Friday and Saturday in one fell swoop

Late on Sunday afternoon here, and I'm taking a break in reading lazily.  Is it too late for a nap?  Hmmm...

Let me do a quick check in on the weekend that was.

Friday!  Maestro.  A loud time at the bar thanks to a group of very bro-y guys drinking a goodly amount of expensive tequila.  Conrad and I stuck to one corner of the bar, cocktails in front of us

(and in hand!),

the tetela

and then the cochinita pibil for dinner. 

We came home and had some wine and read out back until it got to be too chilly.  A nice evening.

Saturday!  We walked to Van's, gave the girl some love,

then collected Van for a breakfast at Amara, including my decaf latte! 

That evening?  Burgers on the deck at Van's. 

All three of us enjoying a cocktail or two,

and then the main event. 

I otherwise found myself engrossed in a novel I was re-reading. 

I let them watch television after dinner and retreated to the office to read and listen to music.

I was up before everyone this morning, getting a good walk in. 

And now the weekend is almost done.  Alas.  Ah well.  A short week at work as I head to Chicago on Wednesday...

tostada

The cleanse marches on.  Day eleven.  And a Friday, which means Maestro.  So while Conrad enjoyed a couple of cocktails, I drank plenty of sparkling water and wished I were having something better.  Ah well.

There was a bright spot, though.  Although I am not letting myself eat most of the items on the menu, there was a new special, a pair of tostadas topped with some lightly pickled carrot, cucumber, slices of raw fish, and a seasoned mayonnaise.  And it was delicious.  So good that we ordered a second round.  Two tostadas plus some plantain chips and guacamole (and all the water) have me filled nicely.

Now for a quiet Friday evening at home...

Friday night celebration

So... I have a birthday coming up soon.  I shan't say when exactly, nor how old (but if you wish to believe I will be 38, who am I to stop you?).  But soon, yes.  Last night we went to dinner with Natasha as an early celebration for my birthday, and - unsurprisingly - we visited our favourite local place:  Maestro.

I love Maestro.  I love the vibe and the people who own it and work there and the cocktails and the food.  It's a place I want to bring friends to because it's just so easy to enjoy.  So when it came to picking a place, it was a no-brainer.

So it was that we were seated outside last night, listening to the live music, having a good dinner.  Conrad and Van across from me,

Natasha next to me. 

I didn't photograph all of the food, but I did get a few snapshots.  The tamale and esquites with bone marrow special. 

The mole chicken

and the shrimp tacos

from the main menu.  We ate very well, indeed.

Thank you, then, to Conrad, Van, and Natasha for celebrating my birthday early with me.  Hooray for getting older!

three recent meals

It's been a few nights of dining out in a row, and I will enjoy getting in the kitchen tonight.  But let me check in on three recent meals.

Thursday evening we reunited with Natasha.  Conrad was a little late coming in from LAX, but he made it just after we had ordered, and so he was able to complete our foursome nicely.  Van doesn't eat sushi (I know, I know, but we still love him), but he does enjoy a bento box, so he contented himself with that.  Conrad, Natasha, and I shared sashimi and rolls and nigiri, relishing what we ate and not remembering to photograph it.  Sometimes we just want to eat and catch up.  But I did get one photo of a plate at Mama M that evening:  the Ocean Wrap. 

As always, it was a pleasure to enjoy our dinner from our friends there.

The next evening, Conrad, Van, and I were parked at the bar at Maestro shortly after opening.  It felt a little like old times before too long - the bar was packed with early diners, and people were talking across at each other quite cheerily.  We ordered cocktails and guacamole with plantain chips,

and then got some birria tacos,

the tamal poblano,

and the arrachera (not pictured) to share for our dinner.  And then on home for me to bore the two poor guys to tears with my Micronesia photos.

Conrad left for San Francisco yesterday late in the afternoon, and Van and I got on the road with Olive to Rancho Mirage.  After getting to the house and settling in, he and I changed and headed to The Penney and Parlour for dinner at the bar.  The place was busy, and the bartenders were hopping, and so the service had some lags.  Worse, there were two men sitting to Van's right who had very loud, clear voices.  We were treated to far too much of their progressively drunker conversation throughout our evening.  Worse than that, they were clearly regulars, and the staff, especially the bar manager, indulged them greatly.  On the plus side, the bartender, Eric, taking care of us did the best he could considering how busy he was.  We liked and appreciated him, and when things slowed down, we got to ask him some questions about things at the bar that looked interesting.  I also liked the food - Van's wedge salad made with grilled escarole was my favourite thing of the night.  My pork belly

wasn't my first choice - they sold out of the ragu before my order could be placed - but it was fine, and I like the charred dandelion greens.  I would go back, but wow, would I hope that those two men were not there.  And I will watch myself at Maestro and Mama M to make sure that I am never an obnoxious customer like that myself!

pairing wine with Mexican food

Last year, at the Frontera Farmer Foundation dinner, Conrad and I and the rest of our table successfully bid on a prize at the silent auction. In fact, we’d sort of managed to win prizes in past years, which is how we’ve enjoyed cocktail parties in the Bayless’ backyard. This time, however, we opted to bid on a different prize. And so it was that yesterday, after weeks of trying to set it all up, we were at Frontera Grill for a private group wine pairing instruction session, to be followed by dinner in the restaurant.

The whole group of us enjoy food and wine – most of us had been to at least one of the wine apiring dinners before. We all are huge fans of Frontera, and more specifically, we’re all huge fans of Jill Gubesch, the sommelier. Jill’s personality is bright and friendly, and she really knows her stuff. Wine with Mexican food? Oh heck yes. Go there, put yourself in her hands, and enjoy some terrific pairings! The event promised to be quite good.

Conrad and I arrived at Frontera

around about 5:10 yesterday, a little too early for our wine-pairing and dinner at Frontera Grill. Given time to kill, and having bumped into Jim and Dianne, we went round the corner to enjoy a couple of lemonades with them, sitting outside Xoco. When we returned to the restaurant, we were promptly led through it to the elevator to head upstairs. We'd been in the Library Room and demo kitchen before, but never with such a small, intimate group. We didn't know quite what to expect. I actually had wondered if it would be as informal, as casual as the cocktail parties – we would stand around, chat, taste a few glasses, munch on a bit of food. Instead, we arrived upstairs to find a table fully set with six glasses at each place,

information sheets, and Jill and two colleagues putting the finishing touches on things.

We greeted Jill, Conrad and I gave her a bottle of a BC wine we’d tried last weekend in Vancouver, and then took our seats with Jim and Dianne, Bob, Glen and Sue, and Susan and Andrew. At first we were curiously quiet, listening,

like kids feeling out a new teacher at the start of a school year. It didn’t take too long, though, before we were freely chatting in between sips. Though we had spit buckets, I admit, not one of us dumped anything!

Jill started us out with the Ceviche Fronterizo, the house ceviche of tuna.

We each had a small dish, and there were baskets of tortilla chips on the table for eating along with it if we chose. She had two wines that she felt were great matches, but she also suggested we try two others to understand how, good as they may be, they weren’t matches for the tartness and other aspects of the ceviche. A Champagne went best with it, in my opinion, but the suggested Riesling was also a good match. The marvelously floral Spanish white (and here I have to plead that not only did I not bring home the information sheet – I will happily rely on Jill’s suggestions when next I dine at Frontera or Topolobampo – I can’t pull all the names from the restaurant’s online wine sheet since the document keeps crashing both my browser and Adobe Reader) was wonderful on its own but not as good with the fish. The rich red? Turned bitter. Drink what you like, in other words, but some things really do make better sense together than others.

We moved from there to a green pipian. Because they knew we had a meal ahead, they served us dishes of the sauces along with the chips and some fresh corn tortillas. Jill explained that we wouldn’t get the full sense of the pairing because we wouldn’t have the protein and other components of a complete dish, but we would understand the sauce and wine together at least. The pipian was better suited to the floral Spanish white, though I actually rather liked it with the Riesling. In fact, I came back to that Riesling more than once (and had a re-fill), and found it was a good partner for what we tried. Jill thought in part it might be the cooling temperature of the wine, and that’s reasonable, I think. I still liked it. Oh, and the pipian? I was bantering with a couple of the others about what fish it would go well with, though we all agreed we’d love it on some eggs!

Up after that was a more straightforward chile sauce. Guajillo? Chilaca? I can’t recall now – I do recall Jill showing us some different chiles,

having us smell one of them, and her explaining different ideal matches. Conrad found the chile sauce a bit too hot, though it wasn’t really scorching. I was eating it by the spoonful, if that gives any indication. I also liked the Riesling with it, though I also thought the Topolovino blend was good. There was a Pinot from Central Otago, and Conrad (unsurprisingly) gravitated toward that.

The last sauce was the complex black mole, the one that takes so many ingredients and so much practice. Good gosh were these sauces tasty! And it was with this last one that the lush Spanish red made an excellent match. I still was trying everything with that Riesling anyway.

So that was six wines with savoury pairings. We were then given a flute and glass so that we could have a sparkling and a still dessert wine. We were introduced to the restaurant’s pastry chef, Jennifer, and served two small desserts. Now let me digress here. For a long while I thought desserts at Frontera and Topolobampo were nice. Not super. Just nice. I didn’t often think to order them. In recent times, though, I’d noted a change, and it has to be thanks to Jennifer, who has been there about three years. Desserts are now something I keenly look forward to at the restaurant, and the small samples highlighted why. A lively, slightly tart fruit soup with mango sorbet floating in it? A chocolate cake layered with a crème fraiche buttercream, then served with strawberries and piloncillo ice cream?

Oh yes, yes please. The sparkling wine worked well with both, though I preferred the still dessert wine with the cake. Either way, though, we all won.

And then it was 7:30 and time to head downstairs, somehow needing to honour our reservation and have a bit of dinner!

Frontera Grill recently overhauled its menu, rather dramatically, and it now features a number of small plates. That was a welcome change given how we’d already consumed so well upstairs. Conrad and I ordered a bottle of a Pinot while others started off with cocktails – two other couples ordered wines eventually, and the six of us shared pours quite happily. Conrad and I also decided to order three small plates between us. We sought Jill’s advice based on our wine, and from among so many enticing possibilities, we got some good options.

• Chicken in Wild Ramp Crema: Wood-grilled Gunthorp chicken breast, local asparagus, roasted fingerling potatoes, wild ramp crema. Crispy epazote.
• Duck Carnitas Queso Fundido:
  
  Otter Creek organic cheddar, duck leg carnitas, grilled knob onions, pickled jalapenos & vegetables
• Molotes:
  
  Corn-masa "torpedos" filled with grilled woodland mushrooms, homemade ricotta, roasted poblano chiles & epazote. Spicy avocado-tomatillo salsa, Nick's watercress, anejo cheese.

He and I also ordered one dessert, but again shared with the others who had ordered dessert, too. Among us we had the

• Tres Leches de Coco:
  
  Coconut tres leches cake, honey Manila mango sorbet, coconut crunch, mango salsa with Bayless Garden herbs.
• Tartaleta de Chocolate Oaxaqueno:
  
  Oaxacan chocolate tart, toasted mezcal meringue, bittersweet chocolate-raspberry ice cream.
• And (of course, because custard is a magic ingredient for me) Duo de Flanes:
  
  A duo of caramel custards: classic Mexican vanilla bean & Gentle Breezes honey with Bayless Garden lemon verbena. Honey-poached apricot & honeycomb candy.

No further wine by this time, and though I was tempted to have some decaf to finish the evening, I refrained. Instead, we wound down, and by 10:30 were in a cab home, ready to drink a good bunch of water before bed and anticipating a slow morning today!

Conrad and I opted not to go to the foundation dinner this June because we’re a little overwhelmed by so much else on our schedules. A shame. Last night was so much fun, so very worth doing. Ah well. Perhaps one day we can make it back to the Library Room for a private dining experience to remember.

using up some leftovers

Sunday we stayed in. And ignored the Super Bowl (though, good gay that I am, I caught Madonna's performance online on Monday). I made us shrimp tacos, a dinner of several components. That left me with some things to play with for lunches and dinners later in the week.

Today I took leftover homemade tortillas layered with a tomato-green chile sauce and black beans and cheese in to work. A filling lunch. But this blog isn't about plastic containers of food reheated in a staff lounge at work, no. Instead, let's talk about dinner tonight.

Look, I love my husband absolutely. Totally. Adore him. A wonderful man, a wonderful husband. But not perfect - who is? Turn him loose in a grocery store, and, well, be prepared for a little improvisation. Even when he's equipped with a list. He did fine today, though, picking up some salmon for dinner (he LOVES salmon, and he knows my disdain for Atlantic salmon) and a few other things. I might have steered away from the chard if I'd seen it, but I asked him for it, and though it wasn't as tender as I prefer, it was fine. No, he did a good job, and the reward was a reasonable dinner.

The salmon I dusted with masa harina. The smell of the flour was really something. I told TK this morning in an e-mail that I'm on a Mexican kick with dining thanks to recently reviewing a book on the cuisine. That crept in to the dinner tonight. The coated salmon I pan-fried, simple as that.

The salmon went atop some of the leftover tomato-green chile sauce. I wish the sauce had more heat, but as I usually do, I found the chiles fairly mild. I swear the chiles we got at the store back home in NORTHERN CANADA had more bite to them. Ah well. It was a fine sauce under the salmon.

The other leftover was a bit of lightly pickled vegetable around the plate. A different sweet-tangy taste from the sauce, and a welcome bit of crunch.

The chard went on the side, and then atop it all was some guacamole. Maybe not traditional, but heck, salmon really isn't Mexican either. Plus, the avocadoes needed using up!

A filling meal, a decent one. Not my best effort, but good for a Tuesday, to be sure.

dinner with Eric

It freaks me out a little that Eric was last my officemate 11 years ago. I've been in Chicago that long. Longer. On the other hand, I've had an office to myself ever since, and that's meant my own music at the volume I like and getting to sing along with all the Christmas carols I love so very dearly.

But back to Eric.

He hasn't been too involved with library associations in recent years, but - happily - his area of research brings him to Chicago with some regularity. On those visits, we do try to get together and catch up over a meal. Tonight, in fact, was his treat to me and Conrad (we should have had the super-premium margaritas, darn it!) in honour of hour wedding. Even more graciously, he let us show him pictures at the dinner table!

Very good to see him, though, and oh, the food was fine, too. I think I may switch back to fajitas when next we go to El Mariachi, but the shrimp in pipian rojo were fine, and the chips and salsa, as always, are my joy and my bane.

something old, something new

I wheeled out a couple of familiar recipes last night and tried a few new ones. Mixed success, in my brutally honest opinion, but a fine dinner overall.

Speaking of old and new, that was the mix at our kitchen table. Conrad and I have each been with the Smelts 10+ years. Brad and Matt are at about a year apiece. We have a great group of younger swimmers on the team these days, and it was a nice opportunity to get to know both of them a little better. The dinner started from a Facebook post by Brad when he was visiting a particular winery in California, Merry Edwards. I commented that Conrad loved the Pinot Noir from that winery, and Brad said he had picked up a bottle to share. I suggested he bring it for dinner, he agreed and invited Matt along to fill out the table nicely. A vegetarian meal to fit Brad's diet, and some good wine to enjoy. Oh, plus team gossip, of course!

Unusually for me, I did not force everyone out of the kitchen while I cooked. Conrad opened a bottle of Champagne for the four of us (why not celebrate anything we could?), and they munched on cheese, quince paste, crackers, olives, nuts, and caper berries. Me? I finished off a batch of rice cooked with the liquid drained from black beans I'd cooked up. Then I turned my attention to empanadas. Ah yes, fried food. Mmmmmm. A fine recipe, and one you've seen from me before.

I had roasted two types of mushroom (trumpet and hen-of-the-woods) and chopped those up. To them I added some cooked diced potato, charred garlic, diced goat milk gouda, and some chopped rehydrated red chile. This became the filling for the empanadas. While we chatted, I was pressing the dough and folding it closed around the mushroom mixture. A lighter set of flavours - a little earthy, but not too deep and rich - to go with the Pinot, or so I hoped.

But I'll be honest, I could have done better with the empanadas. The oil wasn't hot enough at first, and the slow cooking let the first several I made open up as they cooked. Grrrr. The last several were better, I'm glad to say, but it was a bit embarrassing to have kitchen mistakes on full view. Brad and Matt were very indulgent of them, thankfully.

I served the empanadas with the rice (which also was a bit less good than I would have liked, though I think the leftovers will go nicely with eggs and a chile sauce of some sort - it's been a long time since last I made that recipe, but I used to love it in the days back at the restaurant), red chard, and a sauce I'd made using dried red chiles, onion, charred garlic, dried mushrooms, and tomato. It turned out well, I think, a happy experiment.

And so we dined.

And the wine, I should add, was delicious.

After dinner, we remained in the kitchen. Matt had brought a Washington Cab blend, and we slowly sipped our way through that. Conrad helped tidy a bit, and I started on dessert. Here's where the new recipes came in, and frankly, I thought they were pretty darn good. I had made hazelnut shortbreads from Emily Luchetti's truly wonderful Stars Desserts cookbook (my hardcover edition needs rebinding badly) earlier in the afternoon. I also made a batch of hazelnut ice cream from a recipe I found online. It was well worth skinning all those nuts, I tell you. The nut flavour was subtle, and it would be understandable to think that the ice cream was a good, rich vanilla. There are a lot of leftovers of it, though, and I may find myself tempted in days ahead.

I went with hazelnut, though, because I think its a great complement to plums. The plum season will soon end, and I will be sorry to see it over. For snacking or for cooking, plums are a wonderful fruit, after all. I used 9 prune plums last night in making the showstopper: souffles.

There I was, in the kitchen, mixer running at high speed as I whipped up egg whites and sugar. I folded them in batches into a strained plum puree. Three ingredients, that was it. The mix then went into prepared ramekins and into the oven. A short time after that, Brad started getting excited, asking if I had made baked Alaska. He knew that I had made ice cream, and he thought that egg whites plus ice cream logically meant that classic dessert. Nope, sorry Brad. His excitement was cute, though. My own excitement came with the rising of the souffles. I had plates ready with a scoop of ice cream (for adding into the hot, sweet-tart souffle) and a couple of cookies. The souffles came out of the oven, a nice brown on top, pink around the sides. Onto the plates, onto the table, and delighted reactions all around (including from me). This was one of the best desserts I've done in ages - a little forethought on what to make and how to present it, a willingness to take a small risk.

We ate it all up, full as we were, and settled into contented conversation once the plates were clean.

Dinner Like No Other

I should be in bed already - a late night last night after a big big dinner (with wine pairings and more to drink) and an early morning today to go to the gym. I will be glad of sleeping in this coming Sunday, I think.

Enough griping, though - on to the food discussion.

I love Frontera Grill (and Topolobampo and even the new place at O'Hare, but I've yet to get to Xoco). Love it. Conrad is with me on this, and you can be sure that at the wedding reception one of the tables will named for Frontera. And Yoshi's, of course. But definitely a Frontera. For several years now - the entire time they've staged it? - we've attended the Frontera Farmer Foundation dinner. The 2011 edition was last night.

A Dinner Like No Other is how they bill it, and this year it was a clever homage to Chicago neighbourhoods. Great idea! A Frontera spin on some of the foods found around town. The menu promised much... and delivered.

Conrad and I arrived in time to line up outside for the opening, and as we made the end of the queue, Jill, the sommelier, came outside. She was exhausted from a long day and much hard work on the event, and we were sorry not to enjoy her company that night. We'll make up for that, as I'll explain in a bit. Susan and Andrew were right behind us - they're part of a group of Saturday lunch regulars who have taken us under wing and with whom we've enjoyed this dinner (and others) several times now. A fine group, and who better to dine with?



Bob was the ringleader, and we all split up as couples so that we could mix well. I found myself between Sue and Glen (down from Milwaukee) and across from Susan. Easy, fun conversation all night long. At various points one or two of us (we were 9 in total) would go patrol the silent auction, so there were plenty of opportunities for chat with others. More on the silent auction in a bit.

The food. A confession: I ate meat. I'd really been trying not to. I found through the cleanse that I really feel better confining myself to fish and occasional poultry. I'm trying to eat a little healthier. Last night, though, was a set menu with wine pairings. No beef, happily - that's the worst on my system. Instead, I just ate it all, made no fuss, and felt off this morning. Ah well.

We were greeted with a strawberry-rhubarb margarita, an excellent cocktail, a great start.

The amuse was an homage to Greektown: mini lamb "gyros".

First course: Thai fried chicken, in honour of Argyle Street. Served with a local beer, the Goose Island Matilda. Ah, that crispy skin! A bit of zing. Mmmm...

Next: homemade bratwurst as a spin on the Lincoln Square fare. I was taken with the creamy chipotle mustard most of all. That's not a dig at the rest of the late, merely an appreciation for the condiment. Served with a delicious 2009 August Kesseler "R" Riesling Kabinett.

The fish course was the best. I honestly think Frontera does fish better than anywhere in town. Garlic marinated Alaskan halibut with canneloni. An homage to the Italian neighbourhood on Taylor Street. The wine was fine but the least remarkable of them all, a 2009 Domaine de Bernier Chardonnay.

The meat course was roasted suckling pig on a beautiful mound of Iroquois white corn grits. I admit, the pork was so tender. This tribute to a corner on the south side was paired with a South African red, the 2010 Boekenhoutskloof "The Wolftrap" Franschhoek valley. Lovely. I managed to score an extra pour of that.

Dessert was a lemony chess pie with strawberry preserves and a remarkable ice cream: hoja santa-vanilla bean. In honour of Chicago diners, a nice touch. Instead of a dessert wine, there was a lemon cordial made with tequila na infused with basil and hoja santa.

And then we enjoyed some decaf.

We did not leave hungry, that's for sure. We left with a goodie bag, though, and better still, two silent auction prizes. As a table, we successfully bid on a wine pairing class with Jill. Hooray! I can't wait for that one. And as for the other, well, a present for Conrad from me. Of course it's not a surprise. Of course I'll enjoy it with him. A 1.5 L bottle of a Central Otago Pinot Noir. Not inexpensive, but isn't he worth it?

We were giddy boys in the cab ride home, I have to say. June 2012 - what will that dinner like no other bring us?

(all of the photos from last night are on Flickr)