Celebrating with a Celebrity

 

Thursday, July 19, 2012 – Celebrating with a Celebrity

This morning, Elliott put aside all thoughts of pain, dressed entirely in black, and hid his gorgeous blue eyes behind sunglasses when we went for our workout at Lifetime.  Even in his international man of mystery disguise, he was recognized by some of his many fans.  Such is the life of a celebrity.  As the world’s sexiest centenarian, he can’t escape all the attention. 

We ignored the weather (still hot and humid) and spent a major chunk of the day driving around northern Virginia to do errands.  At our first stop, we ordered frames for three beautiful landscape photographs taken by longtime friend Frank Di Perna.  Then it was lunchtime, so we stopped at the aptly named Celebrity Delly (yes, that’s how they spell it here) and filled our bellies with deli sandwiches.  Elliott’s had pastrami and corned beef, cheese and coleslaw, all on buttery toasted rye; mine was a vegetarian Reuben.  They were so messy – and oh, so delicious.  We should go there more often.  Next stop was the bakery in Alexandria, to pick up my birthday cake.  Our final destination was the pain center for Elliott’s new painkiller prescription.  (At my urging, he finally got in touch with the doctor earlier today.)

There was barely time to caffeinate, set the table, and start preparing for dinner.  Inspired by thoughts of chicken curry, I decided to try cooking some fresh summer vegetables in the new coconut oil that I recently purchased at Trader Joe’s.  Although the waxy-looking white stuff in the jar looked a bit off-putting, I went ahead and decided to experiment because when it comes to food, I’ll try almost anything once, as long as it doesn’t come from an animal that walks.  First, I used it to fry the very thin slices of onion until they were ultra-crispy.  Then I put a little more in the pan to sauté the zucchini and yellow squash.  I used an Indian spice mixture to season the vegetables while they were cooking, and stirred in some chickpeas.  Right before serving, I topped it with crispy fried onions, chopped cilantro, and toasted unsweetened coconut.  The verdict – extremely tasty, and a perfect complement to the mild and creamy chicken curry.  

The salad was somewhat experimental as well.  I wanted something different, something that combined a variety of textures, flavors, and colors.  Plus, it had to get along with the chicken curry and spicy vegetables.  I started with Trader Joe’s mixed greens, a super-healthy combination of baby spinach, baby kale, and baby chard.  To that, I added very thinly sliced fennel, radish and Granny Smith apple.  At the last minute, I sprinkled in crumbled goat cheese and walnut pieces.  I tossed the salad with a mustardy white balsamic vinaigrette.  Success!

We were all pretty full by then, especially since we commenced the evening by nibbling on an array of hors d’oeuvres provided by Pam and Ellen.  But we couldn’t skip dessert.  The lemon mousse cake with raspberry filling was the perfect finale – light, moist, not overly sweet, and beautiful to behold.  This was a birthday celebration worth waiting for.