Back to food, and more

Back to food, one of my favorite topics.

Yesterday I made pasta with bay scallops (the tiny kind, 60-80 count), brocolli, and a yummy pesto I made on Sunday with parsley and basil. I like making pesto with a 50-50 mix of parsley and basil because the parsley stays green with refrigeration whereas the basil turns black after a while. It doesn't affect the taste, just the asethetics, but I must remember to balance all three senses--color, fragrance, and taste--in my cooking so as not to offend my Chinese ancestors. Anyway, the pesto was great with the pasta. I still have a jar enough for at least 2 more similar sized meals, or maybe one good dinner with friends. Guess I should pull up that address list on my Yahoo mail before the summer is over.

Tonight's dinner was broiled chicken breast with a balsamic glaze. OK, I confess, the glaze was from a bottle, and a free sample from Peapod no less, but it was good stuff. Talking about friends, the last time I used it was almost a whole year ago when an old friend visited from LA with her fiance. She's a teacher and he's an artist. We had great fun and got several very creative original prints a few months later as thank you gifts.

After dinner, I played the piano for a while. Yes, after one's filled with good food, one needs food for the soul as well. I picked up this volume of 68 piano classics from Borders the other day for under $8. It contains a wide range of pieces from Bach to Shostakovitch. But unlike the other 3 or 4 compilations I own, I haven't played at least half of these songs before. It promises to be a fun summer of piano adventures.

Here's what I played tonight: Beethoven's Ecossaises (sounds vaguely Asian, very delightful tune); Beethoven's Minuet in G (heard this before, didn't know it was Beethoven); the intro and Var. 1 of Beethoven's Six Variations from the opera La Molinara (never played this before, will try the other variations later in the week); Brahms' Hungarian Dance (a bit heavy fingered, hey I was sight-reading after all); Chopin's Prelude Op. 28. No. 7 (a short three liner); Caesar Franck's The Doll's Complaint (or Le Plaintes d'une Poupee); and finally Mendelssohn's Venetian Boat Song Op. 19. No. 6 (which I practiced for months years and years ago for music festival competition). It felt good to pour my feelings on the keyboard for a while at the end of a work day.