John is Missing!

Tuesday Night, September 13, 2005

Wines: from Silverlake Wine
Duca Della Corgna Divina Vill Transimeno Gamay 2000
Salomon Hochterrassen Gruner Veltliner Kremstal 2004

John Carpenter, a friend from San Francisco was coming to Los Angeles to sell wine. He owns a The Wine House, a wine store and importing company in San Francisco. He often stays with us.

We decided to cook at home at John said he would bring some wine. We were looking forward to having a nice dinner with John.

John called us from the LA airport at approximately 7pm to tell us although he had arrived in Los Angeles; he had lost his California Drivers License on route and could not rent a car. John after several calls determined his best course of action was to fly back to SF and get a replacement license. So John left and Cliff and Cathy dined alone. Cathy showing great restraint, returned the cookies planned for desert to the freezer for another time.

We decided to start with a great green bean salad from the cookbook: The Food of Campanile. Campanile is our favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. The salad is made with fresh green beans that have been steamed, mustard, walnuts and shallots. It is a great salad.

We only have about 2 weeks of fig season left, so we decided to make a chicken and fig dish from The Zuni Café Cookbook. The dish was served with cous-cous and had a great sauce. When we lived in San Francisco, Zuni was our favorite restaurant. We enjoyed the dish, and look forward to leftovers!