I turned 27 on the 19th. There was a lovely party. I am now a firm believer, after throwing lots of parties the wrong way, that the right way to throw a party is to divide and conquer. Anna offered to make me a birthday dinner, and since we couldn't get a babysitter she brought the party to us. I spent the afternoon cleaning up in a rather relaxed fashion, since the house was already in pretty good shape from Tristan's party the week before(which deserves its own post). It was remarkably un-stressful to clean and set the table, then saunter off to my room to put on earrings and a skirt. I wore a shirt too, but I do that everyday so the skirt was really the remarkable bit. Anyway, the point is that in short order Albert and Anna arrived with an impressive array of food and wine and quickly got to work cooking in my nice clean kitchen. We drank some wine and ate some cheese, and eventually sat down in my nice clean dining room and ate an absolutely beautiful meal. So the lesson is this: have parties often to ride the "clean house" wave; have one person clean and someone else cook. So fanatastic.
I busted out my Williams-Sonoma hemstitched linen tablecloth for the occasion. You can't really tell from this picture, but it's the perfect shade of Tirzah-esque orangish-red. It went beautifully with my vintage linen hemstitched napkins I picked up on Whidbey Island over Easter.
This chicken was phenomenal. I trust Anna's food sensibilities enough to trust her to make my birthday dinner without so much as inquiring what's on the menu. I wish I was polite enough not to ask, but I didn't do it out of politeness, I did it out of solid trust. Anna did not disappoint. Just like its maker, the dinner was a parade of rich and wonderful flavors, with the perfect balance of sweet and savory. The chicken was roasted with green olives and whole dried prunes, bay leaves, herbs and garlic. It was an amazing combination, the prunes sweet and syrupy in a dark, earthy way and the bright tang of the olives singing out clear and briny.
Being fully aware of and sharing in my love of lettuce, Anna made a deliciously tart salad of red bib lettuce and radishes. She tossed it with red wine vinaigrette spiked with fresh garlic and finished it off with grated parmesan. It was a perfect salad all on its own, made even more so by providing such great balance to the rest of the meal. The binder was roasted red potatoes, which were so warm and comforting with the chicken.
Dessert was an apple tart and whipped cream, which was pretty much to die for. Anna made her own puff pastry. I had some for breakfast the next day with a pot of very strong French press.
And now for something completely different....
Every couple of days, the boys and I got outside and hunt around under logs and rocks. If it's a good hunt, we come back inside with something like this. It's for the chicks, who act as if they've died and gone to heaven. Well, if heaven had bowls full of worms and termites. Which, in chicken heaven, it probably does. If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would be doing this sort of thing, I doubt I would have believed it. But I kind of love it; I get incredible satisfaction out of putting revolting-looking bugs to good use. I give the worms a little begrudgingly though, since I feel like I'm robbing my garden of them. I supposed our next project should be a worm bin....I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the day when our chicks are big enough to go outside and do their own hunting. It's getting warmer, but they still don't have enough adult feathers to keep themselves warm enough. Soon.
The boys, on the other hand, stay plenty warm. I've changed all the flannel sheets for lighter-weight cotton, pants are rarely seen on the legs around here, and watermelon features prominently in our diet. I find that giving it to them in the bath saves me(and the dining room floor) a lot of grief. I prefer to eat mine with a drizzle of lime juice, but the boys are purists.
While Anna's birthday dinner was outstanding, Aaron still felt the need to take me on a date. My actual birthday fell on a Monday which is a terrible day for a party, so we partied on Friday and then Aaron took me out last night. We went to Purple. I ordered duck. I did not regret it. We also ordered tenderloin skewers and bacon-wrapped scallops. And creme brulee and sea salt caramels. We took a walk along Lake Washington and Aaron tried to talk me into going skinny dipping off the end of the dock. It was a lovely, mild spring evening and we were standing in the shadows. I briefly entertained the idea, but then I dipped my hand in the water and thought better of it; it may have reached 70 degrees that afternoon, but no one told the lake water.
Seeing as how it was early and we were already in Kirkland, we couldn't go home without making a stop at Trellis. I asked if they had tea, and the waiter brought me a black velvet case full of glass vials of tea for me to smell. I went with Earl Grey.
They scored major bonus points by bringing me a piping-hot mug. Aaron had a Manhattan, which was very tasty. We shared some lovely cheeses, and talked about fighting and making up. Aaron teased me about taking pictures of everything I eat. We talked about how happy we both are that we still like each other so much. Aaron gave me the cutest, tiniest mp3 player complete with fancy ear buds and an arm band so I can listen to music when I go running. I felt very loved and celebrated. And then we went home and slept really, really well.
I turned 27 on the 19th. There was a lovely party. I am now a firm believer, after throwing lots of parties the wrong way, that the right way to throw a party is to divide and conquer. Anna offered to make me a birthday dinner, and since we couldn't get a babysitter she brought the party to us. I spent the afternoon cleaning up in a rather relaxed fashion, since the house was already in pretty good shape from Tristan's party the week before(which deserves its own post). It was remarkably un-stressful to clean and set the table, then saunter off to my room to put on earrings and a skirt. I wore a shirt too, but I do that everyday so the skirt was really the remarkable bit. Anyway, the point is that in short order Albert and Anna arrived with an impressive array of food and wine and quickly got to work cooking in my nice clean kitchen. We drank some wine and ate some cheese, and eventually sat down in my nice clean dining room and ate an absolutely beautiful meal. So the lesson is this: have parties often to ride the "clean house" wave; have one person clean and someone else cook. So fanatastic.
I busted out my Williams-Sonoma hemstitched linen tablecloth for the occasion. You can't really tell from this picture, but it's the perfect shade of Tirzah-esque orangish-red. It went beautifully with my vintage linen hemstitched napkins I picked up on Whidbey Island over Easter.
This chicken was phenomenal. I trust Anna's food sensibilities enough to trust her to make my birthday dinner without so much as inquiring what's on the menu. I wish I was polite enough not to ask, but I didn't do it out of politeness, I did it out of solid trust. Anna did not disappoint. Just like its maker, the dinner was a parade of rich and wonderful flavors, with the perfect balance of sweet and savory. The chicken was roasted with green olives and whole dried prunes, bay leaves, herbs and garlic. It was an amazing combination, the prunes sweet and syrupy in a dark, earthy way and the bright tang of the olives singing out clear and briny.
Being fully aware of and sharing in my love of lettuce, Anna made a deliciously tart salad of red bib lettuce and radishes. She tossed it with red wine vinaigrette spiked with fresh garlic and finished it off with grated parmesan. It was a perfect salad all on its own, made even more so by providing such great balance to the rest of the meal. The binder was roasted red potatoes, which were so warm and comforting with the chicken.
Dessert was an apple tart and whipped cream, which was pretty much to die for. Anna made her own puff pastry. I had some for breakfast the next day with a pot of very strong French press.
And now for something completely different....
Every couple of days, the boys and I got outside and hunt around under logs and rocks. If it's a good hunt, we come back inside with something like this. It's for the chicks, who act as if they've died and gone to heaven. Well, if heaven had bowls full of worms and termites. Which, in chicken heaven, it probably does. If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would be doing this sort of thing, I doubt I would have believed it. But I kind of love it; I get incredible satisfaction out of putting revolting-looking bugs to good use. I give the worms a little begrudgingly though, since I feel like I'm robbing my garden of them. I supposed our next project should be a worm bin....I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the day when our chicks are big enough to go outside and do their own hunting. It's getting warmer, but they still don't have enough adult feathers to keep themselves warm enough. Soon.
The boys, on the other hand, stay plenty warm. I've changed all the flannel sheets for lighter-weight cotton, pants are rarely seen on the legs around here, and watermelon features prominently in our diet. I find that giving it to them in the bath saves me(and the dining room floor) a lot of grief. I prefer to eat mine with a drizzle of lime juice, but the boys are purists.
While Anna's birthday dinner was outstanding, Aaron still felt the need to take me on a date. My actual birthday fell on a Monday which is a terrible day for a party, so we partied on Friday and then Aaron took me out last night. We went to Purple. I ordered duck. I did not regret it. We also ordered tenderloin skewers and bacon-wrapped scallops. And creme brulee and sea salt caramels. We took a walk along Lake Washington and Aaron tried to talk me into going skinny dipping off the end of the dock. It was a lovely, mild spring evening and we were standing in the shadows. I briefly entertained the idea, but then I dipped my hand in the water and thought better of it; it may have reached 70 degrees that afternoon, but no one told the lake water.
Seeing as how it was early and we were already in Kirkland, we couldn't go home without making a stop at Trellis. I asked if they had tea, and the waiter brought me a black velvet case full of glass vials of tea for me to smell. I went with Earl Grey.
They scored major bonus points by bringing me a piping-hot mug. Aaron had a Manhattan, which was very tasty. We shared some lovely cheeses, and talked about fighting and making up. Aaron teased me about taking pictures of everything I eat. We talked about how happy we both are that we still like each other so much. Aaron gave me the cutest, tiniest mp3 player complete with fancy ear buds and an arm band so I can listen to music when I go running. I felt very loved and celebrated. And then we went home and slept really, really well.
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