met some of their friends too who were really neat. Amanda is a ranger, a paleontologist, and a foodie. Heather is a student in homeopathy and also an avid foodie. I asked her what homeopathy was and she described a lot of things that both frightened and astonished me simultaneously. She never ever defined what homeopathy was and my gut reaction was to ask if it was anything like sociopathy or psychopathy, but I thought better of it and kept my question to myself. Homeopathy = not approved by the FDA.

as the evening wore on, we got closer to the goal

I discovered that these three women tend to quote a lot of famous chefs. I typically do not - rather, I refer to specific recipes. Although, I guess I do defer to Rose Levy Beranbaum’s authoritative knowledge on cakes and pastries, and occasionally to Marcel Desaulnier on some chocolatier-ing (I’ve exchanged emails with Marcel and he is extremely accessible). I flipped through one of Nicole’s cookbooks and some of her issues of Eating Well. I like. I have found a concentration of foodies!

nicole serves up a delectable feast

Dinner was fab. Nicole made a rich chocolate torte for dessert too. Go girl!