Wednesday Night Delight

Last night turned into a beautiful summer evening and I was lucky enough to spend it cooking and dining on my back patio. The menu for the night was spaghetti with pinot grigio and seafood, a green salad, baquette (served with butter sprinkled with sea salt) and a delicious desert of frozen yogurt with berries.

The table was set with bright napkins from Williams Sonoma, whimsical bug napkin rings, wicker place mats and simple glassware and cutlery. The meal was very easy but very tasty and the recipe can be found here. After cooking this for the first time last night a few suggestions that I would like to include would be to add red pepper flakes, put the clams in first (they needed a little more time to cook) and grate lemon zest and parmesan over the pasta once it has been served. This recipe was very light but highlighted the seafood wonderfully and to pair with it we prepared a simple green salad tossed in a green vinaigrette from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris (the recipe is below). For desert we tossed a mix of berries with Splenda then left it in the fridge while we cooked and ate dinner. After the dishes were cleaned up we served the berries over TCBY's white chocolate mousse frozen yogurt. It was a delicious and light way to end a perfect summer meal. I hope you enjoy this meal as much as we did!

Green Salad Vinaigrette (serves salad for 6-8)

- 3 tblsp champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar

- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

- 1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic

- 1 extra large egg yolk at room temperature

- 3/4 tsp kosher salt (I would recommend using only 1/4 to 1/3 tsp.)

- 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

- 1/2 cup good olive oil (extra virgin)

In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, mustard, garlic, egg yolk, salt and pepper. While whisking slowly add the olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified