Father's Day

John preferred to cook his own Father's Day dinner: The young scion requested lamb as the main course, and it doesn't take too much to convince John that that is a good idea.

Lamb roast marinated most of the day in red wine, rosemary, and other herbs, then perfectly barbecued, accompanied by asparagus in a rich ("tasty yummy" says Ren) cream sauce with bacon and walnuts, wild rice steamed with quinoa and regular rice, green salad, and for dessert, his favorite cake: You take a package of the Nabisco chocolate wafers and whip up two cups of heavy cream with a bit of sugar and some vanilla, and glue the wafers together with the whipping cream. This time I formed it into a Bundt shape and put sliced fresh strawberried in the center. We enjoyed a Zenato wine somewhat, and really enjoyed the Pasanau Ceps Nous 2003 Priorat Red wine.

He enjoyed most of his gifts: Oddly enough he requested a new toaster, there was the requisite new shirt, probably in the wrong size, Henry's unusual but thoughtful gift of a shaver, shaving cream, and bronzing lotion, a book, the Intellectual Devotional , in hopes of turning the dinner conversations to a higher plane than the potty humor that they seem to become, all subtroverted by the cat's very special gift: Henry happened to notice something unusual on John's chair, and it turned out that some cat had barfed on the chair and John sat in it.....so much for Intellectual inspiration!

Isn't 19 the drinking age?

Sunday, I had a meeting of the Program Committee at the house at 4 pm for Champagne, blackberries, almonds and a discussion of the performers and events the Arts Council should present next season.
Meanwhile, John set about barbecuing free range organic chicken.
The concert season is looking good, the Nicholas F did not disappoint, and the chicken was fabulous. There was also a tossed green salad, I recall rice, and fresh fruit, and the children joined in enjoying the wines. An entertaining and enjoyable evening all around.

Monday, John brought a couple of new wines home to try, two reds, perhaps he will weigh in with a reminder of what they were, one of which I thought had a terrible "nose" but tasted nice and round, the other a little more austere but good, followed by a Torrontes, an Argentine wine with very floral and somewhat Riesling-like characteristics. These were accompanied by sauteed rockfish, oven-browned (we're using the oven and leaving the lights on like electricity is free again!) potatoes, tossed salad, and fruit. Henry enjoyed the wines, Ren was going out for dessert, so wisely abstained.

Tuesday, the weekly meeting night, I got home a little after 6:30, to find H-man still out and R spending the evening with her young man. John was making burgers, a tossed salad, sublime peaches and fruit salad, and Viognier. It seems H is a fan.

Friends

In the summertime, I try to get Concerts on Campus going out on the UAS Campus in the Noyes Pavilion. This means for six weekends, I am unavailable for dinner on Saturdays unless dinner is late.
We have some exceptional friends who didn't quite hold dinner, but I made it, at 9:30 pm, in time for the salad course.
There was a wonderful grilled lamb, potatoes, some ratatouille that John made, and I recall the wines were good, followed by a wonderful salad, and then topped off with baked or poached pears in a wonderful balsamic vinegar they brought from Italy.
Even the dog enjoyed this: We began to notice our napkins being snatched from our laps and returned damp and with holes in them.....
A wonderful end to a long day.

Dinner with Cousin Alan

This is the kind of family it is: John's Cousin Alan comes to town, a once in 17 year event, and John goes to Skagway for the day, missing the entire event. That's OK, I'm always up for a to-do, so I invited our friends Charlotte, whose husband was derailed by a Rotary whoopdeedoo, and the Bennetts. Planned to pull out all the stops: Fresh fish (yep, investigation confirms that this member of the somewhat picky East Coast contingent eats fish, specifically salmon) (oops the store is out of salmon....have to go with fresh spring halibut! hope he likes that. )(If he doesn't everyone else will.) sauteed in butter with a white wine and caper sauce, a potato salad, steamed bok choy, a tossed Romaine salad, AND I sprang out of bed early to bake a strawberry rhubarb pie with the first of the season's rhubarb.

Relaxing in the afternoon checking our various Facebook spaces, he noted, with an "Ugh" that another friend of his was baking a strawberry rhubarb pie....oh well! He can have ice cream! It was obviously the day to bake rhubarb pie!

Started the evening off with Negronis, some in martini glasses, some with soda over ice. (Pet peeve: unfill ice cube trays in the freezer....) moved on to a Giesen Sauvignon Blanc and a new Malbec that is quite nice. The Bennetts brought bruschetta to start.

Turns out several of the quests had qualms about rhubarb, but the servings seemed to disappear, and there is still some for breakfast this morming, so all good, I guess.

I enjoyed it, and a real treat to visit with Alan! In the category 5 Dork Department, we Facebooked across the living room to each other....love to befriend you too!

Late Suppers

So last night, Debi wasn't going to get home till late, so we made up a dish from one of the recipe sheets that arrive with the "box".
So we enjoyed Spinach-ricotta-feta Griddle Cakes. Not as easy as we would have liked, but very tasty. Lots of ricotta gave them a softer texture, but the outside sealed up very well, brown and crisp.
With Nicolas Harnoncourt directing early Mozart, a Sidecar Cocktail to start with, and a light lager, Rolling Rock, with the cakes, all was pretty good.
Next time? Add a small salad, maybe some cut tomatoes, and to drink, maybe a fruity pinot gris or a Vouvray. A more classical French luncheon.

Picnics in the parking lot

The sunny weather continued yesterday and so we sent out the call: Hotdogs in the JACC parking lot at noonish! Members of the original Parking Lot Picnic Team, Cathy Thomas (thankfully able to bring her table top grill, since the one I bought wasn't put together yet and proved a challenge for the three capable folks trying to assemble it quickly) and Helena Fagen turned up, Andy Kline and Jeff Brown drove all the way from KTOO to the JACC backyard lot in Andy's hot red Miata convertible, top down of course, Kari and Karen set the table and chairs up, Leonard came, Jeanine and Christina, Madeleine arrived, Albert joined in, Karen's husband Alan and their dog Maple came, Jeff's daughter Callie showed up with her yearbook (last day of school today!) and a friend, Rosemarie came, Coco joined us. For a spontaneous event it was OK! We had Alaska Reindeer sausages, ballpark franks (with sauerkraut!), tofu burgers, chicken dogs, potato salad, chips, more chips, salsa, Dove Bar mini ice creams, rum balls, chocolates, blood orange soda, cookies, mini-donuts, watermelon.

We all felt very Continental sitting under the tree around the table chatting and eating.

Agreed, we need a flag to run up the pole when it's Picnic Day, because these days can't be counted on and they really have to be pretty impromptu. So: Sunny Day? head over to 350 Whittier around noon....the grills are standing by!

Negronis & Salad & Rock Slides

John went to Argentina on a business trip and was introduced to the Negroni, a cocktail made of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari, stirred with ice and served with an orange slice in a nice big Martini glass. Varying reports from "I hate Campari" to "What is that awful taste" to "Count Negroni has changed my life."

Juneau is enjoying spectacular weather this past couple of days, so yesterday John and I tried our hand at concocting some Negronis and sat out on the deck enjoying the evening prior to the Hot Tuna concert. Refreshing they were (the Negronis, that is). At the time I thought they would benefit from a bit of ice and perhaps would be good with soda....and indeed, cleaning the bar this morning I found the old Mr. Boston's and lo and behold, Negronis come straight up in old fashioned glasses or in high balls, over ice with soda. I have to say, Gin & tonic is all very well and good, but I think I've found a new summer favorite.

Today John has been abed with some horrible cold, and I've been cleaning the house in anticipation of Ren coming home, so about cocktail hour, I tried the club soda version, sat out with Coco on the deck watching the world go by, quite happily I must say. Roused myself to go make a little supper for Henry and myself:
Breaded and sauteed chicken breasts with a light lemon butter, with a spinach, red onion, hardboiled egg, and marinated fresh mushroom salad. Of course some fresh fruit (the rest of the orange, some kiwi, and mango).

Henry noticed the fresh bottle of gin on the counter and got interested, so he had a Negroni soda version too. I think he liked it. I had a little white wine (Norton Torrontes) to round it out, and finished with a dish of vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and walnuts.

John managed to join us for a little bowl of avgolemono soup, which exhausted him and he went straight back to bed.

Not to worry about the hillside sloughing off in our back yard last night about 4:20 am, blocking the Dan Moller trail and looking like impending doom yet to come. We lived in the avalanche zone for years! How ironic that now we are in the path of a hillside failure.

Another Negroni? If we look out over the water, we won't notice the hill or lack thereof.