May 25th - Basil night

Tonight's guests were Katie Sensabaugh, one of Mike's debaters, and her boyfriend, Ryan Wolz, as well as four people I did not know. One of the four was Kelsey Dayton, one of Mike's former students. She brought along her sister, Natalie Dayton, her boyfriend Caleb Reed, and her best friend, Emily Schloff. Dinners like this are one of the reasons that I love doing Cafe Davis. Sure, I get annoyed and stressed out quite a bit during this month-long entertaining fiasco, but then nights like this come along and I feel like I have the unique opportunity to get to know cool people that I would probably never come in contact with otherwise. I'm really glad that there are adventurous guests out there willing to take a chance on dinner with a complete stranger. No offense to all of you that I know already, but I love the interesting dynamics that come sharing Cafe Davis with new friends!

(From L to R: Ryan, Katie, Emily, Natalie, Caleb, and Kelsey)

Now on to the meal... tonight's ingredient was basil. Thinking ahead, I made sure we bought a number of basil varieties and planted them in the garden well in advance. In tonight's dishes I included spicy globe basil, run-of-the-mill sweet basil, lettuce leaf basil, and purple basil. The menu consisted of baguette with goat cheese, roasted peppers and sweet basil; green tomato, purple basil and shaved Parmesan salad; grilled tilapia with lemon basil vinaigrette; roasted garlic and fresh basil mashed potatoes; and savory green beans. I've been pleasantly surprised this entire month because, even though each menu centers around the repetition of one ingredient, the meals have seemed relatively balanced. The basil meal was definitely basil-y, but not overwhelmingly so.

The tomato salad made me really look forward to the tomatoes ripening in the garden. Salads like this are a staple during the summer months at our house, and I thought this one was interesting because it included a couple of green tomatoes in the mix. The green tomatoes didn't alter the flavor, but changed the texture a bit with a nice periodic crunch. I have a very limited imagination when it comes to using green tomatoes, so I think this will encourage me to try new things more often. Here's the SIMPLE recipe:

Green Tomato, Purple Basil and Shaved Parmesan Salad
Serves 4 (from www.readysteadycook.ten.com.au)

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 red tomatoes
2 green tomatoes
1/2 cup sweet basil leaves, chiffonade
1/2 cup purple basil leaves, chiffonade
Shaved Parmesan, to serve

1. Combine olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper in a bowl. Cut tomatoes into wedges and add to the dressing. Add basil and toss gently to combine.
2. Serve topped with shaved Parmesan.

Hmmm... what other recipes should I share? I thought that tonight's tilapia was good and that the mashed potatoes were just the right amount of bad-for-you to be tasty, but in all honesty, I really enjoyed this green bean recipe. They were easy (hallmark of a good recipe in my book), but had a nice flavor and were a good break from boiled/steamed/boring beans. I think I will definitely make these again, and just as a note, I think that using sea salt was a better choice than table salt. I probably used less than the recipe called for, but I think the result was more savory (the goal) and less salty (like I was afraid they would be).

Savory Green Beans
Serves 4 (from About.com)

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
- 1 pound green beans, washed and trimmed
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 clove garlic, cut in half
- 1 Tbsp chopped onion
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried leaf basil, crumbled
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup boiling water

Preparation:
Snap green beans in halves. Heat oil and butter in a skillet; saute onion and garlic until softened. Remove garlic from the skillet. Add green beans, salt, basil, sugar, pepper, and boiling water. Cover and cook over medium heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Add a little more water, if necessary.


Finally, in some non-cooking news, I finally got around to making the aloe face cream. For those of you interested in that particular experiment, the ratio seems to be two large aloe leaves to one cucumber, plus 2 cups distilled water. I first peeled and diced the aloe, yielding this appetizing cutting board of slimy jiggle:

I was curious about what it tasted like, so I tried a piece. It wasn't unpleasant. It had a slight cucumber flavor, and the slimy coating didn't even seem like that big of a deal. Maybe I will be more adventurous some day and give it a try in a real recipe. Maybe...

The end result of the facial mixture is still pretty slimy. I strained it through a fine sieve to get all of the cucumber chunks out of it because the food processor didn't puree it finely enough. Surprisingly, it dries on the skin pretty quickly, only had a faint cucumber smell, and wasn't annoying to sleep in at all. I got Mike to try it too, and he seemed pretty happy about the results the next day. I didn't notice quite as much of an effect as he did, but I'll keep up the regimen for a week. Except for last night, I didn't. You have to store the aloe mixture in the refrigerator, and it was way too cold for me to slather on my face. Tonight, I'll let it warm to room temperature before I give it a whirl.

Cafe Davis is winding down! In the homestretch now... if you plan on making reservations, do it now!