Ode to Bacon and JoJo

So, our grand plan to spend our lovely month-long vacation visiting everyone and their brother completely flopped. In fact, I think Flannery saw more people during her 5 day Thanksgiving break then this long expanse of time. I have no idea how those old, English “Pride and Prejudice” people did it. This visiting thing is exhausting. Our perfect plan consisted of us staying at Flannery’s parents’ house, Flannery working at her old job most days, and the twins and I accompanying Flannery which would enable us to see friends during the day. Ummmm . . . a few problems with that perfect plan.

1. A daily 1.5 hour commute (roundtrip). This gets old with little people. Us big people also found it old after day #1.

2. The “1.5 hour” assumption is void during rush hour, which would be the precise times in which we were traveling. Flannery spend over 2.5 hours in the car one day.

3. We could leave at the crack of dawn to avoid rush hour . . . .ummm . . . .NOOO.

4. Hanging around our old town for 8 hours while Flannery worked was fun for about 2 days. Add in the dreaded commute and a shoddy nap and you get one mutilated pair of glasses. (Cayla is currently waiting on a new pair of glasses. Her old ones were separated into 4 pieces in a matter of .3 seconds one day. She was angry because she didn’t want to go on a walk and her glasses were in the wrong place at the wrong time.)

On the bright side, although we didn’t get spend time with everyone and their brother, we did see most people, and got to spend a bunch of time with . . . . Flannery’s brother! The twins, Flannery, and I ate dinner at Bacon and JoJo’s house on Monday and had a rockin’ time. Then, Flannery, Jody, and I got to eat at Dan’s restaurant on Wednesday and it was fabulous.

I’m surprised Bacon and JoJo’s house is still standing after we tore through it. While Flannery and I melted into their couch, Collin and Cayla “helped” Dan make pasta and garlic butter (I mean garlic BREAD – at least I think there was some bread under that butter). The major part of their helping consisted of the twins shooting in and out of kitchen on a wheeled, oversize ottoman (which does a mean spin!). Collin remained in the kitchen after Jody’s (freaky) ET doll started talking and lighting up. When a foot tall ET (or TP, as the twins dubbed it), dressing in a cheerleading outfit starts saying, “ET loves you” in a slow, old battery induced voice, it’s best to stay away. After dinner, Flannery and I melted back into the couch, and Uncle Bacon provided the twins with the technology they are sorely deprived of in our house. I actually have no idea what was going on. I just know it involved a keyboard, 2 computers, 2 iPods, a coveted set of headphones, and a mixing board. It resulted in some really funky music. Cayla was in her glory; pushing buttons, turning dials, and tapping keys at lightning speed. Collin was tearing up the dance floor. All this was of course interspersed with wheeled ottoman diving. After a final hurrah, which included the ‘Thriller’ video, Flannery and I peeled ourselves off the couch, we peeled our children off the walls, and headed home.

Since this is already the longest blog entry of all time, I may as well tell you what we had to eat on Wednesday at Dan’s restaurant. For those you who don’t know, Flannery’s brother Daniel, is an amazing chef – probably far more amazing than Flannery and I realize. Being vegetarians who tend toward Indian, Thai, and Korean food (with the occasional Polish restaurant and its deep fried pickles) we rarely eat in the type of restaurants that Dan works at. So, it’s a darn good thing he draws us into his restaurants because he really creates amazing meals.

And so it began . . .
Jody: coffee – she says it’s amazing – Donna agrees
Flannery: a BIG bottle of Pelagrino
Me: water (must save room for desert . . . )

And soon after
All: yummy, yummy, yummy pita like bread – I think it’s Lebanese – it’s really nothing like pita bread, it’s thin, and chewy, and moist, and this doesn’t describe it at all – and oil for dipping of course

And then Dan brought us
All: zatar (I think that ‘s what it’s called) – the above bread smothered in something yummy – I have no idea what - I think I remember sesame seeds, oil, parsley . . . Dan eats this for breakfast every morning – oh my

Beginnings
Me: really, really good tomato soup with a floating triangle of heaven AKA “the crouton” – lovely, light polenta coated in breadcrumbs and then maybe deep fried (although I don’t think you call it deep frying when fancy restaurants do it) – I don’t know what went into making that floating triangle, but it was really good – probably my favorite non-desert thing all night

Flannery: a yummy “salad” that looked more like at piece of art that a salad – in fact, I refuse to call it a salad – the separate parts were draped all over her plate and included candied pistachios (the twins would make quick work of those), a yummy pile of cheese (I can say it in my head, but the spelling is just not falling into place – roke/fort with a q somewhere), pickled onions (I should make up a name for these – they were so good Flannery didn’t even give me a tiny taste of them), wilted Romaine lettuce with mustard dressing (don’t try this at home – you have no idea how to “wilt” lettuce and make it taste like this), and probably some other parts – I was too busy eating my dreamy soup covered triangle to really pay attention to this non-salad thing

Jody: salad that looked like a salad which was served on really thinly sliced beets, hence the name, “beet carpaccio”. [At age 34 years 6 days, I learned that “carpaccio” (which is not in the spellcheck dictionary) usually refers to thinly sliced raw beef served with vinaigrette.] The salad was quite yummy with bits of scrumptious (I’m running out of words to describe how yummy everything was) croutons, crumbly/creamy cheese, I think nuts perhaps, and of course lettuce (the spring mix kind).

Now, I am full. Now, come the entrees.
Jody: Potato encrusted butterfish in a “some-kind-of-wine-I-think-reduced sauce”. Dan thinks too many people order it. Well, stop calling it butterfish. Use its Latin name or French name or whatever. Flannery, who hasn’t eaten meat in 15 years, even expressed interest in ordering a ‘potato encrusted butterfish’. I was in such a food coma at this point that I don’t remember much about the butterfish. I do remember Jody saying something to the effect that she just needed to go and put on her pajamas after eating it.

Flannery and I: “Vegetarian Surprise” created by Dan. That was a really, really good plate of food. Southwest corner – heavenly cubes of ?butternut squash that were really sweet, really rich, really creamy, really orange, really buttery, and woven together with thin strands of flavorful basil. Eastern hemisphere – potato ravioli fried up nice and crispy topped with a salty olive sauce – oh my goodness they were so good – I suspect more cream and butter than potatoes went into that ravioli. Northwest corner – a scrumptious tower dubbed, “the lentil burger” by Jody. Top bun – a lacey disc of parmesan. Burger – a savory pile of lentils and summer squash in a mustard sauce. Bottom bun – a fried RED tomato. Flannery, who has fried many green tomatoes in her time questioned Dan on how he fried a red tomato without it falling apart. Apparently a lot a of buttermilk, semolina flour, extra fine bread crumbs, and butter does the trick. The “lentil burger” was fabulous! Intermixed with everything was a river of green sauce of unknown origin – basil perhaps. It was good, it was pretty, I think it was creamy, and it probably has a fancier name that “green dipping sauce”, but there you have it.

And now for desert . . .
For any of you who know me, you know that I would start every meal with desert if I could. In fact, the first week in May is, “Eat dessert first week”. I hope you all partake. Dan saved Flannery and Jody by just sending desert to our table. I probably would have taken the good part of an hour deciding what to order. We spent the final part of our meal slipping heavenly mouthfuls from 3 different deserts. Yum!
1. Lava cake with a dreamy, dreamy, dollop of solid, creamy, brown sugar, vanilla ?cream. What is lava cake? According to Flannery, “the best chocolate cake ever” with a hot (really hot – should have waited or not put the whole spoonful into my mouth) molten chocolate center. Luckily Flannery and Jody were too full to eat their full share of the cream dollop and I drifted off into yummy, cream dollop land.

2. I don’t remember what they were called, but essentially a fresh, hot TimBit (AKA donut hole) with pear bits in the middle. This came with a thin, pear “dipping sauce” that was divine.

3. And, finally, mini creampuffs with BUTTERSCOTCH ice cream. They were drizzled with butterscotch and hot fudge. Did I mention that they contained butterscotch ice cream. They were so good that I don’t really know what to say.

If you are still with me, wow! Go eat at Dan’s restaurant. We’re heading back to Boston on Sunday. (Or possibly Monday or Tuesday if Cayla’s glasses aren’t ready by tomorrow, but we’re not talking about that possibility).