Ode to Charcuterie Plates!...and Rubin Morales

Meet the newest member of our family, Rubin Morales! The photos were taken after I looked high and low for him. I must have not looked high enough because I found him in the closet on top of a stack of Ray's hats. Anyways, I digress...

We recently had the great pleasure of having another equally as food saavy couple join us for dinner. I have to admit it was just as refreshing as the Torrentes they brought.

G and F came to check out our new pad and were sweet enough to bring Torrentes, (my FAVORITE wine in the entire world) some olives, this deliciously nutty Dutch hard cheese whose name escapes me, AND a good buck bamboo plant as a housewarming gift. Best dinner guests ever!

Funnily enough I happened to be working on a cheese plate to serve them when they arrived; with our powers combined we made an ultimate one.

***Quick tip...if you are in a bind like I was with a totally stale baguette in the final hour before my guests arrived...run the baguette under water really quickly and toss in the oven at 350 until the outside is crusty and golden brown, roughly 7 minutes depending on how much baguette was left. The inside will be soft and chewy and no one will know your dirty little secret!

Shown clockwise in this photo: some french baguette toasts I drizzled in olive oil, olives marinated with roasted red peppers, that deliciously nutty hard cheese previously mentioned, pork and chicken pâté, smoked gouda, Humbolt Fog (an out- of-this-world goat cheese punctuated with a hyphen of divine vegetable ash), turkey pepperoni (less greasy than the regular), and finally a ramekin of this cheese marketed as "Farmer's Cheese." That name means absolutely nothing to me; however, to give it some context: it has the texture of ricotta, with the tang of a goat cheese and a final low note reminiscent of cottage cheese.

It was all a perfect prelude to a simple dinner of baked salmon with grilled leeks, basmati rice, and a spring mix salad with homemade vinaigrette. For dessert we had apple pie a la mode with some green tea to wash it all down.

Thanks, friends for a lovely dinner...à la prochaine!