Cooking for one

When Jeff is out of town, such as he was this weekend, I'm left to my own devices meaning I get to cook whatever I want, just for me. Since Jeff is not a fish-lover, I picked up a couple Red Snapper fillets on Friday and following Ms. Ray, produced a rather nice late night dinner for myself. Unremarkable in and of itself except that I've never made fish before. I'd admit the caper and white wine sause wasn't exactly top quality...too many flavors that stood out instead of blending, but the fish was cooked and it wasn't difficult so it's a winner.

On Saturday, I jumped from Rachel to Giada Di Laurentis's Italian Picnic. I have sort of a love/hate thing with Giada. She's amazingly beautiful, her cooking is so easy-looking and relaxed, but she's got this italian thing when she speaks that sort of disrupts the whole image for me. That being said, the recipe for the Caponata Sandwiches sounded too good to be true so I whipped up a batch yesterday and it was awesome. Full of flavor, sweet and sour, it has it all.

I've been trying to expand my cocktail experiences and started looking for my summer drink, other than strong white wine. While in Boston last week having drinks with Ron, I discovered that I love a good gin and tonic. Cool and refreshing, it is perfect for me. Then along came the NYTimes article on their summer cocktail contest winner, The Cuke, which is a horrible name but a compelling recipe. I whipped up a batch of them last night and they were awesome. I'm not sure if I'd make them for just myself, but having friends over (Nick and Steve gave them thumbs up last night, too), I'd throw a pitcher of them together and share.