cold weather and warm meals

Our pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving was a wild success! We had 14 for dinner and fit everyone comfortably. Whew! I set two tables-one for six with black and white transfer ware atop plain white Crate & Barrel plates, accented with chocolate brown and silver; and one for eight with crystal candlewick atop deep red and white transfer ware, also with chocolate brown and silver. Glimmering and gorgeous! But no pictures. So sad.

But the stars of the evening were all the lovely and delicious dishes our friends brought. Highlights include homemade (a la Alton Brown) Green Bean Casserole. Which, in my humble opinion, is the only GBC anyone should ever eat! A dee-lish mushroom-infused dressing to accommodate our vegetarian friend, and the best damn gravy you can imagine. Choppers deep fried two turkeys. Wonderful. Oh, did I mention the pumpkin cheesecake with homemade whipped cream? Heaven.

For my part, I made my soon-to-be famous Spicy/Sweet mixed nuts (thank you Nigella!) and to-die-for caramelized onion chip dip (thank you Ina Garten!).

Last weekend was a perfect kick-off to our cold weather entertaining. There's something about a little chill in the air, just enough to warrant a cozy fire; big snowflakes lazily falling outside; a good meal (like the one in the oven right now), and of course...a bottle of Chardonnay!

Tonight's feature is a yummy Gallo Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay. Make no mistake, this is not your mother's "gallon of Gallo", or "jug of joy". It's quite nice. A good value. And it has all my favorites - oak, vanilla, butter.

The only problem is that we're having a Mexican fiesta tonight. Slow roasted pork studded with garlic and semi-spicy seasonings. I'm sure this is not the "proper" bottle of wine to serve with this meal. But I love it nevertheless.

I am open to suggestions though. Please, do tell...what would you pair with Mexican fiesta?

Sushi Soiree

We had quite the international dinner party the other night. Friends came over for a hands-on sushi extravaganza! Thankfully a couple couples had working knowledge of the proper assembly techniques, and owned the necessary accoutrement so we could do this for real. Because, even though Choppers and I had purchased the most beautiful salmon and tuna from our favorite sushi restaurant, we really only came to the party with two pair of chopsticks and a 10 pound bag of rice.

Nevertheless! The results were beautiful and delicious...

I'm quite confident we broke all the rules for proper sushi making, but isn't that what's fun about cooking (or in this case not cooking)? Taking something and making it your own. We had a bevy of supporting cast members to the fish—asparagus, scallion, avocado, egg, cream cheese, cucumber, etc. But my favorite was my homemade spicy mayonnaise, because what's better than a spicy tuna hand roll?

1/2 cup good mayo
2 Tbsp Sriracha
1 Tbsp Hot chili sesame oil
Mix together and refrigerate at least two hours to allow everything to meld into spicy deliciousness!