best thing I've eaten this year

Yes, yes... the year is all of 5 weeks old. Is it really too soon to declare a best of the year so far? If not, then I humbly suggest this appetizer at our home away from home, Yoshi's:

Octopus carpaccio. So very good. I've ordered it the last two or three times we've been in there, and I have a feeling I will order it again and again, provided it is on the menu.

I should add that the rest of the meal was also very tasty.




:-)

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.

before I head to bed...

A busy weekend here, though not so hectic as not to be relaxing. In fact, I found the hours spent in the kitchen today to be quite what I needed. Some cooking (things needed for dinner, dinner for tomorrow to be reheated, cookies), a couple of XMen movies, and a couple of letters written. Conrad took care of laundry behind the scenes.

I've been thinking lately about what I cook. I've been in a rut, and it's time to try some new recipes. The cookies are a small first step. I keep supplies of dried cherries on hand constantly nowadays, and in searching for a simple cookie recipe, I came upon one for oatmeal cookies studded with the cherries and semi-sweet chocolate chunks. I think they turned out tastily.

Not exactly a New Year's resolution - I don't do those, and this IS February (already!). But yes, an ongoing effort to try some new dishes. Not obsessively so, but expect to see some on the blog from time to time.

so... that was Dallas...

I've been to Texas a handful of times before. San Antonio for Midwinter years back, Austin (and area) a few times more recently with Conrad (he's a UT alum). I liked San Antonio. I LOVED Austin. This time around it was Dallas. Not a vacation, however. No, this was conference travel, ALA Midwinter 2012.

I don't comment on work on this blog. I just won't do it. I will say before anything else, however, that no matter what I feel about my workplace (good or ill), I absolutely love my involvement with the American Library Association. I mean, seriously, there are so many good and interesting people I've met and continue to get to know. I find conferences rewarding on so many levels: content, networking, committee work, friends, dining, sightseeing. So let me point you to the report I posted in an official capacity and move on from there.

I would normally start off this post with talk of TK, my best friend. Assuredly, he will appear. But Midwinter in Dallas marked a milestone: ten years of knowing Martin. We met at the GLBTRT all-committees meeting in New Orleans in 2002 and started rooming together the next year in Philadelphia. Over the years we've become good friends. I cannot tell you enough how very much I like and respect this man (and do please vote for him as ALA Councilor-at-Large!). He puts up with all my high maintenance drama in the hotel room, and he has gotten me into some really terrific receptions and other social events. And we've killed many hours late at night talking about the Association and many other assorted bits of gossip. Dallas was the latest chance we had to spend time together, and I'm grateful for that. Did I mention that you should vote for him?

Added to that mix: TK. Yes, yes, I just saw him a handful of days before the conference when Conrad and I were in Baltimore. I don't care. I will happily take any opportunity to spend time with TK, and if it means that we can add in the library gossip to boot, then great! Plus, as lovely as it is to have our husbands added to the mix with us, the conference rooming together means that he and I can rattle off names and concepts without worrying about leaving them out of the conversation. TK had a very prestigious awards committee appointment that culminated in Monday's Youth Media Awards, and it was genuinely thrilling to see how bubbly he was over the whole thing. I couldn't wait to hear about it all after the award was announced and he could finally talk about it. I'm so very proud of the work he did.

I didn't dine out especially well in Dallas, I have to admit. In part it was because I had a working dinner one night, catered in to the hotel room of the ALA President-Elect. Another night I had three receptions all on different floors of the Dallas Public Library,

so that took care of dinner there. Lunches were usually pretty casual as well - assuming I even had lunch. I did manage pizza one day with my friend Peter, though. Other than that? Some mixed experiences.

A Thursday dinner with TK at Wild Salsa.


Reportedly, the librarians almost drank the whole place out of tequila on Saturday. I'm unsure why we're supposed to be so proud of ourselves for consuming booze. Big deal. Ah well. We had tasty food there, and it was a very good price. A belated celebration planned for TK's birthday. There was a Saturday dinner with TK, Martin, and CG at Dream Cafe. That took a hotel shuttle to get to, and it was a curiously quiet restaurant. Nonetheless, we had a good meal, again not too pricey. Enjoyable! On the Monday night, TK, Martin, and I headed to Samar.
I liked a few of the shared small plates, but the table we had near the bar was awful, there were a few not-so-great dishes (the whipped walnut oil on one was kind of disgusting), and by the time we left, I was in a foul mood.

Happily, there was a little place near our hotel that had just opened very late last year. More of a bar than anything, but they had a small and decent menu. It's called The Chesterfield, and if you want to have fun with cocktails, then check it out some time. In two days I managed to get there four times. ;-)



I didn't see much else of the city. It was hotel ---> conference centre ---> hotel. Repeat. I got to swim once with Liz over at an amazing fitness centre at the Baylor Medical Campus, but that was the farthest afield I got. On the other hand, the conference centre did have good coffee at the Starbucks, and it was convenient for meeting friends (like David). And as the days went on, I found myself busy at Council and happily engaged.

I don't know that I'm keen to get back to Dallas, but that's quite unfair given how little of the city I saw. It would be good to see Liz and Peter again, and get back to Chesterfield. And maybe dine at some new and better places. Ah well. The conference was fine, however, and now I just await Conrad's return from his own work travel.

More photos in the Flickr set, and do check out the photos others posted from the conference.

birthday surprise

No, not my birthday - that's months off, and given my advancing age, let's keep it there, thank you. No, it was a surprise for TK that took us to Baltimore last weekend.

Backing up a moment, I should assign credit. If I remember correctly (and never assume that I will), it started back in December when TK's partner, Michael, called to say that Mark and Maureen
were coming for the weekend in January. Did we want to come too? Mark and Maureen, by the way, are Todd's brother and sister-in-law, and their visit was to be a surprise, too. So it was that I spent about 5 weeks hiding the truth from the man whom, other than Conrad, I consider my best friend. It ultimately devolved into outright lies about me taking a trip downstate for work last Friday just so he wouldn't wonder why I wasn't showing up online at all through much of the day.

Oh, TK, I am so sorry.

Judging, however, by his reaction when he got to Roy's, I think I'm forgiven.

He was stunned, quite simply. Oh, in a good way. He was happy to see us. But it was a real surprise for him. Curiously, for all that I hate surprises done to me, I loved this one. Again, sorry TK.

It was a terrific weekend. Michael had done a great job of selecting some restaurants. Dinner at Roy's on the Friday night.
Brunch at Wit and Wisdom the next day (few photos from that, but the food was quite tasty). A party at Phillip's on Saturday night with much to nosh on.


A generous brunch at Langermann's on Sunday.


Oh, and gelato in Fell's Point on Saturday afternoon! Conrad and I left Baltimore with full bellies, I tell you.

But best of all was just getting this unexpected opportunity to see TK, see Michael, see Mark and Maureen. Get some quality time with two of my favourite dogs, Coney and Buster.
Belly rubs!!! I got a bit of a lakeside walk with TK just so we could talk a little together, enjoy that quiet and easy friendship. After the cheerful hubbub of the party the night before, it was a real pleasure to find a sunny, peaceful moment together on Sunday.

I very much hope it was a good birthday for TK, a fitting celebration for his landmark. Tomorrow night will be one more celebration, a dinner we'd planned for in Dallas well before this surprise weekend was thought up. No surprises this time, though. TK, I promise.

this blog will be back tomorrow

I do want to chime in on the surprise birthday weekend in Baltimore with TK, but more than that, I want to enjoy an evening with Conrad before he heads to Dallas tomorrow for a week and a half. So yes, this blog will be back tomorrow. Or some time soon. After all, it's not like this blog hasn't experienced some gaps before...

winter arrives

It's been a funny season here in Chicago. I think we may have dipped below freezing this close to the lake once before Christmas. Perhaps twice. On the other hand, so far this winter ("winter"?) we've had multiple days reaching well into the 40s and even the 50s. That's the 10+ range for my friends in Canada. That's not winter.

I think, however, winter arrived today. For how long, I'm not sure (and I'm already escaping it with a week in Dallas ahead), but by gosh, we're getting some snow. Oh, nowhere near the Snowmageddon (Snowpocalypse?) of almost a year ago, but the ground is getting covered now, ad it's clearly not the quasi-spring day we were having only a few days ago. Time to get the boots on!



When the big snow hit in February, I had the great timing of having planned to work at home. Winter hits today, and here I am, working on a book chapter at home. I haven't been out of the building since 10:35ish this morning, not long after the snow had started and the neighbourhood was only lightly dusted, and even then it was only a jaunt to Starbucks for decaf latte #2.

halibut, lightly curry-flavoured

At the end of a very good day where I got a nice bit of work done at home, had a tasty lunch of leftovers, and celebrated my best friend's birthday, dinner capped things nicely. A piece of halibut (gosh it's been a while since I cooked some halibut up) coated with rice flour I'd mixed with curry powder, salt, and pepper and then sauteed so that the coating crisped up. Red chard on the side (though I should have had kale in honour of the day) and a pea puree. Conrad was fresh from swimming and cute as ever. We sipped the rest of a nice Chardonnay and watched some Big Bang Theory on DVD. And capped it all off with the very last chocolates from the wedding reception.

Gentle readers, I am content.