Dining Together

Date: Tuesday Night August 23, 2005
Dinners: Cliff / Cathy / Parsifal / Polenta

Wine: Provided by Cliff / Cathy
2003 Sur Lie: Muscadet Sevre & Maine


We dined alone with our cats: Polenta and Parsifal. We planned our dinner around a Paella dish from the Moro Cookbook. We have dinned at Moro in London several times. It is a Moroccan / Spanish restaurant started by some ex-employees of The River Café.

For the first course we had a Sugar Queen melon from the Hollywood Farmers Market. We had covered the melon with Prosciutto from The Cheese Store of Silverlake. It was a great starter course.


Cathy had re-invented the Monkfish with Saffron Paella, leaving out the monkfish, and adding in, Scallops, White Shrimp, Pink Shrimp, Clams and Mussels from Whole Foods in Glendale. The dish was excellent. We look forward to leftovers.

The Muscadet wine, from the Silverlake Wine Store, went perfectly with the seafood paella.

For dessert we had coconut ice cream with fresh wild strawberries. Cliff enhanced his desert with a topping of Grand Marnier. Cathy had her dessert without the liquor topping! They don’t look like regular ones, far smaller and very tasty. They are called: 'Fraise des bois' which means strawberries of the woods.

It was a great summer dinner!

Bea Dines Again!

Date: Tuesday Night August 16, 2005
Dinners: Cliff / Cathy / Bea Landen

Wine: Provided by Cliff / Cathy
1999 Tarantella Sine Quanon
Wine: Provided by Bea
2003 Eric Kent Pinot Noir


Bea joined us again for dinner. She brought a Pinot Noir she had puchased at our favorite wine store in Silverlake, silverlake wine. The previous week we had seen small fresh chanterelle mushrooms at the farmers market in Hollywood. We were committed to last weeks dinner, so we decided to build a future dinner around them. We went Sunday to the market hopping that there would be small young chanterelles available. They were so we purchased them.

We also wanted to make a summer dish that we like, that we got from the Slow Club in San Francisco. Fresh tomatoes, cored, some from our garden, sliced leeks, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme and balsamic, baked. We made toast and served the tomato leek mixture on them as an appetizer. It was excellent.

We made a chanterelle pasta from Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook. Cliff and Cathy found it disappointing. Oh well..

For dessert we had an Apricot Crisp we had bought at Clementine. We served it with Dolce do Leche ice cream. Great treat.

So we had great wine, excellent appetizer and dessert and a pasta.

One of the nicest parts of the night is walking Bea home. It is like walking in the country as we headed up and down her street.

Bea Comes to Dinner

Date: Tuesday Night August 9, 2005
Dinners: Cliff / Cathy / Bea Landen

Wines: Provided by Bea.
2003 Santa Chiara Vino Blanco “Bea”
2000 Bianco Divino Cabernet Sauvignon / Sangiovese / Petite Sirah blend

We had grown Heirloom Tomatoes last year but they didn’t work out well, because of my irregular watering. This year, I put in an automatic drip system, and the Tomatoes thrived.

We had been waiting for additional Heirlooms to be ready at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on which we visit almost every Sunday. Bea had never been to the market so we offered to take her. They finally had a great selection.

We invited Bea to join us for dinner.

Before the dinner Cliff & Cathy discovered they didn’t have a needed ingredient: fresh ginger. They decided Cliff would run to market at the of the walk. After they started the walk, Cliff joked we would find someone we knew on the walk who had some extra ginger. When we got to Bill and Kevin’s house on Marino Bill was standing in front. Cliff asked him if he had any extra ginger and he sad “Yes”. He invited all of us (Cliff / Cathy / Bea / Tony) through his house to his great backyard / garden / outdoor patio.

Cathy and Cliff went for one of their end of day walks in Silverlake and ran into Bea walking with her friend, Tony. Bea was drinking her customary Tequila while walking, Tony had a Scotch. Exercising with style!

We finished our walk and Bea then joined us for dinner.

We had wine on the deck at Sunset with Fresh Current Grapes from the Farmers Market, Almonds from the Cheese Store of Silverlake and Sausage slices from the Cheese Store.

Cliff had become more proficient in the use of the Weber Grill and we had bought
3 racks of lamb from Whole Food in Glendale. We cooked them using according to a recipe from Wolfgang Puck’s Cookbook. Rack of Lamb Chinoise. The lamb marinated for 24 hours in a great sauce. There is a separate salad dressing in the recipe for the accompanying salad.

Well what about all of the Tomatoes? We made one of the best Tomato Soups ever: Papa al Pomodoro from a recipe in the Italian Country Cookbook by Rogers & Gray. We had bought La Brea Bread on Sunday which we de-crusted and cubed. The soup is extremely thick and wonderful.

For desert, Cliff went to Town and Country a new restaurant / takeout in Silverlake. He bought Banana Pudding and cream puffs. They were very tasty.