What We Ate

Papa, look what book I'm reading!

Tonight we welcomed our neighbors (the ones with the spectacular yard across the street. As opposed to the spectacular yard next door or the spectacular yard next to that house, or...never mind.)

To drink, I made lime-ade. It's easy, see below.

After cheese, crackers and grapes, we had calamaretti (trans: noodles!) tossed with wild-caught jumbo shrimp and flat-leaf parsley. The sauce was olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and parmesan. Mrs. Neighbor brought a beautiful caprese salad to go with the pasta. And for dessert a tribute to the French way of doing things: a cake from a bakery.

I love the fact that in France people often just buy dessert. After all, what's the point of all those amazing bakeries and patisseries if you can't rely on the expertise of a pastry chef? So when KP took Mother and me to Gourmandise the other night...it was clear what we had to do. And I did it. Because I'm brave like that.

Chocolate mousse cake. That's all I am going to say.


Lime-ade:
(makes one pitcher)

You need 3 limes, a cup of sugar, and maybe 1.5 or 2 bottles of sparkly water.

Put one cup of water and one cup of sugar in a sauce pan and add one cut up lime. Squeeze each piece into the water, then throw the carcass in, too. Bring to a boil, stir until the sugar dissolves, then turn off the heat and let it all sit there getting limey. Yes, this is a lime simple syrup. Don't show off your culinary knowledge, smarty-pants.

When you're ready, put a mess of ice into your pitcher, then add a bottle of sparkly water. Pour in all the syrup, discarding the lime bits. Add more soda water until your pitcher is pretty full. Now cut up a lime in a decorative way and toss that in. Take another lime and squeeze all its juice into the pitcher. Stir. Enjoy. Yes, that's it.