I usually spend every Monday night cooking delish things with my fabulous friends at CEC, but this week I missed it because I was spending one last evening with my brother Ryan who flew in from Amsterdam for the holidays.

I didn’t miss out on good eating though, for Ry poured us glasses of red wine and fixed a fantastic dinner of glazed ahi tuna steaks with a veritable fiesta of a baby greens salad tossed with roasted beets and bell peppers, pears, corn niblets, Gorgonzola cheese and candied walnuts. Oooeee!!!

Afterward we had a jolly time playing Chicken Foot Dominoes with Mums, and were thrilled to bits when Daddy-O stayed up late and joined us for a couple of rounds. He is neither a night person nor a game person so we were thoroughly impressed and marked the momentous occasion with photo-taking to prove to my other sibs that it really did happen! 🙂 So happy you joined us, Pa! 🙂

Since I can’t rely on this week’s chronicling of CEC’s culinary adventures, I will go back in time a little bit and share photos and recipes from our Simple Italian Night, with Crab Cakes.

Cameron brought gorgeous strawberries and juicy apples to nibble on while Kat turned freshly caught crab from her parent’s beach house into the most tender and flavorful little crab cakes.

Darren shelled shrimp and threaded veggies onto skewers for savory kebabs on the grill.

shrimp kebabs

I fried up wedges of polenta and topped them with marinated roasted peppers and garlicky mascarpone cheese. I love the crispy, buttery edges, the creamy polenta a perfect base for vinegary peppers and tart mascarpone.

We ended our meal with the simplest of desserts: plump raspberries and vanilla ice cream drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Raspberries with Vanilla Ice Cream and Balsamic Vinegar
1 pint raspberries, washed
1 carton good quality vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Scoop ice cream into dishes, top with raspberries and sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar.