Jay brought Arun and Carol over for dinner tonight. Always a challenge for me when Arun is here because he’s vegetarian. I could fall back on something like veggie chili or lasagna, but I want to make something a little different. The polenta pie was good, but I felt very semi-homemade when making it. Not really even a recipe, just slice up pre-made polenta, layer that in a dish, top with jarred pasta sauce, cheese, more polenta and more cheese. It could be made more homemade by making the polenta and pasta sauce from scratch, but I was looking for something fast. It was good, not great. The cake was good but Larry thought I’ve made others that were better.

• Goat Cheese Crackers with Hot Pepper Jelly (Fine Cooking #64, May 2004, p. 63)
• Polenta Pie with Cheese and Tomato Sauce (Gourmet, June 2006)
• Roasted Butternut Squash & Pear Salad with Spiced-Pecan Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking #81, November 2006, p. 58)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)
• The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake (Chocolate Holidays, p. 57)

Wine: Valdez 2004 Rockpile Road Zinfandel (Rockpile, California). Not as good as before and still a little hot but it opened up okay.