Office Holiday Party 2008

Per usual, I planned the company holiday party. This year, I decided to hold it at Clyde Common, which is one of my favorite restaurants. The company is growing, and although five people didn't show up, we still had an excellent turnout. After last year's success with a themed gift exchange, I held a repeat, only this year the theme was "The Office." Quite á propos, don't you think?
Here are some photos:

My Dad's Baklava Recipe

All right, it's here. The much-requested Baklava recipe. My dad adapted and tweaked it from Lebanese Cuisine by Madelain Farah

My Dad's Baklava

1 Syrup Recipe

4 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar
1 Tbl orange flower water
1 lb. filo dough
1 lb. drawn butter

Prepare the syrup first:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
couple drops of lemon juice
1 tsp orange flower water

Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in a sauce pan. Boil over medium heat for about 10 or 15 minutes or until fairly thick, like honey. Before removing from heat, add orange flower water and let come to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Next, combine nuts, sugar, and orange flower water. Place approximately 1/3 of the filo sheets in a tray, brushing each sheet with the melted butter. Smear the nut mixture on top, and cover with remaining filo sheets, again brushing each layer with melted butter. End with brushing the top with more melted drawn butter. Cut into diamonds.
Bake at 300 degrees until golden. Remove from oven. Spoon COLD syrup over the HOT pastry.

Best Thanksgiving Ever

I experienced my first authentic Thanksgiving this year. It was the real deal: lots of people, football, champagne, wine, many hands in the kitchen, coziness, activities afterward. It was so much fun!

My parents bought and stuffed the turkey, and brought it over for us to roast.

We have a big kitchen, but we managed to cover every surface with cooking accoutrement, food, mess. It hasn't been this big of a disaster since we first moved in and were trying to organize our stuff.

Liz, and Joe's controversial cream-laden scalloped potatoes.

The turkey was a success!

Scenes from our dinner.

Guest List:
Liz
Joe
Bruno
Me
My Parents
Bruno's Mom and Sister

Menu:
Roast Turkey
Mushroom Olive Stuffing
Apple Fennel Stuffing
Gravy
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Scalloped Potatoes
Ginger Cranberry Sauce
Green Bean Casserole (from scratch)
Baby Greens and Arugula Salad with Gorgonzola and Sweet Potato Croutons
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Baklava

First Weekend Breakfast at Home Together

This actually occurred last Sunday, but due to the pressures of law school, I haven't had time to post until now.
Last Saturday, Bruno moved in, and now our house is complete. Sunday morning, we were all actually awake at the same time, so we cooked a big breakfast together:
coffee
tea
multi-grain pancakes
garlic, parsley, and potato hash
eggs in a variety of styles

I thought I had taken more photos of it, but I guess not. Oh well. You get the idea.

The Pearl's New Gourmet Grocery Store: Safeway???

No, that wasn't a mistake. Safeway has entered the Pearl. But it is unlike any Safeway I've ever seen before: it's Safeway shi-shied to the nth degree.
The Pearl District is quite possibly Portland's fanciest urban neighborhood, and for years the only grocery store in situ was Whole Foods. Fancy store, fancy prices. But hey, you have to have a pretty fancy wallet to live in this neighborhood, so it all made sense.
But now Safeway has entered the picture. And although it still has all the regular Safeway stuff, such as sales, double coupons, etc, it also has special features to compete with Whole Foods:

• A self-serve hot food bar, just like Whole Foods (different contents, though), for the lunch-time crowd.
• A special fancy wall of mushrooms, at least 10 different kinds.
• Beautiful, glistening doughnuts, plump with custard housed in a vaguely Italianate bakery.
• Most astonishing of all, a gelato bar!

Yes, you did not misread that. Apparently three gelaterias just weren't enough for the neighborhood, so Safeway got in the game too.
I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the aesthetics of the place.

I bought a box of Satsumas: only $2.99 with my Safeway club card!
Some things never change.

A Cena

On my birthday, I decided to go to A Cena for dinner before the party. It's housed in the former Assaggio spot in Sellwood (I loved Assaggio, RIP), and is another Italian place with house-made pasta. We all started off with Negronis, naturally, and then moved on to a salad composed of beets, goat cheese, and capers. Delicious, but unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of it until after it was gone, and it was gone in a hurry. So here's a photo of an empty plate.
Next up was a corn and mascarpone stuffed agnolotti, accented with butter-poached lobster. Can you say decadent? I think you can.
Next up was a whole trout with polenta and lamb with gnocchi, roasted radicchio, and huckleberry agro dolce. Everything was perfect.
For dessert, we ordered an apple tart and espressos. I could have sworn I took a picture of it, but I guess not. Sorry about my faulty reporting, but it's been a week (Is that all? It seems a lot longer than that.) Anyway, I was quite impressed with everything, and plan on going back.



Here's the vital info:
A Cena
7742 SE 13th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97202
(503) 206-3291