Lovely dinner last night

After being good about doing my cross-training, and then biking home, I had a lovely lazy summer night solo dinner to ring in the weekend.

On my ride home, I stopped by the local cheese mart to pick up a Manchego crusted with rosemary and (my favorite--) aged Gouda. I then stopped by Cost Plus to pick up dark chocolate with sea salt, which, to my annoyance, they didn't have, so I picked up a Vosges bar with pink Himalayan salt and Asti Spumate (favorite summer drink) instead.

The neighbors provided some nice jazz music, which wafted languorously through my kitchen window, along with a balmy summer breeze.

I toasted some baguette and roasted some figs.
I heated up some leftover pasta w/ sauce and added some homemade pesto sauce to it.

I was craving salad, so I made myself a big bowl, with bright bitter crunchy greens, shaved Manchego, roasted sunflower seeds (my new obsession), cumin roasted apricots, avocados, and cherry tomatoes picked from my garden. Then I dressed it w/ fig balsamic and a good olive oil saved for such epicurean occasions.

With my salad, I had the aforementioned crusty French bread, roasted figs, and more Manchego.

Good music, good food, and ripe figs that taste like heaven. The only thing missing was Sage Broccoli. For some reason, simple lovely food (especially figs and yummy cheese) and lovely music remind me of her. Back when she was at Stanford, I've had many a lovely simple meal with her and R, when he used to deign to hang out with us.

So I used all of my telepathic powers to summon her. Nothing happened. (Ok, I wasn't exactly expecting her to just show up simply b/c I tried to communicate w/ her via telepathy. But I tried it just in case.) I then went the more practical way and emailed her and asked her to join me for dinner. Harumph. No response. Well, ok, in her defense, it is a bit of a trek from where she currently lives, so perhaps to expect her in less than an hour after emailing her was a bit unreasonable, but still! (Oh, Sage Broccoli, where art thou?)

Anyway, after giving up on the possibility of dining with Sage Broccoli, I sat there, sipped my asti, ate Manchego w/ roasted figs (fabulous combination, in case anyone is wondering. Please go and try this once before you die.), dipped bread in pumpkin seed oil, crunched on my salad and read some Pushkin, which granted isn't as exciting as Sage Broccoli's company, but needs to go back to the library soon.

Somehow, the food, music and drink somehow made me enjoy the verses more than usual.

Then I finished the evening with a postprandial piece of chocolate and relished the sensation of crunching on the caramelized salt pieces. Mmmmmmmm.

Gosh, I love summer evenings.