pretty darned good meals

On Friday night, my mother arrived after a long trip. I made dinner so we could relax and be flexible. We had spanekopita (from Costco -- they come as little triangle appetizers which you just need to bake), fresh tasty salad, and rice. I also made a stir fry of onions, mushrooms, baby turnips, and a little chopped spinach, tossed with toasted sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, and soy sauce. I took three pieces of chocolate hazelnut birthday cake out of the freezer and we slowly and dreamily ate cake for dessert. Definitely a successful meal.

Saturday morning, I made a little fruit salad from strawberries (picked at the farm), kiwi, and apple. We served it with granola, yogurt, and maple syrup. This is a favorite weekend breakfast.

And this evening, I made a light salad -- the last of last week's farm supply of greens -- escarole, red leaf and green leaf lettuce, some chopped turnips (from the farm), a cubed steamed potato, scallions (also from the farm). I tossed it with pitted black olives and capers and a dressing made of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and grey poupon mustard. Then I sliced roasted smoked peppered salmon (a great Costco find -- it comes as a pound package, half peppered, half plain) on top.

It was supposed to be a pseudo salade Nicoise, but we were missing the blanched green beans, the hard-boiled eggs, and the cherry tomatoes. No matter; it was delicious. And gosh darn it, the instructions on the salmon say to eat the rest within four days, so I might get another chance to achieve perfection before the week is out. Perhaps I can keep missing by a little bit each time so that I continue to have something to strive for.