Archive for the ‘food’ Category

terrific weekend

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Got to Knoxville around 8pm Friday and met up with Sonja for dinner at Patrick Sullivan’s. Quickly followed with Sierra Nevadas and some patio conversation at Backroom. Then back to my place for scotch on the patio – nice to meet you Derrick.


Slept until 2pm Saturday (a perfectly respectable 8 hours). A day packed with errands and heroic accomplishment of the mudane. Went to Aaron’s in the evening for billiard’s (boo – I’m terrible), Rook (thanks to grandpa I should put this on my resume), and general silliness.


Sunday – to Concord Marina for a trip on Michael’s boat to catch up with Aaron, Al, Leslie and some new folks. Feeling left out, I jumped in the lake with everyone else – praying the vintage dress recovers. Afterward: truly delicious food including my submissions of crab claws, feta-n-spinach stuffed mushrooms, brie with asian pear, honey, and cracked pepper, and seared tuna (pseudo-recipe at bottom). Additionally – tho not by my hand – tomato salad, potatoes, and bbq chicken and corn from the grill. A feast. More cards, the camel walk, and lots of laughter. Having a face that ached from laughing all night made sleeping on a couch with no pillow and a tiny blanket seem like my kinda problem. Up the next morning to cook breakfast and watch movies (a strange film fest of Super Troopers, Up, and District 9). A perfect lazy-with-friends follow up to all the action. Finally, one last cookout before we had to declare the holiday weekend over.


I was a bit sad to drive off to return to the cubicle on Tuesday. But at least genius totally surprised me and picked Perfect Day to ease the trip.


In a skillet: shake some soy sauce, use a garlic press to crush a few cloves, rip a handful of cilantro, squeeze most of a lime, and crack a bit of pepper. Add a big hunk of sushi-grade tuna and press the mixture into both sides. (If you don’t take precautions here, your hands will smell like garlic for a few days – even the stainless steel trick was no cure for me.) Store it in the fridge to soak up the goodness while everything else cooks. Ready? Take the tuna outta the pan so that you can get the skillet hot hot – then cook the fish quickly – seared outside, rare inside. Cut the tuna thin and layer on a plate with avocado slices. You can slice the lime and throw that on the side of the dish too. I hadn’t tried this before but it turned out great and I will be enjoying it again soon. It’s all about the cilantro and avocado, so if you are one of those who thinks cilantro tastes like detergent, read the article below so you feel better and skip this dish.

soapy spice

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What a Happy Day!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Got to sleep in. My luggage finally returned from Chile (thanks to some guy that doesn’t speak English e-mailing the address on my baggage tag to say the suitcase was in Santiago and did I want it. Absolutely nothing to do with the weeks worth of frustration on my part trying to talk the airlines into giving it back.). Went to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge from some atom age fun, to be remembered later with an awesome Manhattan Project patch and astronaut ice cream. And then Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab for homemade scoops. Ended with a long meandering drive home through the less traveled parts of Knoxville.

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Weekend Downtown

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

After a nice breakfast at Market Square Kitchen, settling in for paper writing at Old City Java.

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Fall Break

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I had a great extended weekend and it came at a critical point – I needed some time off.

Highlights included:

Shopping at Sanctuary Vintage – this great store is closing and everything was 75% off. In addition to some cute slips and several dresses, I bought an Alfred Werber gown that is now the most lovely thing in my closet. Joe picked up some suits including a daring blue western-y leisure suit and some wild plaid.

A yummy crepe and chocolate croissant from The French Market with Sonja. Later, we went to see Where the Wild Things Are which was beautiful and sad and dangerous and sweet.

I got to do a bit of cooking as well over the long weekend which was awesome. I love making food and it has been sad that I haven’t felt the motivation or had the time since I started the MBA. It was so nice to be slicing and grilling and spicing and taste-testing again. Dishes included:
red curry soup with noodles and shrimp served with salmon cakes and remoulade.
jonah crab claws with melted butter and lemon and sea salt – simple but effective.
chocolate gelato with fresh raspberries – this wasn’t really cooking, of course, but had to be mentioned.
tuna steaks grilled inside potato slices with olive oil, fresh dill, lemon, garlic, pepper and pink australian salt served with caramelized onions and walnuts and curried deviled eggs – the spicy tumeric-y mustard of the eggs was so good with the other dishes.

A pile of spooky movies – this is a household tradition when the Halloween season rolls around. There won’t be a party this year because I will be at a conference in California the last weekend of the month so we are just going to celebrate right up until I leave.

A very nice date with Joe to Sobu: wine and sake and asparagus rolled in new york strip and diced saucy tuna over seaweed salad and coconut-crab maki and eel-california maki and creme brulee and raspberry cheesecake – shared and delighted in. Some much needed sweetheart time

zzzzzzzz = the best part of the break was momentarily dispelling the sleep-deprivation.

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NAWMBA dinner

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Went to Litton’s in North Knox on Friday. The food was delicious, as usual, and the desserts were amazing.


It was nice to have a girl’s night and to talk more to the second-year MBAs. There were only two of us 2010ers there. Got some input on the summer internship search and found that someone else is looking for west coast jobs as well.


If you ever get a chance to try a Baby Jane, don’t pass it up. It’s worth packing up half of your meal so that you have room left.


Check out Litton’s.

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