Denny and I just enjoyed one of my favorite ways to spend an evening: a night in where I cook dinner. That may sound weird, but I find it really fun to think of a nice menu, cook it, and eat it while enjoying a good bottle of wine and my darling husband’s company. I’m too old and curmudgeonly to actually go anywhere, so staying in is my idea of a perfect evening.

Arty food photos from DC are forthcoming.

We had:

1. Pear salad (ripoff of the Lincoln Café’s version, which I think turned out very well–mixed greens tossed with fresh pear bits, Maytag bleu cheese, red onion, and toasted hazelnuts with a vinaigrette made of olive oil, balsamic vinager, a little sugar and a little salt. I used hazelnuts because I had them around for the main dish; pecans or walnuts would work too.)

2. Butternut Squash Ravioli with Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

3. Apple-pear-dried-cherry pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce

4. All of the above served with Thomas Fogarty 2003 Monterey Gewurztraminer

A lot of the ingredients were either home-grown or locally-produced. I got the squash and onion for the ravioli, as well as the pears for the salad and the dessert, at the Farmers’ Market this morning. And the sage in the ravioli came from our garden, which fortunately survived the recent cold snap.

I never thought I would like Gewurztraminer, but this one was nice and dry and had a nutty/fruity/slightly sweet character that went well with the ravioli. Plus, I learned to appreciate Gewurztraminer in the wine-tasting class we took a year or so ago. We should really take level 2. You never know what might happen. Maybe I’ll learn to appreciate white zin out of a box.

Probably not.

I still have a happy tum, though.