Dinner for a heatwave
Jun. 9th, 2004 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidMid-90s is just too hot to do much cooking at all. I'd had thoughts of elaborate meals, including flatbreads, melon, perhaps roasted peaches or nectarines for dessert. None of that happened.
What I made was salad and lemonade, and that turned out to be just right.
For the salad, I hauled out the big fleishig platter (celadon with some leaf imprints) and started heaping it with greens. I had some red leaf, arugula, basil, and mesclun, to which I added scallions and halved grape tomatoes. While I was doing the veggie prep, I poached two chicken breasts. When they were just done, I diced them and added them to the salad. For dressing, I ground a bunch of black pepper on top, then drizzled olive oil and Trader Joe's Scoville Scoundrel. The salad had sweet tones from the Scoundrel, which faded into spiciness afterward, with bright notes from the basil and arugula.
For the lemonade, I juiced three lemons and four limes (ok, it was lemon-lime-ade), adding as much pulp as possible, then some sugar and many mint leaves. Once the sugar had dissolved, I stirred in some water. This turned out to have the right balance of tart and sweet for me; I have to remember to use limes more.
It stayed fairly warm through dinner, but afterward the clouds started blowing in, on pleasantly cooler winds. And then a fat raindrop fell. And another. And while I was typing this it was pouring, but now it seems to have slacked off, though I can still hear a bit of thunder every so often. I hope the weather will be much cooler tonight as predicted.
What I made was salad and lemonade, and that turned out to be just right.
For the salad, I hauled out the big fleishig platter (celadon with some leaf imprints) and started heaping it with greens. I had some red leaf, arugula, basil, and mesclun, to which I added scallions and halved grape tomatoes. While I was doing the veggie prep, I poached two chicken breasts. When they were just done, I diced them and added them to the salad. For dressing, I ground a bunch of black pepper on top, then drizzled olive oil and Trader Joe's Scoville Scoundrel. The salad had sweet tones from the Scoundrel, which faded into spiciness afterward, with bright notes from the basil and arugula.
For the lemonade, I juiced three lemons and four limes (ok, it was lemon-lime-ade), adding as much pulp as possible, then some sugar and many mint leaves. Once the sugar had dissolved, I stirred in some water. This turned out to have the right balance of tart and sweet for me; I have to remember to use limes more.
It stayed fairly warm through dinner, but afterward the clouds started blowing in, on pleasantly cooler winds. And then a fat raindrop fell. And another. And while I was typing this it was pouring, but now it seems to have slacked off, though I can still hear a bit of thunder every so often. I hope the weather will be much cooler tonight as predicted.