Happy August! Just think in a month and a half it will be autumn! Maybe the weather will cool down. I am not a summer person and I long for the days when I can make any sort of dinner I want, not just the ones that don’t heat up the kitchen.
One way to beat the kitchen heat is to dine out. John and I went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant on Thursday. We enjoyed our favorite dish, Thai basil eggplant with tofu. Whatever town or city we may be passing through we often check out the local Thai restaurant to try their version of this dish.
Since the portion size was plentiful I took half of my lunch home and ate it for dinner. Doing this made our dining out more economical and I did not have to heat up the kitchen cooking! (John ate leftover chicken enchiladas from Monday.)
Our daughter, Sarah, was the chef on Wednesday. She chose a recipe from Smitten Kitchen which is linked below. We are always looking for new vegetarian recipes and this dish fit the bill. Sarah’s rendition added kale and she stirred the ricotta in which gave the sauce a cream-like look and texture. It was really tasty and I recommend trying it.
Cyrus is a 1 Star Michelin restaurant in Geyserville, CA. The chef, Douglas Keane, and his partner, Nick Peyton, opened the original Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA in 2005 and closed it in 2012 after a lease dispute. We dined there many times and were sorry to see it close. It reopened in 2022 in their new location in Geyserville. Since we were coming through the area on our vacation we reserved two spots for the “Dining Journey” and had it paired with wine.
It is indeed a journey as you taste various bites in four different rooms. Although there are many bites very few are bigger than a single bite. Since I cannot remember which wine went with what here is the list of wines they gave us.
With the exception of a full glass champagne all the pours were 2 ounces.In the Bubbles Lounge we were served a glass of champagne and canapés featuring the five tastes. From upper right, Sweet: garlic chive madeleine Sour:: (we ate this one before I took a picture) green strawberry, yogurt, basil Salty: gougère with Comté fondue. Bitter: charred spring onion “cannoli”. Umami: bamboo rice chip, sesame yolk jam, seaweed chocolate.
Now we moved on to the Kitchen Table where we met and talked with the chef along with the sommelier. There were eight dishes here. I think I missed taking a picture of one. The pace at the Kitchen Table was very fast. Since we also had the wine pairing we fell a little behind and were the last ones to finish.
The chef, Doug Keane, explaining the dishes and procedure.Gazpacho consommé. This may look like thin tomato water but it had all the tastes of gazpacho. Remarkable.Goddess in the garden. A salad of fish, baby zucchini with blossom, egg, radish, cucumber, and lettuce with green goddess dressing.Tomago dofu, oyster, creamed corn, and kimchi granité. I am not a oyster fan but the rest of this dish was spectacular.Uni, pea, and fermented carrot tart.Blue fin tuna, plum, sea grape-sansho furikakeLobster, melon,Thai basil dressing“Oreo” foie gras torchon, black garlic, and cherry. This may not look like much but it was my favorite bite of the night!
The last bite at the Kitchen Table consists of A5 Wagyu, Meyer lemon kosher, and umeshu consommé. As I said we were a bit behind at this point and I did not get a picture.
Now we proceed to our own private table in the Dining Room. The pace slows down a little in here. We are able to chat with Nick Peyton a bit and John enjoys chatting with the sommelier. Here are the Dining Room dishes.
This is our bread and butter. Sobacha epi and house cultured butter.Seared scallop, lychee, coconut galangal broth. Yum!Poussin, nasu nibitashi, seared tomato confit. The chicken was tasty in its crispy skin but someone in the kitchen left a bone in mine. They were horrified and very apologetic.Short rib, gazpacho purée, squash, and green tomato.Blackberry and tonka bean sorbet, pink peppercorn verjus
The last dish is popcorn, corn financier and yellow peach. I remember seeing something with popcorn but not how it tasted. John does not remember it at all. I don’t have a picture.
Then we are served some espresso and the line up of desserts. Like the canapés they represent the five tastes. We try a few bites but dessert is really not our thing.
From left to right Strawberry sake lees mousse and almond sablé, Yuzu olive oil tartlet and shiso meringue, black sesame bon bon and toasted rice ganache, Earl Grey canelé, and Dark chocolate seaweed croquette with sweet soy
Then we are accompanied into the Chocolate Room. They have a nice tribute on the chocolate waterfall and we are served some very delicious hot chocolate and presented with sobacha and golden sesame crunch bars with koji caramel.
Happy Anniversary to us!
John says it was a fantastic evening. And the wine pairings were brilliant. The dinner was an event in itself and not something you would do frequently.
I thought the food was spectacular and the atmosphere and service was friendly and efficient. I would have liked to spend a little longer with each dish. I am not a one big bite kind of eater. It was a really special dinner for our very special event.
A nice surprise when we got home was that Sarah had gone to Costco and bought a rotisserie chicken. She had taken the chicken apart and shredded the breasts, kept the dark meat for her own dinners, and made stock out of the carcass along with the others we had frozen. In return I made 19 enchiladas that we all shared for Monday dinner.
Here is how we make enchiladas. Put a thin layer of salsa verde in the bottom of a 9X13 inch dish. Sear the tortillas over an open flame and lay in a line of salsa verde, chopped onions, shredded chicken, shredded cheese, and a little more salsa verde on top. Roll up the tortillas tightly and put them seam side in the baking dish. I managed to squeeze in 19 enchiladas.
Cover all the enchiladas with salsa verde, add any remaining onions you have, and shredded cheese. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes, uncovered. If you want some browning on the cheese, broil the dish for another 5 minutes.
We got home from our vacation Sunday afternoon. For dinner we needed something simple for which we had all the ingredients on hand. I made a pasta sauce with a large can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, minced garlic and chopped onions. There was also a bit of red wine splashed in. It seemed like it could use something else, though. Looking through the freezer I found a couple of hot Italian sausages which I defrosted in the microwave, cut up, and then let cook in the sauce. John cooked up the penne which we added to half of the sauce (the other half will probably appear later this week) and we had a simple but delicious dinner.
We have been driving up the coasts of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington and enjoying the cool weather near the Pacific Ocean. We have looked at numerous lighthouses and famous bridges. The scenery is fantastic but unfortunately the food is not. So we are very happy to have three days in a self-catering unit where we can cook.
On Saturday we made lentils with sausage, mushrooms, and carrots
The unit comes complete with a charcoal grill and it is lovely to be outside by the river and all the flowers.
Quillayute River Resort on the Olympic Peninsula John grilling John was in charge of grilling the steak and putting a sear on the potatoes I cooked. I also made some broccoli. We have been severely lacking in green vegetables!
We have one more night’s dinner so I think we will drive the 10 miles to the grocery store for some pasta, sauce, and red wine!
Shrimp tacos with mango salsa and spicy beans (also leftover tabbouleh)
On Friday John was in charge of cooking the shrimp perfectly and searing the tortillas. Great job, John!
I took care of the vegetables making the salsa out of a can of fire-roasted Rotel, a lovely ripe mango, cumin, sriracha, and Tabasco sauce. For the spicy beans I used a drained and rinsed can of black beans, a handful of our homegrown cherry tomatoes, green onions, cumin, and sriracha. Both dishes needed several pinches of salt. I warmed the beans in the microwave since we are still under an excessive heat warning. (It was 105F today!)
Finally, we brought a little Middle East to our Mexican inspired dinner by finishing up the tabbouleh from last night.
This is a great hot weather meal! There is no cooking at all. Making the tabbouleh is kind of an ordeal what with all the chopping. I mostly used the food processor so it takes much less time than doing all the chopping by hand. The hummus was store-bought.
It was a good thing that it was a no-cook meal that I prepped early because the electricity went out (again!) around 4 PM. Luckily it came back on after about 3 hours so we did not have to throw all the stuff in the refrigerator into the trash (again!)
It was 108F on Thursday and today (Friday) it is currently 103F. We are having shrimp tacos tonight. I hope the electricity manages to stay on!
Grilled flank steak, grilled Russet potato, and sautéed zucchini
Tonight John was at the grill cooking the flank steak and putting a char on a Russet potato that I had microwaved earlier. I also made zucchini that our daughter had grown in her garden. First I sautéed onions and garlic in a combo of olive oil and butter. Then I added the zucchini that I had sliced and salted to drain away some of the excess water. It was an enjoyable dinner that went very well with an Imagery 2016 Cabernet Franc.
Two weeks ago I made an arrabiata pasta sauce which I served over spaghetti. I had made enough sauce that I could freeze a container for another dinner. On Fourth of July John cooked up five hot Italian sausages and we had two left over. Now all I needed was a a day when the temperature was not in the triple digits.
Luckily today was cooler. I defrosted the sauce and cut up the sausages in small chunks. John cooked up a pot of celletani (which is exactly the same as cavatappi) and I warmed up the sauce. It was so delicious and a nice break from all the salad-y dinners we have been having lately!
Omnivore 