We also enjoyed this lovely proseco cocktail from Martha Stewart Living. It tastes like a variation of White Sangria. Here’s how to make it.

1 peach, diced

1/2 lb. strawberries, diced

3 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup of vodka

bunch of basil, chopped up

1 bottle of Proseco, Italian sparkling wine

In the bottom of a pitcher add all the ingredients except the Proseco. With a wooden spoon, mash up the fruit well and leave it in the fridge to marinate. When you’re ready to serve it, add the bottle of Proseco and mix well.

Also on the menu…

Shrimp Cocktail

Salad with carrots, dried cherries, bleu cheese, balsamic vinagrette (Tara made it. I think it had nuts too.)

Filet Mignon with Bernaise sauce

Brussel Sprouts with Pine Nuts

Baked Potatoes

Cupcakes from Lulu in Scarsdale. (Very nice!)

2 parts tequila

1 part triple sec

2 parts watermelon juice*

1 punch of basil, chopped up

watermelon “ice cubes”**

lime juice

sugar

In the bottom of each glass (I used double old-fashioned glasses), put some basil and add some sugar. Use the back of a spoon to bruise the herbs and mix in the sugar (like you would if you were making a mojito). Add some watermelon ice cubes to the glasses. In a shaker, combine tequila, watermelon juice, triple sec, and a splash of lime with ice. Shake it up and pour into the glasses. Then stir the drinks so that the basil on the bottom of the glass gets mixed into the whole drink. You can garnish with a sprig of basil or a lime wedge.

*I bought four separate quarters of watermelon to make these drinks. That makes a lot of margaritas. But it was for a party, so I would rather have too much than too little. I suppose you can also buy one very large watermelon. To make the juice, I cut the watermelon into manageable pieces then pureed those pieces in a food processor. Then I took the puree and put it through a collider lined with a cheese cloth. I ended up squeezing out the cheese cloth to get the extra juice. This part of the drink is pretty labor-intensive. But they’re worth it. I swear!

** To make the watermelon ice cubes, take one quarter of the watermelon and use a melon baller to make small watermelon balls. Place the watermelon balls on a baking sheet and freeze. After about an hour in the freezer, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap. Once the watermelon balls are frozen, you can transfer them to a ziplock bag. These watermelon balls serve as the ice cubes in the drinks. They soak up the tequila and taste great when you’re finish drinking your margarita.

What follows is my adaptation of the recipe but the spirit is all Barefoot Contessa. I think you’ll see why I would never be good at writing cookbooks. You can see her recipe here at Food Network dot com.

Ingredients:

1 package ground turkey

1 big can of crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

1 can of tomato paste

fresh parsley

fresh basil

1/2 vidalia onion, chopped

two cloves garlic, minced

3 or 4 oz. package of goat cheese

15 oz. container of ricotta

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano

Fresh mozzarella (this is so much better than shredded so if you can find it, use it)

1 pkg. lasagna

salt, pepper, thyme, oregano

Procedure:

Get the onions working in about 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan. After like two minutes, throw in the garlic and stir that stuff around. Don’t let the garlic burn. You’ll screw it all up. Then add the ground turkey and break it up nice in the pan. Season with salt, pepper, dried thyme, dried oregano. Let that cook until the meat is browned.

You’ve got some time. Turn on the oven–preheat to 400 (or if you have a crappy oven, you may need to put it up higher). Now fill a bowl with hot tap water (very hot!, very big bowl). Put the dried lasagna noodles in there and cover with saran wrap for like ten-fifteen minutes. This will soften the pasta but you don’t want it cooked through so keep an eye on it. Drain the pasta and set it aside. Don’t rinse it.

Add tomato paste to the turkey, stir around. Then add the crushed tomatoes. Cook it a little longer on low. It should thicken but not reduce by too much. Don’t mess this up either. You need that sauce.

In another bowl mix the cheeses (ricotta, parmesan and goat cheese–crumble that). Also put in an egg (I forgot to put that in the ingredients but everyone has eggs–unless they’re vegans or they don’t cook. And if you don’t even have an egg in your fridge, you probably shouldn’t attempt lasagna.) Add in the fresh basil and parsley. You know how much. The whole mixture shouldn’t be green. Mix that all together. The parmesan is pretty salty so you don’t need extra salt.

Layer the lasagna. Coat a large casserole dish with cooking spray. Fill the bottom with some sauce. Then put some pasta. Then put cheese and more sauce. Then pasta. Then cheese and more sauce. Rinse and repeat. You get the idea. On top should be sauce and sliced fresh mozzarella. Bake it for about 25 minutes covered (look for bubbles in the sauce). Then take off the tin foil and bake for another few minutes to melt the cheese on top.

Here’s what I had:

Ahi Tuna Tartare placed in a neat little ball over a piece of lox and garnished with cucumbers and diced tomatoes and lemon. It came with a few toasts to eat the tuna although I could eat tuna tartare straight.

Chicken Breast with sugar snap pea puree, white corn, and haricot verts. And it had these great mushrooms–they looked like oyster mushrooms but they were darker.

A peach doughnut (a piece of fried dough with a yummy peach inside) with a scoop of ice cream.

And later… A nap.