another journal club feast

 We had journal club last night.  This time, just my IM partners; no guests/interlopers.  It was a small group, so Tom decided to "step it up a notch." (although I'm not sure how that's possible?)
After an appetizer of baked brie, Tom served a grilled pineapple with manchego cheese on an arugula salad.  Intensely sweet fruit is an amazing pair with bitter greens.  It was awesome.

 The next course was a shrimp (which was slightly smoky/tangy, with a spice profile including smoked paprika) over red cabbage slaw.  Gorgeous.

 The next course was unbelievably good: Tom prepared scallops in an orange-cream sauce, and served each scallop on a grilled slice of tangerine (which I called a "tangerine medallion").  This was served with sides of rice as well as an avocado salad.  Can you believe Tom made up all of these recipes in his head the night before journal club while watching Letterman?

My offering was an Ina Garten lemon cake.  You can't go wrong with a citrus pound cake...

We now have Trader Joe's!

 We recently went on a pilgrimage to the Denver Trader Joe's (they're the one Trader Joe's that has the liquor license -- our Boulder TJ's cannot sell alcohol.  Crazy Colorado liquor laws).
After gleefully buying all kinds of random, cheap wines, we decided that we needed to have a tasting party -- to determine if any of them were worth buying again.  It was a double-bonus that Sarah was here visiting during our party-time!
We had 5 whites and 6 reds in the line-up.  Tom and I both agreed on bottle #1 (which we have bought another 6 bottles for the summer): a 2013 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc & Viognier blend ($10.99).  It was sweeter than is my usual taste, but certainly nice for a summer-night-on-the-deck drinker.
We'll see what happens with #3: Tom liked this one, too; everyone else pretty much hated it: a 2012 Anko Torrontes ($10.69, actually purchased at Costco).  Tom bought 6 bottles of this, as well…. he may have to drink it alone!
For the reds: I liked bottle #7: a 2010 Basilica Caffaggio Chianti ($9.89, also from Costco).  Tom liked #11: a 2011 Liberte Cabernet Sauvignon (from Trader Joe's, $9.99).  Surprisingly, a solidly well-ranked crowd-pleaser was the 2012 Trader Joe's "Grower's Reserve" Merlot ($4.99).  Since we didn't have an easy choice between them, we didn't buy any more of any of these reds.

By the end of the night, Tom decided just about everything was worth drinking.  Hahaha.

the opening of the Who-Do's

Tom has an awesome new band: the Who-Do's.  They played their first gig last night at a local brewery called Bootstrap.  It was lots of fun…. stay tuned for future gig announcements!!!

Chinese New Year (better late than never!)

 Do to Tom's surgery, we had to delay our Chinese New Year dinner.  It was worth the wait.
I did the first course: Pearl Balls.  These are basically pork meat balls that are rolled in sticky rice and then steamed.  (While they were steaming, Tom opened a really tasty Pinot: Sea View Ridge.)  Mitzi showed me that instead of using a plate in the steamer, you can just use lettuce.  Cool.  They were quite tasty!  We served this with fermented rice wine, courtesy of Sherry & Mike.

 Mark did the next course: a stir-fry of vegetables & chicken over rice.  He served this with a 1986 Sauternes that was TDF:

 Mitzi served an amazing course of Chinese Long Beans with bean curd (which was fantastic) as well as shrimp-stuffed roasted eggplant.

Tom did the last course: a noodle & vegetable stir-fry, which he served with his Big Rack Red IPA.