Dîner Pour Quatre

Boy oh boy, are we behind on posting! Apologies to our many fans. All, um, eight of you.

So let’s talk about last Thursday — the 12th, for those of you keeping track. Our friends Bill and Steve both came over! A good time and a delicious meal was, as they say, had by all. Here's a pic of the gruesome twosome . . . Bill on the left, Steve on the right:


Jeff put out candles for the table, and the effect was quite traumatic — I mean, dramatic! Check it out. Pretty swank, eh?


We didn't actually eat by candlelight, though. I mean, who wants that? You wouldn't even be able to see your food! Though it would have hidden the stains on the tablecloth. Hmmm . . .

Anyway. This week we tried yet another recipe from Everyday Food (are you noticing a theme yet?) — Shrimp with Mustard Sauce. Sorry that we can't link you to the recipe; evidently it's available only in the magazine, October 2006 issue. Once again, though, the recipe was a snap. And take a look at the results. Doesn't that look scrumptious?


(Joel gets demerits for failing to wipe up the sauce he dripped when he was "plating up" the entrée. Martha surely would have whipped him like a bowl of heavy cream at a dessert table.)

Bill brought along a new dish, too: broccoli slaw with Asian dressing. Hassle-free salads are one of his specialties — if you're interested in the recipe, shoot us an email and we'll pass along the request.

For those of you who haven't seen Joel's house in person, we snapped a shot of the dining room just before we all sat down to eat.


Notice the antique china cupboard in the back corner. (Great-Grandma Armstrong is probably turning in her grave, but if you can't see why, we ain't tellin'.) The carpet and dining room suite are great hand-me-downs from the parents — thanks, Mom and Dad! — and the tablecloth is a $4 clearance purchase from Target. (We love Target . . . although a 100% cotton tablecloth certainly does wrinkle.)

But we digress.

The meal finished with Stevie's homemade maple custards, eaten by candlelight. (Yes, we did actually dim the chandelier at this point.) He brought six of them, and there were four of us. If you can't do the math, let's just say that the extras made a lovely breakfast on Saturday morning.

And if that weren't enough, our little quartet then walked down to Bodega for a nightcap. (Well, Stevie actually drove. And disappeared for a good twenty minutes. And it's only two blocks away. He said he was filling his gas tank, but we can't vouch for that.)


That's all for this edition. Check back soon — we've plenty more to catch you up on.

Tempus Fugit

Yes, time does indeed fly between blog posts. We all know one of the basic axioms of blogging: if you want readers, you must post frequently. Of course, two Thursdays have passed since the last post. Let me tell you, nothing's worse than getting chided in person about the lack of activity at your blog. Nonetheless, it does qualify as motivation — thanks, Deb! — so sans further ado, here's an update.

Two weeks ago (let's see, the 28th of September), the Table was back here at the Showalter homestead, where we tried out a couple of recipes from our favorite cooking magazine, Everyday Food.

Main entrée: Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta. Verdict: Thumbs up. Somehow between the oregano, the mint and the feta cheese, an interesting melding of flavors happened. Bill remarked that he tasted strong overtones of anise . . . but there was no such seasoning in the recipe. (Joel noticed it too when reheating leftovers over the weekend.) Licorice or no, it was a delicious dish. And extremely easy — we used frozen shrimp and pre-crumbled feta. What's not to like?

The magazine recommended Orzo and Green Beans as an accompanying side dish, so we said, what the heck, why not? The verdict? Yum! Honestly, this got more comments than the main dish. And again, incredibly easy. (This is why we love Everyday Food.) I'd never bought orzo before and wasn't sure if our downtown Kroger could deliver. But there was even a "Private Selection" (read: generic) version we bought on the cheap! The subtle lemon flavor makes the dish. We'll be making this one again!

Finally, we capped off the meal with Bill's Apple Crisp Chantilly. Brown sugar, oatmeal, warm apples, cimannum cimmanon cinammon: all the good stuff. It was the perfect end to a fantastic dinner.


The evening ended in Joel's room (!), with the three of us scheming about our New Year's plans. More to come on that, but as the song says . . . what are you doing New Year's Eve? The Thursday Table gang is making plans. Are you?