Hubby and I were contemplating on what to serve our
“adoptees” for dinner when suddenly my thoughts raced back to that day when one of our friends paid us a surprise visit. It was close to
dinner time so to impress her, I showed her a menu and boasted: “I’ll prepare this for you in no time!”
Crunchy
Salad Delight Poppyseed Dressing
(thinly sliced Brussels sprout, julienned broccoli stems,
chopped broccoli florets, kale and chicory, shredded radicchio
toasted pine nuts, dried cranberries)
Perfectly
Roasted Chicken
(chicken rubbed with special spice combination,
minced garlic, lemon, crushed rosemary and coarsely ground pepper)
Rice a la
Chine
Watermelon
Shimmers
(watermelon cubes drenched in minted and vanillaed simple syrup)
Cherries
Lemon Cake a la mode
Sparkling
Quenchers
“This is our menu for dinner. And I can serve this in half an hour or even less.”
Our friend thought I was kidding.
“I don’t believe you! This looks very Frenchie to me. You’re just putting me on. How can you do all
those in an hour? Come on!”
“Let me show you. Let’s go to the supermarket to get
everything we need.” I said winking at hubby.
“Okay! Julienne, what
name is that? And chicory, how does that
look like! And, for heaven’s sake what is this minced garlic?”
“You’ll see!”
So we went to the market a block away from our place. I glanced at the lemon cake by the door. I am always a sucker for lemon cakes so
dropped one into the cart. We went to
the fresh produce section. Took a bag of cut up veggies. Wow, the packaging is nice! Everything looked
fresh, no brown edges, not watery. Satisfied.
Saw my friend shaking her head. We moved on.
I grabbed a medium sized watermelon on our way to the deli section. Across the deli section was a glass covered
shelf filled with hot, juicy rottiserie chicken in plastic containers. I took
one. I remember hubby bought several
pounds of cherries on sale a day before, so, we’re all set.
“That’s all?”
“Yes. This is all!”
As soon as we got home, I washed my hands and put on an
apron. I placed water and sugar in a pot to boil. Pre-heated the oven to warming temp. Took the
roasted chicken from its container, cut it up in serving pieces, placed the
pieces in a baking casserole and in the
oven it went. Just then, I was ready to
finish the syrup. Placed a drop of
vanilla and teaspoon of minced ginger. Dropped
some mint leaves and took it out from the stove to cool.
Then I opened the bag of veggies and the packet of nuts and
berries and dumped everything in a bowl, opened the dressing packet and poured
it over the veggies, tossed everything together, covered the bowl with plastic
wrap and set it aside in the fridge.
Meanwhile, hubby was ready with the watermelon to which I
poured the cooled simple syrup mixture on.
And our friend helped with setting the table.
Remembered to heat the rice I fried in sesame oil and Thai curry paste and put
it in the micro. Took drinks from the
garage. And voila! Dinner is served!!!
And that was my inspiration for dinner last night. After we’ve finished washing the dishes, I smiled at hubby and told him:
“mission accomplie!”
BTW, my friend saved her cake for later.
No comments:
Post a Comment