Saturday, November 7, 2009

Furlough Friday

Twice a month I have to take two unpaid days off from work and I love it! Working four days a week and having two long weekends a month is quite appealing to me. It is such a luxury to have a day to relax or catch up on chores.

This past work week although only 4 days was long with work activities from sun up to way pass sun down. Thursday afternoon I had to drive to Rohnert Park for an evening event, thankfully I did not have to make the drive alone. Traffic is what you would expect around 3:00 pm driving up to wine country. Across the road from my destination is a meat market/smoke house that I have seen many times but never went in. This trip with a little encouragement from my traveling companion we checked out BUD’s Custom Meats http://www.budscustommeats.com/. Inside we found all types of poultry, meat and wild game. I purchased lemon garlic chicken thighs, Texas baby back spare ribs and marinated tri-tip. Not much to say about the event and the ride home, it was work after all and the next day was furlough Friday!

Friday I had a lunch date with one of my favorite people at Serpentine, sister restaurant to Slow Club. Like Slow Club, Serpentine has a very nice limited seasonal menu. My friend had the cod dish and I have the albacore tuna with a warm German potato salad. The tuna was perfectly seared, cooked on the outside and rare on the inside. The tuna salad was not quite a salad nicoise but really delicious with the mustardy flavor of the sauce, the tartness of the capers and the mellow taste of the potatoes. I enjoyed catching up with a dear friend over a really good meal on a Friday afternoon!

Rejuvenated after lunch I decided to bake an Apple Cake using a recipe inspired by James Beard; Don Farmer’s Fresh Apple Cake. This recipe can be found in The New James Beard book, copyright 1981. I have make this cake for many years following the recipe to the letter until about 8 years ago or so when I decided to deviate adding ¼ cup of Calvados (see Savoree on Foodbuzz for the recipe). The Calvados adds a little more flavor and moister to an already moist and delicious cake.

While working on the cake the husband readied the grill for the Texas spare ribs. On the menu for the evening; grilled Texas spare ribs and sautéed collard greens. The ribs were perfectly seasoned and didn’t need a thing. These were among some of the best ribs I have ever had and I have had a lot of really good ribs! The meal was accompanied by a bottle of Navarro Lopez Gran Reserva '01, a perfect match to the spiciness of the ribs and the greens.

Friday, November 6th was a perfect Furlough Friday!

1 comment:

Hungry Dog said...

I love Serpentine--glad you had a nice lunch on your furlough friday! I'll look for that apple cake recipe, it sounds delicious.