Biscuits are one of my favorite things to have on hand in the freezer. I like to think of them as a gift from past me to future me.
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I find if you pan toast them, they can be really good as a leftover. I was too lazy to do that last night and just reheated. I should have made the effort.
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Oops! My age is showing - I mis-spoke! Meant to say “New England” style, which is how we refer to it out here in the PNW.
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The dinner for the Davis Center fellows happened to be a fun evening with a very international group. I was chatting with a guy from Brazil & a bloke from the UK, an Israeli woman and two Russians at our end of the table. The wine, a lovely Alvariño, flowed freely, as did the cocktails — an interesting gin concoction and a Manhattan as a nightcap for me. My dude was the DD 
The food was a set menu with a few choices.
The starter salad was nice & refreshing,
my PIC’s spiced lentils delish, but an oddly heavy choice (and large portion) for a first course.
Next up was very good ziti with arrabbiata & stracciatella.
When the plates first came out I thought they were single portions, but thankfully they were meant to be shared with the table. Phew!
My PIC got the strip steak for his main, which looked and tasted rather unremarkable, especially for allegedly being ‘prime.’ I’d debated it as my choice as well, and am glad I didn’t get it. The sides for the chicken were more interesting, anyway.
My half chicken had floppy skin but flavorful meat, but I only had a few bites (and took no pics).
Lastly, my PIC’s chocolate cake with morello cherries,
and my apple caramel crisp with toasted oats & walnuts, coconut milk and cinnamon ice cream that was a perfect finish to the evening.
We were back in the room by 8:30pm 
Back to Philly now for our final busy weekend!
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Got it! I grew up in the SFBA enjoying NE/Boston style clam chowder and when I experienced the Manhattan style, oh boy! This led me to my love of bouillabaisse and cioppino.
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No. Just going with straight water. I have a box of TrueLemon in the cabinet. Might pull that out later.
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A home cooked / catered Bengali feast after a holiday pop up event at a friend’s a couple of nights ago.
A lot of fun, in company, festivity, and food.
I ended with a lovely cognac that my friend decided I needed a double pour of (because I had refused a drink all evening on account of an early call the next day), but which I then passed on to another friend sitting next to me who I guessed wanted some when she saw mine
Apps:
“Chops” ie deep-fried crumbed cutlets – one fish, one vegetable (beets & carrots), served with the traditional mustard sauce.
This was after a major grazing table over the course of the event: cheese board, dips, fruit & nuts, and more.
Mid:
Green pea-stuffed giant puris (“kachoris”)
Potato in a spicy caramelized onion sauce
Cauliflower “roast” aka mild coconut gravy
Mango “chutney” (which in this instance is a jammy side, not a spicy condiment)
Main:
Chicken biryani with mint burrani / raita
Dessert:
Kalakand / milk “fudge”
Folks from Calcutta are obsessed with the pea puris and potato combination (a different friend’s mom made it for us just a few weeks ago), and not unlike the puri-bhaji I grew up with, I could take it or leave it, so I have a small taste and leave the rest for those who enjoy it more.
Biryani is my jam, but Calcutta-style is always a let-down relative to Bombay-style – it’s very mild and a bit dry (and therefore usually served with an additional gravy dish that was absent). Still, some biryani is always better than no biryani!
It’s amazing how stark regional variations persist in everything – even the dessert was completely different than what I grew up with as Kalakand – this was a dry, crumbly fudge-like item, vs the moist, milky sweet I know by the same name. (Not surprising that the Calcutta one more closely resembles Sandesh, one of the signature sweets of Bengal, made from chhena / ricotta / paneer, than it does North Indian Kalakand, which is made by slowly reducing milk and cream.)
I think the fish chop was my favorite bite of the evening, though I did eat a good bit of biryani with potato!
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Spaghetti & Shrimp Fra Diavolo-ish. I used fresh cocktail tomatoes to make the sauce, along with olive oil, tons of garlic and Calabrian chilis in oil. A good sprinkling of Parm/Regg on to to finish.
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Haircut Day.
My first day out since I got home.
Did well.
A bit tired when I got home.
Got my scallops at Wegmans, which was insanely busy. But finding my favorite checkout guy, Kevin, at one of the registers helped calm me.
I wanted something lemony, and this worked to put seared scallops on top of. Tossed in a couple asparagus spears into the pasta water at the end. Very good!
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Beautiful meal to celebrate your first day out! You really know how to sear scallops, and you are reminding me to go to Wegmans for scallops. Our closest is Medford and I assume their scallops are as as good as those in your closest Wegmans.
Do your cats like scallops? I ask because my cat friend in California decades ago loved scallops, shrimp, calamari, crab, would show up at my door when she got the faintest whiff.
Welcome home!
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I don’t ever want to find out! LOL They were sound asleep on the back of the couch while I was cooking, so I’m going with “no”.
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I had a two room “in law” apartment attached to 2 story pre 1906 house in Northern California. It was warm enough that my friends living in the 2 floor apartment left their bathroom window open. Annie cat exited that 2nd floor window, walked over the roof of my first floor tiny apartment, climbed down a tree, and appeared scratching at my door every time I cooked seafood. Even in the rain!
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Sticking to the peanut butter theme, I see 
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Beautifully plated! And I promise to get that Wegmans gift card sent off as soon as I get home 🫶🏼
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I’m having stuffed shells. The recipe is a mashup between Lidia Bastianich’s in Mastering the Art of Italian Cooking and the one on Skinnytaste. The sauce is just a homemade version. To go with I’m having a green salad with homemade lemon vinaigrette.
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Haha yes peanut butter is my favourite food group these days.
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El Chonk was super-duper-stoked to have us back, even though we were only gone for less than 48 hours. He’s a doll 
We had tix for the early Jim Gaffigan show at 5pm, and I’d scoped out a casual Mexican nearby for afterwards that had incredibly high ratings (4.9) Google. It was a major haul to a tiny corner place with 3 tables. IDK if we just ordered the wrong stuff, but my PIC’s tacos al pastor were really underwhelming.
My mole had a very nice kick to it, but was served less than hot, and it was freakin’ freezin’ out 
I wanted something to heat my bones. But I’ll admit that I don’t have a lot of reference points for mole, and maybe cocoa sauce with savory food is just not my thang — major surprise to nobody — but we took half of my plate home, and I’m not super-excited about having the leftovers TBH 
. The beans were pretty much liquified, and the rice seemed old. Meh.
I’m bummed to have ‘wasted’ a dinner on something so mediocre when there’s only 4 nights left here, but at least we know tomorrow’s gonna be fab 
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Hair cut and scallops. She’s baaaack!
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