A Dinner Party

The Menu:
Macaroni in an Extra Sharp Cheddar and Gruyere sauce with nutmeg and paprika
Mushrooms in a Marsala Reduction
Pao de Queijo
Green Salad with Blood Oranges & Apples with a fresh vinagrette
BV's Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

The Company:
3 neuroscientists, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins, an entrepreneur, and (for the purposes of this post) an editor.

The Music:

Classical Violin

This sounds pretty impressive right? RIGHT

Everything else:
We ran out of dining chairs, and so 2 of our illustrious company were camping out on office chairs. The boys decided it would be fancier if we ate in the living room so we crammed the table in between the couch and the stereo. This meant that we were constantly clambering over the couch. We also ran out of plates...and one person jerry-rigged a "plate" out of a pot lid upended over a bowl. We didn't have enough wine, so people resorted to PBR.

It's like...we know what class is...and we aspire to it! We just couldn't...quite...make it.

Dinner was awesomely fun though. And delicious.

PS. I love that I am tagging this as both "Awesome" and "Fail"

Bicycles

Queen - Bicycle Race

Via Flickr - Troy Holden

I did something magnificently impressive this weekend! I RODE A BICYCLE IN THE CITY.

Yes. You are impressed. I couldn't agree more - I am impressed too.

It was fairly terrifying (I got honked at, and stuck behind a bus) but TOTALLY WORTH IT. I now have a much better understanding of WHY The Man gets so frustrated with public transportation. If it's really all you have, there is really no point in getting upset, but when you KNOW there are alternative means and are STUCK taking public transit and its total lack of efficiency, one is bound to get a lil frustrated.

As you know, I consume vast amounts of images and information through my Reader, which over the years has hooked me up with interesting little niblets re two wheeled transport. Like so:

Whatever this is.

Something like this would be pretty wild and awesome if I loved in a city with NO HILLS AT ALL. Not the most practical here, but I can see how these can be immensely attractive in Europe.

Also, this:

Via Oh Joy

Stunning. Unfortch, a fixed gear. It's a CRUISING bike, horror of horrors. Entirely appropriate for cruising in Venice or Davis, but perhaps not for navigating terrain, buses, and traffic between Cole Valley and North Beach.

I suppose I will have to work my way up to being truly bad ass enough to ride to work every day. But the HILLS. O the HILLS.

On Goats

Tonight, The Man took me out to go see The Men Who Stare at Goats.

I liked it. He did not.

Ok, so it's true. I like most things! The Mav would say that there is hardly a movie I don't like, except for, you know, award winning dramas.

Whatever. I don't like movies that make me sad. I feel it defeats the purpose of the escape, if watching it makes you miserable.

BUT - I liked the acting. I enjoy George Clooney - he does a terrific deadpan. This wasn't even deadpan: he was seriously explaining to Bob, Ewan MacGregor's character, that he was a Jedi. I thought the movie was gently amusing, mostly because of Jeff Bridges, and his gentle soldier.

The Man thought the acting was fine, the cinematography was fine, and the movie was not. If you want to see George Clooney in a good desert movie, he says to go watch Three Kings.

But Three Kings does not have a goat:

The goat was totally the star. And Kevin Spacey. Because you can't tell Kaiser Soze that he got upstaged by a goat.

In which there are pirates. No Seriously!

Yes. I know. I didn't blog yesterday.

Epic. Fail.

HOWEVER, leaving an after-party to BLOG is lame. Beyond lame. Pathetically Lame.

I don't like to do lame things.

The after-party was, of course due to the overwhelming success of Royal Jam at Battle of the Bands. I feel like I can state quite objectively that the brainy nerds absolutely stole the show.

Even the parents agreed.

But let's start at the beginning.

I arrive at The DNA Lounge (apparently "A disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals"...ok...) and go inside to hear confusingly loud music. Like, death metal.

NO JOKE.

For example, Aborticide, sounds like "a whirlwind mixture of experimental, avant-garde, post-apocalyptic cyber industrial death metal"

Royal Jam's influences include The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, and Stevie Wonder. Right. They are awesome, and sound hauntingly beautiful.

(This is all Sharri! Sadly, she is off in Seattle, getting her degree in neuroscience. THANKS FOR LEAVING SHARRI.)

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you if the other bands were any good. I simply do not have an ear for metal of any kind, despite my previous employment experience doing time at Mayhem Festivals, etc. I TRIED, I'M SORRY.

What I CAN tell you is that not only did this Battle of the Bands span genres, it also apparently spanned ages.

Not, that you could tell or anything. I mean SURE, there were parents there! And SURE, they were definitely taking home videos as the kids on stage strutted their stuff and screamed hoarsely into the mike and then waved, embarassingly pleased at the camera. WHO WOULDN'T?!

I would say that most people wouldn't wear Halloween striped pirate pants to play a show. But that is just me. And anyone over the age of 15.

A Battle Royale

Ok, so "Battle Royale" might be a bit of an exaggeration BUT IT TOTALLY GOT YOUR ATTENTION EH?!?!

However, there will be a Battle. A Battle...of the Bands.

375 Eleventh St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

The Google checkout link I have is dead but maybe it'll work for you!

PLEASE COME OUT ON SUNDAY!!!! It'll be ridiculous amounts of fun. While I suppose, technically, I should leave it to you to make your own judgments about the best band there, but let's be real.

It's going to be Royal Jam.

Also, I tried to lobby today for a cover of "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith, but was unsuccessful.

*sigh*

Ok So Here's What Happened

This post has multiple parts:

Thursday - Chez Panisse

Friday - ZOMBIELAND

Saturday - Alternative Press Expo

Sunday - Chaja

CLEARLY ITS BEEN A BUSY COUPLE DAYS.

So Thursday - it is the Man and my 1-year anniversary (balloons). I'll wait while you go throw up from emotional overload.

...

Although the two of us are both very bright, we are both very broke, so choosing to go to Chez Panisse was kind of a big deal. Luckily, Ms. Waters totes delivered. I had never been to this excessively fancy restaurant before, but I was well pleased. It's a very warm room - the lighting almost reddish, reflecting off the hammered copper lamp shades and sconces. We sat in the back corner against what looked like a mirrored wall, and the light shone off the sconces and lampshades and warm polished wood and made the food look amazing.

First was pate de campagne, with mustard and carrots and beets and green beans and cornichons. My experience with pate is...limited, and my palette is comically inadequate but it reminded me of the way you kind of always wished cured salumi would taste - wild, but softer.

I screwed up my courage and took pictures for the rest of the courses with my dinky lil point and shoot camera:

This was probably my favorite - 3 soups combined into one awesome party: spinach, corn, and pepper. Now, looking at that list o soups, you would think they would be all jostling for attention: corn is always sweet, and spinach is unmistakeable, and pepper is...pepper. Instead it was like they all came to the party and were like "hey, what's up..." and that was IT. They MELDED and as you swallowed they made themselves heard in different parts of your tongue. Also, HOORAY FOR MARBLING.

Ok, so main course: Grilled Sonoma Liberty duck breast au poivre with chanterelle mushrooms and gratin dauphinois. A fairly traditional way to do au poivre, but the duck was perfect. Melting meat is a curious sensation, but there you are. The potatoes were delicious - not heavy at all (quite the feat for gratin) and sort of tangy. It was awesome to have au poivre a different way, seeing as the Sinks usually rock the venison au poivre (only in our family its venison + black goop. Yeah.)

To finish up, a Tarte Tatin with the first Pink Ladies of the season, with a scoop of housemade creme fraiche ice cream.

Yum.

Dissecting a meal like this is definitely out of the ordinary for Sweetness (I am sooo not Ruth Reichl), but it was a special occasion.

This post is getting long, so I will leave you with these one liners:

Friday - ZOMBIELAND. Go see it. Rule #32 Yo.

Saturday - Alternative Press Expo. I got the BEST ART EVER. I love meeting creative people, even though this is how most of the conversations went:

Artist - Thanks for checking out my stuff! You guys artists too?

B - I draw on the side, but I mostly do a lot of writing.

F - Nope, just jealous.

I suppose I have baking. I have reasonable assertions that I'm pretty good at it, despite the incomprehensible messes.

Sunday - Chaja. Dad's birthday + Excuse for making DECADENT Brazilian dessert. Unfortunately, this is really not a dessert suited for photography. Like, at all. In the words of the Mav, it's a hot mess. But it has dulce de leche! And that is enough for me. Recipe will be posted after it has been translated from the odd blend of Portuguese and Spanish that is the peculiar language of the Fernandez-O'Keeffe's.

I love it when my life has the sweetness.

A Letter to the Editor

Dear Napa,

I know, I have been neglecting you. I kept pushing you off, and pushing you off to repeatedly go wine tasting in Sonoma. Please don't feel bad, it isn't your fault. I have just felt completely fulfilled in my relationship with Sonoma. But you have been teasing me, with your whispers of champagne and movie stars. The lush Napa Valley wines available at all the restaurants, while oft times Sonoma languishes near the bottom of the wine list.

And so, I cheated.

I have only myself to blame, Napa. I cannot hold you accountable for my behavior. But all the while I was with you, I was thinking of Sonoma. I have written a poem to describe my feelings (and it even rhymes!)

O Sonoma

Your shorter lines do thrill me.

Your less expensive wines do quench me.

I seem to irk the bar tenders here.

It's almost (but not quite!) enough to make me order a beer.

Sonoma inspires me to...not just bad, but repellant poetry, Napa! What do you do? Sure, you may impress me with your gorgeous hotel and the lovely food, but you know what? I will attribute my grand ole time to The Man + 2.

To sum up, Napa. I had a fabulous time. You tried your best, a wild fling. You went all out with the weather, and the wineries, and I get it! You are kind of a big deal.

But in my heart, I am just a poor Sonoma County Farmer. It would never work between us.

Love,

Frances

PS. Is...that a forest of concrete toadstools Napa? WTF.