kismet09

we went to Mas (farmhouse) in the Village for my birthday. It's new-ish, and had decent sounding vegetarian options. They offer a three-course tasting plus dessert, but we decided to go with two courses, cheeses, and dessert. Their menu is extremely flexible, which was nice. I even substituted sides on my entree. Here's what we ate:

Me --

• Salad of Local Summer Beans with a Truffle Vinaigrette, Maplebrook Farm Stracciatella & Brown Butter Croutons (stracciatella is this amazing mozzarella/cream concoction. i had never had it before. so good.)
• Roasted Long Island Duck Breast, Fingerling Potato Purée, Caramelized Brussels Sprouts and Grilled Baby Squash

• Heirloom Tomato Tart on a Parmesan Sablée, Caramelized Onions & a Toasted Pine Nut Dressing
• Fried Zucchini Blossoms Stuffed with Mushroom Duxelle & Mustard Greens, Huitlacoche- Black Trumpet Purée, Baby Spinach, Roasted Radish & Almond Foam

• Spring Brook Farm “Tarentaise,” Reading, VT - Cow’s Milk, Alpine style, aged 1 year
• Cato Corner “Hooligan” Colchester, CT  - Cow’s Milk, pungent wash rind
• Belle Weather Farms “San Andreas” Petaluma, CA - Sheep’s Milk, crumbly with a buttermilk tang

• Caramel Roasted Peaches over a Ricotta Pound Cake, Blackberry Compote & Sweet Corn Ice Cream
• Hazelnut-Milk Chocolate Mousse with Cocoa Streusel, Salted Caramel Ice Cream & Chocolate Ganache

having two livejournals, fb and twitter makes it really complicated, figuring out what to put where. i originally splintered scrabblek8 off of this journal so that i could keep that part of my life/friends separate from my "real life," but now they're just so intertwined that it's starting to feel silly. but, there are plenty of people in scrabble who i don't want to know that much about my life outside of scrabble, and there are plenty of y'all who read this who couldn't care less about the scrabble, so i guess it's fine. y'all who read all my internet blathering will just have to tolerate some redundancy here and there. in any case, i'd like to keep up with this journal better than i have been in the past year or two, because i like being able to go back to it and reference what i was up to.

so, that aside... this past weekend. was so good. there is a lot of Maine to explore, and i get excited about it. as usual, our trip included farmers market, food, beer, yarn, coffeeshops, and random browsing through shops. it's nice to have my amazon wishlist with me at all times on my phone - i can be out shopping and see something great and jot it down there, to see if i really want/need it, or if it was just the moment that caught me up. of course, i'd rather buy the things themselves at small businesses if i'm going to buy them, but having amazon as a centralized wishlist is helpful.

our first stop was Bath, ME. it was pouring down rain, but i will brave the showers to visit Halcyon Yarn. i picked up some birthday swag for woolarina, some Zino to make socks for Tim, and some Rios because every time I see it, I must buy it. We visited the farmers market, looked at the water, and jumped back in the car. Visited a few more businesses and markets along the route, including the State of Maine Cheese Company, grabbed a hot dog at Wasses, played a couple of games on Scrabble at a coffee/book shop in Rockland, and eventually checked in at the Old Granite Inn. We had the smallest, most economical room, but it was still perfectly fine for our needs.

Went to Primo for dinner, which I already posted about. The menu changes every night, so if I lived there, I would have to talk myself out of going every day, even if just to read the menu. We walked around the grounds first, checking out the gardens, the chickens, and the very tame pigs. Looked up descriptions of the various salumi on offer with my phone, and settled on boar lombazini, which was basically meat candy - salty and smooth and great. The service at the table was excellent, and they wrote "Happy 10th Anniversary" in chocolate on my dessert plate, reminding me of the "congratulations" written similarly on my plate after we got engaged (rather publicly, at a restaurant).

On Sunday, we went to the Farnsworth Art Museum (thank you, NPR member card, for the 2 for 1 deal). There was a special exhibit of Andrew Wyeth's art, and an exhibit by Paul Caponigro, a Maine photographer. This was my favorite piece - just a bunch of broken ice, taken in Newton, MA. Headed back home, took a long nap in the car, casted on a sock, had lunch at an indian place in Biddeford.

10 years! still hard to believe.

breakfast: baked pancake, home fries, soyrizo w/rice, bacon, turkey kielbasa, chicken sausage.

dinner: turkey, stuffing w/fruit and chestnuts, braised & glazed brussels sprouts, beets with ricotta salata and vinaigrette, honey glazed carrots, scalloped potatoes, bread, salad, cranberries.

dessert: cupcakes!

turkey, filet mignon, roasted garlic mashed potatos, sweet potatos, green beans with garlic and almonds, glazed carrots with pecans and bacon, swiss chard with raisins and pine nuts, cheddar scallion biscuits, rice, fresh cranberry sauce, chestnut stuffing, salad...

and once we digest, pumpkin, pecan and dutch apple pies, and strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream.

happy eating everyone! i'm thankful to have all of you in my crazy life.

To celebrate anniversary number seven, we went to Oleana. We have dubbed Oleana our favorite restaurant in the Boston area.

We ate:
Warm Olives with Za'atar
Appetizer special - fresh homemade mozzarella with arugula, beet carpaccio, candied walnuts over cherry sauce with pomegranate vinaigrette
Fried Haloumi Cheese & Spring Onion Dolma with Walnuts, Sesame and Rhubarb
Fava Bean Pate, Soft Boiled Egg & Wilted Spniach with Fried Almonds and Za'atar
Spicy Fideos & Chick Peas with Green Chard & Orange Aioli
Crispy Duck with butter Toasted Pita, Cinnamon Rice Pilaf, Fresh Chick Peas, Eggplant

It was tasty. Especially the duck skin. Mmm duck skin. They brought things out in courses - olives, then the two cheeses (yay flaming cheese), then the fava, fideos and duck. It was a good selection, and a reasonable amount of food, especially since we managed to not ask for seconds on the bread basket. The selection of wines by the glass was plentiful, so we split a white cotes du rhone, and Tim had a grenache. I felt a little ill from my half glass. It's probably about time that I give up drinking wine and beer, and just stick to martinis, which don't have the same effect. We sat in a secluded corner table in the bar side of the restaurant, surrounded by wine bottles. It was much less hectic than sitting in the somewhat crowded dining room. We were too full for dessert, and nothing was so inviting that we wanted to overstuff ourselves. We bought some Pie Guy mini pies on the way home, but Tim fell asleep on the couch before he got to eat any.

First things first: my two nephews, Andrew and Eli, were born Wednesday (no one managed to tell me til today). Everyone is happy and healthy. They were 5ish and 6ish pounds. I don't know how they both fit in Mary. One of them apparently looks like our side of the family and the other like hers. James (my other nephew) has declared them the third and fourth kids, since Henry, the basset-beagle, is his 'first younger brother.'

Second: Valentine's Day. I got up early and baked two batches of cookies to surprise Tim, then went to work, then we went out to dinner at Cambridge Brewing Company. We were there for two hours because something went awry with entrees (we waited for them for about fifty minutes). We were also sitting by the door, so I was a little freezing by the end of the night. Even so, it was a nice dinner with great beer.

For the record, we ate at Sidney's Grille in the Hotel@MIT for Thanksgiving. All you can eat buffet, no cleanup required, good vegetarian options. The mix of people was entertaining -- lots of college students in college student clothes, some guy with an iPod and a bow tie, a giant family gathering of Asians, etc.

The menu:

Appetizers
Duck Confit Salad with Grilled Heirloom Apples, roasted delicata squash and cipollini onions
Roasted Sugar Pumpkin Bisque with toasted pepitas
Baby Spinach Salad with topped with caramelized pears, spiced pecans and vermont chevre, vermont maple dressing
Fresh Mozzarella with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and a balsamic vinaigrette
Flatbread crackers with spices

Entrées
Hand Carved Turkey with roasted chestnut and andouille sausage stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, and cranberry-orange compote
Slow Roasted Peppercorn Crusted Rib Eye with burgundy demi glaze, yukon gold mashed potatoes, and garlic rubbed blue lake beans
Hot Smoked Atlantic Salmon with mustard seed infused greens and tangerine emulsion
Butternut Squash Ravioli in an amaretto cream sauce topped with crispy parsnips

Desserts
Chocolate Marquise cake with bittersweet Chocolate mousse, sable cookie
Baked Apple Cobbler with fresh whipped cream
Bourbon Pecan Pie
Vanilla Pudding with Cranberry Gelee
White Chocolate Almond Cake
an assortment of brownies and cookies

I tried a little of each appetizer and entree, and a couple of the desserts. My favorite thing, strangely, was the flatbread cracker. The spice mixture was super tasty, and I loved the texture and flavor. Plus, it wasn't on the menu that we found online, and something about the element of surprise was pleasing as well. All of the entrees were great. I will put sausage in my stuffing more often -- so good and rich. I will also fry up parsnips when we make squash ravioli or squash gnocchi, as that layer of flavor and texture was also a great touch, and easy to do.

I've managed to drag myself into work after a great evening last night. We headed to Annapolis in our shiny new car, and only got slightly lost trying to find the restaurant.

The Wild Orchid Cafe is a house-turned-restaurant, very similar to Cafe Phoenix back in Grinnell, which was about the only restaurant we really liked in that town. I often find that there's a comfort to eating in a house that's a restaurant rather than a regular restaurant -- it feels very personal, casual while still classy.

We were seated toward the back, in a little nook that could've been a walk-in closet back when the restaurant was a house -- it was big enough for us to fit comfortably, and it opened into the restaurant completely so it didn't feel claustrophobic, but it was still close enough to feel more intimate than we would've at the other tables. The server brought mini-phyllo cups with a roasted red pepper mousse - very similar to the pepper dip we make at home but creamier - as a complimentary appetizer.

The menu, as most are in Annapolis, was pretty seafood-heavy, and neither of us eats seafood, but we both had choices in entrees, which Tim often doesn't have being a vegetarian. I decided on tournedos of beef wrapped in veal bacon with a peppercorn sauce, served with yukon gold potato and frizzled leek hash (basically cubed and beautifully fried potatoes), and grilled asparagus. Tim had basil and goat cheese ravioli with pesto, also served with asparagus and I think some spinach, or similar greens. Both entrees came with freshly baked, warm cheddar bread (plus oil with freshly ground pepper, which I always appreciate), and a house salad of organic greens with strawberries, toasted almonds, and gorgonzola. We paired it with a Spanish 1999 Malbec (I can't remember the name, but they had a reasonably extensive wine list) which was very red :) I think I'm losing my taste for alcohol - it's very bizarre.

The food was quite good, and entrees with the salads and bread were in the 20s, which seemed pretty reasonable. There's a balance between quality and quantity at restaurants with $20-something entrees, and this one was a little higher on the quantity, lower on the quality than I would prefer, but still definitely worth the price. They did lose a couple of points for serving Tim's meal on a plate that I recognized was sold at Target (and sure enough, checked the bottom and the brand name was Gibson). Details, details. The wine was very reasonably priced - not marked up nearly as much as we tend to see at restaurants. Plus, we got to use our entertainment card, which gave us one entree for free, and I was too full to eat dessert, which means we'll go out some time this week or next to finish off the celebratory dining experience. The meal with 20% gratuity was under $90, so, for an anniversary deal, it was reasonably economical, and highly satisfying.

I could've sworn that I had updated since Christmas, but apparently I haven't. I'm feeling much better now, although I still get really tired from walking around and doing much of anything, and I've taken 2 hour naps every day since I arrived in Chicago (which was about a week ago). This is usually the time I spend in shopping madness, returning and exchanging, burning gift certificates at after-holiday sales, but instead I've been mostly quiet, around the house, enjoying my pajamas and the new shearling slippers that Tim bought me.

It was a good holiday for getting stuff :) clothes, books on watercolor and colored pencils, to experiment with new art forms (I'm still not brave enough for acrylics... someday...), a big rolling suitcase (now I'll be able to pack for ACPA - whee!), a new powder brush since Jasper ate the last one, the new Trivial Pursuit (now I have another excuse to throw a games night!), Buffy Season Two and Sex and the City Season Three DVDs, About a Boy and Aida CDs. Yum.

Saw Two Towers, feel like the only person in the theater who hasn't read the books. I feel silly jumping in at the third book and reading, but I don't know how I'm going to wait until next December to see the third. I suppose most people who actually read the books have been waiting a lot longer to see what would happen on film, so maybe I should just be patient.

My parents live two blocks from a yarn store. I don't know if I mentioned this in the last journal entry, so I'm saying it again :) it's SO GREAT! It's a huge place, much bigger than most yarn stores I've visited that feel so crowded and claustrophobic. I'm thinking of finally making the leap and buying enough yarn to knit a sweater. I did find the yarn I needed for my hat - black with colored flecks - and am also doing a knit a hat for the needy project that the store is sponsoring, which I'll hopefully get finished tonight.

My parents' house is about the same as it always is - hectic and disorganized, and loving and fun. My mom, sister and I are hoping to see Chicago in its film version tomorrow, then a couple more days of lounging about, and the twelve hour drive back to Maryland.