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Published On: Aug 05, 2007 08:38 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Aug 05, 2007 08:38 AM
Happy 10th Anniversary
A wedding
anniversary.
After jury duty this afternoon, I drove home and,
after checking the house for a break-in (more on that later) and before Hsuan
returned home with the boys, I started food preparation for a special 10th
wedding anniversary dinner. Given jury duty, as well as our preference not to
leave the kids with a babysitter, I knew we wouldn't go out for a special
dinner, so I had planned on making something special myself. (I had even made
an unsuccessful attempt earlier in the week to search for foie gras or even
pate.)
Food preparation lasted from about 5:30 PM to around 7 PM, including starting the (charcoal) grill. The menu was:
-- American Wagyu ("Kobe") beef filet mignons, grilled to a perfect rare-to-medium-rare for me and Hsuan, plus Kansas City beef New York sirloin, grilled to a perfect medium rare for the boys (and cut into bite-sized pieces). All steaks had shiitake mushrooms on top. The steaks themselves were not marinated but were lightly seasoned with freshly ground salt and pepper.
-- bay scallops pan-seared with minced garlic in a cast-iron skillet on the grill, then coated with a mayonnaise and red pepper sauce and served over a bed of fettuccine (the boys just had the pasta). The scallops had been rinsed thoroughly and then marinated for half an hour in freshly squeezed lemon juice, to reduce the sea-water smell and taste, prior to cooking. After soaking, they were drained and then dried on paper towels.
-- diced asparagus with minced garlic and olive oil, lightly sauteed.
-- Martinelli's sparkling cider.
It seems pretty simple, but part of the reason food prep took so long was that I was also staging the kitchen and outside grill area as well as constantly cleaning the food prep area. I also had to speed-thaw the New York steak, which I had forgotten to do (slowly) yesterday. I wanted to serve everything the instant it was ready, so I planned as much as I could in order to cook quickly, once the food hit the cooking surfaces. In the end, I had to cook the asparagus ahead of time and then set it aside (indoors), and I had Hsuan put the pasta in the boiling water (though I had preheated the water prior to her return home).
While I may have slightly overcooked the scallops (better overcooked than undercooked when not using sushi-grade seafood), the steaks themselves were perfect -- probably my best ever, or at least my best in recent memory. Fearing flame-ups charring the Kobe beef, I hovered over the grill throughout the process, constantly prodding the steaks for done-ness.
Bessie was a lucky girl -- she got some leftover steak scraps.
Unfortunately, I neglected dessert.
After the boys went to bed, Hsuan and I shared some sparkling wine (Korbel Brut California champagne, or "sham-pan-ya" for the Continentals).
-----
After dinner, I gave Hsuan her anniversary present. I had shopped for and purchased it a couple of weeks ago. We don't wear jewelry, much, and I don't give her jewelry for presents, so I thought I'd do so for this anniversary just to mark it as special. I went to the Ben Bridge jeweler where I had bought her engagement ring long ago, when I was a poor grad student. It was the only store, at the time, where the sales people didn't act slimy and make me reflexively reach for my wallet -- to make sure it was still in my pocket. Luckily, the sales person this time didn't disappoint, being quite friendly, helpful, and not at all pushy or slimy.
My intention was to buy a non-ring piece of jewelry featuring a sapphire or sapphires, to match the engagement ring. At first, the salesman sat me at a diamond ring display, but when I indicated I wanted something else, like a necklace, bracelet, or earrings -- and after I mentioned my budget ("We've got kids to send to private school!") -- he understood and easily moved us to other items.
The things that caught my attention, completely unexpectedly, were their Toscano Collection of Italian jewelry. In particular, I was struck by a hand-made 18 karat gold charm bracelet with Venetian glass charms, also hand-carved. We eventually moved on to some diamond and sapphire bracelets, but I kept coming back to the Venetian glass items. I had to explain that I had proposed to Hsuan while we were in Venice. I thought the connection back to that time was perfect. It also greatly exceeded my budget, but I explained it was just a round number anyway, while the item itself was just too perfect to pass up for this occasion. (There was some question about whether the glass was Vatican surplus glass or more recent vintage, but ultimately, it doesn't matter to me.)
-----
Hsuan's anniversary gift to me was a Garmin Streetpilot 2820 GPS unit, with an XM satellite antenna for traffic data. The reason I want one is so I can have up-to-date traffic information while I drive the boys to daycare and possibly to school next year. The problem is that we live far enough away from William's eventual kindergarten that the commute is a hassle, but we also have a nice enough house compared to what's currently on the market (and at current housing prices) that we're reluctant to settle for just any house that's closer. The GPS and traffic data are for testing whether the commute next year (which will have to occur much earlier than my current commute, since kindergarten starts at 8 AM) will be practical.
-----
While I was at court today, my voicemail received a message from our alarm company, stating that an alarm triggered and that they were sending the police. Since I was busy on jury duty, I called Hsuan to check it out. After court, I called her back and found that the police never called the alarm company back, which usually means they found nothing unusual.
When I got back home, I first walked around the house, eventually finding that the high winds we've been having today and yesterday apparently blew one of our French side doors open. The police seem to have left everything alone, though I found evidence that they had gone into the backyard via the south gate, which was not fully latched closed.
I searched the house and found nothing unusual, except a lot of dust near the open door from the winds.
-----
I haven't done much work this week. Here's a clearer picture of my new monitor.
With jury duty in the afternoons from Tuesday through tomorrow, my only full day at work was Monday. I spent that day updating some of my STEREO LET data documentation, which people are apparently finding useful. Otherwise, I've driven the boys to daycare in the mornings, briefly attended some morning meetings (including today's conference call on my cell phone), and then run off to lunch and jury duty in the afternoon. Such a schedule doesn't help me get any work done.
Food preparation lasted from about 5:30 PM to around 7 PM, including starting the (charcoal) grill. The menu was:
-- American Wagyu ("Kobe") beef filet mignons, grilled to a perfect rare-to-medium-rare for me and Hsuan, plus Kansas City beef New York sirloin, grilled to a perfect medium rare for the boys (and cut into bite-sized pieces). All steaks had shiitake mushrooms on top. The steaks themselves were not marinated but were lightly seasoned with freshly ground salt and pepper.
-- bay scallops pan-seared with minced garlic in a cast-iron skillet on the grill, then coated with a mayonnaise and red pepper sauce and served over a bed of fettuccine (the boys just had the pasta). The scallops had been rinsed thoroughly and then marinated for half an hour in freshly squeezed lemon juice, to reduce the sea-water smell and taste, prior to cooking. After soaking, they were drained and then dried on paper towels.
-- diced asparagus with minced garlic and olive oil, lightly sauteed.
-- Martinelli's sparkling cider.
It seems pretty simple, but part of the reason food prep took so long was that I was also staging the kitchen and outside grill area as well as constantly cleaning the food prep area. I also had to speed-thaw the New York steak, which I had forgotten to do (slowly) yesterday. I wanted to serve everything the instant it was ready, so I planned as much as I could in order to cook quickly, once the food hit the cooking surfaces. In the end, I had to cook the asparagus ahead of time and then set it aside (indoors), and I had Hsuan put the pasta in the boiling water (though I had preheated the water prior to her return home).
While I may have slightly overcooked the scallops (better overcooked than undercooked when not using sushi-grade seafood), the steaks themselves were perfect -- probably my best ever, or at least my best in recent memory. Fearing flame-ups charring the Kobe beef, I hovered over the grill throughout the process, constantly prodding the steaks for done-ness.
Bessie was a lucky girl -- she got some leftover steak scraps.
Unfortunately, I neglected dessert.
After the boys went to bed, Hsuan and I shared some sparkling wine (Korbel Brut California champagne, or "sham-pan-ya" for the Continentals).
-----
After dinner, I gave Hsuan her anniversary present. I had shopped for and purchased it a couple of weeks ago. We don't wear jewelry, much, and I don't give her jewelry for presents, so I thought I'd do so for this anniversary just to mark it as special. I went to the Ben Bridge jeweler where I had bought her engagement ring long ago, when I was a poor grad student. It was the only store, at the time, where the sales people didn't act slimy and make me reflexively reach for my wallet -- to make sure it was still in my pocket. Luckily, the sales person this time didn't disappoint, being quite friendly, helpful, and not at all pushy or slimy.
My intention was to buy a non-ring piece of jewelry featuring a sapphire or sapphires, to match the engagement ring. At first, the salesman sat me at a diamond ring display, but when I indicated I wanted something else, like a necklace, bracelet, or earrings -- and after I mentioned my budget ("We've got kids to send to private school!") -- he understood and easily moved us to other items.
The things that caught my attention, completely unexpectedly, were their Toscano Collection of Italian jewelry. In particular, I was struck by a hand-made 18 karat gold charm bracelet with Venetian glass charms, also hand-carved. We eventually moved on to some diamond and sapphire bracelets, but I kept coming back to the Venetian glass items. I had to explain that I had proposed to Hsuan while we were in Venice. I thought the connection back to that time was perfect. It also greatly exceeded my budget, but I explained it was just a round number anyway, while the item itself was just too perfect to pass up for this occasion. (There was some question about whether the glass was Vatican surplus glass or more recent vintage, but ultimately, it doesn't matter to me.)
-----
Hsuan's anniversary gift to me was a Garmin Streetpilot 2820 GPS unit, with an XM satellite antenna for traffic data. The reason I want one is so I can have up-to-date traffic information while I drive the boys to daycare and possibly to school next year. The problem is that we live far enough away from William's eventual kindergarten that the commute is a hassle, but we also have a nice enough house compared to what's currently on the market (and at current housing prices) that we're reluctant to settle for just any house that's closer. The GPS and traffic data are for testing whether the commute next year (which will have to occur much earlier than my current commute, since kindergarten starts at 8 AM) will be practical.
-----
While I was at court today, my voicemail received a message from our alarm company, stating that an alarm triggered and that they were sending the police. Since I was busy on jury duty, I called Hsuan to check it out. After court, I called her back and found that the police never called the alarm company back, which usually means they found nothing unusual.
When I got back home, I first walked around the house, eventually finding that the high winds we've been having today and yesterday apparently blew one of our French side doors open. The police seem to have left everything alone, though I found evidence that they had gone into the backyard via the south gate, which was not fully latched closed.
I searched the house and found nothing unusual, except a lot of dust near the open door from the winds.
-----
I haven't done much work this week. Here's a clearer picture of my new monitor.
With jury duty in the afternoons from Tuesday through tomorrow, my only full day at work was Monday. I spent that day updating some of my STEREO LET data documentation, which people are apparently finding useful. Otherwise, I've driven the boys to daycare in the mornings, briefly attended some morning meetings (including today's conference call on my cell phone), and then run off to lunch and jury duty in the afternoon. Such a schedule doesn't help me get any work done.
Posted: Thu - April 12, 2007 at 12:11 AM