Sunday, March 14, 2010

Daylight savings and a gourmet meal

"Spring ahead" may distress a lot of people but Scooby and I loved it this morning--slept until almost nine o'clock, which meant I felt like that morning was almost gone by the time I read the morning paper with my coffee. It doesn't take me long to read the paper these days, even on Sunday, because I find little I want to pause over. But two things caught my notice this morning: one was that the cartel violence in Mexico has moved as far south as Acapulco, where thirteen people, including a police officer, were found dead, some beheaded, others "riddled with bullets" (nice image over Sunday coffee). Jordan's work keeps taking her to southern Mexico. I worry, and she assures me the tourist places are safe. So I left her a message that she absolutely cannot go there any more. I don't care if she is going to be thirty-five Wed., I am still the "boss of her," as Jacob would say, when I want to be!
The other item that caught my eye was that the State Board of Education has voted that the history curriculum in schools will contain no mention of the fact that Tejanos died at the Alamo! Talk about rewriting history. I guess that third-grade book on Enrico Garza that I once contemplated is not a good idea. Besides, even if they didn't die, Martin de Leon and Juan Seguin must present problems for history teachers. If it weren't so sad, I'd laugh.
After my slow start this morning, I moved slowly--and it was a luxury. But about four this afternoon, I got busy cooking for friends Rodger and Linda Preston from Granbury. I was fixing a meal that was supposed to take 20 minutes to prepare at the last minute, but I wanted to sip a glass of wine and visit during those twenty minutes, so I figured how to make it ahead. I decided to concentrate on one dish at a time, instead of having two many pans on the fire at the same time So I made a simple version of pasta Alfredo (I know, not at all on my diet)--I used wild mushroom pasta,, made a sauce of butter and cream (yikes!), tossed the pasta with the sauce and a bit of the cooking water, added good parmesan, drizzled it with truffle oil, and set the whole thing aside. Next I turned to veal scallopine (a real splurge but I so enjoyed the veal I had the other night). Dusted them in flour and sauteed them in olive oil--Linda asked me how you cook veal, and I said, "Quickly," which Rodger, the main cook in that famly, echoed with "Very quickly." I removed the scallopine from the pan, drained off the grease, and splashed in a good bit of white wine to scrape up the brown bits, then added butter and a about 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar. Poured the sauce over the veal, topped it with a lot of capers, covered it tightly in foil and put the whole thing in a warm oven. Washed and cut asparagus, cut up the salad greens I had washed in the morning, and got out the salad dressing I had made (basic olive oil, champagne vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dry mustard, and worcestershire). I laid out a small basket of tiny toasted bread squares and filled a small pottery bowl with whipped cream cheese--hint to the wise: whipped cream cheese is about half as fattening as even light brick cream cheese but do not use it for cooking. The moisture content is completely different, and it won't cook up correctly.
So when Rodger and Linda got here at six, after closing their shop, Almost Heaven, on the square in Granbury, all I had to do was put smoked salmon on the appetizer platter. We had wine and salmon with cream cheese and toast squares on the porch--remarking on how lovely and warm and light it was. After an hour, when we were ready for dinner, all I had to do was heat the pasta,stir fry the asparagus, and toss the salad. It was, if I do modestly say so, a terrific meal. And I have leftovers, but I'd love to give away the pasta--too fattening. After dinner we took a last glass of wine to the porch, but with the sun down it had gotten too cool for comfort, and we didn't linger long.
Linda is a longtime friend, dating back to the early '70s; our children grew up together, Colin being the age of her oldest daughter and Jamie and the younger one matching. Linda remembers that Megan would come to their house and make a beeline for her dressing table because I wasn't much into cosmetics but Linda was, and Megan found lots of experiment with. Rodger came on the scene after Linda was widowed--we all grieved because Lynn was a wonderful man--but now she and Rodger have been married ten years, and I'm crazy about him. He's funny, he likes good food, and he's a staunch and realistic liberal. So it was a pleasant evening.
The coolness of the evening reminds me that we're supposedly due one more realy cold spell late this month. I'm holding off on buying herbs. Linda and Rodger are in a house that's new to them, and they have found volunteer arugula and basil growing in the grass. They've already made salads, but how do you mow with greens like that sprouting?

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