Wayne replied:

>> Lin and I went to the Courtland Pear Festival last Sunday, so we had some
>> pears to use up. I made chicken salad with chopped pears, blue cheese,
>> pecans, celery, mayo, salt, and pepper.
>>
>> I had it on multi-grain toast (because toasted Truckee Sourdough Company
>> multi-grain bread is awesome, and almost a meal in itself), but it would
>> have also been good wrapped in lettuce.
>>
>
> Sounds very good!

Thanks, Lin and I both liked it. We've had a couple very good light dinners
since getting back from our travels last week:

1. We had a leftover grilled strip steak. We sliced it thinly and put it
onto a salad with arugula, lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, and Gorgonzola.
The salad was dressed with "Marie's Spinach Salad" dressing, which is a kind
of light (slightly sweet) vinaigrette.


2. I made pizza marguerite (using the pizza dough recipe in _Baking With
Julia_, cherry tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella). It was accompanied by a
salad which contained leaf lettuce, tomatoes from our garden, crisp bacon,
Parm-Reggiano cheese, and edamame.


3. Last Saturday's episode of "America's Test Kitchen" dealt with grilled
Cornish hens. Since we just happened to have a couple of them in the
freezer, Lin grilled them and they came out perfectly. With it, we had pasta
(a mixture of penne and radiatore) with basil, roasted zucchini, olives, and
sun-dried tomatoes, dressed with lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, salt,
and pepper. I made lemonade with a basil simple syrup, and we also had some
locally-made rosemary ciabatta which we dipped in balsamic vinegar and
extra-virgin olive oil.

I had some leftover pizza dough, so I used it as the starter for the
Mixed-Starter Bread from _Baking With Julia_. I miscalculated how long it
takes to make, so I got very little sleep before coming in to work
tonight -- but I'm sure it was worth it!

Next on my list of things to make is some kind of frozen strawberry thing.
We bought some local strawberries on Tuesday, but they wilted almost
immediately, so rather than having them uncooked (which is how I leave them
for a strawberry tart), I'll have to cook them. I like the combination of
strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar, so maybe I'll make an ice cream
using those flavors. Or maybe I'll slice them, cook them with red wine,
lemon juice, sugar, and black pepper, then strain and make a sorbet.


Bob, still looking forward to the first BLT of the summer