First, it appears I forgot to mention that I planted some succulents (from Wegmans) in a large bowl a while back (idea and bowl from Anthropologie). I know nothing about growing succulents, and I was pretty sure they would die since I just threw them in a bowl with some dirt, but they seem to be doing just fine! I was also worried we'd have a fungus gnat problem, but I've been keeping them pretty dry, and we're not having any problems yet.

We had our fifth batch of Dutch babies this weekend (fourth, third, second, first). Surprisingly, we're not sick of them yet! This time, I pretty much followed Orangette's recipe, but with less butter and milk instead of half and half. This is also pretty much identical to the recipe we used in batch 2, but this time distributed between two 6-inch skillets instead of one 12-incher. I used 4 large eggs, 1/2 c milk, 1/2 c flour, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon for the batter, with 1 T butter divided between two 6-inch skillets, baked at 425F for 22 min (I was going for 25 minutes, but they were looking pretty dark, and I felt compelled to remove them at 22 minutes). I baked the fourth batch in the top third of the oven, and I think this made the pancakes brown too quickly. So this time, I put the shelf in the lower third of the oven, which I think helped the pancakes bake all the way through without overbrowning.

These babies turned out pretty well. If you're looking for dense, eggy Dutch babies, this is a good recipe to use. After eating Dutch babies five weeks in a row, I think I prefer mine thinner and lighter, more like batch 3. Patrick can't decide which type of Dutch baby he prefers. So we're going to conduct our next Dutch baby experiment optometrist style. I'm going to make (1) using the ingredient ratios from batch 3 and (2) using the ratios from batch 4 (baked longer, in the bottom third of the oven). We will each eat half and decide which we like better--(1) or (2). The winner will then go on to compete with a pancake made with batch 5 ratios. Once again, I feel like I should be doing this more scientifically, but it's hard to objectively evaluate the results. But I could make such fancy tables and graphs! I just learned how to use JMP; I'm sure I could do some useful pancake analysis with that!

We had a so-so meal at Kingfish in San Mateo this weekend. This was our first time dining there; we'd walked by in the past and thought it looked promising. There was nothing blatantly wrong with it, but it wasn't an amazing meal. I like CreoLa and NOLA better. Our waiter at Kingfish seemed really nervous and kind of creepy. The food was okay. The bread was soft and pillowy, like focaccia but without much flavor. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar dipping mixture didn't have much flavor either. Patrick had a butterleaf salad with golden and red beets, goat cheese, and hazelnuts. The lettuce wasn't great, but the rest of the salad was good. I very much enjoyed my cup of Aunt Pearl's Beer 'n' Crab soup with garlic croutons. I would've been happy making a meal of it.

My entree, sugarcane-skewered seared scallops with sweet potato hash and mandarin orange glaze, didn't thrill me. The hash was mainly composed of summer squash, which didn't go with the mandarin orange glaze, in my opinion. I liked the crispy sweet potato shoestrings atop the scallops, but I would have enjoyed the use of sweet potatoes in the hash as well. Patrick liked his entree--andouille- and sundried-tomato-crusted king salmon with sweet corn risotto. It was tasty (especially the risotto) and very filling. I would've liked it if the dishes used more seasonal ingredients, but I guess that's not their main focus. Meh. I'd rather have a burrito or ramen if we're in San Mateo.

We skipped dessert at Kingfish and went for pearl milk tea at Quickly, the site of my ill-advised fiber milk tea experience. We split a plain pearl milk tea (Patrick isn't as adventurous as I am in terms of pearl milk tea flavor selection, which is probably wise). Quickly's pearl milk tea is definitely not as good as that at Tapioca Express in Mountain View, but it'll do in a pinch.

Three recent meals:

1. Broiled Salmon with Marmalade-Dijon Glaze (to use up some of our inferior orange marmalade), Caramelized Rosemary Pears, and Butternut Squash with Shallots and Sage. The salmon was fine, but I liked the last salmon recipe we tried better. The squash was pretty boring, which was disappointing. We loved the pears though! I accidentally added a little balsamic vinegar to them when they were done cooking, and I think it complimented them nicely.

2. African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans, Stewed Okra with Tomatoes, and Pan-Grilled Flatbread (recipe from Baking Illustrated). The stew was good; I think it improved with age. It was sweet and filling and peanut-buttery, and I got to use our crockpot! The flatbread went well with it and was pretty easy to make, since I prepared the dough the night before. Not as good as the stuff you can get at a restaurant, but for homemade I was pleasantly surprised. The okra was really good, especially considering how simple it was to prepare. I'm an okra fan--I love the sliminess and the chewy seeds. Even if you're not a fan of okra mucilage, you might like this recipe. The sliminess is well-contained because the pods are cooked whole. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Yum! (Pictures by Patrick; I was too busy grilling flatbreads)

3. Smoked Ham Soup with White Beans (I used a frozen ham shank that I picked up on the cheap from HoneyBaked Ham a while back, Rancho Gordo runner cannellini and marrow beans, diced parsnips, and chopped chard) and the last of our Buttermilk-Dill Rolls from the freezer (I love those things; I'm going to make another batch shortly with the leftover buttermilk from the batch of Chipotle-Bacon Corn Muffins I made tonight).

The soup turned out great! Ham shanks make things so tasty. Next time I should remember to remove the bay leaves before adding the chard; we've got a bay leaf missing in action somewhere in the soup leftovers, well-camouflaged by all the chard.

I made two loaves of Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake (recipe from Barefoot Contessa at Home) for dessert using low-fat vanilla yogurt and omitting the glaze. I wanted to use up the yogurt because I'd bought it mistakenly (I'd meant to buy plain yogurt, which Patrick much prefers), and the cake looked promising. It turned out well, after I got over the notion that it should taste like pound cake (it's definitely missing the richness and fullness that a pound of butter can give a cake). It's probably lower in calories and fat than poundcake, but it's still not healthy, unfortunately. I took part of a loaf to work with me, and I froze the other loaf, pre-cut, for snacking. I love the flexibility that freezing food gives us. I had some trouble getting the lemon syrup to soak in, even after I poked holes all over the top with a skewer, but after three or four rounds of pouring syrup runoff over the top, most of it was absorbed, and it turned out very moist (but not soggy).

First, a picture of the granola I made a while ago with some dried blueberries (yum!) and milk. Not bad, but not amazing. Much healthier than commercial granola though.

Our garden seems to have survived the below-freezing weather, though our oldest baby lemon has mysteriously disappeared. I'm guessing it got knocked off during the tenting process. Oh well, it wasn't that far along. Still, kind of sad. Speaking of trees, here's a crappy cell phone picture of a tree that we seem to have a lot of in this area. It has pretty red-orange foliage in the fall with dark blue berries, which then crack open in the winter (maybe they're not berries after all). An enjoyable tree in all seasons. Anybody know what it is?

This past Saturday, I attended June Taylor's marmalade class, which, though expensive, was worth it. She's the queen of preserves in the Bay Area, and she does everything the old-fashioned way. She's a big proponent of buying organic and local.

There were 14 people in the class. First, June told us a little about the history of marmalade and the basic marmalade-making process. Next, we sampled a bunch of different citrus fruits (including rangpur limes, which look like oranges but are very tart). Then we peeled and sectioned the fruit for our batch of Three-Fruit Marmalade (orange, Meyer lemon, and grapefruit). I got to work on my knife skills a little bit. Next, we cooked our marmalade twice--the first time to soften the peels and generate pectin from the membranes and seeds, and the second time to thicken it. We made our own pectin, as shown here. It was quite enjoyable. I've been a little intimidated by the canning process, but June made it seem easy. She didn't boil her jars; she kept them super hot in an oven and added the marmalade when it was still really hot.

We spent about five hours there and got to take away our very own jar of Three-Fruit Marmalade. I'm so proud! I haven't opened our jar yet, as I have to use up our inferior store-bought marmalades first. We did a tasting of various cheap and expensive marmalades at the end of the class, and the differences were amazing, especially between the cheapo ($3/jar) and artisanal stuff. June's jams are expensive, but after seeing the work she puts into each jar and the quality of ingredients she uses, I can see why. It's worth the extra money, in my opinion.

It was a great class. I learned a lot and can't wait to make my own marmalade (though we don't eat that much, so it might be awhile before we need more). And if my endorsement isn't enough, Shuna likes her classes too. I'm definitely planning on taking June's summer conserves class as well, if I can get in before it fills up.

After the class, I walked around the corner and picked up a Bhatura Cholle and a mango lassi at Vik's Chaat Corner. It was my first visit, and the Bhatura Cholle (a huge fried disc of puffy dough with chickpea stew) seemed to be a popular item there. I had to eat standing up at a tall table as all the chairs were taken. I very much enjoyed my food, though it wasn't a very leisurely snack.

After some shopping on 4th Street, I met up with Patrick, Tree, and Andrew, and we got some yummy ice cream at Sketch. I love that place! Once again, I had hot apple cider, this time with a dollop of maple sugar ice cream. I burned my tongue on it because I was too excited to wait for it to cool down. It was delicious despite the pain!

Next, we took a walk around the slightly smelly East Bay Vivarium. There were some good bargains on snakes (Tickles the Python was on sale!) as well as some agitated tortoises and lizards. They seemed very worked up. It made me a little nervous, but it was still fun looking at all those reptiles and amphibians.

Around 5:30, we started calling around looking for a place to have dinner, but they were all booked up until 9pm or so. We ended up going to Eccolo, which was on my list of places to try and was able to seat us immediately. I enjoyed our dinner. The bread was pretty standard Italian bread topped with large flakes of salt. Patrick didn't like it, but I enjoyed it. We started by sharing tuna tartare toasts and a salad of fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and arugula. The mozzarella was especially yummy. Next, I had a blood orange salad with dates, almonds, and shaved parmesan and a bowl of winter vegetable soup with farro and bacon. Both salad and soup were quite enjoyable. I opted for a simple dessert of Medjool dates, walnuts in the shell, and three baby tangerines. It would be nice if more restaurants offered unadorned high quality produce on their dessert menus. I very much enjoyed cracking the nuts and eating the tangerines section by section. Good stuff.

On Sunday morning, we made our fourth batch of Dutch babies. This time, I used 3 large eggs, 7T milk, 7T flour, 1T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon with 1 T butter split between two 6-inch skillets, baked at 425F for 15 minutes. The extra egg upped the eggy flavor as desired, but it also made the babies too custardy for my tastes. I reduced the flour and milk to make up for the increased egg volume, but the skillets were still fuller than last time, and the pancakes didn't rise as much (it's possible they needed to bake longer than 15 minutes, but they were getting pretty brown).

I'm not sure what to try next. I might just go back to recipe #3 and call it good. Or maybe I'll try a reduced-butter version of Orangette's Dutch Baby recipe. Given my most recent results, I'm surprised she got such puffy pancakes with 4 eggs. Maybe the extra 10 minutes of baking time is all that's needed. I feel like I should be taking a more scientific approach, but it's more fun to change things all willy-nilly!

For lunch on Sunday, we ventured into the newly-renovated downtown Redwood City. We ate at Alana's Cafe, which was in a cute old house with a pretty courtyard. Their breakfast menu looked good, but we both ended up getting sandwiches since we'd had Dutch babies for breakfast. I had half a tuna salad sandwich with mixed greens. The tuna salad was very light on the mayo and had green olives and capers mixed in. The bread was just the right level of toastiness. I liked it. Patrick wasn't as thrilled by his chicken salad sandwich, which was also light on the mayo. The mixed greens were much more elaborate than I'd expected. In addition to greens, there was cucumber, tomato, yellow squash, carrots, and broccoli. The poppy seed dressing was provided on the side, so I was able to minimize my dressing consumption. It wasn't the most delicious meal I've had, but it felt like a very healthy meal. I liked it. My main complaint was that they were playing a Celine Dion CD on repeat. I would go there again if we were in the neighborhood.

While walking around, we saw posters featuring cream puffs, and Patrick rightly drew the conclusion that there was a newly-opened Beard Papa's somewhere nearby. Indeed, there was, next to the new movie theater. We split a vanilla eclair, and it was much better than the pumpkin cream puff we had at the Beard Papa's in SF.

We stopped briefly to look around the new Courthouse Square, which had nice stairs to sit on and fountains (into which we threw a few pennies). We agreed that there aren't enough fancy buildings with steps to sit on in Menlo Park.

We had been looking for a new bakery that was rumored to have opened downtown, Pamplemousse Patisserie, and we finally found it further down Broadway (they need to establish a better web presence; I couldn't find their address anywhere!). It looked like a nice enough bakery with comfy booths and pretty pastries, but it was pretty empty inside. We split a caramelized banana and chocolate mousse dessert. It looked nice, but the flavor wasn't great. Maybe we should've tried something more basic, like the dark chocolate tart.

I wanted to like Pamplemousse, but our first experience was kind of mediocre. I'd give them another chance if we're in downtown Redwood City again. They did have some good-looking croissants and salads.

I made another Healthy Slow Cooker recipe on Friday (and our apartment didn't burn down while we were at work!). This time it was Stuffed Onions with a ground beef and bulgur filling. Once again, not amazing, but not bad. The parmesan on top improved the flavor. We've had them with a variety of sides: sauteed beet greens and red chard, roasted Yukon gold potatoes, Balsamic-Dressed Roasted Golden Beets, and more Buttermilk-Dill Rolls from our freezer. I liked the beet recipe a lot--sweet and earthy and so pretty! I am appreciating the rolls more and more each time. Having bread ready to go in the freezer is so convenient, and they have a pleasant chewy texture and mild sourdoughy flavor. I'm pleased with the recipe.

Last night, I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I know, I'm way behind the times. I really liked it. I was drawn in by the story and characters; I didn't want it to end. Definitely a keeper! I'm glad my husband doesn't disappear without warning. Quite a few of the books on my reading list have similar titles of the form "The [Somebody]'s [Female]"--The Magician's Assistant, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Memory Keeper's Daughter. What's up with that? I also have My Sister's Keeper and My Daughter's Keeper in my to-read pile. All of these books have similar covers. I am, at times, guilty of judging a book by its cover (and by its title, apparently). It usually works out well for me.

Tonight, I attended a discussion hosted by AMITA NorCal about how to return to the workplace after taking time off (the primary focus was on women who have taken time off to have a baby, which is what I'm most interested in, for the future). I went to another AMITA discussion a few months ago about being a successful professional without pretending you're a man (Interactions in the Workplace: How Do Effective Women Get That Way?). I really enjoyed both talks.

Both today and prior to the first discussion, I kind of dreaded going, as I don't like networking and talking to people I don't know (it feels like I'm using people, even though at the first discussion, they tried to disabuse us of this exact notion, saying that women tend not to network because they feel like they're using people, and it prevents them from going very far in their careers. We should look at it as an opportunity to help other people, not just using them to help ourselves). But I signed up anyway, and I'm glad I did. It always turns out that when I go to events where you're supposed to network, I meet nice people and enjoy myself, even though I don't think I will. I should internalize that lesson and stop being nervous about this type of thing. I'm just not good at the small talk.

Tonight's audience was mostly composed of mothers who were planning on getting back into the workforce, so a lot of the discussion was about that, and it was kind of scary. The women on the panel made it very clear that if you take time off to have a family, it will negatively impact your career and how much money you make. But, of course, there are benefits to it too. You just have to figure out what's most important to you. I'm pretty sure that when the time comes for us to have babies, I'll want to take some amount of time off to raise them, despite the career repercussions.

Taking time off to raise a family is intimidating. The women on the panel talked about how they felt like they weren't being productive members of society once they stopped working, and they felt like their brains were atrophying. I can totally imagine myself feeling like that. One woman realized that she was turning into an angry mom with a short fuse, being around her kids all the time. She had imagined herself being a happy, carefree mom, jumping in puddles with her kids, but instead she just worried about how much laundry she had to do. So she went back to work, for her own good and her children's. Some of the women I work with had the same experience. Other moms said they couldn't imagine going back to work and leaving their kids at daycare. They kept coming back to how many of these issues depend on your particular situation. Will I be a good stay-at-home mom, or will I go crazy and need to get back to work and more grown-up interactions? I guess I won't know until we have kids of our own.

They talked about how mothers trying to get back to work worry about being out of practice having grown-up conversations and doing career-related stuff. Their advice, for those of us who are planning on taking a hiatus, was to attempt to keep in contact with your colleagues, read trade magazines to keep abreast of lingo and trends, and to attend conferences if possible. Now, I'm guessing it'll be kind of hard to do that while raising kids, but it's worth a try.

They also said that when you are ready to go back to work, you might find out that your priorities have changed and that you don't want to return to the same career you left. They suggested that you look for part time or consulting work, so that you can have a more flexible schedule to start and so you can rebuild your contacts and update your experience. Sounds nice if you can find it (Third Avenue Consulting seems like a good company for finding part-time placement in smallish companies). One woman also recommended setting up informational interviews at companies with people in positions similar to the one you'd like to have. At these interviews, you wouldn't be trying to get hired, you'd just talk to the person to find out what their background is and what skills are needed for the job. It seems like good advice, and I know I'd be happy to talk to somebody who wanted to know more about my job (as this woman said, people love to talk about themselves!).

Interesting sidenote: both tonight and at the last discussion, the topic of women asking for promotions and higher starting salaries came up (this is related to the statistic that women are still paid approximately 80 cents per dollar that men are paid--it's partially due to the fact that women don't negotiate for a higher starting salary when they're hired). Women, in general, do not ask for such things because it isn't seen as the nice thing to do (that totally resonates with me--I'd be afraid to negotiate for more money because they might not like me). This book was mentioned. I still don't know if I have it in me to ask for promotions or whatever (and luckily, my bosses are thoughtful and look out for me, so I don't need to ask for such things), but it's valuable to think about things like that. At the first discussion, they talked about how not everybody has to like you. It seems simple enough, but I haven't internalized it. I still approach things trying to please everybody, rather than doing what's best for myself at times. It's hard to change something like that.

I found tonight's discussion informative and thought-provoking, but it didn't really help me decide what to do in the future in terms of kids and career. Life is unpredictable; I have no idea how things will turn out down the road. My plan is to do whatever seems best for my family at the time, and I bet everything will work out just dandy.

Upcoming AMITA talks will address working part-time and full-time and having kids. I'll definitely be attending them, despite my fear of making small talk. Hell, I might even go to the Women's Leadership Conference, which I also find intimidating. It builds character!

P.S. I'm pretty sure women who aren't MIT alumnae can attend AMITA events, if you're in the Bay Area and want to go.

I put up a few pictures of our latest garden setup. Click the daisies!

As anticipated, the temperature has fallen below freezing at night for the past few days. The first night it happened, I just threw a bedsheet over our lemon tree, but apparently that's bad, because if the sheet is touching the foliage, it transfers the cold. So Patrick rigged up a frame, and we draped the sheet over that. What a man! I also knit a little striped sweater for the tree trunk, so it would be warm and fashionable.

I used size 8 needles and knit a square with rows of eyelet every 1.5 inches. I added crocheted ties at the end of these eyelet rows and then tied the knit piece around the tree trunk. Our tree is so fashionable now!

My tree sweater was inspired by this webpage, which I saw a while ago. While searching for information about whether tree sweaters are harmful to trees, I found this tree cozy, which is amazing!

We went to The Fish Market for dinner this weekend, and I finally got to eat my requisite Dungeness crab for the season. I ordered a whole cooked crab, with butter and cocktail sauce on the side. I've had crab before, but I always forget that it doesn't taste very exciting without lots of garlic and butter, and since I'm trying to eat healthily, I went with cocktail sauce instead. It was only so-so. Plus it took me a long time to eat it. Poor Patrick wished he'd brought a newspaper to read while I ate my dinner. Oh well, I'm glad I got to eat it anyway. I'm good until next winter.

I recently got a trial subscription to Cook's Illustrated.com. I have a subscription to the magazine, as well as a few of their cookbooks (which, it seems, are just compendiums of recipes from the magazine, for the most part), but I thought it would be useful to have online access to the recipes. But I'm not too impressed with the website so far. Their search and browse functions aren't very good. But their recipes have never disappointed me, so I'll keep my subscription for now.

This Sunday, we made a third batch of Dutch babies (second batch, first batch). This time, I used 2 eggs (1 large, 1 extra-large), 1/2c milk, 1/2c flour, 1T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon with 1 T butter split between two 6" skillets. They took about 15 minutes to bake at 425F. We didn't have any lemons or limes, so we ate them with orange marmalade.

I was really happy with how they turned out. The amount of batter per skillet was just right. However, we'd like them to be a little eggier (we just can't be satisfied!). So next time, I'm going to use 3 eggs and reduce the milk and flour by 1T each. We're almost there! I definitely like using two 6" skillets instead of one 12" skillet. It makes a more reasonable serving size, plus it's cuter!

Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of time in the kitchen, preparing meals for dinner and lunch for the next few days. My company provides free lunch, but the menus for today and tomorrow weren't very healthy (fried chicken today, flautas tomorrow), so I made Buckwheat Meatballs in Tomato Sauce from The Healthy Slow Cooker to take for lunch. As you might imagine, they were neither photogenic nor amazingly delicious. But they weren't bad, and I got to use some of my kasha (which doesn't smell very good when it's cooking, by the way).

Our dinner tonight tasted much better than the meatballs but wasn't as healthy. I made Slow-Roasted Beef Brisket with Apple-Cider-Ginger BBQ Sauce and Caramelized Sweet Onions from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, and it turned out great! I've had better brisket at restaurants, but considering how easy it was to make, I'm very pleased. For dinner tonight, we had brisket sandwiches accompanied by Red Cabbage, Cranberry and Apple Slaw (from Cooking Light). The slaw is really good, and so pretty!

While the brisket was roasting yesterday, I watched Junebug. It was a weird little movie, but I liked it. Amy Adams was so endearing in it!

Tonight, during the commercial breaks for 24, I made Orangette's granola, to use up some sliced almonds that have been languishing in our cupboard for who knows how long. As promised, it made our apartment smell really good (as did the brisket, last night). I think it got a little over-toasted, sadly. It still tastes good, but not as good as the stuff we buy at the store, probably because storebought granola has more saturated fat and preservatives. But I will still very much enjoy eating our healthier homemade granola.

We had dinner tonight at the very fancy Chez TJ in Mountain View, to celebrate the fact that we both recently got promoted and to take advantage of the discount program Patrick has at work (the offer for Chez TJ was buy one entree get the second free--I was hoping this meant that the meal would be half off, but we ended up only getting about $20 off, which was reasonable but kind of disappointing).

It was a very good meal. Reviews I had read said that the chef emphasized technique rather than ingredients, which turned out to be true. There were lots of foams and reductions. The food was all delicious, but I think I prefer simple, well-prepared food to gussied up experimental dishes. I did appreciate the creative presentation though. I'm glad I got to have a meal at Chez TJ, but I don't feel compelled to return (though I feel very lucky to have such a nice restaurant in Mountain View, of all places). If I'm going to spend that much money, I'd rather go to Sierra Mar.

The service was great, and the setting (a restored Victorian house) was charming. It's a good special occasion/romantic restaurant. We both went with the 4-course Menu Gastronomique. The portions were very small, but there were lots of little extra courses interspersed with the official courses (I love extra food!), so we left satisfied and full. Here's what we ate, documented with crappy cell phone pictures (my apologies!):

1. Acme bread with lovely scalloped butter.

2. Amuse bouche: A delicious fried patty (contents unknown--we frequently couldn't understand what our waiter was saying) topped with fish of some sort; devilled quail eggs topped with roe and chive; icicle radish with olive oil and fleur de sel.

3. Mushroom consomme with black truffle blini. I love the use of the tea bag (filled with more mushroom).

4. Kataifi-wrapped Hawaiian prawns with tangerine marmalade, beet reduction, vanilla salt. I think this may have been my favorite part of the meal. Patrick ordered it, but he let me sample it, of course. Kataifi is related to coconut in some way. A wonderful mix of sweet and savory flavors.

5. Poached and seared foie gras, lentils de puy (with carrots and bacon), glazed chestnus, pickled brussels sprouts. The foie gras was smooth and smoky, but my favorite part was the lentils. I don't think I appreciate foie gras enough to overcome the moral issues associated with it.

6. Roasted turbot, crispy trotter, spicy onion relish, quail egg and olive oil mashed potatoes. Another one of Patrick's choices. He always picks the best stuff! Quail eggs are so adorable; I'm glad we got to enjoy them twice in one meal.

7. Maine lobster poached in Monbazillac butter, sweetbread raviolis, baby turnips, Oregonian white truffles. The lobster was succulent and sweet, and the turnips were delicious (the guy at the next table over kept talking about how he usually hates turnips, but he loved these turnips). This was my first time eating sweetbreads (Patrick refused to sample them). They didn't taste like much of anything. I don't understand what the fuss is about. But at least I can say I've tried them now.

8. Intermezzo: Meyer lemon frozen custard drizzled with olive oil. Delicious! Our water also had wedges of Meyer lemon in it, which I very much enjoyed. I like citrus!

9. Suckling pig three ways (confit topped with quince quenelle, pork chop, pork loin wrapped with bacon), 5-spice prunes, pearl onions, braised cabbage. Another winner chosen by Patrick. The confit and prunes were the best parts of the dish.

10. Sonoma squab, deconstructed (breast and leg), candied kumquats, carrot and cardamom. Much to our waiter's amusement, I squealed with joy at the cuteness of this dish. Everything was so tiny--the little deconstructed squab leg (all the meat had been cut off the bone and then packed back around it in a sphere to make a squab lollipop of sorts), the tiny little root vegetables (parsnip and carrot) with tops left on, and the delicious slices of candied kumquats.

10.5. Not pictured: Dessert beverage, Lavender Earl Grey tea with aesthetically pleasing chunks of brown and white sugar on the side.

11. Candy-cap-infused "creme caramel" with spiced caramel, butter pear fondant and powdered candy cap mushroom. You'd never guess that this dessert contained mushrooms, though it did have an earthy quality underneath the sweetness of the caramel and custard.

12. Variations on figs, coffee and chocolate: poached candy stripe figs, coffee grue (pastry cream in a crunchy shell), pot de creme topped with latte froth. The pot de creme was the best part of this dessert. Luckily it was a very small pot, as it was pretty rich.

13. Surprise final course, delivered after we paid the check (good thing we didn't skedaddle immediately after paying!): apple gelee, cute little star- and heart-shaped ginger cookies, mini egg rolls filled with banana and chocolate.

We're so lucky to be able to enjoy such decadent meals!

Last night we planned our second visit to Portland. This one will be in early February, and hopefully it'll give us a taste of what winter in Portland is like. One of the main purposes of this visit is to see if we'd like to live there, so I wanted to find non-hotel lodging, preferably located near Hawthorne/Division streets in a house with kitchen access (so we can prepare our own meals if we feel like it; though there are so many restaurants I'd like to visit that I don't know if that'll happen). Fortune smiled upon me, and I found the perfect place to stay: Bluebird Guesthouse! Not only does it meet all of my criteria, but it has a cute website, rooms named after Pacific NW authors (including Beverly Cleary!), is cheap (we have to share a bathroom with a few other rooms, but I'm sure it'll be much better than a hostel bathroom) and is relatively new (so it needs all the love and good publicity it can get). So perfect--I love it when that happens! We're going to stay in the Sherman Alexie room for two nights and then in the Ken Kesey room for two nights (I love rooms with slanted ceilings, but Patrick tends to bump his head, so we had to compromise). I hope it's as good a fit as it appears to be. And if it's not, at least we will have saved a good chunk of money by staying there instead of in a hotel.

The Bay Area is unseasonably cold at the moment, and it will dip below freezing tonight. Luckily, one of my coworkers reminded me that we need to cover our baby Meyer lemon tree to protect it from freezing. I'm not a very good lemon parent; I'd totally forgotten about protecting citrus trees from frost. So tonight we covered it with a small quilt and a bedsheet, and hopefully it will survive. I feel inspired to make a special quilt for our lemon tree (like a tree cozy!), but I have too many other projects I want to do first. Ah well!