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Day 2: Impromptu Festivity

Saturday morning, we hosted a dear friend for an impromptu graduation brunch, sending her home to Seattle with crepes and champagne cocktails, designed on the fly. She's graduating this spring and her college has closed for the year, so we took one last chance to celebrate, easing in to social distance style.  No public transit involved!

 I made sure to stock up on things that make food taste fresh: lemon, lime, green onion, parsley, and cilantro.

 Savory and Sweet Crepes
                                                   
The crepe recipe from Serious Eats is less dairy-heavy than some (fewer eggs, far less butter), and still perfectly delicious. I made six plain, which we filled out with sauteed rosemary mushrooms and onions, ham, bits and bobs of cheddar and gruyere from the fridge, and eggs over easy.

 Dessert was chocolate: Add to crepe batter 2 tsp of the sweetened cocoa powder we bought by accident two years ago and have been trying to use up since.  Make a compote from half a bag of frozen cherries, a splash of water, and some dark honey, reducing until the sauce is a thick syrup.  Roll crepe with sour cream; top with compote and dark chocolate shavings.
Cocktail: Prosecco, cointreau, and a lemon twist.  Looks like we shouldn't have tossed that zester in our move.  Oh well; a regular peeler works too!

 Dinner: Teriyaki salmon on lo mein, with black bean asparagus

Marinade salmon filets in TJ's Island Soyaki sauce, bringing closer to room temp while the oven heats to 425.  Remove from marinade and bake on a foil'ed baking sheet for 14 minutes.  At the same time, baked an additional fillet (lemon, salt, pepper, dill) for salmon salad later in the week.

 Asparagus was inspired by this recipe, though the jar of black bean sauce we have is very salty.  I used half as much, and added some sugar and rice wine vinegar for balance.  Believe it or not, cashews were on hand.  So was the lo mein, which soaked up the sauce nicely.  Pantry dive success.

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