an evening to remember

Yesterday was a scorcher here in the Willamette Valley. Temperatures soared to nearly 100 in my quaint little town. I’m sure people were down dipping their toes in the crystal clear creek that winds its way through downtown. Not Ava and I though, we were getting ready for our first official summer dinner party.
I started with the lasagna the night before. It was not as hard to make as I’d thought lasagna would be. Because of the pure cheesy nature of lasagna, I tend to stay away from it. This version was much lighter, vegetarian, and let the tasty summer tomatoes shine.

In the early afternoon, I worked on these cute little green bean and asparagus rafts. They took a bit of prep work, but they were delish and stayed on the grill without falling through the rack. Worth the extra time if you ask me! I also worked on a salmon rub, dressing for our salad, couscous, and watermelon.

Here is what our menu consisted of:

Fresh Wild Alaskan Copper River Salmon
with a Lemon Tarragon Rub

Farmer’s Market Tomato Lasagna
with Ricotta and Fresh Mozzarella

Couscous with Garlic and Olive Oil

Grilled Sesame Green Bean and Asparagus Rafts

Local Mixed Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Chilled Cubed Watermelon

It was still unbearably hot when our guests arrived, so we started out with some cool refreshing drinks. Included on our guest list were our friends Paul and Vanessa, and their two children Maya(9) and Mica(4). Ava had great fun watching Mica do big kid things!

The air cooled off by the time we sat down to eat. I made Maya her own little table, which she adored and artfully decorated with stones. The food was great and didn’t last long. We had a very peaceful dinner in our lovely backyard-can’t wait to do it again soon!