deserving of real plates

things are going from finish to start today. newbie. i am gonna roll with it.

antipasto style caesar salad. toast of wheat baguette from shadeau. half belgian endive. caesar dressing: 1 egg, oil and vinegar from roasted tomato/onion/garlic, 2 anchovies, juice from 1 lemon, hot hungarian paprika, lots of black pepper, bit of dijon mustard, large amounts of parmesan. in a hot pan, sauteed thin sliced lemon, garlic, jalapeno. served with those sweet piquante peppers (hot). poured dressing over endive, held endive at root end and ate from leafy end in. grilled lemon party on the toast.

pasta. tomatoes- fresh and sundried, whole garlic cloves, sweet onions roasted. rolled in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rose', s & p, crushed red magic and this caper/oregano spice mix that i put on everything. been thinking about rose' since yesterday. it was sunny and i was cooking, so i busted out my last bottle from the walla walla stash- waterbrook sangiovese, 2006. drained off the juice (tomato, vinegar, oil) at about 15 minutes, and used it for the caesar dressing, let the onion get a little brown, tomatoes wrinkled. tomato mix goes into the pot with the cooked pasta. stirred in goat cheese, parmesan, basil. things mashed and melty.

warning: some of us are on steriods, but regardless, this is the kind of pasta that you could easily start eating and suddenly realize that you ate the whole damn mess of it. perfect creaminess balanced with perfect acidity. summertime lightness, dangerous decadence.

warning #2: i just ate lots of garlic and some anchovies. just saying.

warning #3: i am making this again and we are eating it off of real plates. the only disappointing thing about cooking for the hospital is presentation. today i tried, and it is even more depressing to see that pretty salad on a styrofoam plate. i remembered real forks!