Donald's 50th

A few weeks back, Donald said that he and Terry were coming down from Seattle to celebrate Donald's 50th birthday and asked if we wanted to do a shellfish boil. Of course! We thought we were doing the do at our house and I would be cooking. But somewhere along the line, the boys rented a really nice apartment above the Methven tasting room in downtown Dundee and brought everything they needed for Terry to cook from Seattle.

We went out to dinner with them Tuesday night at Pura Vida in McMinnville and then they spent all Wednesday morning running around and all the way into Portland to buy the ingredients for dinner. We showed up at 5:30 as Donald was finishing up making the appetizers and Terry was working away on the shellfish.

The Donald

Terry Prepping the Small Lemons

Appetizers

We brought a bottle of Champagne and a nice Chardonnay to go with the lobster while Donald and Terry kicked in two local sparklers and a bottle of Pinot. Of course, they brought Riedel Champagne glasses with them from home!

One of Many Dead Soldiers

Always a Party When These Two are Together

Getting Suited Up for Battle

The Boys Never Forget Anything

Lobster, Clams, Potatoes, Sausage, and Corn

After the delicious feast that Terry prepared, we cut the cakes. Ann started baking a cake for Donald before she realized that he was making his own. We had way too much cake!

Pastry Chef Donald Made His Own Cake

Annie Made Donald a Cake Too

Donald's cake had marionberry jam and lemon curd between the layers and was frosted with buttercream. Ann's cake was lemon with blueberries and was frosted with lemon marionberry cream cheese frosting and topped with lemon rind and mint and Johnny Jump Ups (violas) from our garden. Both cakes were delicious.

I Can't Believe I Ate All This

Cioppino—Right Coast Style

Ann had a great idea for dinner last night, after I convinced her that leftovers weren't going to do it for me. I eat leftovers most every night after I get off work. On the rare days that she and I get to dine together, I'd rather have a nice meal. But nice doesn't necessarily mean involved. For some unknown but totally wonderful reason, Ann wanted cioppino for dinner. Me too! Easy and quick to make, delicious and pretty healthy too.

After watching the latest Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol (an almost overwhelming rapid-fire orgy of stunts from start to finish), we stopped by the restaurant and raided the walk-in for ingredients: fennel, onion, tomatoes, saffron, U-10 dry scallops, rockfish, lobster, mussels, and shrimp.

You can see the classic Mediterranean bent my soup has with the fennel and the saffron, things you don't see all the time in Left Coast (San Francisco) Cioppino. Nor will you find lobster, though they use Dungeness crab that we don't have. But the idea is the same: white wine tomato broth with the freshest seafood available. Awesome!

Lobster Risotto

To celebrate my day off on Christmas Eve, we decided to splurge with a lobster risotto. I took advantage of the boiling water at work the day before to cook the lobsters so that all I had to focus on was making the stock on Christmas Eve. And stock is what lobster risotto is all about: all the flavor comes from the stock. This stock is made from lobster stock (yep, a double stock), lobster shells, carrots, celery root, tomato paste, garlic, leeks, fennel from our garden, and a shot of pastis. The stock cooked just about all day coming down from well over a gallon to about a quart.


And here is Ann stirring away after adding the butter (mantecare). No cheese in lobster risotto. Started with yellow onion and celery root in the pan, then the arborio, then Champagne, the lobster stock as necessary, then lobster and butter.