Summer Starter Dinner

What a lovely dinner we have for you! It's a super light and healthy but a highly satisfying meal. I'm a pretty big fan. This dinner was sparked because Lindsay had flown in from London for the weekend... I pretty much just mentioned that because it sounds so cool... Which was fun and overshadowed the fact that our dearest third mate Kate was moving out. Off to sunnier skies and better produce. Sigh. 

It also came out that Kate had no idea Friday Dinner's blog exists which was hard for me to understand as I'm pretty sure it's the only thing Alayna I talk about, minus the cat. 

Okay, ready, set, go: 

Baked Salmon, Arugula Awesome, Mango, Strawberry & Mint Salad, AND CousCous Crazy

I know, what exciting names! And four courses! But it's so easy. What a dream. Read on.

Lauren Cook, a mango and Alayna. Whipping together the fruit/mint salad. Lauren, I have to admit, is still the winner for most enthusiastic Monday Soup fan. The competition is on-going, but Lauren is doing pretty darn well. (Example: Opening the door for Gavin and introducing herself this way: "Hi, I'm Lauren, you may recognize me from the Monday Soup's blog."

This has nothing to do with dinner. I'm just showing off my dress. 

Slicing the mangoes.

Setting the table! So many goblets!

Eating!!

Here We Go:

Baked Salmon:

Put salmon in a pyrex dish. Squeeze fresh lemon juice onto the salmon, and then sprinkle with thyme. Cook at 375 for about 30 min. When fish is cooked through, it should flake away easily with a fork and be a consistent pink color all the way through.

CousCous Crazy:

Make couscous according to instructions. Once it is cooked through, add a handful of chopped parsley, about half a red onion (chopped), 2 roma tomatoes (chopped) and chopped red pepper (about half a pepper). Stir in a big bowl and serve.

Arugula Awesome:

Cut a large gala (or other type... preferably crispy!) apple into bite size slices and put onto a bed of arugula. Shred parmesean-romano cheese on top (i like a lot). For salad dressing, mix the juice from half a lemon, about a spoonful of honey, and a tiny splash of olive oil (about 1tsp)... mix well and then toss into salad. The lemon will keep the apple slices from browning so you can make ahead.

Mango, Strawberry & Mint Salad:

Wash and cut up mangoes, strawberries and mint. Mix them in a bowl. Delicious.

For dessert we had Rhubarb Crisp, thanks to Lindsay's magic. Lindsay add the recipe as a comment to this post so we can all copy the recipe and eat that wonderful thing again. Thank you.

That is the end of Rhubarb Crisp.

I'll leave you with a series I call, "How I look when I describe the stabbing I witnessed on our street yesterday."