five new dishes, one cake

With my Salvadoran-born, Dallas-based, court-translator brother, Mario, visiting for the weekend, I wanted to do something new in the kitchen. I decided on a six-tapas picnic and a cake. I also decided (I'm never sure why I do this) to make all things I hadn't made before. With the exception of the cake. I had to have one safe stand-by.

But I also wanted all the dishes to be light, and the purpose of the dishes to be, as Mario says, flavor. As opposed to calories.

And so I had fun in the kitchen yesterday. (Except when my blender working the sixth (and subsequently failed) tapa broke.) Pictured above is one of those simple delicious dishes, which is highly recommended and this easily made: Peel and slice oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits, clementines (if you can find them) and arrange them on a platter. Heat the following ingredients to a nice temperature: dry white wine, lemon juice, amber honey, rosemary, orange zest and grated lemon zest, salt and pepper. Combine the two. Serve.

It's good. It's really good.

Bonus points: it keeps you away from the computer.