Richard's visit......

R

randi

Well-known member
we had a great time together, as you might have expected. it was comfortable from the moment Richard walked through my door. once settled in, we ended up sitting at the island eating and drinking wine and talking all evening, as old friends who haven't seen other in some time will do. wednesday, we started with the bacon/leek flans plated with oven roasted tomatoes and avacado. the dinner was:

Roasted Olives With Fennel & Lemon

asparagus with roasted garlic

oven roasted potatoes with rosemary

salmon with pinot gris sauce

plum tart

the sauce for the salmon was great, as always but I wasn't pleased with the salmon itself. and the first time I made the plum tart tian, it wasn't very sweet. this one was much sweeter and the puff pastry shrank in the oven, leaving it topped with a disk. still, very edible smileys/smile.gif

on thursday, we went out to my friend's farm and visted with her and her family and, of course, the baby goats. Pat was very generous and we left 4 of her artisan goat cheeses, one of which, took second place in it's category in a world competition. 3 of them were "bloomy rinds" which is like brie. one had peppercorns in it. it just amazes me that you can take the basic cheese and the aging process makes each on different. after that we took the long way home so we could stop at the oyster farm and get some fresh oysters for dinner later. we stopped for lunch on the bay front and then headed home to snug and cook.

our dearest friends were joining us for dinner and everyone hit if off just great. I plated the bloomy rind cheese and surrounded them with fennel fronds. since I didn't have a shucking knief and even if did, no way could I open those babies, Richard and I thought we would put them on a bed of hot salt in a hot oven until they just opened and serve them like that. when my friends found out we had fresh komo oysters they took over and got their shucking knief and made a champaigne/shallot vinegrette for them. they were soooo good!!! I was going to bail on the chinese spinach and ginger dumplings since I was a bit tired but Richard took over and made the filling for us. when we were ready for them, I just pulled out the sui mai wrappers and everyone stuffed and we steamed them. they're really good and I'm glad Richard pulled it off for me.

as you can imagine, with good friends, great wines and good food, we all had so much fun together. it was a a great evening for all of us and we all enjoyed having Richard here and part of the "family".

thursday night's dinner:

3 artisan goat cheeses

spanish olives stuffed with anchovies

komo oysters on the half shell with champagne vinegar & shallot dressing

fennel and zucchini carpacio

spinach & ginger dumplings

queen of sheba with fresh strawberries

sorry it took so long to post, at first I thought I just had too much fun with Richard but it turns out I had a bug and got the migrane from hell on top of that, so I was down for about a week.

 
I'm, like, SO jealous. Even so, I want pictures! Randi, this post belongs in the Menus section.

 
Richard was the "offical" photographer and I'm sure he'll post some when he comes up for air smileys/smile.gif

 
Randi was the most gracious of hosts

She left out some menu items that I will fill in. We had her wonderful garlic roasted olives the first night, and the second night, there was a Spanish anchovy stuffed olive on the antipasti that was amazing. She also had prepared cheese tortellini with roasted red pepper sauce on the second night, but we thought we'd burst if we had another course.

Those oysters were the best I've ever eaten. What a treat to stop at the farm to get them and eat them that evening.

She also prepared a wonderful blueberry crisp for breakfast that was very yummy.

It is so wonderful to visit with a great cook on their turf, to watch their preparations, to see the combinations of colors, textures, and flavors. People approach things so differently and it is wonderful to see that and get new ideas. The plate with the bacon leek flans, roasted tomatoes, avocado, and garlic roasted olives was so beautifully presented and looked so healthy and delicious at the same time. I will definitely be using that for a dinner very soon.

I got back to totally slammed at work and I'm just now getting my nose above water. That coupled with 3 social engagements, a funeral and a wake, and now, another death. It has been a very trying week since returning from Oregon.

I hope to pry the pix out of my camera soon and will post as soon as I do.

Thanks again Randi for a wonderful visit in your lovely home looking out over the Pacific.

 
I knew I forgot something, thanks smileys/smile.gif and I love that you think the flan is healthy....

nothing like bacon, heavy cream and eggs, whirled in a blender to nourish the body! LOL

and thanks for still standing up for the crisp. for everyone else, I still have blueberries in the freezer from last year's picking and a crisp so easy to make. for some reason, I decided to use tapioca to thicken the berries instead of corn starch. since I had never done that before, I added way too much tapicoa. Richard was kind enough to label it as a blueberry/tapioca pudding.

remember to be kind to me when posting pictures, I have your address too.... LOL

 
I buy them in cans. I'll post product info when I'm home. everyone just loves them, even

anchovy haters. but then, I never tell them there are anchovies... smileys/wink.gif))

 
nah, you're just misty eyed remembering how much fun it was.... '-))) I edited the posts smileys/smile.gif

 
What a wonderful time you had together. Would love some of those recipes....

Plum Tart
Blueberry Crisp
Spinach and Ginger dumplings being 3 of them...did I see the salmon recipe posted before.
The oysters sound so amazing.

 
remember, the bacon/leek flan is healthy as long as it's plated with tomatoes, avacdos and olives '-

 
I'll get the links in later. I haven't posted the dumplings so I'll do that. I don't use

a recipe for the crisp. I just throw nuts and oats into the processor, run it, add some cinnamon, a bit of flour and better and blend again.

I usually make a batch of the topping and refrig it for easy and quick crisps.

 
oh geeze, avacados! it must be the guilt from being here and not working smileys/wink.gif

 
I do that too, use it over mangoes/granadillas.

I thought you may have had another way fof doing the bluebery crisp. These berries are so expensive here that I seldom buy them. Can it be made with frozen berries, do you think?

 
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