My Dining Table

We actually ate in a civilized manner last night, as my computer is up on the kitchen counter and all my papers are stored temporarily while we entertain guests.

As an incentive for putting up my piles of paper, I got four new placemats and napkins, and five small votive candle holders. It’s the middle of the night so I won’t take a photo for you now, as the camera is up in our room in the closet and I don’t want to wake the husband or the dog or the guests in the guest room.

They’re really not my style but we have a dark red accent wall downstairs and I found Indonesian-inspired placemats in reds, oranges and yellows and yesterday picked out neutral yellow napkins and rattan napkin-holders. Then I bought five sunflowers and placed them in a pretty vase that came with the place. For new readers, we took two cars with luggage and necessities and one dog halfway across the country over a year ago, and all our worldly belongings are in storage back there! Yes, we thrive on adventure. I really do have dishes, vases, napkin holders, votive candle holders (and candles), just not here.

I had planned on burgers last night but first started out with picking my mother-in-law and our nephew up at the airport then went to the copper mine to see the big trucks. When we got to the house, my nephew was all a-twitter with the new environment, his first plane ride et al, and our dog Zoe. I decided to try a totally new menu.

From The Dish With Food & Wine, a few weeks ago, I made Soy-Glazed Chicken Yakitori. It was delicious. It calls for skewers of chicken, scallion and shiitake mushroom. My husband doesn’t like shiitake mushrooms so I substituted chunks of red bell pepper. For the sauce I had to obtain ketjap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce) from a mail-order company and that sauce was delicious. My husband overcooked the chicken a bit, as it was pouring and thundering and lighning out at the grill and with a young boy running around…. but it was tasty.

I paired it with cold sesame noodles, a recipe from Epicurious, as my favorite recipe for this dish is from Deborah Madison’s Greens cookbook, and still is. I shouldn’t have dressed the noodles so early because they drank up all the marinade, but those noodles were tasty. Deborah Madison’s book can be found on my cookbook list.

Veggies included two bunch of radishes, tossed with oil, salt and pepper; three ears of corn on the cob; and sliced tomatoes with olive oil and basil, s & p. We didn’t have room for dessert!

A visit to the grocery store is a must tomorrow, though there is little room in the frig or freezer. I ordered my farm-fresh goods in bulk that arrived early yesterday morning and even got the non-organic (they don’t carry organic anymore) “surprise” package. In it were a very green pineapple, a mango, two avocados, four tomatoes, four kiwis and a bunch of red radishes that I mixed with my red, pink and white ones in a bowl for munching.

I think it was good day, and we were all tired as our guests are missing an hour. So I’m up writing and planning for tomorrow. It’s a good plan and leaves all the activities to our guests, plus timing, so I just have to get them started and do all the stuff I didn’t get done yesterday like mail, drycleaning, grocery shopping. What’s a hostess to do? Cheers, Dee