Sunday, July 10, 2022

Three Beautiful Things 07-09-2022: The HillTop Numbers, Ice Cold Gin and Tonic, No-Cook Pasta Sauce Meal

 1. I am confident that after triple checking the list I made of dinner attendees against the registration slips our classmates mailed in that I arrived at an accurate number of how many people will be at the dinner at the HillTop and what their meal choices are. Things are falling in place for the big upcoming weekend! 

2. I don't know why I've never done this before, but late this afternoon when Debbie and I decided that a gin and tonic would be refreshing, I put ice in the cocktail shaker, added gin, and shook the shaker for about a minute or so. The gin got really cold. (Wait! Why don't I just keep the gin in the freezer?) I poured the gin and the ice in a cocktail glass and added more ice and added tonic and fresh squeezed lime juice. I was very happy with the resulting cold and refreshing gin and tonic. 

3. I was about to put a pot of rice on the stove and figure out what to make for dinner with it when Debbie told me she'd prefer having pasta. Great! We both immediately thought the same thing: let's have a pasta dish made from one of my favorite cookbooks, No-Cook Pasta Sauces.

I successfully found a recipe that called for ingredients we had at home, "Black Bean, Tomato, and Feta Sauce". 

It's a simple and very delicious sauce.

All I had to do was combine a can of black beans, a can of drained diced tomatoes, the zest of a lime, olive oil, oregano, cumin, and Frank's RedHot Pepper Sauce in a bowl. I boiled a half a pound of radiatore pasta, drained it, and combined it with the sauce. Debbie snipped some fresh herbs from outside, added them, and we both dished up our servings and added our own amounts of feta cheese crumbles. 

I loved the texture of this dish -- the pasta, the beans, the tomatoes and I thought the subtle heat from the Frank's sauce gave this meal a most enjoyable kick. 

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