Salt-and-pepper chicken wings in the oven (with fan). Chopped garden salad with a creamy Italian vinaigrette. I needed simple and satisfying, and this it was.
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Another taco Thursday. Ground pork, chorizo and pico with a zigzag of crema and little blobs of Guasacaca Sauce.
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I friend gave us a pound of ground venison his friend gave him but couldn’t use. Since we’re experiencing a “cold snap” I decided to make chili. I browned the meat first to check for gaminess - there really wasn’t any and if you asked me without knowing it was venison I doubt I could tell it was. I’m sure chili connoisseurs would be aghast but I used cumin, garlic, onion, oregano, cinnamon, tomatoes, kidney beans, ancho, chipotle, and hatch chiles. Served with sour cream and Fritos Scoops for - scooping!
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Shrimp, black bean and avocado salad with red onions, jalapeño, oregano, cumin, cilantro and lime juice
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finally ALMOST recovered from a cold that started before my Stinson Beach weekend and had, i though, faded, and then resurfaced when I got back and took me out for almost the whole week (tested negative for Covid multiple times). Fortunately, and miraculously, I didn’t get any of the 16 or so rotating guests over the weekend sick, nor the BF!
I overdid as usual with the food, and we didn’t even get to the Fatted Calf sausages I purchased, nor any of my salad fixings.
Theme for Friday was Spanish-ish, and for Saturday (after the usual trip to The Marshall Store for oysters), Italian. I made a big fat tortilla de patata that sort of slumped but otherwise tasted great, i have to say, and homemade aioli to go with. Also the usual crack cambozola/heavy cream dip that everyone devours. Our now-must-have fancy Frenchy butter, anchovy-stuffed olives, and a scallion ricotta dip i bought from the Pasta Supply Co. by my house with all the pastas and sauces I got for Sat. night. Truffled chips, truffled marinated goat cheese, some really funky cheese that I don’t remember now, and tons of bread. Started off the weekend right!
Hostess provided a friend’s homemade pate (friend is French, but pate came from Spain) - super gloriously fatty!
lots bubbles, martinis, etc…
a pre-dinner walk to pre-digest/walk off some of the buzz…
Friday night dinner.
more cocktailing…
Early Girls and Heirlooms, pre-basil:
i think i made this dish up, inspired by the many dry sherry cocktails we like to quaff in Barcelona:
browned chicken thighs, shallots, garlic, braised in amontillado and fino sherries (remains of what I had), manzanilla olives and orange zest. Canellini beans added for oomph. really tasty, will repeat!
cod with espinacas and garbanzos with lots of pimenton ahumado, for our two fishaterians (but plenty for everyone to sample.)
and the star of the show, albondigas:
I make these often, but this time subbed half the ground beef with pork chorizo. FABULOUS. Super garlicky! (almost but not quite a whole head of garlic in these and the sauce.)
mucho vino.
one friend made a marzipan cake - to die for, light and fluffy and not too sweet:
his wife made a peach galette - also delish.
Saturday at Marshall Store…
Plenty of bubbles, rose, and sauvignon blanc accompanied. As usual, everything was wonderful, on a very cool/cloudy/misty day.
back at Stinson, we did it all again:
MOAR breads and cheeses…
VERY fancy bubbly…
there WAS actually SOME downtime between all this and dinner (but not much):
Hostess made goat cheese-stufffed squash blossoms. Amazing.
The pasta i purchased, with a lamb ragu.
Ragu was fab, pasta was severely underdone (not by me!). We soldiered through.
salad no. 1:
salad no. 2:
the albondigas made a return appearance.
purchased Hot Mess garlic butter on spaghetti.
Didn’t love this sauce, way too citrus-y for me.
purchased cheese tortellini and pesto.
Favorite of the evening.
somehow I missed taking a pic of our friend from Oregon (we had a friend drive down from OR and another drive up from L.A.)'s famous flourless chocolate cake, with a strawberry compote.
C’est tout!
Dinners this week have been few and far between since I’ve been sick and abed. I’m counting myself lucky that it wasn’t Covid (although it’s been a really rough cold!) and that i’ve already lost the extra poundage from the weekend.
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Wow! What a feast! What a weekend! 
And what luck you didn’t get everyone (or anyone) sick! 
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Went out to the fancy resto last night to hear my GF’s trio perform, along with a bunch of our posse — peenz included 
We shared the pork spring rolls again, which were not as tasty as the last time, and the Korean bbq wings were lukewarm & the skin not crispy. Meh. Our total bill was insane, as their cocktail prices are city level…. our food was only $25. We’d save so much $$$ if we were teetotalers!
Met up for a taco lunch with friends, then mostly avoided the insanity that is downtown: it’s move-in weekend. I look forward to being away from it all very soon 
We’re hosting a poker game tonight that suddenly blew up to a table of 10. Guess the dealer will be sitting out 
Not a clue WFD yet.
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Got our usual Friday sushi delivery! BF got his sushi nigiri dinner and an extra spicy salmon maki. I got sashimi of octopus and surf clam and nigiri of scallops, salmon, king salmon, and mackerel. BF wanted more of the chile oil we had earlier, so we brought some down with us. Delicious!
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You’d be surprised how much mocktails cost. I’ve been drinking them more frequently and the bars where I live charge almost as much for their mocktails as they do for their cocktails.
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Oh, not surprised at all. This place in particular has no qualms charging $14 for one. If I’m going to pay that much, it may as well have booze in it
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Alea iacta est: cheeborgerz. We still had a couple of patties from Schweid & Sons left, and threw them on the grill this time. I think I liked the other blend better, but these were still delish. Doubled up on the cheddar, too, bc #YOLO
#nationalsandwichmonth
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THIS sounds amazing!
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It’s Friday.
It’s been a hella week.
It’s been a month since I’ve enjoyed my typical Friday night meal.
So I started with wine. Then I started the Russet pertater in the convection oven.
Asparagii were snapped; steak tips were oiled and seasoned with s/p. Green stuff was steamed, meat stuff was quickly grilled on a hot cast iron grill pan.
Lots of TPSTOB on a half tater with SC on the side, Ballymaloe steak sauce on the steak tips, and butter and s/p on the asparagii.
More wine.
And a pic of the boyz this morning doing their best “Strike a pose” vogue.
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Dinner tonight was a broccoli/carrot/red pepper/zucchini salad with caesar salad dressing. Much better than the shrimp bang bang I had for lunch.
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thanks, it really did work. i can see it being very good with a dry vermouth, too.
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da boyz! so cute!
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Chicken tikka kathi roll with fries for dinner, from Chowpatty Culture in Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood.
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Asian-inspired, fridge clean-out dinner.
Pan-roasted top sirloin. Sesame green beans with soy sauce, brown sugar, sriracha, and sesame seeds. Ramen noodles, with ginger-lime peanut sauce and scallions. Cukes marinated in rice vinegar and honey.
Everything green from the garden.
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I made WOL’s chicken with asparagus served over brown jasmine rice, with a side of seared green beans with garlic, Sichuan peppercorn and chilies, and chili crisp. Aldi egg rolls. Really hit the spot.
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Thunder woke me at 4:30 this morning. It has been raining all day so I scrapped my dinner plans and made chicken, corn chowder. Cooked diced chicken thigh and bacon, removed from the pan and sauteed onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, garlic. Added s&p, bay leaf, thyme, chicken broth and cooked until vegs were tender. Blitzed some of the corn and heavy cream to thicken, just before I was ready to serve I put in the corn, chicken and bacon. Served with toasted garlic butter baguette, salad of little gem, red leaf, spinach, red onion, radish, avocado, mushrooms and St.Agur bleu, ranch dressing. Feels like fall, I had a Boulevardier.
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