a dinner to help heal

We all have our ways of taking care of people we love. For me, it's cooking for them. It's the ultimate form of nourishment—for the body AND spirit. So when I found out my girlfriend was going through a rough time, I decided to host a little dinner party with her and another girlfriend to get her mind of things.

So tonight, my friends are coming over for dinner at 7:30. (Colin's now in London with Mark lucky goose). I'm making homemade sweet potato ravioli with sage and brown butter sauce (that's Lauren's amazing recipe!) and my absolute favorite EatingWell salad recipe, a spinach salad with warm maple dressing (I add an apple for good luck and use Shelburne Smoked cheddar cheese). And for dessert, I'm considering breaking out my torch for some creme brulee. Sounds good huh?

The nice thing about cooking for other people is that the cook gets to enjoy it too. :-)

Puerto Rican lasagna

Mummy and Papa came to town on Monday so we could all have dinner together and pull names for Christmas. Papa made the most amazing dish, which he called "Puerto Rican Lasagna." It was like a lasagna in that it was a layered casserole with cheese, but instead of noodles, he used fried plantains (Mmmm!) and instead of tomato sauce, he used picadillo, which is just a ground meat mixture with lots of spices and seasoning. It was so yummy—even baby Sapphire couldn't get enough.

Colin will be sad to have missed it (he's been in Austria this week for work). But word is that Papa's bringing some moose meat for day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast. So ALL IS GOOD.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I need to go find me some Brussels sprouts at the farmers' market. Byebye.

montreal lunch

Well, we didn't get up at sparrow fart, but we did go to Montreal for a late lunch yesterday. We arrived around 1 and went straight to Rue St. Denis for lunch at L'Express. I've always wanted to go there because I've heard such great things about it. The ambiance is like a traditional French bistro—we felt like we were back in Paris. And just an hour and a half drive away! The menu offers all of the classics: croque monsieur, chevre chaud salad, steak frites... but we weren't blown away by the food. In fact, I think the best part of the meal was our espressos at the end. But we didn't really care. It was the perfect getaway.

Did a little shopping after lunch, hopped in the car and we were back home before 8pm.

Seriously, I don't know why we don't go there more often. It's so close and so refreshing. Every time we go, we say, "We should do this more often."

yes, which way?

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my weekend now that it's here. The responsible side of me was planning to stay home and clean and do errands. But the wild side is feeling bored with being responsible and working and doing things just to cross them off the list. So maybe I should just have fun for once?

I kinda just want to hop in the car at sparrow fart and drive up to Montreal for the day. Maybe...

hearts of palm

I've been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. It comes and goes in phases.

She used to put hearts of palm in her salads. And she had a special secret salad dressing recipe that I just loved. Hearts of palm in your salad are just amazing. They kind of taste like canned artichokes hearts. But they're more tender and slightly more tangy.

Anywho, tonight I had dinner with some of my girlfriends. Elisa made a yummy salad with hearts of palm. It reminded me of Mama Sonia.

I thought: that's funny, when you've got someone—or something—on your mind, it seems that reminders of them just pop up everywhere. Or maybe I'm just searching for them. Like the hearts of palm in the salad.