Restaurants: April 2003 Archives
I had some friends over for dinner last night. I had to work and then one of the guests was coming home with me, so I made something pretty simple that I had made before: crostini with white beans and tomatoes, chicken breasts braised in white wine, green beans, and s'mores for dessert (that way I didn't have to make dessert at all).
I haven't done too much cooking lately; Todd and I have been on the road. We drove up to Ottawa for a long weekend to see the Edward Burtynsky retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada. (Which was fantastic and worth the seven-plus hour drive.)
Since we're not big restaurant spenders and Ottawa is not exactly considered a culinary mecca, my food highlights were modest (but delicious):
I haven't done too much cooking lately; Todd and I have been on the road. We drove up to Ottawa for a long weekend to see the Edward Burtynsky retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada. (Which was fantastic and worth the seven-plus hour drive.)
Since we're not big restaurant spenders and Ottawa is not exactly considered a culinary mecca, my food highlights were modest (but delicious):
I made pasta salad Tuesday night (another night alone; Todd has a busy week). Lots of leftovers, so we both took some to work for lunch on Wednesday. I wasn't going to write it up, but Todd raved so much about it last night that I thought I'd share:
Boil up some mini tortellini. While that's cooking, chop roasted red and yellow peppers (I had some left over from a steam-table lunch the other day when my eyes were way too big for my stomach), cooked ham, scallions, and artichoke hearts (I used unmarinated; I find the marinade overwhelming). Make a vinaigrette in the bottom of a big bowl, and then toss everything together in it. Easy, makes a lot, and I think it was better the second day. We used to eat pasta salad all the time when we were newly married and really poor. Maybe Todd's raving was nostalgia.
Of course, this could go in any direction: Greek, with feta, olives, oregano; antipasto, with diced salami, marinated veggies and cheese; nicoise, with olives, tuna, green beans, red onion; southwestern with diced cheddar, scallions, cilantro, chicken, cumin. I think you'd have to vary the type of pasta you used.
