The first day of my friend Norma’s move went pretty well (I think), but we were all quite happy to stop wiping bat guano off of old barstools, get cleaned up, and start thinking about dinner. I’d brought a goody basket for Norma; a fresh loaf of Sweet Honey French Bread, a large jar of marinated stuffed cherry peppers, a jar of rhubarb chutney (from the rhubarb Norma 
had given us when we were last up), and some of my barbecue sauce.
With the bread and the peppers (and their yummy marinade) set as our appetizer, we went in search of Norma’s cupboards; coming up with a frozen plank o’ salmon, a tomato and some basil from HER garden (are we all growing basil anymore?), some brussels sprouts from the market and some fresh sweet corn from a friend’s garden.
Zack shucked the corn and then got to work on a salad – sliced tomato, onion and torn basil with mozzarella cheese, some of the pepper oil and a bit of salt sprinkled on top. Norma trimmed the sprouts and cut them in half, then we tossed them in some crushed red pepper, a bit of salt and some more of the pepper marinade – I had come up with a theme for supper 😉
They went into the oven at 425º for 25 minutes and we set a large pot to boil on the stove with a sprinkling of sugar. Now for the salmon – thawed and laid out on some lightly oiled foil shreds (Norma now knows why you only buy Reynold’s), I brushed the salmon with yet some more of the marinade and set it in the oven about 10 minutes after we started the sprouts.
When we pulled the sprouts from the oven, all lovely and nutty and crunchy, we sprinkled ‘em with some balsamic vinegar, brushed some barbecue sauce on the salmon and dropped the corn into the boiling water.
Five minutes later we were feasting on the porch.