March 28, 2012
Dinner table discussions at MND run a gamut of topics. Sometimes we discuss why the local theater company’s production of “The Lady’s Not for Burning” is a travesty that completely misses the point of the play. Sometimes we fulminate helplessly at the latest shenanigans from the political establishment. Sometimes we explain why we (I) have a crush on Henry II, and expound on why the next historical series Showtime or HBO makes should be The Plantagenets!* Sometimes we data mine our collective reading experience to help one of the (many) librarians around the table create a recommended reading list. Sometimes we negotiate the delicate task of coordinating eight schedules to find a time for everyone to go see the latest movie based on a YA novel (in this case “The Hunger Games” and it was actually creepily easy). And sometimes, sometimes we just get silly. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken | 1 Comment »
March 28, 2012
Massachusetts isn’t just flirting coyly over the top of its fan with Spring this year. This year Massachusetts is conducting an indiscreet rambunctious affair with Spring the likes of which haven’t been seen since Charles II took up with Nell Gwyn. I didn’t know this was going to be true when I picked March 23rd for a day at the spa with my roommate, followed by treating ourselves to dinner at 80 Thoreau, but it worked out very nicely as I moseyed down Newbury Street on Friday afternoon in a sundress (and daringly, no stockings!). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken | 2 Comments »
March 28, 2012
My not particularly secret vice (?) passion (?) weakness (?) is soup. I eat soup almost every day for lunch, and if I didn’t strictly edit myself we’d eat it probably twice a week for dinner as well. As it is, I’d guess that we eat some form of soup for dinner about every 10 days. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *Petra | Tagged bread, Chicken, soup | 1 Comment »
February 29, 2012
My office runs a Super Bowl pool every year, and every year I get asked multiple times if I want to participate. I get tired of finding clever non-offensive ways to say no (in my office an unexplained ‘no’ is not an acceptable answer). Most years I don’t even know who’s playing – although this year I did because it’s impossible to live in Boston and not know that the Patriots have made it to the Superbowl. This year my standard response was that I didn’t care about the Super Bowl, but if someone wanted to handicap the Oscars I’d be in like Flynn. Nobody too me up on my suggestion. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Meat and Seafood, pork, Salad, Side Dish, soup, Starch, Vegetables | 6 Comments »
February 9, 2012
When I was little we lived in a sequence of places that were nowhere particularly near Virginia. This is only relevant because Virginia was where my grandmother lived, and my mother and I used to spend a month visiting with her every summer. I loved the month we spent in Richmond, among other things it has left me with a lifelong appreciation for heat and humidity which pretty much nobody else I know shares. What I didn’t love was the process of getting there, which was long and tedious. I imagine it was even longer and more tedious for my mother who had to play the responsible adult in that scenario as opposed to being the bored 7 – 9 – 12 – 14 year old whose biggest responsibility was trying to sleep on the plane, picking at the food, and not being too much of a pill about traveling for 24 hours straight. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fruit, Side Dish, Starch | 5 Comments »
January 26, 2012
In the mid 1980’s we lived in Hong Kong for 18 months during which period we somehow managed to have enough time to visit Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Macau and Singapore. On the apparently rare occasions that we were at home, we used to meet my father at noon every Saturday and go have Dim Sum. We’d meet my father at his office, and then cross through a public garden which on a Saturday was full of brides in bright red wedding dresses having their wedding pictures taken (possibly Statue Square?), to the Dim Sum restaurant at the top of the neighboring office tower. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood, pork, soup, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 1 Comment »
January 19, 2012
I’m slowly working my way through the cookbooks on the 2011 Best of lists that I talked about in early December.
I’ve perused The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden which was pretty, but didn’t inspire me to copy out a single recipe.
I’ve drooled over the pretty pretty pictures in The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert, but mostly relegated it to the realm of ‘and this is why I go to restaurants’. She had some spectacular recipes for tagines, including a lamb tagine with honeyed squash that involves a shredded squash that’s cooked down to a jam like consistency with honey and lemon juice and then layered over a slow braised lamb and browned in the oven. Expect to see this on the Dinner menu sometime this winter, although probably with beef not lamb. Read the rest of this entry »
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Monday Night Dinner 