Homemade Thai meal tonight - chicken curry made by a Thai friend of the family, turkey larb made by me. Summer rolls not pictured.
Green beans were horribly tough, and no one felt like cooking another vegetable.
I set my mouth on fire by using a whole red serrano that I grew (and froze) in the larb… luckily more sweet and sour fixed it. Also forgot to add the toasted rice powder (which I specially made last night) before the first round of servings…
Black shadow in the top left corner is an eager puppy who thought I was going outside to give him the plate
Tonight we took pause from everything going on to celebrate my grandma’s life at a restaurant she loved, a place ironically called Nonna’s Cucina. This was also our first time dining indoors since March. For an appetizer we shared the burrata with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and prosciutto. For entrees, I had Veal Piccata, BF had pasta with sausage and broccoli rabe, and mom had shrimp over risotto. I had a martini of course, mom with wine, and BF a whiskey sour. Everything was excellent!
Thin-cut tri tip tacos - marinated in zhoug for 24 hours (nope, not sick of it yet!) Salsa fresca and cotija on top, Mexi-rice on the side.
tomorrow night is our 18th anniversary and we’re going to friends’ beach house in Stinson Beach - we’ll have the place all to ourselves - with a grill and a hot tub! very excited.
You are amazing for remembering that! It was supposed to have happened two weeks ago and we’re all still mourning it. Yeah, the spread will not be nearly as epic for just the two of us this weekend. Here’s hoping to a more festive 2021, for all of us.
I am so sorry to hear of you Grandmother’s passing…If I could only have one more day in the kitchen with the handmade apron my Grandma made for me!!
Funny thing, your grandma passed, I put my mom in Hospice at 91 this past Monday…
I cannot eat and have been visiting the boy’s room at least 3 times a day…
I cannot visit mom because of Covid for the last 6 weeks…and have not seen her at all…I hope as I hope for your grandma they will be well and loved by and hereforth taken care of by G-D.
God Bless them…Baruch Ashem…
We had Emmentaler cheese fondue with baguette cubes, local Jonagold apple, veggie meatballs, hot dogs, broccolini, tater tots, and roasted cauliflower and baby zucchini. The kiddo had melted Velveeta and declared it “delicious”.
So very sorry for your loss. Your grandma sounds like a wonderful woman who filled the lives of those around her with much love and deliciousness. From all I’ve seen here, you carry on those traditions in a way she’d surely be proud of. This is such a terribly difficult time. Hope you are able to lean on those around you and find comfort in each other and the things you love.
We had an excellent dinner indoors at our favorite Thai restaurant. We hadn’t eaten indoors there in over 6 months, but have done takeout several times. The tables were very well spaced and the servers wore masks and shields plus gloves. Everything was delicious but we didn’t like the fact that they switched to paper napkins from cloth napkins, plus they gave us containers and made us wrap our own takeout. I’m surprised they didn’t make us do the dishes as well We get dressed up and dine out to be served and not to do half the server’s work and still leave them a 20% tip. They had a whole new staff and it was our servers first day. We will probably do takeout in the future I guess until they get back to 100% and full service. We ordered a ton of food and have nice leftovers for another meal. Besides our usually awesome dishes of Southern crab curry, crab dip, papaya salad, Phad Phed beef, and crispy betel leaves, we tried a couple of new additions to the menu of crispy Isaan rice ball, and Pad Cha seafood. It all went great with an excellent cabernet.
I feel for you. She was on hospice care for only three days before she succumbed. It was all so quick. In a matter of 10 days she went from total independence (though not without issues that all people in their 90s face) to hospital to passing on. However, the hospice staff she had was absolutely wonderful. So good, in fact, we requested donations to them in her obituary in lieu of flowers.
We were able to visit her one at a time until she went into full hospice care. Then it did not matter. She was lucid until the day before. She even told my BF, “I still have my marbles. Make sure you tell them I have my marbles.” (That was always her phrase). And I have not shared this publicly yet, but our final conversation was her expressing regret that we did not all go out to dinner one last time because of the virus shutting everything down. She took the three of us out every few months or so.
My stomach is still in knots. Actually it was severe pain until yesterday when it faded away (I was starting to worry LOL). Between work and that, the stress has been unreal but is finally heading back to “normal”.
My thoughts are with you in these difficult times. I wish you peace and comfort.
My BF has done a wonderful job taking over cooking dinner this week. He outdid himself with this: Julia Child’s Coq au Vin. Basically the chicken version of Beef Bourguignon, which he made last month for the first time. It involved butchering a whole chicken and cooking it for hours to produce a rich wine gravy. I made the mashed potatoes and he made a bread to go with it.
Full indian meal tonight, with a friend of the family over for socially distanced backyard dinner.
Kheema aloo (ground lamb with potatoes), okra with caramelized onions and cashew paste, dal with garlic tempering, cabbage kofta in tomato gravy, naan, pea pulao. Quite a delicious meal if I do say so myself
I made everything except the tomato gravy and the naan - mostly because I had time this afternoon and others were busy, and also because I had made components earlier (dal was cooked and frozen, finished today, kheema was made yesterday and finished today).
It has taken a pandemic to make me cook dal often enough that I think it’s almost as good as my mom’s now thanks to so much practice .
And no fondue pot.
We get dressed up and dine out to be served and not to do half the server’s work and still leave them a 20% tip. They had a whole new staff and it was our servers first day. We will probably do takeout in the future I guess until they get back to 100% and full service. We ordered a ton of food and have nice leftovers for another meal. Besides our usually awesome dishes of Southern crab curry, crab dip, papaya salad, Phad Phed beef, and crispy betel leaves, we tried a couple of new additions to the menu of crispy Isaan rice ball, and Pad Cha seafood. It all went great with an excellent cabernet.
