FRI. JANUARY 20
I'm later blogging than I have ever been and I apologize. I was out sooo late last night, didn't feel well when I got home, and then this morning was devoted to helping Sabrina get her Girl Scout Cookie sales off the ground, then I had to race off to a meeting at Act One... and now I'm home and getting caught up.
So yesterday I started with a bagel w/ cream cheese and lox. And actually, that was a very good thing, because it made me aware that I still had over 1/2 lb. of lox leftover from Christmas, and no way would I be able to eat it all before it went bad. And coincidentally, I needed to bring appetizers to this stupid cocktail party I had to go to last night. So I pulled out all my cookbooks and chose the easiest recipe.
Here it is: You cut a cucumber on a slant into 1 1/2" thick slices. You scoop a little hole out of the middle (the seed part) with a melon-baller. You blend together about 6 oz. of cream cheese with about 4 oz. of sour cream. You spoon that into the hole. You roll up a half-slice of the 1/2 lb. of lox you need to get rid of, and stick it artfully in the little puddle of cream. You cut a piece of a fresh chive and stick that in too. If all the salmon and chives are pointing in the same direction, you actually end up with a very lovely looking appetizer. And it takes almost no time.
Okay, on to lunch. I had a Lean Cuisine: 2 silver-dollar-pancake sized flat medallions of chicken with a vaguely lemon sauce, w/ a v. small amount of rice w/ peppers and broccoli.
We had to go to this cocktail party, which I think it's pretty clear I didn't want to go to. So my first stop at the party (after dropping off my appetizer to the appropriate oohs and ahs) was the bar, where I had a glass of white wine. Sure could have used some vodka, but that's not what they were pouring (cheapskates).
I also had about 4 little chicken-in-coconut thingies, 2 tiny pigs-in-a-blanket, several baby carrots w/ dip, a couple of shrimp, and 3 pieces of sushi, the kind with the shrimp spread open over the rice (anyone know the name?). I skipped the dessert table except for a lemon bar -- the best dessert in the world. And frankly, it was so luscious, I should have shoved a couple in my purse to sneak home (you know, the way Lee did with the chocolate chip cookies).
From the party, we went to join another couple for dinner. One of those things where you see someone at a Christmas party and say "let's get together after the new year" and you never do -- except that they got in toucch with us and said 'let's have dinner.'
They picked the dinner place -- the Ivy at the Shore. We knew it was high-end, but hadn't been there in some 8 or 9 years, and either the prices went up, or our point of view of what constitutes outrageous prices has changed as our income went down (or both)... but boy, was it shockingly expensive. (I'll spare you the details... let's just say $4.75 for an 8-oz. bottle of diet Coke, and leave it at that.)
Lee and I split a Caesar salad -- he got all the croutons, I think. I ordered lobster ravioli in a tomato cream sauce. I got 5 ravioli. Large ravioli, true. But let's just say it came out to 50 cents per bite. A little high for pasta, if you ask me. (It was yummy, I have to admit.) And I had a scoop of lemon ice for dessert.
A very nice evening. And sure, it was cool that Brian Grazer was two tables away. But we could have had just as pleasant an evening at California Pizza Kitchen, I do believe. Sigh... I'll regret it again when the bill comes.
I've already eat most of my food for today -- That Act One meeting, then lunch afterwards. But I'll wait and blog post-dinner tonight. I will. Really. (I promise, Clare!)
So yesterday I started with a bagel w/ cream cheese and lox. And actually, that was a very good thing, because it made me aware that I still had over 1/2 lb. of lox leftover from Christmas, and no way would I be able to eat it all before it went bad. And coincidentally, I needed to bring appetizers to this stupid cocktail party I had to go to last night. So I pulled out all my cookbooks and chose the easiest recipe.
Here it is: You cut a cucumber on a slant into 1 1/2" thick slices. You scoop a little hole out of the middle (the seed part) with a melon-baller. You blend together about 6 oz. of cream cheese with about 4 oz. of sour cream. You spoon that into the hole. You roll up a half-slice of the 1/2 lb. of lox you need to get rid of, and stick it artfully in the little puddle of cream. You cut a piece of a fresh chive and stick that in too. If all the salmon and chives are pointing in the same direction, you actually end up with a very lovely looking appetizer. And it takes almost no time.
Okay, on to lunch. I had a Lean Cuisine: 2 silver-dollar-pancake sized flat medallions of chicken with a vaguely lemon sauce, w/ a v. small amount of rice w/ peppers and broccoli.
We had to go to this cocktail party, which I think it's pretty clear I didn't want to go to. So my first stop at the party (after dropping off my appetizer to the appropriate oohs and ahs) was the bar, where I had a glass of white wine. Sure could have used some vodka, but that's not what they were pouring (cheapskates).
I also had about 4 little chicken-in-coconut thingies, 2 tiny pigs-in-a-blanket, several baby carrots w/ dip, a couple of shrimp, and 3 pieces of sushi, the kind with the shrimp spread open over the rice (anyone know the name?). I skipped the dessert table except for a lemon bar -- the best dessert in the world. And frankly, it was so luscious, I should have shoved a couple in my purse to sneak home (you know, the way Lee did with the chocolate chip cookies).
From the party, we went to join another couple for dinner. One of those things where you see someone at a Christmas party and say "let's get together after the new year" and you never do -- except that they got in toucch with us and said 'let's have dinner.'
They picked the dinner place -- the Ivy at the Shore. We knew it was high-end, but hadn't been there in some 8 or 9 years, and either the prices went up, or our point of view of what constitutes outrageous prices has changed as our income went down (or both)... but boy, was it shockingly expensive. (I'll spare you the details... let's just say $4.75 for an 8-oz. bottle of diet Coke, and leave it at that.)
Lee and I split a Caesar salad -- he got all the croutons, I think. I ordered lobster ravioli in a tomato cream sauce. I got 5 ravioli. Large ravioli, true. But let's just say it came out to 50 cents per bite. A little high for pasta, if you ask me. (It was yummy, I have to admit.) And I had a scoop of lemon ice for dessert.
A very nice evening. And sure, it was cool that Brian Grazer was two tables away. But we could have had just as pleasant an evening at California Pizza Kitchen, I do believe. Sigh... I'll regret it again when the bill comes.
I've already eat most of my food for today -- That Act One meeting, then lunch afterwards. But I'll wait and blog post-dinner tonight. I will. Really. (I promise, Clare!)
posted by Janet at 4:24 PM
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