Saturday, February 14, 2009

SweetTarts

I know - it's been forever. I got home from California, and Didi was still here. I put him on a plane, spent two days putting the "after-home-repair" mess to rights ... and then welcomed my next house guest Dilly. She was here for a week - and then left and now my last house guest for the near future has arrived. Perhaps in another week or so, I'll catch you all up. (or maybe not).

The weekend has been great. My friend Birget, who is from Edinburgh, Scottland, and is on a five month world tour, got to my house right at lunch time. We brought her stuff in and then headed out to Carolina Brewing Company for a "tour". Which really means they hand you pint glasses - and open the taps at 12:45 ... and keep them open 'till about 1:15. Then they do a 20 minute talk about how they make beer and the different styles - then they open the taps back up 'till 2 or 2:30.


To soak up the beer, we went to a "Calabash" seafood restaurant. (It a style of fried food here in North Carolina). We came home - and she took a nap while I finished puttering around with dinner preparations.

Because it is Valentines day, I decided to play with the theme of "SweetTart" for our meal - Red and Yellow - and NOT make this some sentimental gathering of single women.


I made the lemon curd for the Almond-Lemon cake, the rub for the steaks (lemon zest, rosemary and garlic), and the salad dressing (lemon, garlic, garbanzo bean paste, and shallots).

After she got up - I put her to work cleaning out the barbeque grill - and then I started the lemon-cracked pepper pasta. A friend joined us for dinner and brought wine.


I think the meal was good - the table seemed to get quiet for a while. And the conversation was great. Birgit was talking about being a scientist - and working with biological toxicology - and my friend Linda talked about being a southern girl going to college in the 70s - and burning her bra - and the politics of the time.


With the cake (which added gained a splash of sweet and red with the raspberries on top of the lemon curd) we had Prosecco - a Spanish sparkling wine. The cake was light and airy sponge ... and mmmmmm.


We've just finished doing the dishes - and I'm headed towards bed.


So - I hope Valentine's Day is special for all of you, it certainly was a winner in my book.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We missed you AND your cooking the day after you left ! Your menu sounds delish and so does the dessert. Hope you can get caught up on both your blogging and your sleep !! tp

Keetha said...

Sounds like a fabulous meal. What a friend you are!

Mental P Mama said...

What a wonderful meal. Now I want some prosecco.

bernthis said...

Oh God, what a freakin fantastic way to spend this day. Mine, not so great. Glad it's all done.