The Dinner Party

It all started out rather ominously: My boyfriend announced that hands-down the best meal he'd EVER had was at a friend's house; cooked by his friend's girlfriend. I consider myself a decent cook and to be thrown a wrench of this kind so deep into our relationship, well, I couldn't take it for anything less than a CHALLENGE.

I prepared weeks in advance. Details down to the wine selection and the dessert presentation were reworked over and over. The weekend before the fateful dinner party my boyfriend caught the flu. Instead of canceling the event, we continued as planned. He spent the weekend in bed. I did all the shopping, prepping, cooking, cleaning and serving. The meal went off without a hitch and was fabulous (if I must say so myself.) Would I ever do it again? Not in a million years! And I told him so.

About a year later I finally agreed to host dinner again for our foodie friends. This time my goal was to prepare everything in advance. The baklava was stacked and baked on Saturday, the falafal and quinoa cakes were prepared on Sunday morning. The tanjine was made in the new slow-cooker 8 hours before dinner.

Following another successful meal, my boyfriend remarked that dinner parties are even more fun than holiday parties, only with less work.

Sometimes I'm not really sure which planet boys come from, but it can't be earth. I think next time we host a dinner I should arrange to be out of town unexpectedly.

Menu

• cheese and crackers
  
• olives and zaatar spice
  
• gin and orange cocktail
  
  appetizers
  
  
• spinach falafal with beet and yogurt sauce on lavash
  
• salad greens with lemony vinaigrette
  and grilled haloumi cheese with lemon and fresh mint
  
• Sauvignon Blanc
  
  mains
  
  
• Moroccan spiced chicken tagine with preserved lemon and olives
  
• Potato tagine with preserved lemon and olives
  
• Sauvignon Blanc
  
  sides
  
  
• toasted almond quinoa cakes
  topped with harissa and sundried tomato
  
  dessert
  
  
• almond walnut baklava with lemon sherbert
  
• Moroccan mint tea
  
• Moscato
  

~flutterbyblue

Why Dali's is my favorite bar...

On the way home from a Bela Fleck concert, the VW van broke down in the middle of an intersection. Or rather, the VW van stopped working because it ran out of gas. Yes, despite all the mechanical problems this road beast has had (squeaky gear shift, spontaneously honking horn, lack of interior heat -- it's winter in Boston, by the way) it was the lack of gas that did it in. The driver tried to restart the engine a few times and we jokingly said that we could get out and push. Eventually, the driver turned around and said,

"You guys need to get out and push."

While trying to push the VW van into a conveniently located parking lot, one of the employees from Dali's (now my favorite bar ever!) came running out to give us a hand. He was wearing the typical Dali's garb: black pants and a bright red button down shirt with ruffles up the front. I never really questioned this outfit when sitting INSIDE the dimly lit bar, but out on the street, pushing an old VW van...well, it was quite a sight. After multiple attempts we managed to "park" the van right next to a small compact car, losing only one headlamp in the process (from the VW not the compact.)

All in all it was a fun and entertaining evening! After all, who could complain after a night of fabulous bluegrass banjo music, an eventful ride home and the help of a red ruffled samaritan? And the best part of it all: Dali's is only a block away from my apartment!

~flutterbyblue

Image from wikipedia.com

"...perverse and often baffling..."

Last night I was listening to an episode of This American Life and came across a gem of a story:

Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker and author of the books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000) and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), was describing his early foray into journalism. In his story about his days at the Washington Post, he had, as he describes it, a "Jayson Blair moment," in which he realized that mistakes he put in the paper could have major world impact: from altering the stock market by misreading a ledger to goading the National AIDS Conference to hold their annual meeting in Australia by surreptitiously adding Sydney to a list.

Despite all of this, work at the paper could be rather dull.

In order to make life a little more interesting he made a bet with one of his co-workers to see who could get the phrase, "raises new and troubling questions" into the paper most often. This turned out to be far too easy a challenge as just about every article published "raises new and troubling questions" about something or other. After some debate they settled on a new phrase:

"...perverse and often baffling..."

After many failed attempts, (points were not given if the editors removed "perverse" or "often" - the phrase had to be fully intact) Gladwell managed to get these words onto a front page article.

To find out how, check out this entry in Slate magazine.

~flutterbyblue

p.s. At the end of the Gladwell’s segment, Ira Glass, offhandedly tells listeners:

By the way, if there’s any ambiguity in here at all, young journalists, please note: putting false information into the newspaper is wrong.

Foules: How Romantic!

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. The poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty of marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. When they were married eight months later, he was 13 or 14; she was 14.

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

From wikipedia.com

Don't lick the walls...

Buy your honey a box of Godiva chocolates for Valentine's Day this year and you may just end up with a golden ticket for a night at Manhattan's Bryant Park hotel. The kicker? An all-chocolate room, complete with furniture, artwork and fixtures made out in Godiva decadence.

Admire the Gustav Klimt or Jackson Pollock-inspired chocolate "paintings" or open the books filled with chocolates instead of paper pages. Plunk yourself down on the sofa and munch on the chocolate sides or (dare we even suggest?) lick the chocolate walls.

With the chocolate room there come a few rules: no lighting of the chocolate fireplace or the chocolate candles. One is also discouraged from sitting in the easy chairs unless you want to end up with a chocolate covered ass. A small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

Well, someone out there will be getting lucky this February 14th. I will do what I usually do on Valentine's Day: stay in to avoid the crowds of oggly couples and wait for the after V-Day chocolate sales. Because in my opinion, chocolate tastes just as good (if not better!) when it's 50% off.

~flutterbyblue

Image from www.msnbc.msn.com

fukitol: the miracle drug

The Pats lost the superbowl, Hilary took Massachusetts and you haven't seen the sun all day long? Try fukitol, hailed as the new miracle drug, offering an alternative treatment to all of life's ailments.

I could use a dose, couldn't you?

First Fridays

One of my good friends has an after work happy hour once a month dubbed, "First Fridays." I've never actually been to the event (which seems to involve port sipping and awkward conversation) but I do use it as an excuse to hold a happy hour of our own later in the evening. I generally warn her a week in advance that a "First Friday" is coming up soon just so we can start thinking about where to go for our end-of-the-week/beginning-of-the-month cocktail.

This month we met at STIX in downtown Boston. I wanted to try out the Ten Cane Raspberry Sashimi (listed on the menu as both a cocktail and a dessert.) The "sashimi" arrived, becomingly displayed in a bento box and looking eerily like real tuna sashimi. It was made with gelatinized Ten Cane rum and raspberry puree and served with a lime-juice dipping sauce along with lime, coconut, orange and ginger sugars. Delicious tuile cookies were served on the side. The "sashimi" was surprisingly good - kind of like a high end jello shot, but not as sticky. We also ordered the cheese plate which came with three hefty portions of delicious mild-blue, a fragrant goat and a creamy brie-like selection. Each cheese was served with an accompanient such as a spicy pepper chutney, a sweet olive paste or a quince spread. It was one of the best cheese plates I've had in Boston.

At 5.30pm the bar was empty, but the place slowly began to fill as we finished our drinks. If the main courses approach the quality of the cheese platter, I'd say it's well-worth the trek downtown.

~flutterbyblue
Image from www.stixboston.com


STIX
Restaurant and Lounge
35 Stanhope Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617)456-(STIX)7849