Tuna Toast

Guest cook on Tuna Toast: Dinner at Sister's House


My sister recently moved into a beautiful, big Pasadena apartment after living in a super cute but small one in Silverlake for a few years. Although the Silverlake pad had an amazing view of the lake (well, reservoir) and the hills, it was too small to really entertain in. Her new place is massive, comfortable, has a gigantic patio and a really sweet pool and jacuzzi so you know where I'm going to be spending a lot of my free time!

In order to break in her new place (and dining table...and dishwasher....and sofa....and bar....) she invited my parents and I to dinner last Saturday. We popped a bottle of champagne and enjoyed a light appetizer of cheese/tomato/basil skewers and crackers while she finished cooking the meal. It smelled great and we were all very happy to be taken care of! Isn't it nice when you're invited to someone's house for a home cooked meal? As much as I absolutely love cooking for others, it's nice to be treated to someone else's cooking too.

Wine and appetizers at the bar, anyone?

We sat down to a first course of grilled radicchio salad. The point of grilling the radicchio is to get a slight char and reduce the natural bitterness of the purple leaves. The minute my sister took a bite, she made a face and commented that it was super bitter. After sampling it, we all agreed. It seemed that the grilling made the radicchio MORE bitter than when it was raw. Does anyone out there know if this happens when radicchio is grilled? Anyway, the rest of the salad (especially the cheese!) was great.



Next up: The Main Course! We had roasted rack of lamb with spiced lentils and roasted carrots. The lamb was perfectly pink the the middle and had a light sauce that matched very well with the meat. I love lentils and can pretty much eat them in any preparation and these were fantastic! The biggest surprise, however, were the carrots. I do like carrots but these were just so tender, slightly sweet and very flavorful. A real winner.

Hmmmmm, lamb, lentils and carrots, oh my!

Thanks for a great meal!