(And many of us are sneezing because of the blooming and leafing!)
Herbs and vegetable plants are being planted and grown - put in either containers, window boxes, or in-ground gardening, depending on where you live.
Shorts and tee shirts are the outfit of the day when it’s bright, sunny, and warm.
The heat has (finally?/maybe?) been turned off, and maybe, just maybe, you’ve had to turn on the A/C for a day or two. (Again that’s a BIG maybe, depending on where you live)
Kids are getting antsy, ready for school to be out.
College kids are moving out of their dorms, leaving tons of furniture and “stuff” to be put out to the curb when it’s time to move back into dorms in late August. (Otherwise known as Allston Christmas in the Boston area!)
Parents are getting antsy, trying to figure out how to keep those same kids occupied that’s not a computer game.
Grills have been newly purchased and set up or scrubbed clean, ready for a summertime’s worth of use.
May is the month of new beginnings. So - are you cooking anything new-to-you this month?
I’m still getting medical bills for the previous owner of my home. They’ve been gone for almost 15 years. I keep writing “Does not live here - Return to sender” on the envelope, but the bills just keep coming.
Quick midnight dinner after a concert in SoMa at The Public Izakaya. Good selection of dishes and well prepared, perhaps with the exception of the hokkaido cake which was described as fluffy but had a very dense consistency. Very popular shop as there was a short wait even at time
My silly attempt at jazzing up Friday night Gorton’s fish filets actually worked!
I made a roasted red pepper & mango sauce that I’ve made in the past, cutting it in about half, using a fresh mango and about 1-1/2 whole jarred red peppers. Everything else in the recipe was eyeballed, using Aleppo pepper in place of the RPF and sprinkling the green onion on top.
Steamed asparagus alongside. I’ll freeze the rest of the sauce in small containers for later use.
There was wine. Not a good one because I forgot to check my “do not like” notes section on my phone before I bought it. (Bread and Butter Chardonnay…too grassy and oaky). Oh well. Dinner was silly-good.
A classic wilted spinach salad with shallots, bacon, hard boiled egg, bay shrimp, and a warm vinaigrette. I didn’t have mushrooms, or I would have added those. Instead, roasted asparagus.
We enjoyed another sensational dinner at Lula, in Ridgewood, NJ, including our first excellent crispy tempura battered soft shell crab of the season with cucumber gazpacho, mint, grape, pine nut, and basil; clam jam; hot honey glazed duck leg confit with snow peas, pistachio, radish, fennel pollen; yellowfin tuna crudo; crispy focaccia bread. We took home the excellent lemon meringue pie for dessert.It all went great with an excellent cabernet and red Zinfandel. The menu at the end gives more details.
Finally checked out the new AYCE Korean BBQ / hot pot place with the gang tonight. It was hoop-a-dee-hoppin’!
Thankfully, we were all in the mood for BBQ, even though it meant that my PIC and I were doing practically all the grilling for the table, as we were closest to the grill that was inconveniently half sunken into the table — but at least we made sure that stuff wasn’t cooked to death
As you might imagine, the flat cuts fared better than, say, the broccoli florets, onion rings & bok choy leaves one of our friends threw on the grill. We ordered TPSTO beef & pork cuts — some tastier than others (e.g. I had to remove a mouthful of what was pretty much all fat), plus squid, baby octopus, and garlic shrimp.
I mixed up two delectable dipping sauces from the sauce bar & grabbed a couple of banchan bowls (pickled cukes & seaweed salad) for veg, but it was a pretty protein-heavy meal — as was to be expected. We barely had room to share a couple of desserts: a cappuccino mouse (sic) tart, a raspberry tart, and two macaroons.
