Cooking Dates

I posted this ad on craigslist and in my synagogue's bulletin:


I enjoy cooking Middle Eastern, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, French, Italian, Indian, and Southern style comfort food, but due to physical limitations, I need help doing the work in the kitchen. I accommodate all dietary restrictions. For a fun and educational evening, answer this ad!

I have a few friends who come over intermittently, resulting in 1 or 2 cooking dates a month. They pick the culinary theme, I look up 4-5 recipes, which we narrow down to 2-3 via e-mail.

Last time our theme was fall vegetables. We chose 2 recipes, both calling for tomatoes. My guest grows tomatoes, but her dog likes them too, and ate all the tomatoes we were going to cook! Still, the stuffed zucchini with ground lamb and fresh mint, and the grilled eggplant with parsley ricotta and tomato relish were a smashing success and a delight for all the senses. The most fun we had was grilling the eggplant with the George Foreman grill I just bought. I can't decide if I like my grill or my lemon zester more.

I know that there will be a time, hopefully a long way off, when I won't be able to swallow anymore, so in addition to good meals, I always have Altoids peppermints, and Altoids apple, mango, raspberry, citrus and tangerine sours, plus Godiva truffles on my desk.