Lunch At The Hawthornes'.

After buying about 10 pounds of heads-on shrimp the other day, Mr. Hawthorne and I de-headed, peeled, sorted, bagged, and froze them. We saved the shrimp heads for our crab pot and were soon rewarded with a nice batch of blue crabs.

I put about 1/2 inch of water in the pot, covered, and set the timer for 6 minutes.

Crabbies are done. A month or so ago, MrsVJW, of Diary of the Suburban Hausfrau fame, posted about the cleanliness of food bloggers' counters. To quote: I know Rosie Hawthorne keeps a neat prep and cooking surface, but I can't. Or don't. Or just am not doing lately. I don't have it in me. I know Rosie isn't.... but are the rest just shoving things out of camera view, or relocating them to another room for the photo shoot...... or am I that bad of a hausfrau that I let that stuff pile up some times??

Ahhh, MrsVJW, little do you know. There's Mr. Hawthorne, rolling up more spring rolls. And that's my mess of crab pickin's in the front.

Here are some of the fillings for his rolls. Cucumber, red pepper, carrots, and radicchio.

Some shrimp and that faux crabmeat mixture of pollock and king crab. When doing spring rolls, be careful not to soak the sheets too long. You don't want them too soft.

A little candlelight for some ambiance. That was last night. Fast forward to today's lunch.

I sliced some mushrooms and onions.

Heated some extra-light olive oil and unsalted butter in my pan, then tossed some green beans, the shrooms, and the onions in the pan.

Cook until the beans are al dente.

Then I added a pinch of sugar and maybe a teaspoon of flour.

That is some of my beautiful, jellied veal stock.

Then a bit of chicken stock goes in.

I didn't want a gravy, just a nice flavorful glaze.

Next - potato salad, with a twist.

My ingredients: red taters lemon olive oil Dijon mustard salt and pepper cider vinegar fresh dill

The juice of one lemon with a glop of Dijon mustard.

Slowly add in the olive oil (I use Bertolli Extra Light.), whisking to make a nice emulsion.

Freshly ground pepper.

Fresh dill. And that's your dressing.

Boil your red potatoes. As soon as they're done, drain, then immediately pour the cider vinegar over top.

Pour dressing over top of taters.

Now, let's see what Mr. Hawthorne is up to.

I see he has carrots, green beans, and fresh corn.

Green beans, peas, and lima beans go in the pot.

After a bit of cooking, the carrots go in and a can of chopped tomatoes.

Corn goes in.

And here's Mr. Hawthorne's version of a bastardized succotash tomato stew.

Oh, I see he's put in a little bit of pasta - itty bitty macaroni. I toasted some German rye slices and stuck that in the bowl. The steam is wafting off. Quite good.

Here's my lunch: Leftover ribs from the other night when Ticky was here. Green beans, mushrooms, and onions with a veal stock glaze. Potato salad with mustard/lemon emulsion and dill. All in all, a very delightful lunch.