Home alone

Fog in Juneau prevented John from making it home tonight - we had planned to actually go out to dinner! So I stopped at the grocery store late, picked up some frozen cocktail shrimp (fondly recalling the coffee can size we used to get from Petersburg...).
Boiled up some capellini, sauteed leeks and garlic in butter, added mushrooms, some snow peas, tossed it a bit, added a dollop of white wine (that would be the lovely and drinkable Yalumba Viognier), let that come to a boil, then reduced to a simmer, added the shrimp to heat through.
Plated it all up with a tossed green salad, and a side of a really good mango, strawberries, and navel oranges. And finished the lovely and drinkable Yalumba Viognier.
John sent a text to say he was watching a really good NBA game. How nice for him.

The Remains of the Day

Got to spend time at home this weekend, so went all out: Made a batch of granola, made bread. John marinated sliced beef for beef teriyaki then went of to a wine training seminar (tough work sometimes) so I sliced up veggies, cleaned the acre of real estate off the Romaine, and made roasted turnips.
It was a lovely dinner of beef teriyaki on brown rice (shades of the Fiddlehead), turnips roasted with rosemary and bay, green salad with grapefruit and onion vinaigrette, fresh honey butter oatmeal bread (double shades of the Fiddlehead) crispy apples and Veramonte SB.
Then we watched Helvetica, a fascinating movie about the font. Who knew? Really - if you can, watch it. Nancy

Just like old times

Up early to bake:
A quiche Lorraine for the birthday brunch today, and a rustic apple tart for dinner's dessert, all before 7 am.
Not sure that schedule agrees with me anymore, if it ever did.
The tart used the left over pie crust from the quiche, involved sautéing sliced apples in some butter with a bit of sugar until lightly browned and then putting them on the crust, folding over and baking for about 30 minutes, then sprinking with a bit of brown sugar as it comes out of the oven. Got the recipe from Bistro Cooking, a nice little book of French recipes by Patricia Wells.

Thanks, Julia Child

So, I'm probably the last foodie I know to see "Julie and Julia," and we watched it last night, after finally thawing out from the Polar Bear Dip at Auke Rec, my first. It really lit a fire under the hubby, who is, as we speak, carmelizing onions for French Onion Soup. (Fiddlehead recipe, not Julia's) Speaking of the Fiddlehead Cookbook, I sent a copy to our exchange student's family in Germany, and Evi L. of Gerlingen is making an entire meal from it for friends for dinner tonight. We'll keep you posted, or maybe get her on the blog. She loves Alaskan seafood and Italian cooking, so will have some great thoughts I bet. Happy New Year!

9 servings of fruits and vegetables PER DAY

Saw in the NY Times that we are all supposed to get nine servings of fruits and veggies per day.
Holy cats. (neither vegetable nor fruit) That's a lot. So I reviewed that situation.
1) Maybe some fruit at breakfast on the granola. Can we count the OJ?
2) Perhaps a lettuce leaf on the sandwich at lunch, maybe a tomato. Does that count?
3) Vegetable, salad, fruit at dinner. Hmm. Counting this way, we are at five. We need new math!
Further investigation reveals "they" mean 4 1/2 cups of veggies and fruits. OK. Now we are talking.
So for dinner:
One baked red potato, (lots of butter - dairy doesn't count) with sauteed mushrooms, garlic, and green onions, steamed broccoli, with some sauteed bacon bits, top it all with melted cheese, followed by a salad of red romaine, aruglua, avocado, tomato dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and a bit of basil, and then some grapes and 1/2 fresh apple. Can I count the wine? (CMS White by Hedges)
And Henry Mancini's Christmas album playing. Schmaltz, but the kind that is healthy in small doses.
I think we've hit the target. Now for a Hydrox cookie.

John gets lamb

We celebrated our 28th anniversary on Saturday with Thad & Lynn, Ren & James. Consensus was, among those consulted, that roast chicken should be the basis of the menu.

Now, we had planned to have lamb racks for dinner a couple of weekends ago, and when John opened the packages as he prepared to put them on the grill, they were totally spoiled, stinky and awful (unusual for meat from Costco). So he has been in a lamb withdrawal mode for a bit, and we do usually celebrate our anniversary with lamb chops, it just seems so fitting some how. But the guest list inclined to roast chicken.

So we had roast chicken and dang good it was too, with a wild rice pilaf, breaded sauteed zucchini coins, carrots rapé, tossed green salad with homemade croutons, and a pear crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The wines were excellent - Scharffenberger sparkling to start, La Posta Malbec all dark and cherry-ful, Chasing Venus voluptuous sauvignon blanc, and A to Z Sauvignon Blanc crisp and full, and the evening was swell over all.

But John still held a yearning for lamb, and mentioned lamb several times to many of us in a way that made clear that he wanted lamb.

So, as an anniversary gift, I got him a nice little boneless leg of lamb for him to cook for dinner Sunday - which he did perfectly with mushroom sauce and the left over wild rice, even better today, some steamed broccoli, a tossed green salad, and a very nice Alexander Valley red.

I think he is happy now.

Tea. I love Mariage Freres

Also on the "must do" list: Have tea at Mariage Freres, just around the corner from Le Loir -
I had an Assam, and John had something completely different than he expected. It is a little overwhelming to be presented with essentially a Sears and Roebuck catalog for tea - floral and green. We split a chocolate mousse and fresh raspberry tart. Oh my.