recent cooking

Happy Saturday!  I have banana bread in the oven and an easy afternoon ahead.  Hey, why not cast our minds back to past weekends and see what was cooking.

Two of my ASU classmates, Melissa and Patty, came over a couple of weeks ago.  First time seeing them in a few years.  Good to see them and catch up in person.  I went with an old restaurant favourite of mine for that dinner:  South Miami Cuban stew. 

A Paul Prudhomme recipe.  Authentic to Miami?  No idea.  I have always liked it, though.  A meaty stew with which I served a salad and some bread and a scoop of rice.  The leftovers came in handy in days after that, too.  Dessert was a nice one, too:  a rhubarb upside down cake. 

Oh, I love upside down cakes!  This one is lightly flavoured with anise seed, and although rhubarb is a rare (and expensive!) find in SoCal, it's worth it.

The next weekend was dinner for Geoff

and Kent. 

They have now been in the south of France for several days where they hope to fully relocate to.  It's quite the move, having sold their desert home.  We wish them best - and we hope to visit!  In the meantime, though, I cooked up the most enormous lamb shanks I have ever encountered and served them with a parsnip puree. 

I also made a lemon and blueberry trifle

that was a little better the next day and the day after, to be honest.  The cake gets to be more custardy that way.

Some recent cooking, then.  Not bad cooking either.  Tonight will be a simple pasta with some meatballs, a simple dinner.  Now to check on those banana bread loaves....

dinner with Geoff and Kent

It really is a treat when other people cook for us.  Truly.  Oh, don't expect to have to ever - I'm NOT demanding that anyone do so.  I love it when people invite us over for a drink, or ask to meet at a restaurant.  I know very well that cooking a meal and entertaining others is a lot of time and effort.  Which may be why I am so delighted when someone does.  I really appreciate it.

Geoff and Kent invited us over last night.  They've appeared in this blog in the past, but for most of our time in California we'd not been in touch with them.  In recent years, though, we have met up a few times.  It's been lovely getting re-acquainted with them and enjoying their company.

Kent manned the grill, cooking hanger steaks for us. 

Geoff kept the drinks and conversation flowing. 

Yes, some talk of the old days with the Smelts, but a wide range of topics.  A delicious meal (fries and roasted Brussels sprouts, and a citrusy tart for dessert), some decent wine,

and a fine evening that cooled off nicely as we sat outside.

We'll be in the desert far less after next weekend and the close of the house sale, but I hope that when we do make it down here (or if they come up LA-ward), we can all get together again!

meals with friends in DC

Oh gosh, I am behind, aren't I? Shame on me! Ah well - a quiet evening here. Sipping some Torrontes, blogging while awaiting Conrad's return from his latest Honolulu work trip. Let's catch up.

My first night in DC for conference I barely had time to say hello to Martin in the room before he was out the door and I soon followed. Non-conference folk. Swimmers, in fact. Dinner with a few former teammates and spouses. How did so many Smelts end up in DC?

We ate at Againn. Interesting place: a seafood/British pub theme going. I wanted to like it a lot, especially given all the promising items on the menu. Some small problems:

• the ammonia stink of the raw bar near the entry. I was glad we got a table far from it.
• the waiter or the bartender or both didn't understand drinks. David wanted a SWEET cocktail. Both attempts weren't. I asked for a fairly common British beverage on a warm summer night, lager and lime. They didn't know how to handle that one either even with my explanation when the waiter came back to the table.

Not bad food, though, if not really great. I liked but didn't LOVE my pork belly, and the radishes, while fine, were not a $7 dish. Ah well.

It's all about the company, though, and it was great to see Geoff
again after our terrific spring visit, see Cheryl and Dave not long after their visit to Chicago, and see David (and meet his partner Scott) after a number of years. I'll be glad to visit DC again (not Againn), swim with the team, and get caught up with these friends over food and beverage.

The next night it was Ethiopian food in Adams-Morgan with CG and her colleague Terry, and with TK in tow and meeting them for the first time. Wow, filling dinner. Meskerem was where we ate, and judging by how packed it got, it's a popular choice. CG and Terry opted for red meat while TK and I shared the vegetarian sampler for two, all of it with copious bread. He and I came home and moaned on to Martin about having injera belly. Well worth it, though. And the walk back to the hotel? Not short, but certainly a smart idea, especially given that we stopped for ice cream, too!

DC weekend

Oh gosh, was it really so long ago? Early this month. Wow. So long ago. Can I go back?

Geoff is a former Smelt. Not for long, but we got to know him and Kent in their time in Chicago and have gotten to know them better since their return to DC. Last year we spent a very fine weekend with them in the spring, and the recent Computers in Libraries conference trip for me gave us the opportunity to see them again.

I'm giving them short shrift by posting this one entry (though I did mention their dog, I recall), and I am sorry for that. In truth, my famously sieve-like memory means that I struggle to remember some of the fun we had. Let me try.

Conrad and I had an easy flight, were picked up at DCA, and headed to Jaleo in nearby Crystal City. We'd been to the Bethesda location with Geoff and Kent, and given our love for Spain and Spanish food, we were delighted. And it was good food, good wine. A weekend starting well.

The next day was as perfect a spring day in DC as we could ask for. Mild temperatures. Trees all in bloom. After an easy start to the day, we all walked Maggie - gorgeous girl that she is - down to a nearby park for some play, some photos.



Lunch next. I think we were in Maryland by this point - my sense of direction can be poor - and we moseyed into The General Store. Down home cooking? Soul food? Southern food? How do we classify it? I'll give them this: good fried chicken and onion rings, tasty buttermilk chess pie. Oh, and in homage to Todd (and because I was in the mood for it): sweetened iced tea. Iced tea, not ice tea. I'm learning.

Right by the restaurant are the remnants of the National Park Seminary. Geoff's mother was part of the last class at the college before the military commandeered it in the Second World War. The military never really used it, apparently, and now it is in a state of long neglect and disrepair. Well, save for the rehabilitation of some buildings as part of a condo development. There's some interesting potential there, in fact, and we did wander around the grounds, into a few show condos, and on to the restored ballroom.










No meal out that night. I took over the kitchen (with two helpers/spectators)(well, three if you count Maggie)

and set to work on a fairly easy meal: fettucine with shrimp and a chipotle peanut sauce. A salad on the side, some wines to enjoy. Not my best effort ever, but I think it was tasty enough, and certainly the food was much improved by the company. We had a terrific evening of chat around the table and in the living room.

And Maggie? Mostly quiet, but the lucky girl has a bounty of toys to play with.
A happy dog, really.

I wonder if Geoff and Kent will let us turn this into an annual weekend visit...




More photos from the weekend are over at Flickr.