Oh Family, Where Are You?

*Above: Mom and Dad. The 4th of July doesn't feel the same without you. I am loving the air conditioning though...

Of all the coaxing and pleading and prodding, what brings me back to The Irvine Table to blog? Loneliness. Here it is , the Fourth of July, and I am at Mom and Dad's, alone, without any further plans, while the whole family is dispersed with other business to attend.

Now before you go shedding a tear for me (or before you shake your head as you sense the tendencies of my histrionic ways), my separation from the family this holiday is a choice that I made, aware of the consequences that might follow. Everyone else is gone (Mike and Han are here, and I am trying, gently, to make them feel sorry for me and Nathan so they might come hang out). Holly and Jared are in Indiana or Iowa or Illinois. Mom and Dad are the the cabin. Laura is with her secret boyfriend, Esteban, in "Bend." From the kitchen table, I wish everyone in the family a joyful day, but that they know the day would be more joyful with the company of each other.

Keeping in tradition of the blog (yes, you can count two postings as tradition), I will like everyone to know what I will be eating today, in lieu of a family event:

Wine:
Dad's finest. Great vintage. You have to take advantage of these out-of-town occasions.

(Seriously, cheap beer, and lots of water because it's about eleventy-hundred degrees in Portland, Oregon today).


Food:
Pot-stickers from the freezer. I'm guessing they have been there for about three years.
Lettuce and parsley from the garden. Just that- lettuce and parsley.
Trader Joe's Reduced-Fat Cheese Crunchies
Green Tea Mint Gelato. Homemade. By me. To make everyone jealous.

Come home everyone. Please. Or else Nathan's going to make me watch the Tour de France!

Eat a meal, drink some wine, work out.

Menu:

Minestrone Soup

Pasta salad

Baguette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Chocolate chip angel food cake with chocolate sauce and strawberries

 

Wine:

R. Stuart Pinot Noir, 2006 and 2007

Brandborg 2007 Umpqua Valley Gewurztraminer

 

The table was rather full this week at dinner, although not near our record attendance.  Mike, Hannah and Holly were back, and Sam, Holly’s roommate also joined us.  We feasted on soup and pasta salad (made by Caitlin).  The soup was delicious, complete with chopped bacon and many vegetables that I cannot remember (they did not, however, appear to have been canned). 

 

My guess is that this was one of those “healthy” recipes, the kind that the family occasionally attempts in hopes to stave off some of Dad’s cholesterol-heavy cravings.  While I write “healthy” in a way that is seemingly disparaging, I actually prefer the generally fresher tastes that these recipes produce.  When one has glutton tendencies on Sunday nights, the healthy meal is a comfort when regretting an over-filled stomach.     

 

As with most Sunday dinners in which Michael is in attendance, the dinner table conversation quickly digressed from standard pleasantries to talk of bodily functions (a topic of discussion more appropriate for say, a locker room or the depths of a musty bar).

 

But alas, I have made promises to not “incriminate” anyone in these posts, so I will leave the details to memory.  However, I will admit some fault in another conversation at the table involving the repulsive nature of rodent-like animals and their completely unattractive qualities as pets.  While talk of rodents might not be the first thing that comes to mind when listing "dinner time conversations,"  I'll venture to say that anyone who has attended family dinner finds this to be of no surprise.  

To top off a delightfully filling meal, Laura made a "sunken" (a completely intentional culinary move) angel food cake with chocolate chips, covered in chocolate sauce, and then served with strawberries.  Dad generously popped open a bottle of Brandborg Gewurztraminer.  I may or may not have had several helpings.  Oh, I did learn a few more things about wine.  First, every word that I can come up with to describe the wine that I am drinking actually describes the opposite components to those that are featured.   So I guess I didn't learn so much as I continue to realize my naiveté.  

After eating a large meal and drinking some wine, we logically concluded the evening with an hour of breaking in Mom's new WiiFit.  Suiting, considering the way our family loves to humiliate one another with everyone watching (and I suppose by "family" I mean me).  The WiiFit age, by the way, is an unreasonably cruel feature of this so-called video game.  Judging merely by my performance in some balance test I aged 7 years.  For future reference, everyone looks ridiculous hula-hooping.  

The table will be drastically smaller next week as many of us flee the city for Spring Break.  I have a feeling that the dogs will be eating at the table to fill space.  

"Girl Chicken and Boy Chicken"

Menu:

Smoked chicken

Crock-Pot chicken 

Beets and Heirloom carrots

Mixed greens

Apple and cranberry turnovers with vanilla ice cream and balsamic vinegar

Wine:

R. Stuart Pinot Noir, 2006 and 2007

Last summer Dad proudly presented a meal at the cabin by announcing that for dinner we would feast on two different kinds of chicken.  Before he could explain, in his usual glee that comes only when describing the fruits of his obsessions (barbecue, wine, "kitchenator" dinners, etc.), Mom interrupted, "What, Girl chicken and Boy chicken?"  Well, as with most of Mom's witty interjections, I found this to be extremely hilarious. 

Dinner this Sunday conjured up this memory as we had, in fact, two different kinds of chicken.  The first, a smoked chicken, threatened Dad's life in the making.  The beloved Traeger grill, producer of many fine delicacies over the last several months, apparently filled to capacity with pellets, smoked and fumed requiring Dad to intervene nearly "smoking" him in the process. 

The smoked chicken was delicious despite the potential fiasco in the grill, but I had a hard time picking a favorite between this and the Crock-Pot chicken. 

Accompanying the chicken was a salad of sorts with roasted beets and heirloom carrots tossed with oil and balsamic vinegar.  

Speaking of balsamic vinegar, Dad introduced two new bottles to his recent collection.  I will not go into the details of these vinegars (ahem, $$$), but I will admit the one most closely discussed that evening was quite delicious on top the vanilla bean ice cream.  

The ice cream joined apple and cranberry turnovers created at the ever-impressive hand of Laura. 

Mike, Hannah and Holly were missed at the table on Sunday, but we were joined by Caitlin, who recovered from a bicycle accident (to say the least) with a glass of wine.  I'm completely amateur at wine conversation, which is to say that my descriptions are merely "good" or "not good."  However, the wine this Sunday, one from 2006, the other from 2007, were noticeably distinct from one another.  I preferred the 2006, but I couldn't explain why.  

Another delectable Sunday with our fabulous family.