Sarahdares

Scenes from a weekend

sarahdares — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:06:58 +0000

Fancy drinks, home show, fancy coffee, Mahjong, Settlers of Catan, donuts, homefries, Downton Abbey, Sons of Anarchy = weekend.

Happy Saturday!

sarahdares — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:18:48 +0000

I think this can best be described as a vat of cafe au lait.

Botanist Gin

sarahdares — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:15:21 +0000

I read an article about Botanist gin early this week and sent it to Jordan soon-to-be-Ph.D, who LOVES gin. It’s made in the Bruichladditch distillery. Now, I’ve only ever enjoyed Hendricks, also Scottish. But Jordan insisted that we track it down, which involved emailing the distillery in Scotland, receiving an email from the US distributor and calling a million (approx) liquor stores.

It’s at a.Kitchen. Soon to be at other places.

Tonight, we arrived at a.Kitchen and found out that they had been “warned” about us.

Well. I arrived. Jordan was late. I whiled the time by talking to the bartenders about whiskey, which is more my bailiwick.

Suffice it to say, it’s quite good. Herbal, but not medicinal. Quite smooth. Delicious on the rocks and with soda.

From Jordan:

Juniper is not overwhelming. None of the alcoholic tang that makes you think of the nurse’s office.

Photo by Jordan.

Red Beans and Rice

sarahdares — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:07:59 +0000

Over Christmas, the family did our traditional Christmas Eve tree buying jaunt, complete with a visit to the Indian grocery store for samosas. While there, Dad picked up a bag of beans for my brother and I – Christmas presents. I got a bag of red beans and LJ got a bag of black-eyed peas.

I prepped the 2 pounds of beans this weekend. Half went into the freezer with their cooking liquid, and the other half was used in tonight’s dinner.

I rendered down some bacon in coconut oil and then added onion, garlic and random spices. I used some Weyerbacher golden ale to deglaze the pan – holy hell, that smelled good.

I added the beans, as well as some (previously frozen) leftover turkey and chicken broth, then let the pot simmer away until the liquid had reduced enough.

Served with rice!

Yesterday’s Eats

sarahdares — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:05:16 +0000

I finally visited Percy Street BBQ’s Comcast Center location. I’d been warned in advance about both the deliciousness and post-lunch-coma-inducing properties of the sandwiches, so I decided to get three sides instead:

Collard Greens, Pinto Beans and Cole Slaw. Perfect lunch, especially because I finished it off with nut brittle from Dr. Lindsay’s fabulous momma Mary. Mary, that brittle is AWESOME. Recipe please?

Last night ended with an unplanned return trip to Dim Sum Garden with Linda.

Juicy Buns, of course.

Chinese Broccoli with LOTS of garlic.

“Seasonal Vegetable” – UNBELIEVABLY delicious asparagus. Perfection.

Pan Fried Steamed Soup Dumplings. So. Good.

We finished the night with a taro bun and “American cheesecake” at Mong Kok Bakery.

Sunday cookies

sarahdares — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:50:00 +0000

May I suggest double chocolate peanut butter cookies as a good way to end your weekend?

Weekend Wandering

sarahdares — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:15:12 +0000

Pictures from a wonderful weekend. Potlucks, afternoon naps, duck dinners, extra hours of sleep, walks in bright morning sunshine, donuts, and lazy Sundays – these are a few of my favorite things.

Federal Donuts

sarahdares — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:58:11 +0000

Amazing.

Pomegranate Nutella tahina.

Vanilla lavender.

Hello, Saturday

sarahdares — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:29:46 +0000

I really wanted to walk down to Federal Donuts this morning, the new donut/fried chicken spot. But it’s pretty gross and rainy, so there went that plan.

Instead, I stayed in my PJs and made coffee and blueberry pancakes. The blueberries were frozen back in July and were still perfect.

Aah, that’s better

sarahdares — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:18:49 +0000

Finally, my books are shelved. This makes me very happy.