1. Debbie and I decided not to live any longer with the cracks in the Sube's windshield and today was the big day to have the windshield replaced at Shoshone Glass. I dropped off the car and walked to The Beanery (formerly the Bean) and relaxed with a cup of coffee and a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese. After lounging for a while, I strolled over to Yoke's, picked up my medicine, and sat for a while in the Yoke's dining area and read a copy of The Inlander. I decided to saunter back to Shoshone Glass about twenty minutes earlier than when I thought the car would be ready and, lo and behold, the car was ready early. Awesome! I paid up and drove home.
2. Back home, I looked up the recipe Carol assigned to me for tonight's family/Molly's birthday dinner. My job was to make a Persian salad and I realized that it's just the kind of salad I most enjoy eating, but that I rarely think to make. All it required of me was to chop up a couple of cucumbers and a few green onions (the recipe calls for red onion, but for family dinner the only raw onion we use is green). The recipe also called for a pound of tomatoes. Well, several years ago I read a Cook's review of canned diced tomatoes that freed me up because it said that when fresh tomatoes aren't that good from the store, canned tomatoes are better. So, instead of buying fresh (possibly tasteless) tomatoes, I drained a can of dice tomatoes.
To the tomatoes, cucumbers, and green onion I added fresh chopped herbs: cilantro, basil, and mint. Suddenly it occurred to me that oranges might work in this salad and I did a little reading and found recipes for salads from Morocco that combine tomatoes and oranges. All right! I decided I'd try it out and peeled two oranges and cut the segments in half and added them.
I let these ingredients sit in the fridge for a couple of hours and just before leaving the house to go to Carol and Paul's, I made the vinaigrette. It was ultra simple, the juice of two limes and some olive oil with salt and pepper. I put the vinaigrette on the salad when I arrived at Carol and Paul's.
I'm happy to report that everyone enjoyed the salad and that my decisions to used canned tomatoes and to include oranges both were successful.
3. Tonight was family dinner and Molly's birthday. When I arrived, Carol, Paul, Christy, and Molly were seated on the patio under the protective parachute and a cooling slushy style lime mojito was in a glass at my place at the table. Carol also put together a platter of crackers served with spinach and artichoke dip.
We all settled into conversation as Paul prepared our meal, delicious thin strips of London broil and grilled zucchini and summer squash discs. We served up our plates, chose from between Pinot Gris or Pinotage wine, and dug in. The thin slices of meat, tender vegetables, and the salad were, to my taste, perfect hot weather food. Everything was light and very flavorful.
Molly opened her birthday gifts and then we enjoyed the chocolate cake Christy baked for Molly's birthday. I so hoped the cake would be feathery and more semi-sweet than sugary sweet and, WOW!, it was. I loved how, at the end of this meal, I felt comfortable and satisfied because the food wasn't rich or creamy, but light and refreshing and the cake rounded out our dinner superbly.
I tend not to eat much during heat waves and this meal fit perfectly with my hot weather culinary desires.
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