things underway

It's 9:50 AM as I start this entry.  That means the turkey has been in the oven for 4.25 hours already.  Yes, I was awake early.  Yes, I need a nap soon.  I've trimmed 4 pounds of Brussels sprouts, I have carrots to trim up and mashed potatoes to make and cranberry sauce as well.  Everything else needs to be reheated at the appropriate time.  And the table, well, it's mostly set.

In short, a typical Thursday, innit?

dinner with Dale

One great thing about having ALA Annual in the city where I live (and believe me, I have many complaints, gripes, brickbats related to having it here in Chicago) is that I get to have friends from out of town over for dinner. Or dine out with them, at the very least. It's a rare treat, and I took advantage last week to have Dale over.

Ah Dale. We met virtually through mutual friends/colleagues, then met in person when he was in Chicago for a different library conference last year. I have many good things to say about his charm, wit, humour, and handsomeness. He was someone I turned to early in Dad's illness, and he was a good font of information and advice. He listened. If he's reading this, he's blushing by now, surely.

Anyway, I was keen to have him over and for Conrad to meet him, and I'm delighted that it was a success all around. We had a good evening of vegetarian food, much wine, and conversation, and we were happy to sort of repeat it a few nights ago over tapas and then dessert and cocktails at a couple of Boystown restaurants.

I also have to say, I love cooking for vegetarians. They challenge me. Dale, in fact, was not too difficult - few dietary restrictions paired with a love for pulses, grains, and cheese. Easy enough.

I got the table set, some cheeses ready for us to devour when he arrived, and then mugged for Conrad's camera. I am shameless. And vain: the table was a nice sight, and the cheeses were well-softened by the time Dale showed up.

Up first was gazpacho. I may be rushing the summer season a little, but I was in a mood for a simple chilled soup. First time making it, and while I might ease off some of the olive oil in the future, I was pleased. What a shame I broke my blender jar, dropping it on the floor while doing my kitchen clean up before Dale came. Darn. Fun to go shop for a new one, but the old one really did work fine.

After that, I put out a bowl of a fava bean, leek, and feta puree to go with the remaining bread as well as some radishes and a simple salad. More wine. Easy meal.

Dessert was an old standby, and a tasty one at that: Plum cardamom upside down cake. really, I should have had more eaters there - it merits a bigger group to polish it off in one go. No matter. I loved the piece I ate and sent the rest in to Conrad's office the next day.

I hope that we'll see Dale later in the year when he may have to return to Chicago for business. We'll stock the bar a little differently and attack late autumn/winter vegetables. Should be fun!

success/failure (sort of)

Table is all set, a balance of shamrock, ivory, turquoise, and sunflower Fiestaware. Glasses are out for some pink wine to be poured. Nuts are there for snacking. The ribs? They came out of the oven from their first bake a while ago, and now they just await a sauce I threw together from ketchup, soy sauce, sriracha, molasses, vinegar, and I think that's it. It should be a good dinner with John and Bryan.

Should be.

Dinner, in fact, was. I had everything all set so there was minimal fussing in the kitchen, and I could even join Conrad and our guests on the balcony for a while before glazing the ribs, getting them back in the oven, and getting the veggies going (corn on the cob and salad). Finger bowls, even, finger bowls!
We ate, it was good.

And then came dessert.

Ah dessert, I am so out of practice. I tackled a new recipe that evening, and didn't quite get it right. See that?

That's a mango upside down cake. Doesn't look too moist and syrupy, though, I know. In fact, it looks rather like a coffee cake topped with streusel, and truthfully, that's how the upside down part turned out. It didn't stay soft and runny, getting soaked into the cake. Well, a little. Instead, it hardened into something of a candy (not too hard a candy, mind you), and I had to work at it to get the brown sugar mixture out of the pan after I turned out the cake. Once I had smeared it back on the cake top, it hardened a little further, and essentially became the streusel. I blame it on using too fine a shred of unsweetened coconut. Darn it.

Still, it tasted pretty fine with a dollop of whipped cream (stirred with a bit of yogurt for tang and coconut extract for scent). If I'd not told anyone, they'd never know.


But I can't lie to you, the three people in the world who read this blog. Sorry. Sort of a cake failure, but one that we devoured altogether easily in the end.

gin, salmon, pineapple

We haven't entertained much lately for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the hectic travel schedule we're each keeping up. In fact, Conrad is in Fort Collins tonight and tomorrow night. Some quiet time at home for me to fill with blogging.

Last Saturday we spent much of the afternoon in Evanston. For the Canadistanis reading this, that's the suburb immediately north of Chicago. Reasonably affluent, a good size, the home of Northwestern University. Some good shopping up that way, too, and in among our purchases was a new digital camera for our upcoming vacation. Having Rachel over for dinner on Sunday night was a good way for Conrad (all photos by hime, except the one of him that Rachel took) to play with a shiny new toy. I can't blame him.

He'd also wanted to serve up mai tais for dinner. Sadly for him, it looked to be pretty involved for a casual kitchen dinner for just three of us. No matter - he'll be in Honolulu next Sunday. Instead, we looked up a basic martini recipe (no, really - we simply don't make/drink cocktails at home) and ended up with a concoction called a Nick and Nora martini. Gin and vermouth in a 3:1 ratio.
I poured big ones, used a whole bunch of olives (which taste really good marinated in martini, I'd forgotten), and rather than mouth-puckeringly dry booze to go with our pre-dinner snacks, we had some smoooooooth bevvies.



Smoooooooth and boozy! Oooo, and look: pretty Fiestaware in scarlet, peacock, and sunflower.

Fotunately, we used up the gin on the first round, and Conrad and I turned to our house wine for sipping with the salmon.

The salmon was a standby recipe I like - top filets with slices of tomato, some oregano, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic; drizzle with olive oil; roast in a hot oven. To go alongside there was some roasted asparagus and some cauliflower puree. Good stuff.



And dessert? Simpler this time. Pineapples were a good price at Whole Foods, and I found a reasonably ripe one among them. Peeled, sliced, and roasted under a broiler. I served slices with a ginger creme anglaise and some chopped crystallized ginger.
A light dessert, and a nice evening all around.

Dinner with vegetarians - and straight people!

I didn't bring the camera with me to Minneapolis last week, and I'm kicking myself for it because dinner at La Belle Vie was outstanding, truly. Bugger. I'll remember next time.

The obvious consequence of being in Minneapolis half the week is that I haven't been in my own kitchen much. Yesterday, however, we remedied that.

A dinner party for four Smelts, plus the boyfriend of a Smelt. Two vegetarians at the table as well, so it was a chance to push myself in that area a little. Not too many photos of the food itself, though. I was, well, busy in the kitchen while Conrad was making our dining room (and the rest of the house) look presentable.


Come 7:00, we were all set to go. A warm welcome in the foyer for everyone, some stones from the beach at Greymouth on display.


Brad and Tim were the straight boys at the table. See, we're tolerant! Both are good guys, in any case, and fast swimmers. It was sweet of Tim to dress up nicely, I thought. He also managed to enjoy a substantial amount of wine up until he left just before 2 in the morning! Ah well, it IS Sunday today!

Medgar was one of the two vegetarians at the table (Tim was the other). Always good to catch up with him, and his boyfriend Mike (in the second picture) is the epitome of a handsome southern gentlemen. I hope he doesn't get tired of hearing that. Tina, is the lone woman at the table, a fast swimmer, and also Brad's girlfriend. Not a vegetarian, but she and Conrad talked Sweden quite happily together.
The guests, by the way, are enjoying the third course: grits souffles with goat cheese, some charred tomato-mint relish, and asparagus.

Dessert came last (with a cheese course after the souffles). I wheeled out a restaurant recipe for this one, and it proved a nice choice. Chocolate truffle loaf with coffee creme anglaise. Conrad thought it fun to capture me intent on my garnishing.

We sent the leftovers home with the others. Lots of eggs in that dish, and over a pound of chocolate. We don't need to have that tempting us for a few days here!

We did print up menus, but I have to rescue those files from the other laptop. A posting for later, perhaps. We finished out clean up an hour ago, having slept late then met a friend for breakfast. I'm knackered, I admit. A fun night, if exhausting.