Saturday Night

One of my favorite Thanksgivings here in California started with a long bike ride with our great friends Lori and Michael and their son, who is a bit older than Hot Wheels. We feel like we’ve known them all our lives. That Thanksgiving, we decided to each try making a dish that we’d never made before. It ended up being remarkably delicious and fun. (It helps to try this idea with friends who wouldn’t care a bit if your recipe bombed or the soup turned blue. It doesn’t hurt to have a couple of bottles of good wine for backup.)

On Saturday, we all got together and tried it again.

 

Michael made this ridiculously delicious pumpkin and red onion dish with a cilantro/parsley pesto. Phenomenal. We had also roasted some potatoes and sweet potatoes, and the pesto was great on those, too.

 

I made roasted beets with cornbread croutons, citrus vinaigrette, goat cheese and bacon (Tom got the pretend kind), using a recipe from Bon Appetit. That came out well, once the beets were finally finished. They took forever. Fortunately I’d taken my own advice in the wine department.

 

Lori was batting cleanup with her first-ever bundt cake. It was a chocolate cake with dulce de leche sauce. I kid you not. It was a thing of beauty.

At the end of the evening, Lori thought the bundt was a little dry, but that criticism doesn’t quite resonate with my stomach, as I’ve just polished off two pieces this evening. Perhaps I should ask her to make it a bit more dry the next time?

Now that, Ellen, gets categorized under tasty!!