Salad Days: Ginger-Miso Dressing

Roasted red pepper and yoghurt dip, hummus and toasted whole-wheat pitas brushed with olive oil and za'atar.

Saturday was nuts. A gazillion errands to run, and then an emergency trip to the supermarket when my organic poultry delivery unexpectedly took a detour (ETA, next Wednesday). I was having friends over for dinner that night and had an ambitious menu planned, so I'll cop to a moment (or two hundred) of panic. Tight schedule notwithstanding, however, it was gratifying to realize how much easier it was getting to execute my usual overly ambitious dinner party menus. 

Cut to 7:30 p.m. A gaggle of middle-aged women in their prime knock on my door, looking and sounding more like a bunch of schoolgirls at a One Direction concert than the cool and composed wives, mothers, entrepreneurs and career women that we claimed to be actually were. 

Ricotta, extra-virgin olive oil with za'atar and roasted red peppers in a vinaigrette dressing

My apartment was too small, my Internet connection too slow, and the night much too short for all the  conversations we wanted to have and all the people we wanted to have them with. Not content with the chaos at my dining room table, we FaceTimed friends from California, Texas and Spain, time zones be damned, and wondered why they weren't as excited as we were to chat at 7am or 2am.

But the gossip was juicy, the wine was plentiful and the food was good. Well, either that or my friends were kind (Takes quick mental review of friends. Nah, the food was good). We ate, drank, chattered, giggled and shrieked well into the night, holding our own against the dozens of rowdy 20+somethings partying next door. Yes, the same ones I complained to security about after all my friends had left and I had metamorphosed back from Paris Hilton into the cranky cat lady who needed her sleep.

Moroccan chicken tagine with lemon and olives over couscous

We became increasingly rambunctious as the night progressed.  Dozens of conversations swerved, intersected, collided and then wound up in convoluted knots of misinformation as we insisted on cramming months worth of "intelligence-gathering" into one evening.

Wine glass markers. Didn't stop me from drinking everyone else's wine, though.

Then, it was Sunday. And not a moment too soon, because just like Saturday, Sunday was exactly the kind of day I needed. A day to stay home, read, surf the Net and watch trash TV. A day whose most strenuous activity was getting a mani-pedi and a foot massage.

These are the weekends that make life awesome. Weekends that allow us to enjoy friends, fun, and then sweet, blessed silence. Weekends that remind us to listen to our souls so that the universe can give us what we need when we need it.  Weekends that make us realize how important it is to to spend time doing what we love. That way, we don't mind stuff like deliveries gone awry and long, slow-moving lines at the supermarket. As much.

Unfortunately, this post doesn't contain any of the recipes from last night's menu. If you live in my neck of the woods, however, you can order some of the items here (Why, yes, it's another shameless plug, thank you).

You can also make another favorite of mine, a ginger-miso salad dressing that I found on a great blog called Bread and Ginger. In addition to making greens good, it's also great with at least a dozen other things like pretzels, prawn crackers and vodka tonics. I'm even thinking of using it as a substitute for mayonnaise for an interesting Asian twist on chicken salad.

So, as my just-what-I-needed weekend comes to an end and the prospect of a tough week looms ahead, I'll end this post with a Sunday night wish for you all: Here's hoping the universe gives you the equivalent of a lovely ginger-miso dressing to make your salad days even more wonderful, and your not-so-fun but ultimately good-for-you carrot, broccoli and even ampalaya (bitter melon) days that much more palatable.

Have a great week!