Kitchen Adventures

Apparently Charlotte Russe isn't just a clothing store for teens and thirty-somethings pretending to be twenty-somethings (not unlike myself from time to time). I learned this last week on Girls' Day.

Girls' Day is usually every Thursday. Jenny has Thursdays off without fail and I have most Thursdays off. Most weeks I go pick up Jenny downtown after I get off work Wednesday night and bring her back to our house, where she makes dinner and then we plot our adventures for the following day.

This past week I was having a BAD DAY AT WORK on Wednesday (more about that later - I have to figure out how to talk about it without pulling a dooce). Scott picked Jenny up when he was off work and called to tell me that Jenny was going to make dinner and I was going to LOVE it.


When I walked in the door to the kitchen, there she was, slaving away over a complex Mediterranean meal. She had everything pretty much under control but wanted my help with some chickpea-ricotta gnocchi. Surprisingly, it was easier than expected and soon it was time for dinner!


The appetizer part of the meal was pita slices and a cheese dip made from feta, cream cheese, garlic and several other spices.

The next course was toasted pitas topped with humus, caramelized red onions and kalamata olives.

We followed that with a cous-cous and english cucumber salad with lemon-yogurt dressing and fresh mint and parsley from our herb garden in the back yard.

Our entree was the gnocchi in a tomato sauce that included coconut milk, onions, curry powder, coriander and several other yummy things.

All the recipes excepting the pita pizzas were from one of Jenny's new cookbooks "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" and it was ALL fantastic.

The following day (Thursday) we slept in for a bit and then met up with our friend "Boots" for lunch at Pepe's. We all enjoyed different variants of grilled cheese sandwiches and then retired back to Boots' house to make dessert and spend some time by the pool.

Through a series of events that are totally irrelevant, Boots has acquired a massive amount of ladyfingers. The obvious choice to some would be to make Tiramisu, but Boots is not a fan of coffee.

Jenny dug into another of her new cookbooks - The Joy of Cooking and found a recipe for Charlotte Russe. Boots contributed raspberry jam and raspberry liqeur, which I then painted over ladyfingers lining a bowl.

Meanwhile Jenny hand-whipped egg yolks, sugar and gelatin over a double-boiler to make a custard. This requires about fifteen minutes of constant whipping to avoid the eggs starting to scramble.

The custard was layered over the ladyfingers and about this time I read the end of the recipe and pointed out that it has to refrigerate for 8 hours before being consumed. Gah!






Since it was clear we weren't going to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor for some time, we decided to relax by the pool.