365 True Things: 7/Food

I'm something of a loner. I like people in small batches. But occasionally I get the wild idea of throwing a party. A few weeks ago, when David was getting ready to leave Maryland, where he'd been on sabbatical for a year, and come home to California, I got in touch with a few of his, and my—our—friends and suggested a welcome-home dinner party. They all responded with enthusiasm. We will be ten, a perfect number for our dining room table with its two leaves.

One couple who will be coming is vegetarian, so the other day I sat down with one of my favorite cookbooks of the moment, Cooking Light's Global Kitchen, and found several suitably meatless but yummy-sounding recipes: vegetarian moussaka, Ethiopian spicy red lentil stew (mesir wat), Indonesian vegetable salad with peanut sauce (shortcut gado gado), and Uruguayan bean salad. An international, multicontinental feast!

And today we've been cooking. David and I work well in the kitchen together. The work somehow divides itself up naturally, and when either of us needs an assist, it's there for the asking. Three dishes are done, and I am just now killing a few moments before I make the bechamel for the moussaka. Last task: the rice for the mesir wat. Everything is under control—always a good feeling.

I enjoy cooking with recipes. David prefers to see what we have in the fridge and pantry and throw together what usually ends up being a delectable concoction (though there have been one or two failures—just saying). But I like to put together ingredients that I wouldn't necessarily have thought to put together. The spicy lentil stew, for example, involves a spice mix called berbere, which I hunted down a recipe for online:

• 8 teaspoons pure chile powder (ground dried red hot peppers) or 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
• 5 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground ginger
• ³⁄₈ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ³⁄₈ teaspoon ground fenugreek
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground cloves

The fenugreek was what really won me over: a new spice for my arsenal! And from my sampling of the stew, I'm pleased with the results. I hope our guests like a bit of kick in their food.