We're having a terrific time here with our dear friend and my fellow Clarionite, Diana Sherman, who is up from L.A., and staying with us for a bit. (She's sleeping on the futon I assembled, which I guess constitutes proof that I put it together correctly.)

We did a rather epic amount of cooking this weekend. On Saturday, we had Diana's friends, Sunny and Phil (who are fast becoming Daniel's and my friends as well) over for dinner. We prepared gazpacho with homemade croutons; salmon baked in foil with tomatoes, basil, chick peas, and balsamic vinegar; green beans tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and herbs; strawberries with balsamic vinegar and mint; and brown sugar fudge. Yum.

Sunday, we had our friend Amelia over for dinner. This time, we attempted to recreate a dish that Diana had eaten in Estonia: beef cooked in beer and mustard. We cut up some beef, browned it in a skillet, and put it in a baking pan. Then we made a sauce of about half a bottle of Gordon Biersch pilsner with several tablespoons of both horseradish mustard and Dijon mustard mixed in. (The horseradish mustard was kind of weak - next time, we're going to use Dijon mustard plus just plain horseradish.) We poured the sauce over the beef, covered the pan, and baked it for about 2.5 hours at 325 degrees. It turned out nothing like the dish Diana had had in Estonia, but it was yummy - nice and tender and flavorful. For a collaborative improvised recipe, it turned out really well. (There were no leftovers.)

Along with the beef, we made vichysoise, and asparagus, and rose pudding for dessert. (The rose pudding was another dish Diana had had in Estonia.) The recipe called for the petals from a single rose. I don't think the rose actually added much flavor, but the pudding was good. (Think rice pudding, only made with rice flour and not whole grains of rice, with lots of cinnamon.)

Though I'm not sure how often I'm going to cook on that kind of scale (on Sunday, I swear we somehow used just about every pot and pan in the house), but it's nice to know that, yes, I can pull off a dinner party, at least with some kitchen help. (Actually, I cooked the bulk of Saturday's dinner, and Diana cooked the bulk of Sunday's - a single person could probably have prepared everything on either night, but it would have been considerably more hectic.) Somehow that makes me feel very grown up. (Discovering that I've apparently learned how to operate a corkscrew properly, and that I can now open a bottle of wine without demolishing either the corkscrew or the cork - that makes me feel really grown up.)

I'm looking forward to doing all this again. But not for a few days at least.

And of course, I must remember to give credit where credit is due - Daniel handled dishes and kitchen cleanup like a pro, and neither evening would have been nearly the success it was without that.