Especially if your rainy, slightly cold, Sunday is filled with the scent of fresh, rich earth outside; and you have one very happy cat toasting his belly by a warm fire while you enjoy your morning paper and coffee inside.
Life is good.
We’ve eaten our way through the beginning and middle bits of this weekend with good friends; dinner out at Bob Chinn’s with Bob and Don on Friday, then dinner in at Barb and Bob’s (I know, a lotta Bobs in this post – and – fun fact – my dad was called ‘Bob’ by my mom and all her side o’ the family – I don’t think I ever really knew why) with more friends.
Friday night was all about calamari, egg rolls with peanut butter and sweet chili sauce, sea bass, mussels over pasta with extra garlic – so much good food, and so much lively conversation that I never got around to getting pictures of any of it! Well, Rich got a capture of his crab-stuffed sea bass drizzled with hollandaise, but I’m not a fan of what the flash on the iPhone 4 does to colors, so you’ll have to imagine – or go to Bob Chinn’s and get your own.
Moving on to Saturday evening and a tasty assortment of cheeses and salamis, followed by dates stuffed with blue cheese, then wrapped in bacon and baked, all accompanied by some lovely red wines and more good conversation, which I won’t go into more than just to note that it really is amazing exactly what you’ll find yourself chatting about once you bring da Google and four or five iPhones into the conversation. Needless to say, no pics of these tasty, tasty munchies either.
Dinner, then. And what a dinner!
Bob – Barb’s Bob, not Don’s Bob, or Bob Chinn, or, for that matter, Doris’ Bob (my dad) – prepared a feast; starting with a salad of spring greens and jicama and stuff with a lime cilantro vinaigrette (I’ll be needing that recipe, Bob). Moving on to the main course, fresh green beans with garlic, sweet potatoes with ancho chiles, and roast pork tenderloin with a cocoa bean crust.
No pics, but OH! so good!
Barb put together a simple dessert – incredible berries from Caputo’s – I wish there were one closer to us – chocolates from a local chocolatier, and some of the best soda bread I’ve ever had (add that recipe as well, Bob, THX).
Well and amply fed; pictureless but content, we headed home.
Happy rainy Sunday all!