A night with the Haworths

Friday, I spent much of the day cooking a few of our favorite things. Here are the ingredients for Molly's aunt's lemon-dill salad dressing (with salt and pepper too); I used only a bit of that dill. I just liked having lots of the herbs I used (rosemary , sage, dill, thyme..) hanging out around me while I cooked. Here is the recipe. Please try it.

1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
zest and juice of one lemon
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dill
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Mix all ingredients. For best results, make ahead of time and refrigerate for a few hours to allow flavors to meld.

I also roasted some homemade fries with Nicolas' young yukon gold and red potatoes:
The main event was one of Gillen's Bronze Turkeys.

This feast was inspired by a visit from the Haworths, who were on their way to the beach. As it was also Alex's 14th birthday, we made his favorite dessert, apple crisp with ice cream.
It was our second Thanksgiving feast, just this month. At the other end of May, on the night before I left for Boston, Nicolas' brother Damien and his family came to dinner. That turkey was good as well, but now I've really gotten this turkey preparation thing down. Damien, you'll have to come again. It's all about the overnight brine. I like Wolfgang Puck's recipe - lots of honey, maple syrup, coarse salt, cloves, ginger, herbs... We ate every bit of that bird.

There were mojitas made my Mindy with my neighbor's mint (mmm!) accompanied by lots of good talking:There was night swimming:The next morning there were Mindy's cinnamon rolls, Gillen's birthday sign and the perfect gift to Alex from his siblings - a shirt with his World of Warcraft character on it. A very good time was had by all.