There is nothing like an impromptu dinner party with two of your closest friends to make you feel better. L and A came over this week and helped me prepare a huge local meal of salad, roasted asparagus, and ricotta gnocchi with pesto. The food was fabulous but there was something so wonderful about standing around the kitchen and cooking this huge meal with these two ladies to remind me that there is a world out there.
Tuesday also marked three local dinners in a row. The first was roasted chicken with broccoli, always an easy meal. Roasting a chicken is probably one of the easiest meals though it takes some time. I alternate between the Schlemmertopf method and the brown first oven later method. The Schlemmertopf method consists of taking the chicken, removing the innards, smearing garlic, pesto, butter, etc under the skin, stuffing the cavity with aromatics, and cooking in the clay baker for 90 minutes at 425. I've detailed the brown first over later method in an earlier post. You can get more or less complicated with each one but for a regular weeknight it can only be beat by going down the street and buying a fully roasted one for $6. The broccoli was from the farmers market and was still pretty good after being in the fridge too long.
The second night was a huge salad with left over chicken and beets and finally the dinner party. I've written about the ricotta gnocchi before with pesto before. They are light little pillows and make great leftovers. We are also still getting Jersey Asparagus here at Union Market but I don't know how much longer that will last. I forgot to mention the roasted peaches. You need to choose pretty hard ones and I baked them in a glass dish and brushed them with EVOO, sugar, nutmeg, and a bay leaf. We put some plain yogurt on top.
We continue to try to eat as locally as possible though since I've been in meetings all day all week I basically eat what ever they give me for lunch that doesn't look too gross.
No comments:
Post a Comment