a civilized dinner

had my brother and his family over for dinner tonight. lovely company goes without saying :)
we're pretty pleased with the menu too:

- gazpacho (recipe from rick tramanto's American Brasserie, which we got signed at his osteria di tramanto restaurant in wheeling)
- grilled tuna: the last of the yellowfin that DH caught with his family late last year. this time he tried marinating it in olive oil for a few hours first, as per the recommendation of Best Recipes, and it came out much more tender.
- grilled vegetables from the farmer's market (red onion, eggplant, the giant zucchini above, and portabellos from a mushroom farm stand that DH passed by on the way home from work on friday). the zucchini was so huge that the skin was quite tough - too hard for my (unsharpened) global chef's knife to penetrate. skinned it and cut it into pieces, and it was more reminiscent of a bland squash than tender zucchini. still tasty, though.
- a thai noodle salad that my sister-in-law brought. i'll have to get the recipe. in brief, it had mini shrimps, ground meat (turkey?), vermicelli, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, basil, and some sort of lime dressing. refreshing.
- and for dessert, i tried out the blueberries and watermelon recipe from the herbfarm cookbook. so simple: marinate in a simple syrup made with cinnamon sticks, and sprinkle basil over it. ideally use cinnamon basil, but mine died so i just used regular basil.