A good meal

     I had a terrific weekend that was gardening, entertaining, and helping people move. (Two of those activities are some of my favorite things to do.) I had one of my dogsitters and his girlfriend, D, over for dinner. This friend, B, won't accept money for dogsitting, so I wanted to treat them to a meal that would properly show my appreciation. While planning the meal, I had solicited their favorite ingredients: arugula, cilantro, and stinky cheese. I disregarded the cilantro suggestion, because I had trouble incorporating that into my French/Italian meal. (If any of my readers are cleverer, please tell me what you'd do next time with cilantro.)
     We had a five course meal: cauliflower and arugula soup, homemade orecchiette with arugula and pesto, garden salad with peas, a cheese course with no-knead bread, and dessert. Pro tip: if, like me, you have trouble finding decent cheeses at your local grocery store, you can fake it a bit by rolling goat cheese in a freshly chopped herbs. I was most proud of the dessert - my obsession with ice cream is serving me well. I made a walnut pound cake, then topped it with lemon curd custard ice cream and blackberries. The dessert was specially chosen to use up eggs (it took a dozen!) because my recent trip had netted me two dozen farm-fresh eggs, and I wanted to do something delicious with them before they went off. It took us three hours to eat the meal, but that was good practice. My guests are soon headed to France, to visit D's family, and apparently eight-hour-long meals are the norm.
    Today I enjoyed the day-after-a-dinner-party feeling. The house is still clean, all the dishes have been washed, I usually have flowers that people have brought me, and the refrigerator is filled with delicious leftovers.