Holy frijoles Batman! I've turned into Martha Stewart!

The 'rents and my sister are coming to my place for dinner tonight. I'm not a huge fan of fish, except for shrimp and lobster, but my parents like it, so I thought I'd compromise and make a scallop casserole for dinner tonight:

2 pounds of baby scallops
6 ounces, more or less, of cream
a dash, or so, of white wine
fresh dill... teaspoon, half a teaspoon? well, to taste at any rate
bit of garlic, not a lot
some scallions
dash of salt and pepper
freshly grated parmesean and bread crumbs over the top

Mix it all together and bake at 350 degrees, in a large casserole dish, for about 30 minutes.

I'll put together a spinach salad with a light balsamic dressing on the side. I'd love to make some saffron rice, if I had saffron or cardamom... I guess I'll go with plain white. Yeah, boring, I know. A vegetable platter with some nice cheese (that I'll have to pick up on the way home tonight) since I don't have the time to make a spinach dip and/or a tapas as an appetizer.

One of the problems of serving fish is I have to serve white wine... right? Only, I hate white wine and I know nada about it. I picked up two bottles of Trimbach 2000 Cuvee Frederic Emile Riesling and a bottle of St. Supery 2004 Sauvignon Blanc last night. I have no doubt Dad's going to make fun of these selections. Well, if he does, he gets no dessert! Which, by the way, is my pecan apple pie, that I made last night.

I also dragged out the damask table cloth and napkins, the good china, the good silver, the crystal candlesticks last night... Dad's coming, and he gets... snippy, let's say, if the table isn't properly set. Because the linens were in the dresser, I had to press those last night as well. This is why I entertain so infrequently. It's too much galdarn work! Why am I doing this? Well, we've been to my sister's house three times since she moved in, in October, so it's my turn. I guess. I suppose I'm feeling guilty that Gret's gone through all this work and I haven't.

I still have to pick up flowers and cheese on the way home tonight. As I have this whole white theme going on here (unintentional, but still), I'm hoping to pick up some white flowers - daisies, lilies, alstroemeria... um, isn't alstroemeria a lily too? What I know about flowers I could write across the head of a pin and have loads of room left over for something short like, um... Shakespeare.

Ah well, whatever... all white flowers to go with the all white linens, china, candles and casserole dish... all of which coordinates with my all white kitchen. Except for the toaster, which is bright red. Leave it to my sister-in-law Mary to introduce the only hint of color in my kitchen. My red toaster was a Christmas gift from her last year. It really stands out in my all white kitchen.