Bachelorette Dinner

Whenever My Beloved is away on a business trip, I take a vacation from cooking and scrounge whatever I can find in the fridge. Here's what I found today, a favorite combo, fat-free cottage cheese and unsweetened apple butter.

When I was a kid, my mother invented this as a healthy snack to wean me off my then-favorite, cottage cheese and Concord grape jelly. I know, I know! Revolting! Looking back, I can hardly believe I loved that! More recently, with the addition of Four K Farms apple butter to my life, this concoction has gotten even more nutritious than it was when I was buying a national brand.

I've posted about this before but it was a long time ago. Hope you won't mind the reminder. Easy dinner for the grass widow.

The (S)tart and the Staff

My first course at JoJo's was really heavenly. On a platform of two slices of light but buttery pastry, the chef built a foundation of sweetly caramelized onion, then topped it with goat cheese islands and nicoise olive halves for a spectacular start to the meal. Nestled alongside was a simply dressed mini-salad of parsley and grated Parmesan, an interesting counterpoint to all that richness.

One of the best parts of the whole JoJo's experience has to be the friendly, joyous wait staff. They all seem actually to be enjoying the serving of this wonderful food. They skip the ponderous self-introductions in favor of clear descriptions of the delights the patron is about to sample and very knowledgeable suggestions of wines pairings. Water glasses are refilled promptly, food is served without reaching across the diners, plates are removed quietly - in short, they really know their stuff and they make a real contribution to the happy experience.

Start to finish, JoJo's was a lovely experience.