Last Saturday we spent much of the afternoon in Evanston. For the Canadistanis reading this, that's the suburb immediately north of Chicago. Reasonably affluent, a good size, the home of Northwestern University. Some good shopping up that way, too, and in among our purchases was a new digital camera for our upcoming vacation. Having Rachel over for dinner on Sunday night was a good way for Conrad (all photos by hime, except the one of him that Rachel took) to play with a shiny new toy. I can't blame him.
He'd also wanted to serve up mai tais for dinner. Sadly for him, it looked to be pretty involved for a casual kitchen dinner for just three of us. No matter - he'll be in Honolulu next Sunday. Instead, we looked up a basic martini recipe (no, really - we simply don't make/drink cocktails at home) and ended up with a concoction called a Nick and Nora martini. Gin and vermouth in a 3:1 ratio.
I poured big ones, used a whole bunch of olives (which taste really good marinated in martini, I'd forgotten), and rather than mouth-puckeringly dry booze to go with our pre-dinner snacks,
we had some smoooooooth bevvies.
Smoooooooth and boozy! Oooo, and look: pretty Fiestaware in scarlet, peacock, and sunflower.
Fotunately, we used up the gin on the first round, and Conrad and I turned to our house wine for sipping with the salmon.
The salmon was a standby recipe I like - top filets with slices of tomato, some oregano, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic; drizzle with olive oil; roast in a hot oven. To go alongside there was some roasted asparagus and some cauliflower puree. Good stuff.
And dessert? Simpler this time. Pineapples were a good price at Whole Foods, and I found a reasonably ripe one among them. Peeled, sliced, and roasted under a broiler. I served slices with a ginger creme anglaise and some chopped crystallized ginger.
A light dessert, and a nice evening all around.
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