Back in the Saddle
I've been remiss in posting here, of late; a little emergency eye surgery threw me for a bit of a loop. But now I'm back to my eatin' and bloggin' ways...
Last night, we were invited to the home of some friends of my friend Kimberly. Long story short, I was basically introduced to hosts Kurt and Michelle via Kimberly's Facebook page, and after weeks of making snide remarks on each other's status updates, Michelle finally decided to kick it up a notch and invite us over (along with a few of their other friends) so we could all meet in person.
Michelle had made this out to be a casual tapas party, but she and Kurt really pulled out all the stops and put together a fantastic spread. We started with a beautiful plate of olives, cheese, crackers, fresh blackberries, and kiwi; plus a platter of wonderful bread served with some mind-blowingly garlicky (in only the best way) homemade pesto...and an endless supply of excellent wine.
A preview of things to come
Kurt, an architect and real estate developer (who, BTW, designed a lemonade stand for the freakin' Neiman Marcus Christmas book in 1992), gave us a tour of their gorgeous home. Since I was just meeting these people for the first time, I didn't think it was appropriate to be taking pictures of their house, but I couldn't resist this shot in their son Miles' room:
The Kings of Pez
Following the tour, which included tons of amazing stories and a viewing of a signed speech given by former Texas governor Pat Neff introducing the first female governor of Texas, Ma Ferguson, Kurt and Michelle kicked the kitchen into high gear and started to turn out some seriously awesome food. There was prosciutto-wrapped shrimp, lamb chops with fresh rosemary, fried yucca with incredible homemade aioli, and an asparagus salad with toasted cashews. If it is true that the way to a person's heart is through their stomach, Kurt and Michelle must have a LOT of friends.
Prosciutto-wrapped shrimp
Lamb - the "after" shot
Nothing yucky about this yucca
For dessert, we had Kimberly's healthy, yet surprisingly addictive, concoction of steel-cut oats covered with goji berries, fresh blueberries, and luscious lavender-agave whipped cream. Heavenly.
We feasted outside, enjoyed the gorgeous evening, and reveled in the company of our new friends. What better way to spend a Saturday night?
Out past the birthday girl's bedtime...
Oh, and I dropped my camera on the ground - again - exacerbating the war wound it had previously sustained at Mindy's "doggie shower" last year. It might just be time to splurge on that Canon G10 I've been coveting...
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The Three Kings of Pez! Someone needs to create a seasonal creche scene, with a baby King of Pez in a manger. I love your writing style. It's as zingy and appealing as the food. The photos are wonderful, despite your camera's wounds.
ReplyDeleteMy god, even at 8:45 in the morning I'm drooling over those shrimp!
ReplyDeleteloverly... just loverly.
ReplyDeleteyour depiction of the evening from beginning to end is so accurate and my mouth is watering for some more lambchops, prosciutto shrimp, yucca chips...
perhaps this is a good place to post the yucca chip recipe...?
I think Kurt or Michelle needs to do those honors...I don't know what type of oil they used! I tried to re-create their aioli, and it was good, but not as good as theirs. Kurt? Michelle?
ReplyDeleteYucca here we go-
ReplyDeleteYou can purchase waxed yucca root from Whole foods or sometimes HEB
Peel or cut off exterior of root, cut root into 4 to 5" lengths, cut into thin sticks.
Bring cannola oil to a medium/ high temp, fry yucca until it starts to turn brown but not over done. I repeat, not over done.
Aioli- 2 cups real mayonaise, i prefer plain old egg Helmans- no lemon.
In three tablespoons of olive oil brown four or five cloves of garlic, not over done. I always try to take it off the heat before it is finished and it will conitnue to brown while it sits.
while the garlic is sweating initially add kosher salt and pepper.
Mix olive oil/ garlic/ salt pepper into the mayonaise, add enough paprika to make your aioli turn color. I sprinkle kosher salt on th eyucca after it comes out of the oil and drains so the salt will stick.