dinner, wherein we laugh in the face of "low-fat"

It's a sort of zen question, isn't it? Or something like that. What kind of a vegetarian dinner is it if you make vegetarian food but the vegetarian calls to cancel?

In our case, the correct response is, "deep-fried goodness, highly caloric, screw the notion of low fat".

I mean, come on, look at Brad and Tina. Fellow teammates, a lovely couple. Disgustingly in shape (Brad competes internationally in triathlons). Both of them can withstand an onslaught of rich fried, cheesy, creamy foods. And so they did.

As noted, Tim couldn't come for dinner because of tornado warnings for the area between Chicago and Indianapolis, where he lives. Brad and Tina had only a half mile stroll through the neighbourhood, so they showed up, and we fed them. A good evening, and they were troopers for putting up with lots of photos at the end of the night.

The food:

Empanadas filled with summer squash, sweet peppers, and feta.I set a platter of these out on the balcony table along with a bowl of tomato salsa. We sipped an Argentinean white wine, and enjoyed the warm evening.

A simple romaine salad with a toasted pumpkinseed dressing.

Chile relleno, refried black beans, sweet corn and tomatillo salsa.I haven't made these in ages, and with good reason. Frying is messy, and good as these are (make no mistake, chiles rellenos are perfect food in my opinion), you'd get mighty unhealthy eating them regularly. A real treat. Conrad captures the plating process in stages.



Lemon-glazed pistachio genoise with toasted pistachio ice cream and quince poached in a spiced syrup.I love working with quinces. So fragrant, and people never guess what they are. Tina thought it was apple, a good guess, but quince is so much more fragrant. Wonderful fruit, though not for eating raw, of course. As for the cakes, well, this was attempt #2. I had made on large cake round and intended to do something with a chocolate ganache. I made a mistake, however, in the batter for the cake and misread 6 Tbsp of butter as 6 oz. Big difference. The result was tasty but oozing butteriness. I chucked it out in the end and started over, this time making individual cakes in ramekins. This also gave me time to think about my concept. The ice cream was made, and I was still thinking chocolate, but seeing the quinces at Whole Foods sent me in a different direction entirely.

We finished the fat-laden dinner with a wedge of a brie-style goat cheese that had a ripple of blue down the center. Mmmmm.

Brad and Tina left late, and once Conrad gets up out of bed again (we were already swimming this morning), we'll finish the silverware and last few dishes. And then I may need a nap to prepare myself for another big dinner night tonight, this one at a fine restaurant instead.