Taste Buds Dance With Joy

In the past couple of weeks, some yummy things have danced across my taste buds.

I'll start with Daddy's birthday dinner, because, alas, I have no pictures and can only describe the meal in words. We ate at Syrah and throughoughly enjoyed it. We started with a cheese course including:

Crescenza
Bellwether Farm, Valley Ford, Sonoma, California. Cheese Maker Liam Callahan. Jersey cow's milk, this soft, creamy, smooth, yeasty, slightly tart cheese gets fruitier as it ages A great "Bridge" Cheese to have with opposing cheeses. Aged 2-3 weeks.

Red Hawk
Cow Girl Creamery, Tomales Bay, California. Cow's milk, organic triple cream, washed rind made by Maureen Cunnie, aged 6 weeks. This staff favorite is flavorful, rich & unctuous.

(picture from the Syrah website)

Something from the Cheese Monger
Changing Often at the Cheese Monger's Whim -- this happened to be the best cheese of the bunch, and was something called a St. Patty's

Mommy, Daddy, WG and I all quite enjoyed an actual cheese course, then dined on our fancy little salads. Mommy and I had mixed green salads that were actually wrapped in two long cucumber slices and included uncooked peas and pistachios! Daddy and WG had the romaine salad that included a side of prosciuotto. Everyone was quite content.

And then, on this rainy evening in Santa Rosa, a city that is home to none of us, yet vaguely familiar for some reason, we dined on our main courses. Mommy had lamb, something she never eats at home, because I refuse to eat it, and Daddy doesn't really like it. WG had spicy pork loin over a marscapone cheese and grits mixture. I had roast duck. Daddy, though. Daddy had the best thing, a five-pepper steak of 28-day aged beef. Incredible. Lucky, took, as it was his birthday, so it's only right that he got the best meal.

After eating, we just sat at our table (the nice little table that had a lovely "reserved" sign on it when we walked in--it's been a long time since I actually saw one of those) and enjoyed the warm, pleasant contentment in our stomachs. We forgot the crazy May rain, the fact that WG had to drive a far distance to get home, that the remaining three still needed to get back to Mommy and Daddy's hotel to do presents and cake (an amazing German Chocolate cake that my mom only makes once a year)and then that I needed to drive away to my own little apartment and get up for work this morning.

We just sat and enjoyed the company.

Happy Birthday, Daddy (not that he reads this blog, but hey...)!

Other foods passing through my kitchen of late:



I wanted a good salad. Like a really good salad. And I made one! Yeah! Gorgeous green spinach, craisins, walnuts, gorgonzola all tossed with a vinegrette mixed with just a bit of blue cheese dressing. Mmm. Veggies can taste so good sometimes!


Two salmon dishes were enjoyed Chez Sarah last week, and the one in the picture above is the one that involved cedar planks and a gas grill. It was scrumptious.


But the truly lovely surprise of a meal was this one, Salmon in Lime Butter Sauce (see the full meal pictured above). Mmm. I served it with the salad up top and a sourdough baguette.

And then, of course, there must be dessert. I fell back on an old favorite (and a recipe I make fairly well, if I do say so myself): Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook. Try it with dark chocolate ghiradelli chips - soooo yummy.



So, that's the latest installment in the Small Kitchen Confessional (the fake name for my fake cooking blog)...till next time, happy eating!