shortlist no. 24 / march 6, 2011

Here I am, still trying to catch up on forgotten shortlists. This dinner was, unfortunately, not very memorable. After serving what I always serve as appetizers, I made my mom’s classic bourekas, which is always a crowd-pleaser but, though it’s delicious and simple and reminds me of everything good, but I wouldn’t serve it to the Queen, if you know what I mean. The pasta…that was all Francesco. I’ve told you before about how I used to find his cooking appalling, and how things have improved exponentially since the pasta con rabe incident. Just the other night, for example, he made me some delicious black eyed cod (trevalla for all you Aussies) with cherry tomatoes. Yes, I suggested how to cook it but he did everything himself and it was perfect.

But this pasta? This pasta brought us back into the middle ages. It was so ridiculously over-liquored, which is saying something coming from me. I think he made it with sausage, passata, cream and brandy, but all you could taste was the sickly sweet liquor. Blech. Our guests didn’t seem to mind too much, though, so maybe my aversion was just the tapeworm telling me to steer clear of the booze.

And even the pound cake, while totally respectable and everything a pound cake should be, looked out of place served for dessert. All in all, this dinner was kind of humph. But it was from 2 months ago, so I’ve already gotten over it.

And since then, we’ve both redeemed ourselves many times….stay tuned!

early fall dinner for 4 plus a toddler (who am I kidding? There are no seasons here)

homemade pita chips with labne with za’atar

fresh bread with salame and cheese

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bourekas with broccoli and feta

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pasta with sausage and brandy

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vanilla pound cake with lemon blueberry sauce