Some stuff.

Hey all,

When I was home over Christmas, we went to this Mexican restaurant Abuelo's. The food there is massive! Honestly, it is served on turkey platters, but it's actually really nice and the restaurant is fancy pantsy inside. I had some sort of a combo platter with lots of stuff... don't believe me about the turkey platter? See for yerself, doubter!



But please, don't fear for one second that the turkey plate bested me... oh no...



Anyway, the great thing about Abuelo's is that all their food doesn't taste alike, which is hard to do at Mexican restaurants. The big thing in the middle is a brisket-y burrito, really mild in flavour, but the queso on top kicks it up. G always has to get sides of guac to go with everything...so it makes it nice, as well. I had a cheese rellenos, I believe, as well. Anyway, whatever, beany cheesey meaty carby goodness. Run don't walk, it's just that good.

Senor Cuttlefish, to you.

Cava. What an experience. It was really fantastic. Lots pretty amazing food -- and one very scary cuttlefish. (As evidenced below:)



I have to confess, my aversion to all things that look in food as they looked in life caused me not to try this beauty, but Pauline and Michael seemed to enjoy it, and at the end of the day, he didn't die in vain. Sigh.

What did I try? Well if it had pork in it, I ate it! Here's the charcuterie platter that was amazing...



And a lovely plate of real Serrano ham:



It was really delicate and yet substantial. I enjoyed it with the little pieces of bread that came with the pate. I am going to see if I can get it at the St. Lawrence Market.

We had an amazingly meat quail...



And this wild mushroom corn tamale that really impressed the entire table. We wished we'd had two!



Of course, that isn't to say that we weren't painfully full. In addition to these things, we had sardines two ways, flank steak with some sort of mashed root, a lamb and lentil stew, and some lovely bubbly pinot noir. Bubbly pinot noir? Why here it is! (And I know it's on its side... I am still learning this beauty of a mac. Apologies for the craziness.)



And dessert!!!




Honestly, who can say what these things were? I was so full that I just remember eating...and eating... and eating... and then going home and collapsing!

Long overdue update.

There have been some life issues going on in this here new year, so the delay is bad news, but soon remedied.

New Year's Day had me making my very first Beef Wellington. Whoa. That was not easy, but it was lots of fun. It was from the Gourmet cookbook and instead of using foie gras, it had a sort of walnut pesto covering over the meat. It was brilliant. Photos follow:



Pretty good looking, eh?

Here's the innard shot...



Messy to cut up, but quite delicious to eat. It was an all day affair, but I really enjoyed it. G said that the pastry I made was very light and flaky, which is the goal of pastry. Actually, it was crazily easy to make the pastry, I was shocked. Not sure I have ever really made it before.

Next post, recent trip to Toronto restaurant Cava.

Much Ado About Updates!

It's been so long since I've posted... it's that post holiday, get home, go back to work, get caught up blues. BUT, I have lots of pics to add on.

While still in Tulsa, we did have our family Christmas Dinner. As usual, there were the usual suspects of carbs, potato (white), potato (sweet), stuffing (that's actually dressing), noodles... hang on. Noodles. My family has always eaten egg noodles cooked in chicken broth with holiday meals. Apparently, this is nto common. So of course... if you do the same... add pics, post comments, feel the love.

Anyway, here's the dinner as it was...



Ahhh... so sweet.

So the next day, we went out for some BBQ. The place we went to is a chain, called Smokey Bones or something. Anyway, while not the best bbq ever, it certainly was passable. I had the two meat combo. I chose Brisket and sausage. For my sides I picked french fries, baked beans and coleslaw. The coleslaw was grim. GRIM. It had these seedy things that tasted like carraway but I was told were not, and it was just all too... carraway-y. But the sausage was good, though not as good as Coach's. (For those of you who use blogger and a mac, please let me know how to make links. I am trying, it's just not working.) Anyway, it was good times...



What's funny is they have all these different sauces in syrup bottles with no labels or anything. It's not not fancy in that sort of, this is old school way, just in a sort of lazy way. See if you agree....



So for the next post to follow... hopefully tonight... I will include some info about my beef wellington and jambalaya that I just made. Phew. This cooking is hard work.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!