Gee, it's good to be back home again...

Saturday found us catering the Horizon Spring Service Auction, FIASCO. (That's the title, not the description.) The theme was Mardi Gras, and luckily, it was nibbles, not a meal. The hard part was getting folks to take an appetizer-sized serving of red beans & rice -- that ran out pretty early!

Horizon FIASCO MENU, Spring 2008 (included a number of improvised recipes)

• Red Beans & Rice (vegetarian, much to G-man's chagrin)
• Sliced Andouille Sausage (beef, pork, chicken, turkey)
• Merle’s Spinach Balls
• Blue Cheese (& Parmesan) Mystery Rolls (thanks, P-dub!)
• Pecan Crusted Goat Cheese Log
• Shrimp & Crab Spread
• Spiced Pecans
  
• Banana & Chocolate Moon Pies (Little Debbie Marshmallow Pies, to be precise, but close enough)
• Assorted Pepperidge Farms Cookies
• Hershey's Kisses in Dark Chocolate (purple wrappers) & Caramel (gold wrappers) -- all I needed was green for Mardi Gras...
  

So tonight, it was a simple supper with Ron as our only guest. Some of Nigella's "temple food" (as in, my body is a temple)...

• Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup
• Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Mint
• Julie's Organic Caramel Ice Cream with fresh strawberries for dessert (hey, a girl needs a little vice!)

(I also wrote a depressed diatribe last night that I meant as blog post, about how much I am not enjoying my early forties, but it's on my other computer. Besides, it's probably best not to wallow in writing that veers towards "Fabulous forties? More like fat, frazzled, and frumpy..." and goes on in a most self-pitying way from there. Perimenopause, what a joy!)

So where were we last weekend? Friday evening AND Saturday afternoon found us dining at New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro, one of America's 50 Most Amazing Wine Experiences according to Travel & Leisure mag in 2006, and Sunday we prepared a pan-Mediterranean Easter buffet for Di's extended family -- four generations -- in southern Oregon. We arrived Thursday afternoon and came home Wednesday night (well, actually very early Thursday morning, but that's another story.)

My parents have been telling us about New Sammy's for years, since it was a six table shack with a flashing neon arrow but no other signage, and while I've eaten their bread many times since it's my folks' favorite, there was never an opportunity to go to the restaurant. Until this trip.

Friday evening dinner (New Sammy's...)

• Marinated olives, crackers, a glass of sherry
• Amuse bouche: Flat bread with caramelized onions, Parmesan and viola petals
• Salads: (me) Marinated sour cherries which were sweet and yummy, walnuts and Rogue Valley blue cheese; (dh) Beets, broccoli, potatoes, blue cheese flan
  
• Entrees: (me) Duck breast with polenta and kale (all of it savory, tender and delicious); (dh) Assorted fish & shellfish with fennel and something in broth (I was so obsessed with mine I didn't pay attention) -- and Vernon (proprietor / sommelier; his wife is the chef) supplied us with a bottle of wine that hit the spot for both and didn't break the bank
  
• not much room for dessert, so we each opted for a few slices of house made Panforte & Harris Bridge "Short Line" Pinot Gris Dessert Wine (to die for!)

It was so good, we brought J and my parents back for Saturday lunch (more "value" priced) where we had salad with duck breast (nothing wrong with creative reuse), duck prosciutto, and duck liver terrine for Mom; a gourmet burger with spinach for Dad; soup for G-man; a house-made sausage with more of those delicious braised greens for me; and toasted cheese bread for Juj. Which left room for desserts, which Julian luckily helped us to eat:

• Ginger ice cream puffs with caramelized apples and walnuts -- times two!
• Chocolate stout and vanilla ice cream float (yes, beer, not root beer)
• Dark chocolate cake with kirsch ice cream

Sunday supper (Easter)

• Deviled eggs (courtesy of Di's cousin Heather)
• Pistachios
  
• Hummus
• Baba Ganoush
• Yogurt "cheese" (drained overnight) with dill and mint
• Cuke & carrot spears
• Marinated cucumbers in vinegar
• Halloumi with fire roasted red and orange peppers (adapted from Nigella)
  
• Lamb & rice meatballs with Avgolemono sauce
• Whole wheat penne with baby artichokes & sundried tomatoes
• Fresh focaccia (courtesy of Di's baking/preserving/gardening/decor cousin Megan)
• Panforte from New Sammy's (we bought a whole wheel after dinner Saturday)
  
• Sour Cream Spice Cake with Cream Cheese frosting (again, from Megan)
• Banana walnut chocolate coffee cake (from Heather, who works for Harry & David)

Other adventures included the Easter egg hunt and service at my grandmother's Presbyterian Church followed by buffet at her housing complex dining room; an afternoon at Science Works, a great hands-on kids museum in Ashland with cousins Roxanne & Ivy; a morning in the snow near Hyatt Lake with Gram & Boppo; and so many dips in the McG's hot tub overlooking the valley and surrounding mountains that we wouldn't have been surprised at all if Julian (or even one of us) had turned into a fish.

It's Always Five o'Clock Somewhere...

There will be no Sunday supper club, because we're going to jaunt over to the museum after church to see an exhibition of early Christian art. (Hmmm, who would have thought I would be saying such a thing?!)

Plus we held our final PASTA offering for the year this evening, La Hora de Cocteles con Los Guerreros. And a lovely cocktail hour (or three!) it was. Inspired by a feature (check out Elevated Basics and Extra-Credit Elements for recipes) in the now-defunct Blueprint magazine, it included:

• Elderflower Sours (and Gin & Bitter Lemon, and good ol' G&T, and even a couple of Dark & Stormys)
• Dry Jack Crisps (these worked much better than the Parmesan ones we did with the Caesar at Christmas)
• Fig, Thyme & Gorgonzola mini-Tarts
• Crunchy Garbanzos (the leftovers are destined to become hummus)
• Warm (Spiced) Olives, Almond Stuffed Olives, Hot & Spicy Pickled Green Beans, and Pickled Carrots
• Stephen Pyles' Sweet & Spicy Pecans (a perennial favorite)
• Crudites with White Bean Dip
• Dry cured Spanish Soria Chorizo & Aged Manchego with plain and toasted baguette
  
• Dark Chocolate Nestle's Crunch Eggs with Caramel (the chocolate selection at Target rocks, and the wrappers matched my decorating scheme of lavender, blue, and green!)
  

No time to lose -- we've got to figure out our offerings for the spring fundraiser FIASCO next. This cocktail party was so fun, I'm leaning towards another one, and Gil wants to do the three-day Cuban Roast Pork from Cook's Illustrated, and hopefully we'll rope the W's into another Wein-rrero wine & dine surprise. And I kinda wanted to do a white trash / Elvis thing, but I'm feeling so stuffed tonight after all the nibbling and imbibing that perhaps a more virtuous offering built around summer Thai beef salad or barbeque salmon would be a better choice.

We had an intimate Sunday supper again this week with Tia Elsa and Uncle Ron. The menu was inspired by Nigella Express, very easy (maybe 30 or 45 minutes max) and delicious:

• Scallops & Chorizo (I used chicken chorizo, so I added a bit of bacon as well for the pork-fatty goodness)
• Chickpeas with Arugula & Sherry (everyone's favorite and unbelievably easy!)
• Fresh fruit ambrosia (pineapple, mandarin oranges, papaya with toasted coconut & mini-marshmallows)

Oh, and a fabulous cocktail -- Saint Germaine Elderflower Liqueur (which is ambrosia itself -- don't take my word for it, check the Tipsy Texan!), Hendrick's Gin (thank CW!) and Q Tonic (single-handedly the most expensive mixer I've ever tried -- and not really worth it, except to be able to tell the tale!) We were practicing for next Saturday's cocktail party -- PASTA service offering -- but more on that later.

Random Julian Wisdom...

Thursday, I picked up Julian at school when it was starting to snow like crazy. As we came out to the parking lot...

J: It's a good thing it's not snowing old men.
Me [huh?!]: Why?
J: Because it would be hard to take evasive action. [??!!]

And earlier in the week, while G-man was bathing the Juj, there was deep philosophical discussion...

J: Where does God live? [Luckily J mostly saves these questions for Dad, as I am pretty much a hopeless humanist.]
G: Well, some people think he lives in Heaven.
J: What do you think? [he always wants to drive to specifics]
G: I think God is everywhere and in in all of us.
J: I can see God's face in a flower.
G: That's a beautiful thought.
J: Yes, in that flower [points to the wallpaper].

[expletive deleted] What happened?

I go to bed early ONE night and suddenly everyone has thoughtful or witty posts where there was a wasteland before! Jen cracked me up with her commentary and brilliant (as always) photos of our dinner party, and Amy took me to Annie and then to this, and now -- "You really can't fail with homogenized incremental flexibility" -- I'm using that on my next conference call!

Since I am not usually thoughtful or witty, and since I ate at Wendy's tonight so I don't have any menus to share, I'll have to content myself with talking about BUZZ.

I felt buzz as Juj and I stood in line for almost an hour to vote and chatted with others like the high school senior voting for the first time (and whose H.S. the Obaminator had visited yesterday!), but it went up hugely when all three of LGT walked back from Wendy's to wait for the caucus. There were ALL these people, standing outside in the cold and the dark, whoopin' and hollerin' and ostensibly waiting for the people who had been in line at seven o'clock to finish voting so the caucus could begin but ain't NO WAY we're all gonna fit in that tiny room... Well, we did end up leaving because it was J's bedtime and the cats needed feeding and I had a headache, but I feel that the whole democratic process is alive and well. And EXCITING! This caucus thing is kinda cool; my brother, who lives in Washington State, participated in his first this year -- all those years in California we never knew what we were missing.

Anyway, may the best woman or man win, and let's kick some McCain hiney come November!

Billy's Birthday Meal

Just a quick Sunday supper post -- we celebrated Uncle Billy's birthday (which was this past week) with an intimate dinner with him and Uncle Ron.

• Killer Inside Out Burgers (we made the homemade ketchup with these the last time they were featured on the menu, but skipped it this time)
• Bush's Baked Beans with Bacon (not THAT Bush)
• Coleslaw with celery and honey mustard balsamic vinaigrette
  
• Yummy Pecan Pie -- pastry chef G-man (I don't have the patience) used the Cook's Illustrated crust and techniques with a filling from another recipe that featured molasses as well as corn syrup, and bourbon, and fresh pecans from Las Tias G in San Antonio
  

The featured cocktail was the Dark & Stormy with Goslings Black Seal.

P.S. Check out the bacon cups at Not Martha -- the newest addition to my blog reading roll...