Post-Thanksgiving: The Morning After...

So, I woke up ~6:15 on Black Friday, far too late to hit the eh sales but in time enough to make it to Cost Plus by 7am when they opened. My incentive was that they were giving away free Tintin ornaments and a movie ticket to the first 100 people in line and I figured that Cost Plus was NOT going to be the huge draw of say, Target or Wal-Mart.

And I was right.

Gropius got his Tintin ornament. On the way home, I remembered that we needed orange juice and figured I would stop by Raley's and pick some up. And when I walked into Raley's, I remembered Gropius talking about what a great deal they had on Chandon champagne earlier in the week. So, I picked up the OJ and swung by the wine section to grab a couple of bottles of Chandon for $10/bottle (told you it was a good deal!). On my walk back to the cashier stand, I decided that Lulu probably wouldn't be a big fan of the leftover biscuits with ham that we were having for breakfast (and I was right). So, I picked up a package of little, white, powdered donuts.

All perfectly reasonable and logical, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, too...which is why I was surprised when the cashier turned to me with a wink and asked, "Breakfast, huh?"



D'oh. At least it wasn't a 40 of malt liquor and a bag of pork rinds, right?

And Lulu really enjoyed the donuts.

Thanksgiving Dinner

All ready to go!

We had our friends Ross and Amber and their daughter Stella over for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Ross and Amber are from North Dakota originally which just continues my streak of friends and acquaintances from North Dakota.  Given how small the state's population is, I think I could easily play six-degrees-of-separation and hit just about everyone on the census list....?

L-R:  glazed carrots/parsnips, lingonberry compote, cheesy olive bread, sweet potatoes, dressing,
cabbage/apple dish, bundles o'beans, baked corn dish, ham

from the opposite end of the bar

and the dishes in the middle

Ross and Amber brought over cheesy olive bread, a baked corn dish (although technically NOT a "hotdish" because it doesn't have enough ingredients in it!), and a delicious chocolate marbled cheesecake. YUM!  This was in addition to the Kentucky country ham we ordered from Zingerman's back in October (that spent the last month in the nightstand in our guest bedroom until last weekend), sweet potatoes from our garden, my apple/chestnut dressing, a cabbage/apple dish, lingonberry compote, bundles of beans, and buttermilk biscuits.

chocolate marbled cheesecake with oreo crust--it was delicious!

Yeah.  No one left our house hungry!

Lulu got to "be the mommy" a lot to poor Stella...

We had a wonderful time and lingered over cheesecake and coffee while the girls played together.  Snorri even came inside for a bit of post-prandial bunny petting (it sounds dirrrrty, huh?).  And best of all, we had the dishes in the dishwasher and the food put away by 8pm.  Heaven!

Happy Thanksgiving

Everyone on Facebook has been posting what they're thankful for everyday this month (and truth be told, it's getting a liiiiiiittle bit annoying). But today is Thanksgiving, so it's only proper to acknowledge what I'm grateful for in my life.

Here are my two favorite people in the whole, wide world.

Calzones

In between a gym visit and heading to campus yesterday morning, I put together some calzone dough to rise while I was gone. I don't think I've made them since we moved to California and it just seemed like a calzone sort of day. I really like Donna Hay's recipe that was printed in a Better Homes and Gardens I read one summer while living in Mo'town, WV with Gropius. It took me a while, but I finally tracked down the recipe.

ripe with potential....

Our were stuffed with tomato sauce, provolone cheese, salami, and roasted red bell peppers. After sealing them up, I brushed them with olive oil and they were ready for baking:

I got better at sealing as I went--this is the last/best one of the bunch.

And, boy, were they tasty! We even made one for Lulu--although hers had swiss cheese and black beans instead. And she gobbled hers up, too, which made this momma very happy. She went to her play kitchen and brought over her rolling pin to "help" me roll out the calzones. Then she wanted to help stuff and seal them--at which point Gropius took over and they had some pretend play in her room instead.

Sbarro's couldn't do it any better!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Meals in Miami

We enjoyed some really good food while we were in Miami!

On Thursday, our friend Sarah joined us for lunch at a Cuban cafe a short walk (sort of, the humidity made any walk seem longer!) from our hotel.  We enjoyed traditional pressed Cuban sandwiches that were delicious!  Lulu really got into her hazelnut and banana sandwich as you can see:

My sandwich

licking off the nutella after she picked out the banana slices to eat

quite satisfied with her mess!

And that evening, we took a taxi to the "design district" and ate at a great place called Michael's Genuine Food and Drink. We sat outside on the patio and got to enjoy the weather, the food, and the company. A woman straight out of Real Housewives of um, Miami walked over to the table across from ours with these:

apologies for the fuzzy shot--low lighting, quick moving dogs and trying not to be noticed

I kid you not. It was quite the experience--it's not everyday you see Maltese being pushed around in a glorified stroller.

Lulu's favorite part of our meal was dessert and I have to say I think I agree with her. The pastry chef is really inventive and creative and does her job well! Lulu had two scoops of white chocolate hazelnut ice cream paired with one scoop of buttered popcorn ice cream. I know! It sounds crazy, but the combination worked and it was delicious (at least the tiny bit Lulu was willing to let us try).



And I had a smoky brownie ala mode made with a scotch caramel sauce. It was also covered in pecans (my favorite!! I love the South):



And Gropius had a white chocolate tart with some sort of cranberry compote that was delicious as well:



I wish I could tell you exactly what we had but when I checked the dessert menu on the restaurant's website, the pastry chef had already moved on! Lots of places tell you that they change the menu daily, but I think this place really does!

The wine list was also AMAZING. The sommelier and owner/manager have done a really nice job of showcasing little known wines from Austria and we definitely took advantage of the opportunity...to the point that when we ordered our dessert wines, the owner didn't even have to ask which table the order was for! The wine we enjoyed with dinner was a nice one and I wish I could've tried the sparkling wines and rosé, too.

Bourbon

Gropius and I went to The Grange in the Citizen Hotel last night for dinner as a celebration of turning in my tenure file.  They were having a bourbon tasting dinner with 5 courses each accompanied by a separate bourbon cocktail.  Yeah.



Per my mother-in-law's request, here is a blow-by-blow of our meal.
First Course:

Woodford Bourbon served neat with hand-cut ice

Smoked Butternut Squash Bisque with Pumpkin Ragout and Duck Ham
(is Duck Ham an oxymoron?)

Bread basket interlude:

salted, rosemary buttah

Second Course:

bourbon, grapefruit juice, and black pepper honey syrup

(apologies--we dug in before I remembered to take a picture!)
Bourbon-glazed Pork Belly with Celery Root and Brussel Sprouts

Third Course:

bourbon appletini-type thing with a poached pear (very tasty!)

sous vide salmon over braised, bacon-y greens

Fourth Course:

Ta-Dah!  The Mint Julep.

Hanger (hangar?) steak with fingerling potatoes and baby carrots

Dessert Course:

bourbon, walnut liqueur with pecan/pepita brittle garnish

poached pear with cranberry sauce and blue cheese gougere-type thingie
(I didn't like the blue cheese part)

We had a wonderful meal meanwhile Lulu had a great time at home with her favorite teacher from Merryhill, Miranda. It was really bittersweet because 'Randa is leaving next week to move back home to Fresno to finish up her teaching credentialing program and I don't know what we're going to do without her. Seriously. No idea. But that's another post entirely.