Jake

Dinner last night was after all the little ghosts and goblins had gone, and after the boys had finished work. The basement is currently under renovation so we had a late, quick dinner of spaghetti carbonara and salad. No photos as the guys dug in as soon as I had the plates on the table!! The plan for tonight is big thick pork chops marinated in a maple/mustard/horseradish combo, sweet potato in some form and brussel sprouts, by request. (Ugh....the one vegetable I really don't love!)

That is truly heaven on a plate!! Recipe??? Pretty please...

Hope tonight is great and thank you so much for continuing to share your life (even the bad days) with us

miso soup, butterfish sashimi, spicy tuna temaki, unagi sushi.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Daniel. Hope you feel better soon. I'm sure I can speak for any number of us when I say we'll all be happy to read about, and live vicariously through, your travels when you are well enough to continue. Best wishes.

Dinner last night began with oysters on the half shell, 6 malapeque and 12 Beau soleil purchased from one of my favourite fish shops after an oyster tasting of about a dozen varieties. This was followed by pan fried halibut with white wine, lemon and butter sauce, wilted spinach with carmelized leeks and one of our last beefsteak tomatos from the garden. Forgive the quality of the photography, I don't do this often. Perhaps I should, the practice certainly wouldn't hurt!

Sorry, just got the camera back...it was fairly thick, but not paste-like, just a thick sauce (tomatos reduced, I don't use paste in it.) I'll try and get a picture this week if we pull the leftovers out of the freezer.

Made chili last night using 1/2 inch cubes of sirloin. First time I'd done it this way, really prefer the texture. No recipe just used the usual onions, garlic, tomatos dried pasillo and guajillo chilles, some unknown chile powder a friend picked up in Mexico for me and a bit of chipotle powder for some smokiness. Also added Mexican oregano and some finely chopped cilantro. I was cooking some black beans separately for something else, so I threw a few of those in at the end too. Served with crema, chopped onion and cilantro. I will definitely use cubed meat in future, I really prefer the taste. I personally prefer my chile without beans, but throw them in for my other half. This one was really good, smoky and quite spicy. Had another bowl for lunch today...

I love Cashew.....you should've seen my huge guy tonight, we had seared tuna....he REALLY enjoyed it. I shall try and post a pic of him for you tomorrow, with the appropriate food course as well. Your dim sum looks delicious. Can't wait to hear the definition and/or explanation of "crap food" tomorrow.

Yummy leftovers today: a few slices of smoked duck breast, a wedge of Marechal cheese and some baguette. Followed by an apple off one of my dads trees. Too bad there was no wine!

Definitely have a long talk with them about staffing and specifically request that the problem bartender not be sent again if having him/her again would mean you spend half your time watching to make sure nothing awful happens. I agree that you should and can have more unusual starters and keep the mains simple to appeal to your entire group. I have to say, the inclusion of a pasta salad makes me positively cringe....but that's just me. In my experience most caterers use it as a filler and I have yet to meet one I really like There are so many options for cold sides. By all means, if you love potato pankakes and squash soup (who wouldn't!) then include them, you should enjoy the evening too! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions with regard to costing of dishes etc.

Tonight began with oysters on the halfshell (malapeque) with just a teeny tiney squeeze of fresh lemon, sweet, briny, heaven! I confess, I ate 20! Edamame for he that is allergic to shellfish (hee, hee, more for me). To follow shortly, pan seared rare tuna with a wasabi/soy etc. dipping sauce, or wasabi mayo, rice with black sesame seeds and a salad of finely shredded cabbage, daikon, carrot, cucumer, wakame salad with a miso/mirin/rw vinegar dressing. Pinot Grigio open at the moment, not sure what will follow. Of course this will be eaten in front of the tv so a certain someone doesn't miss the world series!!!

Great start, Maggie. Really looking forward to the rest of the blog. I can sympathize with trying to keep a cats weight down. Our guy is currently 26 pounds!! He's a huge guy, the vet said he could lose 3 or 4 pounds only. He's not as tall as cashew, but he is long and large. I'd love to see a recipe for your homemade pierogies, they are my other half's favourite and a friend's Polish grandmother used to make them for us. Can't buy anything to compare to that.

Depends what's in the fridge, but usually something salty. Last night, left over 40 day aged steak with fleur de sel and a wedge of peccorino with truffles.

When did you work at JOV? And what position? I agree, there was some great food back then. I occasionally ate off the menu, but most of the time it was the tasting menu. Mmmmm.

Thanks for the report. I haven't been since the ownership changed either but was considering it and it is convenient for friends in the neighbourhood. I may reconsider now, but will wait and see what others meals have been like there in the hopes that it was just an off night. Granted, that doesn't seem too likely considering it was not just the food that disappointed, but the service. Do they still offer a tasting menu? Was the restaurant full by the time you left (I'm assuming close to 8)?

Great blog, Chris. Thanks for sharing your week with us all, the food and scenery were wonderful!

Actually, to get the full effect, you'll want to translate "El Gordo" into English, colloquially. ← Yes, I'd assumed you were referring to Fat Guy!! Gorgeous dinner, I'm hungry just looking at it and my SO wants it for dinner soon! I'm terribly sorry to hear about your brother, schizophrenia is a difficult, often misunderstood disease and must have caused you and your family countless hours/days of pain. Remember the good times. I had a family friend in high school who was both schizophrenic and a drug addict. Difficult for all, and most difficult to remember to see the person behind the disease. After seeing the tortillas I'd forward some jalapenos if you were closer, I just picked 20 off our plants!

MMMM, and I LOVE the portuguese custard tarts with the thin flaky crust.

Chris, great to see you blogging Your posts are always enjoyable. I have only been to P-town once, during a summer trip to Cape Cod while in University. Gotta say, I don't remember much...beer, seafood, and some really, really great onion rings. Do you and Andrea (and family) travel a lot, or have done so in the past, or have most of your tastes developped from what you have in your home state?

A busy weekend cooking and closing up the cottage: Friday: BBQ'd beef ribs, parsnips & carotts, chive and garlic mashed potatos Saturday: Pork coddled in olive oil (loosely based on a Paula Wolfert recipe, the woman is a genius) white beans with thyme and rosemary, arugula salad. Sunday: Dinner for 30! (I'm exhausted, but my other half has a very large family) turkey, dressing, potatos, mint glazed carrots, french beans with compound butter, pan fried corn with red and jalapeno pepper, red onion, corriander, maple mashed turnips, purple cauliflower with thyme vinaigrette, gravy.

Gordon, I'm exhausted from turning a couple bushels of tomatos into sauce in my home kitchen today, don't even want to think of food. Then I read your post.....God I'm hungry!! Sounds wonderful, glad you enjoyed yourselves. From the sounds of it the staffing issue wasn't a problem for you. Favourite dish(es) of the evening?

Looks and sounds awesome, thanks for posting. I must get down there very soon, however my SO is allergic to shellfish, hopefully with advance notice that won't be a problem. It hasn't been in most places to date. I pity him, I love what one can do with shellfish.

I've only bought it as pork belly Cheap as chips. Your local butcher any help? I would think it would be fairly easy to get.....

Great to see you blogging, your photos are always hunger inducing. My votes go for parsi food (please include whatever info and/or links you feel cofortable with that go into the culture, please, please please), and Amish lunch and anything else you would care to regale us with. Oh, and Peanut looks much more manageable than my 27 lb master of the house - he even bosses the dogs around!