More Socialness, Some Cooking
This is supposed to be a diary, among many other things, right? So here's what we've been up to since our last social escapades recap.
Tuesday the 8th pianodan and drdingbat crashed our house en route to Boston. We made them chicken pesto soup and oreo truffles (no prizes for guessing who cooked what) and then caught Stars at the Beachland. A good time was had by all.
Saturday the 12th xhollydayx, Tulip and myself accompanied my aunt to the NE Ohio Pancreatic Cancer walk in Bay Village. Then that night we made garlic mashed potatoes, garlic soup and the single best batch of spinach hummus we've made yet and invited people over. zodarzone, bec76, celticcowboy68 and hooloovooo contributed fruit, wine and beer to our lavish spread. To cap it all off, xhollydayx made a lovely cheesecake with an oreo crust, brownie layer, and a wall of chocolate ganache. Tulip was spoiled by many.
As mentioned briefly previously, on the 13th Frank & Theresa were in from Seattle. They, along with Paul, JT & JT's fiance Sara(h?) gave us a call from Sullivan's Pub, so we hung out with them for a while. Happily, we found out that F&T are tying the knot in Cleveland so we're much more likely to be able to go, it being cheaper to drive downtown than to fly to Seattle.
Monday the 14th was our anniversary so we ate at 3 Birds, as previously alluded to here. I had a lovely braised leg of lamb. The service was shit though, which was shocking based on our prior experiences there.
Last Friday, gieves and darlox invited us and butterandjelly over to an impromptu porch party. The drinks were mixed strong, and either my tolerance is shot or something else was going on because after only three drinks I ended up having to take a short nap on their sofa in order to continue functioning. We had tasty grilled chicken burritos.
Saturday afternoon we caught Toy Story 3 with theferrett, zoethe, aiela and puckathon. From there we headed over to supper club at stampinmak and indy_was_here's house. We were joined by Alex & Cynthia, Carol & John and katspaw156 for a meal where every item (except the salad and booze) was prepared over a fire in their backyard. This included steak kabobs, salmon, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, curry soup and homemade marshmallows, which have become xhollydayx's new obsession. A good time was had by all.
Sunday night it was our turn to cook. pianodan and drdingbat stopped at our house again on their way back home. darlox and gieves came over and we cracked the smoked salmon packet that my sister tigerlily_blue brought with her from Anchorage when she came to visit last December. We also had a ton of fruit and made white bean hummus. We saw this on the menu at 3 Birds, said "we can make that at home" and then did so.
White Bean Hummus
1 can cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
garlic powder
salt
black pepper
oregano
olive oil
[1] Dump 1/3 can of the cannelloni beans in them and process them for a little bit. They should still be a bit chunky. Add some olive oil and process a bit more.
[2] Dump the rest of the cannelloni beans in and process them some more. Add even more olive oil and process some more.
[3] Add the spices. Add more olive oil as needed; you don't want it to be too thick.
[4] Process until desired texture is reached.
As if that wasn't enough, we also had a very nice chunk of cheese.
38. Urgelia Cheese (pronounced ur-gayle-yuh) It's from Spanish pasteurized cow's milk, and it's delicious. It has a slight nutty taste. All 6 of us liked it. 8/10.
As if that wasn't enough, xhollydayx made ANOTHER cheesecake. This one had an oreo crust with peanut butter and chocolate ganache and was covered by peanut butter cups. It was far better than the brownie cheesecake, which I didn't actually think would be possible given that the brownie cheesecake was utterly amazing. To use analogies, the peanut butter cheesecake was to the brownie cheesecake as the Urgelia cheese is to shredded cheese. It was that awesome. gieves took home leftovers.
The only down spot in the past two weeks was that our dinner with Kendralin feel apart due to scheduling conflicts. Something about her mom having surgery and having to finish her PhD dissertation so she can take this post-doc in the fall. Seriously, some people can't get their priorities straight :-) Oh well, hopefully we'll see her soon.
EDIT By my quick count, 18 of the people on my friend's list were mentioned in this article, 17 of them because I saw them in the last 14 days. And that doesn't include Kendralin, Frank & Theresa, Paul or JT. Or my aunt. And I didn't mention ultimate at all. Life is a wee bit hectic lately.
Tuesday the 8th pianodan and drdingbat crashed our house en route to Boston. We made them chicken pesto soup and oreo truffles (no prizes for guessing who cooked what) and then caught Stars at the Beachland. A good time was had by all.
Saturday the 12th xhollydayx, Tulip and myself accompanied my aunt to the NE Ohio Pancreatic Cancer walk in Bay Village. Then that night we made garlic mashed potatoes, garlic soup and the single best batch of spinach hummus we've made yet and invited people over. zodarzone, bec76, celticcowboy68 and hooloovooo contributed fruit, wine and beer to our lavish spread. To cap it all off, xhollydayx made a lovely cheesecake with an oreo crust, brownie layer, and a wall of chocolate ganache. Tulip was spoiled by many.
As mentioned briefly previously, on the 13th Frank & Theresa were in from Seattle. They, along with Paul, JT & JT's fiance Sara(h?) gave us a call from Sullivan's Pub, so we hung out with them for a while. Happily, we found out that F&T are tying the knot in Cleveland so we're much more likely to be able to go, it being cheaper to drive downtown than to fly to Seattle.
Monday the 14th was our anniversary so we ate at 3 Birds, as previously alluded to here. I had a lovely braised leg of lamb. The service was shit though, which was shocking based on our prior experiences there.
Last Friday, gieves and darlox invited us and butterandjelly over to an impromptu porch party. The drinks were mixed strong, and either my tolerance is shot or something else was going on because after only three drinks I ended up having to take a short nap on their sofa in order to continue functioning. We had tasty grilled chicken burritos.
Saturday afternoon we caught Toy Story 3 with theferrett, zoethe, aiela and puckathon. From there we headed over to supper club at stampinmak and indy_was_here's house. We were joined by Alex & Cynthia, Carol & John and katspaw156 for a meal where every item (except the salad and booze) was prepared over a fire in their backyard. This included steak kabobs, salmon, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, curry soup and homemade marshmallows, which have become xhollydayx's new obsession. A good time was had by all.
Sunday night it was our turn to cook. pianodan and drdingbat stopped at our house again on their way back home. darlox and gieves came over and we cracked the smoked salmon packet that my sister tigerlily_blue brought with her from Anchorage when she came to visit last December. We also had a ton of fruit and made white bean hummus. We saw this on the menu at 3 Birds, said "we can make that at home" and then did so.
White Bean Hummus
1 can cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
garlic powder
salt
black pepper
oregano
olive oil
[1] Dump 1/3 can of the cannelloni beans in them and process them for a little bit. They should still be a bit chunky. Add some olive oil and process a bit more.
[2] Dump the rest of the cannelloni beans in and process them some more. Add even more olive oil and process some more.
[3] Add the spices. Add more olive oil as needed; you don't want it to be too thick.
[4] Process until desired texture is reached.
As if that wasn't enough, we also had a very nice chunk of cheese.
38. Urgelia Cheese (pronounced ur-gayle-yuh) It's from Spanish pasteurized cow's milk, and it's delicious. It has a slight nutty taste. All 6 of us liked it. 8/10.
As if that wasn't enough, xhollydayx made ANOTHER cheesecake. This one had an oreo crust with peanut butter and chocolate ganache and was covered by peanut butter cups. It was far better than the brownie cheesecake, which I didn't actually think would be possible given that the brownie cheesecake was utterly amazing. To use analogies, the peanut butter cheesecake was to the brownie cheesecake as the Urgelia cheese is to shredded cheese. It was that awesome. gieves took home leftovers.
The only down spot in the past two weeks was that our dinner with Kendralin feel apart due to scheduling conflicts. Something about her mom having surgery and having to finish her PhD dissertation so she can take this post-doc in the fall. Seriously, some people can't get their priorities straight :-) Oh well, hopefully we'll see her soon.
EDIT By my quick count, 18 of the people on my friend's list were mentioned in this article, 17 of them because I saw them in the last 14 days. And that doesn't include Kendralin, Frank & Theresa, Paul or JT. Or my aunt. And I didn't mention ultimate at all. Life is a wee bit hectic lately.