The Aftermath

I've got to confess that I need to work on my "after" picture capturing. I just haven't figured out how to be both a hostess and a historian simultaneously. Some guests may not - SHOCKING - want to be blogged about each time they come over, hubby says. So I've got to use my photo-filter accordingly :) I was able to sneak a few shots, though, so here we go!

Well, at least I remembered to take the plastic off of the silver, and here is the final table setting, with which I was quite pleased:

Roses were on sale at the best floral department ever for $1 each or $7 for a dozen, so I spent a good bit of time there choosing only my very favorite stems to pull together the table with our rust-colored china on the hutch. I also got these peonies to enhance the entry area which are incredibly fragrant - it smells like a wedding in here!

The summer veggie salad ended up offering the perfect splash of color to the ensemble. You'll see that I opted to use my grandmother's and mother's Blue Willow china. Together they have a setting large enough to seat the ARMY, so I was of course, happy to take some odds and ends off of their hands. I love dressing up an all-white setting with variable serving dishes. This is one of the reasons we chose this all-white everyday set. I have my eye on some other sets to accessorize with as the years go on!

For dinner, we served thyme, dill and lemon salmon fillets, summer veggie (fruit?) salad with balsamic, and handmade pasta with pesto and homemade bread.

During the process of cooking, I came across many technique-ish tidbits to share. First off, when making pasta dough, you'll do yourself a favor to roll it into tiny servings (no larger than a lady's fist) before you roll it flat. This will save you from rolling out 3-yard-long pasta noodles, which is really impossible to handle! So wrap each bundle in seran wrap and let sit out for about a half hour while you get other things together:

Use a TON of flour:

Otherwise, you'll just end up with clumpy-pasta city. Trust me.

For the summer salad, we used a mix of cucumbers, red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and red onions. We dressed it in salt, pepper, EVOO and balsamic. This simple mix really did the trick for me, as I was looking for a spin on the traditional lettuce-based salad. The recipe is adapted from a Panzanella recipe I learned over in Italy at Apicius. Traditionally in Italia, cubes of day-old bread would be added, but I left it out since this was a fairly carb-y dinner to begin with and we were using it as a side-dish. Panzanella with bread, however, can make a lovely light lunch for summer days (especially if you add a little fresh mozzarella for sustenance and protein). Just remember these quick tips when you make it:

Always let the red onion bathe in milk for a half hour or so before adding it to the salad. This will really cut the harsh bite of the onion and allow the flavors to marry more happily:

Next, when cutting the cucumber, slice off each end and rub it on the main part of the stock. This creates a vacuum and sucks out all unpleasant acid. You'll see the foaming acid here:

Hubby made these gorgeous salmon fillets with a nice light herby rub, with dill and thyme. He also whipped up a homemade lemon-garlic mayo for dipping:



Keep your bread warm in linens, and serve:




It all turned out quite delicious!

I am thrilled that we have a surprise sunny day today. All week long, forecasts have called for rain, so the light beaming into my living room is quite a happy sight :)

Happy Memorial Day!