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On Saturday, my friend Laura turned 27. To celebrate, I made dinner for her and a bunch of our med school chums.
I haven't really been cooking since I moved back into a dorm, so hosting a dinner party seemed like a bit of a stretch. I had to borrow a lot of kitchen appliances and make an inordinate amount of trips between my bedroom and the kitchen.
But! I was pleasantly surprised by how things turned out. The pesto was wonderful, super basily and and perfectly salted. (I learned a thing or two about pesto-making from Eli the Saturday prior) . We also had a really rich Muhammra, and Laura made a salad with baby greens, cherry tomatoes and pebble-sized bits of fresh mozarella whose Italian name I've yet to learn.
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It was suggested that shrimp would go well with the pasta, but at the last minute, the shrimp chef had to bolt. She had a date! With a boy in our class. Nobody at dinner was to find out, so I kept my lips zipped and found a replacement shrimp-cooker, stat. Before I knew it, dinner was ready.
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I also made the lemon chiffon cake out of the
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Tartine Cookbook. It came out light and spongy and not too sweet. Laura's mom had picked a huge box of raspberries in Connecticut that morning and they were really ripe. We whipped up some cream with a dash of vanilla and sugar and served the berries with the cake. There wasn't a crumb--or a raspberry--left.
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