Ending the week at Bin 36

I'm struggling to recall when last we were at Bin 36. Surely it wasn't last June with Quinton and his wife, but quite possibly it was. Shame on us.

Conrad's office had an open house late this afternoon. We walked up from there to Bin 36 for dinner before heading home. A cool evening, but a gorgeous one. We sat in the window, Conrad with his Left Coast Reds flight and I with my Sauvignon Blanc and Friends flight. It's been a tiring week, so we weren't greatly animated. More just winding down with some nice food and wine, holding hands a little.

I was thrilled to see the return of fritto misto, though with crab and clams this time. I recall a vegetable version on their menu in the past, and it was a favourite. The best were the lemon slices, battered, fried, and salted. They made a welcome return on my appetizer plate, and that made my evening. I look a little manic or something in that photo, I realize.

Conrad started more easily with a good salad. He followed this up with the monkfish. In terms of wines, I think he did better than I. His half pour of Cycles Gladiator 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon was so lush. I smelled black mission figs in it. Yes, I sound pretentious, but really, that's what it recalled to my mind. We each had a full pour for dessert alongside with three cheeses (not photographed).

My meal? Rabbit two ways. Very very tasty. The wines held up well with it, though it was a Pomelo 2006 Sauvignon Blanc that I most liked and bought a bottle of to bring home.

Now to fully unwind and have a not-too-hectic weekend!

nice shirt

Vanity compels me to admit that I really rather like this short sleeve shirt I bought when we were in Auckland....

:-)

Honesty compels me to admit that while she doesn't rock my world quite like CG does, Veronda really does rock!

balcony salad

Nice night!

Here I sit, listening to the new Manic Street Preachers (Hooray! And I bought the new Bjork. And I'm tempted to get the new Travis! Good night for iTunes! Lots of exclamation points!), letting the evening draw in. Conrad and I had a nice, simple, casual dinner out on the balcony. A tad cool on this May evening, but enjoyable just the same.

Our plans for dinner changed at the last minute, so I tossed together some salad with a variety of found things from the fridge. Drizzled it all with this lovely lime-infused olive oil from Seresin Winery in Marlborough and a touch of balsamic vinegar made at Venturi-Shulze outside Victoria. A bottle of rosado leftover from Saturday night, and we were good to go.

Some photos, then, of a delightful little dinner and the close of a gorgeous day in the city.

cool Sunday stroll

One more post from the weekend that was.

As you might imagine, Conrad and I were a little worn out yesterday. What with cooking and cleaning and entertaining (yes, yes, we have SUCH a hard life, I know!), we were up late on Sunday and early to bed again. Dinner was a casual affair of leftover soup, salads, and a few other nibbly think, eaten reclined on the bed with Ugly Betty playing on the laptop. And after that, a stroll so that we could pretend to get some exercise.

Heh.

Over to the lakefront park on a cool early evening in May. We walked and chatted of upcoming trips and took a few photos.

The landscape scenes make the city look a little plain and desolate, but the Waveland tennis courts were thronged.

I found out last night that the tall building in this photo, the high rise across from our place, is only the 66th tallest in Chicago. 531 feet tall, and it is ranked kind of low. Mind you, our building would barely place in the top 350, if at all. But what is funniest to me is that I always think of Vancouver as being a big city full of skyscrapers. In fact, the building across the street from us is about 40 feet taller than the tallest skyscraper in Vancouver. Interesting perspective.



Conrad was a sort-of willing photo subject. Yes, that is his butt. As I mentioned in the previous post, we are gay!

Menus

Hey, look! I got off my large-ish, lazy butt and posted the menus as promised. Yes, Conrad and I are gay, why do you ask?

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.

Rhubarb meringue custard pie

Because what else would I do on a gorgeously sunny weekend in Chicago but stay inside the house and bake!

No, really, there is good reason: Kenn and Cliff have invited us to dinner tonight, and we were asked to bring dessert. Conrad can, I admit, work wonders with boneless chicken breasts and cream of mushroom soup, but I am not sure I want him to tackle dessert without his Mom co-baking. Over to me, then.

Helen used to make this on occasion at the restaurant, but I've never tried the recipe. The rhubarb meringue custard pie comes from a cookbook by Karen Barnaby of the Fish House in Stanley Park. Nice restaurant, and I do like her books. Not-so-secretly, I utterly love this one for its cover alone, but there are some good recipes in it.

I did the whole thing her way, pretty much. I used her pastry recipe even, which was fine though not the same as my own.




Conrad was a little fascinated by the whole process of working with pastry. I have to admit, I'm still a bit haphazard about the whole process. Mine is usually good enough, and it took me a lot more practice than I care to admit to get to "good enough"!




The pie smelled lovely once it was out of the oven. I hope it turns out fine. Rhubarb just struck me as such a perfect spring thing to use for dessert. Yes, those are jam tartlets in the background - what better use to put leftover dough to? You surely know I'd munch on all the raw dough otherwise!


The pie juest came out of its second bake a short time ago. I should say that the second bake - kind of obviously - is to toast the meringue and nothing more. I think it looks decent enough for dinner (though the crust is a little speckly brown - from the butter?). I kind of hope that everyone assumes it's a lemon pie and enjoys the surprise of the rhubarb custard filling!