another vegetarian dinner

Second week in a row that Conrad and I found ourselves on a Friday night in our kitchen, entertaining a friend, sipping much wine, and dining on a vegetarian meal. It happens.

We had Brad over some time back - over time we've come to realize that not only do we have our swim team in common, but all three of us quite like wine. We'd been meaning to share some BC wine with him since he'd never tried it, so we planned a casual Friday together. It actually timed out nicely - I had taken a half day sick leave for a dental appointment, and that left me home early in the afternoon and able to start cooking.

I made dessert first. Whole Foods had some very good looking rhubarb in its produce section this week. Ah, the signs of spring at Whole Foods: ramps (I didn't buy any), the masses of mangoes as their season crests. Now if only they'd have fiddleheads. Anyway, I picked up the rhubarb and, recollecting a previous attempt at an upside down cake that turned out decently,

opting for that instead of a more typical crisp or pie. Besides which, it may be the Swede in Conrad or the Briton in my background, but rhubarb is something we both rather like.

The cake turned out nicely, and with that done, I did prep for the entree and set up things for us in the kitchen. By the time Brad got here, we had a bottle of Champagne chilled and an assortment of nuts, caper berries, olives, and asparagus spears (blanched and cooled) to nibble at.

Dinner was risotto. It's funny - like last week, I went a route that I seldom go thanks to our not-entirely successful efforts to reduce Conrad's carbs intake. I haven't made risotto in some time, and to be honest, it was a little thicker and stodgier than it should have been. But it tasted good, and while the two of them sat and sipped and chatted, I was nearby stirring my pot. One funny moment was near plating when I asked Conrad to grate some romano cheese for me without specifying how much. When I turned to his counter, there was a massive pile and a rind ready to discard. Whoops. A reminder on the rare occasion that I let him in my kitchen to be very precise in what I tell him to do.

The risotto was tasty, though. I had flavoured vegetable broth with dried porcini mushrooms that I subsequently chopped and stirred into the risotto. The risotto had a generous amount of leek in it (and frizzled leek atop each serving), and at the end I stirred in fava beans I'd blanched and peeled earlier.

Perhaps it didn't spread on the plate the way it should according to Top Chef, but it was nourishing.

We had a small bit of leafy greens, then on to dessert. By that point we'd finished not only the Champagne but also a BC Pinot Noir (not as good as we'd wanted - not at all bad, but perhaps not the best representation of the wines we love from back home) and were on to a Cab that Brad had brought. Being in the kitchen meant that I had a bit less than the others, I think - I felt fine this morning on my 12-mile run, though it helped that I drank as much water as wine last night. Conversation, meanwhile, flowed through team gossip, books, wines and food, travel, and elsewhere. Brad was once again fine company.

Dessert was nice. It's not a showstopper, but then, I don't make showstoppers. I make desserts I can dish up easily and not fuss with. I can feel at least one pair of eyes rolling at me as I write that, but it's true. A big dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream along side a piece of cake,

and we were sated. I sent Brad home with a bunch of risotto, a few pieces of cake, and even four servings of a quick rhubarb crisp I'd thrown together with the extra stalks. May he enjoy them through this weekend!

cookies for Carol

It feels odd to me when people retire from the Library, some more than others. It seems as though most everyone at work is bringing his or her career to an end. And so it was that a little while back I learned that Carol was going to retire this spring.

Ugh. All the good people leave. Which somehow implies there are only bad people left, but no, that's not the case. It's just that Carol is pretty cool.

I didn't know her well my first handful of years at my library. She works on the other side of campus, and it really is a rare thing, getting over there or people over there getting over to my side of campus. Oh, it happens, but not as often as we all might like. It wasn't until she and I co-chaired a strategic planning initiative for the Library that I actually got to know her. Over a year of working closely together, bringing that project to a successful close. And then, after that, going to a week-long ARL workshop at UCLA.

That was a fun trip, in fact - a terrific workshop, and opportunities to sightsee a bit, including my first trip to the Getty.

(and gosh, how young and plump I look there, mid-30s)

So tomorrow is her retirement party, though I think she has a few days left after that. To mark the event, I decided to bake some cookies after work (and the really great thing about working at home today is that I could get an early start on baking, thanks to no commute and an early start this morning). An easy recipe, one I made recently, the white chocolate chunk macadamia cookies. I've got a tin ready for tomorrow

(plus a couple for my dessert tonight, and a few for Conrad to come home to).

But they're just cookies, and they'll soon be eaten. Carol will be gone from the Library come May or so, and we'll be all the poorer for it, I'm afraid.

wildlife of Aruba

Monday night is always an odd night, what with coaching to get out of the way. No Conrad tonight - he's in Alabama - so it's me and leftovers and a short, easy bit of blogging before bed.

I'm still drawing on the Aruba photos for blog entries and likely will get one or two more out of them even if it was a month ago (and I've neglected the Easter weekend trip to Pasadena, haven't I?). No matter. Aruba was an extraordinary experience on so many levels - it merits more than one entry.

So while I'm winding down, let me post some photos of the wildlife of Aruba.

It actually surprised me that we saw relatively few colourful birds - I struggle to think of any though we heard much birdsong. Certainly we saw fish - bright blue parrotfish from a hotel bridge, all the fish in the water just below us as we dined on a restaurant's dock two of the nights there,

and the many other amazingly coloured fish on our snorkeling expedition. Frankly, the snorkeling was wonderful - at the second stop we descended into what felt like an aquarium - clouds of fish around us, nibbling at the sandwiches we held tight in our fists. That was amazing. Truly. I could have watched them for ages.

We saw many other gorgeously coloured fish while snorkeling, and that was a real highlight of the trip despite my foolish sunscreen failure.

Aruba is an arid island, a small island. So far as I know, there are no big mammals on the island. Wild ones, that is. But there are lizards.

If only I'd got a photo of that vividly blue one I saw near the Westin. Ah well. I did capture shots of a few others, including at our hotel.

The other cool thing was seeing the crabs on the rocks at the waterfront.

It brought back all the memories of overturning rocks on the waterfront at my Grandma's when we were younger, and picking them up so they could scuttle over as our hands, one hand to the next. I admit that nowadays I wonder how good eating they make...

Oh, and the first critter spotted? This little guy!

high flying birds

Once or twice a year, really not much more than that, I get to a live music event. Usually these are small, low-key. I don't even always know the name going in - last year's Dick Prall show I went to with Allison is a prime example. Occasionally it's a bigger name - Florence + the Machine with some of the Smelts is one of those rare occurrences. It's one of those things that Conrad and I diverge a little on: I play music constantly and have a reasonably broad range of tastes. Conrad would prefer that we stick with Enya played soothingly most evenings. I joke, a little - his tastes aren't that narrow, and I have introduced him to recorded music and live performances that he's enjoy a good deal. Still, concerts are not a regular thing for me or us.

Enter Bridget.

Bridget is sort of a Terraceite. That is, she lived there for a period of time, and it's from that part of the mid-90s that we know each others. In fact, she's a Wisconsinite, now living in Milwaukee. We've been in touch for several years now and have had a couple of meals together up there and down here. Early this year, though, she contacted me to let me know that Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, would be playing in Milwaukee. Would I like to come up? My vacation balances wouldn't permit a midweek show, but the Chicago concert was on a Sunday, there were tickets, and she was willing to come down. Hooray!

Oasis has a particular place in our shared experience. In 1995 Air Canada opened a new route from Vancouver to Chicago, and offered a low introductory price with connections from within BC to Vancouver for a small amount more. We kind of joked about it in the wake of my bosses booking a trip to Chicago, and then after seeing While You Were Sleeping, we resolved to make a trip up around the Thanksgiving (real Thanksgiving, not the USian one) weekend. I ended up buying the What's The Story CD in Madison on our whirlwind 48-hour drive across the state and back again, and that music recalls to me that trip and a golden autumn weekend in Wisconsin. No wonder I romanticize the state!

At the start of April, then, Bridget hopped a train on down to Chicago, got settled in to our spare room, and then she, Conrad, and I headed to Oh Fusion with a bottle of good BC Pinot for a sushi dinner.

We left Conrad after dinner, got on the El, and headed up to the Riviera Theatre.

Found seats upstairs in the balcony. Readied ourselves for the show.

The opening act was called Mona. They had attitude and volume. I couldn't understand a word they sang, but it was somewhat catchy. I haven't followed up to buy any tracks, however. Bridget and I enjoyed the people watching around us (lots of folks in their forties, like us, a curiously large number of young people) and began counting the beers consumed by the guy in front of us (5 of his own, and I think he helped his girlfriend with hers).

And then the main event.

People always talk of how great a singer Liam Gallagher is, but I sometimes found him too overwrought. The songs where Noel was lead singer were sometimes more palatable for the singing. Sunday Morning Call comes to mind. I'd bought the album (and I should correct myself - it's Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, not Noel Gallagher, but who are we kidding?), and found it fine. Just fine. A bit dull and needing some edge. But fine. The songs were mostly familiar to me, though not enough to sing along.

Mid-set, the band cleared off and Noel was left alone with an acoustic guitar with which he launched into Supersonic. THIS was what a lot of the crowd really wanted, judging my the singalong that resulted. Me? I was giddily singing along to one of my all-time favourite Oasis tracks, too.

But that was it for the main set - from what I could tell, there were people down front hollering for other Oasis songs, and he told them they'd have to go home and put a CD on. I think that was the exchange - he sang well and clearly, but his banter was terribly muffled and mumbled. Which leads to the problem with the concert: I could have stayed home with Conrad and Bridget, had a bit more wine, and listened to the album and had just as good an experience. Noel didn't connect well with the audience, in my opinion. The renditions of the songs were quite faithful, which is a good and bad thing - sometimes the live show is a chance for mixing things up or trying new takes. This didn't really have that, and while I didn't miss it, I also felt like the renditions were maybe too faithful. Ah well. That's me wanting to have my cake and eat it, too, right?

Noel saved one more Oasis song for the encore, and it was another doozy: Don't Look Back in Anger. The crowd tried to applaud the band back onstage for a second encore, but it was over, and Bridget and I were left to an enjoyable mile or so walk home to critique the performance and think on when we can meet up in the future again.

more old stand-by recipes

Conrad and I haven't done much entertaining lately.  Let's blame it on two things:  our combined travel schedule and our disaster of an apartment.  The two of those aren't unrelated, come to think of it, though I am certain all that Fiestaware in the kitchen is dusty for reasons other than him and me flying off hither and thither.

It's been a while, though, as I said, so it was nice to have a casual little dinner in the kitchen last night with Michael, a PhD student from my university and someone I've known from his time working in the Special Collections department.  Conrad hadn't met him before, but Michael and I have been talking for some time about sharing a meal or two, especially since enjoying tapas together in Philadelphia last year.  His partner, Jenna, is out of the country right now doing some research, so it was a good time to have him over and make sure he's getting fed properly.  Starving grad students, you know.

It's dinners like last night where, rather than attempting something new and unknown (and I know I keep meaning to do more of that, culinarily), it just makes more sense to go back to the familiar, the stand-bys from my days at the restaurant.  Gosh, it's hard to think that it's 14 years almost since I stopped working there.  I'm sure these recipes are anything but cutting edge (if ever they were).  Still, they result in food I can feel reasonably confident will be enjoyed.  And that's the point:  that our guest enjoy dinner.  I think we succeeded.

We started off with some wine and cheese and olives and caper berries and nuts.  

Dinner wasn't yet out of the oven - we were running a bit behind, I admit, and that Michael came late was actually a good thing as it meant we got caught up on the dishes.  The wine done, I steered us to a richer wine than a Pinot.  I was feeling chilled somehow and wanted something a bit fuller to drink so that I might feel it warm me up.  A new wine poured (a Cab from the Oliver Winery in Indiana, a nice choice and a wine that will convince anyone that there are good Midwest wines).  I dished up dinner after letting it set up a bit following its removal from the oven.

Lasagna!  We so seldom cook pasta at home or opt for it when dining out (and even then it's usually only me and usually only Thai).  I'd had the recipe in mind for a few days, ever since a conversation TK and I had that led to the realization Evan Kleiman had closed Angeli Caffe in LA earlier this year and before I could go dine there (foolish me, I canceled a reservation for the place last summer).  Her Pizza, Pasta, Panini cookbook is really quite excellent, and the spinach and caramelized onion lasagna would make for a good vegetarian dinner, I thought.  I tossed salad greens with some white balsamic and white truffle oil, salt and pepper as a side dish.  Simple as that.

Michael went home with three servings of the lasagna, which is a good thing - in my experience, it's great the next day, even cold.  I just had a small bit as a late lunch.

Of course, there had to be dessert (and a third bottle of wine started but not finished).  Back to the restaurant days for the brown butter tart recipe.  It's not simply an easy dessert to make, it's one I like immensely.  The brown butter is a marvelous flavour in the tart filling, and a hint of salt adds dimension to the sweet.  The recipe actually calls for blueberries, and while I like that version, I think that more acidic fruit works better.  It's mango season at Whole Foods, so I decided to go with them.  They turned out sweeter and less acidic than hoped, but they still worked nicely in the tart.

Michael went home with four pieces.  Dessert for his lasagna, plus an extra tart slice.

Next Friday we're supposed to have Brad over.  We have a bottle of BC wine to share with him, and I'll again be pressed to come up with a vegetarian dinner.  Oh, it's not tough to do.  I'll start thinking now on which restaurant stand-bys to ply him with.

flying south

Still catching up here, and returning to that Aruba trip from almost a month ago now. Four weeks since the first lecture? Is that right? It seems so very long ago in some ways, and yet it wasn't.

I wrote a quick first entry on the work aspects of the trip, and I think on reflection I should re-emphasize this point: this is not a blog for me to discuss work, to discuss libraries. Incidentally, perhaps, but not the focus. I'm not particularly comfortable bringing my professional life into this blog (though happy to talk with you about it one-on-one), and so I gave that aspect of the trip short shrift. I am, however, proud of what Nancy and I undertook. I thought we made did a very good job of addressing our topic, and I found meeting with colleagues and others in Aruba quite rewarding.

But this is a blog about food and travel more than anything, so again I'll turn from talk of work and focus on some of the more interesting aspects of the trip. And for tonight, before I head off to bed, some aerial photos.

One of the many many great things about Conrad is that he flies a lot for work, and there are spillover benefits to me. Most recently, I've acquired his elite status on United. On the Aruba trip, that came in handy: upgrades! I found myself on the flight from Newark to Aruba sitting in Business Class in a window seat on the left side of the plane. I cheerily took advantage of the view (when I wasn't watching The Descendants or reading The Hunger Games) to check out the view and speculate on where I was:

New York City poking through the clouds.

The Carolinas?


Cuba?


Over Hispaniola?



Flying into Aruba.







Puffy clouds, turquoise waters close in to shore. It was entertaining in and of itself, and I found myself surprised time and again that I was actually making this trip.

The day that travel doesn't hold some small magic for me, I should relinquish my status and stay at home. May that day never come.

Aruba, briefly

Mondays are never good for accomplishing much. Swim practice is over, and it feels like I have only a smidgen of time before heading to bed and a brand new workday. I'd wanted to blog tonight, but I don't have the patience or energy, I admit. So let me just put up a quick entry with a pretty picture from last month's trip to Aruba, with the promise of a longer, better entry to come!

Sunday afternoon baking

I think I've done a lot this weekend, really. I shan't bore you with details of the cleaning, mind you. We all have our own bathrooms to scrub, right?

The kitchen is currently a little messier than I'd like, but I'll soon have it put back together. While the cookies are warm and fresh and sweetly scenting the room, I want to quickly blog them. Gosh, it feels like ages since last I baked! A nice thing to return to, and, happily, I wasn't hurried at all. Some HIMYM, Project Runway, and Coupling to watch, and I was enjoying my baking time.

Two batches done this afternoon, two old favourites. One batch are the dried cherry and almond biscotti (a Martha Stewart recipe), the other are white chocolate chunk and macadamia (from Dinner at the Authentic Cafe by Roger Hayot). I think they turned out decently.



Now then, time to get them boxed up, parceled out, and on their way others. And after a few hours in a warm kitchen, I think I need a shower.

voluptuous whites

You know, I put that title in there in part because I'm curious whether it will bump up the hits on this blog. Silly but true.

Ah, but I did drink voluptuous whites this evening. CG2 was in town with her husband, Andy - so nice to meet him after having heard a lot of great things about him, and so very good to see Chelsea once again after what feels like far too long. And really, I'm all the more fortunate for having had some fine company on a weekend when Conrad is out of town for work.

The three of us met up at Bin 36. Actually, I encountered them on State Street, walking over a bridge en route - they were staying nearby, and I had been shoe shopping at Nordstrom Rack. Hey, I need new shoes!

We wandered to Bin 36, parked at the bar, and each ordered a flight. I'd been feeling a little overly warm in the store, so cool whites were my choice. The two of them shared a cheese sample (they had dinner plans still to get to), and I had my own cheese flight, too (cow's milk, all of them). An hour passed all too quickly, and we'd kicked off the evening well.

So now I wonder when I can see CG, Chelsea's sister, once again. There is much good food and wine to be had out there, and I will happily share it with any of that family!