Since mid-February, work travel has ramped up and will likely remain at a steady pace through July ,Aei and the blessings and curses have reared their fabulous and ugly heads.
In February, I spent a week in Tampa, Florida. Not exactly a tourist/culinary destination, although I did get a chance to visit Lakeland, square in the middle of the state between the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic. I am still kicking myself for not trying the local caf/(c),Aeos Coca Cola cake (I did find a recipe, hooray!). Tracy and I spent a weekend on Treasure Island at the Gambino family funded Thunderbird Resort, an island and resort stuck firmly in 1952. Absolutely fabulous, in so many ways. Rooms faced a large pool, bordered by a tiki bar and a vast expanse of beach, littered by more 1950s era resorts, hotels and cottages.
Life at the Thunderbird centered around the pool and beach; the spectacular sunset punctuated happy hour each day (I couldn't help but draw a comparison between the sunset at Salvador, where the horizon engulfed the sun, rather than the sun slipping below the horizon). And speaking of happy hour, Tracy and I discovered that Corona is actually available in cans and as the "young Seattle girls", politely accepted drinks from men old enough to be our fathers. As one would expect in the Florida area, the older set was fairly prominent.
A few weeks later, I booked a long business trip, extending it to spend Easter weekend in Boston and the following weekend in San Francisco, before heading off to Phoenix, where amazingly enough, I would have a chance to see Drew and Suzette.
Luckily, the culinary highlights in Boston were much better than in Florida. Alex, my 3 -Ohm year old nephew, is enchanted by all things baking. We made chocolate chip cookies (sans mixer), and later, raspberry chiffon pie for Easter Dessert. For the crust, I used Cook,Aeos Illustrated,Aeos new recipe (with vodka!), which was not as perfect as I'd hoped. Not cooked enough, it also shrunk a bit too much. Any number of factors probably contributed, including using all butter rather than half butter/half Crisco, an Alex meltdown (a nice reminder of how unfit I am in the parental arena), and baking the pie improperly weighted. Check out the picture - those are nails. It turns out that my brother, the non-baker, assumed that when I asked if he had beans for the pie crust, didn't understand that I meant dried, not canned beans. I'm not sure how fool-proof the recipe is, as Carrie had mixed results. In the end though, the pie was delicious. As a side note, if I make the pie again, I'll cut down on the sugar. I also substituted fresh blackberries for the fresh raspberries, and am thinking that any kind of fresh berry will work well. Hello strawberries!
Easter dinner was really amazing. Ed baked a tasty leg of lamb, studded with garlic and rosemary, and then covered with a mustard bread crumb mixture. The meat was cooked perfectly, a crispy skin surrounding deliciously pink meat. For sides, new potatoes with mint, and an asparagus lemon casserole. We eventually liked the casserole, but also came to the conclusion that some foods, such as asparagus, are better in a simple state. I should also point out, this year, the oven did not catch on fire.
I also hit Sauncie for dinner, a once upon a time favorite on Newberry Street. Dinner with the company of Amy was fabulous, but the quality of the food was not at such the high standard. Our main course, butternut squash ravioli with prosciutto, was decent, but just that. I thought that the prosciutto would have been mixed with the butternut squash, but rather, the ravioli was placed over two slices of prosciutto. A bundle of unseasoned spinach in the middle of the dish was distracting. This is my second so-so meal at Sauncie in two years, making me think that I won,Aeot be going back. On a positive note, I did have one of the best French 75's I've ever drank at the Lennox Hotel bar after. Tasty!
All fell apart when I woke up in Boston with what I thought was just a sore throat, which got worse after 6 hours on a plane. By day two in San Francisco, my sore throat had morphed into the flu. I tried to cure my flu by treating life as normal, including somewhat normal food, in San Francisco and continuing to work. Take out Won Ton pho at the slanted door, lasagna from Caf/(c) Delle Stelle delivered to the focus group facility. I decided that cupcakes could provide some type of restorative powers as well, so picked up a few to share from Miette. In my world of cupcake reviews, Miette ranks high on the list. The chocolate cake was full of structure and bite and incredibly moist. And the frosting, was well, frostinglicious. Not a typical buttercream, but an egg white frosting, so lighter and fluffier and not quite as cloying. Sadly, the restorative powers didn,Aeot work.
I finally threw in the towel and skipped out on the weekend in Bay Area and seeing Drew and Suzette in Phoenix, which makes me sad, for so many reasons. Being sick is horrible,AePbut being sick in a hotel room and not that close to home and having to fly to get home is really the worst of all worlds.
Sigh,AePThere you have it, the blessings and curses of business travel.
