To and Fro

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.

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.

I also made the lemon chiffon cake out of the 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.