Last week I had a little dinner party for two young couples at church who are moving away soon.
Three of my four guests are vegetarians, which is not a problem because I do a lot of vegetarian cooking anyway. High-quality meat is expensive and I try to limit my consumption for health reasons. But there was a little twist: one of the guests has celiac disease and has to avoid gluten. So I had to throw out my plan to make a vegetarian pasta dish, which is my usual go-to for pleasing a crowd of noncarnivores. He made a "joke" about being tired of eating rice all the time, so there went my plan B of making mushroom risotto.
I looked through my cookbooks and finally found the solution: a zucchini, artichoke heart, and caramelized onion frittata recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, The Heart of the Plate by Mollie Katzen. I also used one of her recipes for a salad with asparagus, chickpeas, and roasted red pepper. Both dishes were completely devoured by my guests, and they had nothing but rave reviews. For dessert, I made a chocolate mousse. I wish I had thought to take a picture of it, because it was quite beautiful with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on the top. Everyone went home full and satisfied, which is the hallmark of a successful dinner.
In other food news, I've made it to the farmers' market only twice so far this summer. Last week I got big containers of strawberries and raspberries and used most of them to make my first batch of popsicles of the season. They turned out far better than I expected. I ran the fruit through the blender with some water, sugar, lemon juice, and triple sec (you know I can't make popsicles without booze, right?), and then strained out the seeds and poured the resulting mixture into the molds. Et voila!
Hope you're enjoying the summer produce and eating well.
Three of my four guests are vegetarians, which is not a problem because I do a lot of vegetarian cooking anyway. High-quality meat is expensive and I try to limit my consumption for health reasons. But there was a little twist: one of the guests has celiac disease and has to avoid gluten. So I had to throw out my plan to make a vegetarian pasta dish, which is my usual go-to for pleasing a crowd of noncarnivores. He made a "joke" about being tired of eating rice all the time, so there went my plan B of making mushroom risotto.
I looked through my cookbooks and finally found the solution: a zucchini, artichoke heart, and caramelized onion frittata recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, The Heart of the Plate by Mollie Katzen. I also used one of her recipes for a salad with asparagus, chickpeas, and roasted red pepper. Both dishes were completely devoured by my guests, and they had nothing but rave reviews. For dessert, I made a chocolate mousse. I wish I had thought to take a picture of it, because it was quite beautiful with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on the top. Everyone went home full and satisfied, which is the hallmark of a successful dinner.
In other food news, I've made it to the farmers' market only twice so far this summer. Last week I got big containers of strawberries and raspberries and used most of them to make my first batch of popsicles of the season. They turned out far better than I expected. I ran the fruit through the blender with some water, sugar, lemon juice, and triple sec (you know I can't make popsicles without booze, right?), and then strained out the seeds and poured the resulting mixture into the molds. Et voila!
Hope you're enjoying the summer produce and eating well.
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