Foodie Lawyer

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Obviously, the tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma this week is not a “favorite,” and our hearts and hope go out to any and all affected by the massive tornado.   Our money goes out to them too — donating is the least we can do for people who have lost so much.  We appreciate all that the Red Cross accomplishes with donated funds, and we found a couple of ways to give money even more directly to people in Oklahoma in specific ways:  through the Oklahoma food bank, as well as a fund created to benefit OU faculty, staff and students who lost homes and personal property, and via the work being done by an Oklahoma pet clinic with respect to animals displaced during the storm.  We like to think that every little effort makes a difference.

Last weekend we had a “sleepover” with our friends’ son & daughter (and our pretend nephew and niece, who we’ve known since the day each of them was born), while their parents celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.  We had an awesome time, complete with homemade pasta for dinner (as requested by T), an apres-dinner swim, lots of Wii games, some excellent drawings by A, a visit to the local playground (with an epic kite-flying-adventure FAIL:  one only became “airborne” with me holding it up while running behind A, and the other got eaten by a tree about 15 seconds after T took hold of the string) and a highly successful trip to the video game / child entertainment mecca otherwise known as Dave & Busters.  The kids were great and a good time was had by all!

When luck and planets align every few years, my parents travel to Europe in the off-season, which usually means March or October.  It’s a happy coincidence for me when they go in March, since my birthday is in May (and you’re never too old to hope that your parents bring back something [other than a stupid T-shirt] for you when they travel.)  This year, they brought me a package of calla lily bulbs, with Dan and my wedding anniversary in mind (we were married in June and callas were our wedding flowers.)  I planted the bulbs a few weeks ago, and they have begun to bloom!  The leaves are a pretty bright green, some with cute white speckles, and so far the blooms are a lovely pale pink and yellow combo.  Thanks Mom & Dad!  (And thank you for all the awesome European gifts over the years, none of which has ever been a stupid T-shirt.)

Recently, a friend diplomatically (for him) pointed out that we were remiss in our lavash pizza post because we didn’t mention Cane Rosso among our favorite places for pizza.  Since we had never previously been to Cane Rosso, we apparently didn’t know what we were missing.  Dan and that friend had lunch there the other day (apparently I was busy and unable join them), and Dan reports that their pizza is indeed among the best he has had.  I can’t wait to try it!

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

In the mood for a casual place with upscale bar food and appetizers last Friday, we found Savour Kitchen & Cocktail Room to be exactly what we wanted — decidedly un-stuffy, with a large and varied selection of small plates.  The food was good (we’ll be back for the lamb sliders alone), but the best part may have been the live music.  Just a guy with a microphone and some sort of computer-operated music system, enthusiastically singing whatever seemed to move him at the moment (occasionally influenced by some of the more rowdy patrons in the bar area) was the perfect entertainment for a Friday night.

We took full advantage of the opportunity to feed our neighbors at the neighborhood block party by filling up our smoker with a variety of meat.  And Dan took the opportunity to try a few new techniques:  wrapping a brisket in bacon while it smokes, and wrapping another brisket and a tri-tip in parchment paper (after the meat reached 150 degrees in order to keep it moist and help to create a nice bark (the blackened exterior.)  We were quite pleased with the results, and given how few leftovers we had at the end of the night, our neighbors were too!

Your eyes do not deceive you — one of our favorites this week is a garden hose.  A hose featured in one of those annoying infomercials no less.  While it didn’t come with a free set of Ginzu steak knives (I bought it at Home Depot), it really does work!  The “pocket hose” is very lightweight and perfect for attaching to the end of our regular hose (or it can be attached directly to the spigot), then pulling across the backyard to hand-water plants with ease.

Speaking of plants, we planted milkweed this year (it’s the one with the spikey leaves on the left above), in hopes of attracting monarch butterflies to our backyard, on their way to Mexico.  The female monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed, which the caterpillars eat until they cocoon.  We were inspired by (and thoroughly enjoyed) the documentary “Flight of the Butterflies,” which we saw at an IMAX theater with our niece and nephew when we met them in D.C. last month.  Even if we don’t get any monarchs, the plants are a nice reminder of a wonderful time we had with family we adore.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Many thanks to everyone who made me feel special and loved on my birthday last weekend!  I had a very happy day and am a lucky girl indeed to have so much love, friendship and thoughtfulness in my life.  Plus, a husband who makes me burnt sugar ice cream with a candle for my birthday wish, since I don’t really like cake.

We went to a fun local art festival last Saturday and came home with a few new treasures.  The piece above is titled “Conversation with Myself,” and is a sculpture that we coveted since last year’s festival, where we first saw the 12 foot tall version.  Being able to meet and chat with the artist, Lorri Acott, makes owning a piece of her work even more meaningful.  We also bought a few pieces from Ethan Jantzer, who explains his unique photography-without-a-camera method way better than we ever could.

We have a new sushi obsession — spicy tuna on top of crispy rice cakes.  We first tried it at our favorite movie theater (yup, sushi at the movies!) and loved the combination of silky tuna with the airy crunch of the rice cake.  We had a similarly delicious version at one of our favorite special-occasion restaurants, Shinsei.  And speaking of Shinsei, we finally tried their “Thai fried rice” side dish, despite having over-ordered too much food to begin with (which is why we tend to only go there on special occasions), and will order it again each and every time we go back.  It’s hands-down the best fried rice we’ve ever had, and the leftovers topped with a fried egg make for a perfect weekend breakfast.

Another “best ever” food item we recently tried is the Thai mussels appetizer from Meddlesome Moth.  All hyperbole intended (this is “Friday Favorites” after all, not “Friday Just Okays”), these mussels cooked in a coconut milk and red curry broth with Thai aromatics are life-changing.  When we asked our waiter about them and he called them “transformative” and said that they’re the only mussels on the menu he eats, he wasn’t kidding.  The only thing we didn’t like about them is that we aren’t sure how to recreate them at home.  Yet.

Tomorrow is our second-annual neighborhood potluck block party, which calls for thawing all the bought-on-sale giant slabs of meat from our freezer and prepping the smoker for overnight duty.  We’ll be bringing pulled pork, beef brisket and tri-tip.  Hope our neighbors bring their appetites!