Pleasant weekend

[magid]

Highlights

• Shabbat dinner out, the first Shabbat meal out in a while. As always at these friends', everything was thought about, and beautifully plated. The meal:
  
  • kiddush and subsequent wines were all new to me, and some not available locally. Not that I remember any of the names or anything
    
  • motzi on some store-bought bread that had excellently chewy crust and large air holes
    
  • home-made Thai spring rolls (I must find out where she got the rice wrappers), mostly vegetables, on a bed of some kind of shredded cucumber salad
    
  • skewers of some kind of spicy ground meat formed into ovals, atop some mesclun, and next to some peanut noodles (which were much more mildly peanut than other recipes, which I liked; I'm not a huge peanut fan. I keep thinking I should make an almond variant sometime.)
    
  • a wedge of lemon tart, a piece of pineapple, a piece of mango, a small sphere of two-toned sorbet (I wish I knew where from), topped with a mint leaf
    
  • also on the table for dessert were chocolate-covered peanuts and coffee-flavored chocolate 'beans'
  
  Not only was the food exquisite (I should be such a gracious hostess; she makes it all look so easy), but it was interesting conversation, ranging from a particular architect in Johannesburg who's revitalized a neighborhood Jewishly by building a shul into his house, to international health, to zebra fish, to the changing Jewish community in Cambridge, to interactions with US Customs about food, to real estate, and even a brief stop at text books. I got to see a friend I haven't seen in a long while (in addition to the hosts), and meet his father, who has a lovely South African accent.
  
• much Shabbat napping
  
• reading the new Jasper Fforde book, The Big Over Easy, which was fun (I'm left with a question, though: what are "pebble specs"? Does "pebble" refer to color? style? shape of lenses?)
  
• being gifted with an excellent present, an Alice-themed quantum physics book (Someday I really should list all the Alice-y books I have.)
  
• crocheting a forest-green bracelet, using a new stitch successfully
  
• learning a new board game, Vinci

And apropos of nothing, I'll add that I got a notice about a sweepstakes I'll be automagically entered in if I use my bank card as a MasterCard before some day this or next month. First prize is twelve automobiles. Yes, twelve. The mind boggles. Cash? Sure. Car and cash? Sure. Twelve cars, no cash? Er, no thanks. I mean, yeah, there are some people I could give cars to, but the majority of people I know who don't have cars don't want to have cars. Though I suppose it's a nice change to have a sweepstakes which by definition encourages gifts and sharing and such.

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

You sell 11 of them. You use the procedes from 6 to pay the taxes on everything, and enjoy the money from the other 5, along with having the 12th to drive.

[magid.livejournal.com]

What a nuisance.

Though of course, I'd do it (or something similar) if I were to win. Not that that's going to happen, but it was a novel what if sort of moment.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

skewers of some kind of spicy ground meat formed into ovals, atop some mesclun, and next to some peanut noodles (which were much more mildly peanut than other recipes, which I liked; I'm not a huge peanut fan. I keep thinking I should make an almond variant sometime.)

I bed the spicy ground meat things were Iraqi Kabobs or some variant. I love them, and I need to find a recipe. As for the peanut noodles, I've been desperately searching for a good recipe for peanut noodles or sesame-peanut noodles or some such thing, with no luck.

[magid.livejournal.com]

They were definitely some sort of kabob (I still tend to think of kabob as being chunks of meat on a skewer, rather than ground meat on a skewer, though), bigger than a bite, since each skewer had one fat oval on it (not a long thin one).

I just looked around for some peanut noodle recipes, and found this, this, and this. Also, I found a sesame noodle recipe, which might also be of use. Not that I've tried any of them, but they all sound reasonable.

kubideh

[magid.livejournal.com]

Seems to be the key word in finding recipes: I found a link to Google search results that look promising. The first couple of recipes look pretty straightforward; one of the later ones looks like it has more interesting spices. Hope this helps...