I started feeling panicky (no yoga today and you have no idea how much it sucks working on your day off, except probably you do!) about my party, and all the things I should have been doing all week to prepare, but didn’t do. At these moments, I imagine Nigella Lawson looking up at me from her cutting board and saying something like, “Darling, it’s just dinner,” and I feel a little bit better. (I’m not sure if that ‘spirit animal’ thing is a widespread meme or just a Tumblrism or just a Gouldism, but if I have a spirit animal, it’s probably second season Nigella Bites Nigella Lawson.)
Anyway, since I knew I’d be slaving over a hot stove tomorrow, I relished the opportunity to go to dinner with friends tonight and be taken care of. It wasn’t a great restaurant, but I think I ordered the best thing on the menu - prosciutto and arugula salad with pears, walnuts, saltanas, and goat cheese. It was drizzled with a lemon vinaigrette as well as balsamic vinegar, which perfectly countered the sweetness of the pears and golden raisins. I love arugula, but I hate that sometimes the stems go up my nose as I’m grazing on way too big a bite.
Everyone shared a starter of calamari (tender and fried to perfection, but I still wasn’t feeling it) and bruschetta (more like one of those frozen french bread pizzas) and three of us had the cream of mushroom soup. I felt the soup was too salty and too rich, but definitely in the way I want every cream soup I eat to be too salty and too rich. I’d have been more impressed if the soup were both light and delicious, rather than stereotypically sodium-loaded, but oh well.
Also, I had two glasses of shiraz in honor of Amanda Finelli, who sent me the first chapter of her book today, which was brilliant and a total cocktease. All I want for Purim is her company. And to not lose hair over my party.
