Saturday Dining

SEMOLINA PASTA and WHITE WINE for lunch

For today at lunch, I cooked the easiest recipe to make, PASTA! Everyone loves pasta, I love pasta, my family does, my friends do and some other people I know. And take note-I made my sauce fresh from my own home grown tomatoes! Yesiree! I froze all my harvest of fresh beef tomatoes from my yard last summer and fall (I planted an assorted variety in spring 2005). After doing my research online, I did the trick: blanched them then vacuum packed them. Presto, after many months of having been in my freezer, they are still as good as new! And even better than those whole canned tomatoes because they were organically grown and I didn't use preservatives! This spring 2006, I still have my last batch of beef tomatoes and cooked them today for lunch; made "semolina pasta sauce" with sweet basil leaves. I served this pasta for lunch with white wine and cheese. Unfortunately, we ran out of Romano cheese so I just used the cheddar which we have at the fridge, still it tasted good although it would have been perfect with Romano cheese as topping! But whattheheck, it went to fill our gastronomic delight! I didn't put mint leaves as they are out of season. It's not a good thing to use the dried ones for this as garnishing. But it still tasted delicious. Yum! Yum! We had this pasta and wine for lunch and ate in front of our t.v. As usual, I placed the foodstuff atop our coffee table and voila, perfect! Husband and I love fine dining- so every day, even if it is just me and him at home, I make sure we use the real McCoy (fine China, cutlery, placemat and linen). We are simple folks but dining is important to us. Ambience is another thing that ignites us with warmth and passion so I make sure this is taken care of. How about you? Bon appetito!

Simple linen folding as shown on the left could enhance the attractiveness of one's table setting. For more tips on fine cooking and food prep, log on to www.foodnetwork.com It helps!