Duck Tales...Woo Oooh!

What a tiny picture. Oh well.
Last night I received Duck Tales in the mail (bless you Netflix, bless you).
The boyfriend and I watched the third disc in almost its entirety.
Almost every episode was familiar. I have occasionally thought about the Castle McDuck episode for years now...they go to Scotland, there's a ghost hound and druids....and the Bermuda Triangle episode where there's an island of seaweed and lots of castaways...not to mention a seaweed monster...oh yeah and the Duck Tales version of Odysseus.

I was a little let down since, you know, I'm not five years old anymore. But the nostalgic value was priceless.

Salad

This is the salad I made myself last night. Mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, yellow pepper, red onion, the occasional caper and vinaigrette. Satisfying even if a bit blurry.

Wine Night, Hoo Ha

Last night I hosted wine night. Cheese plate consisted of St. Andre, Morbier, Mozzarella, Gorgonzola and Chicken and Pork Liver trufee.
Veggies with ranch dip.
The boyfriend made exceptional salsa.
Not pictured is the smoked salmon with accompanying capers, red onion and lemon.
Not pictured is the pie the boyfriend made.
Not pictured are a few other things.

Hawthorne Race Track

After dim sum we went to Cicero to see some horses run. Hawthorne Racetrack is, perhaps, one of the sadder tracks I've been to. Oh, that's too harsh. It was just a let down after this summer's trip to Arlington where everything sparkled.
The horse below ran in the second race. I bet on it. It came in dead last.
It was pretty sad, until the seventh race I was in the hole a bit. Not hundreds but more than twenty dollars. Then! Then I won a trifecta box as well as a straight win bet. The trifecta was worth 109 dollars. So I ended up very much in the red (or is it black? shoot, I really don't know...I ended up ahead?). I smiled a funny happy smile about it. I may have squealed.

Things about Blues Brothers:
a)I hate to say it but I thought it would be funnier.
b)I really and truly dance like Dan Akroyd in that church scene with James Brown.
c)The mother wished for less 'demolition derby' stuff.

I just finished a book and I'm still not ready to write my three sentences about it. I am currently reading The Devil In The White City which (that?) reminds me very much of The Professor and the Madman...Same non-fictional subject approached with novelistic tendencies...without actually becoming a novel. What?

Dim Sum c/o Furama Part 12

Dim Sum was exceptional, as always.

Paper Really Does Have Many Purposes

The other day the boyfriend received some excellent bowls from his mother. Accompanying the bowls (and a pair of brown pants) was a fair amount of paper. Meow Cat slept in it last night...here's the proof.

Who Doesn't Love Ipods?

For my aging I got many fabulous things...like smartwool socks and neat earrings (I'm wearing them right now). But I must say, with no offense to the other gifts intended, the creme de la creme of presents was this my very own ipod.
If I could take a picture with my mouth I would give it two thumbs up...but I can't. The ipod is black, I like that. It also can play videos. I bought Beck's Hell Yes to try it out. I thought there would be dancing robots, but there wasn't a single dancing robot. Still pretty freakin cool.
The picture is actually far better than this picture would let you think.

Davis Street Fish Market

I have recently aged. And with aging comes movie watching and a nice dinner. The parents, the boyfriend and I went up to Evanston and watched The Squid and The Whale...which we all found wholly satisfying.
We then went to Davis Street Fish Market, also in Evanston (I don't think I've loved a suburb as much as I love Evanston...that's actually a blatant non-truth but I'm feeling pretty forgiving in my dotage). We all had oysters. So cold and fresh, oh my goodness. The father also had raw clams. There were also shrimp.
I had wanted sauteed soft shell crabs but unfortunately they're not in season (which I knew but was hoping against hope). So I went with a Maine lobster, oh so gluttonous, but you only age once a year. The parents also had lobster. The boyfriend had Calabash style calamari and tater tots...I really liked the tater tots.
Because of the whole 'being older' thing, I got a free piece of Key-Lime pie which we all shared. Very good, not eerily green and properly sweet and tart.
I want to be very clear here, I loved Davis Street Market and everything it offered. If you like seafood I highly recommend you check this place out.

Pizza Is As Pizza Does

You down with o.p.p? (other people's pizza)

Yeah, you know me!

Snow

Before the turkey curry the mother and I went to Arcadia Knitting where I bought an undisclosed (read very expensive for me) amount of yarn to make one person (who doesn't know who they are) a scarf that they will (they better)like...the color scheme would give it away though...so just what?

Then the parents went out for a bit. Almost immediately after they left the house it began to snow.



For a moment or more I realized that snow is not as bad as I think it is. The boyfriend and I went to the local video store to get a few choice movies (The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller's Day Off...I realized something about The Blues Brothers but I will share at a later time).

Turkey Put To Good Use

Today for lunch the father made turkey curry. Sides included capers, chopped onion, chopped egg and mystery cashews.
It twas good.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving eating began around one when I put together a little cheese plate. Brie, Morbier, Chevre and some chicken and pork 'trufée'. We also opened a bottle of Korbel Brut and toasted the holidays.
Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of buttered okra, beet roesti with rosemary, traditional mashed potatoes and smoked salmon mashed potatoes, cranberry orange relish, stuffing (inside and outside the bird) and T-U-R-K-E-Y. We also had pie, but by the time we ate the pie I was too stuffed to remember to take a photograph...the mother made the pie.
I made the okra and beets.
The boyfriend made the stuffings. I, predominantly, made the turkey but had help from the mother and the boyfriend.
The boyfriend also made the cranberry relish...I somehow managed to miss that dish too...what kind of person am I?
The boyfriend also made an absolutely divine egg nog...oh my goodness it was scrumptious...I was so taken with the taste and the bourbon I completely forgot any fears about salmonella...which is just as well, seeing as how I didn't get salmonella.
Thanksgiving: A good day.

Sushi Etc. c/o Tokyo Marina

Last night the parents, the boyfriend and I went to Tokyo Marina. The father had salmon in Tokyo Marina Sauce.
The mother had tempura on rice.
I had yellow tail and scallion maki, a unagi hand roll and an order of ikura.
The boyfriend had a small Chirashi.
Everything was tasty (I tried a little of everything so I can say that with authority).

Well. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. The turkey has just been put in the oven, the pie is baked and now all we's got to do is cook some beets with rosemary and butter up some okra....oh yeah and mash some potatoes. All in good time, butterfly, all in good time.

Rugs, Furniture, Cat-Oh My

Over the past few weeks many new things have entered my household. Among them one Meow Cat and the rug she is so nicely pointing to with her dainty paw.
Also the rug below. This rug used to live in Tennessee, but not anymore.
This is the set of drawers...or the dresser...bought in Evanston (the day of sushi gluttony).
This is Meow Cat thinking about my shampoo and calling me mean names with her eyes.
And this is Meow Cat eyeing the cheese, meat and fruit plate the boyfriend ate while I was hanging out with dogs.

Dig! Gilmore Girls! Exclamation!

Last night on the Gilmore Girls something really funny happened. A few posts ago I recommended the documentary Dig! as a movie worth watching. Well last night on The Gilmore Girls, one of the members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre got to be on the show...as the tambourine man...which is what he had been in TBJM...he was the tambourine man, he'd stand on stage and shake a tambourine (not always on time) and generally just laze about.
What makes this funny is a)not everyone would know who this guy was but I did and b)the writers went on to make Lane's band explode in almost exactly the same way that TBJM did. This may not seem amazingly funny and witty on the part of The Gilmore Girls' writers, but I beg to differ. The end

Dinner c/o Arun's Restaurant on Kedzie

Ah me. Last night the parents, the boyfriend and I went to Arun's Restaurant for a truly amazing meal. Which started with water, a white wine (something er other Veuvray...tasted like honey) and a red wine that, as of right now, has no name...though in real life it does.
At Arun's there isn't a menu, you come for a twelve course meal of the chef's creation. Of course if you're allergic to something or can't handle too much spice or if you are a vegetarian, the courses will be adjusted accordingly. We didn't have any of the aforementioned problems so we got exactly what was planned. The first course was a garden salad with a sweet chili garlic dressing, topped with a fish cake and skewered tempura vegetables.
The second course was a lemongrass crabcake on (I think) avocado aioli, topped with a pan seared scallop...I think there was lemon pepper somewhere in there.
Next was a rice dumpling filled with shrimp, chicken and jicama surrounded by a chili sauce, this chili sauce had a little more kick to it.
The fourth course was a Thai crepe. I'm not sure what the crepe itself was made out of, when the servers told us what it was I had a semiotic break...I heard crepe but pictured an omelette. Regardless, the crepe had tofu, shredded coconut and bean sprouts inside it. On the side was a cucumber salad. We were to mix the hot peppers in with the cucumbers, but the peppers were pretty hot and only the boyfriend cleared his entire plate.
The fifth course was a soup like dish, noodles in broth with a liberal helping of pork on top...along with a boiled egg and vinegar. I really liked this one. The pork was oh-so-very tender.
Our sixth, and final appetizer, course was a Beef salad with rice, shallots, tomatoes, daikon, cucumbers, lemongrass and cucumbers. I love beef.
Our four entree courses came at the same time. This was Striped bass with three different sauces, I couldn't write them down fast enough and so I can't tell you what they were. But the bass was cooked perfectly.
This was eggplant stirfry with minced chicken and hot red peppers. The eggplant was firm and yet succulent.
This entree made my heart leap. Lobster tails and crab claws on a bed of bok choy. We each got half a lobster tail and a whole claw. There was a sauce, but once again I couldn't write it down fast enough.
The final entree was tender beef surrounded by an almost too sweet green curry with coconut milk.
There were two desserts, thankfully small, because by this time I was full full full. This was custard swimming in squash, coconut and chocolate sauces, respectively.
And last but not least there was the lichy(sp?) sorbet accompanied by a sweet tangerine.
This experience was pretty amazing. The courses were presented flawlessly and there were no long pauses between them. We came at eight thirty and we left around eleven, stuffed and satiated. It really is something to try once in your life...but really, truly, don't eat too much during the day or else you will simply fall over.

Oh. Also, we were in an alcove that supposedly was where they put "dignitaries" and the like because Arun (the owner/chef) had his prized art piece hanging there...a Burmese tapestry from the time that Burma had kings, that had actual gold threads. We aren't dignitaries...I kind of wondered if the manager was trying to make us feel special.