Dining at Home without Cooking

Sometimes you don't want to eat out, but you're not exactly in the mood to cook, either.

I confess to eating pizza or Chinese take-out occasionally, but not with enthusiasm. However, in our neighborhood, there are lots of resources for dining in without doing much cooking.

Friday night we had a splendid dinner of rack of lamb, complete with the de rigeur mustard and bread crumb coating, stuffed baked potatoes flavored with chives. with some home made gazpacho to start. (We could have bought gazpacho, too, but I like my own too much). Dessert with what is called filet of watermelon in our house (big chunks of watermelon, seeds removed).

We did something similar for brunch on Sunday morning. We had the rest of the gazpacho, followed by fabulous crab cakes which required nothing but a brief cooking in some hot butter. We served them with some doctored up cocktail sauce and big bowls of fruit salad (fresh strawberries, blueberries, and what are probably the last of the navel organes).

We do this a lot -- with no guilt at all -- whenever we want to eat in, but don't feel like cooking. We usually combine some purchased things and some things we quickly whip together (a salad, for example). It isn't cheaper than cooking from scratch, but it's a lot cheaper than eating out and makes me much more willing to extend myself when I'm really cooking.

Father's Day dinner, for example, is planned for a bit more culinary labor.

And on Saturday night, since we had shopped at the local Farmer's Market, which has a real butcher shop, we enjoyed Calves Liver, sauteed with Vidalia Onions and dressed with a Balsamic Vinegar pan gravy, Mashed Potatoes, and a baby argula salad with roasted beets in Balsamic vinaigrette. Dessert was a cherry pie from a Pennsylvania Dutch bakery at the market. Those kinds of results are worth the cooking!