Yes, I know that I ought to be posting about my Valentine's Day restaurant experience, but I thought I would be a little more belated on that score, since I just got in some fabulous photos from my dinner party last week.
The menu? Vegetarian, in deference to and celebration of my friend Celeste's veggie-ways.
An assortment of olives, cave-aged gruyere and crisp melba crackers were on the coffee table, for those who couldn't wait for the second course. Next, came Steamed Asparagus with a Sauternes Vinaigrette, topped with chopped hard-boiled egg and crunchy pistachio nuts.
Unfortunately, photo-taking had not yet begun - But, trust me, it was divine. Took an ENTIRE bottle of Sauternes and reduced it to a honey-sweet third of a cup. Combined with Dijon mustard, grapeseed oil and a few other sundry ingredients, it made for a lovely sweet-n-sour companion to the bright green stalks.
Next, came the main course - an Artichoke and Mushroom Lasagna. (My first lasagna, in fact.) As for the recipe, I "fixed" a recipe I found on Bon Appetit's Web site, adding thyme to the veggies and layers of crushed San Marzano tomatoes with a sprinkling of oregano. The herbs and tomatoes added a much needed note of freshness and light to the Bechamel-heavy recipe.
As a side dish, I served Sauteed Greenbeans with an Almond-Basil Pesto. Crunchy and heady with basil, it was a beautiful compliment to the lasagna.
Needless, to say, not a bite was left of the lasagna and only a few of the beans remained.
Next, I tackled dessert. I attempted one of Nigella Lawson's recipes: Molten Chocolate Cakes. They sounded heavenly - if warm, oozing chocolate is your idea of heaven. Here they are looking pudding-like, before I slide them into the oven...
Unfortunately, these babies needed a bit more time in the oven, than Nigella had predicted. So, only one made it out of the souffle dish whole.
Still, once a dollop of Quark and a sprinkling of a few fresh raspberries were added, no one seemed to mind.
Oh yes, and then there was the wine. We started in with a bit of the bubbly, courtesy of Celeste and her paramour Tom. Then, we migrated to the red. First up was something special from Aaron - a bottle of his precious non-filtered wine from Tuscany (blue bottle on the left). It was a rich, deep ruby and filled my mouth with the flavor of dark cherries and a hint of licorice. After the bottle was downed, we quickly made "all gone" with two more bottles of red stuff, one brought by my neighbor Chris. Then, with the Molten Chocolate Cakes, we indulged in both a bottle of Braccheto d'Acqui, provided by yours truly, and an equally glorious Moscato d'Asti from my pal Maureen.
The evening's end? Let's just say that the rhythms of the Gipsy Kings and several pairs of dancing feet were involved. (OK - Swaying hips too - Just didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea.)
P.S. Apologies for the HUGE size of the JPEG images. Don't know how to get them to appear smaller. If anyone has any advice, please drop me a line or post instructions below.
P.S.S. Problem solved. Think these resized images look much better.
Yeah, those be large images alright!
One way of handling it is this:
You need to hunt around on you computer system for an image editor, like photoshop. But nearly any half wit of an editor should do fine.
Choose the open command and pull your image into the editor.
Hunt around in the program for something that will allow you to change the SIZE of that image.
Change it to maybe 6 inches by 4 inches of a physical size and maybe 100 dpi/ppi. I like the images for my site 90 to 120 dpi.
Or when you are uploading your images into Movable Type choose POPUP image instead of embedded. And choose a thumbnail size of maybe 250. This will give you nice thumbnail images instead of the full action.
However, you really do want to knock the image down a bit so you're not storing those larger files. Eh?
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | February 18, 2004 at 02:01 PM
Or set your camera to a lower, much lower, resolution ...
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | February 18, 2004 at 02:25 PM
Thanks for the advice. As you can see, the photos have been resized. Much better, yes?
Posted by: the vamp | February 18, 2004 at 04:08 PM
You bet. It made your blog all wide and stuff.
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | February 18, 2004 at 04:10 PM
Yeah. It looked dreadful. BTW - Love your MeatHedge site. I've got a meat-crazy friend (a reformed vegetarian), who will get a real kick out of it.
Posted by: the vamp | February 18, 2004 at 04:13 PM
Hey, that's good news. Thanks !!! I like reformed vegetarians. They're so happy about eating meat.
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | February 18, 2004 at 04:24 PM