Easter 2008

When I was a bride (back before there was water), I received a fair amount of unsolicited advice from a multitude of people on various and sundry topics. As is my wont, I blithely disregarded (and promptly forgot) anything that didn't appeal to me, with two notable exceptions. "Always use cloth napkins," my soon to be father-in-law advised. That seemed like a stylish and sensible idea, and for 35 years I've been doing exactly that; even for picnics, I have a number of sets of washable cloth napkins that I always use. The other bit of advice that I chose to follow came from a good friend, who said, "Ask people over often; you'll clean compulsively ahead of time, which is a great way to keep your place looking good." Turns out she was quite right.

Case in point: I had my family over for Easter lunch at my house, and so I changed out the slipcovers in the living room a good six weeks before I'd probably have gotten around to doing it otherwise, with the added advantage that I had help doing it.

































On Saturday, we went to see the Turner exhibit at the DMA, after which we walked over to the Nasher, where Chris horsed around at A's expense...


















All of us spent some time sky gazing in James Turrell's Tending (Blue):
















Then Alex and Chris caught some rays while overlooking the waterlily pond:














and Kath and Chris couldn't resist imitating some of the pieces of art:






















On Saturday night, Alex and Chris treated Anthony and me to an amazing dinner at one of my favorite restaurants...I started to write "in Dallas", but it would be more accurate to simply write at one of my favorite restaurants, anywhere: Lola...there aren't a lot of places that can hold a candle to the experience of dining there. Click on the link and weep...

As for Easter lunch...when I got married, I didn't know how to cook. A really great wedding gift for me would have been a cookbook where the first line of every recipe read, "Face the stove!" However, I enjoyed eating and so I set about learning how to cook, using an early edition of one of Julia Child's books as a guide. A good thing too, or heaven knows what we'd have eaten on Sunday. As it was, we began with homemade bruschetta, served on crostini...









I also made tappenade...then it was into the dining room, where we sat down to an Easter lunch of red peppers grilled with olive oil, garlic and rosemary; steamed asparagus and hollandaise;grilled leg of lamb that had been marinated overnight in a mustard-rosemary sauce (a Juliarecipe) and served with fresh mint sauce; followed by a salad of baby spinach, mushrooms, strawberries, pecans, and white Stilton with lemon, tossed with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. We drank a really nice Syrah with all this good food, and Anthony provided dessert: a homemade apple cake soaked with liqueur and served with a scoop of his delicious homemade Mexican vanilla ice cream.









It doesn't get much better than that...