A Lovely Sunday Night

This weekend my roommate Kerry and I decided to have a lovely Sunday night dinner. The weather was perfect and there was no better night to dine on our terrace. So we prepare a delightful menu that had us wobbling back to the living room to watch Harry Potter.

We started off with a delightful Waldorf salad, courtesy of Mr. Emeril Lagasse. Here is recipe taken directly from the Food Network:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/4 cup grated yellow onion
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch cayenne
• 2 cups diced sweet red apples, such as Gala or Jonathan (2 to 3 medium apples)
• 1 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1/2 cup red seedless grapes, halved
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces, broken
• 1 head Bibb lettuce, cored and leaves separated

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise and vinegar. Slowly add 1/3 cup buttermilk, whisking to thicken. Add the blue cheese, onion, salt,

pepper, and cayenne, and whisk well to combine, adding

more buttermilk, as desired. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the

apples, celery, grapes, and walnuts. Add the dressing, to taste, and toss well.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on 6 salad plates. Top with the tossed salad and serve.

That little kick of Cayenne really does wonders! I mean this salad is a keeper. Word to the wise...go easy on the onion, between that and the bleu cheese its a pretty potent dressing...

For our next course I made an incredible Italian sausage,mushroom, onion and vodka sauce pasta. On Saturday the kind people from Bertolli were out in Union Square handing out their new90 second vodka sauce. Never one to turn down

anything free, I graciously took it. In fact I got one for Kerry too, so really we had two (and we needed it).

I started out by first going to Chelsea Market and going into their delightful Italian market for some fresh spicy sausage, and homemade pasta.

When I got home I chopped the onion and sliced the mushrooms and threw it all in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil, butter and oregano. Let that cook for a little bit (10 minutes or so), then I threw in the sausage and let that all meld togeth for about 5 minutes. Dumped the sauce into the skillet. Let that all cook together for a while and boom. Done. Tossed the cooked pasta and we had out meal.

It really was the perfect end to a great weekend!