Cheese and sausage

This actually worked out really well. I had a girl over who I'm no longer "not-dating", but she is still a good friend so we needed to catch up. When I went over to her place for dinner once, she served me squirrel food. But I don't blame her, she didn't have a kitchen. But she swore that this is her typical dinner and she enjoys it.

Well, I eat pretty heavy lunches, so I've started cutting back on dinners a bit. Plus every nutritionist says to eat smaller dinners. So I acquired the following for dinner:

- smoked gouda - I had some really good stuff from Lazy Acres (kind of like Whole Foods, which we don't have here, sigh).
- wheat bread - There is a bakery around the corner (D'Angelos) which does fabulous breads (but thier pastries kind of suck.. I'll have to mention Tartine up in the city (SF) some time. The best eclairs and lemon tarts... drool).
- salami - yum, she didn't have any, but yum
- grapes - what goes better with cheese and salami than grapes. these were from the farmer's market. they are in season now!!! go out and get some
- green beans - also from the farmer's market, a staple of mine these days. i steamed them till they were still a firm, but bright green.
- white wine - she had bought the bottle when she was in the bay area this summer. It was "Thomas Fogarty" 2005 Monterey Chardonnay (Ventana Vineyards). Also yum

When she called before dinner she suggested we do just what I had been planning. :) So I just said for her to bring a cheese of her liking if she wanted, but it was all taken care of. What did she bring, but Pepper Jack, which I would have loved, but it was "tofu" cheese. I have to say the peppers were nice, but the cheese tasted like rubber. Yuck! What a waste, but she seemed to like it.

I took out my cutting board and put it on the kitchen table. I got my new bread knife (which I love) and a knife for the cheese and we went to work. It was really nice just picking through the finger food, chatting, and drinking some tasty wine. If I had actually been dating her it would have been really nice, especially with some candles and if I had dimmed the lights. All in all it worked well, and I've repeated this basic meal (usually w/o the wine) most evenings this week.

Afterwards I had some small cookies from Tartine (again, best pastries every, well, best one I've been to in the US.. I can think of plenty in Paris and Rome which beat it). They were very thin and crispy with nuts and Scharffen Berger chocolate (Scharffen Berger, that's another post too).

Off to grill meat tomorrow at a friend's house warming party. They are having a bring your own meat bbq, and they will provide all the side dishes and drinks. Great idea, but I still need to figure out if I'm going to go burger, sausage, or marinaded meat. Hmm.