This Tuesday Is Our Turn

Every Tuesday, a couple my husband and I know get together for dinner, switching on and off who cooks dinner and who brings dessert. Usually, Andy and I get to planning immediately after the meal we cook. This week, however, we completely forgot it was our week for dinner until about 5:00. Dinner was to be at 7:30. Plenty of time, plenty of time.

We ended up serving broiled steelhead seasoned with dill and lemon, with chopped sweet onions and fennel bulb on top. (I can't take the credit - Andy was in charge of turning the fish from a raw fillet into a main dish.) I made mashed potatoes for the first time ever, Alton Brown's creamy garlicky ones. For veggies we served a spinach salad with peas, basil pesto and toasted pine nuts (something I saw on Barefoot Contessa, though I can't find the recipe online).

Not so bad for a completely unplanned meal. When I walk home from my bus stop with a growling stomach, past one amazing taco van, it's sometimes hard to remember that the extra hour or so it takes to get dinner on the table is usually worth it, and almost always fun.