Happy Wine for a Happy Dinner

Friday, September 30th

Happy Wine from a Happy Friend to Celebrate a Happy Engagement Enjoyed with a Happy "Dinner and A Movie Night at Chez Calasanz"

On Thursday, September 30th, 2010, the wonderful gang from

A Runners Circle

threw a little party after the Thursday night Fun Run for the two of us in celebration of our recent Engagement.

Notice the devilish gal in the background?

That's Tricia. 

She's a hoot! The Hostess with the most-est! And she is the one who inspired our Friday dinner by sending us home with two bottles of wine that evening.

Feel free to check out more pics from the night at A Runners Circle.

Started making dressing for the salads.

I use avocados as the base for my dressing.

They are an excellent way to get your good fats, fiber,

and delicious flavor to stick to your lettuces.

And yes, I freshly grind my pepper for all of our meals.

Chopping some radicchio, purple cabbage, and radishes. 

 Add as much natural color to a salad (or any meal for that matter) to ensure that you are getting a variety of flavors, textures, and nutrients.

Plus, all those colors make any meal look pretty snazzy.

: )

See

Notice the 5 Favorite Ingredients in the background?

: )

I could look at this colorful salad all day.

What do you love to put in your salads?

 I wasn't joking about the "Happy Wine"

How can you not smile with a bottle smiling back at you

and a table full of colorful goodness

 

: )

The Menu

Spicy Garlic/Ginger Shrimp over Jade Pearl Rice and Steamed Spinach

Served with Baby Romain lettuce salad with fresh carrots, cabbage, radish, tomatoes, radicchio, and avocado dressing

Andrew is in charge of all the heavy lifting in our house

The glass on the left is filled with Barley Tea

The one on the right is the Happy Wine

: )

 Thanks Andrew, for filling my glass...

 ...and for the nice view across the table

: )

Such class

We took the wine to watch the movie along with some pop corn.

The wine worked well to cut the heat of the spicy shrimp and did a fine job with the saltiness of the pop corn

Thanks Tricia!

: )

Guilty Pleasures

We all have our guilty pleasures.

I am no different.

Luckily, I don't crave them often, but when I do, I make it count.

My motto

"If you're gonna get suspended for fighting, you may as well knock out a tooth."

I figure that even if it tastes good, if it's not going to contribute to my health and well being, it sure as heck better taste really good.

Here are my guilty pleasures:

Hot Dogs!

My favorite Hot Dogs happen to be

Let's Be Frank Hot Dogs

Luckily these dogs are almost guilt-free thanks to their philosophy:

"Animals raised on pasture, living the lives they were meant to.

Working with local producers and artisans.

Food free from hormones, antibiotics, nitrates, and nitrites."

The Dogs are as Delicious and The Woman Behind the Dogs is Wonderful!

Enjoying a glass of wine with the

Wonderful Sue Moore of Let's be Frank at Silverlake Wine

after one of the A Runner's Circle Thursday night Fun Runs

Now that I'm living in the OC, it's pretty much impossible for me to enjoy a Frank Dog when the urge hits.

So when Andrew was craving dogs last week, I made some at home...

...because Andrew LOVES Hot dogs.

Don't tell anyone, but Andrew ate 7 Dodger Dogs in one afternoon.

No joke! I was there. I witnessed it.

Even though these are not dogs of the same quality I crave from the Frank Dogs, I decided they should at least look good even though they aren't good for us.

The only thing missing is the Devil Sauce

I must remember to pick some up the next time I'm in town!

Total Disciplined Indulgence

Notice the rice cooker doing it's job in the background

making some Quinoa for the week.

 

We try to eat healthy 80-90% of the time so we don't do too much damage when we throw some junk into the mix.

 

I've been known to eat Pizza and drink a Beer

This was the perfect indulgence after

the 2010 Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon in San Diego.

Wow, cold pizza and beer never tasted so good.

I LOVE grilled Marrow Bones...

...with a glass of Bubbly!!!

Some of the cholesterol guilt is offset by knowing that

McCall's Meat and Fish Co. ,where I buy my bones,  source their meat from ethical farms that don't use hormones or chemical enhancements.

Read more

and

I also love Tatertots

Tatertots Rock!

and so does

Bubbly!

What are your guilty pleasures?



5 Favorite Ingredients and then some...

I've been accused of many things, but boring is not one of them.

My choice of flavors can also never be accused of being boring thanks to the 5 ingredients that always seem  to find their way into my dishes.

The 5 Usual Suspects for Flavor

From left to right:

Garlic; Ginger; Green Onions; Shallots; White or Yellow Onions

I love to use all these wonderfully flavorful ingredients for almost all of my favorite dishes.

I love them raw in my quinoa salad (minus the ginger); I love to saute or sweat them when I make my shrimp dishes; I use them in soups; they are the ultimate ingredients in many of my baked fish dishes, or chicken dishes; they are excellent ingredients to add to any salad dressing.

The options are endless.

I love Cucumbers!

I Can't get enough of them!

I eat about 4 cucumbers a week.

They add crunch, they are so refreshing, and the have a high water content and loads of potassium.

I add them to my salads, to my quinoa, to my tuna, and I love to have them nearby to cool off my mouth when I've made an exceptionally spicy dish.

Tomatoes are Wonderful!

They add color, flavor, and possess many health benefits.

You'll notice that tomatoes make an appearance at almost all of my dinners...you should invite them to your dinners too!

 :)

Sardine and Anchovie Adventure

09.17.10

How many times have you told someone:

"I went out for a 2 hour paddle, wound up with a bag of squirming sardines and anchovies in my lap..."

?

Well, I have.

: )

This was a totally unexpected treat!

I was kayaking on Sept 17th and paddled up to one of those big bait barges by the Jetty (next to "The Wedge" in Newport Beach, CA) that had a sign that said "Sardines".

I'm a sucker for "bait fish", so I asked the guy if it was possible to buy some.

He said they sell them to fishermen by the gallon but would be happy to give me a few in a bag if I had a place to stick them in my kayak.

$2.00 later (totally within budget!), I paddled away with a bunch of them on my lap...

That didn't last long cuz the wriggling was beginning to freak me out, so I stuck them on my deck and hoped that a huge bird didn't realize my stash.

 ; )

Talk about an impulse buy.

But how could I have resisted since I had a bunch of fresh basil, heirloom tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella boconccini waiting for me at home!?!

One big problem.

It was a super hot day and the tide was totally against me by this time, so I knew I still had a little over an hour worth of paddling to get me back to NAC, and I didn't want the little fellas to kick the bucket too soon.

Luckily, I'm almost always prepared for anything, and that's no exception when in a kayak. I actually had my running shoes packed in a dry bag "just in case".

Perfect. Now I had a plan.

 I decided to paddle to the Coast Guard Beach as fast as possible, where I refreshed the salt water for the little fellas and stashed the kayak till my return.

 I then ran the 3.65 miles back NAC to grab my car, stopped at a market for a bag of ice, and retuned quickly ro claim the goods.

The entire run, I was going over the inventory in my fridge.

Oooh, I knew I had a tons of options.

The Adventure Begins

Aw, how I love tomatoes

which terrible picture of tomatoes is the better terrible picture?
This one?

 Or this one?

 Heirlooms, salt, pepper, nothing more

 Add some radicchio, basil, olive oil, a little heat, start heating things up....

This was my first time dealing with live, whole fish.

This is me getting prepped to attack the little fishies

Decisions. Decisions.

Which would you choose?

 I'd love it if you'd share a picture of your favorite knife with me!

They finally "relaxed"

"one of these things is not like the other..."

Some sardines, anchovies, and one random little guy who may have been a grunion...

 Let's see him from a different angle

It took me quite a while to get used to lopping off their little heads...

 Whoa, it was sure "interesting" chopping heads off fish and pulling guts for the first time especially since those little fellas had been in my lap, wriggling, for a while in my kayak.

: /

I think my expression says it all.

Luckily that went away after I got through a few of them.

Heads off guts gone 

fish heads fish heads rolly polly fish heads...

 This is what the fish heads looked like to me up until about the 5th one

 I became strangely obsessed with this pile of fish heads

 de-boning not as easy as one might think...especially when that fresh...2 hours outta the water

Look at the bones!

: )

Stay tuned for the next meal where the bones make and extra special guest appearance

: )

About to get "dressed"

 Brusccetta and bocconcini topped with fresh anchovies

Ok, this proves it, I take horrible pictures of beautiful food.

 and yet another view

This was the little grunion

olive oil; Italian parsley; salt 2 minutes @ 350 degrees

Fresh Raw Anchovies

 Mmm, I loved this prep!

fresh finely chopped raw ginger, green onions, sticky rice, lime, green onion, ginger, and salt

Fresh Raw Sardines

in lime juice with green onions, ginger, and salt

with sticky rice

 

terrible picture, delicious dish

Our random fish

(later identified as a grunion)

dressed and looking good enough to eat

cooked at 350 degrees for 2 minutes with just salt and pepper atop sticky rice

 I love my dining room table and my simple plates...the food gets to speak for itself

 

From another angle.

Which terrible pic do you like best?

 Our Favorite prep!

Fresh Anchovies and Sardines gently baked at 350 for 2 minutes, marinated in white balsamic, olive oil, Italian parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, garnished with thin slices of raw garlic.

 Anchovies gently baked at 350 for 2 minutes with only salt and pepper.

Delicious!

These guys make an encore performance in our next meal...stay tuned.

Let the tasting adventure begin! 

A little sweaty, a little tired, but very happy with the outcome

So pretty and tasted so good

Please ignore the finger nails

I assure you it's not dirt, just food prep stuff

Finger licking good

 "...this was just alive how many minutes ago?..."

 Can't forget about the kitties!

Even they got to enjoy some of the adventure.

: )

You never know what you'll come home with when you go kayaking.

It was my first time cleaning live fish. Interesting, fun, but so worth it!

Stay tuned for round two:

Slow Roasted Fish Bones!

: )