I made dinner last night…

… and, for a change, I was pretty pleased with it.  Oh, I am a terrible critic of my own cooking.  Don’t flatter me, I know that X or Y could be better.  That’s me, usually.  But last night was a good night.  A beet risotto, steamed beet greens, and a nice piece of steelhead with crispy skin.  No complaints at all.  Nice job, Peter.

I've had worse

But oh yes, I've had far far far better swims.

Sigh.

Better than no swim, I guess, right?

third weekend in February

An atypical weekend, somewhat, but not entirely.  And yes, I know the blogging has been sparse this month - a simple quiet life is all that underlies that.

We enjoyed an unseasonably mild Friday evening at Maestro by sitting outside for a change (and hooray!  Van joined me and Conrad) rather than at the bar. 

That was a nice change.  Nestor took care of us,

and we ordered a few things we haven't had in a while:  beet salad,

shrimp tacos,

carrot cake con leche. 

Nice dinner out!

Saturday morning was the usual.  A bit of a walk, Amara for breakfast. 

Familiar, comfortable, enjoyable.

Saturday evening we're usually over at Van's, but this time we were at The Arbour and without Van.  We're sad to say that Natasha is leaving us this week, moving to Seattle.  We'll miss her.  And so a small group of us comprising a semi-reunion of South America travelers what with Marina (and her husband, Nick, too) joining us along with Fiorella and Alessio visiting from Italy. 

The Pasadenans all ordered the same thing, the yellowtail tuna, a dish we've enjoyed before. 

A nice night, a bittersweet dinner.

Yesterday was a fairly easy day for us.  A jaunt for groceries in the morning, me in the kitchen in the afternoon.  I slow roasted a whole chicken for the three of us, and that made for a nice enough dinner.  Desert was individual souffles, using my base recipe. 

For the fruit puree to fold in, I worked with blueberries.  That was, well, interesting.  Blueberries have a lot of pectin, and from when I made the puree to when I pulled it out of the fridge to use, it had set up.  Whisking it helped, but it was still weirdly lumpy when folded into the egg whites.  It came across a little gritty in texture overall even though I had passed the puree through a sieve.  The liquid from the puree precipitated out during baking.  The flavour was a little subdued as well - I wanted more punch.  Nice colour when baked, and nice aroma to the souffles, but I won't try that one again.

Van and Olive headed home, Conrad and I cleaned up the kitchen, and that was the weekend done!

oh, right

I swam earlier this week. 

So did Conrad. 

Keeping up my wildly inconsistent and sadly pathetic efforts in the water here.  Just FYI.

Grammys cocktails

No, not cocktails for drinking during the Grammys - the awards were what, two weeks ago now?  No, instead it was simply our theme this month for online cocktails.  Drinks that somehow evoked the Grammys.  Combine that with a holiday Monday for me, and there we were:  an opportunity to try making some drinks ahead of time to pick what I would make for us during happy hour.  So here they are, ranked from my least to most favourite:

The Birds of a Feather. 

Great song, weirdly flavourless drink considering that it had pineapple juice and Aperol in it.  It just tasted watery and washed out.  I had high hopes for this one.  Sadly, unfulfilled.

The Blue Sun. 

Not quite the name of Andre 3000's nominated album, but close enough.  A variation on a margarita that used blue curacao in place of a clear orange liqueur.  It was ok, but only just.  It didn't taste balanced.  The colour was fun, though.

The Pink Pony Club. 

A boozy sangria, kind of.  Passion fruit syrup for depth of flavour, gin for booze, but it tasted more like a fruity rose sangria than anything.  Which isn't a terrible thing!

The Benson Flip. 

Not a particular fan of Benson Boone, but I was impressed by his performance.  And by this drink.  It's a rich one:  a whole egg and whipping cream in there, along with rum and chocolate liqueur and coffee beans.  I'd go back to this one, but as a dessert drink.

The Short and Sweet. 

Sabrina Carpenter wins this one for us.  A limoncello spritz, it had some lemon juice to cut through a little, and a nice, light sweetness.  The fresh mint actually made a difference here, too, I think.  I made this for the three of us, and we enjoyed a great conversation with the others.

easy Sunday morning

Happy Sunday!  It's late morning, and we didn't get off to an early start here.  A little stroll, then on to Amara for us.  No Van - he's still asleep as I write this, so far as I know.  But Conrad is back

and not going anywhere until he and I go to SF in a few weeks.  Decaf latte for me,

our usual breakfasts. 

Just a lovely little morning.

he made it home!

Conrad is back!  Yay!!

Olive is clearly happy as well (no, really - she just hates being photographed).  Her Plan C, available to give her attention.🫒🐶❤️

short ribs

Another in my series of exceedingly brief check-ins on a quiet week.  Van and I celebrated Valentine's Day with dinner in last night.  I cooked up beef short ribs and served them atop a saffron carrot puree with some Brussels sprouts.  A bottle of a nice wine, music, great conversation.  It was a good evening.

And now to get to LAX to pick up Conrad!

Italicus Spritz

A short post, a drink from yesterday.  Brightening the rainy day with an Italicus Spritz or two.  Tasty!

it's raining

Happy Thursday!  A wet Thursday here.  The rain gauge on our roof has already recorded four inches today.  I'm over at Van's, staying dry inside with Olive.  Work from home today.  A quiet week overall.  Not much to report, as you can tell.  And that's fine.  All is ok!

So then, just checking in on a very wet late afternoon, a day before a holiday weekend, looking forward to the rain ending so that we don't get flooding and mudslides in the area.

second weekend in February

Remember last weekend?  Maestro on Friday night,

Amara on Saturday morning? 

Same thing this weekend.  But we were at the condo last night, not Van's.  I made us dinner again, though:  lamb chops with an eggplant and pea curry and saffron rice. 

And then today, Sunday, it's more cooking, with a vegetarian lasagna in the oven for me and Van tomorrow.

In short, a regular weekend.

Conrad is off to Japan tomorrow, Van and I will enjoy each other's company through Saturday, and next weekend is a long weekend.  Let's see what the middle of February brings.

oh, Zoom...

I don't actually hate Zoom, to be honest.  I just think that when something is put into my calendar, and I show up on time, the event shouldn't then start 15 minutes later.  Other people who arrive late to meetings or events are not my fault.

Sigh.

Thursday dinner

Our usual habit is to order sushi from Mama M on Thursdays, but we'd already had sushi this week (this past Monday, after our neighbour, Les, came over to have drinks).  Plus, it was a rainy evening, and even a short amble over to get sushi was not appealing.  I got home from work, dried off and changed, and got in the kitchen instead.

Pork tenderloin and green pea puree plus some carrots.  A bottle of a Côtes du Rhône.  An episode of Great British Bake Off (noooooo, not Nelly going home - we loved her!).  The makings of a very nice Thursday night indeed.

February reminder

In case you have forgotten, this little girl is really really really adorable.

A nose kiss for me!

Look at her.  Olive is so darn cute and sweet.

so, I swam

Yetserday, that was.  And… ugh.

That is all.

tabebuia

February is a quiet month, so forgive me if the posts are fewer in number, spaced out more, and perhaps shorter than they might be.  No travel plans for the month for me, and there's not much else going on.  It's not a bad life - I did re-read a bunch of favourite comics from the 80s recently, and that was enjoyable.  But yes, a quiet time of the year and, therefore, for this blog.

So enjoy a shot from last night.  I was walking back from picking up sushi, and I saw that one of the tabebuia trees on Holly Street was in full bloom.  I hadn't been paying attention to them, and it struck me last night how lovely it was to see the flowers again.

Happy February!

first weekend of February

Happy Sunday, happy February!  It's been a good weekend at home - some of our usual fun, some things done.  So I'm happy to check in and share a little of what we did.  Ready?  Let's go!

Friday means Maestro, and we duly found ourselves at a corner of the bar. 

A mocktail

and some guacamole to start with, and then we dug into the special LA dining week menu.  Tetela for Conrad and Van each to start with,

calamari for me. 

I had duck carnitas as my meal,

and then each of us ordered the jericalla for dessert. 

An early meal, and a mild, early night - Van had headed home by 7:30, and Conrad and I just relaxed with reading and music the rest of the night.

Saturday morning was a lovely morning for a walk on the earlier side, then over to Amara, each of us having what we so often do. 

A decaf latte for me,

an arepa for my breakfast. 

Satisfying!

And then we came home and got stuff done.  Post-Christmas de-cluttering, badly needed.  Wines in the new wine fridge, books weeded out and the shelves re-arranged.  It was quite the undertaking, truly.  But ah, I love seeing those tidier shelves!

Last night we spent the evening at Van's.  We had every intention of a full night of Drag Race, but we only made it through one episode after dinner.  Nice enough dinner, though:  steak topped with caramelized onions and blue cheese. 

Cooked perhaps too rare, but ah well.  Huge steaks!  Not one of us could finish them.  A pear crisp for dessert as well - that was a nice one.  I sipped some red wine with dinner -

February 1, and my dry month was done.  We actually each had a cocktail to start with -

Last Words, of course -

and I have to say that after a month of no drinking, that cocktail was POTENT.  I shan't have anything with our pizza and the Grammys tonight, and I'll keep things under control in days and weeks ahead.

A good weekend, not yet done.  I've managed a lot of reading, listened to some new music, did a five-mile walk this morning by myself.  Laundry is on the go.  Productive, relaxing.  A great mix.