Chicken Mole in February

After two weeks off from it, we baked another loaf of Sourdough this weekend. It's surprising how much you realize that you got into a groove with the process of making bread. Then, when you don't do it for a couple weeks, you kind of forget. But despite my fumbling on the technique, the bread turned out great this time around.

Tonight, we made our first attempt at Chicken Mole. This is going to be a tricky dish to get right... or at least to make a version that we're both happy to eat every time.

First thing we noticed was that the recipe didn't take an entire weekend to complete. It wasn't the fastest process ever, but I was really expecting it to take at least two days to taste right. And after finishing the meal, I do think that it would have benefited from a longer cook time to bring all the flavors together. Next time, I'd like to try to do something in the slow cooker, and we need to strain the sauce a little more, so that it's not so grainy.

I also am not a fan of the Anise that goes into the recipe. It's just a flavor that I don't like. So next time, I think we're going to eliminate that as well.

It's hard to know how else to tweak this recipe. There are so many ingredients and steps to it, that knowing how to change up just a few things to make it better is tough. This one is going to take us a few times to really figure out, but that's why we're doing it!

Sushi Class

I had a strong feeling that Sushi was going to be a meal that required both technique and flavors that we did not understand at all. So we decided to take a Sushi-making class together last weekend.

The price of the class was well worth it, considering that we learned more in two hours there than we probably would have in several tries at home, on our own. The Sushi we made was delicious, and now I just hope that we can make it just as great at home next time!

Bucket Day Beer Release

How often do you get to cross something off your bucket list? It's such a cool experience to be doing something that you've been thinking about for years, just waiting to get the chance to complete. In July of 2017, I did yoga on Bali and crossed that one off my list. Later that year, I went to Rome with the hubs and crossed that one off the list. In December of 2017, we got to see USC play OSU in the Cotton Bowl, and crossed that in-house rivalry game off our list, too. (Sounds like 2017 was a really great year for my bucket list!!)

This past weekend, we started 2019 off with another one. We headed up to Russian River Brewery to stand in line for one of the top rated beers in the world: Pliny the Younger. My husband has carried around a list of the top 100 beers in his wallet for the last decade, but many of them are special releases and very difficult to come by. This one has always been at the top of this list, and something we've had our eye on almost as long as we've been together,

My parents were in town this last week, and we were planning to head up to Santa Rosa to do some wine tasting and tours with them this past weekend. Once we finally got into doing some research about any events going on up there, we realized that we would be in the area at the same time as the Pliny annual release! So we drove up in the morning on Friday the first, to see what the line looked like. And (although this sounds insane) when we found out that the line would only be 1-2 hours long, we decided to wait to get in for lunch. (Traditionally, the line has been no shorter than 6 hours on the first day of the release).

We had so much fun at the brewpub. The experience of the day was so unique, and it was fun to share it with loved ones. The beer is indeed excellent, and the food at the restaurant was great. It's always fun to be a part of an event that involves such oddly like-minded people, and despite the chilly, rainy wait under the tents, I am so glad that we did it!

Bucatini Carbonara

So the Carbonara thing has been on my list for a long time, and I've been trying to perfect it for the last few years. So it's not like this was the first time I'd ever made the dish, and it's also not the first time I've ever made it right. My goal this year, though, is to master this dish.

Last weekend, I added another egg yolk and another 0.5 ounces of Parmesean to the recipe I've been using. It did come out better, but it's still not the best I've ever had.

When we were in Rome, Italy in 2017, I had a bowl of Rigatoni Carbonara that literally made me cry. The first bite was so unbelievably delicious that it brought tears to my eyes, which subsequently didn't stop running down my face. I'm not sure if any of you have had a meal that made you feel so emotionally floored that it genuinely brought tears out of you, but this is what happened to me. So this is now the benchmark.

Next time we do this dish, I'm feeling confident in the level of eggs and egg yolks I've put into the dish. I found some fresh, local Parmesean Cheese options to grate that I really think are going to amplify the flavor. So I'm pretty excited to do this one, the next time around.