Love is braised meat

We ate our weight in braised meat this weekend. Friday night we met G's family at Corduroy where we celebrated belated birthdays for the ladies.  I LOVE Corduroy. It's our occasion place, and where we had our proposal dinner.

Birthday Friday

I had the braised pork belly, G had the beef cheeks.

Art Saturday

Saturday we went to David and Laurie's (our gallerist friends) to pick up the Lou Reed piece and have dinner with them.

Little did we know, Laurie had been slow cooking beef short ribs since the night before. Served with pureed parsnips, it was amazing. She's such a good cook! We got on the subject of eating meat, and our hosts recalled the year that they stopped eating it. They said they aged quite a bit, got grey hair, his eyebrows turned white, and they experienced hair loss. Their friend, a doctor, told them that there are trace elements in meat that cannot be gotten anywhere else, so they returned to eating and got their pigment and hair back. Interesting, non?

Valentine's Sunday

Sunday, Valentine's evening, G made beef Bourguignon, authentically I might add, starting it the night before and marinating it with aromatic vegetables, bouquet garni, and an entire bottle of wine.

It was delicious. The recipe even called for heart-shaped croutons. Haha!  He gave me a tongue-in-cheek-"never"-cliche box of chocolates and a single red rose. I won this episode of the Bachelor!

I made a card for G.

Presidents Monday

Then today, President's day, we had Augustin (who's French) over to eat the leftover stew. He said it tasted great and authentic (I think). This time I served it with boiled potatoes. We also had last night's bread pudding that I made from the bread scraps of the crouton hearts.

MUST.GO.TO.GYM.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day!

Christmas 2009 Rewind Part 3: A Quiet Dinner

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the (joyfully frenzied) Christmas brunch at G's parents was dinner with my mom. My sister and her boyfriend stopped in for a few hours en route to St. Thomas over Christmas. We had a nice, very quiet visit with them at the house. We had a non-traditional menu of all-Vietnamese food (at my and my sister's request). I loved it. Everything was so bright, fresh and flavorful.

Crispy, golden spring rolls with fresh lettuce and herbs.

 

Steak and watercress salad with a bold and zesty fish sauce dressing.

The light and spicey dishes paired well with the Champagne we brought.

And of course, there's the home-spun (maybe not your home, but certainly ours) favorite, Phở beef noodle soup. (BTW, I HIGHLY recommend Viet Royal for authentic, bordering on elegant, Vietnamese cuisine.) With its rich clear broth and plenty of thinly sliced beef and onion with minced fresh herbs, it was perfect to warm us up from the frigid temperatures outside.(Find a great recipe for Phở here.)

There was even cake! This was purchased from a local Korean market (Han A Rum, aka Hmart in Fairfax). The awkward and cheesy decorations on this thing gave it away as an Asian creation. (Asians aren't really good with sweets or baked goods--can I say that?)

Check out the Christmas cake server. Hilarious! My mom is so cute.

Then we sat down for some tea and to open the small gifts we got one another. Again, we do not like the practice of giving a ton of ancillary gifts; we prefer simple gestures. The emphasis is simple--uncomplicated, inexpensive, and hassle-free.

We gave my mom a bunch of stuff I got in China (on various trips), including a fancy silk table cloth and table accessories. We received gift cards and the guys got funny ties and sox. Sister and boyfriend gave us Israeli wine.

 

They gave me this thing. It's pretty...and going in the regift bag.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful; I do appreciate the effort. But I actually don't like gifts or "stuff" to clutter up my house. Is that weird? I really enjoyed the time my family spent together. My mom was so happy to have her two girls and new son-in-law home, along with, what she hopes, is a long-term relationship for her younger daughter.  And as sappy as it sounds, I'd trade a million gifts for quiet time and good food with the family (mainly because I love food and dislike stuff).

Christmas 2009 Rewind Part 2: Christmas day brunch

Christmas day with G's family was spent eating brunch, drinking, opening presents, eating, and opening more presents. It was exhausting!

Parmesan puffs

Cheese and crackers

The house was very festivly decorated. The kids made me this jade necklace. Impressive, no?

Brunch of egg and sausage casserole and potatoes au gratin

 Kitchen sink holiday bread. At least that's what I call it. Someone brought it as a hostess gift. It had everything from nuts, to chocolate chips, to sundry other things.

And monkey bread (I think that's what these canned sticky buns are called)

Fruit cup dressed with Grand Marnier and coconut. My plate full of Americana. Casseroles and baked things are the easiest way to feed a large group. Though I do not like casseroles, I thought the meal was cute in a 50's sort of way.

G's brother brought the wine. 1998 Couteux D'Aix en Provence. Never heard of it.

G's dad loves his Port.

It was truly exhausting opening presents (and watching everyone open presents).

Someone's over it!

Thank goodness there was a lot of sparkling around. (Gloria Ferrer blanc de blanc, I believe.)

Time with family is always exhausting (in a good way).

Christmas 2009 Rewind Part 1: Annual L'Auberge Dinner

We celebrated the third annual L'Auberge Chez Francois family dinner the day after our big Festivus party. L'Auberge is definitely NOT our favorite. It's really tired and old; the Alsatian cuisine stodgy (read: heavy, fatty, and full of calories), and the execution is just okay (not bad, just okay). But the clientele, which is mainly older (as in the average age is like 67), love it. And G's parents treated us, so there's that. The service is sweet (in a funny way, as in costumey vests), old school and very attentive. (G's parents asked for James, their favorite waiter.) And so continued the holiday binging. We also used the occasion to celebrate G and his dad's birthday, which meant a lot of desserts.

I felt/looked like a stuffed animal afterwards (my woolly dress didn't help matters any).

A salad of lardon and roast goose.

They have a good wine selection. (No corkage in Virginia.) We had Conundrum to start.  

I had the extra garlicky escargot.

Then a very hearty Bouillabaise. There was no skimping here.

A very large Delmonico steak for momz. 

But some frog legs to start her off.

 

Vacqueyras, a red Rhone, and a Virginia sparkling from Kluge

G's foie gras with poached pears was average.

G and his dad split a rack of lamb

The kitchen made them both meringue birthday desserts

We had a palate cleanser of grapefruit sorbet then I had the lemon torte and someone got the cheese plate.

All good enough. L'Auberge is a sweet, cliche sort of place. Though not at the top of my list, I see how lovers of Julie and Julia would enjoy it.

***Images taken by me using G's dad's Canon point-and-shoot***