The week ahead is going to be a tough one. To end it we'll be saying goodbye to a grandparent. It's never easy but also puts a bummer on the days leading up to it, rightly so.
Our plans for a quiet one were flipped upside down, in the best possible way, by an impromptu dinner party. That sounds very formal, it wasn't.
Some relatively new and very good friends are deserting the country in favour of heading back home to New Zealand. This is offensive and disgusting on so many levels, so I have taken it upon myself to make that decision very hard for them. I have no regrets.
The Saturday special: pastry and coffee.
I baked some kimchi and cheese pinwheels and scoffed about 6.
The aforementioned dinner.
Homemade pasta is a bit of a Saturday routine. Not every week, but lots of weeks of the year the day ends with sipping cocktails, rolling pasta and listening to Craig Charles' funk and soul show. I'd like to spend every possible appropriate Saturday this way.
Dinner came in three parts, two that I cooked, one that the deserters prepared.
To start: a wild gilthead bream crudo or a melon and avocado crudo for those averse to Water Type Pokemon.
The main: crab linguine.
Desert: a lemon tart. Delicious!
Recipes to follow.
Melon and avocado crudo
Gilthead bream crudo
Crab linguine with sourdough muddica atturrata
Cooking for people you love is one of the best feelings out there. Not for praise or expectaions of any kind, but just providing something (hopefully) tasty to hungry bellies. Pasta strands slurped between eye rolling laughter. Bread torn by hand to divvy out evenly. Wines paired and mismatched and double-fisted with tins of beer and cocktails. All for the pure joy of it.
I'll be sad when they leave, but happy that they were in our lives no matter how short a time it may have been.
A project of love and passion Made by Sheppard.